Episode Podcast Transcriptions 5 of The Markcast® podcast talking about the CFL, XFL, USFL and other “alt-football” news, stories, insights, commentary and more!!!

Episode transcriptions 5 of The Markcast®. The Markcast® is a sports-centric podcast, covering the CFL, XFL, USFL and other alternative football leagues. Tune in for the latest CFL, XFL, USFL and alt-football news. Episodes are listed in the order they were recorded. *Please excuse any spelling or typographical errors.

XFL vs. USFL TV Ratings: Who Won? USFL Week 1 vs XFL Week 9: The Ratings Are IN!

Well good morning again. Welcome back to the Mark Cast. We were just here yesterday talking USFL week one XFL week nine. Happy Seattle Kraken playoff game day, which is certainly the most important thing taking place today other than the XFL week nine and USFL TV ratings here. Andy Murray is, has been crunchy numbers all day. Surely not anything to be talked about today. How are you doing sir? Nothing whatsoever. I'm good man. How are you doing the back to back days? The first time we've done this, This is the first time I said hey, we might have an emergency TV ratings podcast that there's enough to talk about that Ethan's excited to hear joining the show, but this is my thing if we're going to argue on Twitter and message boards and why not come hang out on the show. Let's talk through it. I think this is fun. I just purchased pending, pending the Seattle Sea Dragons making it to the semi-finals. I did purchase a standing room only ticket there at Audi Field. So if the sea Dr, I'm not going to go if it's Battle Hawks, if the sea dragons go, you do have my problems. We will go there. As Noah reminds me or newbie here reminds me what the go defenders. Andy, how was your morning prior to the X F L TV ratings coming in? Very short. That's all I'm going to say. Just very, very short before that, Wes, US west coasters don't really have as much time to process morning information before it comes out. So we'll go through all this. We have some comparisons. The light of God is shining through while here right now. Let's see if I can destroy my living room as I fix that here. But I will pull this up first. This is what you're here for and then we'll get into some comparisons with XL and everything else. So this is via Mike Mitchell USS f l opening TV ratings at Fox N b NBC FS one league returns competing with the XF for viewership. So Mike's got all the breakdowns here. The US L kickoff game, Saturday afternoon, Fox 4:30 PM Eastern. We have the stars at the Memphis SHOWBOATS average 437,000 viewers. A year ago the league debuted the game on Fox average 1.43 million and the 1.52, remember they did that cast back there. Now obviously different landscape here, X F L also planes, spring football fatigue. We don't have the U US F L, everything coming in. What do you make of the initial ratings here coming out for the first game? I'm surprised they're sub 1 million. I really am. I thought they would at least break a million in the first week on broadcast television on Fox. I really thought that was going to be the case considering the fact that Fox put in more resources this time around the amount of advertising that was put in the lead up to the advertising. Obviously there was a Super Bowl ad, there was ads in most Fox programming. I saw stuff all the time on FS one Fox's main channel. I'm surprised and I know n NBC's not involved in this first telecast, but I just thought there would be more numbers. Not sure. Maybe it's just the fact that the NBA was going on. Obviously you have your cross competition with another A league now, which is unprecedented. We talked about that. We talked about splitting attention, splitting hairs. You're going to get people in different corners now and this is what's going to happen. But I did think there would at least be a few more on that channel. I really thought it was going to break a million. So I am surprised that wasn't the case here for the Saturday games, the Sunday games that I expected because they're one, they're in hubs without really home crowds, there's not the people that are going to be there. There are going to be for Birmingham and there are going to be for Memphis. So I expected that and also FS one's not going to draw as much as the main network channels cable, so that makes sense. But yeah, just surprising honestly it is surprising. I really thought Saturday was going to do better. I'm really surprised. And we have all the ratings here. We have the X F L ratings and then we have everything from a year ago and kind of all that stuff. I'm surprised. What I'm always curious. To me, N b NBC always seems to draw better on the US F L ratings. I know they're paying Fox, they're kind of licensing that, but even last year they always seem to draw more, whether it was Saturday, Sunday on that, the 8 37 you're going up. It was kind of split in between. We had the X F L games ending and we had the X F L game starting. I surprised that was the big kind of show boat, no pun intended, kind of showcase of the weekend. I am surprised the sub million viewership for that considering that back in 2022, obviously we had those, the really, really killer ratings here. Oh no, no, no, I have that wrong. Here we go. Goes back in here. I'll pull it up here. Let's go back to this and I'll get the correct article up. Saturday The Birmingham was surprising even more about this, the primetime game because remember the one was at four 30 Eastern, the 7:30 PM Eastern, 4 68, 64 on that. And we talked about that yesterday. The rating or the attendance being down a little bit. Are you surprised that the primetime game was even less than slightly more than the afternoon? Yeah, I I thought that was the big unveil. That was the new market. That was the new hub. That was a new franchise. Well new in the sense of this iteration of the U S F L, but an old one that had come back from the eighties and instead there just wasn't the amount of attention that I thought there would be. Birmingham. I know they're defending champions as rematch with the generals from last year in the beginning of the week and it is a Saturday night time slot. It is more primetime at ish, but at the same time I really thought that there would be more attention towards this Memphis debut at first to be the third highest of the entire weekend was not what I was expecting. I thought it would be the top one to be honest. I really did for Michigan and Houston. The Michigan Houston was just so funny. I you're right though like n NBC does draw really well. You're right, it always does draw well and it draw Drew really well last year as well. So even the network that created or at least resurrected this league is not even outra. That's like partner network, which is really bizarre. Even I don't see, I don't know if n NBC is advertising fore as much and obviously Fox puts out more promotional materials and PR and all of this stuff. So it is odd that NBC is the one that's getting more numbers here. I'm not exactly sure if people just have a network here or they have alliances. I don't know because that is odd. I'm trying to figure out why in the world it's getting more numbers here in this case and in general it's gets such good numbers. I wanted to pull up here, so the X ffl and we're going to go through this, but the key thing to remember and I've seen a lot of online of oh like U S F L got 3.5 million and x ffl got and it's not a coping thing, it's an analytic. It's like I guess having a brain thing you need to look on here we have B, C, ESPN two, ESPN and ESPN for the X F L week nine TV rating. So you have one network, three cable that you have to pay the belong to U S F L. We have Fox, Fox, N B C and an FS one. So you have three network windows that are always going to draw more one cable. So not, and this is not a read being a homer thing, this is like there's Fox that are involved in this it more people get B, NBC B, C and Fox then do ESPN N FS one peacock, whatever the hell numbers you want to talk about. So yes, U US F L absolutely drew more ratings this weekend than the X F L. They also from my math, have about a 50% decline from 2022 and we can get into that as well. Back to the U S F L, the 9 74, crazy to me always for the N B C and then rough but still I think really honestly really respectable, especially going against the X F L had tailored off the Sunday night New Orleans at Pittsburgh there over in Memphis. I thought that was really good. I or guess that would've been in Birmingham. I don't think that would've been as good. Are you surprised by the 4 83? To me that's a very impressive rating On F one. No, that's pretty good and considering that it's the mallers who no one wants to watch as being featured on this in this game New Orleans, I mean you don't know because obviously they have a new quarterback, they have a new head coach, they kind of have couple different pieces. Maybe you're getting, who knows, maybe you're getting the Claude, the cloud Bethel Thompson enthusiast. Maybe that's part of it on a Sunday afternoon. I mean I'd have to look again but I believe there was some NBA playoff action going on at that moment simultaneously maybe I think the tail end was sun's clippers and there might have been another game. So there were some things going on that afternoon, but it's at least encouraging that FS one's drawing those numbers. I guess if you're Fox, if you're the S F L, are you trying to take more stock in the fact that you got more numbers, you got decent numbers on a different network on the cable channels or are you talking or are you trying to spin this as far as why there was not as many on your network channel simultaneously while there's a bunch of other products going on And look, we have to discuss about this, what is really drawing people to other products because last year, I mean you were still in the same situation, same boat besides the fact that the X ffl is not around at that time, but other sports were, so is the X F L drawing all those numbers away from season two here? And also we talked about the curiosity factor. When you talk about the initial hit of a league is going to draw those numbers because people want to know what it is. Well people know exactly what the U S F L is at this point. There's no mystery and we talked about that yesterday. There's no mystery, there's a lot of continuity. It's it's very structured. We know exactly what it is and for a lot of people maybe that just wasn't good enough to over overly I impress them to come back again seeing that there were still hubs and still seeing the same operation or at least the same mentality with the X ffl. It was hard to say because well we knew the 2020 version, we didn't know what this version was. So are those numbers going to drop for week one next year in February? We'll have to wait, see what's going to happen with that first game. Cause this year was what, 1.7 million for that Vegas game, the Vegas and Arlington game. Let's see what happens next year. So that's the thing. What are people's expectations? What do they know and are they going back to it or are they going somewhere else instead when the second version comes around I think and it is, so we talked about this yesterday and how it, I think harsh people were whoever at two U S F L last year, attendance TV ratings, it was such an anomaly where the X ffl had gone away. People wanted something back. You felt like we didn't complete this journey. We had been on this for two years. You x ffl is week five. So then we finally get back, I mean you saw the bonkers numbers that Stefan and Zach did for their YouTube. There was such a weird aura around the U S F L last year. I think Mark's U S F L, his uniform video had like 50,000 views or 40,000 views. There was such a weird like okay, so anticipating that right ratings were out of control that first weekend, it was great. I do think now that we've seen the X F L this year and we've seen the U S F L this year, I think this is more the benchmark and like I said, I think half a million viewers on the FS one on a Sunday night for a program that you own outright anyway and can put on your on-demand and everything else. I mean I really think is superb. To me it's the network ones. I don't know what they want in that. Obviously we're looking at the X ffl week one that I can pull up. They had you above 1 million on that. We can compare that or not but I don't know if they're looking for above 1 million on network. We either, we need to get more clarification on that but I think half a million on cable on a Sunday night is really nothing to sneeze about. Same with the X F L And I think they might have had that number similar to last year because if you recall they didn't have that with the Pittsburgh game because they had the delay on Monday night so it didn't work out in their favor. And that Monday night game I think you said had about 260,000 I believe. Yeah, yeah. So if that's a drop off anyway, but yeah, I think half a million on that. I'm pulling up the 20 20 20 23 x ffl week one radiance. I want to get it more clear here. So let me get that pulled. Anything else on this? Anything else with the NBC fox, the simcast, the double on Saturday? No, I mean again, I just thought there would be a little bit more attention in terms of those numbers and I it's a bummer because I think those are your marky matchups, those are your home matchups. That's where your fans are. That's where you can tell people or at least show people, oh hey look, people are showing up for the games because those are the games you want people to watch. Not necessarily Michigan, Houston when there's like what 200 people in the stands, I don't even know how many there were but we'll never get those attendance numbers so we can just be left to guess. This is, I knew, I knew Elle board had it here clean on here. If you look back and I understand different competition in the fall or earlier in the winter every time's the best time of year to play football until it's not. I heard that all last year, spring late spring is the best and then oh my god, we have the Stanley Cup playoffs now and we have that. We're playing with the NBA playoff week one X F L back on February 18th, 1.57 million on a b abc, which to me was disappointing at the time. I remember a north of 3 million for that back in 2020, which obviously we're living in a different timeframe but kind of anyone that's comparing 2020 to 2023 would probably be delusional at this point. But 1.14 on fx, which is a really, I honestly like scary good rating I think for a cable network 1.57 on B C and then at nine 18 on ESPN N. So to me that nine 18 on ESPN late Sunday comparable to FS one, I don't have the clearances in front of me what the difference is of that with the U S F L, but I don't think demonstrably to me X ffl week one performed better than U S F L week one. If you can please tell me if you think I'm crazy. I mean it obviously did, it broke 1,000,003 times and almost broke it four times in this case. Now again this is is network television twice same and Fox and N B NBC combined for three network television debuts this time around for season two. So you keep take that as well. Obviously the cable, you have two more cable broadcasts here with ESPN and FX on that Saturday and that Sunday game and they were still able to get those numbers. I mean I just think the fact of the matter is more people are going to be paying attention to football at that very moment because they're minds are fresh off of the Super Bowl and there's not as much competition at that moment. There's no baseball, the NBA is in the middle of the regular season. You haven't hit March Madness quite yet. So there's nothing really serious in February. So you can take advantage of that. March is where the numbers go down. We saw that March was kind of a cavern and it really hit hard for the X ffl. So it's a matter of like can you take those hits later in the season, the middle of the season for U S F L? I mean they started to dip a little bit in the middle of the season last year too as well have at that point you have the N B A playoffs, the N H L playoffs, you start getting warmer weather so people start going outside and doing other things. It's just a matter of what are people doing at least with the X F L early in the season it's so cold enough that most places you don't really want to go outside attending the games is also, depends on which region it is, may not be super amicable for people but that I think that's why you got those ratings there. So again, it depends on what their benchmark is going forward, if that's what they're going to anticipate next year or if they expect better. I'm pulling up here, I get a lot of questions talking. We want to compare usls and I have my tweet here I'm looking to get for that. You just see tremendous here late. Why don't you just vamp for a minute. I'm trying to pull up this tweet that's a little easier. Well I'm also like we're going to have to see also obviously we're looking at the week two ratings here for the X ffl that I now, I don't believe they've broken a million since that point for any of their network or a cable broadcast. I'm not sure. I'd have to scroll down but I don't think they have, I'm trying to remember maybe one game but I don't think they've really done that since that point, since that week one. So again, it's like the amount of exposure. Obviously they didn't have as many a B ABC games. The number of network games is going to be a much higher for the S F L this season and than it is going to be through the X F L. We talked about that they're going to have more exposure on their main network and in better spaces and also more consistent time slots than the X F L. Obviously that's one of the biggest things that both leagues have to get is the consistent schedule, which when you're one, it's hard to do that because you're trying to convince advertisers that you should get priority other over other events shouldn't be fighting with pickleball and maybe betting or horse racing or whatever. Instead you should be getting priority in that case. Okay, week six, there we go. That was over 1 million for C Dragons and Guardians. So that's another thing. Are you going to be able to prove to them the second time around that you should be getting that priority? xFi obviously was trying to work on that and Disney has responded, they've moved up some of that programming to e s ESPN time slots when they weren't previously. So clearly they saw the numbers and they adjusted accordingly as the season went along. So again, are they going to be able to get that priority going into the second season like U S F L was able to this season? Yeah, so I have this here. So this is Mike's right, so we're talking, we talked about this, the 8 37, all that. So Mike has his article but this breaker's insider there put it more easily just so we can read it on here. So if you want to compare week one 3.07 million, we had the simcast the generals, so it was about half that per game. We had 2.15 N B C viewers for basically the same game. Houston gamblers and Michigan Panthers, same time, same network, kind of all that kind of stuff. 2.15 we had the seven 70 for the New Orleans breakers Philadelphia stars later game that day. And then like you said, there was a delayed game for the Monday of the 2 68. So if you want to compare, if I'm comparing 2.15 of N B C on Michigan Panthers in April of 2022 and I'm getting 9 74 this year Sunday it's a 50% drop. So I'm happy to compare U USS F L 2022 seasons week one numbers to USS F L 2023 week one numbers if you would like it. It is about a 50% decline, which is not surprising. That's what the X F L saw coming in when you do from week one to week two, whatever, but they're down U USL week one ratings are down this year compared to last year. Whichever way you want to cut it, whether you cut it by network or whether you cut it by the mass or whether you cut it by whatever, every number is about half of what it did last year. Yeah, no I looked, I did some calculations. So from game one, game two, game three and game four. So in order, so game game one last year for S F L was Saturday night, that was at Birmingham game. Compare that to game one with Memphis and Philadelphia this year that's about a 73% drop from the first game. Second game, which was Birmingham, New Jersey from this year, from last year, which was gamblers and Panthers. That was a 59% drop from last year. Now gamblers Panthers was Sunday morning as opposed to Birmingham New Jersey, which was Saturday night this time. So keep that in mind as well. And then game three from the game three last year, which was stars and Breakers and then this time it was gamblers and panthers. You had a 20% drop. They were almost about the same time slot. Basically it was just that Sunday afternoon versus Sunday morning comparison. And then the one that did go up though actually was this New Orleans Pittsburgh game. It went up by about 38% but that's because again that Pittsburgh game last year got pushed in Monday night because of the thunderstorm and caused the delay And I don't hold that, I don't hold that 2 68 against, I don't hold that against f l but they could not control that, Right? That's weather. They couldn't control that. So who knows, maybe that number would've been about the same. I don't know. Hard to say because that would've been Sunday night, it also would've been Sunday night. So I'm not sure that's Sunday night versus Sunday afternoon here. So yeah, I mean it is down across the board but it was down across the board for the n f for the X F L as well. When you took that from 2020 to 2023 of course it was all down again because you know didn't have as many networks devoted to that product as there were before. I just, it's interesting, I mean that amount of promotional energy is not there for both of these leagues. I think that's the kind of takeaway I have as opposed to 2020, which was Vince McMahon and his power just pushing it as much as he could. A lot of nostalgia for the X F L 20 2001, which a lot of people remembered as the last iteration and obviously was not even close to that. So that's kind of my takeaway here. I just got this in this is just send to me a email here and well it was like a press release with the link to the email. I do get the US emails kick it off the US F L's historic second season from Memphis and Birmingham, the US F L squared is strong week one viewership across Fox, NBC and FS one with a 4% increase over season 1, 780 4,000 viewers on average tune into season two US games across Fox, n, nbc, FS one and week one up 4% over season one. I don't do, are we including the Monday night game in that with the 2 68? I don't know how we average 7 84 on that. I'm not sure either. I'm that's odd because I would like to know what the numbers were included on that. Also the week one numbers that doesn't seem to add up does, I don't know how you get a 4% increase on that unless you take in that. But even still if you take in that 2 68, again I don't want to piss Marsh our friend DJ here, but I don't know how we get 7 84 on that. I would love somebody to crunch the numbers and know how we get a 4% increase of 7 84 with a 50% drop in ratings across the way. See I feel like I have to check my math now every time I see these kinds of graphics and you know have your broadcasters saying things like, oh there was around 30,000 people in Memphis. I'm like that's not a gospel, that's not an official number. I mean this isn't official number but that doesn't seem to add up in my mind. I need to go back and look at that because I don't know how that, I don't, that's possible there's a 4% increase. I don't know, I would love to know how the math works out on that. I am very dumb with math and if there's something that I'm missing but I don't know how you go from 3000002.1, it's 9 74 and say it's a four unless you're including that Monday night game which drug down, which drug down the average, they're saying 7 84 for the whole season tuned into season two. So we basing basing us f l total season one viewership against us F L season two average viewership For the opening weekend. Are they taking here, I'm trying to figure this out. Are they taking the average viewership of U S F L season one, which obviously would've been, I think Mike did the numbers, there's about 850,000 if we take the whole season, the season viewership average and then we have the one week then of season two. Are we basing 10 weeks of one against one week of season two and calling to the 4% increase? Yes. See that's bizarre. Why would you do that? Especially when You Well don't happy again. I'm happy to be proven wrong on here. If someone can show me the math on here, I would be happy to be corrected on that. Yeah, I'm trying to figure out what they're talking about here because if that's the case then cool then let's wait until see what happens with the other weeks. So that graphic, is that graphic's Bizarre? Yeah, this is what it seems to be and that's my math is because it's the opening weekend this year compared to the 2022 average, so that would make sense. That would make sense because obviously us L season one peaked it went down, we have the average viewership on that. I think I can pull up the article talking about that and then yeah, we compare it then to that makes sense to me. Okay, well that's an interesting way of putting it. I mean I guess because you don't want to directly compare those numbers from week one from last year to week one this year obviously, but that's something that I, I'd have to again have to put more number, I just put in the numbers for today for the week one comparisons, but I think that's something that you're going to have to obviously keep track of the entire season as we go along per average to see what those numbers end up shaking out to be. I want talk about this and I do want to see if I can pull up the average US L back in that day listener, Seth sent this along to me and there's a lot of nay saying going on in the chat right now, but if we want to look at the positive here because it doesn't matter to me. I kind of just sitting there and reading all the comments and everything about, I don't take a single thing that anyone says personally, but if we want to look at the positive here, 1.548 million viewers watch spring football during the noontime slot on Saturday. That was when kind of the xl, all that cap considering that 1.5 million viewers were watching U S F L or X ffl spring football that did not exist two years ago during that timeframe. Talk about that As far as this, more people tuning in of that exact Time just, well, just the fact that we had it one and a half million people watching spring football that would not have been able to watch that two years ago. No, I think that's huge. I think that's exposure and I think people are starting to accept that idea and I think look, honestly it's a net positive that you have two leagues playing at the moment because people are now accepting the idea that this is going to be a reality, that this is not just a fleeting thing that's going to disappear in two days because that's what happened with the aaf. That's what happened with U F L. That's what happened with all these leagues. A lot of these leagues, the X ffl disappeared because of Covid. You had so many leagues that have gone underwater. You have to normalize the idea of okay, they're going to survive. Honestly, I'm seeing more comments maybe from people that are not as wired in as we are that are saying more so that the two leagues need to merge than that they need to die, which is like that's a positive step. That's a step in the right direction. Now whether you can get people to agree on that idea, that's a whole nother thing, but if you at least allowing people to accept the idea of okay, maybe this can happen, maybe this can work, where are we going to go? You have to work on obviously the information campaign for both of these leagues because it's just all over the place. I feel like you're going to have to start working on really educating people on the differences between these leagues, but that's again, that's the kind of confusion you're get. I knew, I just knew at some point this weekend, this past weekend that someone was going to make some comment about the US F L and say like, oh why is this, obviously this is being run by the rock, da da da. It's like no it's not. That's the X ffl, that's a different league or oh this is doing this because of this and it's like no one knows really which league is doing what because not as many people are as in tuned in that no, those are different leagues people. I get confused in all the time for people who are like, so which one are you covering right now? It's the US F L I'm like, I cover both the s l us fell ex called like oh there's two of them. It's just always some sort of filling in the blanks that has to be done, but at least again, people are accepting the idea that okay, this is in the space, this is, I consciously, I understand this exists. That's something that has to be done first and that's what both leads are trying to do right now. All right, so I absolutely figured it out. So thank you everyone in the chat for helping me because like I said, I am Reid is math dumb super and especially when we're trying to do this stuff on the fly. So we see here 784,000, so if we look here, our good friend Mike Floo, us F L average 715,000 viewers in 2022 regular season. So that is absolutely where that number comes from that we took the combined average of all of U S F L season one divide 10 weeks, whatever. We took the viewership. That was the really good, still down 50% but really good U S F L week two viewership the it is up because we are averaging the week one average of season two of all four games together, which obviously going to be higher. We're averaging that versus 10 weeks of declining ratings, which any TV show, any football league has declining ratings. But that is how we get a 4% increase from season one to season two fascinate. I'm still like we crack the code on that. I'm so glad. So are you happy we were able to figure that out? Yeah, no, I'm glad that we cracked a da Vinci code on that one so I I feel like I earned something today. Well here's another thing we have to think about too. So obviously we have the X F L regular season finishing out here. We have the playoffs. Where do those numbers go once that's done? Are those going to be going to the U S F L after the fact? That's something that we haven't experienced either. What's going to happen? We obviously talked about March Madness, obviously getting in the way of the U X F L and that's a national audience. That's a huge national audience, but that's a different sport. What happens when you have a similar sport that Creston finally finishes its season and now what do you do with those viewers after the fact? Do they come back over and do they start adding to those numbers or does it still dip? That's another question we still have to answer and we'll know. We'll know that on what week five of the S F L I think right after the us, after the XFL championship game in mid May. So some towards the end of May we will have a better answer. I I'll be fascinated. I'll be fascinated to see if it is viewer fatigue. If it is. Again, like I said, I think that U S F L really did capitalize on there was such a lacking last year of this and even our viewership and every, I mean you can look across the board that February, March, April leading into last year did, Andy and I were in Birmingham, we did 3000 viewers last year for the live show did a thousand this year for the live show there's a demonstrable decline. I don't know if that is X F L related. I don't know if that is U S F L related if people are bored, maybe there just was a lot less stuff to do last April and people were really excited for this and now they're not. I think we can build back up to that. I'm not saying that this is the peak it's ever going to be, but it was just a confluence of everything. Last year they had just pushed back the X ffl with the C F L talks. People were ready to go. The C F L season was done. It was just weird last year. I just can't explain it any other way than that. There's a lot of qualifiers and I think that's so hard to put all this math together. There's no organic method as far as there wasn't any sort of interruption between these ratings from last time to this time. Like 2020 X F L was still running off of normal times when there was no pandemic that had interrupted everybody's lives. There was no other spring league. There was no, the concept of it existing was still, we weren't sure if that was going to continue. We were supposedly going to get this in 2020 if the AAF had survived, they didn't. So that answer never came. But now you have this combination of all right simultaneous leagues and you had, as you mentioned last ring maybe there wasn't as much to do. Society was still trying to piece itself back together and that was something to look forward to. Well now everything's kind of become normalized and we've gotten back to it but now things have changed, landscape has changed. Maybe audience tastes have changed streaming versus the network and cable numbers, which again, what are the streaming numbers? That's something we have to account for as well. The peacock numbers for N B C or for ESPN plus. When do we get those? How much is that factor? Again, that is one of the greatest mysteries in this entire equation is like you're not going to have people who are just regularly watching tv. So where are these other numbers coming from and do we ever get access to these numbers, which we have yet to at this point so mean? Yeah, there's just a lot of qualifiers and it's a different, it's a information and a lot of different expectations and where this was before then it's at some point we might just have to soft comparing to before times My, I can't handle the X F L 2020 comparisons anymore. Really, like I said, I don't want to compare the US F L 2022 ratings, but everyone asked me to, I don't want to compare 50% decline, decline from last year to this year, but yeah, sports has changed and man and people should be on streaming. It shouldn't be on whatever, but I am really tired of yeah, that actually about 2020. It is a very different time in case you weren't aware. Yeah, clearly. I think also, but I think everybody thinks they can have a giant piece of that pie because they look at the N F L ratings and go, well look at that. Well, we get a percentage of that, but that's a whole nother bucket of worms. That's a completely different circumstance and that's hard to really compare to that. It really is. I see a comments here as Jared talking whatever this, God, I don't know who this God is, has commented about it a million times. I will give him one on here because he is talking. I hate to ignore everybody Raiders now because they have competition head to head. That's the fact you're forgetting about. I understand that Andy and I have been podcasting X F L for and I have even before that for years now. I'll tell you there's a lot more X F L and U S F L podcasts right now than there were a year ago than there was two years ago. I would like to, I'm very honored that people still choose to watch us and listen to us and we get good viewership and I think there's always going to be, you are always going to be head-to-head, head-to-head against the X F L. You're going to be head to head against hockey. You're going to be head-to-head against baseball. You're going to be head-to-head it. There's always there. There's never the right time and I think that you see the product I said yesterday on the cast watching the U S F L is it is football. There's no denying that you're putting on a pair of jeans exactly what it is and I think there's ano a big number of people that want that. I don't always love the personality that the X F L has and all of this stuff either. There are obviously people that appeal to that. Plenty of people hate me, plenty people want to watch us talk. That is what it is. But just being head-to-head, head to head and having other competition is no excuse for underperforming on its own. I Mean the number Jenna checking in, Jenna, oh, there we Go. Whirlwind Jenna. A whirlwind of the last 40 minutes here. Wow, good to have her come checking in. Yeah, I mean that's the thing. The landscape keeps changing. It always changing you. What was really fascinating to me was a couple weeks ago we talked about comparison ratings were I was talking about the women's NCAA basketball championship. Listen, I have grown to enjoy the sport and enjoy it for what it is and enjoy watching individual players. 10 years ago if you told me like, oh, NCAA women's basketball is going to be serious competition in terms of drawing numbers from a football related product, I would not have believed you. I would've said, okay, sure. That's something that just doesn't factor in. That doesn't, yeah, people watch it, but I don't think it's going to draw serious numbers. Championship game between LSU and Iowa, June 10 million people like that was on a, B, C. It is serious competition and that's your network basically that's trying to get games on expo games on ESPN and here you have this game over on a b ABC that's drawing all this attention. There's so many options, so many a bevy of options. You have teams you know have fcs, football teams that you can watch, you can watch high school, you can watch random sports. We've talked obviously talked about pickleball, we've talked about horse racing. We talked about whether it's professional slapping or wrestling or darts or there's just so many sports viewing options because it draws live TV audiences. They've all figured out, all these networks have figured out this is the only thing that's really getting live numbers outside of maybe a news related, a giant news related event that's really going to draw these numbers and maybe a super mega popular TV show and even then people are probably going to stream it these days. Sports is the only live content that really draws those numbers, so of course there's going to be more competition. That's why these leagues exist. This is why these two leagues are here. This is why Fox themselves are like, we're going to run this league because it's going to get these kinds of numbers for us. So yeah, there's always going to be competition, especially now there's going to just be more competition. I don't know about you Reid, but I'm as a longtime sports fan, this is overwhelming. As a kid I thought I was able to tune in enough to enough stuff and have enough options. This is an overwhelming number of things that you could easily choose to spend your time on instead. So yeah, you're going to be splitting eyeballs no matter what. Yeah, no, tell my wife that. Too much pressure. Gregory. I will respond to this Gregory longtime commenter and friend of the podcast. I agree, but this is what this show is today. If you want we, Andy and I did both yesterday. We'll do more football breakdown. I got a good guest coming up on Friday. This is what the show is today. We're talking TV ratings. I appreciate that we we'll talk gameplay and we did. We had a whole breakdown of every roster with John Vogel and Andy and Rick, Sara and everyone else for the Friday usl. This is what today is. God has one more comment and then we'll get the USL doesn't have Vince or the Rock to help push it. USL are in everything on their own without some huge celebrity or brand like the WWE e except of chorus, the trademarks they purchased from the hard work that Steve Earhart and everyone did back in the 1980s and then also Fox and NBC pushing it and Aaron Super Bowl ads to support it. But I do agendas. I enjoy, enjoyed the sending opinions on you. I have no problem with that. And you have something to say. I just wanted to say, I mean, look, you're right. Those comparisons are tough to make and obviously the promotional value between all those is really hard to maintain. But yeah, also to Gregory's point, I was going to say, look, I spent about two and a half hours analyzing games yesterday combined. Mark has and Sam Shay's network yesterday, so the don't wait. There's plenty of time for that, but I've kind of exhausted all those tanks for this week. This is the rating show today. This is the rating show Put a, I'll keep talking, but I put in my work yesterday on that. I did a double shift basically. But yeah, I mean look, ratings are going to matter because people want to know about them and people want to know what's going to happen with the attention that both leagues get because guess what? They're in competition and they make it a competition. Both leagues make it a competition. They're the ones putting all this in PR information, right? They're trying to tell us attendance numbers and ratings numbers and oh this, we're working on this. They push it out themselves. So of course if they care about it, I think people are going to start caring about it too, and that's just how it is. That's the nature of the beast and look, is it the most important in my opinion? No. I'd rather talk about the football too, and I love talking about the competition and talk about the players. I of course love talking about the players, but it's going to be something that people pay attention to because it's very much factored into the survival of both of these entities. I mean anybody that knows me and then we have a couple questions here. Anyone that knows me, this is my bread and butter and that's fine and I've had a million people say, read those. No football. That is exactly, that's why I bring on people candy and jump vocal and reg. That's why I bring on every smart person. This is my wheelhouse. I had more fun yesterday talking about the attendance of Birmingham and Kurt Menee lying about the attendance and that's my wheelhouse. That's fine. I'm happy to have, we bring on the smart football to talk smart football people to talk football, but it is all related and I'm sorry, we got 50 people watching right now doing the TV ratings. Freak out Morrie, it's your father versus X F L week 10 playoff preview. I tried to combine all that as much as I can, but you do get, people love talking about this stuff and I have to do, I got to go where the viewership goes. If I was doing C F L weekly breakdowns and getting the viewership we were getting on this, we would do that. Well, and Shannon, we got to talk about the Lakers and the Cowboys. That's that. We haven't hit those. Oh, we haven't hit those points yet either, by the way. No, yeah, Greg, you're here. I know if I hack both, yeah, no, I feel fortunate it get to this, but this is the fun stuff to me there. Look so forward to Tuesday mornings right now and seeing the comments on Twitter, it is truly a delight because it's just us in this world. They don't care. They're up in there in their ivory towers and just remember that if you're spending your time yelling at people about Red Bird or Fox Sports or what Kurt Menifee has to say, they do not about you. They are happy to have your viewership and I know that we are fan friendly leagues and that that's all fine and we sell $200 replica jerseys. I think mine's in the mail, but there's no reason getting so angry about all this stuff. It really is fun and I really do have a fun time talking about all this stuff. Like I said, I love the spin control from both sides and trying to get everything aligned and trying to make it sound perfect and try to make it look the best. I mean, I'm going to be honest, that graphic sent out by the U S F L about the 4% increase from week one versus the entire season. That's a little odd to me. I'm just going to say that outright. That seems a little strange to compare those two things because that's not a full season's worth of viewership versus what the first week weekend when you're simultaneously casting across against another league. So that seemed a little weird to me, but look, if that's what the information they're going to push out, fine. If that's, that's the battle they want to fight, fine. That's just what it is. But it is, it's fun in that you can sort of compare and talk about I talking about the idea, like I said, about how has the landscape changed, where are the viewership habits, where are people going these days? What are they watching, what are they doing? What are they focusing on? Because that does interest me. Can you get other people involved? I do get people who ask me about this stuff now, which is encouraging because last year that wasn't as much of the case. I do get people commenting on, I had someone, I was wearing a sweatshirt, I was wearing an exel sweatshirt the other day and for the first time in a year from owning that thing, somebody actually a random person, not one of my friends or my family members, some random person commented on it. So I, I've heard, I've had people ask me about both leagues. I've had people ask me about spring football, which is encouraging and I like talking about that stuff and if they want to know about it, great. That's awesome To me, that gives me a lot of joy and it gives me a lot of hope for these leagues. I had a question here and because, just because I had a point to make on it, this newbie editor, I haven't seen him on the lot commenting the lot today. I appreciate it. If you're only watching one, what are you picking? I've said this and we talked about it yesterday on here. Neither league is a hundred percent to me. I think we are still working off of two Hals of what the X L 2020. That was my ideal and I know it's rose colored glasses and I know we could go back and look at all of that nineties. W WW F is always going to be the best wrestling I've ever seen and I've lived through the 30 year. I've watched The Rock and I've watched seen it and I've watched RU of Reigns and everything, but I think the U S F L is a little too bland. I think the X F L takes itself a little bit too seriously. I think that they both could, that's why we come on here. That's why we do the shows and talk about all this stuff and what we would want to see. Andy, do you have any thoughts on that? Look, from a football standpoint, I enjoy the X F L a little bit more in terms of the rules and in terms of what they're accomplishing on the field. They kick off the conversions, the way that they run their offenses. I really like the X ffl and in some cases I really like the talent and look with the U S F L, I think sometimes it still feels, feels like it's a little too close to the N NFL game and that's fine if that's what they want to go for, fine. But I always believe that in these leagues you have a chance to experiment. You have a chance to try something new and something that other people have not seen before. But not trying to be too different from the N F L game. I watch games like the C F L because I know it's different and I accept that it's different and I'm interested in those differences and how players adjust to that. That's kind of of my biggest things as a football guy, that's what I really like. So if you're asking me in terms of the play style, I prefer the XFL in terms of the players. I mean that can vary. Look, I'm actually really excited to watch someone like McLeod, Bethel Thompson this year because we've followed him. Then this is the thing I still want to bring it back to with all these guys and all of these leagues and all the ratings and everything, it's still about the players. It is about the players, it's about their stories, it's about where they're going. It's about their ability to fight through everything that they've had in their life. And to get to this point, I'm rooting for people like N B T because he's been through the Ringer and he's been to the C F L and he's been tossed around. I'm amazed by the number of people. I just want to say something about some of the people who I saw commenting about him this weekend, the C F L fans, people trying to throw him under the bus, like, oh, good, riddens, wait for him to be gone. The guy won a great cup. He was a starter for an established traditional franchise and he put up numbers. I don't get the vitriol towards him. I think he's been amazing and I like the guy and I root for his success. So the players, it's individual player stories. As far as the broadcast, I think the US fell has got a little bit more buttoned up than the X F L. We talked about that yesterday. So there's a lot of different comparisons. I also could talk about positions. I made a whole list at one point in our group chat about a few weeks ago that I wish I had posted where I compared the positions overall between us F L 2022 and X felt 2023 and it was kind of split down the middle. There was times where I was like, this offensive line, these offensive lines are better than this one. This defensive line's a little better than this one. These quarterbacks are better than this one. I made those comparisons. I think it goes both ways, so it's hard to say. I, I think just in terms of the football quality, I think both could do really well, but there's a lot of factors to consider there. That's the thing for me, and I don't get nearly as I know Evan and Sam and some of you guys get more, have way player relationships than I do. I just don't like really, I'm not great at cultivating that. I'll say I think Evan and Sam and you know, and whoever, everyone better at that. But I still know players on most of these teams. When I reach out to the media reps and they're like, Hey, who would you like to talk to? I can was just yesterday talking with some of the US F L people. I'm like, I can scan down the roster and go, I would like to talk to this person. I, because I know these people now and not because, so when it comes to this, hey, hating on or not wanting anything, I want all these guys to work. Matt Mango's back on the Mallers. I'm not like, oh boo Matt. Matt gets to live, his dream gets to go play. I'm glad it's not with Kirby Wilson a class, not with Kirby Wilson, but Matt's got a cool new uniform. They've rebranded that he gets to play on national tv. Had the big punt he got to send me and their special teams seem to be doing all right. I think it's great. So this, yeah, I have no problem bashing the leagues because I think both leagues and ownership can figure that out and it's not bashing and it's constructive criticism. But I have friends in all of these leagues and all of these teams I want to see succeed. I think that one of the coolest things for me is you get more illumination on some of these players you never normally wouldn't have. Okay, let's take for example, let's take Ben. Three years ago, Ben Ucci played on my birthday on a Sunday night game for Dallas against in Philadelphia and I'll be honest, I have paid attention to that game because I'm looking at this at the box score and being like, who the hell's Ben Ucci? Like I'm not focused on that as a fan. I'm like, there's no Dak Prescott, there's no Andy Dalton. No. This is in the midst of a terrible season for Dallas. They're not doing anything on offense and they look, they're unappealing the watch. So of course I don't really give it much thought unless he balls out, then I'll pay attention to him. He didn't because he was young and he wasn't going to play well. That and the operation was a mess. He didn't really get to prove himself and that was that. I didn't pay much mind to it. Fast forward now three years later, I know so much about Ucci now. I mean, I know the guy has bravado, he has moxie. He's a gun slinger, he's got great arm strength. He factors really, really well into this Seattle offense. I love seeing this guy. I know so much about him. This is the thing about these leagues. It gives opportunities, but it also gives more illumination to the people's stories that you otherwise, as a fan, especially in the giant conglomerate that is the N F L, you may not necessarily pick up on, even as someone who loves football like me, it's hard to keep track and tabs on all these individual players because quite frankly, all you're going to talk about is the same 10, 15 players in the N nfl. You're going to focus on very specific individuals, not guys these. That's something that really take from it is you get to learn about these sorts of people and really learn where they come from, what they're like, whether they're play styles. You really get to put more of a magnifying glass on them. And I really enjoy that for me is the most interesting part. And also to me think about the life and I, I'm a guy that I was never going to go into doing TV and video and stuff and I had one conversation back in college that really changed my life and where I am now. And I just think of these sliding doors and think of the life that Ben and the opportunities now and all these guys and whether it's the coaches and H, do you think Hs Ward was sitting there five years ago? I'm going to be able to coach and I know the bra was kind of stink this year, but it's all these different life stories and opportunities that all of this provides. And I do think that that all gets kind of lost in this sometimes of just how different the world would be right now if we didn't have this for all of these people. That every single one of these people is their own constellation and being able to have the journey and it provides a lot of opportunities. Even the people there working exe social media, I mean Jay Nokes like this is someone that grew up loving this stuff, was a part of us. Now he gets to live his dream and he's kicking ass and like I said, the promise aren't great, but he gets to do a good job. But he get, hopefully he gets free pizza or whatever down there working for the team. But that's the thing. It's opportunity, and this is something that brought me back into the sphere too. We, we've talked about this, our journalism background. I kind of stepped away from it for a moment because I didn't know what was it that I wanted in it and really what was going to give me satisfaction being involved with something like this very much does. It's something that really gives me a lot of satisfaction, a lot of joy to be a part of because I mean it's kind of a startup in a way. So you're part of something from the beginning, but also just seeing these people that are not as removed from you as maybe some athletes are, some people who are way more distant and way more removed because they have to be because you're part of some gigantic public perception QPR campaign. That's not the case. I mean, I'm shocked when I went to Birmingham last year and I legitimately had a player look at me and go, Hey, I saw you on Twitter, I follow your stuff. And I was like, I've never had that interaction really before. Especially with a professional player. That's not something that I, I've really been experienced to. So something means a lot to me. I these and they pay attention. These people, these people pay attention to the media's work, which is why all of this matters too. This is why this matters. These people are watching, players are watching, they're reading the league. Executives of these leagues do pay attention to certain things and this is something that's really important for a lot of people. It's because it's so niche, but it is so important. It is, I know. And I think we'll see the branding. I would like XE L to kind of get more into that in season two. I'm curious what, I always think that the XE L is a little more D C U than Z Energy or Terema when it comes to weather's our ceiling here. But I think they're getting into that. Anything else we'll get out of here at the hour? I appreciate everybody. We got new talking us little anti pizza, all that stuff. Mark is digging the all black polos asking you to San Diego. We're not going to get Andy talking about San Diego sports in here. We'll never get out of here. No, no, no. I'll get that train rolling. I have not yet. I have been meeting to, I do think they draw pretty well in that stadium and that stadium does do wonders for all of our sports down here. By the way. I'm still waiting on that expansion notice for San Diego team whenever. If the US fellows, a fellow ever wants to come knocking on the door, I'm still happy to have them down here. But that's, that's something that I, I'm looking forward to in the future hopefully at some point because I really do believe that a market can work here. I really believe that. And it's gotten be expanded too. That's the other thing too with San Diego sports, we're talking about tv, just even local sports in a lot of places where it's like, oh they're building this new stadium because they're getting women's soccer team or oh, they're doing this because they're getting lacrosse team stuff like that. People sports. Sports is always expanding in this country. It's always, always expanding. It really is. Yeah. We had a comment here, a stranger talking about Kamonte Turpin and then being able to go down to the field and talk. It was the same thing with when the C Dragons lost the defenders right there at the end of the game and we're down there at front yard or front row at the 50 yard line and all these kids came over to us right after the game, but Ucci had just thrown, was it the interception or dropped out right there? Yeah. And they're sitting there Ucci come take a photo. This guy just lost biggest game of the year so far what he do comes over, takes photos with him, right? Shakes hands does all that. You would never get that in the N F nfl. You would never get that in the C F L and that's why I think X F L U S F L, we need to lean more into that. I do feel like USS F L a little more sterile x ffl I think could benefit from leading a little more into that. Anything else? I did want to say I don't let, don't think this is not scary. Where is it? Don't think it's not scary that the X ffl drew the 235,000 San Antonio versus Orlando. So we got to work on that. I don't want this to be all positive today. Two terrible franchise not players are great. Coaches are great staff's great, but just two really, really bad. If the Orlando guardians and the San Antonio Braas could play up to the level of the staff that they can all come together on that. But that is a scary rating. Anything else on the X FFL stuff before we get out of here? I feel like we did beat the U S F L ratings to up, That's a lot of people missing out on seeing Mack Brown throw a bomb. The field for the Orlando guardians. You watch the best throw by punter I've maybe seen ever. But yeah, no, that is a rating they have to work on. And I will say, I'm not sure how much people care about the records of the teams because again, some people are not watching or really paying that close of attention. They're like, oh, Orlando San Antonio, what are they like? And then maybe they'll see the records and go, oh no, these are not good teams. But that is a bit concerning at the ESPN N two. I feel like the ESPN two time slot has not been great for the X F L. It has to be either be on ESPN N or a C to really factor in ESPN N two kind of gets relegated a little bit here. I think that's something they have to consider going forward. And I understand ESPN NS fill programming. That's obviously the case. They need to finagle around that, but that's something that they have to think about going forward because yeah, that is quite a drop off compared to the rest of your products in such a highly competitive weekend. You did pretty well with that Houston Vegas game good considering the circumstances. I mean you want to see push past a million, but it's kind of what it is. The Sunday games are good. I think that's solid enough. But yeah, that ESPN two rating is, it's not the best. A little nervous for that. Cause I think one of the playoff games is on ESPN N two, so a little bit nervous for that. The half millions espn, this 8 78. We need to work on that. But again, going, that was all the layered and everything with the U S F L that day and I do think that probably took a little shine off of that and obviously the podcast and kind of everything else around that. I think we did good today. We had some new voices in the chat. We had some old voices. I think we did good. Andy, did we survive this today? Was this a worthwhile endeavor today for an hour? I'll go check Twitter to see if it's burned down yet, but if it hasn't then I, I'm going to assume yes, Max listener Max just taught me how to mute because I like I mute notifications, but oh, I got to go grab, I got to go the Amazon fresh order here real quick. I'll be right back. I just vant for just one second. Always being left in the dust, right? No, listen, I think the ratings are going to be fine and I do think that they're going to be consistent enough throughout the season. U S F L has their established fan base, their established audience, and I think they're going to continue being fined throughout the season. Again, what's going to happen once the X F L playoffs end? Is that going to continue from the X FFL audience to the U S F L audience? The N H L playoffs, which mind you also the N Hhl playoffs are also on s ESPN N Now they're not on network television N N B C anymore. So you have to consider which networks are still battling for viewership numbers there. The NBA playoffs obviously are still on B, C and espn. A lot of competition there. That's kind of an interesting thing. I was just talking about the competition between the U S F L and the N B A and the N H L. It's interesting because the N H L now has the rights. You know, ESPN N has the rights there and they put the games on there. The N B A has espn, N and T N T and then also a B C sometimes. So you kind of have that competition going. Jux, toose to Fox. So this really, it's a huge, it's honestly just a big network battle between Disney and Fox. That's really what it is. That's what I kind of gauge here, especially the spring and the early summer time slots. It's like two very direct networks going against each other this entire time. So seeing how Disney and Fox Battle let out here is going to be very interesting. It's interesting that, yeah, I was grabbing, I wasn't bombing a trashcan in the lecture. I was going to get, get my Amazon pressure order. I am glued into N H L playoffs right now. You just said they're on espn. I did see a lot, lot of XL commercials on that. So I do think that's going to boot because N H L, at least the first couple weeks here, there's four games a day. I mean it's an insane Santa Cup playoffs. It's basically, they kind of overlap, but it's four games from four o'clock all the way till the one went to double overtime last night. It was 1230 here in Dallas and that Minnesota. So you're getting a lot of that. So I hope that boons up if you're wanting the X F L to maybe tick up a little bit here going into the playoffs. I know it's on the ESPN two and all of that, but they're getting a lot of promotion. There's a lot of eyeballs on that right now with the playoffs. So Newbie says, see you later. I think rather, oh, I was going to say, yeah, max taught me how to mute not only mute people but mute like so sections of if people aren't following me or I'm not following them. So I'm looking, my notifications look good right now, so maybe I could teach Mike Mitchell how to work on that as well. Not to keep putting that work in. Last thing I'll say is I hope we can put in, maybe not now, but in the future, maybe some estimates as to what we think the X F L championship game is going to be on a abc, what you and I both will be at in person. So we will not get the TV presentation of that game. We will actually be there in person in the flesh, but we'll see what the ratings for that are going to be. It's going to be fun. Thanks everybody for sticking through today. I think we did all right. We'll have our big show Friday. I got a player interview today and then a couple other people still getting it all squared away, but should be good as always. We'll see you next time. Thanks Andy.

XFL vs. USFL: Who "WON" Week 1? USFL Week 1 + XFL Week 9: What Did We Learn?

Hey everyone, welcome to the Markcast here, post USFL show. Be damned. We're here. Then we don't just talk XFL in here talking USFL as well. Busy day today at Kraken in the playoff contention tomorrow against the abs the Mariners are back at 500. Andy Murray's Padres not doing quite as well here, but we'll get into all of that. The Sea Dragons are one game away from C clenching a playoff, be. We will get into all of that. I finally can quantify what I like about the U S F L and what I like about the X F L. I think I figured that out and Andy has promised me lots of hot takes today. Andy Murray the professor. I haven't called you that in a while. Here we have the professor Andrew Murray. We're fired up today. I already got 12 comments here. People are checking in. How are you doing? I know we go by, skip it Shannon. But I see more of that online right now than I do between us honestly, and we can get, it's going to be very interesting. You Mean people? You mean people calling us skipping Shannon? No, I mean you and I call each other skipping Shannon, but honestly I think it's more warranted between other people online right now to be fair. It's good. Andy has promised me lots of hot takes. Yeah, and I do feel like I kind of know now what I like about the X F L and what I like about the U S F L. We're trying to debate here. Andy and I, ratings will be in tomorrow. I've seen some preliminary ratings for some of the U S F L. We're debating if we want to do an emergency broadcast tomorrow, let us know in the comments if you want to see that. I still like doing this Monday morning, but if you would like to see the, I think there'll be hot takes tomorrow about all that as well. Today is probably going to be a little bit more philosophical. Andy and I like to break down all the games, but I watched Mariners yesterday, I watched, it's like six football games, walk the dog. Andy's got lady friends now. It's all very exciting. So lots of things going on, but first and foremost, general thoughts. What did you make of this cavalcade of eight different alt football games this weekend? I mean it was overwhelming. It really was. There was so much to keep track of. I had floated the idea to our group that I was thinking what if there was a Red Zone channel like a Scott Hansen Red Zone channel for all these games going on the same time simultaneously because we've gotten to that point. There's a lot going on and when you see, it's just so surreal to see a U S F L game and an X F L game going on at the same time and realizing that they are, in principle they are both spring football games, but philosophically they're so different and seeing both of them at the same time. It's like, I guess it'd be the same as if you're watching a C F L and an N F L game back to back. If you're watching those two things together, I suppose it'd be the same sensation. I'm not sure to be honest. I don't try that too often. So it's really interesting to see that dichotomy kind of going back and forth and it was surreal honestly and trying to keep up with all, it was overwhelming because there's a lot going on. It was exciting though. I felt like it caused and comment in the chat who I posted on Twitter who won the weekend and obviously the fans won. Okay, that's fine. The fans won, the players won, but who really won? Who did you like better? That's kind of what we get into on here, but I felt like you saw Chairwoman Danny Garcia tweeting a lot. We saw the rock tweeting a lot. This is W C W and W W F were never better back in the nineties. So when they were feuding against each other, a e w. Now with wwe it's all kind of the same thing. And so seeing the Rock, I think it's important The Rock should be watching U S F L games right now. What do they have going on? What's happening with this? Because I would put over at one, the number of ex U USS F L games to Rock has seen before hopefully this weekend. I would've liked to think he watched a couple. I mean would hope so considering how much he was tweeting about it and the attendance and the figures and DC audit field and the battle dome, all that. And as right, he should trumpet all that, but at the same time is he just saying that and watching the TV from his gym, which could be debatable. And also he wasn't doing that all the time throughout the entire season. Occasionally he would pop in. I think he would trumpet something that was a milestone or something that was really significant. But I think you want to continue to see that kind of involvement from week to week. Obviously Danny's always there. She's always there. I mean she cares very much about her guardians who poor thing just cannot get a win or put any sort of consistency together. I think she has been pretty good at trumpeting stuff. I know she's been reacting to some of your stuff as well. I know you've been finally getting, finally have gotten her attention at least in even if it's just a small modicum amount, you've finally gotten it into her periphery vision. I died that she was the fake punt to the, he got the touchdown, right, the guardians, it was the fake punt, just a long throw by the punter and Danny tweeted out 69 yards, whatever. And I always have my Adam Sandler from Billy MA 69 and I tweeted that and I said, this could get me blocked by our chairwoman and she liked it. So I think Danny has got a good sense of humor on there. Before we get into all this, just everyone listening while we have peak kind of viewership here at the beginning, I want to get into this, there's been a lot of discussion about the playoff scenarios next weekend. We were talking, we are watching, we were all watching the game, we're watching the group chat in ESPN n and I don't blame friends of the show, Matt Berry and Eric McClain on here or anybody else, any of the announcers, but whoever is doing the fact checking at ESPN n the playoff scenarios were wrong is what they said was wrong in terms of what was going to be happening here coming up on week 10 with the battle hawks taken on the guardians and then the Sea Dragons the last game of the X F L regular season with the vipers because they said if St. Louis wins, they're in. And I said, that's absolutely not straight up. And I said, that's absolutely not the case that Seattle would have the same record and all this stuff. So here is, this is per the league. We had some confusion last night. Some of the facts and figures were wrong. If St. Louis wins and Seattle loses, St. Louis is in the playoffs. If St Louis loses and Seattle wins Seattle's in the playoffs, that's straight up. And then we do have some qualifying stuff down here with if one wins or if they both win, they both lose tiebreak scenarios. Andy, I just still see a lot of confusion online. So do you think we finally have this all squared away? I mean yes and no. I mean it comes down to who wins and loses. But then again, look at this. I mean it matters as well as who loses and also when you win, how do you win? It's become that complicated. I didn't give it too much thought last week because I know our guy, Mike Mitchell was starting to put out some of the scenarios and I foolishly went into the belief and assumption that St. Louis was going to win that game on Sunday. They didn't show up. So for one had egg on my face for that prediction. But look, I think this is, it's quite convoluted. We knew it was going to be convoluted. Can you imagine if DC had lost in Seattle? I mean, just think about how chaotic that would've been if that had gone through at DC almost losing to Arlington almost brought back in the possibility of winning the division. So it it's almost could have potentially been even more murky at that point. But this is, I mean it's just kind of fascinating to see the Seattle team just so defiantly, despite all the stuff, despite all the turnovers in Ucci and Jim hasn't wants to kill him every time he does it and they can't seem to punch it in when they really need to or they just have, there's like, there's a lot of, not controversy, but just a lot of talking points of this team should be good. Well, they showed up yesterday. I mean that's why I said last week they should be a playoff team. Unfortunately them in St. Louis, one of them is going to be on the outside looking in because they're both quality opponents. They're both worthy of being in the playoffs. But someone's drawing the shortest draw here because of the scenario that we have with the south division and obviously they're being divisional playoffs. It's fascinating. Mike gets into all this sometimes and I love Mike, but Michael will get down these, well if the renegades win, but then they win on the road and they go up by two points and I always give the little, okay Mike, that's great, it's hypothetical ball. I only got so much bandwidth in here and God bless. But then you do get to this now where this very much is and even I think even Max commented, I have the wrong one pulled up. So this is the current one because we've had a couple different ones floating around, but this is the one and they've got all the different points, but should be exciting regardless and we'll kind of move on from this. But what I like about this, and we talked a few weeks ago on the podcast about U S F L last year, end of the season, some of those games really don't care and stallions and doesn't matter at all that I like having all these games have consequence here coming in to week 10. I think that's very exciting. Anything else on the Sea Dragon St. Louis right now? Excuse me? We'll get into the game, but anything else on kind of this before we do general thoughts? Well no, that's a great point. I mean a lot of these games are consequential still, even for the teams that are out of it. Listen, Orlando and Vegas tried their damnedest this past weekend, not for lack of trying. They were trying to pull out all the stops to win those games. And look, I know at the end of the day they're all professionals. They all want to win. They all want to make a living. I get that. But there were points last year with this U S F L at the end of the season where it felt like we're dragging our feet a little bit with some of the matchups and maybe some of the play and just I think maybe some people it seemed to me had maybe checked out a little bit. I do not feel that way at all about any of these games. People care a lot and it seemed to show itself on, I mean it was a great slate of games really. It really was. A lot of them were fantastic. I mean I know that last game obviously was an unexpected blowout, but it still was entertaining from the fact of, wow, this is what the Seattle team can do. But all the other games, were all very close matchups. They're all one score games. So yeah, it's good to still have that quality even at this point in the season and still seeing teams trying things out, still seeing teams. I mean that fake pun throw was amazing by the guardians. I did not see that coming at all. That guy threw a bomb. I can't believe that a punter would even have that kind of an arm. I've never seen, I've never seen a downfield pass like that from a punter. I've seen little dump offs or Oh, the guy's wide open 10 yards. No, I mean he threw that down the field. That was legit. That was a legit NFL road that he made. Well we famously, the Seattle Seahawks, we famously have John Ryan's most famous like Whitney, remember he was throwing Oh yeah, Yeah, A C F L legend as well. But he had his scared face on there. I think we're all okay, so I'm just making sure we're calling about chat. So yeah, Mark's asking like can someone with more bandwidth breakdown? It's not because it's all points loud. I would let the games play out. I really wouldn't like, all I just know is St. Louis, it's not as easy as winning in if they win and Seattle loses, Seattle wins, St. Louis loses. Otherwise we can get in all the machinations of all this kind of stuff because there's a lot of other stuff going on. Andy, you promise hot takes. I have a couple little US ffl things I want to talk about here. You thoughts coming out of the weekend? Well, it depends on which league I want to start with. Both I, I'll start with the X F L since we're still on the topic. Look, yeah, they got to get the playoff scenario stuff right? Like ESPN n you trumpeting this project, you got to, you have to put together the playoff scenarios correctly. We need to be able to put this together. I don't think that, I know we do a lot of great work here. Obviously all our media people do a fantastic job getting that, all those scenarios pieced together, trying to put it together ourselves like a little puzzle. But ESPN needs to be better about that. They have to put that back on. They have to put that in the forefront. As far as the officiating this weekend, I mean it's fascinating. You know what I've noticed? I think teams are going to start trying to keep their challenges till the end of the games. You can't burn it in the first quarter because Dean just has his rules, his ideas and obviously doesn't appear that everyone's on the same page with that. Stoops was upset about a spotting in the DC game that shouldn't look like it was the first down and wasn't, he was wondering why, because of the chain movement you had things like obviously at the end of that game, very crucially challenging that holding call, which extended the game, obviously huge. Just a lot of things like that. I think that's going to be a big thing that goes on moving forward for a lot of these coaches. But as far as the xfl, that's good. As far as the U S F L stuff, we can get into that later, but there are still a lot of broadcast related things with that as well. I'm not sure if you had any thoughts on that. Well no, I thought with the X F L I thought so. I watched Survivor for much of my life rather. I watched all I've been through season 40 and then I kind of fell off. But the thing with Survivor is people you learn as you go. So the idol came out and then people didn't know what to do with it. Now we can barter with it. I think I really mean this. I think we saw, not the breaking but the evolution of the challenge called this weekend we got this big touchdown, whatever game changing and then you see Bob Souper like we're challenging, something's got to be wrong. Someone's had to have held here, there had to have been defense, whatever. There has to have been something going on and they go back and we know with the U S F L last year, offensive linemen and spring leagues and a lot of these players, there's always holding, there's always whatever. Something's always going on that I think when you can retroactively kind of freeze the play and go, there had to have been something that happened on this plate in the gate that I do think we've seen the evolution of that challenge where we got to save it right at the end and you got someone upstairs going, yeah, call hold na da da da, okay, there's got to be holding on that and Dean's going to go back and look at it and there nine times out of 10 there's probably going to be something there. And I, that's one of the points that's brought up in every football game I ever watch as far as when there comes to be a question about replay and refereeing is a lot of the pushback on having replay or instant replay on every single little thing is one, it slows the game down. And two, a lot of people say, well you could slow down any frame of any play ever and call whatever the heck you want. Well this challenge is the manifestation of that where you say, okay, I'm going to have this wild card and I'm going to play it as soon as I need it or a Trump card or something like that. It's something that gives you that inherent advantage in the moment. It's, I mean it's relevant right now in pop culture, but it's Mario getting a super power up like a fire flower or star. It's just like boom, got it, okay now we got an advantage. That's kind of how it feels with the challenge. Some of the coaches early in the season, were trying to use it early on and or early in the first quarter, second quarter, it just wasn't going well and then they were lamenting that they didn't have it later in the game. So I think yeah, we're going to start seeing these challenges be really treated as treasure almost like you got to use it in the exact right moment. Well like you said, I think anything in retrospect you can find anything wrong in a lot of different plays on that. We're seeing a lot of comments here. Yeah, Wade Phillips was the first correct challenge on a no call offensive holding that I know of. And like I said, it didn't come back and win, but then I just saw, and obviously Beck isn't watching and I don't know how that happened but it just seemed like then back in the next game had at least that even that knowledge as well. Well there's got, there had to have been. And then that one, he got the no call but it felt like, I don't know, it just felt like we're seeing the evolution of that and I think that's exciting. In terms of the US belt, we're seeing a lot of comments kind of seeing the continuity year two coming in and everything. I have thoughts on U S F L X L L here, what did you make of the U S F L slate this weekend? The first four games? I like the slate. I mean the first game, Memphis and Philadelphia made a lot of sense getting that first new home market out there, kind of presenting them for everyone to see The first two, the defending champions coming out on Saturday. Obviously I think the match ups made just perfect sense and as far as the continuity goes, you could see players who were holdovers from the last year sort of come into their own and sort of formed better habits than they did. But the very, very limited training camp that they had last year, you can tell guys like Hayes Cook has been in the system now and he really came out and he looks great against Memphis. He was really in tune with everybody. Chris Wallen was great. Matt Colburn looks really awesome. Colburn all Colburn looks great. He looked faster than last year I think. And so you had some of that little bit of development there. Just more chemistry, more camaraderie. That's great. Birmingham I think had it at points. It was kind of hit and Miss Jamar, Jamar Smith looked good at points. He got a little bit nicked up I know. And then Alex Magu came in. Magu actually looked pretty good when he was running the read option and just completely baffling. The general's run defense, so that was good. I'm disappointed. New Jersey did look better like they should have and they just kept turning the ball over at Inop opportunity times and they just could not convert on their goal to-go situations. They were really bad in the red zone and that's something they got to fix. But they, Deandre Johnson, I think he's the guy going forward, but they put in Pru Cop, they put a Dakota P cop and they put in Mike Riley's going to have that too QB system obviously without Luis Perez there. It's like, well how reliable is that? Because Perez was just money last year. He was like 80% completion percentage. So I don't know how reliable that is, but this overall consistency of having more chemistry between these players, it matters. It's the same thing in N F L too. Once you get people playing together for multiple years, you see how in line everybody is with each other and how much chemistry gets built over time. It takes years, it literally takes years for this kinds of stuff. Sometimes people click but you got to expect it to be built over time and that's one thing that's going for the S F L, whether the X F L plays on that same note, I don't think that's their goal, right? They're just trying to export people into the N F L. That's their whole gimmick. They want development and that's great. So in that case then, how much can you really expect chemistry wise between players if they come back or if they're going to come back Two very, again, this is what I was talking about, the two very different philosophies of the league. Two different products completely Say U USS L was a tale of two days salary, they looks really good. The crowds Sunday. I know we're still going to get that and I have thoughts on that. Max has pre cop with trash coach sipping Jamba juice out of a shot. The stars were humming. No, the tie cats are always humming. The tie cats are always humming. Not the stars, the stars not, but the stars looks really good. I felt like, and it, it's so fascinating to me and I've thought about this as it comes to attendance and ratings and gameplay, everything else we all based even I think everyone F l last year everyone was still basing on X F L 2020 right? TV ratings, how many people, all this stuff. Nothing's ever going to give out live up to that ever again just because of the build and Vince and the comeback and the money they spent and whether that was too much money, everything else, all that, whatever. Even now you have X F L and U S F L both basically operating on half everything, right? Half players, half coaches, half tv, revenue networks, all these kinds of things. So it's always going to be less than whatever that was. So we're seeing this watered down whatever version of something going back. And I do think, and in retrospect US FEL was very harshly CR judged last year on TV rating and Caesar crap. We're seeing what XE L has now attendance, that's crap. We're seeing what xe, if X F L and Deval had both played last year, we'd be saying the same thing about the EXE L, but we all had this rose colored whatever in our head. And I do think now we're at least I am adjusting to what is the new level of what we should expect in these spring leagues and it is very much less than what we saw back in 2020 if that makes sense. I really believe that the 2020 season was the gold standard in a lot of ways. And look, I think some of the expo players this year has actually been better than some of it in 2020, to be fair, didn't get to be 10 weeks, they didn't get the full slate and they didn't have all the development that we've seen up to this point. But the ratings are never going to be the same because look, you had both networks in on this. You had Fox and ESPN on one league, that's the thing. And now they've split up and they've basically marked their territory and they've said this is our league and that's your league. That's kind of how it is. That's why you're splitting resources, you're splitting eyeballs, you're splitting dedication to both products because that's just how it is now. It's not this shared entity that everyone had Vince McMahon's not here to bridge the gap between both. In fact, the gap is just getting wider and wider between the fans and between all of the enthusiasts for both sides or for just spring football in general. It's very splitting and Fox got that idea because it worked in 2020, they saw it and they said, well why don't we try that? But we try it on our own terms and it makes sense. It just circumstances. I don't know if they would've done that, if Covid didn't happen, I think they would've still been here. I really do believe that because they were getting ratings. Why would you give up a two and a half, two mill, three spot wouldn't. So I think yeah, mean it's sliding doors, it's a perfect world where everything survives and everything keeps together and we still have your LA Wildcats or your New York guardians and your Tampa Bay Vipers but that doesn't exist anymore and so it's interesting that you just have these two splits here. I have a lot of thoughts on some of the attendance though, but I'll defer it to you first. I I'll toss and then we'll get back. We'll get that back and it's always going to be an issue on here. It's always going to be an issue and that's sorry and normally Andy and I do, we'll get to games here, kind of do the breakdown a little bit, but this week there's just so much going on and philosophical. I'm really excited for the show on Friday, Mike just has to come here. US L Trolls for last by the XE L you been with 1.5 million A b abc. Saturday afternoon will be something US L abuse under a million with a primetime game on Fox after all that promotion. I've seen the preliminaries, I'm not saying they can't go up but I have seen the preliminaries for the U S F L. We'll leave it at that Texas Pete. There's room for both leagues. I don't understand. Hey yeah, I mean it's too, so this is where I wanted to get into this and then Andy has thoughts on the attendance and everything else U S F L turning on. I watched the entire Showboats game, I watched half the general's game and then I watched most of the gamblers game yesterday so I probably watched 70% of the US L games this weekend in completion and then I caught up on the Macau highlights. It is putting on an old pair of jeans, fox, I think their broadcast is unmatched. I think it's stupendous. I think they have learned we're not going to show the crowd as much. The broadcast is great, it's shot great produced the talent you got Kurt, you know got Joel. All it is, we got the music, we have the nfl, everything. It feels so familiar and I think if you put on that Showboats game and if you didn't know it was a Saturday in April and you thought it was a Saturday in October, I mean yeah crap, it just feels, you know what it is but it's no personality. There's no personality, it's safe. This is what we have. It is football on the field. You like football on the field, the X F L I don't always like the personality that they have right now. I think the X F L portrays itself as far too serious. It's far too serious of what it, it's so removed from, it was the Extreme League back in oh one that it was kind of the really fun. We want the fans involved in everything now. We kind of want that but we're also, we're really serious. This is, we're really professional. I don't always like that personality but at least the X F L has that and so whether you like that or not, that's kind of how I see the differences. I see Fox, it's so clean, it's so polished. This is what we're doing. We don't involve anyone, we don't need anyone but Fox where they x ffl is very much just more, we're kind of feeling our way out sir. We're evolving with the challenges, we're figuring out the rules. ESPN's not all the time we're trying to work through it. Any thoughts on that Andy? No, I agree and honestly the quality kind of varies from broadcast to broadcast on ESPN because some crews seem to understand how to utilize the audio feature as far as getting the coaches talking and getting what kind of feed they need while the broadcasters are talking and some are not as good at it. Fox Also Fox is way better. The Fox broadcast you could hear we're still getting the over, it's a Zoom call, we're still getting the overlapping on Fox where we're kind of hearing parts of the calls and we're here and all that stuff. They mix a little bit better there and also look, there's certain experience in E S P N or experiments that haven't really worked sometimes talking to a fan, great, awesome getting destroying to talk for an entire quarter. I don't really need that. I like him. I'm glad he's involved. Maybe doing the sideline interviews is cool. When he talked to, I think it was Darius Slay, I think it was earlier this year at the Houston game. Cool, yeah, I'm like that, that's good. But he is constant involvement in one quarter and trying to do play by play breakdown. I don't think that was really much of a success. So I they're trying to feel things out, they're trying to experiment and that's the thing, it's still very, very much feels like a Petri dish with them. It does not feel that way with U S F L. It's they kind of knew what they were doing from the beginning even last year and they had a plan and a structure in place. Whether you like it or not is up to you but that's kind of how it is. Espn, they're still sort of picking and choosing and trying to figure it out as far as what they're going to do forward and so you're going to have some hit and miss moments. You really are and I, I've felt that way too. Were the times where I'm like really, do we really need to be hearing this or do we need to be talking about this specific thing at this moment? I've had that reaction a couple of times. Yeah, I don't know if we talked, I know I tweeted about it. I don't know if we talked about the destroying of at all of, I understand he has 5 million subscribers. It find me someone that has 5 million subscribers talking about your ex f l league and then we can have a conversation here. I hate this WWE E did it for years and it's such a we're niche thing and we're going to bring in good morning football did it this year. They gave one of their trophies to one of the NBA commentators because like oh we can get a little bit of rub. I hate that. I understand wanting to broaden whatever. I don't think one single person watched that show and said I want to destroying, I'm going to watch any of this stuff. I get he's an ambassador for the game and all of that, but that's another X F L thing. Yeah, U S F L has interviewed Doug Peterson on the sidelines because his son is in the game and X ffl is like please destroy and please talk about this on your YouTube channel. We would really appreciate that. Yeah, no, I mean it's catering and they're trying to get other people involved. They're trying to get as many different kinds of people involved and I get that you want to grow your audience, expand it and I complimented them on having him earlier in the year with the sideline interviews. But when it comes to the professional product, I know I've made light of the CFL for not getting other, the younger demographic involved sometimes, but at least I can tell there's a very professional attitude when it comes to their presentation of their product, which you need to, to be able to balance both. There has to be some sort of level of professionalism but also have fun and it's kind of trying to balance that out is really hard. It's really hard to get both of those. I just had a comment here and I know you have attendance stuff and then we will talk about games. Max says at least destroy and actually made a content with the XL and that that's fine. This was funny, us felt like a church on Sunday actually felt like a party. That was the thing I thought the US F L very much won Saturday, if you want to call it that. The games were good for the X ffl and I'm looking down here, the Vegas Houston game, not as consequential as some of these and obviously we had the Orlando, the Braas game, but you know had to kick off. You had all that stuff Sunday having both empty crowds for U S F L with the party that was DC and then St. Louis and them throwing the pissy party over losing at home, which I really did enjoy you when Ben Ucci threw that touchdown to Jaco Pearson. I mean you could hear a pin drop in that battle dome and I tweeted out pretty damn quiet in here right now. What are your thoughts on attendance, Andy? And then we'll kind of chat through, shoot through some of these games. Okay, so here my thing, listen, I had a number of occasions people referencing on Saturday the audio of Kurt Menifee saying, oh well the Memphis attendance was around 30 k. I'm like, that's not an accurate number. That's not an accurate number. I don't know where he's getting that number from. We have had no confirmation of that number. I haven't heard one thing about it being around 30 K in any way, shape or form from anybody and any of our channels. I don't want to hear about it being 30,000 people in that stadium. I don't know what it is because I look on the tv, there seems to be a decent amount of people. We don't have an accurate reading. I don't want that to be gospel. I just don't want this blatant lying of attendance numbers. The X F L has numbers, they have the attendance whether you like it or not or whether you like how much people are going, whatever. If it's lackluster, you can discuss all that after the fact, but not why the U S F L refuses to give these numbers out is kind of baffling honestly. And I get they understand that there's not going to be as many people at the games that don't have home teams. That's just the fact of the matter, but that's just how it is. I want you to be as a commentable for each side and say, look, if you're going to announce those numbers officially, then announce them or say around 30,000 then say there's around 200 people in the game too. I know you're not going to because you want to trumpet your own product, but it it's just blatant deceiving and I don't like that. I really don't like it and I don't like people following it and tria it's gospel because it's not and I don't like it. And also listen, the whole attendance thing, it does affect the product. There's not as much energy, there's not as much focus, there's not as much attention. Like you say, what you want about the XFL and their attendance numbers. Those people show up and care. Those people are maniacs. DC fans are maniacs, St. Louis fans are maniacs. Even people in the smaller stadiums, even though in San Antonio hasn't gotten as much, I still see those people having a good time. They're still caring a lot about the product. I see a lot of enthusiasm and energy in those crowds. It matters a lot and it adds to the product when there's, there's 70 people in the stands in the U S F L, it takes away from it a little bit. That's just how it is. Sport life sports is meant to be played with energy. I don't go back, I really don't go back and watch any sports highlights from 2020 because there was a time when there were no people in the stands and it was weird. It was really weird and it kind of reminds me of that a little bit. Every time I see a game that's just a matter of the fact I get tired because I saw that. I heard that heard the 3000 I've had it sent and I know people are going to live gospel with that forever and it's fine again if I don't care if it's 20,000, if it's 20,000, it was still a great crowd and I see always get a lot of comments in here. I see a lot of comments and people go like, why does that matter? Why does this matter? This is why this matters is because when I put out the poll last week because the X ffl or us was talking real football and we're real football's coming back, da da da da and I tweeted, I was drinking at the gorillas concert in Las Vegas. I tweeted, when I think of real football, I think of and when you have 34,000 impressions and almost 3000 people with 72% of people voting for the X ffl, it is because the U S F L does not have fans in their stands and because they played in hubs last year, now they're working towards changing that. They're doing a good job. Like I said, I thought Memphis looked really good. We'll see what Detroit looks like and Canton all that, but this is why all they care about is tv, da, da DA is because there's a public perception right or wrong that the U S F L is not real football because they don't play in their home markets. And even if there's 6,000 people at Cashman Field in Las Vegas paying to watch the Vegas Vipers play, they're at least paying to watch the Vegas Vipers play there. And that's what people need to understand. I understand that Fox has a different business model, but there's still the perception behind it and that is why. It's because, I mean that went crazy when I had no, I was like, I'll be lucky if it's 50 50 and the next thing I know I turn on after the concert, I was like, oh my God. But that is why, that is why it's important. And again, it's just presentation. It's about presentation. Look, at the end of the day, this is a entertainment product now we care very much about the football, we care about the quality of the football. We all do, but at the end of the day, it's a product that has to entertain the public. I say that about the N F nfl. The N F L has become less about the football, it's become more about the entertainment, a aspect of everything. It really has. That's just how it is. They want points. They want certain players to get certain concessions over others because they want their stars to play well and they want their stars to get all the stats. That's that's how it is. And I think it's the same way we hear the X F L I. I'll be honest, I think they were maybe a little lenient at the end with that renegades game with the PI call and then obviously the challenge was correct with the hold, but I mean obviously they would love that to be a thrilling game to the end of a thrilling finish and then you get into the overtime aspect of it again. So that's something that they are, they're going to trumpet and say, look, here's our overtime rules and look how it works. This team had a chance they were dead and gone. It looked like they were out of it. They were down by 11 points in the fourth quarter and they figured it out and they won the game or they won, excuse me, they tied the game and they won overtime and they lost, but they had a chance, you know, want to be able to have things like that happen in your game with U S F L. It's not really predicated on that as much. It's still about opportunities of course, and that's the other thing I want to say philosophically about the player roster construction. Look, as I said, we've talked about all season, the X Ffl wants to get their players out the door and into the N F nfl, the S F L I feel like it's a security blanket with players that know maybe that they need to have that job security and they have something they can come back to if they get into the N F L. Great, the timeline, the schedule, the calendar, we've talked about that a million times. It's just, it's a little harder for them to get into these camps, get into camps and be able to contribute after the U S F L season ends. It was easier for them honestly to go into another league, the C F L or something of that nature. But of course they have their contracts with the U S F L so it's harder for them to transition. There's a lot going on with that, but U S F L feels like there's security in that, right? There's an opportunity for them to just be able to come back and like, hey, you know, didn't make in the nfl, that's too bad but we always come, welcome you back into the team. It really feels like that. That's why there's a decent amount of holdovers here still in the S F L that I remember from last season. Again, continuity's really important because now I'm like, oh, I'm familiar with this person. I know who this player is, I know what they do and that's good, that's good for the league, but there's just, you have to consider that those are the two separate things going on here is maybe the philosophy of what these players are considering when they go into both leagues. Darren Workman wins the win wins wins the award today. For the best comment, Darren, I want, I'm going to say Darren, if you DM me, DM me your address, I'll send you a spring league warmup practice squad jersey here. Darren gets this one. I wonder if M V D felt at home with no fans in the stands of Birmingham. It was BM O Field in Toronto. Wow. Oh Darren, that made me chuckle. Oh, Darren, that made, oh man, speaking of, and I have it here. Oh Andy, did you have something I want to talk about McLeod? No, well I was going to talk about McLeod so you go ahead. Yeah, So no, so yeah, how'd my boy McLeod do? I watched half the game. I turned it on. I saw him get rocked with the sack. I saw him throw the ball, pass the line of scrimmage and then I saw Kurt Menifee make fun of him for playing with the metric system because he is Canadian, which I did not appreciate. See, this is the thing I don't hate. We do not hate on Canadian players like Kurt Menifee making fun of Macau Belo Thompson for playing with the metric system that is f L people making fun of the C F L. So how do Macau do? Yeah, those are the people, the C F L people need to be going after, not us, but look, the McLeod, you know what? I will say this, he was pretty inaccurate at times. I mean he is obviously figuring out chemistry with the receivers. He got hit so many times that offensive aligns a problem. Great job by Rick Cella and Nick Vogel last week breaking that down because they were right this offensive lines, they got to fix it. They got to find a way to get around it Now. So as far as completion percentage is not great, but I will say this, and I know this seems like a very cliche statement, but he looks like a quarterback. He looks very confident what he stands tall in the pocket, he throws that sucker down the field. He knows what to do with the ball in his hands and I think a lot of that comes from his practice and all of his fortitude to get through all of these times that he had in the C F L and all these other leagues. He looks like a seasoned veteran out there. I could tell immediately as he stepped on the field like, oh, he gets it. He has the right tendencies, the right attitude, he has the pedigree. I felt it as soon as he got on the field and all things considered, I think he ended up playing better than he started. And I think all that practice in the C F O C F O really paid off because some of his down wheel throws are great. That's some of the best throwing I've seen on the breakers since they started compared to what we saw last year with them. So for McLeod Bethel Thompson, that's a great, honestly that's as good as the debuts you're could probably ask for just based on all the mitigating factors of getting it acclimated to a new team, a new system coming back to the states, being with John dpo, I think hopefully we should continue to see more development going forward, but I think he ended up doing all right. Overall, How did the Mallers Fair here are famously the worst team in all of us spring football history here. How did the Mallers do? I mean they still can't block and James Morgan look lost. They were just completely shot on offense. I know they got a punt, a big punt return at one point and I don't know, it feels kind of like the same team as the last year. They can't really do much on offense and I don't know really how much involved in the game they are. I know their defense made some big plays and they were able to get a couple get, like I said, they just went after the Claude Bethel Thompson all game long and he got hit so much. But did James Morgan, honestly, I don't know if it really matters as much for them going forward as far as who their starter is. It may not matter I quarterback because they just feel like kind of the same team and I feel bad because obviously they're trying their damnedest with Ray Ray Horton in there as their new head coach, but I don't know it as long. I mean I think not having the distraction that is Kirby Wilson helps not having that sort of in the background the entire time. So we'll see if they can pull something together, but I don't know it, them and the gamblers both just feel kind of the same place they were last year. A team that could improve a lot is Michigan. I think the Michigan Panthers can get a little bit better. Josh love looked really good yesterday, but yeah, some of these other franchises there were in the basement last year kind of feel stuck in the same mold. I had a comment here. Oh, Kyle says at least that, at least MCC McCall can measure. I just comment, I'm just seeing a lot of Eric's kind of going crazy here in the chat. Eric's talking about bias and you are not a football fan if you've determined to watch a game based on how many people are in the stadium. I will tell you many football fans that I of course follow with over the last two years very much decide whether or not they enjoy a game of that. I I'm glad that you don't. I know many people that don't. I also know very many people that do. So I would not say that you were, I would not qualify anything of that. You are not. This is funny, John Christian, are you still a fan of the drone camp? Definitely know this. There was no drone cam in Memphis and then the second we got to Birmingham I totally forgot. I'm like, oh my god. Oh my God, the drone's back. I don't think they need it. I think I thought the camera work in the DC game yesterday with the back and forth. I thought that was good. I think if espn, I think Fox did, like I said, did well with the Memphis game. I think you can get away with the drone. I don't think we need that. And I think that the Memphis did a far better job of photographing Videographing that stadium without showing. I think the drone just shows too many empty shot. It shows too many empty seats. It's too loud, it gets in the way. Do you have any thoughts on the drone? It still sounds like I'm at my dentist office every time I hear that drone it j it just sounds like worrying machines in the background. Yeah, it really does. That's the first thing I thought the first time I heard it and I still think that you got to save that for games when there's actual fans. Yeah, I really do mean if they had it during Memphis, I guess it would've been okay, but maybe have it more on the periphery on the outside so we don't hear it on the field the entire time. Maybe you don't have to have it behind the players the entire time. I do still the camera that they have on the player helmet that when he makes a play, I think they had that in the Birmingham game where a guy got a fumble recovery and it's just like, oh, the ball's on the ground. This is what the process of him diving for the ball. That's kind of cool. I still like that a lot, but yeah, it could do away with the drone camp. But look, here's the thing, again, I'm not trying to criticize the football at all. The football is of good enough quality. It's, I'm telling you about the overall presentation of the product. That's just how it is. Sometimes it's just a little strange not having the people there to cheer on and having also fake crowd noise pumped in, which still drives me nuts for once. I actually agreed with Michael ballsy about something because he was going after it this weekend about their pre fake crowd noise pumped in for 200 people in the Breakers game. And I'm not a presentation, it's not something I would put in the presentation, but I get their idea of trying to establish atmosphere, but it just feels fabricated and that's something that I want the S F L also to be a little bit careful about their slight fabrication of certain things that, and also again, the around 30 K attendance thing. Also a couple things that Darren Johnsons talk about. Look, I didn't get on about this last week, but the guy, apparently, I saw the guy get after the kickoff rules about the X ffl and call them really not, basically not dogging the entire kickoff. Which is funny because he wasn't doing that three years ago when he was involved with the X ffl. So for him to change two is very interesting. I know he's trumpeting the S F L, but it seemed a little disingenuous. And I'll say this also about the kickoff. I don't like it. The S FFL kickoff, it's too far back. It feels like those yards are just free. Those are free yards for everybody to play with. You can get to the 40 yard line, it's no problem and it doesn't feel earned. You can say what you want about the XFL kickoff and the rules of it. I still feel like there's strategy and there's an earning of those yards on the field. The U S F O kickoff is too far back. 25 was fine, 25 was okay. 20 is too far back. They got to put it back up a little bit because it just feels like you said in I think our group chat a couple days ago, it just feels like, I don't think Chris Rowland was touched until the 40 yard line a couple of times in the Philadelphia game. That's really tough for a kickoff unit, a kickoff coverage and it feels like just almost getting the midfield almost every single time it happens. Yeah, I hate the kickoff and that was something, again, I don't am, and I've said here I am not the football expert. I bring on smart people to talk about all this stuff. I'm like, okay, that makes sense. They want to do it. They don't want want to do the X ffl one, which is so weird because we want to steal all these other rules and it is, it's stealing, it's borrowing whatever. Want to borrow all these other rules from the X ffl. We don't want to do the kickoff because that's their thing. We can't do that. We're moving. Yeah, I was DMing with the creator of the X F L kickoff over the weekend, I think. Did you see that? The US fellows kicking off from the 20 yard line and he said, wow, that is very interesting. I said, yeah, they're literally able to get to the 35 yard line with without even being touched. And then whatever else you get from that, it's fine. I mean it creates, what I think they need to say is not, we want to go from 80% to 90% kickoff people return kickoffs. We want to inflate our offense and by starting teams at almost midfield, that ensures we're going to get a lot more scoring. That is why they're doing it. Right. Player safety, that might be a bystander kickoff, return completion that might be a bystander. They're doing it to inflate offenses. They do disagree. No, I agree. They do mean especially felt that way during the Michigan game, during that Michigan Houston game, it felt like everybody had a free start at midfield and just could go down the field. And it's tough. I mean it's tough on defenses now because it's like, oh, they're giving up all these touchdowns, all these points. It's like, well, yeah, I mean it's like starting a runner at second base. That's tough. And I feel for the defenses and I feel for the special teams units that don't really get that kind of practicing because once you get to the N F L, that's not going to be the case. First of all, there's no kick, like no one returns the kickoff anyways, so, which I understand you want to see more kickoffs, great, but don't just give them yard. It's like that. We got to still earn it, you know? Still have to earn the field position that you get. So yeah, it doesn't feel like it makes drives, in my opinion, a little less special. It's really special when a team drives 90 yards going from 90 yards or 80 yards. It's really cool when a team is able to drive the length of the field, it's, it's debilitating for another team. When you're a road team, seeing Seattle have those sustained drives against St. Louis and that game yesterday and also just those big plays, it's like, whoa, that's demoralizing. And so I want to see more. I just want it to be a little more organic in terms of seeing longer sustained drives for some of these offenses. I get you want to have kickoffs, that's fine. There's nothing wrong with that, but the percentages of we need to have more kickoffs. I think Mefi was saying about that on the broadcast last year there was 80, around 80% I think. And then this year they want to get up to 90% and it's like, okay, but also what are the quality of the kickoffs? That's the other thing. Let's consider that as well. You want more great, but what is it doing for the product again? That's my whole point in a lot of the rules changes. Talking here without holding all that I want to get to because we talked a little bit about the Mallers. I do want to get to, we talked kick us off the top and the stars. To me they look like the strongest team so far, right Case and obviously he bounced around going to the N F L, he was on the show, I guess it was a week or two before kickoff we had him on. Thoughts, any expanded thoughts on Case the stars, the Showboats? I thought they looked decent in there. Any other thoughts on that? Yeah, no, like I said, cooks looked great. He made an excellent sideline throw for his third touchdown. I want to double check who it was. I'm not sure if it was Jordan so I have to look it up again, but just an amazing touchdown throw by him later. I think it was Devin Gray. I think that's who it was. Yeah, so that was incredible. Again, he just looked really confident. He ran a lot. I was surprised by how much he ran, especially with that knee injury that he had last year. He clearly wanted the show that it had recovered and he looks great and if he can run, run, I mean that adds another element to their offense now because now you have to worry about that and it really threw Memphis off that he was able to do both again. I mean he can thrive in this offense and a guy like Brian Scott was going to thrive in that offense last year, but he got hurt and so now it's turn to really take advantage of that. I really like the Star's offense. I don't think Brady White's it man. I mean he should have thrown more picks that one this to Channing Scribbling was a Christmas gift. It almost looked like he was trying to throw it to him and not his own player. I don't think this Brady White experiment works, but Cole Kelly was fine. I mean he's a big boy but I don't see him really factoring the offense again. Where's Ryan Willis? We need to keep asking this question over and over again. Where is this guy? Because we've talked about him so much for a guy that hasn't played a snap in the X L and has not played a snap with the US F L yet and obviously he played really well in the spring league. What's going on with him? We need to figure this out. Is he going to get an opportunity at some point because it's just bizarre considering how much we've talked about him and how much it seems like he's worthy of having an opportunity, but I don't know if that's going to happen. Michigan, like I said, Jordan Love played great or sorry, Josh Love, not Jordan Love, not Green Bay Packers quarterback, but Josh love looked really good. I hope that Carson Strong can get involved. He was five for five so hopefully he can get some more playing time. I hope his knee holds up. There's still a lot of players left to be considered. How much of these quarterbacks are going to come in and out of these games is going to be interesting. Obviously the X ffl, it varied. Some teams had to and some teams chose not to at all. Obviously if you're St Louis you're not taking AJ McCarran out of the game. If you're the Sea Dragons, you're not taking Ben Deuce out, you're not taking some of these quarterbacks out. So we'll see what happens. But overall, I mean I think it was a decent start to the slate and I'm just curious, I still think McCloud, Bethel Thompson has a chance to be one of the best quarterbacks in the league just based on his pedigree and based on his knowledge of the offense and his skillset. I think he can still do it. So it might be him and cook maybe at the top of the heap by the end of the season. I had a question here, lots of comments about the, I've seen a lot of people say the Showboats branding, favorite branding and then Dorothy walks in and she goes, that is really ugly. So where do you land on that? And then I have my more serious question because I had a question. I forgot it. That was my follow up, but I do have a more serious football question. No, I I'm fine with it. I like it just based on, it's like it's a color that doesn't really match with a lot of other teams and I like the branding. I mean it's sort of similar to the fleet with the whole maritime theme that I had with the San Diego fleet, but I like it overall. I actually am fine with the uniforms. I thought the uniform matchup was actually pretty good with that in Philadelphia on Saturday, so I don't find it to be ugly at all. It's just a matter of can the fan base buy into the Memphis brand again, it's been four decades. Let's see if they can get back into it. I'll get, yeah, two things. So now I have two follow ups for that. So I did like the fact that we are now going back, we can talk about the old us and felt right because last year we had the lawsuits and we can't talk about all that stuff. So I like that. But then it's also so weird the showboat score and then they go, this is the first Showboats touched down and in four decades you're it. I don't showing the stuff and okay, we're back here, we have history of all that but we're carrying over stats or oh, this is the first professional that is the other thing. This is the first professional football that's in Memphis in four decades you're forgetting X FFL oh one C F L A F. So we want to really embrace his. Rita, what do you make of that? And this now I do think we're going to be all in on history this year. We couldn't do it before. We're going to be all in, If I'm not mistaken, I believe the Titans also played a game there before they actually officially moved to Nashville. So let's not forget that. That's what I'm talking about with the U S F L thing. It's just erasing history. It's like revisionist history. I do not care for it. If you don't want to specifically talk about a certain thing, fine, that's okay. Like the X F L doesn't talk about X F L 2001 at all. At all. They barely mentions 2020. They almost don't even acknowledge that they pre treat themselves as a new entity but they're not going on being like, oh this is the first time since this or this has never happened before. It's like no, it clearly has. We know it. We are not dumb. We can look it up and that that's the thing about the S F L, they really treat it. They just, there's no previous history of professional ball ball in any way, shape or form or capacity and I just think it's silly. Just don't try to blatantly erase it. All I ask you to do, if you say like, oh this is the first Memphis Showboats touchdown in four decades. Okay, that's fine. No problem with that. I get it. That's cute. I get it now you can acknowledge that history but don't say it's the first professional score in four decades because that's not true and can't it, it's just not straight up. My other question, my real football question, so you talked, we're doing the dueling quarterbacks and some of it's by design, some of it's going to playtime and it's week one X F L. We've seen some of the teams ride, we got to all this stuff X F L really talking, we want these guys to get back to the N F L, but so has the u USS F L has really had that mantra, right? And we we're champion Kama Chi but see are they the same, better or worse of these coaches? Are we playing for competition or are we playing for these guys? I it's, I mean think it's both still tape. Obviously you're still getting opportunities for players who need to have them obviously and us F L does have a handful of guys like that. Obviously we talked about Carson Strong for example. He needs to get back into onto the horse, but I mean you do want to win. I mean the X F L, that's the interesting thing. I still feel like in the X F L, they still want to win. They still are very adamant about winning despite some of the concessions about okay, well some of these guys are going to move on. I mean again, as I've said a billion times, Anthony Beck talked about that in the showcase in Arizona, but you clearly see that he wants to win with St. Louis, the U S F L, I mean I presume it's the same thing. Obviously you want them to have that same level of competitive spirit and I think it's just a matter of how are they conducting themselves, how they running the show. I mean I'm sure Birmingham's proud of their championship last year, but I still think that it's just a matter of how do you treat yourself in conjunction with the other league? How much are you really trumpeting the players that you have and where they're going? The same thing with the cfl. The cfl I still think struggles with that too where they wanted desperately keep high-end talent but they have to concede that they're going to go somewhere else and the Nathan RO thing last year obviously was really tough for BC fans because it's like, all right, well we want him to be do really well, but we also really want to hold on to him and keep him forever. But it's like that's not going to happen. The US F L needs to think about that as well. Where do they stand with in terms of being competitive or being successful but also wishing the best for the players that move on somewhere else? It's a fine line and I think every league is still kind of struggling with it a little bit. Some of these lower, okay, I shouldn't say lower leagues but other leagues I don't see that problem in fan controlled football for example. They're like, hell yeah, our guys doing great in another league. Awesome. It's a very different mentality. I don't feel that way with C F L U S, F L X F L. It's kind of more like, oh, they're over there now. It's not as much trumpeting about that player, so it's a lot to consider. Yeah, non M F L, minor league American football leagues. We're not getting into the C ffl here far on, no. Yeah, that was wild with that. That was really wild. I did see a comment. We'll get into this. I know you got to get out of here. We did have a comment. Fox does not seem to be talking as much about players wanting to go to the N F L, like the X F L with that has been the complaint all season. Well this guy, it does seem like Fox is, we're playing this game. Come watch da. I want to get any final thoughts on, we talked a little bit Birmingham generals, I was surprised and then we'll get to football that there was not nearly as many people there come around, especially after hoisting. We had the banner, we got the trophy and the rigs, thoughts on that and then the game, like I said, we we're generals we're missing Luis Perez. Any other thoughts on this game? Yeah, I was quite frankly, I was surprised there were so many tarps in the stadium. Those were not there when we went last year and yes, we did go there by the way, for anyone wondering. We were actually there in person in the flesh just reminding everybody, but I don't remember there being as many people there on Saturday as there were last year. That's fascinating because you think home opener defending champions year two of the league, you've got players that you remember from coming back, both your quarterbacks, a lot of your defense, Scooby Wright, some of the receivers, I mean a lot of familiarity and yet it didn't seem like there was as many people there in the home opener this time around, which is fascinating. I don't know what's going on with that. I thought Birmingham was all gung ho that they have their team back, but I don't know man it, it's interesting, but I'm sure people will tell me that there were like 40,000 people in the stands in the entire year, so I'll have to just take that with a grain of salt, but I think it's it. I wonder what the enthusiasm level of these markets is. You have to consider that every single time. It's really funny considering no, the X F L, as soon as we see one bad, we see one bad crowd. We're like, get 'em out of the T, get 'em out of here. We got to go to a different city Out there. San Antonio's not working. Why are we even having the championship here? Yeah, Fort Mission we're out of here and the US felt it's not that case, it's just more of they'll show up eventually. It's again, it's such a different attitude and different philosophy and I'm just kind of surprised that there was more people in Birmingham. Memphis totally get it. You're getting those people back into the fold and I think it was a decent crowd. It was one side of the stadium, but so Orlando guardians did that too. There's the one side of the stadium for visual components. I get that and it's also very round, very big rounded bowl there, the Liberty Bowl in Memphis. But yeah, I don't know what's going to happen. I'm really curious to see how Michigan shows up because I've been told that Michigan is supposed to be a really supportive, the numbers, the social media numbers, the fans, it's supposed to be really supportive so they'll be playing at home in week three. Let's see how the Panthers do at home. Ken, I don't know. It's weird because they're not really in either of those markets. Not really. That's weird with Pittsburgh and New Jersey, but we'll see. I want to see if that enthusiasm level's going to continue. I have a comment here. I'm not even going to put it that, but there said there's about 41,000 fans in Birmingham. Pretend the Sam holds for 47,000. So if you think there was only 6,000 empty seats in that stadium, there might have been 6,000 seats just covered in tarps in the one end zone there. Anything else on this? I don't want to hold you too long. People are excited here. Any other thoughts? Anything? It's just excited. I mean I don't want to poo poo on all of this. I am excited. I liked watching the US fel. I really did. Like I said, watched the show, both felt like this is back, but I mean this is what this show is. We talked football and then we kind of talked this other stuff on here and I, I'll tell you, we got a lot more comments today about this kind of stuff than we do about Carson. Carson Strong is completion percentage or whatever. We're like, this is kind of what these shows are, but any other real football talk, any other non-football talk. Again, it's going to come down to what happens in a couple weeks with the playoffs. And also by the way, oh my God, there was so much going on sports-wise this weekend. I mean the ratings, that's the other thing we need to think about. The ratings like the N NBA playoffs started, that's the other thing. You had playoff games going on, you had baseball going on. I mean it was just a avalanche of stuff going on this past weekend. This is the thing with spring football has to consider. There are other fans watching other things. Football is king. I totally agree, but also, oh my god, there's so many things going on simultaneously for a lot of people and that's just the nature of the beast as far as trying to get eyeballs. It's going to be a thing going forward still, I think the X ffl is just content with where they're at as far as what ratings they've got. I don't know what the U S F L standards are this year. They seem to be happy about 'em last year. Let's see how they feel about it this time around. If we're looking at sub one mill or sub two mill, I don't know what the number's going to be on Saturday or Sunday. See, but I don't know what their standards are going into year two. So the TV rating, debate's going to be it. It's going to go on until we die. It's going to be on go on until the end of time. It's getting be exciting. I am real excited and it was so funny, we were sitting there yesterday because we're watching the Battle Hawks game and we're like tweeting at Matt Berry, like DMing them, like nah. I talk to him about the playoff scenarios and I'm like, okay, when I is that game next weekend, when is the Vipers Sea Dragons game? And I realized, oh, that's like, I'll be at that game. That's the last Seattle because we've missed so many. Whatever Kraken are playing Sam Shadys Heroes in the sport in thing. We're playing Sam's AVEs, but we're playing them on Saturday and Monday, so I'll be at the game on Monday, but I'll be at the game Sunday for the X F L. I think that's exciting. I think the fact that you have, I was scared and I was very scared when we saw this U S F L stuff and hey, we're going to be on Fox and we're going to have all these games. I'm like, some of these games aren't even going to matter for the X F L at this point. What are we going to do? We have two games next weekend that are really going to matter with that. I think the U S F L slate is good as well. Let me pull up on here just before we get out. We got gamblers breakers, so we're going to be at protective. We're going to see the Birmingham stallions back in Birmingham. And then is do we finally get, so we get the Canton Games next weekend, so that'll be week two. We'll get Canton and then we get Detroit week three, so that'll be exciting on that. Wow, we just had a big shot of the viewers on here. Andy, any other big hot takes when we have our plethora of 76 viewers watching right now? Well, I was going to say about that Seattle game, that's a huge matchup on Sunday. It's the last game of the season, so it's kind of like the Sunday night football thing where in the NFL where someone gets flexed in at the last second for it to be the most important game and of being, deciding a playoff spot. I mean that literally decides a playoff spot. Your game has become incredibly important and it's the last game of the season and that's honestly for espn, that's a win. And if for the X F L, it's a win because it's up until the last moment that it's really important. So that's something that I'm looking forward to. Obviously Vegas is still playing a spoiler role. I said that last week they tried against Houston, man, they really did, but they got in their own way. Unfortunately. My, oh, here's a hot take for you actually, as far as the Vegas operation goes, I'm not sure if this Rod Woods thing is working, man. It's not going well. He's talking down to officials, he's constantly upset about stuff and he's just not having a good time out there. I don't know why. We talked about it last week with Rick Cella. Why didn't Jalen McClendon start earlier in the year? He looks confident, he looks cool, looks composed. Why wasn't he there earlier? Their whole operation is unfortunate because again, they have the talent to play with anybody in the league and they just cannot finish games for the life of them. They just cannot do it. And I don't think it's going to go well for them on Sunday. They might have a lead early in that game. It might be really frustrating in Seattle for about three quarters, but I don't trust Vegas to hold onto a lead. I really don't. And they haven't beaten the North opponent yet. You like that trash talk that they had with the Hawks where Vegas said like, oh, congratulations on your first one versus the north that St. Louis said, well, at least we have one. I will say I like that Ben is playing with some of a brother right now. I know that some of the, I actually lost Battle Hawks followers yesterday because I think I was just trash talking so much on that. But I was texting with our friend Hailey that helps run that runs the dragon social media. I said, I like BD Ben. I like that energy. Ben is walking around right now. He is got his gun, the holsters and all that stuff. I really like that. Yeah, I don't like Rod Woodson talking down to female coaches and then continuing to do all that stuff afterwards. Guys, we're going to get out of here. Let us know if we want the emergency breaking news TV ratings once tomorrow, I think. Do you think we could fill an hour with that? I mean, do you think there's enough to talk about? Like I said, people will talk about it until they die, so I think you could, if you really wanted to Thumbs up. Thumbs up the video. Thumbs up the video here on the YouTube if you want us. We'll come because here's the deal. The radis will be down, it should be down right about 7:15 AM tomorrow, so then we can still do eight at eight 30, whatever I'll post. But we can still do that if people want it. Okay. Yes, we have good viewership right now because we kind of ride the wave right now. We were hot at the beginning of the season and I just want you to remember your boy, Reid and Andy here every week doing this show. I sick as a dog last week and then Vegas at the Lux store tour and all of that. Anything else before you get out of here? We survived. We got through one weekend. Let's do it again next weekend. Always looking forward to it, man. Yeah, JK or JJ KKK says Marie ain't wrong. The professor ain't wrong. About What? Everything. You're not wrong. You're not wrong, you're not right guys. And subscribe. Like I said, we're going to be given away either the X F L championship tickets, which I do not think we will hit by the X F L championship game or else the US F L championship game tickets for that. If you would like to add at Canton, Ohio, we will be given away two of those if we've hit 3,500 subscribers. I am looking into a guided tour of the Alamo as we speak. I was looking on there. I'll do a headcount here, but I think we can request a private tour guide for us at the Alamo if you would like to be a part of that for the San Antonio. And I'm trying to figure out, I don't know if we're going to do a location or if we're going to do the hotel for the live show. I've been corresponding with a bunch of the restaurants. If we're we're just having Mike Mitchell and stuff calling anyway, we might just do another hotel, but we'll kind of figure that out. But Andy will be a part of that as well as everybody else. Yes, reels and heels. We will be in the basement of the Alamo. That will be the li Yeah, come to the live show in the basement of the Alamo. I thank you guys all so much for watching today. Andy, anything else before I hit the goodbye? I have to know exactly what's your condition's going to be on Sunday and if we're going to have another Vegas situation the next day on Monday, I got to be mentally prepared for that. So just let me know how Sunday goes. Yeah, and you need to be when we're town at San Antonio. Yeah, Andy lived through quite a wild time with me at the live show last Monday. Anyone that watched that, that was a fun time. Okay, I think that's it. Access. All right. Thanks guys. All right. Look for an episode tomorrow. Should be fun. We'll see you next time.

Episode 140 - LIVE USFL 2023 Kickoff Pre-Game Show!!! XFL Week 9 Preview!

Oh, good morning there. Happy Friday, Saturday when you're listening to this at USFL kickoff weekend. I feel like this is a support group today. Hey, have you two paid for a XFL replica jersey here this morning? Bringing everyone in today? Cause I thought it was only fitting to bust out my NSFL hat today. The one time that Paul and I tried to trademark poach on a rival spring football league. So the USFL couldn't do that back last year, but we are here today. I'm going to bring in Andy Murray couldn't would be hard to be more hungover and more tired than last time. Andy Murray and I talked here when I was at the Lux store on Monday. Andy, how are you doing? I'm doing great. Not quite at the condition. Maybe you were a few days ago, but you survived man, and you made it back home in one piece somehow. This is exciting. So Andy and I, we have a motley crew standing by. We're going to bring in, this is our normal Friday episode, but I figured we'll get traction today and then maybe be tomorrow. Us f l. We have everyone logging in here. I see Rick's getting his stuff as well. Motley crew, we're going to be doing full US f l breakdown. Rick's got roster people he wants to talk about. I know John does Pat, everyone else. And then we're also talking X F L week nine on here since we do have playoff implications and we talk about all the different stuff on there. Andy, anything before we bring in? Did you also buy X F L replica jersey? I haven't fallen down that rabbit hole yet. My goodness. I was not expecting those prices. That was a bit of a sucker punch this morning. So no, I have not been swindled into that deal yet. I believe the fifth I'm here. We're going to bring it. First off, we have John Vogel here coming on. Pat Rapino. Rick. Sarah, how are gentlemen doing? John logged on first. So John, how are you doing this morning? Good man. Ready to kick this thing off. And I think that it's going to be a lot of fun, especially since I saw Rick in the group chat already talking about a certain team. I'm not as high on that. He thinks it's going to compete, so we're going to have some arguments about that. Some words. Rick already got caught into the heat here. I tweeted, Hey, we're doing the U S F L show people. What are you doing? Talking to us. F l. Get out of here Pat. How are you doing? Pat? My bearded brother this morning. How are you doing Pat? Are we feeling better? I'm, I'm doing pretty okay. I just got this bagel that they put waving too much cream cheese on, so I'm struggling with that right Now. Pat, you're Mike. I'm going to cut you for just a minute. Your mic seems a little scratch on there. Maybe we get you the log back in there. Rick, how are you doing sir? We need to get Mike a bagel from the Jersey shore over here. That's what he needs to get back on track in life. Buckle up. I'm so happy to be on the mark. Cast the best alternate football show on the planet by the way. And yet don't get it twisted. We see all you haters on the Twitter verse. The internet. You come at us sideways. You come at one, you come at us all. We're going to let you know we're here to regulate and educate. Buckle up. Good to see some of you guys. It's good. So we have four games tomorrow and then four games and this, we're going to try the power through. We'll do a little hit and miss on all of these, but we have Vipers roughneck kicking off and then we have the stars, showboats guardians at San Antonio and then the Jersey Generals versus stallions. Andy, how are we feeling here at U S F L Season two coming in? We've made it. We were in Birmingham last year. I was in Vegas all week, so we obviously didn't make the trek back out there. We're finally here. What a difference a year makes. I actually went back and watched our old footage last year and it was just so, I mean it was such a shot in the dark, right? It was like, all right, well is this going to survive? What's going to happen here? What how's Birmingham going to be? What's the atmosphere going to be? We're still eons away from the whole X ffl experience. It's just so funny how everything changes in a year. We go from not even sure if we're going to have one league at one time to a cavalcade of games at the same time. I mean this is an avalanche. This is as a spring football enthusiast. This is a fever dream basically. But in some ways it's really interesting that we have so many options now. And even things like Fcf, you had band controlled football going at the same time. Now they've moved their season, there's so just the puzzle pieces have shifted so much just in the span of one calendar year. It's just completely different. The game, the game has changed a lot. There's different rules, different players, different strategies by both of these leagues. It's so fascinating to see both of these business models going against each other. Head to head now just directly against each other. In one weekend we're going to basically go into a new chapter. This is unprecedented. This is a new chapter in our experiences Spring football watchers. I just kind of have to sort of almost feel like it's another shot in the dark again like we were doing when we were sitting on that patio behind Protective Stadium last year. It's almost feels that same way. I guess it's just kind of like, I'm never experienced this before. Let's see what happens. Yeah, far less expensive here broadcasting from my house than there. The southern kitchen. John, you were on and then we'll get to Rick John, you were on, we did all our X F L drafts and everything and there's all this Talk U us FFLs never going compete. The talent levels is not going to be there. I know you've done a deep dive. I know Rick has this whole thoughts on the teams here that the US F l, I mean the leftovers or otherwise that they were able to assemble. Yeah, maybe I was a little fast to jump on that. Reacting a little bit to a lot of it. Obviously they pulled a lot of the quarterback talent the XFL did. So I think that there's still a lot that ended up showing up for this league. I think that the X ffl is going to, it's still a little bit better in terms of the overall talent on all the rosters, but there were a lot of guys that I even talked to that are still playing in this league and they stayed because this is the opportunity for them. That's guaranteed. Whereas going to the X ffl, they had to make a team, they would've had to basically surrender playing in this league if they went and it just wasn't worth the risk for them. So that risk I think kept a lot of guys in this league. But you look at team like Birmingham, Birmingham I think is the by far clear favorite because they, they won the championship first off last year and managed to keep almost their entire roster together somehow. Not sure how they did it, but they did. So almost everybody's back. There's a few players here and there. I think Oey now playing for Memphis if I'm remembering correctly. So there were a few little adjustments like that that were made. But overall it's basically the same team, same guys in the trenches. Whereas you look at a team like the New Orleans breakers and not, I'm sorry Rick, I'm not trying to take shots early, but this was a team that came in with a defensive line that we were all really excited about last year and they were depleted. They have one guy left that was on that defensive line from last year. And so I think Amar Saint, I can't think of his name. Saint Amar, right? Saint Brown. Forget how to say his name. He's an interesting edge guy. He's probably the best guy left on that line. So new coach coming in, hopefully that helps out. John, John d fpo back in the day was like a hot N F L head coaching candidate that just kind of everything went wrong and cover a couple years and now he's here. So I think that it's a chance for redemption for him and then yeah, but overall the talent, it's, it's going to be able to compete. It's going to compete, it's going to be fun. Rick, what teams do you have? I know you had a couple that you had your site set on here and we'll do matchups here in a minute, but teams that you think, I mean people think that Sallys are going to run back, but where do you have everyone pegged? Yeah, I just want to address some situations going on here. First of all, I think the talent level is superior in the X ffl. I really do. When I look at the rosters, I have the top 10 NFL prospects coming out over@allaccessfootball.com in the next day or two. I mean there's a legitimate N F L prospects on every team littered up and down the roster. I mean it is, they did a very wonderful job in my opinion. Now that being said, I could state the case here. The U S F L has quarterback star power in terms of alt league football goes. You could state a case like McLeod, Bethel Thompson, Ryan Willis will get into the Memphis quarterback controversy, Jamar Smith, Carson Strong, Kyle Lata. I mean they've got some really good quarterbacks that I'm excited about here. And I think just when we broke down the X Ffl preview read, I thought we hit the nail on the head. We called it the D, the DC Defenders and St. Louis Battle Hawks would be the two teams. And it really has nothing to do with the roster talent guys. It has something to do with the personnel people behind it. And I think what fans need to understand is get to know the GMs, get to know the director of personnels, get to know the head coaches because sometimes cultures are breeded by experience. Sometimes a culture is breeded by winning. Anthony Beck has zero coaching experience, but I knew he's a grinder. Von Hutchins is a grinder. Von Hutchins lives fringe prospect lifestyle. And so when you talk down on the New Orleans breakers, but Ryan Jones is one of the be probably the best personnel director in that league. And you look at some of the people he brought in, we'll get into it. I mean he brought in Justice Reed to be opposite of Andre St. Mo. He's got Vonte Diggs, okay, Adonis Alexander was pretty good. Sayquan Hampton, my Jersey guy, west Hills, the pride of the Wildwood New Jersey at running back with McLeod Bethel Thompson, are you kidding me? They go back to the Eagles days. Now guys, let me tell you something. This guy didn't leave a great cup to come twittle his thumbs like McLeod Bethel Thompson is out here to take down the Birmingham stallions. And I think I've got New Orleans Breakers one s. I got Birmingham stallions too and I got the Memphis Showboats three because again, Dave Rosano and Todd Haley, son of Dick Haley by the way, I mean you got to understand these guys know what they're doing. Look at, look, look at what Memphis did up front. You talk about defensive line John, look at what Memphis did. Daon Mack, big Cap Bryant, John Atkins, where's the beef? Where are you at? I mean listen. And this whole PR marketing debacle like U S F L needs to understand star quarterback quality level of play is going to go far. Outweigh the local fan base. Oh, Brady White played at Memphis. Let's make him the starter. Give me a break. Ryan Willis is the wild card of the entire league because once he gets inserted he has the ability to take the league over. We saw that back in 2021 in the tsl and I think the Showboats are the sleeping giant here. Let's get, let's try it one more time with Pat. We'll bring him in here because I know Pat has strong takes on that. Ryan Willis as well. Let's get Pat. I muted. Pat, what do you make of the Ryan Willis love from Rick? Well first off Rick in, how's my audio right now? Yeah, it's still just, we'll go through the phone. Sorry ma'am. Andy, what do you make of Ryan Willis? We have the controversy there. Him wanting to leave Battle Hawks now sitting back up, it didn't seem like he changed his life situation too much. Not a whole lot. But that's the thing I thought about, especially after last week when Nick ti came in and had that thrilling victory for the Battle Hawks in overtime. And I couldn't help but think, what if Ryan Willis was here? What if he had stayed patient and been a backup and gotten his opportunity and shined when Adrian McCarran got hurt? Obviously he was not willing to go through that process and play Clipboard Warrior and stand on the sidelines. He really wanted an opportunity to start, well he's not starting this weekend. It really depends on how well Brady White plays now. And it's contingent on if Ryan Willis is willing to be patient and look, we've seen it with all of these teams, even in the X ffl, you're going to get your opportunity at some point. Some injuries going to happen, somebody's going to underperform, somebody's going to get thrown under the bus by the coaching staff. It's going to happen. I mean just look at, I mean the Braas have gone through four different quarterbacks. The guardians have gone through four different quarterbacks. You can just get to a point where you're going to get in there at some point in some way, shape or time even if you're not the designated starter. So for Ryan Willis, it's all about can he maintain his maybe higher level of patience than he did supposedly coming out of the X Ffl when there were reports of surfacing that he wasn't too pleased that he hadn't won the position. So it's all contingent on him and his mindset. That's the thing because he had his shot LA he would have had his shot last weekend. He didn't get it because he decided to take different roads. So we'll see what happens there. I I'm still want to see him. I obviously am still obviously impressed with his pedigree in the TSL and I want to see that talent played out in Todd Haley's offense, which that's the other thing. Look, there was also a big talking point about Todd Haley's offense fitting certain quarterbacks. Look, Jordan Toma has been on fire in the last three weeks for DC and I know he had a lot of stat leading categories last year. He did not fit that offense last year with the Tampa Bay. He just did not straight up with Haley's offense. There's been sort of rigid components to that over Haley's career with certain guys not being able to plug in. Obviously famously Ben Rothenberger was not really the most ideal fit in that offense either. So it really is going to be interesting to see how either Brady White or Ryan Willis fill fit into that scheme this time around. I have no doubt that they have the talent to do it, but I have to see something go a little bit better for Mr. Haley and his operation before I'm willing to buy in into the Memphis offense. It something I'm just, I don't spend my life perusing the Fox Sports website. But it does seem like we were getting the injury reports on here, which is kind of nice. I know there's been issues in X F L team sending them out and we try to propagate 'em on Twitter, whatever. But does seem interesting to hear we have that. I want to talk stars too. Pat's logging back on. John, any thoughts on The Stars came up short last year. We have case cookies coming back, a lot of pieces still there. Obviously without the Bryan Scotts with all but thoughts on the Showboats here in this first game here, the stars against the Showboats. So I think I'm probably a little bit lower on the stars than a lot of people and it's because if you kind of look at last year, I know that they played in the championship game. They beat the generals to advance the championship game. But this is a team that on the fringe, they were struggling there at the end of the year. They were six and four, I think Brian started the first three games and there were three and O so that means that, and they were three and four in the back end of the season. And so when I look at this roster, I don't see a lot of change. There's a few interesting pieces that kind of came in. I think Ali Fayyad is an interesting guy to watch. Keep an eye on how western Michigan sort of an undersized defensive end. I think that that type of role is going to work somewhere where you've got a guy that's smaller than the offensive lineman that are blocking him and he is just going to win with leverage. Fayyad feels like he could probably do that in this league, but overall I didn't see a lot of upgrades as compared to some of the other teams that we're looking at. And so the three things that I want to look at when I'm matching up two teams against each other is first off, who's got the better quarterback and then second off, who's got the better? Who's going to be better in the trenches? Who's got the better offensive line? Who's got the better defensive line? So I agree with with Rick down there when he said that Memphis has a stacked defensive line, I love this defensive line. I think it's one of probably the strongest unit on the entire team between Big Cap, like he said, big Cap Bryant, John Atkins, you got Jordan Williams, Daylon Mack. I mean that is a stud defensive line for this level of football. Big cap. Brian, I'm really surprised to even see playing in this league right now. So I think that when you kind of look at the overall situation, the offensive line didn't play well for the stars last year. There's not a real upgrade anywhere on that line from last year. So I think the Memphis is going to dominate. Memphis is going to have the better quarterback situation. It's probably a runaway game tomorrow, honestly Andy, are you surprised? And we'll get Pat's getting on here. We'll do it. Stars and no Harrison in the chat posted I supposedly 25,000 ticket sold for that, which would be great that that's, we're doing a soft afternoon kind of kickoff and then we're doing the big protective game a little bit more in primetime there on the east coast. Thoughts on how they're laying out the first weekend here? And I want to get Pat's thoughts on Willis. I mean it's no secret that the biggest home crowds are going to be those first two games and they're burying everybody else in the back end on Sunday afternoon. But it's a little more sleepy and especially on not as prominent networks. It makes sense. I mean look, the stallions are your returning champions as John mentioned. There's a lot of the returning rosters. You have stars, you have established people on the stallions roster. You still have their quarterbacks, you still have Scooby Wright who's going to play it, looks like he's going to be all to go. So you know, still have familiar faces, you have continuity, which is the biggest thing you need to have especially the US F l. If you're going to trumpet that all season, you're going to trumpet continuity players season two, continuing to have momentum trending upwards, stuff like that. The stars at Showboats. I mean I would've loved to see that as a night game, but as it turns out, I think this is fine, especially considering they need to play around the N B A playoff schedule because the grizzlies are hot right now and they're a two seed. They're playing at the same time around the same time. I think they're playing the next day so it won't affect their schedule too much. But obviously trying to dance around that at this iteration as well. But I mean I think it's a great matchup. I'm still kind of interested in the stars just because I love Bart Andrews' offense. I love his scheme. I love case cookies coming back. I just want him to be healthy. They're offensive line needs to play better. It was horrendous last year and that's why he and Brian Scott got hurt because they just kept getting pounded over and over again that I was at that first game against the New Orleans breakers last year and Sharif Miller and Daven Bellamy ate Brian Scott alive, they killed him and I don't want to see that again. They need to solidify their offensive line and obviously the defensive line not let have so many rushing yards as well. I mean that's still a component too for the stallions. They still have a guy like Bo Scarborough that's a huge asset. That's a legit N F NFL running back in your back end that you can use grind teams down. But yeah, the matchups on day one are great day two. I mean the numbers won't be there attendance wise. We'll see how that goes. But it makes sense to me the schedule makes sense for the first weekends. So Andy, you were in Birmingham last year. Okay so you were able to talk about things that were ahead Contrary to the belief of some Yes, I was familiar with you Pat. Pat. We're going to try this one more time cause I want to get Pat saws on the quarterback controversy and we'll move on to the next matchup. But we have EO stars. What do you have to say Pat, Regarding Ryan Willis? First off, how are we doing on the audio situation? You're great, it's great. Praise B. So I'm a shill for Ryan Willis. Rick, I do love your take. I feel like more people would say it out loud, but I think that's maybe taboo about just because Brady White's a Memphis guy does. Just because you can doesn't mean should I think everyone's in agreement on that. My only fear with Ryan Willis is now that he's not going to be under the stand bedwell how mummy air raid offense, how is he going to actually do reading a whole field where he is going to actually have to look at the different options If coverage isn't breakdown, you can't just throw the bubble or you can't just throw the quick slant to Reese Horn over there and whatnot. So that's a big concern I have. But I do think Willis does deserve that shot in a different type of offense and it's one of those, okay, can you do this? Great, if not, okay, let's push you out somewhere else and then let's get someone in who can. And that's what I obviously I love about the alt football leagues and spring leagues. It's because you get guys like a guy in John and I talk about this way more than probably anyone cares about, but like Ryan Griffin, he who's been on the Bucks and the Saints practice squads for years and is throwing four passes and it's like, okay, could this guy actually do something if god forbid Blaine Gabbard and Tom Brady got into a jet ski accident, it's like, are we feeling about that? So I think Willis deserves that QB one spot. But you can't count out Cole Kelly. And I'm actually debating doing it over under, if Cole Kelly is going to throw over 50 passes this year coupled with a 50 rushes in that Taso Hill type role because the gentleman's six seven and could easily be a tight end in probably the NFL as well. Anyone else have any other outstanding hot takes on the star show boats to Rick? I do, I do, I do. To Andy's point, since he brought up Cole Kelly, he Cole Kelly was known to read a complex offense in college. So maybe he is the best fit. But I will say this about Ryan Willis. I thought personally one of the most improved aspects of his overall game was the deep ball element. I thought he threw some beautiful in the bucket touch passes deep down field. I'd love to see him air it out. He went over there and had a cup of tea with the bears again, I think he's a sleeping giant in this league. I will say this about the stars. I'm going to give him a little bit more credit than John and he mentioned the quarterback play. We just established that Memphis won't be playing their best quarterback case cookers, VAD Lee two experienced alt league football quarterbacks. I think they know what to expect. I thought maybe one of you guys can confirm it. I thought I saw KJ Costello floating around the roster. I don't know, I saw the He's, yeah, he's listed as inactive. Okay. Yeah. And I saw they brought in Dexter Williams out of Notre Dame, the former Green Bay packer running back, which I like. Devin Gray, the explosive wide receiver out of Maryland. Chris Rowland when he holds onto the football can be elusive in the open field or kick return extraordinaire and then the defense. I agree, Ali, I mean what one of the best pickups I think in the off season. Joey Al Alfred Al Fieri at linebacker out of Stanford shining, scribbling is one of the best corners in the league. Ma Mazzie Wilkins is not too bad and Evan Wingham out of Colorado mean they've got a pretty good secondary, I'm not going to sleep on the stars. I think Memphis has a more talented roster, but if you are evaluating the quarterback play, you throw Dexter Williams and Devin Gray into the equation with Coburn. I don't know, I think it's a coin flip kind of game. Moving on here, we have the big rematch, kind of the opening kickoff last year here back at Protective Generals, Birmingham Sevens. Andy, what do you, we'll get tossed to you and then we'll get into more deep dive stuff. What are you looking forward to here? Are we happy The stallions finally got their rings? I saw that as well. We're very happy about that. I don't know if doing it a year later is, yeah, let's go. Anyway, any thoughts on this? I am so excited to see Deandre Johnson out here running the show for the Generals last year. We were obviously treated to kind of combo plate with him and Louise Perez. Well Perez is not here anymore, obviously he's playing, he's trying to play Savior for the Arlington Renegade. So seeing Deandre Johnson look I, I'm going to just come out and say right now I think Deandre Johnson has a great chance of winning mvp. I've really liked his development in his past game. I think his deep ball's gotten better. He's going to have to obviously throw more this year now that Perez has not in the lineup, but I mean the guy is just lightning fast. So I think he can do some great stuff on the read option. I really think that his skillset's going to be used really well with Mike Riley's offense. They still have Darius Victor back there. He's still a bowling ball. He can run really hard between the tackles. I really am excited to see this general's offense back in shape and I think they have a lot of good returning defensive star starters as well. I just feel really good about their operation overall. I think it's going to be another solid campaign by them. And I'm obviously we're going to want to play Spoiler, they lost that home game, that opening game last year and I think they're going to come back with a vengeance this year. I could almost see them winning this game straight up because I think they're going to have really impressive showing on offense just in my opinion. And I really believe in John's skillset. I really do. I think he's got some things going for him. And a fun story actually, when I flew back on the way back from Birmingham last year, I ran into a significant other on the plane, overheard her talking about his performance and I was just like, did you go to the game? She's like, yeah, actually I'm with him. Like, oh okay. So we actually ended up chatting about him a little bit. Sounds like he's a really nice guy, works really hard and I'm excited to see him again in this offense. So generals, I'm feeling pretty good about as far as the stallions go, I mean they have a good home crowd, they have a good homefield edge. Is Birmingham going to be able to buy more into them? Obviously the biggest thing for me is, like I said last year when I wrote my piece about the infrastructure of Birmingham and their ability to sort of cater to the U S F L, it was tough last year because they had the World Games going on. They couldn't have the playoffs there obviously there was a lot of construction around the entire city. There wasn't just not a lot going around the stadium and it was hard to get in and out of the venue. I think this time around it might be a little bit better hopefully. So the home crowd also just kind of have, hey you have a championship team you're supporting now maybe that grows interest in the market a little bit too. So being able to continue to harvest that, I suppose that interest is really important for them as well. Rick's got to go do a radio hit here in the second Rick. Thoughts on the stallions and generals and then you can hop back on. Yeah, I think the stallions are the champions until they ain't right. And to somebody's point, a lot of these rosters you do see familiar faces, CJ Maribel, Bo Scarborough, Marlon Williams, Dion Kane who almost made the Eagles roster. So they have Playmakers, Scooby, right, the heart of the defense and then the Jamar Smith Skip Ptz. Obviously they're familiar but listen, Billy Devaney, former F NFL gm, Mike Riley, he's been around the block they they've stacked up too man. And I like this one two punch to me, Darius Victor is one of the top five players in the U S F L. That's just my personal opinion. You pair him up with Trey Williams in the same backfield Andy mentioned you got to have two quarterbacks in any league and Deandre Johnson is backed up by Kyle lta. I like that combination. And to me de Des Morning Pearson has speed. This is the best tight end group I I've identified between Brandon Bowman, Woody Brandon and Wes Saxton. Are you kidding me? I'd love to see the 1213 personnel packages. Calvin Ashley out of Florida a and m has P five pedigree and then look at defense, Hercules Mofi, afa, how did he wind up here? Willie Eubanks III at linebacker Anthony Blue at cornerback Paris Ford at Safety. I think they have some pretty good building blocks at every level of the defense and so the generals have done a good job I think of stacking this roster to compete. I do think Birmingham is going to win this game, but I think you're going to have two close affairs that could go down to the last possession, the last field goal, the last overtime shootout. I think both of these games are going to probably be a little bit lower scoring than people anticipate. And very close down to the Wire. We'll toss to Pat here and then we'll get John. Thoughts. Pat, any comments on the stallion and generals? I think the big thing is that Birmingham, I think I did the off-season preview at News Hub because we had some people not covering and I think I counted over 60% of their roster was retained to speak to Andy's point about the crowd and whatnot, I'm, I'm really glad that they pushed out of Birmingham because it's a lot to ask for the people of Birmingham to keep showing up and not just the Stallions games but obviously all eight franchises there. And in my opinion, I think we might see a boost in it because now it's a little bit more special because whether we are looking at now five, six stallions games in Birmingham and whatnot, I know it gets goofy when they play the Breakers and whatnot, but I think that's going to be a real, obviously they had some great turnouts for the stallions. It was the shining light. Glad that they obviously finished the Cinderella story speaking to the quarterback play. I think Jamar Smith takes that big leap, but don't count out Alex Magu to be kind of running that re option. Guys Uber athletic, we saw him play wide receiver when they got down to it last year a little bit. I think he had four targets, no receptions. And because of that, there's a lot of starters that came back, especially on the offensive line, another development for a year of development for Jamar Smith because granted he came out in 2020, had a cup of tea with the Patriots, played with the Thai cats on their practice squad. So for a lot of these guys, they who missed out on the AAF Spring League, XFL 2.0, they're going into this league cold and now they're like, okay, now I have filmed the build on. I'm not just running reps in practice where everything's slowed down and granted reps are reps and it's great, but we could really either see who Jamar Smith is to the good side of it or sometimes it's too much exposure is no good. And that's kind of the segue into Deandre Johnson, he only threw 75 pass attempts last year for the stallions, or excuse me, for the generals. And I think his completion percentage, I was looking it up, was like 70 over 70%, which surprised me because he was in that high fifties, low sixties in college. So I'm a little bit concerned to see him throw the wall 200 times, but at the same time I'm excited because in his development do this show up or shut up type thing. And you do have a guy like La Letta who could fill the void of the Louise Perez if things aren't working out, I think, well let's got a stronger arm. He's a little bit more polished obviously. But don't count out Andy's boy Dakota Pup. I mean if you're three and three and that division's a little bit tight, do it. What is Bruce Arian say? No risk it, no biscuit or something like that. Yeah, I mean I don't want to say I think they're stacked at quarterback room, but I don't think the drop officer are as dramatic as other teams. Yeah, we'll get John. So just in terms of the attendance and all that, I will say I got into arguments even with the X ffl people, you know guys think I just argue with U S F L people or X ffl. The Seattle game on Easter I think have 7 11, 7, 12,000 people. It was like 11,000 changed. You got all this what the f Seattle you need to, I go, it is Easter Sunday. People have things to do. People have things, they're like, well you went to Kraken games, you can't even, I'm like, yeah, because I have a life. People have a life people don't like, okay, I'm going to go to the Birmingham Stallion games 10 Saturdays in a row. Okay, yeah, maybe you can do that and that's awesome. It's certainly not like a shame if you can't do that. John, what are your thoughts here on Well, okay, we'll go Pat and then we'll go to John. Well it's like this weekend. You know what? And we've talked about my work schedule. It's like this weekend I have three possible places I'm going. I might have to go to Chicago, I might have to go to Nashville, I might not have to go to Atlanta. I'm literally waiting on that phone call right now. I'm not doing anything Saturday or Sunday. So I'm either going to Memphis, I'm either going to the Battle Hawks game or I'm either going to Birmingham on Sunday. So it's like what do you want from me? USF belts with or just, and then there's people who have crazier lives than me or you know what I mean? It's like I'm here to support these leagues if I'm around, but I'm not going to Birmingham if St. Louis is playing and I'm in St. Louis three miles away just as I'm not going to St. Louis if I'm in Nashville and I have to pass through Memphis, throw me us all a bone here guys. Wait minute. I need to get that RJ Young, you fly me out, you put me up there. Yeah, I'll come talk about whatever you want. John, what do you have to say about anything we're commenting on? So I think that this generals and Stall and stallions game is going to be somewhat close, but I think that Birmingham pulls ahead and it's because I know that that's Rick just, and I'm really not trying to just crap on Rick the entire show. It's not Cause I respect Rick, I love Rick, I love a lot of the stuff that he does, but I don't think that it's when you compare the defensive line, the linebacker groups to the rest of the league, it's very strong. In fact, I think this might be the worst front seven in the entire league right now. Compare, I mean I know that they've got pieces. There's Tyshawn render, that's cool. He mentioned Mank. Toby Johnson is kind of a big guide that's a little bit limited but he's got strength too. And these linebackers, they were just kind of underwhelming. It's a great secondary but I think that at the end of the day that Front seven is going to cost him the game. This is the best quarterback group right now that they're going up against and we know that because they were last year, this is the best running back group. We know that because they were last year, they're back. This is probably the best offensive line in the league right now. We know that because we watched 'em last year, they're back. And so I think that that's going to be the key to this game is the point, the pieces that they surrender or the points that they surrender is going to be off of those front, that front seven and that's going to cost them the game. Any other thoughts on this? I want to make sure we get we're well. We're G doing an hour and a half here. I think we're doing good time wise. I don't think we've done too crazy on all this. The game I really don't have a pulse for because I think all of these games are kind of marquee, rightio. Okay, we have the Showboats debut and all of that. We have a New Jersey Generals, you have the rematch over there and then obviously we have Mac, MCCA, Beth Thompson here Sunday night where the Breakers. I don't really have any pulse on Panthers at gamblers. We have our one other guest joining so let's pop him in while our Rick is taking his radio hit. We have Jovan. How are you doing sir? I'm doing good. How are y'all doing? Good. Jevon always frequents. He's been on before and you always frequent our live show and stuff like that. Anything to add? We're talking general stallions and then we're probably going to move to Panthers gamblers here. General stallions pretty much just going off what everybody else been saying. I think for the stallions, one thing that I'm looking for in this game is who steps up at Wide receiver without the likes of Vic Bolden and o Cyrus Mitchell who played Vic Parts in that passing game, who kind of steps up there because we know that they have the running game, right? Scarborough and CJ Maribel played really well last year. So now who's going to be those next weapons? Because Bolden Mitchell and Williams was probably the best what core of wild receivers in the league last year. So I think that's going to be interesting to see who kind of steps up there and looking from a betting perspective to see Jersey like five point underdogs, little surprising just because of the returning players that they do have on both sides of the football. So that's just my quick thoughts on jerseys and the stallions Surprised that that Jersey is so far underdog there Andy? Okay, except for Mike Mitchell getting yelled at for ranking the Panthers too low. What are your thoughts here on Panthers gamblers? So this is at pr? No, this'll be in Memphis, right? So what are we making about this? This could be a scary kind of Sunday 9:00 AM Pacific here. Well first of all, I just wanted to comment on something we mentioned earlier. We here do not discriminate as far as getting into altercations with all kinds of different football fans from different leagues and all shape sizes and colors. Okay, just wanted to let you know about that first of all. Second of all, this is interesting just in that this is obviously a matchup of two different new head coaches. Obviously you have. It's kind of the other thing that really I take away from the Sunday schedule. It's like all the teams that changed out all of their coaches, that's the biggest takeaway I have as well. It's a new era for a lot of these teams and so for that matchup, I mean I'm a little bit bummed because I really want to see the Panthers at home. I want to see them at Ford Field and we're not going to get that until week three. So they're going to be on the road for a couple of games here. I mean the Shea Patterson experiment did not work last year at all. The Panthers were just a listless team in a lot of categories and I want to see if they're able to bounce back and maybe get a little bit more consistency on offense because they just had a horrendous time in that department last year. As far as the gamblers go for the love of God, find a way to close fourth quarters. I mean they were causing brain a brain aneurysms for our guy Anthony Miller who was covering them all last year and it was just an absolute just circus every time they tried to do anything in the fourth quarter. So for them mean obviously with Kevin Sulin having leaving, they need to find a way to be able to close out these games a little bit better and just being able to, I want to see guys, I believe Kendrick Bahar is still in the roster if I'm not mistaken. I want to see him really get more playing time. I think he's got a lot of good tools in his toolbox. I really think he's really athletic, really got a great arm, great live arm. I want to see him play more. I really do. I want to see if this gambler offense can just do anything consistently, not just play a half a football and call it a day. Let's get vin's Hots while we have you on here about Panthers and gamblers here. I'll pull up the rosters. Yeah, no, this game, like you said, we just mentioned Kenji Bihar's likely going to be the starter, which is different than what we saw last year, right? Because it was Clayton Thorson and probably a lot of people were like how is Clayton Thorson starting over a guy Bahar? But it seems like they're going to, from what's been reported that they're going to try to use his athleticism more, which I think can only help that offense because you do have Mark Thompson who was probably one of the more underrated running backs in the league last year to helping that department. So I think their tight end room is really good with Brandon Barnes, Julian Allen and all. You also have J Peterson who's Doug Peterson's son from Louisiana, Monroe and in the passing game. So I'm excited to see that defensively for the gamblers. I think the question is how do you replace Donald Payne north up and will likely that's, you talk about a team that was lose that missed a bunch, that losing a bunch of all star team players, that's a lot to pick up. So I think for me that's what I'm looking at from that perspective. And then for the Panthers, I think this team could could do some damage if they have the stability at quarterback, which they didn't have because you look at they got Corbin who I think is was good, Stevie Scott, nice one, two combination there while receiver room I think is really good. Joe Walker, even despite the influx and instability at quarterback, he really stood out last year. You add a guy like Trey Quinn who can come in and beat that slot and then defensively, you know have a couple of N F L guys on that defensive line, Ethan Westbrooks and Breland Sparks as well. And then the linebacker units pretty good. So I think the Panthers, this could be a very fun game. We didn't think about when we see these teams last year playing just like this, not going to be a fun game. This could be a very fun game between these two. John, we'll toss to you and then Pat, I had a question here too, starting quarterback for the Panthers. I don't know if we're going to be getting full depth charts like we did for the X Ffl, even if they were sent out kind of the way they were. What do you make of the Panthers and then the gamblers? Yeah, I think that this is one of the more stacked, it is my favorite team in the north. I think it's close between them and New Jersey, but I think I like them a little bit better because I think that this is one of the best, if not the best. First off, they got the best front seven in the league right now. Their front seven is so stacked, it's not even funny. He mentioned a bunch of the defensive line, I think the second best defensive line between Speaks and Westbrook and Garrett Marino's, another guy that's really good. Rondell Carter is a guy that's going to make a impact. Trey Williams, if he didn't run a five flat 40 yard dash at his pro day at Arkansas last year, he'd be in the NFL right now because he plays a lot better than that on tape. But then you've got guys like the linebacker group, Patty Fisher, you're pulling him from Northwestern. Frank Gido was really good last year, Terry. I mean this is a great front seven, it's a great front seven. Then they're their offensive lines really good too. I like a lot of the pieces that are there between Sean, Pollard, Denzel, ok four, Keith Williams Brothers, ham, these are all guys that are legit. They're going to play at a very high level and so they're going to win the battle in the trenches. Houston has probably the best defensive line in the entire league and my opinion, but on the offensive side, they're going to get plummeted by this group. So just to throw some of the names out on Houston's defensive line right now, Isaiah Chambers was a stud at McNeese State. I have no idea how he is in the U S F L. Damien Daniels was pretty darn good at Nebraska. Eli Howard, really good at Kansas State. Reggie Walker, another Kansas State guy. Really good. I mean I'm just this, they can go into a rotation and they're going to be just as strong. This is the Breaker's defensive line that we were looking at last year going, how do they have all these guys? That's I think when I look at Houston. So I think they're going to get plummeted. On the offensive side, the quarterback situation is kind of a problem as Jovan mentioned. And they don't really have any real support with the running back group either. I mean I guess you could say Mark Thompson, but everybody else is pretty much unproven. Everybody was really excited about Anthony Ratliff Williams last year and he didn't really show that much. I guess you're kind of hoping to get some production out of Justin Hall. That's a pretty darn good receiver. But if he doesn't step up, if he's disappointing like Ratliff was last year, then that's in trouble. So I think that this is, I really like Mi Michigan in this. I really don't think it matters too much in this game. Who Rich, who Michigan plays a quarterback just because between Love love's got a little bit of experience in the system. Strong, very, it's a good group. Now whenever you do have a chance here, I do have a story that I heard about Michigan in their quarterback situation last year that was very interesting. I we'll circle back here I was, I'm excited that Tim Bonder, I looked at former BC Lions there as well. So they're Pat talking. I don't want you to get too triggered with Garrett Marino uhs name being mentioned in former c l players going to the US F L. Let's get Pat and then we'll do Javon and then we'll get John's story here before we move on from this matchup. So I'm pretty invested into this game. Like I said, if one of my work trips comes up, I will be at this game. And also I do cover the Michigan Panthers for us L News hub. So I've talked to a couple people in the Panthers organization. That quarterback decision is going to be tightlipped, very, very, very tight lip. I personally think it's Josh love. I think you do go with Josh Love. I think Carson Strong could be a very, I have Carson Strong where they'd hire based off the potential and whatnot. But I'm a little concerned because based off the warmups when they're doing their practice warmups, there's not as much bend in that knee. That is terrifying to me. And let's put this out on record. The reason why Carson Strong is not in the NFL is because of his knee. Not because he went to Nevada. I don't Josh, Josh Allen dislikes that sculpt a small school sentiment. So I don't really want to talk about that too much. John talked about the offensive line. I mean I'm not really that big in the Sean Pollard coming out of the shotgun, I think I counted 13 bad snaps. Four of them came in the mic or in the Michigan Houston game, which is why they lost. And I'm not that big on Keith Williams because I feel like he gets tired too quickly and then you see him not bend at the hips or excuse me, not bend at the hips, but kind of arches over in his past protection. I saw that a lot last year. So that's a little bit of a concern for me. They do bring back some guys like Josh Dunlap, like the guys they brought back this year all have started games and bro Darius Ham was a late signing, so hopefully he's able get those reps. Corey Ho, Corey Holick and Ryan Nelson. Two guys. Nelson was at an all conference player from Virginia and whole next in division two guy that I'm very intrigued to see on that. The receiving corps. I think Joe Walker's really underrated personally, him and ish Hyman ish Hyman's that like tweener, I hate to use this word but player 54 or player 71, whatever we want to call, he's a fringe N F L guy, going to trigger a lot of people here in the running back room for the Panthers. I think Stevie Scott is better than Reggie Corbin. He is a more complete running back. They only have two running backs going into week one. I'm really needing to see more from Reggie Corbin as a complete running back. Anyone can take the ball 70 yards when you have an open hole. But Corbin, the reason why he is not in the N F L is because he's a little bit small and he doesn't play any special teams. So I'm very curious to see if they want to develop him to be an F NFL running back. Are they going to put him on punt and kickoff and whatnot because they don't need him to be the RB one. They need him to be the RB three in the NFL to completely round out his skillset and the tight end group. There's a reason why they dropped. They brought in Josh Babitz last second. Something's telling me that it's not moving in the defensive line. John, John hit all the key points on that. I don't want to sound triggered, but Garrett Marino, he's obviously got a diverse pass, but he's not bad. He is not a bad football player. The linebacker room, I'm a little biased coming into this because I do like Terry Meyrick a lot. Him and I, we, I interview them and something he told me was he played too conservative last year because he was a true rookie. He was a 2022 eligible player in which he was kind of feeling it all out. If there was an interception he thought he could have made, he just went for the past deflection. He's going to, he personally told me he is going to be try and be more dynamic. Patty Fisher is a fringe F NFL guy. Frank nda, you know, maybe a little bit slower, traditional two down linebacker in the N F nfl but for the alt football leagues, he's done pretty well in the X F L, the aaf and he was like 91 tackles last year. A little bit limited in past coverage but solid, solid linebacker. Overall secondary LeVonte. Taylor Taylor, former number one high school recruit for the state guy in Lao Hill. Really excited to see what they bring. And also you got a social media star and Josh Butler, so that's kind of cool for the brand. They tried that last year, which chase de more, that guy's pretty terrible. And then you have How Andy likes his social media darlings when it comes to All football. Yeah, always moving on to the gamblers. I think someone brought it up on Twitter. I counted like nine guys. They lost on that defensive side of the ball and not just nine guys, just nine people who contributed Ahau Goodens and the Breakers he lost North Bri. You lost Donald Payne, Micah Abernathy's in the N nfl go down the list will likely. And then they lost Isaiah Zer who just got released by the Raiders. But he's an N F NFL guy as well. Kenji Bahar. He's not as athletic as people think he is. He wasn't really a runner. Sometimes he holds onto the football a little bit too long in the pocket trying to read the whole field, which is, I'm glad he is trying to read the whole field. A lot of these spring league quarterbacks, they go first option check down. We saw that with SL slow their a lot in the early goings, especially in this X ffl season. But the tight end group, Julian Allen's not in Memphis right now. So very curious to see who steps up. Brandon Barnes is kind of, he reminds me a lot of a Jordan Thomas type guy. So maybe we see Quinn Sig once again, pretty biased, but the guy's an all American from the FCS level, see what he's got going on. And maybe Josh Peterson. John talked about the defensive line. Not much. Not much to argue right there, but that defensive backfield for the gamblers and linebacker core is a huge drop off from 2022. And it's really disappointing because whether it's Josh love, whether it's Carson Strong taking the QB one snaps or what are we going to get? Like, okay, you're down 12, you're down 14, are you going to be able to use Mark Thompson like that, or you, you're going to have to spread the ball out the games to move quick. So I mean, I'm not too high on the gamblers. I got the Panthers in that four or five range. So not to trigger too many people, but I don't think it's going to be a blowout. But if the Panthers put up 28 points, it wouldn't bo, it wouldn't surprise me. Let's go to Joe in here and then I got to bring in Rick and I think he's got Joe Biden's got to hop off as well, get back to work. Any other thoughts on this matchup For me? I'm kind of leaning the same way. Taking the Panthers just straight up on the money line here. I think the spreads like minus one at a lot of books just show how even they are, but obviously they're not. When we look at both rosters on paper, so I'll probably leave the Panthers, but I'll also Y receiver watch, I forgot to mention his name, WP Fler, another guy at Y Receiver who had a productive career at Indiana with F Fry. I think that's how you say his name at with him as well. So I think he could be another playmaker for whoever starts at quarterback, right? Rather it's Josh Love who I thought played well last year despite again with the instability, I thought he brought some life to that offense and was able to hit a little bit. And then Carson Strong, right? Y'all mentioned, and Pat mentioned the reason why he is not in NFL is cause of his knee, right? Eagles had him on his practice squad, but I mean they got him last year but he didn't do anything so it was good to see him get another opportunity because we saw in Nevada he can throw the ball around and he has the arm to get it out there. So pretty much all I got, Let's bring in Rick here and I know John has a story and then we'll go to the last game and then I want, we'll do X F L here and I think we'll be good time wise Rick. Rick messaged me, he goes, I'm back. I have takes. Yeah, listen guys, first of all, I was so disappointed that our guy, Jeff Fisher had to step down, okay? Because I would've loved to see him linked up with the Carson strong. But I think first and foremost when you talk about this Michigan team, if you don't know who Steve Kaser is, you need to get familiar with him because to me he's the best GM in this league. And so to me, Steve Kaser will single-handedly keep this ball club in contention just with his in-season moves. I mean this guy is scouting acumen. I mean he's forgotten more football than I'll ever know. And so Steve Kaser, Mike Nolan, two pretty good football people. I give them a punchers chance. I think the panel did a great job highlighting the players there. I will say unfortunately like Carson Strong, there's probably not a bigger fan on the planet than me, right? Unfortunately. I mean I got boots on the grounds that were at Eagles practice that said he couldn't hit the side of a barn. I don't know what happened, but the guy just couldn't complete a pass in practice. I don't know. So he's got to prove himself now and they got the kid from Washington, Eastern Washington barrier too that posted video game numbers. Devin Ross to me is one of the best separation wide receivers out there. And then I don't know if anybody mentioned Ronde Carter. I thought that was a big time pickup on the defensive line, but that's my Michigan take. John, what's your story here? We'll move to the last matchup. Rick. Rick, you were exactly right about Steve and he's a great guy too. Steve's awesome. So you were talking about the, you'd mentioned the Shea Patterson experience and how that experiment didn't work. Well, it was kind of forced from what I understood, and it's because the guy they wanted to take in the draft last year was Brian Scott and Brian was already pretty much lined up with Bart Andrus and was he wanted to play with Bart, he had all his, all that with that. So he said, no, you can't draft, you can't draft him number one. And he went, all right, well I want Jordan Toma. Well, he's already working with Haley. And he said, wait, I got the first overall pick. What are you talking about? What do you mean I can't, what do you mean I can't? What do you mean I can't take these guys? And so that's why Shaa Patterson ended up as a Michigan Panther. It was more forced rather than out of choice, but Well, speaking of former now Toronto Argos coming to the Breakers and now we have Brian Scott, all things balanced out in the world, right? Thanos and his gauntlet, right? Brian Scott going up there to the Argon nows, this game is the most interesting to me here. I don't know if, okay, we can fit everyone not here. That's good. Mallers at Breakers in Birmingham, I think we all are going to be watching this game just because of the McCloud Belt Thompson of all. I'll give Andy first crack at this. Certainly to me the more excited of the two games on Sunday for certain reasons. What do you make of it? No, I mean that's one of the biggest storylines of the entire season honestly is can McLeod Bethel Thompson find his footing in this league? One of the two most notable CFL defectors along with Garrett Marino coming into this league and being part of a new operation for The Breakers and completely new operation with John Depo coming in. Paul Woods noted Toronto Argo's historian did a great job going down the Birmingham profiling M B T and also his time at practice basically it looks like obviously, at least at the beginning, it didn't sound like John Depo really took very kindly to Mr. Bethel Thompson to the beginning. So we'll see how he gets his footing here. But obviously as we've mentioned before, I mean he didn't just come down here to sip T and sit on the sidelines. He's here for serious reason. He wants to play, he wants to start and he wants to showcase his talents for the N F NFL because he's noted that he wants to get back in the NFL even at his age of 34, he still wants to get back in there. So I mean that is by far one of the biggest things going for the Breakers, at least as far as an intrigue standpoint. As far as a lot of other pieces go. I mean look, they lost the big pieces from last year outside of their coaching staff changing, changing. Obviously you lost guys, as I mentioned earlier, Sharif Miller and Devin Bella, those are huge assets you had on your defense. Those are your stalwart defensive players. They're gone. You're trying to figure out if you can create more consistency on offense. The Kyle Slowder thing, I mean Slowder now has basically burned out in two different leagues and he was supposedly the best quarterback in the league last year for the U S F L, which is mind boggling considering what numbers he actually put up, but that's something that has to be in consideration here as well. As far as can they utilize some of their weapons here? Can they get a guy like Ezra Gray more involved? Can they get Jonathan Adams finally more involved? I like Jonathan Adams a lot. Can they get him involved? Can they get any sort of consistency on offense? Because they had one really good game last year that they won. Gosh, I'm trying to remember which opponent, I think it was the Tampa Bay game. They won like 34 to three, they blew the doors off them. I thought, whoa, this team could really contend for the title and they just never recapture that magic the rest of the season and they never really proved to me at least that they would be able to put up a fight against the stallions, which they couldn't. So for the Breakers, I mean that is the biggest entry point. Who is their quarterback going to really be throughout the season? Obviously we have a lot of Achille glass supporters here noted and up and down the ranks. I like him too, but again, depends on how much playing time he is going to get with Bethel Thompson in there. It's really intriguing. I mean this is again, probably the team that one of the teams I'm most looking forward to just in terms of storylines. Let's Rick Rick's nodding his head. Let's toss to Rick here and then we'll bow it around. Rick, what do you make of the Breakers and Muellers, I mean this is the best team on paper guys. I mean let's wake up to the Roses here because Coach Flip, I know John mentioned he was at one time a head coach in candidate. He still is in my opinion, he just was dealing with the cards that he was dealt to me, coach Flip is the best head coach in this league. McLeod Bethel Thompson is a guy with 13 years of professional experience. He's played for nine NFL teams. I don't think you can discount what that means to this league. This guy's seen a lot of football and I saw him out at the Hub Football, which I'll be out this weekend in San Diego and Zach Smith from Tulsa who I think was on the Pittsburgh Mallers last year, we will be working out at the hub, but I saw McLeod before he signed with Toronto back at the Hub, I think it was during the Covid pandemic and I remember him watching working out and saying, man, this guy could come in and at least be a very high quality backup at the N F L. And he signed with Toronto and I called him up, I said, McLeod, what happened? You had such a great workout at the Hub. Why are you going instead of C F L? He said, bro, I just want to play ball. I'm tired of sitting on the bench. I want to play. So that's why I said he didn't come, like Coach Flip is the one that recruited him back down here. He was making good money up there and so to me, this is a guy that is so hungry, but here's a guy that you talk about intangibles, McLeod, Bethel Thompson, I will tell you this, I've seen it in person. He wins over the locker room, people gravitate towards his leadership. This guy is not about the game of football, he's about the game of life. Football is secondary and the locker room will gravitate towards that and the locker room will gravitate towards Coach Flip's mentality and this is a team to be reckoning with. To me the New Orleans breakers, I gave you the DC Defenders when they were like a long shot. Now they're the favorites. New Orleans breakers for all those people that want a little action. I don't know what the odds are. I have no idea. If you want a good investment, the breakers are your choice. I just point out here and then maybe Jevon has, you know what the odds are for this game. If you look here, I just pointing this out here, Fox sports.com here, our boy Paul Woods has his article linked to the Toronto Sun, so we should talk to the Mark Perrys of the world and see if we can make the sound kind of a connection that way too. You like how come Paul Woods gets his article linked on Fox Sports? Devon, let's go to you and I want to get Pat because I know Pat has deep thoughts about McLeod and the Hill Glass and Davis cheek, everything else. Do you know any of the odds on this game? Who, who's got the favorite? Yeah, so right now New Orleans is favored by three and a half in this game over Pittsburgh, which makes, again makes sense based off of, again, just going off of roster on both sides of the football New Orleans also, Rick pointed out you could get good value for them in terms of a future bet at plus 600. So again, just like in the us, in the X F L right with DC where they were kind of like this plus 600, plus 700 range, a good team to hedge your bet on if things work out well, right? Because you do have the veteran quarterback in McLeod, Bethel Thompson, but you also got the weapons right at Y Receiv. I mean Adams and Dixon is a really good one, two combo at wide receiver and then the running back room I mean is just, it's legit. I mean you can just roll out any running back that you want to and they could do some damage. So I definitely like the Breakers in this game. Pittsburgh, I know they do have some, obviously Bailey Gaither is back and they got some guys on defense, the Terry Beckner and the Ruben Fosters and the Bryce Tort ends there last year. But I need a little bit more on that offense. I need somebody else to show up and step out. Madre, London, Garrett Grok, nice one, two combo. But I need something else little to show up so I'm probably for me in terms of betting, probably leaning breakers on that minus three and a half. Yeah, Andy and I have had debates every week on the podcast who was the worst team of last year was in the Pittsburgh Mallers or 2022 Man or the gardeners. Pat, you got thoughts this and then we'll toss to John thoughts on Eble, cloud breakers, Pittsburgh, anything else? I mean I think I wrote a piece on McLeod last year, his story of just resilience of just keep grinding guys started off in the a AFL arena football league with SaberCats. I mean I don't want to dive too deep into it because Rick touched on a lot of my points, but just to give a quick shout out to Paul Woods, if anyone's going to discredit that guy, I don't know what's wrong with you, one that's just rude as a human being. Two, the guy knows what he is talking about in three, he's also bringing a whole nother market to the U S F L. So you should probably get out from the basement and not be just a disrespectful human towards Paul just as man-to-man. But that's a different conversation. But the whole like M B T obviously coming here for the family, I think I looked it up like almost 800 K in the nfl. I'm sure he is gotten close to about two mil just over time. I'm curious to see if, and I'd have to look back if the time when he was with the Eagles and when Flip was with the Eagles, if that kind of helped this transition. I think MBT was there in 2016. I think Andy, you were talking about a keel glass. I'm pretty high on him as well. I obviously have this St Louis bias, but for the record, Mike Glass of the ALOT and a Keel or not related, there's only, there is a glass conglomerate in St. Louis but they are not related so they've had that conversation and whatnot. There's a height difference too. Yeah, just a tad but I mean the Breakers, it's a pretty awesome QB room. There is a little bit of drop off I think going to him from MB T to Davis cheek and the Kill Glass and that's not even knocking those two guys. It's just in my opinion, how high I have MB M B T IAM is number three, the leadership qualities are there, the experiences there. He's not only been in the hubs, the C F L, the N F L, he also lit up the Spring league as well. I think he was there twice. Once during the pandemic and then once in 2017 he really, this is going to be a ride or die with him. Ahmad Gooden on the other side of the football is going to make, make the defense stout no matter who or what's going on VTE Diggs, they're bringing back as well another solid defensive back and then I mean this is going to just be a ride or die for me for mbt if MBTs, if MBTs right this Breaker's team is dangerous. If he's not then I mean we'll see the Kill Glass show and Davis Cheek cheek's a little bit intriguing. Obviously he was brought in to the Panthers cut once they got Baker Mayfield brought him back. He was working out on the X Ffl. I think he went to one of Jordan Palmer's workouts. Ironically Sheik replaced D King after they did the Dr. King cameo for one week when they were prepping for the Ravens when the Panthers were playing the Ravens. So there is definitely talent there, but it's, I'm going to be beating a dead horse at this point but I don't think anyone would disagree with me that it's the M B T show and rightfully so good to see him. Good to see that this league provides him the best thing for him in his personal life and he continues to play football because the story, and I would love to talk with him for about an hour and a half and just be like, how do you keep going after all these teams just go to New England for a week, get cut. Hey, you're going to Miami to Minnesota then cut then hey don't move because we're bringing you back next week. We're just playing the roster Django real quick. We'll still pay you. It's a lot on a human being as someone who's moved a lot themselves. But he's embraced it though. That's the thing is when people gravitate towards him though because they can relate to that journey. Like this guy, this guy's got more frequent flyer miles than anybody. Yeah, and I'll tell you what too. We mentioned Ryan Jones who spent about three decades in the Giants front office. I saw him down at the H B C U Bowl. No surprise Ezra Gray at running back. D Anderson at wide receiver, borderline tight end prospect at the N F L level two, the best players I saw down at the H B C U Bowl. You inject them into the equation with West Hills, Johnny Dixon, Sage Surat who making They sages from the stallions. I think that's going to be a very underrated move because the guy, yeah, I think this team could put points on the board. Absolutely. Yeah, We'll go to John here. Do you have an article about McLeod? You should hit up your boy and see if you can get a link on. I have his number now, so yeah, You get on it. Hey John, any thoughts on this? And then we are going to do a little XFL talk before we get Out of here. Yeah, I've got one question for Rick about the Breakers roster and that's just offensive and defensive lines. I'm very, very concerned about both of those. Everything else on the team I think is going to hold up just fine, but I look at the offensive line for the Breakers and I look at who are the guys maybe Jack Kramer and Paul Adams. No, the offensive line is weak and I've been in communication with these guys. They're working on it. They're combining the country, they're looking for talent. We got to work out a hub. I mean, you know guys got to understand too, there's going to be adjustments on the fly in season. There's going to be some in-season acquisition and I think that's where Especially, especially after the draft when, And that's where teams, Memphis that have Dave Rosano teams like the Breakers that have Ryan Jones, Steve kr, Billy Devaney, these are experienced guys that I would bet on and so I hear you, I hear you John, loud and clear And so that's kind of my concern with the breaker was Mr. Reed is a guy right opposite of Andre Saint Memorial. Hey you got two legitimate pass rushers, you sprinkle in Devonte Diggs sometimes the back end John when you can cover when you got guys like Neville Clark out of UCF and Adonis Alexander and it's Hampton, sometimes when the pass coverage is good, the pass rush becomes better. So I think the defense is in a better position but they probably have, looking at it the worst offensive line in the league. N B T will have to overcome that and that's where 13 years of experience comes in. Yeah, that's kind of what I'm hoping for is you have to get 'em through healthy through until you can get that help on the offensive line. Sure. So there is a little bit of risk with the Breakers and that's why I think I'm a little bit lower on them and because I told, I said I think that that Flip is the best coach that's walked in here. The Brett the best one that was hired, that's new and he might be the best one in my rankings. I have 'em at four and that's just because I can't knock what Skip Holtz did last year. I can't knock what Mike Riley did and I can't really knock what Bart Andris did. And so I think those are the top three coaches until proven otherwise. Which fair, that's fair. If lets, he's got a great chance to prove everybody that he's the best coach in this league and go get a chance. I think he's going to be back in the N F L no doubt, but until he has, we see what happens on the field. I think he's the best new hire. So the next thing is if Bethel Thompson can say healthy, great, awesome. You know, get to that point in the season where you bring in that help on the offensive line and I love the receiver group. You guys hit all the key points in that receiver group between the receivers and the tight ends. They could go 12, they can go 13, they can do whatever they want and they have play makers all over the place for the quarterback to throw to. So I like that as well. I'm just not sure. I want to make that bet that you're going to get your quarterback, he's 34 years old through the first three, four weeks of the season until you can bring in that extra help. Just a quick note here. Andy's got a comment too. It looks like they're posting, the teams are posting the inactives and we have Ray Willis is listed as a quarterback through there, so not going be to be seen play Big Cat Bryan's inactive, John Franklin's inactive, what the heck? Quin? Well, Quinton Meeks kind. Well even Quinton Meeks because he was in the system last year. Granted, I think Carnell Lake is their defensive coordinator, but he was their DACs coach last year, but Meeks was in camp with the battle lock so you would think he was in shape Or dj. He's always hurt. Meeks is always hurt. Yeah, well DJ Meyers is inactive so I'm sure his mom will be on Twitter Mix, bat mix. Batters a good player too. That's surprising. List Andy. Andy have the thoughts about the Mallers and then we'll transition here, the X F L for a few minutes before we get out of here. I just wanted to say the greatest thing going for the Pittsburgh Mallers this season is that their players are allowed to pick pizza over chicken salad. So that's wonder wonderful for them. And look, it's the doning of a new era. I'm sorry that team was unwatchable. That season was dead on impact as soon as that first game happened. You can say all you want about the Orlando guardians this year at least. I believe they've had a chance in every game they played. I have never, never once felt that way about the Pittsburgh Mallers last year. The only thing coming back for them that I really am am quite into this year honestly is the receiving court. Trey Walker I like a lot. I still like Bailey Ga. They're good Playmakers, they got Barry last year, but they got good Playmakers. I like Artavis Lynn at Tied End. I think they can do some things there. It's just a matter of if they're going to get any consistent quarterback play. James Morgan we've talked about a lot. Can he come out and really start to develop and perform? I like this team. They're probably going to be near the bottom of the league again, but if they're at least coachable and Ray Horton's coming here, by the way, Ray Horton hasn't coached since 2019. Noted defensive guy. I've been in the NFL forever. He's coming in with a new operation. He's got a clean slate to work with though. I mean is he can do whatever he wants with this roster and whatever he needs to because obviously it was a complete tire fire last year and for the Mallers fans, I mean obviously we had one of our commenters, Jenna, she defected from this team and went over to the Showboats because of that exact reason. So hey you can't, Jenna, come on. It's, it's worth pointing out too that Ruben Foster is on this roster as Well. That's defensive player in the league. Absolutely, definitely and Foster, you got Nayer player can get after the quarterback there with Ray Horton grooming him and Boogie Roberts. Man, I'll tell you this guy, he's a little bit undersized but another guy I saw out at the hub, he was Unblockable one-on-one. This guy's got some agility to him. Boogie Roberts, Nayer player, Ruben Foster. I think Ray Horton can get creative there on the defensive side and yeah, San Jose SA connection man. Bailey Gaither. Trey Walker was fortunate enough to scout them in person out there on my way to San Jose and Mason Morrell Too. Yeah, Mason stoke too in the backfield I like as a nice little offensive weapon. Any other hot takes on us f l here. I want to make sure we talk Xav L week nine before we get out here so they keep it an hour and a half. So any other us F L Hot takes before we get out of here? I've actually looking at his list, I don't think I commented on Houston. I will say I'm a big fan of Bob Morris. He's been around the block, the GM there I saw, I have highlighted this team just lacks Playmakers. They don't have the ammunition to run the track meets with the rest of the league. They got Ratliff Williams. Other than that I saw they added Doug Peterson's son, Josh Peterson at Tight End. I'm a big Kenji Bahar fan. Jersey Shore representative out of Baltimore played at Monmouth Kozart out of Bozi Boise State. They're just like, they're just middle of the pack. They do have some players on the offensive line. Brandon Hittner out of Villanova. Christian S on the offensive line. Tim Bonner on the defensive line. Marcel Spears at linebacker, but Houston, I don't think they have the ammunition or the horses to keep up with some of these other offenses. Well there you go. Well, looking here now, exe week nine, a little, I don't know better or worse how we think about this. I guess first off, Andy, some of these games matter a lot more than others, right? Obviously Sea Dragons at Vipers, that's probably the most important game I'd say in either league this weekend here. But defenders looking to pile along here at what do you make of this? Okay, we finally have the overlap, the long awaited, okay, the crossing of the streams. Are we feel good about X ffl slate this weekend? What do you make? I mean that's the thing. There's not as much intrigue with some of these teams because we know what some of the defined roles are here. Obviously Houston is in the playoffs, but they still have to win the division now. And look, this Vegas team, look, the Vipers have been so competitive in all their games. I feel bad for them. This is not a two win team. They should have more wins. They have a lot going for them on offense. A lot of, I really liked what I saw from Jaylen McClendon the last two. They Waited too long. They did wait too long. I agree. I don't know why. What's Rod Woods didn't make the switch earlier. I mean they clearly weren't going to stick with Perez forever. And Brett Hunley again was a complete mystery. I don't know what happened to him, but this is something that is unfortunate for the Vipers. But they played Spoiler now and they almost did last week against the Battle Hawks. They're in this role for the rest of the season. Houston needs to get their act together on offense. The silvers has been just all over the map. They have to find a way to get more consistency there. They've just been in a funk, honestly. Their defense has played a little bit better. They did. They had a get right game against San Antonio, but still the Houston needs to start tuning up for the playoffs. As far as Guardians Braas, really not much intrigue there. I hope to see a better performance from Quintin. I really believed in him and he just disappeared last week. I mean he had one of the biggest turnarounds ever I've seen from a quarterback going from six touchdowns to five turnovers insane. And I think that's hopefully his development continues for Orlando. They're just trying to pick up the pieces there. Arlington obviously a lot to play for. They go into a pretty tough matchup themselves. They Perez, I mean, like I said, he just needs to continue to be steady. He has to continue to keep the ship steady and continue to be consistent for this operation. They don't have to score more than, I guess they don't have to really score more than 18 points to win a ball game because their defense and their special teams is so good. But Arlington, their goal is survival. If they can finish 500, they're fine. Obviously they, they've pledge their playoffs spot. I don't think they care one way or another where they play. They just want to get into the playoffs. Your marquee matchup obviously for the entire weekend is Seattle at St. Louis. That is the biggest game of possibly the entire season that decides that. I know, again, as I said on Tuesday, I know there's a million tiebreaker scenarios. This is your playoff game for both teams. This is your playoff game. You need to win this game and you're essentially in the North division playoffs and you go face the juggernaut that is DC who I presume is going to win the division and be hosting a playoff game at home. And also, as Mike Mitchell reported, DC sounds like they're close to a sellout crowd. So I mean the beer snake is alive and well in the nation's capital. They're, they're going to be having that going for them and they're probably going to be anticipating a whole matchup in the playoffs. So yeah, obviously honestly the only game that's really, really worth of note is probably Seattle at St. Louis to be honest. And that's just part of the schedule at this time of year, this late in the season. Who's the good teams and who are not? Yeah, I posted one of our shorts this week, Andy. Just how broken the X ffl south is, it really does hurt this year coming down this pike where north is still very much in comp competition here. Pat, thoughts on battle hawks? I know work schedule otherwise, but obviously you'll be watching this game regardless and just the meaningfulness that game has versus the other three. I mean we talk about just what football means, the St. Louis and nauseum. Another broken record. Broken record conversation. I mean you pulled out one out of the hat with the quarterback duo of Nick Ti and Sterling Hoff Richter, obviously I did a little postgame interview with Sterling and by the way, that was the first time he ever threw a pass in a football game. So he was like, yeah, are used to play baseball. So that's obviously what was going on. Battle Hawk special teams is always going to be key in my opinion. It's kind of hilarious. I know friend of the show Darius Shepherd, most talkative guy you can ever be in contact with this, even my media interactions with him. But it's kind of crazy to see how dynamic he is and he didn't really return kicks for the U S F L because of Kavante Turpin for the Generals last year. So it's kind of crazy that the U S F L just had that player, that skillset that wasn't even, and that's not knocking the league, it's just Turpins a Pro Bowl returner. But I mean aj, AJ could have went last week per beck. It's obviously playing the Vipers. Beck's high on all of his quarterbacks, so I think they kind of rolled the dice a little bit. Ironically playing Vegas now obviously Manny Wilkins pumping up to that QB two spot, but this is it's championship football football for St. Louis right now. Beck's been writing each team is seven and oh or eight and oh and six and oh, since they lost the DC to have that mindset of like, hey, this is a playoff game. Every game's a playoff game right now. So I do think, I mean we're due for what, one or two Ben Ucci Red zone turnovers. Watch's your math. Yeah, right. Kelvin McKnight y'all. Y'all have a pretty awesome returner as well. So it could be a pretty dynamic, special teams battle as well. But this is a coin flip to me. I do think St. Louis wins one because I'm biased, and two, it is in St. Louis and three because aj, it it's, I think it's going to come down the turnover battles and AJ is taking care of the football a little bit better. Obviously I believe Sharif Millers on the C Dragons, you could take advantage of the offensive tackles. He's a quality pass structure in the xfl. But the cool thing is Jared Jones Smith and Juwan Bush BD have gotten better as the season goes on. And I think their biggest issue was conditioning because now they're saying more upright and booking, more athletic when they're kicking back. And that was my biggest thing in the first two weeks is they just look tired early. So now they look a lot better. Obviously Jared Jones Smith was suspended two games, he was graded pretty high on PFF for a while. So I mean I got St. Louis winning this thing. Both teams are good. I think everyone here wants, I want the Sea Dragons in the playoffs, I want the Battle Hawks in the playoffs. I want the best teams in the playoffs because I think everyone here agrees that it's going to be Houston versus whoever in the, and I don't think that's fair to the players. I don't think it's fair to the sport. I will say just from the law of averages here, reeds do a win. I was at the game we lost on Easter in the Rains, sea Dragons Kraken have dropped two to Vegas. The Mariners didn't do great against the Cubs. So I think we're due here. I think I get a win. Rick, we talked to you, we haven't talked to you in season. Like I said, we did our big kind of draft recapture on Thanksgiving. Thoughts on the X ffl season thus far? We'll get to John and then we'll try to get out of here at a reasonable Time. No, listen, I'm not deviating from our pre-season selection. The DC defenders are the team they're not going to lose. I'll bet all the ranch, the farm, the house on my guy Von Hutchins, dude, the guy is just cut from a different cloth. Okay? What I will say is, somebody mentioned Ben Nucci, I'll give you my Bend Nucci story. When I went down and scouted them at James Madison down there on the field, first coach I talked to, hey, you know, got a little quarterback here, tell me about 'em. Well, we like our quarterbacks to be confidence, confident, borderline arrogant. Ben Ucci just knows it all. Hey, great ringing endorsement from the James Madison coach right out of the gate. And then I watched his demeanor. This guy just has all the answers and it shows to me why he's playing in this league. Because you saw him with Jim Haslett, who by the way is being mentioned as a defensive coordinator candidate. I agree with the broadcaster there who's slipping my mind. Good friend of the show. He said, yo, Jim Haslett handled that tremendously because Dan Nuci's over there and that's the modern day player, right? Barking back. Jim Haslett's old school bro, he don't want to be bothered with this nonsense, but Ben Nucci, that's why you're not in the league. You have all the answers yet you're turning all these, committing all turnovers inside the red zone and losing ball games. So you know, that to me shows that he hasn't matured, he hasn't taken the next step. And that's why spring leagues exist to find out Ken's the guy, take the next step. Ben Nucci obviously has not. Terrell Buckley, I remember coming out of Florida State as a first round pick, the old saying, some guys are just born to be coordinators. Does anybody else cringe? And they put a mic in front of this guy. Are you kidding me? He's My girlfriend's favorite coach because He's not leader man. He's not a leader. Amen. I mean, come on and I love you Terrell, but come on son, buckle up. Put your big boy pants on. This is not how you lead. And I just cringe every time they put a microphone in front of this man's face, I cringe. Good coordinator. He's just not cut out to be a head coach. But yeah, the defenders are the team to beat the battle Hawks have a punchers chance. Seattle Reed is a good club, but I mean it's decent it it's DC's title to lose. John comments on this and then we'll kind of do one final pass around here before we get out. So do we know who's starting a quarterback tomorrow or Sunday for St. Louis? Is it going to be McCarran or It's Going to McCan's back, right Pat? I think we saw the def chart. Yeah, McLaren's probable, and I think I said it earlier, if the Sea Dragons were playing week eight versus St. Louis, McCarran would've played. So it's Okay. Yeah, so It wasn't a pressing thing last. Cause I thought I liked Nick Tiana last week. I thought it was a fun performance. I really enjoyed that I came into, which is funny because he's in my state in my backyard and I was like, who is this guy? I didn't ever watch him. He's, which I feel ashamed for. It's like, dang I missed him. But no, he was fun to watch and it was sad when I saw him get on the ir. I hope that he's okay. And it was funny to see if Vinny Test of Verde Jr get signed as well that, but I think, Yeah, that that's ironic. It seems like it's a, and we didn't really talk about it much, but sorry to cut you off John, but it seems like some of these signings are just like, let's get your rights so you don't go to the U S F L. Not that I think Vinny Test Verde is going to light up the league, but he's definitely someone that is a good roster PR move. Like No listen guys, it it's a relationship business. Anthony Beck was catching passes from Vinny Testaverde 30 years ago in Broadway, down Broadway. Remember Parcells, he took that team to the AFC Championship. Vinny Testaverde, the Anthony Beck. That's why now 30 years later we got Beck to coaching Vinny Jr. Are you kidding? Vinny and the Jets baby. But no, I think in their case, if McCarran is starting, yeah, they're locking up a playoff spot. As much as I love Seattle and it's been fun and everything that Rick said about Ben, he's right on with, but that's exactly why they lose that game. That would be exactly why St. Louis takes them down. Well I will wear my XE l replica jersey around in Pride next week when it comes. My team is limited from the playoffs here. Andy, anything else today? I think we did good. People can enjoy this today and tomorrow. Big weekend of football. Anything else from the professor before we get out of here? Just a couple things. First of all, just to recom on some of the matchups this weekend and the X ffl. Yeah, I mean it's a shame. Seattle probably won't make it because I mean look, this is a fun, would've been a really fun wild card team, just absolute bonkers team to have in the playoff format. I mean, not to use my own team as an analogy, but it's like the Los Angeles Chargers. I mean you just see how wild it is when they're in a playoff game, how erratic it can be. I feel like it'd be the same thing with the Sea Dragons, but just that's how it is with the playoff format. I think St. Louis just has the pedigree. They have the coaching staff, they're going to be so prepared for this game. I think they're just going to be able to pull it out. And unfortunately for Mr. Ucci, I think Hazlett might be looking for his poison pills after the game depending on what Ucci decides to do during it. My last thing on dc, I didn't really get to talk about 'em, but God, I am so impressed by their offense. It's terrifying how they can just go from R P O to passing down field game in the middle of the season. Are you kidding me? What are you supposed to do as a defense? You're worried about Abram Smith and Ron Armstead running you over and Derrick King running around there and all of a sudden Jordan Tom, who starts throwing bombs over your head to Blair Jackson and Lucky Jackson. Come on. What are you supposed to do? They, they're just so, so well coached. Reggie Barlow's awesome. I hope he chance in the nfl, huh? Chris Blair. Chris Blair, sorry, excuse me. Did I say that? Yeah, I mix that I, I'm like dyslexic when it comes to his name, but he, it's just an amazing watching this performance. Yeah, it's amazing watching them on a offense every week and just all the tricks that they pull out to do every week. And I really am impressed. I'm with you Rick. I, I'm, they're all the way, they're the team I think to beat for the rest of the season. They have been really all season to be honest. But other than that, you guys have done an awesome job. You all do an amazing job on your analysis coming in and really educating me too, giving me a lot more to look into as well. I really appreciate it. I cannot wait for this weekend. This is absolutely insane. The slate that we are going to have just, it's going to be information overload. It really is and I can't wait to see all of it. It's going to be really fascinating to go back and forth and kind of almost have a red zone thing going back and forth between different games. Yeah, Andy and I got to figure out the game plan for Monday. We normally do, whether did we learn? Yeah, I think it'll be whether we learn U S F L and then we'll sprinkle in some X F L. Like I said, it's certainly getting the Marques this weekend and obviously you can't plan Y, you can't plan that ahead of time. You lay the schedule out, but I certainly think X F L with a blank. Did you guys see the tweet? I think it was last night or this morning, the rock saying some of the humbly numbers again, we got another one of those. These aren't great numbers from what we're working on and I'm like, that is really weird to have the rock come out and just be so frank about that. And it's not the greatest thing in the history of the world. I think we had Josh Lewin on the podcast, was it last week? And that same thing. He's doing the X F L podcast and he's saying, we certainly would've liked to see things light the world on fire right Now you like, God, this is interesting. These are people in the organization saying this publicly. So I at least appreciate the frankness of this. I have about a thousand notifications from my X ffl replica jerseys are $190 tweets. I'll be looking forward to see what the comment are on that. Rick, anything else, John, we just, we'll get out of here. But anyone else have anything? What's cooler than being ice cold? Andre 3000 posed a question. How about betting up X ffl U S F L parlay? How about that for the first time in the history of the world? You can do that. That's going to be a lot of fun. But I'll say, listen, I love coming on this show. The Mark Cast is the best alt football show on the planet. Get it, get it right. Subscribe, like retweet, spread the word. So thankful to be here. Hopefully after we get through the NFL draft, I can make more appearances. I won't speak for any of you guys, but I'll be the first to admit, I love X Ffl U S Ffl more than the nfl. That's just me. I'm a junkie like that. Okay. I've almost encountered or come across or interacted with every player in both leagues. I'm invested. I love it. To your point, Reid 765,000 last year for the U S Ffl 615,000 I believe is the latest average number for the xfl. Those compete, if not exceed NHL ratings, those compete, if not exceed the masters on CBS B s, which generates tremendous, tremendous amount of sponsorship dollars. Spring football is here to stay. I'm here for it. I love it. Buckle up. I've got coming out as a matter of fact over@allaccessfootball.com this weekend I'll be departing for the hub. We'll be out in San Diego. Like I said, Zack Smith from Tulsa will be out there. I've already submitted my content. That'll be if you're subscribed to the newsletter, I have my top 10 N F L prospects for each ex X Ffl team. I got my top five players in the U S F L coming out. We talked a lot about 'em here today. And listen, I am so thankful to be a part of the panel. I appreciate all your guys' knowledge. The passion, right? You got to have the sickness. If you don't have the disease, you can't be on the panel. And again, for all you haters out there, if you come at one, you come at all. So buckle up, be prepared, brace yourself. Don't come talk sideways at the side of your neck and not expect to get handled. We will deal with you properly. And Reid and everybody else, thank you so much. I even Rick, I think Rick got caught in the crossfire there the other day. Pat, anything else? We'll go to John and then we're done. I mean it's hard to follow up Rick on this point. Just the passion that everyone on this panel has. I was going till about 2:00 AM to get my quarterback videos going just in a little bit behind on my previews. But extremely grateful for all the different outlets we all work with and the players that we communicate, the coaches, the fans that we talk to. I mean, it just makes it dulls the voices of those who are critical without actual substance. You know what I mean? Yeah, we're jacked up or we're doing something actually wrong, but those people are usually adults and we'll either DM or politely say something, not just shoot hogwash, but I mean just uber grateful to be a part of both leagues. I love both leagues. Like Rick said, I like these leagues more than I like the NFL at this point. You know, hear the stories of the players, the coaches and whatnot. And it's just a great opportunity. It's a great time for football. God bless you. Two for Monday's show. I mean, I'm going to be at one of these games watching the other game on my phone. I'm not going to be the most pleasant to be around depending on what game I'm at. And I, this is it. We've got what, 12 more weeks of this grind and then it's C F L and then maybe then we'll take naps. John, anything else? I mean, y'all hit it pretty well. This is always a fun show to come on and do to the audience that you have as well that plugs in and comments throughout the show. I know that we've done 'em before and had a great time talking with all the people too. It's a great thing that brings us all together. So I guess my last thing is I'm going to just shout a couple dudes. Shout out to Nick Vogel, kicker for Houston Long Lost cousin. And shout out to DC Defenders Gunner Vogel and another long lost cousin Northwestern. And those are, can't tell. Those are my favorite teams. So Well they so much Andy. And I'll be back Monday in some form or fashion. And I think I have a good show next week. I'm been on vacation, but trying to get all that put together here and subscribe given away. I don't think we'll hit the 3,500 by the time we get the USFL championship game, but maybe there's enough USFL people on here though. Get us over the mark for that. Anyway, thank you guys all so much. Again, really appreciate it and we'll see you next time.

XFL 2023 Week 8 TV Ratings Rebound HUGE! TWO OVERTIME GAMES!?! XFL Week 8: What Did We Learn?

We’re all gas, no breaks here as Andy Murray is telling me before we got on the podcast, no days off here. Never want to have any doubt. You have the hardest working men here in the podcast game for the X F L and the US F l. I'm here at the u, a world famous Luxor. You can see the pyramid, the slanted behind me. I'm finally bringing Andy. Now my voice is a little like we're We're working today. We're working number time. I have my Shannon Sharper, Andy Murray. How are you doing? I'm doing quite well. It looks like you discovered fire last night essentially based on the photo that you posted. Yeah, let me see if I can pull that photo up here. We're here today, week eight of the X F L. Dorothy is sleeping here at the bed somewhere behind me. Try not to be too loud today. Lots to talk about. Today we have TV ratings, X ffl. We have two overtime games, everything else that probably makes more sense to do this on Tuesdays just during the season anyway, but yeah, we want to do the Mondays, all that. A couple things too. Let me first share this. So this was exciting, so this is what Andy was talking about. This was me at the Mirage last night. Discovered fire. Apparently we went out, they said that they're going to do this volcano show at seven o'clock. We go outside, they shot off fire. Were like 30 seconds and then like, okay, that's the show. That's the show. I saw Michael Ball last night walking around at, not really, but I did see a Saskatchewan refer rider there and then they were playing the highlights I guess in full of the U S F L championship game at the art house last night and I actually got a tweet back from Yard House, I tweeted and they said, oh, having a celebratory beer so I can't pull that up. Anyway, very exciting here talking about all of that. Andy, how are you doing Thoughts about XE L week eight before we get into all the minutia here. This was the wildest week I think for the X ffl in a lot of ways and in my opinion, I think it was some of the best quality games of the entire season from front to back every game there was a combined margin of nine points amongst all of the games. Now every kind of game had its own flavor somewhere. High scoring affairs, other ones were a little more sluggish. Some were really exciting with some absolutely fantastic like special teams plays, individual plays, team coaching, mismanagement, all kinds of things. I think we got the full palette and most significantly in of all we got two overtime games. Finally, Sam Schwartz's vision has played out in full here in the X F L and we finally got to see those two overtime. I know, look, I know the first one happened in the U S F L last year. That is an adopted rule. Let's make that clear. This is the first time that we really got to see where the original rule and play design in the book finally got to play out on the field and the fact that they got two of them the same weekend is pretty wild and one of them being on abc, which we'll get into later obviously about the TV ratings, pretty significant as well. So a wider audience was able to see that. A lot of people got to see the two overtime, but just a wild weekend and obviously a lot to talk about with the playoff shifts, the north and south divisions really shaking themselves up and kind of coming to fruition as to far as who's probably going to win those divisions now. Yeah, I got a lot of messages. I can't believe the exit L and the US F L overtime rules are the same. It's like, well it is what I wanted to give Sam credit for that. I know he's in kind of a different employment situation now where he can't really come on and talk X ffl stuff, but it really exciting for Sam and real exciting to kind of see that. I couldn't imagine here we waited all 2020 coming in here and then we had two overtime the same weekend. But I think that also speaks to just the parody of the teams. I think at this point you get down and I think the Houston Brahmas game was maybe a little bit more, but we had Vipers and the Bell Hawks going back and forth kind of getting that overtime. I think it just speaks right to the closer level of competition there. Yeah, it was absolutely fantastic all weekend. I know there wasn't a lot to be had on some of the offensive ends like San Antonio just really was sluggish until the very last minute. Orlando really disappointing, honestly considering that we sang the praises. I sang the praises of quitting Dormy last week and he goes from six total touchdowns to five turnovers. I mean that is one of the biggest turnarounds I've ever seen week to week performance ever. You have, obviously there's a lot of fluctuation going on with Arlington. I do think that Luis Perez brings stability. The Spring King has arrived again. He has brought balance to the force as we say, and he really did his job. He needed to, they just needed some measured balance and stability, him not turning the ball over him, keeping it really consistent for everything on the end of the Arlington operation, which just needs basically anything to go. I mean look, their offensive operation before he arrived there was essentially someone leaving the house and it burning down it basically it was just stoops being like, here, how about we don't burn the house down on offense today? And that's all he had to do and he did his job. So I think that that's good. DC I'm sorry man, DC is just fantastic on all ends on offense to tou is playing the best footballs of entire life. I've never seen him throw the ball like this before and the fact that they can run it the way they can with the R P O and throw it down field now, I mean they have everything they need on offense that is easily the most complete offense I've seen in spring football maybe ever. I would almost argue, Yeah, not great for the cheese drinks. We'll get into all that. Yeah, Daryl or Jenna's checking in here. Good morning from Southern California. Daryl Re, yeah, I'm in the lecture right now, the world famous lecture over here. We're on the ninth floor. Mark has a funny read. Are you making the pilgrim to the hall grounds of Cashman Field? No, but I did go out. We went out last night with Dorothy's friend and her husband and he had a Las Vegas aviators hat on the infamous baseball team where the X F L couldn't play. Remember the whatever the minor league baseball team Jen is excited to win with. So let's get into the ratings here first and foremost and then we'll do all the game breakdown here. A little delayed on the games here be Tuesday. But obviously Mike Mitchell, a Randy's just coming out here this morning, 868,000 for ESPN St. Louis Vegas getting that overtime game. Orlando Arlington 6 79 on ESPN N and then on Sunday, this is what was impressive to me Easter, I didn't really know and attendance and all of that. We had Sunday B C 1.006 million and then the ESPN two game of 487,000, a big rebound and we can pull up here if you want to do the read homeboys here, US F L on Fox back in week 8, 620 5,770 3000. So a little perspective there. Andy, what did you make, and I know we were talking on the groove chat today. What did you make at the ratings? I mean it's pretty remarkable considering that you have multiple games here in the top 10 of cable programming. I think Mike Mitchell also tweeted that out earlier as well. St. Louis Vegas was sixth and Orlando Arlington was 10th and their demographic amongst 18 to 48, 49 year olds I think so that's pretty good. I mean, yeah, that there it is on the screen so that's really good. That's good rebound numbers. Obviously there was, look, there was a lot of speculation as what was going to happen. Obviously March Madness was just the giant storm that came through. It was inevitable it was going to happen. You had women's college basketball getting historic ratings, you had baseball starting NBA kind of winding down here towards the playoffs. He just had a lot going on and so it was not clear as to where these ratings were going to ultimately end up in the month of April, but it seems like they've kind of weathered the storm and they've figured out at least as far as which time slots again, which ones are most consistent. Again, this Saturday day, Sunday day stuff needs to keep happening. This is the best time slots that you need to have for your programming. 10 1:00 PM a 10:00 AM 1:00 PM Saturday, Sunday was 12 and four. That's great. Even on Easter. And also on Easter. I mean that's the thing, you got these ratings on Easter weekend. That's really remarkable. Honestly, a lot of people traveling, a lot of people doing stuff. Now I myself do not personally celebrate Easter. In fact, I tried going to Target foolishly and didn't realize that it was actually a holiday, but I'm one of those ignorant people that doesn't partake in those festivities, but a lot of people do. And so for you to get those kinds of ratings on that weekend is pretty remarkable. I'd have to ask you though, how was it, obviously you went to the Dragons game on Easter itself. I know it was very rainy, it was very sloggy up there, but still a great game. How was it for you in the atmosphere and the people traveling up there? Yeah, that was the thing. I was really kind of concerned what Easter was going to be. We, I think Mike had the attendance at 11,000 there at Lumen Field. It was pour and rain. This wasn't normal Seattle rain, this was torrential downpour. You saw the photos I posted, I'm in my snow pants and boots. Yeah, we are very concerned because at Lumen Field, no, unless you're really, really far up, there's no cover at all. You're sitting there we're front row. It was really miserable from just be in their perspective. Certainly not from anything that they did. So I was impressed. I was impressed with the TV ratings here, half a million espn, two on Easter and then obviously getting 11,000 plus there at Lumen. I think that was the highest viewer attendance of any of the Lumen games thus far. I know we've had the krakens of it all and kind of everything else that there was no Kraken. I don't know, do we establish Easter as another football day? I don't know if that's a thing, but I think for first year I think they should be really happy. I tweeted out, I said this, I don't want to hear any of this. Seattle doesn't show up. That was a horrendous day and they had a lot of people there, especially on the non TV side all the way up. It was really packed All things considered. I think that's the best you can ask for. And again, they were treated to a fantastic game if you did end up showing up. But I mean look, it's the same thing with Sounders games. People show up to those regardless of conditions too. Seattle, I believe in the Seattle fan base, I really do. I think they just have to tweak some things going forward. You obviously have more boots on the ground there in regards to that, but I think snow Boots, snow boots in the random, well No, you were wearing boots. I thought you were wearing boots. I saw some boots in that. Those photos. Did you Photoshop those in? No. Yeah, we was being made fun of. I had Jared, I go, Jared, you live in Orlando. Jared's like, what do you doing with these snow boots? We can't all go to 90 degree Orlando Guardian game here. It's freaking pour rain here. I mean look, we have the opposite problem here in San Diego. If there's ever a team, there's no cover period, so we'd more to get turned into lobsters if we went out into games here because of the sun, lack of sun coverage. So Max was quick to correct you. 15,000 earlier Lu. That's fine. Well there I eat I feel like When was that? Was that the week? That wouldn't have been the first week. That would've been the 20 degree whatever game. Okay. They had 15,000 there, whatever. Let's get into the games. Let's talk about that. First and foremost, we'll go back to front. Any this DC Seattle game, which was really stupendous obviously we lost not happy about that. Was this the game of the weekend? Was this one of the games of the highlights of the year So far Every game that DC is in is the game of the year. I mean the Orlando game was already one of them, but this one given the implications and given the style of playing given what happened, I mean you, you have 30 combined points in the fourth quarter. It was absolutely fatty. You had Ben Ucci out of his mind throwing down the field. I'm glad that Seattle was really attacking the seams against dc. I know our guy, pat was really on that a few weeks ago when he was talking about St. Louis. Why didn't they attack? Why didn't Bruce Gradkowski and the offense have AJ McCarran attack the scenes? Because you can throw in this off on this defense. You absolutely can with the way that Greg Williams's scheme is run up, you can throw the ball down the field. They did that all game long. I know obviously they had that one turnover. It was really a bad ball. It was unfortunate for deci. I know I joked about like, all right, well here comes Hasley with the machete, but it really wasn't, that one wasn't his fault. I have to give him that one. That really wasn't his fault this time. So he had, for all types of purposes, he had a pretty good game. He was using his legs, he was calm, he was throwing down the field. It was just seeing Seattle kind of unearth themselves from being down 22 6. That was really the turning point, that conversion attempt return, which was so weird because there was whistles that were blown on the field. I don't know if you could hear them, but we could on tv, but apparently no one else did and they kept the play going so that was really weird. But that was the turning point. Like I said, DC I mean they could do whatever the hell they want on offense. Abram Smith, it's just a mean s o b. He can run the ball with such authority. I love the way that they were able to again, get some of these people involved like Chris Blair and obviously you have Lucky Jackson, you have downfield options and there were a lot of plays. They didn't even make a lot of their tight ends dropped balls straight up. They had some fantastic play designs set up where their receivers were going to be able to get some big chunky yardage and they either tommo maybe missed a throw or maybe the tight end dropped it or something. Like they had a couple of scores that they left on the board too. So yeah, just all around fantastic. It's great to see Tommo kind of resurrect himself after. Look, I know he played in the S F L last year and he had all these leading categories and he saw the most touchdowns. He wasn't fitting in that offense. Him and Todd Hay were not a fit. They did not work together. The scheme didn't work well for his skillset. It wasn't good and Tom quite frankly, strike struggled in the first few weeks this season too. They didn't really throw very much. They're kind of figuring out what to do with them, but he has been absolutely on fire the past three weeks. This is been really a renaissance for him honestly. And he continues to develop like this, I mean DC I don't know. It's going to be really hard to game plan for them on defense. See, even with some of the best coaching staffs in the league, it's really, really hard to game plan for this and I don't blame Seattle. Seattle, I just think just at some point it was just hard to keep up with them. Yeah, I didn't like, yeah, Abram Smith was just killing it running through. He did have a face mask. He had one of our, it was when he got tackled, kind of had the face mask. I didn't like that we had Mike here talking the three point conversion that was really crazy. Getting the penalty and then getting backed up and having to do that where they ran the ball back and got the two points, like you said, if there were whistles blown or whatever, there was a lot of refs standing around like, oh no, what did we do here? And there had been the really bad, I think no past interference call on Seattle in the end zone or it was the other way. And so if the refs hadn't have gotten that right with them running the back and get the two points, I think there would've been chaos. This hyster, I said I was going to jump the fence and go attack him of the referees. Really, really bad officiating I thought this week, especially in the Seattle game, I want to get Dean back on the podcast. Obviously we're out of town this week and doing the live show Friday, but I want to get Dean thoughts because I know that people have been really down on him even in the stands, just talking and fans around like, God this is it's, it's another blown call. It's another, are you surprised we're still getting so many missed calls, no calls, bad calls, the challenges and getting over. Are you just surprised that still we still are having so much trouble with this? This is a thing that I've talked about not only on this podcast but another podcast too. The problem is there's so much the, there's just so much interpretation for the rules, for the legislation of the rules and Dean explains it clearly. Obviously he explains it clear as day, but the way he explains it on the broadcast sometimes just doesn't really match up with our visual determination of what we think a foul is. There was a foul in the St. Louis, I think it might have been the St. Louis game, I can't remember which one, but there was one where it was just clearly guy had his back to, had his back to the passer guy throws the ball. It's cl, it looks clear as to me it's past interference. It might be the Seattle game. Not True, the Seattle game. He didn't turn around and then the say, well then we never, no DB ever has to turn around then if you don't have to play the ball at all, then where are we doing here? Exactly, exactly. And that was my problem too. I was like, well then what about all the other times I've seen in my entire life as a football fan that has educated me saying, well then so all those times they didn't turn around with those incorrect calls. Was that because that's been the golden rule in football is if for a DB is like you turn your back to the ball, you are going to get fould if you don't look, I don't care how handsy there being or what kind of roughing you have to look at the ball, you have to turn around, you have to look at it. If you're not, that's literally past interference. So I don't understand that legislation of that rule, the explanation from Dean because that didn't line up of what I've seen in the N NFL and if it doesn't line up with what I've seen in the N nfl, that's the other thing. What is he trying to change the legislation based on this being a different league? You ask him some of these questions because to me it's been questionable. It's been questionable as far as what exactly is he trying to orchestrate here as far as this being a new entity? Is he trying to legislate, is he trying to create a new sense of the rules obviously being a different playbook and all that and challengable things and him being more transparent but I just want to know, does he have more authority? There's a lot to work out here and it is frustrating as a fan and as a viewer because you hear 'em clear as day and what you're seeing on screen is not matching up with what you're hearing on the broadcast. Well that's the thing is was when I was on Rod Peterson show, I think it was a week or two ago, he was asking about this because this is something in the X F L and they preach this and transparency everything else I said yeah but getting to hear them talk through it, A bad call doesn't make the bad call and he like less egregious. Right. You're just more frustrated because I'm hearing Dean now talk about it. Well it's still not a good call and you know talk him through and I like Dean. I think he's really personable. I think he's better than Perrera in that regard. I don't like Mike Perra in that regard is the overseer of it, but it is hard. It's frustrating. Anything else from a gameplay perspective on here? I know people are championing about this. We had some weird, the Seattle going for one instead of two kind of little ticky-tacky stuff that way really felt like the game could have gone either way there at the end even though DC is far in the way the better team but Seattle held held in there or were you surprised that Seattle was kind of able to go toe to toe? No I wasn't. Look, their offense on a good day is very lethal. When Ben DeNucci is not turning the ball over, they can move the ball at will. I hope to continue to see Philip Lindsay, he looked really good, at least in the limited action he had and he seemed to be really into it. He seemed to be engaged enough as far as the audio goes, he seems like he's really professional and knows what he's doing. He really knows how to handle himself. I think this is a great signing for them. I hope it works out for them down the road if they even get to, well we'll talk about playoffs scenarios later, but if they get that to that point, look Seattle, I mean they can run with anybody in this league. They have the horses to do it. They, it's just been circumstance of turnovers. Sometimes bad calls, sometimes maybe June Jones get a little too big for his britches with the conversion attempts but I don't blame them for going for two. I think that was the right decision. I don't think you want to play for overtime, you don't want to mess with dc I think DC just at some point was going to wear you down in that exchange. I'm sure they would've thought otherwise. But again, I think going for two was the right play, especially with how they were moving the ball. I completely understand it's just Greg Williams's defense splits at the correct time At a lot of times they were able to get through a gap and really disrupt the flow of the offense and that was really the only thing that was working for him at that point because he was getting absolutely shredded on the back end by all of these receivers. I mean everybody was just running free. I mean Josh Gordon completely planted Michael Joseph. I mean he depleted him on the sideline. I'm not sure how good a view you had that but that was insane to watch That. I had a very good view of that and I was yelling to Michael Joseph very loud. I said, how did you like that? How Did you like that? My god, that was, that was a man's moment for Josh Gordon. But I mean that's the thing Seattle can keep with. It's the shame. I mean it was going to be a 1.2 point game. It felt like that going into this weekend and Evan was kind of prophetic. Our guy, Evan Wills more at I think halfway through the fourth quarters. This is going to be 34, 33 ballgame isn't it? I'm like, I can't say you're wrong. I hate to say it but I think you're wrong. I think you're probably right because Seattle's going to come down and score even after DC scores and then knock at the conversion attempt it but it's not, again, I don't think it's because Seattle's a shame if they go through this season and they don't make it in the playoffs, it really is because I think they have a shot. They have as good a shot as anybody else on a good day, but they play in the north division. I need to post, I have a shorts this week, I need to post about us talking a couple weeks ago. It's the X F L playoffs system broken. Do you have any other added thoughts on that now knowing that basically Seattle's got to come now we got to beat St. Louis next week and then we got to beat Vegas and then there's got to be the, like Mike's said, he's messaging people from the teams and there needs to be the point spreads and all that. Are you any other added thoughts that Seattle potentially missing the playoffs I think you just go into next week as a playoff game. That's it. Like it's St. Louis or it's Seattle. I think that's the only way you really treat it in my opinion. I know there's a bajillion tiebreakers next week in the Bome. That's it. That is your defacto playoff game. I know it's only week nine, but that's how I would treat it for both teams and I think both teams are going to be coming out with all guns blazing because that's it. That's your second spot. So for me it, it's a shame for either one. I feel bad about either St. Louis or Seattle. The Seattle that sucks. Those are two very quality teams that both deserve their opportunities and look okay, maybe Arlington plays better down the stretch. I don't know, maybe they finished six and four with Perez. Okay cool. But we've seen them week in and week out as an offensive operation. It's not a sexy view, it's not a sexy view. It really is not. It's something that it's going to be a little harder for fans to digest when they watch a team like Seattle and watch a team that's won five in a row, watch a team like St. Louis and somehow one of those two teams doesn't end up making into the dance. There's going to be a lot of questions because Arlington has been subpar. It's quite frankly and Houston hasn't been that greatly. Houston's got some problems too. Now look, they haven't really been kicking our offense. I know Brandon Silvers came back in and he played okay, he had some really up and down moments in that game. Obviously he turned it over twice, had an opportunity interceptions, that team misses John Trey Kirkland really badly. They need somebody to step up on offense of the receiving corps because they're, they're not going to wait a title this way. I mean that's the other thing. The north division feels like it's their title to lose in some ways. I know it's, it's a long way off but that's where all the power goes in this league right now. We'll get to that. One other thought I just had because we'll talk to Houston and everything else with did Ucci do enough this week? I know he had the bow, the ball, the interception turnover after the game we had because we were on the front row there. We had kids coming over askin to get an autograph and I saw someone tweeted about that, right? That hey Ucci coming over and he was talking to the kids and all that kind of stuff. Building up. I think personality-wise Danisi is one of the faces but we've talked about his, is he playing his way out of an N F L window here? I mean what did you make of him here? 2028 to 42? Some of these stats for Seattle always amuses me but is Ben doing enough fear to kind of rebound? I think so. Again, it's just a matter of him just not getting into these just wild turnovers again, it's really him being, it's his gunslinger mode. I mean if he came out after that game and said My favorite player is Brett Favre, I wouldn't be surprised because he plays like him a lot of ways. He is just an absolute gunslinger look, he's got a great arm, his talent is immense. He knows how to spot that ball. Sometimes it there's, I mean there's a 50 50 element when I see him drop back and he cocks it back cause I'm like this is everybody great or this is going to be horrendous and this, that's how I feel every time he chucks that ball. But his ability also, again just to continue running too, his ability to just get out and get yards and run away from the defenders is really underrated. Then it's something that I think gives them a great element when they're not choosing to run the ball as much. Which I wish they kind of did a little bit more on this game. I wish they didn't abandon it so much and just keep DC's offense off the field. I mean that's the thing that DC could just grind Seattle down as much as they wanted to. You get giving a lead to DC in the fourth quarter is almost a death sentence. They almost came back from it but it's really hard to, if you let DC get that kind of a lead, I mean they took off. That's the thing. They took off half the fourth quarter at one point. I think they had a seven minute drive to begin that quarter and it's just hard to come back from that. And for Deuce, I think he'll get some camp looks. I still think he needs time to develop. I want to see kind of the same run. He's had Tou who's had the last three weeks. Tou clearly has earned himself another chance to get another camp. His development is clear as day, obviously based as a pastor and also his toughness. I mean that guy got hit. Did you see him with his stingers and how hard he got? I mean he was struggling to get off the field sometimes and he just got back in there and he kept trucking. He tough tough s o b in that game too. Look, moving on here, agenda is talking. The Renegade will show up in the playoffs. We'll get to the renegades here in the minute. Mark Mark's adding Ucci needs his signature win. I mean they won five in a row, they won five in a row. But I did have a lot of people, Seattle fans non my normal X F L people like oh yeah, the Seattle team's really good. They've won five in a row. I mean I do feel like there's a little bit existing here kind of heading in, so we, we'll pull this up here. We got roughnecks at Brahmas. What the heck is going on with the roughneck year? Really seem to be struggling. Like you said Brandon played coming in, what are we making of everything going on with Evan Wills, Morris, Houston, roughnecks, Brandon's Silver, 17 of 36. Ooh Yeah, really inconsistent play again, they've seem to have abandoned the run and they also can't seem to get any consistency on the ground again, which is one of the biggest things, biggest problems I had when they started off four and oh I said they need to keep running the ball. They kind of did in Orlando but they have not really been able to match that since then and that's a big problem for me. They have to be able to get more balance. You can't just have silvers chucking it so much because quite frankly that Kirkland injury really is hurting them. It really is. They don't have the same threat downfield as they did before. I know Deontay Burnett still great. I mean he caught a touchdown Michael Band, he's coming in there and contributing. You still, you know want Justin Smith to step up a little bit more. That's a guy that I've heard a lot about and that's what Evan's talked about him quite a bit. Trevor Harris, you have a lot of options here on offense but just not that guy that's the problem. They're messing that X receiver and they're not getting that separation that they were at the beginning of the season when he was just kind of like, all right, well let's just throw the Kirkland and see what happens. And that really helped them a lot. And again, look AJ Smith, I mean still a brilliant play designer, it just, maybe it's just not working right now. Obviously I think he's also struggling with the mystery as far as what his injury has been has also kind of predicated how much of his play has changed recently. First he was reported with, I think it was an arm injury and then it became an elbow injury or one of the other. It's kind of unclear as to what it is, but clearly whatever it is, it must be affecting him because he did not play very well on Sunday and quite frankly, I mean they should have stomped San San Antonio. There's no excuse that this game should have gone overtime. None whatsoever. This game should have been over by third quarter because San Antonio was not doing anything on offense. Well I just can't figure out, we'll talk. I just can't figure out. Yeah. Is it AJ getting exposed the silver's injury losing Kirkland? Is it just the combination of all of those? Can you point it to any single thing? I don't know. It does feel like AJ's and he's friend of the show, I mean one of the favorite ocs but I don't know getting exposed a little bit. I mean is it a confluence of everything? What do you make? I mean it's multiple factors. Again, I think it's just the fact that you've had inconsistent quarterback play silvers with the injury. Cole McDonald, they throw him, they've still throwing him in there and using him. They're used him in the conversion attempts in overtime. So they still are keen on using 'em occasionally, just maybe not as much as they were before, after his lack, lesser performance against St. Louis. A again, they just need to be able to find some sort of semblance of balance. I mean 19 in completions, that's tough. That's just a lot of wasted plays and it's a lot of punts, it's a lot of three and outs. That's really tough to have as an offense if you're going to be able to keep your defense off the field, which the defense have been getting shredded the last couple weeks and they finally had a good performance, which granted is not a really hard to have against San Antonio, but it was supposed to be, this was supposed be a get right game for Houston and I'm not sure how much they really got besides maybe on defense and even then they sort of let up at the end of regulation, you had that penalty called on a Genie Harris and you had them convert, convert the fourth and 15 after they got a touchdown and then kick the field goal to tie it and go into overtime. It's just I, there's a lot going on here. I think they just have to be able to commit themselves to one element. I think they need to run the ball more. Like I said, I want them, I want to see Bogie get involved. I want to get see Deja Lee, I want to see Bryce Milli. I want to see them become a little bit more tougher because they're going to need that toughness because I think the north teams are like, those teams are physical now. They score a lot of points, but those teams are physical, they know how to match up and they really game plan really well. They, there's so much tinkering they have to do and look they're in the right division to do it, but they have to figure something out in the next few weeks or else, I don't know how much of a chance they're going to have against anybody who comes from the north. Yeah, this was like I saw, yeah, this just was supposed to be a get right game. It's supposed to be a get Kraken played last night. They played Arizona 1 41. There's just games. You're supposed to come in, you're supposed to win. You're not supposed to go the overtime against the Brahmas. Jack Cohen here at 2023 or 41. Obviously Banertt going down and Paxton Lynch being inactive. I don't even think Paxton Lynch at this point. I'm kind of surprised he even did that trade. What is even the point here? What do you make anything else from the Braas? I mean Jack Cohen had absolutely no prayer when he got sack six times the Houston defense was just eating him alive. I mean Wade Phillips' scheme played the way it was supposed to play against this team. They got the turnovers, they got the sacks, they did everything they needed to. They set up Houston's offense. I mean that was one of the touchdowns for Houston was on a very short field. So Houston, while they weren't moving the ball very much, they got completely out gained by the Brahmas like by about a hundred yards and yet their defense still stepped up pretty well. I like to see the Ja quizz. Patrick is finally getting his burn. I've, I said that he was probably the best running back on the roster. I was never really a huge K killing Balage fan. I'm sorry but I just wasn't. And it sucks that he has the Achilles injury and he's out for the season, but Jacquez has been a revelation. He's really been quite good for them. The land and anchors thing, man, he's really effective. He's sort of the guy that you need to feed the ball to. But the problem is is that he just was hurt for so long for the first half of the season. I think that would've helped him a lot more early on in the year. I see a lot of Playmakers that just aren't getting the burn that they should. DJ Vasher should have more than one catch straight up. Elise Mack is good but they need to keep him factored into the red zone. There's a lot here, there's a lot of good pieces here that they can use. But there's just so much inconsistency mean they went through Jaime Elizondo, they didn't quite get that right at the early in the season. Obviously they'd gone through four different quarterbacks, which is ridiculous. If you put Pax and Lynch in there, you got five in one season in a 10 game season, five quarterbacks, I mean that's once every two weeks. So you can't build any consistency that way. You can't build rapport. So for San Antonio, and it's a shame because they're defense is really good, they have guys balling out on defense. They are always in games. They always keep themselves in games. That defense and the special teams for John Parker Romo is probably the best thing that's going for them. They're kicker, he's been outstanding. But again, as I said a couple weeks ago, when that's your best factor on offense, that's not a good sign. And for San Antonio it's just kind of a lost cause, a lost season. And I think there's a lot that Heinz Ward can figure out too. I think as a coach win the challenge, what kind of challenges he can do, but I think they've just been kind of snake picked, kind of like Vegas. Honestly, they've remind me a lot of Vegas where it's just a lot of bad luck and a lot of unfortunate circumstances that kind of led them to this moment. And I mean look, they're not technically out of it, but I don't see how this is going to get better in the next two weeks. How much blame do you put on Hz word? I put some but not, I don't know if you want a percentage, but I don't think I put a lot on him just because I still think he's figuring it out. I think in the coaching hierarchy, I think he's been that mid-tier better than Buckley, probably better than Rod Woodson, which we'll get into later on. But I mean I think he's fine. It's, there's a lot to figure out as far as, I think there's a lot of maybe roster construction here that didn't quite work out, especially with the receivers, which I like a lot, but it's tough. I want there to be a better consistent product here overall and I just haven't seen it. I haven't seen it from San Antonio. Antonio's end. I haven't seen it from the end of anybody here. So it's really tough. Really is, If I hop off for you for a minute, you'll just keep on going here. Why give any other thoughts on this game? I'm going to hop right back around. I got to get some water Of course. Look, like I said, I feel bad because San Antonio I thought could have had a chance to do better here on offense. Also, their crowd was not as present as I was hoping as well. I know again, we talked about the Easter thing, but they haven't really gotten the numbers that they should have in the stadium. We obviously saw the commanders, they had about what, 27, 20 8,000 fans during the AAF days. They were able to draw people. San Antonio was pumped up as being one of the big markets. They had about 24,000 their first week the Braas did against the St. Louis Battle Hawks in the last couple of games. They just haven't really been able to draw those same numbers. You would've thought that San Antonio was going to get those better numbers, but at the same time you haven't really been able to get those numbers because the performance of the team and B, maybe some of the start time. So San Antonio is a market I hope can show it's true form because I think it can be one of the best markets in the X ffl, but it hasn't been like battle, obviously it's not even close to battle dough numbers, but I think a lot of people, including me, were having more expectations of like, okay, they'll be close to that or they'll be around the battle dome atmosphere. They'll have 30,000 screaming fans and be really into it. But they've, they've got a lot of legwork to do too. I've seen a lot of negativity about that, that San Antonio should be doing more and the attendance and they should be maxing out every week. It's hard. I've had Scott Bailey, he's with a sports journal down there saying they haven't done enough marketing just if you're going to go in there, it just doesn't feel like they've ever really capitalized. They should have seamless Seattle. But I just think there was a lot more expectations for San Antonio. Darren saying here they need to be one of the flagship franchises of the league, but they need to win. That's the thing too. Mike's tweeting the team's no good. Why are you going to go, you're not going to pay 50 bucks to go watch a team. That's not any good. At some point the team needs to be competitive if they want to draw attendance. Yeah, and the commanders were obviously the San Antonio commanders were battling for division title when they were in there and they won their first game on c bs. It was a whole thing. They were competitive. So that is part of it. But I still think they should be drawing those numbers regardless of their performance in my opinion. Like San Okay, if St. Louis was below 500, do they still get 35,000 people? I still argue that they get a lot of people, even if they're below 500, that's just me. Yeah, mark says here I go by, San Antonio is struggling. Their offense, it's really hard to watch. It's just a bad team that plays in a very low scoring game. It's hard to sit through it. It is. I understand that. Talking another kind of low scoring game here. One that I think maybe people had higher expectations for. We have the Guardians Renegades 18, 16. It kind of felt like this was the turnover game and who wants the ball less? Who wants it more Thoughts on Bob Stoops here, team getting the W but still never looking too dominant Renegades fans. I hope you like heart palpitations cause that's what you're going to get every time you watch this team. It's just going to be this way of play the entire season. Look again, Luis Perez did his job. He came in, kept it steady, moved the ball enough, everything was fine with him. Everything around him is what the problem was. This Arlington team, I mean I could have said that they have should have scored more points. I believe that, but it's mean. There's some wacky stuff going on in this game. You had a play literally where Dormy throws an interception and then the guy returning the ball fumbles it and it goes right back to the guardians. In one play there was two turnovers. It was just an absolutely wacky game. A lot of circus play, just ball flying all over the place. It was really wild. Dormy a shame because I really thought, I know this Arlington defense is really good and they have been all seasoned there. That's been their calling card. But I thought Dormy was going to have a better game and while he had the yardage totals, obviously the interceptions, the fumbles were just backbreaking and the offensive line obviously still not doing him any favors, never have, never will. But I think this is a case where maybe his maturation is still coming along. He's still developing, still needs that consistency because we've seen him do it. Obviously played spectacular against Vegas, played amazing against dc. He can do those sorts of things. He just might need more steadiness when things don't go is he could be able to have the right mindset to keep himself in, have amnesia when he, as a quarterback, can you forget about the previous play and just continue playing. I think that's something that he's going to have to work out. I don't know if this is the coaching staff for him to figure that out because quite frankly, I think Buckley also had, again, some horrendous decisions. Why on Earth when they're down a single score, they score a touchdown and they go for one to go 18, 16 instead of going for a three, what does that help you with? There was four minutes left and they could still get a stop on defense, but at that point you need to start playing for ties. My guy like that. That's not that. This is not the time to be hoping that and praying that your defense is going to make a play. I know it's gets the renegades, but I don't agree with that philosophy at all. It's like the polar opposite of every other team in the league, and I just think that that's Guardian's operation is just all over the place. It's a mess. For dormy sake, I hope he is able to get more consistency from the staff going forward because there's some real potential here. I mean, he had another 300 yard game like those, you don't just hand those out in spring football and he had another one. So he, it's, it's disappointing. It could have been better I think. I really thought the guardians had a chance to win and really make some noise in the south division. Obviously they're out of it now. They've been officially eliminated. It's that kind of season. I mean it was detonation from the start. Yeah, it was exciting. It was exciting to have a little bit of hope there. Right. Are we done with the Orlando games too? Do we play there again now that they're eliminated? I mean, you played in Orlando. I mean, I know the show out has not been amazing, but Danny's not giving up on this. Are you kidding me? She's not, I mean, are they done? Yeah, so they're done with home. Oh, oh, Orlando. Yeah. Yeah, so that's okay. That's good. Yeah, I did see Danny tweet about that. I thought that was exciting. But I mean, you don't think the Orlando experiments failed? I mean, you think there's enough juice there to go back? I think they should try it again. I mean, I know it's hard to fill that stadium. It's quite large, but I don't think you give up on it necessarily. I think it's the same thing as Seattle. It's just like, let's try this again and build it back up. I think there is potential in the Orlando franchise. I know we've made fun of everything from the jerseys to the roster construction to the coaching staff to everything about it. We've made fun of obviously. But that's the thing it, I think that just, it's a matter of the steam needs to play better and they need to present themselves better and Danny needs to keep blowing her trumpet down there because that's what's going to be able to get the people into the stands. That's something they have to keep working on. But I think there's potential to continue with this franchise. They need to wipe the slate clean and start over because it just did not work the season ahead all. But all that being said, the ballers are still the worst team of the two. I, yeah, I enjoyed seeing our chairwoman get a little chippy on Twitter this weekend and tweeting about all four quarters and the great overtime win. And I said, I love it. And she responded to me. I said, that's step number one. Step number one, getting the chairwoman responding final game, which I kind of thought was going to be the only, who would've thought we would've got two overtime games the first weekend here, but the Vipers going into the dome. This was exciting. We had the Nick show out and then was he really that good doing the helicopter that got a lot of impressions. This was a hot, exciting game. What were your general thoughts on this? That fake punt call is the call of the season. That was amazing, amazing call by that staff. I have been so impressed by Beckton, his entire operation. He has just hit all the right buttons this entire year. Every time the St. Louis team comes into a game and you think, I don't know if they're going to have the horses today. I don't know if they're going to have the juice to deal with this problem. Adrian McCan's out. You don't know how their offense is going to run. We have no idea what Nick Tiana looks like at all. And did he have the most amazing performance? No, but was he gutsy? Absolutely. I mean, he had a John Elway esque helicopter spin on a conversion attempt that was absolutely nuts. That guy was really gritty the entire day. And this whole team, I think that's the whole mantra of the team really is just grit and toughness. I know that's cliche, but it really is. I mean, they keep themselves in every single game. I really am so immensely impressed with St. Louis and how they're able to feed off the energy of their crowd, be able to keep themselves in games, just be able to push the right buttons at the right time. They, they're offense. I mean, they had some turnovers. They were sloppy. They had a rough start to the game and they also had a rough third quarter and they just couldn't really get it going. But man, just some heroics by random players. And I think one of the biggest things that has talked about a lot too is just utilizing the full roster last week against Houston. He said all of the guys, all 51 guys played on the roster. Everyone played and contributed and I think he feel the same way here. Everybody came in and contributed even the backup quarterback. And I think that's the mantra of the entire team, doesn't really matter who comes in and sort of contributes on offense, defense, special teams, they're going to find a way to utilize your skillset and they're going to use it correctly. I, I'm just really impressed by their toughness and their ability to weather a lot of storms. Nick was gray and this was exciting. It seems like he kind of came down to earth, felt like he kind of came out hot and then didn't quite excel the whole way through, but it was enough. They made it through JL McLendon here did good. It certainly wasn't the first week is it? I've seen people put on here comments. We get these new quarterbacks, there's not enough tape, and then they come back down to earth a couple weeks later. Is that what's happening with JL McLendon here or is it St. Louis defense just that much better than it was his kind of show out game last week? I mean, I think they prepared for him a little bit better than San Antonio was, but I still like Jaylen McClendon a lot. I think his skillset is really solid. I mean, he adds that element of running, obviously that just absolutely kills your defense when you're trying to spy the guy and also keep tabs on all of his passing options. I mean, they still ran the ball quite effectively here in this game. And I still think that McClendon, I think he has a future. He reminds me a lot of I, I'm not sure what his comp is exactly, but he just seems like he needs to develop more. I think he needs more playing time. And that's the thing. I also want to take tabs of this X ffl season too. We've talked a lot about in the C F L, it takes time for guys to acclimate themselves and get ready and prepared for the C F L game and be able to become effective, right? Nathan works took some time. Chad Kelly's kind of going through that right now. Same. I think the same principle needs to be applied here in the Spring League, especially here because the X ffl has given opportunities to some players who you clearly see some potential in. You see potential in Dormy, you see potential in McClendon, you see potential in Ucci, but you still sit there and say, well, they could use a little bit more time. They need a little bit more. They just need time to develop and sort of marinate their skillset. And I think that can happen. I think you can get guys McClendon to stick around maybe another year. I know he might get into a camp and might get a practice squad and all that, but for his sake, for his development, I think he needs to stay around another year. And Rod Woodson's squad needs to give him another chance because I think there's something here with him as far as running this operation because there's something that he can really build on and this Vegas team can build on because they've just been agonizingly close this year to winning some of these games. I mean, they're not that far off. They're not a two and six team, but it's just broken that way from them for various reasons. Yeah, it's hard here. I'm seeing that. If Mike has a comment, I wonder if the Braas would be like if they traded for Huntley instead of Ben Kirk. I don't know. Ben was definitely easier to acquire. I don't know. It's hard. Let's see here. I want to look more. Any other thoughts on ti here? Do you think he has a future? Do we see him back? I mean, obviously we have AJ McCarran, we're kind of nursing that, but what, what's Tito's future here? Is he going anywhere? Is he coming back next year? I think he's coming back. I think he's definitely still a backup option, but I do think he has proven that he can do what the coaching staff tells him to do. So that's a really big plus for him. He's going to be able to stick around and be able to serve that role clearly. Clearly Ryan Willis didn't want to play backup to AJ McCarran, but Nick Tiu wanted to and he did his job. So I think from that standpoint, yes, I think he comes back and maybe he gets to compete first spot next year and maybe he starting spot, but this is the exact role that he was put in and I, he's going to continue to be playing this role I think going into next year as well. Any other thoughts on this game? We'll get into the standings before we get out. We'll keep this in an hour today if anyone else has any comments on here, but anything else from this game or the other four before we kind of do the pre playoff preview here? Again, so immensely impressed with St. Louis, just weathering the storm. That overtime victory, obviously very emphatic for them. The home crowd going nuts, being the first to ever overtime game, isn't it just poetic for the X F L that it was in the battle dome, it was in front of St. Louis. That was just perfect for them, that it could not have happened any better for them honestly and get that rating on cable on E S P N. That is perfect for the X F L. It's not, it's like Taylor made, especially given the circumstances because they lose that game. Now. Seattle comes in with different applications obviously that they needed that win badly. So I think for them it's great for Vegas. Look man, rod Woodson's got some stuff to figure out too. He can't call that fake field goal. I know I supported it in the moment and the hindsight I'm like, no, that was a terrible decision. I think as much as I thought the execution of it looked fun, that's not what you want to do. You need to keep trusting your kicker and just let him continue to swing his leg because you're in a tight ball game and you need those points, so you kept those points. That's the difference, right? You're not going overtime. Maybe St. Louis can't score. They'd had to score a touchdown instead of kicking a field goal and maybe they don't get it. So It was really bad. The fake, and I think Seattle's got special teams good. They have a good special teams. I just don't know if we're elite enough special teams here in the X F L to be doing, pulling these fake punts and it was a 38 year field goal kick and just let 'em kick in. I just think we're overthinking that there. It felt like, Yeah, no, I did too. And I think he took ownership of that afterwards too. He at least admitted that was not a good call on my part. But Rod, rod, rod Rudd's got a lot of things to figure out too, and maybe him and the refs can also hash it out a little bit too because I know that's, again, we had the same thing and overtime with them too. There was an opio offensive that was called on Marta Bryan that was kind of questionable and he was not having that either. There's a lot there. A lot of ticky tackiness in that St. Louis game too, as much as there was in the Seattle DC game as well. Yeah, MaxMind in here. I tweeted this out. You X ffl, they're going to be kind of voting to do all their union stuff here coming up, so that's exciting working towards that as well with the U S F L on that. Don't forget live today. And then Friday our episode, Andy's going to be joining. I'll tweet out the guest this week. Big live U S F L preview pre-show Friday. It's going to be 8:00 AM so a little different but coming to you live if you have any comments. Otherwise, I don't want to go live on Saturday because there's X F L games and these U S F L games and everything's kind of overlapping. So we'll do a big slate, big round table kind of panel on Friday, talk through all of that. We'll talk through X ffl week nine and then obviously the U S F L weekend. Exciting times you looking forward to the next weekend. It's going to be wild. I said I think I tweeted into our group chat that maybe I should consider starting a red zone channel being Scott Hansen because all of a sudden we're going to have all this parallel action going on. It's going to be absolutely crazy. I never thought, never dreamed of a world whether it'd be two spring leagues going on at the same time and being multiple games of both leagues going on at the same time. That's really insane and it's going to be for a spring football fan. It's an absolute dream for us. Just a lot of work because we got to start covering, keeping our head on a swivel on two different ends now two different spectrums, but it's going to be fun. I can't wait for the show. I can't wait for this weekend and just to see what happens when these two leagues go ahead to head, this is unprecedented. This is an unprecedented weekend in the history of this niche sport that we cover. So check it out. It'll be 8:00 AM Pacific. I think we'll probably try to go for an hour and a half or so, but they'll be fun. We're going to have some old fan fan famous on there, but like I said, I think everyone wants to be watching all the games on Saturday so we'll kind of partake in all that. Pulling up the standings here before we get out. Obviously DC here clenching at least the playoff spot. Seven and one Seattle basically has to win out and have some other fluky math happen. Vegas kind of out of it here. Any other thoughts on the north? We'll talk South's a little more interesting, maybe not. Any other thoughts on the EXE L North division? How many DC's that team, they really are. They've been that team the entire season and look, a three-way tie would've been awesome. It would've been so fun to go into the next couple of weeks just suddenly thinking, well maybe DC's not going to make the playoffs, which would just have been absolutely wild. But now, I mean they've asserted their dominance. They swept both these teams. They did their job and they are not backing down at all now. They still have to play. Let's see, they still have to play a couple more games here and see if they can get the division title, which I think they will. I presume that they will, but they are obviously in great standing, still have another home game to play I believe. And they are just, they're, they're in the driver's seat. They get to play at home against Arlington. Yeah, there we go. They play home against Arlington and I look, they can do whatever they want on offense. Like I said, they have full control of their operation as far as Seattle St. Louis game, like I said, that's a playoff game. That's it. That's your season for both teams in my opinion. I know there's still some scenarios in the 10 week, 10, all that, blah blah blah, but that's it. I think that's your game. So for the North division, I mean again, great quality football, even Vegas, even as the bottom feeder team is just great. Has good talent, has a lot going for them on certain skill positions, but they just can't get it together and just win enough games. But yeah, I mean the North Division has been one of the most competitive, more competitive than either division in the S F L last year in my opinion. Mark, how's the question? No, the playoffs aren't set. Seattle can still catch up here and they would have to win out and then obviously St. Louis would have to drop one, but it it's, it's certainly not as exciting as it would've been with a tie there with Seattle and St. Louis, Seattle. But this will be the Sunday night game here. Seattle at St. Louis I think is, it is got to be the last high stakes game of the season. I think it's in and around kind of when the USS f l plays so people can enjoy that. Is that your most, I guess anticipated matchup next weekend? Oh easily. Absolutely. It's, it's going to be absolutely rocking there and the St. Louis fans are going to be absolutely unhinged again as they have been all season. This is their I, this is their game. This is their opportunity to finally punch formally punch their playoff ticket and bring Kaka to the playoffs. That'd be good. Max has a question we'll get to before we get out. Last thing in the south, yo know, little more wonky here. I can't believe Ren, is it at 500? Bram is two and six. Any other thoughts on the XFL south division and the Max has a question before we get out. I mean you're looking at a four and six or five and five Arlington team finishing out the season in my opinion, I don't think they're going to win in DC this weekend. So I think you still have that going on. Houston just needs to, like I said, they need to just keep tuning up and just figure out a way to win these last couple of games and just look better overall and just find something that they can establish themselves with in the playoffs in the south division championship game. Because whatever it is, they have to figure it out. Their goal right now is to figure it out before they ultimately presumably get into the championship game. Look, I like Arlington but I just don't, oh long term run. I don't think they have much to work with if they go to Houston. I don't think that I really give them much of a chance, but I think Houston themselves also have to be able to get themselves out of this just slump that they've been in the last four weeks. They have to be able to resurrect themselves somehow and the south it is what it is. There's a lot of different reasons why that didn't go well but you know what, next year, maybe it's the opposite, maybe the north completely tanks and the south looks great. You never know what these spring leagues, they can always just flip around in one year because there's so much turnover, roster turnover, coaches leaving. We'll see how the off season goes in that regard. But obviously the south is the less enviable option to watch on tv. You want to watch those north games more. So Last question for Max here, we'll get out of here. Should every EXE L coach be retained for next season? What about dpp? I think regardless, yeah, Larry Lee over in Orlando needs to go. Do we give, I know all the coaches are signed for at least two years. I think three I think is some. I think it was Beck was saying, but should all the coaches come back next year, I think Buckley's going to get another chance. People can argue as to whether he should get another chance, but I think he's going to be given one and as far as everyone else, yeah I think you keep Hines, you keep Rod. If he wants to continue coaching, obviously you keep back. You got to keep back in this league. I mean he's the face of one of faces of the league. Barlow's awesome. You hope that he doesn't leave because I mean he's just been so rock solid for dc that would be a shame but he's afforded himself the opportunity not so sure. I want to see with him is he committed? I want to see how committed he is to the Seattle Place. I'm going to kill you, I'm going to kill you. I, I'm sure you will for me saying that, I'm sure I just hope that he's able to go through the off-season program. If there's an NFL team that's going to court him, we'll see what happens with that. Obviously June Jones is still flying around there. Does he assume the throne Ron z I mean it's a great coaching staff. You want to retain a lot of those guys. It's just a matter of somebody comes calling, they might go run and get money somewhere else. So it's hard. Seattle is a hard one to figure out. Arlington, I don't know, I think there's going to be some shake up there. Bob Stoops I think will stick around but I think there's going to be a lot of other positional coaches that might not be surviving this season. So there is going to be some turnover. Your X F L if as the X F L, you hope that some of that, most of them are return, some of them are probably going to leave. There's going to be turnover. I think that's inevitable. But I think the biggest one, I think for sure the one I feel really confident about is back. I think back sticks around another year. Yeah, back's good. Rob Woodson's, we'll see you there at Barlow. I think Barlow looks good there in DC everything else. So that will do it today. I appreciate everyone kind of getting through this. We're here at the Luxor and on vacation. Everything else, I know my voice is not ideal today so I appreciate everyone working through that. Like I said, we'll be here live, I'll be back home but live Friday we're going to have a big slate of guests to Andy and a lot of the other people joining for our big US F L pre show and the X F L week nine preview. Since you we talk all the different leagues on here should be excited and I'll get some more C F L content as well when I get back in town. Yeah. Andy, anything else before we get out of here? You're a trooper. Go take some throw losses and drink some water and get ready for round two buddy. Awesome up guys. Well thanks again. Like and subscribe. We'll see you Friday on here. I'll post 'em another shorts this week as well. Those have been really fun on the YouTube channel. I will play the outer music and we will get out of here. Thanks again guys.

Episode 139 - Discovering the "Magic Formula" for Spring Football

Coming up this week on the mark. We'll go ahead and call me John Nash Russell Crow here this week. Very fun episode. This week we are going to use our beautiful minds. We are discovering the magic formula for spring football. What does that all mean? Well stick around, you'll find out. Fun episode this week. First and foremost, we have Bill Shaa from the Athletics joining us. Bill is a TV ratings guru tracking everything, especially spring and alternative football all the way back, aaf us and foul everything in between where getting bill's thoughts and the sustainability of the X ffl, especially with the U S F L on the horizon. What is the magic formula? The holy grail for spring football Networks and investors have believed for a long, long time that it's possible to challenge the N F NFL or to find the magic formula to make it work. In springtime, people are convinced they're chasing this holy grail and in the legend, the holy grail was found and in Hollywood, Indiana Jones found it and then lost it. I think it can be done Then. This is an exciting one. Josh Lewin, you know him as the host of the X F L. We can review show contributor for X F l.com. Sitting down with Josh. Really candid thoughts. What does Josh think about the X F L so far? Is he impressed with everything? Year one, You want it to just really dazzle and just take over the world and it hasn't done. To me, this is all kind of in beta, as they say on Shark Tank where it's like things are in development. To me it's like when a restaurant opens what they call a soft open almost, right? It's like the menu's not fully formed and it's not going to be what it's going to be, but you want to get the restaurant open and get people eating the food. And then Eric, eager of super sports joining us, Eric is with us for the EXL kickoff. We are breaking down all the football. We do talk football and hear as well on the football of X Ffl, week eight preview, reviewing all four weeks. Matchups, I've been really enjoying the league. I made a comment on Twitter today that every X F L game right now has a total this week of above 40, which I feel like is a great sign for the league right Now. And then I sat around the other day, I thought, what the heck is Matthew Sexton doing right now? Matthew Sexton of your Vegas Vipers, formerly of the Spring League. The aviators or the Hughes as I prefer to call them. Catching up with Matthew Sexton here. Vipers big game this weekend against the Battle Hawks. And then for all you CFL fans out there, we have head coach Rick Campbell, coach Rick of America's, CFL T, and the BC Lion. Catching up with Rick. I never had Rick on the show. I said, what the heck is he working on this week? Let's chat. Should be a good show as always. Like and subscribe, take care. Hey guys, welcome to the Mark Reid here. Kind of a busy week here, bouncing around, recording all these you interviews out of order, lots of events this week we have Paxton Lynch switching teams. We talked earlier this week about Kurt Ban all those injuries with Andy Murray on our Monday morning live stream. I want to get right to the episode this week. Thank you all so much. A really loaded show, a little philosophical again as we like to get on here. The sustainability of spring football, what is going on? U S F L on the horizon, X F L ratings, sustainability, all these kinds of things I like to get into on here. Plus real football talk. We're going to break down all of that stuff. Programming note before I let you go, we will be out of town next week, going to be in Vegas for my wife Dorothy's spring break. So Andy Murray and i's normal. What do we learn episode That's going to be Tuesday morning. I'll do it from the Lux Shore. We fly out Monday, so Tuesday morning there's not going to be the Monday morning live stream. We'll do it Tuesday morning. Andy and I, probably eight, probably 8:00 AM eight 30 Pacific. We have been doing the next Friday's episode. It's going to be a special live episode. Still working on all the details, trying to finalize all the guests. Like I said, going to be in Vegas, going to have trouble kind of pre-recording everything like I normally do. So going to get together. Yeah, big gang, we're going to do kind of a U S F L weekend kickoff preview. Not going to be in Birmingham this year. We're traveling, going to be in Vegas and everything else. So not going to be in Birmingham, not going to be in Memphis. But we will have a fun show for you talking to X F L week nine, doing the u, USS F L, all that stuff. So look forward to that. I'm going to try to do it live around the time the episode normally goes on, but it'll be Friday morning. We're going to have a big round table, come hang out, ask questions. Should be a good time preparing, prepping for the U US F L kickoff, ffe, everything else. So hope you guys enjoy. Like I said, I hope you guys enjoy Bill Shaa today. I really extended thoughts with Bill. I really kind of deep diving into all of that. Bill's a wealth of knowledge. Really appreciate him coming on. Josh Lewin making the time. I hope you guys enjoy that. I know we all like and I know Mike Mitchell's a big fan as well. Josh's weekly X F L weekend review show. I like getting you Josh really kind of out of that element, right? A little more candid talking. What does Josh think about everything? Josh? Very open. I was surprised that kind of just how open and honest Josh was. I think it's like we are on here. I think it's okay to be a little critical whether we look forward to here with things changing with the X F L approaching season two. So really appreciate that Eric Eer as always making time to come on with Sum Sports and I thought it was fun. Matthew Sexton, hope you guys enjoy that. Interviewing him, riding home from practice there in Arlington. That's a fun one. And then Rick Campbell, I always trying to get you guys some C F L talk as well, so it subscribe. Hope you guys enjoyed the episode. I'll check back in at the end. Take care. Well I'm excited. Today we have Bill Shaa and I think there's going to be a cat popping around here at some point with the athletic here we are talking xfl, we're week eight. We have TV ratings. Could be better, could be worse. Been reading Bill's stuff on the Athletic for a few weeks now, talking to new xfl. Bill, how are you doing? Good, good. Thanks for having me. Good. So we live in this echo chamber that's known as like alt football, Twitter, and all the Reddits and everything else. I like getting outside perspectives on here. Me as an alt football fan, how should I feel approaching XE L week eight right now? Well, that's a great question because I think network executives and league executives are asking themselves the same thing. And the reason I say that is because the television industry has changed so radically in recent years gradually. And then all of a sudden the proliferation of cable and other entertainment options, the internet, social media, and then the rise of streaming in the advent of smartphones over the last 10, 15 years has really accelerated the way things have changed. And our contextual understanding in general has been slow to catch up shows that used to average 30 million people, while that doesn't exist really outside of the N F L anymore. So trying to get a B done, exactly what people should be thinking around X FFL or U S F L numbers in the spring is sort of, it's hard to gauge. I'm not particularly surprised by the numbers. I have seen the two rival spring leagues have a little bit different sort of media footprints and one is owned by a network and the other one is owned by a third party. And what it really comes down to, and the thing not to lose sight of is we see the numbers, we see all the comparisons to things, but what we don't know is what are the internal success metrics for the X F L, for Fox, for N B C, for the network TV partners, these football leagues, spring football leagues are part of a wider strategic programming plan for the networks. And that's really what it comes down to. And the survivability of these networks, these games aren't going to get five, 10, 15 million viewers, maybe one day championship games of these things really take off. They could do that, but they don't need to do that at this point. The cost structures, the rights arrangements and things like are really what matters. These are lineup fillers for the networks and what the equation ultimately is. If the network thinks it can get the same eyeballs and ad rates for something cheaper, well then they'll put something cheaper on there unless there's some other obligation that there or goal that they have. And if not, they'll stick with it for the money and the contracts that they have, they have laid out. That all being said, the numbers aren't exactly blowing up right now. Week sevens average, I think for the x ffl was earned 350,000, you know, had a Friday night game, Seattle and Arlington on fx, which is not the ideal landing spot for any sort of sport at this point. And it was up against college basketball, one of the final fours. So you got 177,000 average on fx. You've had games and late at night, they're, they're Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday, Monday. Fans N F L fans by now are used to knowing when and where their teams are playing. The N F L is carved out, it's footholds on Thursday night football and Monday night and on the weekends X F L on U S F L for that matter don't have that sort of public awareness. And what also doesn't help is because the way things have changed with streaming and cable and satellite and all that, it's harder to get what's called organic discovery, which is when you're just flipping channels and you're like, oh hey, what's this thing? Haven't seen this. I'll watch, oh, this is kind of cool, I'll come back to this, something I'll regularly watch. When you're not in a consistent slot, it's hard to build that through organic discovery. And it's not just X FFL or U S F L that have that problem. It's a lot of content anymore because we have so many channels, we have so many streaming services, the push and pull for our eyeballs and our wallets is bigger than it's ever been. So it's a bigger struggle than ever. There are also advantages for starting a football league now or restarting a football league. And in the case of these two leagues is you have options. There are more options to put your product and you don't have to be on A, B, C and go to the upfronts each spring and hope somebody's willing to pay a bunch of money for airtime during your broadcasts. So it's sort of a yin and a yang, but, and week to week it's hard to judge. I did a mid-season report on the X FFLs numbers. They were not great, particularly compared to the past couple versions of this league. They rebounded a little bit in following weeks. Getting off of X FX helps having games on the big networks, the national broadcast channels like a b abc, that absolutely helps. But this past weekend it's like pickleball at noon on e s. ESPN had 670,000 viewers, the top X F L game later on Sunday afternoon, 502,000 that could have been bigger if it wasn't facing the Women's Final Four, which got 10 million viewers for an all-time all-time record. But there's some more ABC games coming up week eight or week nine and 10 I think have won each. There's some S P N games, I think they're done with fx, which is good. I don't know if they'll ever return to fx, they may want to avoid that in the future. But really for the networks too, these are opportunities to play around with these football properties and find a place that maybe works and that they settle in to somewhere. But it's a busy chaotic time in the TV industry. And to me it's totally fascinating that we've got, we'll have two rivals spring leagues overlapping this year. And I'm a huge sucker for all alternative football. I played minor league arena football many years ago and I've always, I love the original U S F L 40 years ago and on all of the efforts that have happened since to try to make this work. And I think now is probably the most opportune time to try to make it work. It's just who's going to survive and the tolerance for loss financial losses until you reach a point where you're either break even or maybe making a little bit of money. But with the chaos and the TV industry, I, it's really too hard to predict, especially with these wild numbers these leagues get what's going to happen two or three years down the road. Crazy out there. Well, it's just hard because I think a lot of when they announced the TV networks, hey it's going to be a b, ABC and ESPN and all that, we're going to use Fox and we really want to build up Fox era fx. It feels like FX is really part of their strategy. And even I have here with Mike Mitchell's article, he's our EXE L insider guy, 177,000 viewers on fx that was still their second highest viewed program. So even though it's a terrible rating, it's actually not that terrible in views of what FX normally gets. I just, I'm afraid that this is part of the strategy and they're not going to say we want to dump fx, we want to use that to build these numbers up. Should I be scared of that? Well always be scared of everything when it comes to the TV industry because you don't know who the president of the network is going to be next week, next month. And strategies can change in a heartbeat. We're seeing big layoffs across tech and TV right now and so much money's laid out for sports rights. It's minimal with these particular leagues compared to the hundred 20 billion for the nfl, stuff like that. But yeah, FX reminds me a little bit of the cw. The CW earlier this year struck a deal with the Liv Golf Tournament, the controversial Saudi Arabian backed league that's competing with the PGA tour. The CW was never known as a place to go watch sports. I was born out of the old WB and whatever the other network was with Michigan JF frog back in the day as the mascot. But clearly with the new ownership of the cw, they're shifting what they want that network to be. It used to be aimed at generally youth audiences with its programming by putting a deep pocket golf league on there that has real talent, legitimate like the old U S F L, legitimate professional veteran and young talent with all the politics and everything around that. It's clearly a big step in what looks like a strategy to make the CW into something else. I wouldn't be shocked if that network has a new name within a year or two as well as all of these channels end up with different names. And that's a big experiment a lot of people are watching because the most people don't realize the CW was one of the five national broadcast networks. So it's big, it's in every all hundred 22 million US television households. I can see something similar with fx. If they want to make that a destination channel with live sports because they think they can make money, they will try to do that. And the reason you would use something like the X ffl to do that, it's number one, it's a relatively low barrier of entering. It's the cost compared to other live sports are relatively small. So it's a relatively safe experiment to do. And the other thing with live sports is they are the most resistant to the cord cutting and other phenomenon under underway with television. People still, they live sports attracts the most viewership, which is why we're talking about 670,000 people watching pickleball at noon on a Sunday. 742,000 people watch P B A bowling that on Sunday as well. It's just blowing other stuff other than cable news and some of the premieres of prestige television or stuff like Yellowstone. Now these are good solid numbers to have. You're not making a ton of money. Some of the ad rates could be 20,000 bucks for 30 seconds or whatever it may be, but if you want to build out FX into something different, X ffl is a cheap way to do that. And live sports are a proven way to get eyeballs in a rapidly changing media landscape. I like that you keep pointing out the 640,000 for the pickleball because people, as you can imagine, X Ffl fans were up in arms that John McEnroe playing pickleball was preempting and we got a lot of like, oh see ESPN doesn't care about X F L. It's like you can't just cut off the sport. It's the final, I don't know how pickleball works the final frame. You can't just cut that out. I, so to put it, that is interesting to put that in perspective, pickleball drew 640,000 compared to the X FFLs three. I think it was 365 or 3 56. Yeah, no, and with the pickleball thing, obviously there was some big name recognizable historic names involved with that. And there's a curiosity factor that any new sports or programming benefits from X ffl, all three versions of it, U S F L, all two versions of it get initial big audiences because people are like, oh, what's this? And obviously Americans love football at all levels and they respond by watching it and networks and investors have believed for a long, long time that it's possible to challenge the N F L or to find the magic formula to make it work in springtime. And the graveyard of dead football leagues is crowded and gets more crowded every few years. AAF joined it a couple years ago, X ffl two, but people are convinced they're chasing this holy grail and in the legend, the holy grail was found and in Hollywood, Indiana Jones found it and then lost it. But I think it can be done. Everybody has stopped trying to challenge the N F L. You're just not going to match that. You're not going to beat that. It's foolish and it's basically partners with every media network and nobody is going to air your games. If you're like, I'm going to the fall and I'm starting a league, I'm going to put billions into it. But then you're going to have to start your own TV network and get in a homes too because nobody is going to partner with you on that. But even with the scale down expectations it, it's not easy, but I think it can be done. I don't think in five years we will still have two spring football leagues and I believe there's discussion of the Arena Football league coming back in some form maybe next year, which although it is a different game and I've played that game, it's still fundamentally spring football. And when I say spring, we're really talking the week after the Super Bowl is still wintertime. And I live in Michigan, so wintertime goes to August and these spring leagues go through July now. So it's almost, it's just about half the year that we're talking about and N F L and college football on the other half of the year. Although spring games and the N F L is a 24 7, 365 creature. And these leagues benefit from that too because I'm Gen X. So I remember all the N F L guys either starting in the U S F L originally or ending up there. I'm from Cleveland. Brian Sip was my first favorite player, the old Browns quarterback in the seventies and early eighties. He ended up with the New Jersey Generals and the Jacksonville Bowls. So bunch of big name players and with these younger leagues, these lower tier developmental leagues, everybody's hoping to strike gold there as well. I believe the U S F L had a player last season end up on an N F L roster and go to the Pro Bowl. It's not yet Jim Kelly, it's not Herschel, it's not those guys yet. If somebody does come out of one of these developmental leagues or like a guy little n l experience goes down, gets some time, comes, gets his opportunity back in the big league and turns into the next big thing and heads to Canton, that will help the leagues. But that's a long term. That's a long-term play. But it certainly would benefit these leagues. So what do we have in two or three or four, five years? I think one of them, maybe these leagues combined, I don't know, but I'm glad people are trying, I'm glad it's their money and not mine, but I'm not a big baseball hockey or basketball watcher. But I will, if one of these games is on U S F L or X F L, I'll have it on I'll interested. I'm always interested too in the bells and the whistles, the drone cams and F-bombs getting picked up because every other player is micd when the ambient sound isn't 400 people talking at one time and rule. I like the rule experimentation. The NFL's absolutely watching all of this and at some point some of this stuff that works in these leagues will make its way to the National Football League. I know there was discussion of the, what is the fourth and 15? Yeah, the Conversion. The conversion. I think we could see something like that because they changed the N F L onsite kick rules years ago because you used to line up 10 guys onto one side of the kicker and then it was just a rugby scrum for the ball. They've tweaked that. And honestly I liked the kickoff where all of the guys are at one end of the field and nobody can move until the ball cutting down injuries is big. Not only the injuries suck for the young man involved in his career potentially, but the teams and the fans lose out key personnel that you need, especially these lower level leagues where your rosters aren't as deep at all. It's injuries can be really devastating. And same at the N F L. You don't want to see your favorite player banged up on the hands team on an onsite kick like that. So safety is legitimately important at all levels of the game. Not just for humane reasons but business reasons as well. So I think if nothing else, the legacy of these leagues will also be some of the rules and technological innovations around things. But man, they've got to get the sound cleaned up. Cause so many times I'm watching, I'm like, who said what? Because I hear the coach and I hear the players and I hear some jokers on the stands and assistant coach and then Mike Pierra starts to people, everybody's talking at once and I'm like, ah, it's the tower of bevel, I just want to hear some guy dropping F bombs or something. The fun stuff you see on tv. So we look at this, like you said, Fox and espn, ABC here. We want cheaper programming. We want to fill these slots. Fox, we've kind, we can put five, six hours in this every weekend during the spring, early summer. We're seeing the ratings now obviously U S F L did better last year right on network and everything else coming back again. They have a better slate this year. She'd be like, is this worth it all? Are the ratings right now like that the X F L doing knowing what advertisers are probably paying for all this stuff, we don't know. But yeah, you can assume is this worth this experiment? Do you feel like this is vindicated through week seven going into week eight? Ultimately that's going to be for the TV networks. I know, but I want your But what is Bill's opinion? I think they are absolutely worthy experiments because like I said before, I think there is some magic formula, some grail that can be found where you get a spring football property that's that the costs and the benefits, financial and intangible are in a sweet spot where it just works now it may not work forever. The old AFL arena football league was around a couple of decades in various formats. The lingerie football league, which was obviously a cheesecake sort of thing, lasted at seven or eight years. The expectations are different. I think it's absolutely worth it from the network perspective, the advertisers, that's their money to spend for the players, the coaches, the honor, talent, offic, there's so many people gaining experience too, doing these games, playing in them, producing them, announcing them, officiating them. And a lot of those folks have designs on being at the highest level and this is a step between college and the many levels of college football into getting to the N F L one day. And some people are probably perfectly content to do this and not get to the bigger leagues because that is an even almost unimaginable different world and pressure level and everything that's coming at you and being on that stage. Some people are cool with triple A AAA and being content with that and that's fine. I think it's worth it. I think everybody involved so far thinks it's worth it. I think they need to give them the full three or five seasons or as far as they want to go. If it's working and if it was a merger or something cool, that means something worked for both leagues and just because one of them dies doesn't mean it was a failure in the sense of the idea didn't work. XFL 2.0 ran into the pandemic. That was no fault of anyone involved, not even Vince McMahon. It was just an unprecedented situation and it was doing okay. Had that pandemic not occurred, I don't think we would see U S F L 2.0. I think X Ffl 2.0 would've chugged along and done a done. Okay a F in 2019. That was your traditional botched financing and just in absolute crap show behind the scenes and some of the people they got in bed with was pretty unfortunate because it didn't take a real long Google search to figure out who you were dealing with. All the red flags you could see from Pluto in that case from space. Yeah, I think it's worth it. But where we at three years from now, I'm going to be real keen to see, but I think there will still be some sort of spring football product in a few years. Couple questions here, I'll let you go, but you've been just so good at explaining all this stuff. So sorry, we're going a little over here. That's fine. Obviously Fox owns U S F L when that comes back. They have good placement Saturday, Sunday, all of that they control and N B NBC and all that stuff. When they we're getting ready to hear like, okay, what's Danny and dj? What is everyone doing with the X F L? I think a lot of people thought maybe are we doing Netflix, are we streaming? Are we doing this stuff? They're on espn, a b, abc, you know the okay we're on fx, right? But nothing really, I mean it's still pretty meat and potatoes kind of standard tv. Are you just surprised that that's the route they went? Like it's U S F L just minus, not nearly as much network power behind it, if that makes sense. I just Are you surprised they didn't pivot a different direction? No. All of the conversation around live sports these days is much streaming and you know, ESPN plus Paramount Peacock, I'm sure there's some folks that thought, oh these should have just been purely streaming products. What we remain in, what's functionally the infancy of streaming, it's still very new compared to all of the other entertainment delivery technologies. It also loses enormous sums of money. We're talking billions and billions of dollars in aggregate from all of these networks and entertainment and streaming companies. So these were never going to end up purely on streaming. Some people thought they should, that makes sense. If this was 20 years from now, maybe that made sense. But these things were going to be an expense for both the networks that own them or are invested as just the broadcast partners. They're still not cheap. 150 million bucks for roughly for each of these. Trying to keep your labor costs down while not being poverty organizations or charity organizations providing a living wage and a real nice quality product. It's not cheap, but you need to get it on the big networks for people to see it. Because the other thing we talked about organic discovery is you can't flip through streaming yet. You can't cable or satellite. I have Comcast here in Detroit. I can just sit there with my remote and I'll flip through 300 channels and be like, oh the Big Lebowski is on. Or oh the X FFLs on, I'll just watch that streaming, you have to back in and out of all of the services. The TV in my bedroom is a smart cast so it takes even longer to get in and out. So putting these properties like this to start purely on streaming, they'd be dead before the season was out just because on top of this the streaming losses would've further financial losses from the streaming aspect of it. Now an Apple can get away with this with Major League soccer putting almost everything behind the streaming paywall on Apple TV because it had 25, 20 years of maturity behind it being on television. For the most part, these are much lower tier properties. It hasn't surprised me that they've kind of had to shrn them in where they can. Your spring lineups are a little easier to do that is, you know, can't do this in the fall cause you're up against college in the N F L, you wouldn't make it out of week one. So no, I wasn't particularly surprised by the routes these networks were going. Plus some of them have had been on the other networks in the past. They have long files on their previous involvements in this stuff and with the other league. So I think they're doing what makes the most sense. Last question for me here. I'll show you again. Yeah, before the bottom of the hour we just like we've survived March Madness, it's been horrible and pickleball and everything else, it's going to affect the acceler ratings like this time next year. What is that strategy? Just same thing and buckle down and know that it's going to suck ass for weeks four, the seven, or what do you do to try to program against that? Because that's U, to me that's one of the really only downsides of the X F L timeframe versus the April to July U S F L. Yeah, there's no easy way to do it. It's the little incremental things you do along the way. The quality of the product, the quality of the broadcast. Others have tried to start right after the Super Bowl, others have waited till April in the past. And with the shifting media landscape and consumer habits, it is so hard to predict. I suspect both leagues would love it if they were the Lone League still around a year from now. I think both of them still will be. And I think the numbers generally, if they can get a little better for both will help them both survive. And I'm honestly really looking forward to this Sunday's everything because you've Easter Sunday, which traditionally had been the death nail for live sports, but that's changed last year. U S F L, big numbers, masters, big numbers, others f1, other stuff on Easter Sunday is all of a sudden it's become Thanksgiving and Christmas, which the N B A and the NFL own where it's become a live sports holiday with big numbers. So this Sunday I think will be a milestone to watch for the X ffl, which will give us a little insight into maybe what could happen next year. I think they'll both still be around in barring something we don't know about in 2024. I don't know that they'll be radically different, but we'll see. They will have an off season to adjust on the fly and we have no idea what technology will even be around a year from them. I mean they may be beaming straight into our eyeballs or something. Who knows, we're come a long way in a short amount of time. Well Bill, I will be at the CJ C Dragons game on Sunday front row. I'll be there with my wife Visa Sunday. So look for us on the broadcast. I appreciate your time today. Thanks again for sharing your knowledge. Hey, thanks for having me. I appreciate it. Well I'm excited. Friends of the X Ffl will know this man. Josh Lewin here with X ffl weekend review x ffl.com. Everything else Josh, really appreciate your flexibility coming on my crazy work week and your schedule. How are you doing sir? Good, and please know, sir, I'm all right. Already feel so freaking old. All you 20 and 30 something is killing it in this space, but it it's really cool to be on with you and I, I'm loving the season loving this project that they've got me doing and all is right with the world. Well I like it and I want to get your perspective and obviously you do your show every week, but I always, it's different when you kind of long form here. Sit for a few minutes and talk about it. First off, what's the season like for you? How are you feeling overall grade of the X ffl? Well, I mean that's a great and simple question, but it doesn't have a simple answer because I think a lot of us, you want it to just really dazzle and just take over the world and it hasn't done that to me. This is all kind of in beta as they say on Shark Tank where it's like things are in development. To me it's like when a restaurant opens what they call a soft open almost, right? It's like the menu's not fully formed and it's not going to be what it's going to be, but you want to get the restaurant open and get people eating the food. So the food tastes great in that analogy and I think it's going to be phenomenal. It's already very good, but I think they're just kind of scratching the surface and feeling their way on some things. And that's to be expected because this is a whole new group between Red Bird Capital and Danny and Dwayne Johnson and Russ Brandon and everybody, everybody's new. So what they've done to get this going and get it organized is phenomenal. But to me it's not quite the polished product. It's going to be 2, 3, 4 years from now. How did you get involved in this? How did you get excited to come on board? Well, I was just excited there was an X Ffl restart and Russ, Brandon and I go back an embarrassingly long way. We were interns together for a minor league team in Rochester, New York like a bazillion years ago and we've just always been friends. I did was a play-by-play guy for the San Diego Chargers right up until I moved to LA. He was running the bills and every time the bills and chargers played, we would just always get together and had a nice relationship that way. So we know a lot of the same people. And when their season got close to kicking off, I think what they realized correctly is we need to make sure that we've got our own branded content. There's going to be enough good stuff what you do out there, which is amazing, but if the league doesn't have anything that's just kind of silly, look at there's mlb.com and there's n nfl.com and there's nba.com and they're doing their own content and I think what they realized right before the season was like, oh shit, we don't have that yet. So I don't do baseball anymore. I mean that was always my thing for March, April, may and beyond. And I think Russ kind of put two and two together and I had reached out to him saying, I would love to be involved and help you guys in whatever capacity. I think he was the one, and we haven't really talked about it from what I'm piecing together. He had his people reach out to me saying, Hey, if you're still basically just not doing anything in March and April, we need that Peter King kind of guy to just churn out some league content. So I'm a fan, so I'm like, sure, put my journalism degree to use. I haven't used it in forever, but I'll try to remember how to write stuff and I know how to do podcasts so it's not a problem. And I, I'd put my own thing in kind of beta as well where it's like, okay, I'm just kind of vomiting some stuff out there right now. It's not fully formed yet. I just want to make sure that people, football fans, not just across the nation but across the planet, know that the X ffl is a thing and here's why you should be watching it. So you said kind of beta form coming in, they're feeling everything out. H how have you felt talent level wise, entertainment wise, however you want to look at it, but how was the X F L done? Well, to me it's like when you come on trumpeting, it's going to be Josh Gordon and Marvis Bryant and they're just going to lap the field because oh, they've been in the N F L and then it turns out they're just kind of guys. You know what I mean? To me that's a really good harbinger of things to come and what's in the present as well that hey, there's apparently some guys that are doing it even better when Josh Gordon's your third option, something's going very, very right in Seattle for example. So I like the fact that it's a lot of young guys and some have kind of put their feet in the N F L water, some have not. But in terms of pure talent, I'm actually very impressed. I think the missing link, if that's the right phrase is it just everything came together. So harried Lee and hurriedly that having offensive lines gel was just not a thing. Having a thick playbook was just not a thing. So that, that's the downside of rushing to market they did. But again, with what they've been able to put together in a short amount of time, I think it's fantastic. Well I think there's two sides to that. Obviously spring football's always going to be, we have five weeks of training camp, whatever, that's always going to be crazy. But when it comes to the, they've owned this thing two and a half years, so I get the hurriedness of the spring football, but then it's also, we spend a year on the podcast talking about the CFL stuff here. So there has been time to work on other things. Are you surprised that it feels the way that it has or felt the way that it had hitting the season? Yeah, I'm kind of like you on the yes and no, right? I mean because again, there were just so many unknowns about how this was all going to come together and I get what you're saying. It's not like this was invented out of thin air and there had never been an X ffl before. I mean they had a really good footprint in 2020, but there were new characters in the show here. I mean there were new producers, new directors, I mean all of it. So I'm not disappointed really by anything other than frankly the attendance in some of the places. I think that's quite obvious. I mean I'm sure they didn't think they're going to be playing a cashman field in Vegas and it's just not a facility that's going to have 20,000 screaming football fans in there is just not some of the other places. I think Arlington could be a real mecca, but they need a more exciting product to be honest. I mean all these ten nine games are not going to get people to drive down from Frisco, even though it's a very reasonable ticket price and it's football, which obviously everybody loves in that the FW metroplex. So things to sculpt and things that could get better. But again, by and large you have so many success stories to point at St. Louis probably being number one on the list when you're getting the 30, 35,000 people in there and it's a market that aches for it. And you've got a marketable guy like AJ McCarran and you got Darius Shepherd who's so super exciting and Hakeem Butler making plays. I mean that stuff you can point to and tell people, check that out. A reliance I think in some of these older markets. I'm here in Seattle and I think they expected, hey, we had 20,000 whatever people back in 2020. Now the Kraken is this show airs Friday, could have clenched a playoff spot at this point. We'll be there Thursday night and it's, it's a different world. So it's weird to me of we're kind of relying on, and I have a follow up, but we're kind of relying on some of this stuff, but also we're not really cultivating, I don't see any Seattle marketing, I don't see any, oh, St. Louis, they have one billboard, but I don't see anywhere near what there was in 2020. And I know the marketing budget's low, but it just still doesn't surprise me. And that's why I'm just kind of trusting that this is like, okay, let's just build a platform here. This is a scaffold on which to stand so they can start doing some painting. This is the erection of the scaffolding to get it up and get it going. But I agree, I, I was DC I've been spending a lot of time back there due to some family concerns and I don't see any defenders swag other than what's right there being sold at. I mean, so that is the next step, the next level and I, I'm not a marketing expert and I'm not in that department or anything like that. But yeah, quite obviously there's got to be a budget and a desire to be as proactive as possible because a lot of these markets, like you say, are very competitive now. I mean Seattle's such a great example when you've got the soccer team that's always going to kick butt because it's a nice niche that's been carved out the crack and it's beyond a niche. They're going to get b A back again. The Mariners are good all of a sudden the Seahawks for the Seahawks. So you can't just show up and expect people are just going to beat down your door, you know, have to get creative and you have to get out there. So my sense is again, I mean should have insight to this because I'm kind of marketed as an insider, I'm not quite yet because I'm still nibbling on the edges as well. The overall sense that I get is that once we've got the scaffolding set up, let's grab some paintbrushes and get going and let's really get dirty and busy in these markets and make it interesting to be a C Dragons fan or a Braas fan or wherever you are a defenders fan, mean the defenders are such a good story and that should be just being hollered all around that Virginia and Maryland area. But it's not like they have a 10 person marketing department. They just don't. Well, especially, and I'm inexplicably, I'm a commander's fan here living in Seattle, but inexplicably that commanders are not a phenomenal team right now for the DC area. I know many, many of my commanders fans that would much rather listeners, Seth for one, that would much rather watch the DC defenders right now than the Washington Commanders. The interview last week that Danny and the Rock had on USA Today kind of surprised me. There was a quote, Tom had the article I think that we wanted, we're glad to get the monkey off our back now we're ready, we're done with, we can move on from XL 2020. We can make our own history. It always surprises me the balance of we want to buy this league, kind of invest in, we have all these existing fan bases, but then we don't ever want to acknowledge or this is our own thing now. It's a weird balance of that. Do any sense of how they look at that or how you would look at that. We want to inherit this but then knock everything down. The only thing I can really compare it to it's, and it all comes back to that Washington DC area again. When the Montreal Expos moved to RFK Stadium and became the Washington Nationals, it's not like the Montreal Expos history just went away. I mean, Andre Dawson was still a hell of a player and that's going to be the case, but he never played for the Washington Nationals. So you acknowledge the history of the organization, but at the same time I get it, the nationals are like, well hey, we're the nationals. We didn't have anything to do with Ella's Valentine or Andre Dawson or whoever. So I think that is a delicate balance and I hear what they're saying. I mean this is their baby now, but they didn't give birth to it. So it, it's a very odd construct, but I understand it mean they do want to put their own stamp on it and Danny in particular has just been so active and cool in terms of just blazing trails and getting things done. So I, I'm confident that mean the simple way to say it is I really think they know what they're doing is just that these things unfortunately, and I think you and I are in that camp, it's like it's that immediate gratification of Hey, let's make this super freaking cool right now. Let's just have a hundred million marketing budget. Let's really get crazy. And I think it's more of a slow build and again, I have to no business background on my own other than the fact, like I say, I watch Shark Tank every once in a while, but I get it. You know, can't just vomit out good ideas with bad ideas and see ah, we'll figure it out when we get there. I think that kind of a low rolling boil is probably a good way to go and that's what they're doing. I want to make sure we talk about this before we get out of here reports because this will be coming out. We've had obviously the current bankers of it all and him getting injured, which obviously hurts the big, he was the big face coming in and hurt for him in the same way I XE L Analyst is putting out that Paxton Lynch is heading to San Antonio. Are you surprised that it does feel like with the Louise Perez trade and everything, these coaches are really taking this seriously right now? Hey, we're going into week eight, but we still really care about this. Oh for sure. And let's not forget every win. Everybody's getting an extra thousand bucks in their paycheck. So it's not like you just coasted the finish line here. And I mean Orlando started oh six and they played a great game and earned that win to get to one and six against a team that was undefeated. And now you start to do the math and well wait a minute, they could actually make the playoffs and they could actually, if they get hot I they might and very healthy and nobody else is, you know, start moving the numbers around your head and you're like, oh my god, anything can happen down the stretch here. So when Seattle signs Philip Lindsay, I mean that's another just kind of huge shot up into the atmosphere that says no, everybody's taking this super seriously right now. Everybody wants to close fast and everybody wants to win. Before I let you go, I appreciate your time. You having gone, we complete this season here, right? Okay, we have championship tickets on sale, everything else this week, successful season. Do you feel like the X F L has kind of carved in its niche here? We have the U S F L starting here in a couple weeks. Does the X F L belong in this space and have they done enough to prove That? Yeah, no I do. And if I had to grade it, I mean to me it's like a b plus there. There's room for growth. I had been stunned if they would've come out and just hit every single checked every box and we're all walking around going, this is the best, don't change a thing. It's definitely better than average. It's certainly better than a C that the product itself, just the way it looks on tv, the access is incredible. We haven't talked about that, but I mean how much fun is it just to watch and listen? I mean it's like you can't turn away and that to me, that's the biggest thing they can market going forward. And again, I really have come to believe, nobody said this to me from the league, which is from where I sit, which is kind of on my couch, it's like, okay, I get it. It's like they're putting out there, they're shaping this in real time. They're deciding what works and what doesn't. Again, they're working on this menu as they go before the restaurant really gets hot and you can't get in. So I like it. I think we all wanted to just double dog love it. So somewhere it's extreme I guess is where I am with it and super flattered and thrilled that they've got me involved. I think there are some more big things coming. I really do get a sense that they have a plan, that they have the infrastructure to make that happen. I mean, again, I'm transparent about my friendship with Russ. You're not going to get me to say anything bad about the guy. I think he works his ass off and does a great job above him with Danny and Dwayne top-notch people slightly below Russ. The people like Janet Duke and Bill McCullough and Jay Rothman was such an amazing get for the TV side. I mean you see what he and Mandy Cohen and that group have done by making these TV broadcasts just amazing. Again, there are some next steps. I'd love to see a weekly show on Sirius xm. I'd love to see a weekly or twice a week show on S P N way above my pay grade. But once you figure out exactly what you are and they're in that process right now, beat the drum, beat it real loud because there are people like you, there are people like me that really do care and want to get out there and continue to help shape it in any way we can. We're all fans we want to do well. So I'm beyond cautiously optimistic. I'm optimistic that they can take a b plus and take a two and a real quick. Well you already answered my last question about what you want to see next, so I appreciate that. Yeah, I want to see more. Russ, I want to see, I interviewed him, we went down for the hub announcement. I see more Russ. I mean let's get him on. And I know he's a busy guy, but I want him as I know Danny's kind of the face there, but I like Russ on the football side. Well Josh, I really appreciate it fitting me in today with your busy schedule and everything else. So thank you so much and obviously everyone checking out your work xfl.com and the X F L we can review podcast. Well I, I'm so impressed with what you're doing brother. Thank you. I mean, not that I'm some league spokesman, but if I was doing the on behalf of the league thing, if I was allowed to do that, I would say thank you because it's guys like you that really do drive this thing. So keep up the awesome work and we'll talk soon. Awesome friend of this show, Josh. Very really appreciate it. Thank you so much. All right Man. Well, last time we spoke with this individual, I think it was the X F L kickoff day. Kickoff game day. We have Eric er here from Sumer Sports here on YouTube and everything else. How are you doing sir? I'm doing great. I've been really enjoying the league. I made a comment on Twitter today that every X F L game right now has a total this week of above 40, which I feel like is a great sign for the league right now. It's good. Yeah, I saw that. I retweeted that out. It feels like, at least through last weekend, it seems like was kind of the peak gameplay so far. And obviously with Orlando and everything else, a lot of high point totals. It seems like all the offense clicking And the teams that were so desolate at the beginning have found a little bit of a spark. The Orlando guardians got Quintin Dormy, that sort of weird thing where he supposedly gave away the plays and then didn't or whatever. Now he's been, I think when he's played well a top two or three quarterback in the entire league. So he adds a spark there. The San Antonio Braas with Ben at least gave him a little bit of a spark last week. Now he's hurt, but they play Houston who has I think fallen back down to the pack for sure when they're not playing teams in the south. And their defense is not particularly as good as I think that they were the early parts of the season. So there are going to be some games I think here that are closer, every single spread under a touchdown for right now. Yeah, it's where Houston kind of really, yeah, it feels like it fell back down to earth. We were at the Lumen field game, the first loss they had to the Sea Dragons and you know, kind of thought that was a fluke. And then here you go. And whenever they're playing to anyone in the north, it seems like they're really struggling and obviously coming out short again this week. What do you make of them are, did they look better at the beginning of the season and now we're coming back down to earth? Or have they just been exposed? Yeah, I think Brandon Silvers was not a very good quarterback in the last version of the X Ffl. He's not a terribly good quarterback. He gets injured. So then you have to go with Cole McDonald, who I've always sort of called when he played for Hawaii. I called him College James because he had all the ups and the downs, a lot of the interceptions. And we saw that, I mean, Brian Hill fumbled on the first play of the game the other day, Sunday. And they're marching to try to go up a score and he throws an interception on third down and there's just ups and downs there. I think the running shoot offense especially is like, it's really fun when it's working and it's really awful when it's not. And Houston is run into that a little bit with AJ Smith calling those plays. They don't really have, they make explosive plays at times, but not the sort of consistency. And then defensively, they just haven't necessarily been able to hold the line that much. I mean they DC on that Monday night game a couple weeks ago really just did whatever they wanted to both in the air and on the ground. So that's been one where I think they made a lot of money playing their own division, which has been bad and when they've played the north it's been not as pretty. Yeah. The comment we had, I think on our live thing on Monday, the live stream was you didn't hear as much of AJ talking with Cole as you did with Brandon and that was the whole thing. We've been talking for weeks and he is right in the ears till the last second talking to the receivers, all that felt like, I don't know if he left coal out to dry, it didn't feel like they have the same chemistry and obviously Brandon's known AJ for years, but you think AJ could still be doing that for Cole? Well, and that's got to be essential, right? I mean if you know are going to be the offensive coordinator that does that, then I think it has to apply to everybody. And of course in this case that wasn't the case for Houston and it's tough because a lot of that runin shoot offense is kind of field based and if the quarterback doesn't have the feel for the end of the play clock there, you're going to be calling plays that the defense can adjust to it. And that's why the run and shoot ultimately after the mid nineties or so was not an offense that worked in pro football. And so that's why June Jones, even though I think he had some success in Atlanta, it was never really a sustainable thing and he had to resort to college and stuff and now you're kind of in this middle ground where you're in a professional league but you're not as good as the NFL team teams will catch up to it Overall. And we will preview all four of the games here, but overall are you more impressed, less impressed? How are you feeling about XIV L 2023 since we last spoke kind of pre-kickoff? Oh, I think it's been great. I mean I think I talk about the totals. I think that there's scoring in the league and it's not because the defenses are horrendous. I think there's been really good defen. I don't think that the play has been bad. I think quarterback, obviously you have the inconsistencies there. A guy like Ben Ucci where for a lot of the league it felt like Kyle Slowder, U S F L where they'd moved the ball and then be awful in the red zone. And over the past few weeks, ucci has really delivered in inside the 20 and it's been a good player for Seattle and they've won quietly five games in a row. You know, look at Jordan tiu who had a really good X ffl season in 20 had a pretty bad U S F L season has been pretty good for DC as they won all but one game. I think the quality of play has been terrific. I think it's been better than X Ffl 2020, I think X Ffl 2020 of course only got five weeks. We've seen seven of this one, I think it was on its way to doing the same thing, but the structure of league has been conducive to I think good football. I think we remember 2020 better than it was. Yeah, you get what I mean. I think say for PJ Walker kind of running circles, I think people have this romanticized version of something that went away and I think this is fine this year. I don't know if it leaps and bounds better or worse in 2020, but just in my head I think people remember that it's like, oh every single one of those games it took the first couple weeks to really get going too. Yeah, for sure. And if you bet under, basically in NA league you won I think 65% of your bets as well. I have to go back and look like that was, I would say the 2020 x ffl was trending up, but it certainly started closer to 2019 aaf, which was kind of weaker football I would say, where in 2020, a 2019 aaf like 75% of the games hit under and you were looking at totals in the thirties by the time you got to the final week eight there. Whereas in this one you're seeing the totals move up and I think rightfully, Yeah, but there's people talk, I think it was DC or it was Battle Hawks DC and they kind of just went to a run game and they were running Tyree Jacks. It was not exciting games. I mean it was a cool game that they were able to kind of kill the battle hawks, but it wasn't necessarily thrilling football every single week back in 2020 That was the beer snake game. That was about three days before we were all shut down for Covid. Absolutely, I remember that game because I bet a fairly decent sized amount on under in that game and it was no doubter, which was fun to see, but I don't know if I was a betting man this year, I don't think under is really the way to make money. I think in fact, I think that the markets have properly priced a lot of these teams, which was a good sign. I mean I think there are ways to make these leagues better for the teams that are playing offense and I think that the X ffl has done that. Any other general thoughts? We can kind of go game by game here real quick. Any other general league thoughts or player thoughts? No, I'm interested to see just kind of as you know, I know you cover all these leagues. I'm interested to see with the talent the way it's been in this spring league two weeks from now when we see U S F L, what's it going to look like there because we just have not seen, there have been some players who were superstars in the S F L last year who really haven't made an impact this year in the X F L. So I do wonder if the other shoe is going to drop once we get to mid-April and we get to watch the other league. We were actually just talking in our group Travis this morning that at least the consensus is most of the US L teams haven't done a lot to replace a lot of the guys that have left a lot of those major stars. It may be obviously you're going to find new players or they're going to step up, but I don't know if any US F L teams look substantially better right now on paper than they did leaving the season last year with all the turnover. Yeah, which makes sense. I mean you add another league and the fact that, I mean the question I have is does Kyle Slowder get to play in the U S F L now that you got cut in the X ffl? Is that a thing? Can he come in and make that quarterback position better right now? I saw saw, what is it, Michigan Panthers who is the kid that Carson Strong. I saw him throwing some passes for them. I actually don't even know calibration wise or Carson Strong is in the X F L. I'm looking forward to seeing some of those players, but my guess would be that the quality of play would be lower later half of the summer than the spring. Well you're going to get in trouble here if people don't like it when we say us l stuff on here. So we have here, yeah, Vegas, the Jaylen McClendon revelation here coming out, going up against St. Louis back at home again. AJ McCarran, all of that thoughts on this matchup? I mean I think Ball Hawk's live at home now for the rest of the season. They had a really nice structure there now what they're five and two, they've had some. One of my good friends, Bruce Gradkowski, one of my former colleagues at PF F I think is really found his legs is that offensive coordinator there. AJ McCarran I think has emerged him and DeNucci as well as Dormy are probably the best quarterbacks in this league. So they're favorite by six and a half, seven depending upon the book you're at. I think that probably number's a little short. I'd probably make 'em 10 point favorites in this game just because you have uncertainty associated with the Vipers, their quarterback situation and their coaching situation. And how good is the Battle Hawks home field? I think it would suggest a lower number than N NFL because of the travel, but St. Louis has certainly shown out in almost all their home games so far, so that one's instrument one for me. I would imagine the battle hawks will come out away winning and I wouldn't be surprised they went away with it. Are you surprised McClendon looked as good as he did coming off the bench. We done the Louis Perez and Huntley thing, everything else the rest of the season and it's kind of like why? Why'd this guy ride the bench for the first six, seven weeks? It does be, but Louis Perez is a very good quarterback. I think especially in these spring leagues. He has always shown himself to be a pretty good pastor. I know when he played for New Jersey in the U S F L, they had split time, but whenever he played he was very efficient and he was very efficient for when he was playing earlier in the year before the trade. So Hunley has league experience, Perez has a lot of spring league experience. It didn't surprise me that much that they waited all the way until now to move on to a different option. Thoughts on just how good St. Louis is loyal to you talked about Bruce and one of your former colleagues, just back to being able to get everything going, running that offense he has in aj. I mean it really seems like they're all jelling as one of the top teams. Yeah, well I think Bruce struggled at the beginning for sure. I thought that there was, I execution was a big deal but now it seems like every third down in Red Zone play somebody's wide open and you really like that at the beginning of the season was like run play and then try to make Austin make a cool play and now you've got guys like Hack Hakeem Butler I is able to make contested plays, make plays after the catch. Some of their other receivers have been wonderful and so Austin Parley hasn't even been a real part of that offense. And then you look at the run game, Brian Hill's been really good aside from the fumbles he's made plays out of backfield, he's been that kind of everything running back for them and so things have really just improved from a execution standpoint and then when you execute on early downs, I think the play calling is a lot easier on later downs because you're in shorter yardage situations and I think that, so it's kind of snowballed for the battle hawks. Yeah, dear Shepherds also just looked really good as well, Joe, he was on the show a couple weeks ago. I've got not the most vocal person in the world kind of softspoken but certainly on the field is exciting nonetheless. But yeah, coming out and they have the fumble and all of that really able to turn everything around and they had the record field goal kick two of what was it, 62 yards or whatever the hell it was for the field goal record now for the X F L. Yeah, well and they played the end of the half really well. I mean they had a third and forever type situation. They picked up 15, they went for the fourth down, they didn't get it but they played great defense, got the ball back and were able to get in position. I think it was a 59 yarder but they were able, I mean Anthony Beck is always, you always wonder about these spring league coaches do they understand gameplay and stuff like that and he to me has not had a real egregious error from a game management situation for quite some time now Coming here to a game that has a little bit more meaning. Obviously Vipers now I think are the first team officially eliminated from the playoffs, the game much more excited. We have the Renegades obviously Louis Perez trading over there and then them signing Kelly Bryant as well, putting Drew Plitt on the injured reserve. Orlando I gave DC their big loss here last weekend. Exciting and this game means a lot more. I mean Orlando isn't mathematically out of this. I mean in fact I think what if they win out? There's probably a decent path to the playoffs for them at, what would it be, four and six I think now quarterback play is the most important thing in the N F L and what separates the N F NFL from say hockey? Is that goalie and quarterback or not equally as important but in goalie it's a random thing and quarterback plays easy to predict. I think in spring leagues the same is true but quarterback is much less easy to predict. So you think about Dormy has been wonderful. He's had two really fantastic games cover the spread against Vegas a couple weeks ago with a lot of plays and then obviously they win outright as, what was it, nine and a half point underdogs last week. If he can continue here, they are favored in this game and opened, I think Arlington minus one and a half, it's now Orlando minus one minus one and a half. It's not a huge move. Points aren't worth that much but I support them being favored here. I think that they're a good team that can be dangerous and it's all about their quarterback and it seems like head coach Charles Buckley has gotten out of the way which has been positive for them. He seemed really humble after the game the had the press conference. Yeah, this wasn't all built in the day. It's weird that the Renegades, I think they could put anyone with center their quarterback, but I think unless their offensive play calling and everything gets figured out, just I don't think anything they do at this point's going to make a difference. Do you agree or disagree? Yeah, I mean I think Bob Stoops has been calling plays kind of bored and I don't know, there's not boredom built out of anything other than I just don't know if they have a ton of weapons. I think South Canal is a good tight end but that really hasn't been as magical as it was in the ex. Sorry. U S F L quarterback has been a disaster will, it'll be interesting to see if Perez can add something to it but offensive line play hasn't been terribly good either and I think that for a guy like Perez, one of the reasons he hasn't been able necessarily to be effective in every stop, he's been effective most places, but every stop he's been in I is because pass protection doesn't necessarily handle it. When you look at FF grades for example, Arlington's third to last in the X ffl in PF F pass blocking grades, I think that's going to be a situation that might hurt Perez. So you would give the edge cheer to the guardians. Anything else to say about this matchup? No, I think that this is one where Arlington is, Arlington is one of the more frustrating offenses in the X F L and Orlando is one of the more surprisingly fun ones now. Yeah does see, I mean Orlando was kind of a slug there to watch for a while but now like I said, this game is suddenly a lot more appealing here. Obviously we have the roughnecks Kurt Banertt going down and that was sad, right? Came in and played fine I think it was. How are you, he is building sandcastles with I think his daughter, he is got to come in and play quarterback here in the X F L. I assume at this point they're going with Juan Pass, we're recording this earlier in the week and God forbid that there's a trade or whatever, but what do you make of this roughnecks coming off of I think three losses in a row now? Yeah, I think with the roughneck, I mean this is a classic get right situation. They are open I think four point favorites. It's four and a half now I get that. San Antonio is a team. I mean they had the back to back with Arlington and by the time you got to that second game that total was like what, 33 and a half or something and every bit deserved because this is a team now I know they beat Arlington in the second time, but without a fumble return, without some real help by the passenger interference penalty leads, it's like I don't think they crossed the 50 and they got 12 points early in the process on Saturday, but one of 'em was a kick return. One of 'em was aided I think by a p interference penalty lead the end zone. This is not a team that can move the football. So I think if you're betting this game, it's Houston or nothing. I think that San Antonio to me is the only team right now in the league where if their game is on, I'm like this isn't going to be particularly entertaining. Hopefully they can stick with Jajuan Pass in the same way. Let him get his legs under him the same way that DC does with Dear King and Jordan Tiu. I think that that's the only real way that they can get anything done in the scheme. Yeah, I just don't know if it's misfortune or what but just all the injuries going through and all the quarterback stuff, it just feels like, I don't know if it's a Heinz Ward issue there. It was with Trell Buckley where he was kind of in the way. I can't figure out what the deal is with the Ramos. Yeah, it's been rough and they haven't really been great at sort of anything, you know look around maybe defensively you could look at their run defense, you could look at their coverage, haven't given up a ton of points. I think they given up the fewest points in the whole league but a lot of that is just because their offense hasn't been able to really move the football and all those games get kind of caught in the mud. Anything else with the roughnecks? Presumably if Brandon's able to play, I think he has something wrong with his arm or we go to Cole McDonald and try to maybe get some more plays around his mobility versus trying to have him throw they were going to have Brandon do. Yeah, I think you have to use Cole McDonald's mobility. You have to once you get to your back of quarterback, you know have to use every part of him in That to me is going to be some of that running that he can be that he's able to do. Last game of the week here, the game I will be at Easter Sunday, this is going to be exciting I guess both of these on Easter, but the Easter Sunday night game four seven Easter, we'll say I, I'm scared what the attendance is going to look like and what Brady Easter going to look like, but I'll be at Lumen Field here. I think this is the biggest game of the weekend. Do you disagree? No, I don't at all. I mean think when you think about that north that there's only two teams that are going to make and there's going to be three teams that are deserving and DC has a one game edge over St. Louis and Seattle but with a loss here they're all, and we assume that St Louis's favorites early in the weekend are going to win then everybody's tied at six and two and that really starts to bring in some tiebreakers and some fun things into the mix. And look, D DC's a good football team, they went to St. Louis and going away, they won at home against Houston going away on Monday night. So they're a solid football team. You saw some of the cracks there defensively against Orlando. Seattle's got some of those characteristics. I mean Ben Nucci is about as good of a quarterback as you're going to get in league like this and when he's on it's hard to beat him and he's made especially on some late downs in recent weeks, made some throws that I think are pretty impressive. So you look at the betting market in this game, you look Seattle's favorite by my one and a half total on the game. 47 47 I believe is the highest total we've seen in this league so far this year. Maybe 47 and a half in a previous game. But you're talking about a game where the scoring is projected to be about as high as it's been and I think that the only way that doesn't happen is if DC can run the football, not necessarily the way that they've done in a lot of games, which is explosive plays but more kind of that down to down six, seven yards at a time. Is that them Seattle having the favorite? Is that be kind home field? Is that balance that out? Is that why I'm surprised that they're the favorite because I mean we know it's not really home field advantage. Yeah, well I think it depends. I don't think they're going to get the crowd that a St. Louis would get. So then it's almost entirely familiarity, which in this league you don't really have cause they're all in the same hub during the week. So I'm not sure. I actually think fundamentally people just don't necessarily, I think fundamentally the betting markets just underrate running quarterbacks and that is where DC's sort of strength has always been. Like if you look at play passing efficiency had its moments but it's not, I mean you look at yards per pass attempt, Jordan Tiu is, yeah, it's actually a little bit higher than Ben but when you look at passing yards, he's like 600 yards behind the guy and so only six touchdowns, one interception. I think that we generally speaking under rate those types of teams that run the football with their quarterback and I think that that's one where DC's been underrated on the market sort of all year. Well Eric, I appreciate it. Any other final thoughts before we go? I good to catch up in here week eight. I can't believe it week A of the X F L. Well no this has been great. Thanks for having me and I always love talking about these spring leagues so I really appreciate you having me on. Well go check out Eric over at Super Sports everything and Eric on Twitter. I really appreciate it getting you guys the fantasy and the DFS and the bedding and all that stuff. I love giving the extra perspective on that so thank you so much. Well I didn't have time to put it on but I did want to show you I do own an official spring league Jotter jersey, not quite a Hughes aviator's jersey, but we go a long way back with this man. We have Matthew Sexton here. How are you doing? I'm doing good, I'm doing good. I love not, I mean I'm not a huge fan of the Jowers jersey but because the aviators guy myself, but no, I'm doing good man. Doing good. Yeah, Somehow I came upon a stash of those on eBay a few months ago and we gave 'em away for some of the podcast stuff. So we have blues jerseys out in the Wild Now generals, I don't think we got any, it was the Hughes before it was the aviators, but that was quite one of my favorite brandings of all spring football. It was the Hughes, what is that? What is the Hue? So it was the Howard Hughes before it was the aviators and then they rebranded it and then it was the aviators because no one, everyone knew what the Hughes was. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I did not know that. So was how many spring leagues were there? Was there? Oh was there four or five of Them because you were in the 2021? It was the 2021 November. I think they rebranded it before that. I think it was the Hughes back when it was just the week long camp or whatever and then they traded it into the aviators. Anyway, we're not talking about that. We're talking about Matthew second here with the Vipers today. Coming off a good game, a win here, it's been kind of a rocky season for you guys. How's everything going? Good, I mean like you said, it was a good win. It was a good team win for us. I think that was probably one of our best games, honestly from all three phases from offense. I mean know they had a big, big kickoff return on special teams, but I mean other than that we were doing, I lights out on our special teams unit offense. Defense did well. I mean defense only gave up six points and then we're hitting thirties so I mean you can't really get much better than that. So I think it was one of our best games that we played and it was good. It was just good to get that second win. What's it been like for you this season? I've talked to a couple other players. How how's coach keeping you guys upbeat here with everything going on? Yeah, I mean a big emphasis on everything is because a lot of the guys want to go and play in the N F L after this. So just because maybe our playoff contention we're not going to be in the playoffs anymore, it doesn't mean that there's still not games to play and film to put out there. So we got three more games left to you know, want to go play in the nfl. You got three games left to make it happen. So that's a big part of what we preach as players and then coaches on the team, but also it's just about having that pride to win. Nobody likes losing anything and anything in life so it's just having that pride that you're going to line up across from another grown man and win and not accept losing. What was it like coming into the X field this year? You've, we've tried, like I said, spring League and bounced around the different camps and everything else. What's it, did you view this opportunity walking in? Yeah, I mean I was just saying it's kind of a opportunity to get filmed for an NFL team. I was in Kansas City and had an injury in Kansas City, which eventually led to me getting cut and it, it's been a very long process of getting rehab and just getting my body back to a hundred percent. So who knows for me personally, who knows what would've happened if I didn't take this opportunity, maybe nothing. So it's just one of those things that it's, I mean if you really want to play football you're going to make something happen. What's the hub life been like for you though thus far? Say that one more time. The hub life. Are you enjoying the Ville Hub? Yeah. What do you mean mean Just how they taking care of you having fun, you getting everything you need. Oh yeah, I mean it's cool out here. Me and my girlfriend are living together right now and it's nice. I mean they got the hotel for people who don't really want to have their own spot. I'm a personable guy so I like to have my own place and I have a dog and so we have two dogs actually but we only have one for right now and it's nice though man they feed us, I mean travel traveling, they make traveling very easy so I really can't complain. I was in the spring league back then so I a step up for sure. Yeah, we have the famous Brian Woods talking when I think it was when they have the outbreak and running out the food and stuff. We count Shelby on screaming and that was the early peak of our podcast back about two and a half years ago. Yeah, I I remember Ken Shelby being on there actually but wow, that's crazy that you say that but I don't blame Brian Woods for any of that man. He was trying to give us an opportunity and some things maybe didn't go quite the way but I appreciate his opportunity that he was trying to get. Yeah, so B, you're talking travel everything big game this weekend going into St. Louis. How are you preparing for that? How are they guys getting you? I imagine it's going to be a pretty raucous environment. Yeah, I'm excited. I mean what 40,000 people man, I'm jacked up for that game. But yeah, I mean it's just the same as every week. It's just getting the game plan in and trying to execute and practice and give each other a look guys on the squad, you know, got to get and do some scout team reps, give our defensive looks that they want to see and I mean vice versa. So it's changed. We played St. Louis once and it was fairly disappointing and we're going to go in there and try and make something different happen. Besides the coach Winston, how's the rest of the staff doing K coaching you guys up learning from them? We've had Luis Perez on in the past talking about the quality of all the coaching staff for you guys, what do you make of everyone that the XLS assembled to help you guys out? I like it mean, it's a lot of wisdom and there's a lot of knowledge especially in on our team. Well the thing was 200, two plus years of coaching experience on our coaching staff or something crazy like that. So it, there's just so much wisdom and so much to learn from these guys so it's just a great experience. It's been a blast so far so it's just looking forward to finishing it out. Is it hard as someone long hair bouncing around, having disappointment, not everything working out necessarily the way you want? Is it hard to keep motivated? Is it hard to keep your head up and keep performing at the level you want? To Me personally, this isn't the first time that I've ever taken losses so it's not something that it not something new. Taken a lot of losses in order to get to where I'm at today and I'm sure a lot of these guys have too, but some days are better than others. What I mean sometimes just the vibe and energy and practice is a little slow and then sometimes you just need a reminder, you know, just need somebody to be like hey let's step it up. We still have games to play, we still have a reputation to keep. We still got things to do and it's usually just stuff like that kind of just uplifts everybody and keeps everybody going. Where do you most proud of that you've accomplished this season? Either as an individual or as a team? I think as a team I would say as a team, just the kind of will to keep fighting because it's definitely there. I mean just last game you could feel like the energy and the passion and it was just great. It was a great atmosphere, it was a great experie, it was cool. Last game was really fun to be around and personally just knowing what to do. Maybe the playing time, maybe not looking the brightest towards me at first but just knowing, just being patient for my time to come and to make things happen and taking advantage of every opportunity You think you've earned that you think you've earned more playing time now as you've gone along? Yeah, I mean it's not really up to me but I do think so I've out here, I bust my butt every single day in practice and throughout camp but I'm here to, I like special teams man. I make plays on special teams. How I think I'm going to get back to the league too. So special teams, I'm here for it all man. A couple here, I'll let you go. I appreciate it. Talk Cashman field of it all. I mean don't want to get into all it, there's been a lot of different stuff but talk about the fans there, the Vegas fans. So they're there watching you guys, what's it performing for them and how's it been like playing in Vegas? It's cool man. I think that the first game it kind of got some negative attention because the field didn't look all but I like it man. It's a good, nice little atmosphere. It doesn't look like there's a lot of people there but I mean 6,007 people get in those stands and it, it's nice man. It's a cool, last game was definitely the most lit, the stadium was and people were excited and people were pumped up to be out there and then we played a great game. So no I I've been enjoying it. It's like it's just great to play football again if there's zero people in the stands I'd still be pumped up Far. I let you go. Goals for the rest of the season, what are you hoping to accomplish? What do you want? I mean obviously get back and all of that but just personally headed here through the last and what have we got two, three weeks and what are you looking to accomplish? Yeah, I want to return a punt for sure. I want to get one. I'm want to take one of the crib on pump return. Been my goal this whole season so that hasn't changed but really just, I mean want to keep putting great stuff on tape and as a team I just want to win man. I just want to win some games and just finish out strong. Maybe shake up the playoffs a little bit for these other teams and see what happens. And do you enjoy the X ffl kickoff and special teams rules and everything else that goes along? I do it. It's a little different but there's definitely plays. I can see why, I understand why they do it but I do, I don't mind it. It's interesting being on kickoff and having the guy five yards in front of you right off the bat and you have have a little shimmy shake in you order to get off it and then pun return, I mean it just kind of makes it way easier too. I know I took a hit in St. Louis two weeks ago, but if it's a short hangar on a pun return you're you're returning it no matter what when regular those guys are flying down but yeah, I like it. Well Matthew, I appreciate it today they Vipers sent out, hey we got media stuff. I said what the hell's Matthew Sexton doing right now? So I'm glad we could get you on, tracked you a long time so I appreciate it and thank you for spending some time today. Yes sir. Thank you man. I appreciate you. Awesome. Stay safe and good luck this weekend. Yeah, go shake up the north, give the battle Hawks a loss. That would help out our C dragon. Oh, I got you baby. I got you. Well I sat around a couple weeks ago, we've interviewed a Mar Doman owner of the BC Lions. We've had Matt Baker on the show. We've had Neil McAvoy, Nathan Borg, everybody else, Vernon Adams. I said I need to get Coach Rick on so I asked Matt Baker and now we are here Coach Fred Campbell. How are you doing sir? It's good, good to be here. How are things today? It's good. So I don't know if you know this, I have proclaimed the BC Lions. We are based in Seattle. I know you're from Spokane. We have proclaimed the BC Lions as America's C F L team. So you are in fact America's C F L coach. Are you okay with that delineation? I'm good with that, especially when you're talking about the great state of Washington. So that's a good thing to be a part of. I think the west coast, the Pacific Northwest has to stick together over here on I five the corridor, so that's a good thing. I knew, yeah, I knew in the back of my mind you're from Spokane, I forgot that you went to Wazoo so we won't tell my wife about that because that wouldn't make her happy as a U-Dub fan. Yeah, I'm definitely not a Huskies fan. I can't hide that. I'm usually pretty politically correct about things and positive but I can't say that I'm down with the Huskies. That's okay, we won't tell it Dorothy. So how is this off season? Obviously very different from last off season. Is this is your life right now? As we sit at the beginning of April, It's coming fast as we're about two months ahead of the N F L, so we're going to be, I think we're on the field with the rookies on May 10th, so that's not too far away. We're looking at just over a month away. The good news is we have some more stability as far as all our coaching staff is back. The QB situation obviously is different with Nathan gone, but we had Vernon and Adams here last year so we know him, he knows us so that's going to make that transition much more smooth. And then we have the draft coming up. Our draft is just after the N F L draft and we're going to be looking to add a couple pieces for the season and we'll be excited to get going. Did you like the new draft format? I've heard we're obviously in the states but a lot of controversy that it wasn't streamed but it was this big and supposedly giving you guys more looks at players? Yeah, it's good. It actually is a good thing. It lets guys be football players a little bit more so there's more drill work. They actually got to sit in a classroom and learn something and then implement it on the field. So I think it just gave you a good good look at all fronts and that some guy doesn't slip through the cracks. You always hear about guys whatever football league it is from the N F L on down about where did this guy come from, how did he slip through the cracks and usually it's because it's so geared on testing, which is important but also I think you get the other aspect of it too and so we're hoping it just uncovers a couple more guys that may have fallen through the crack so it was good. I can't speak on the streaming thing, that's not my field, but otherwise I think we're onto something really good and I think we'll keep tweaking it and go from there. In terms of developing, finding that new talent and obviously we cover all the other leagues here in the states with the X F L and the U S F L, we talked with Coach Jones here a couple months ago in the off season. Do you think you guys need to do more work now up in Canada to be scouting P players, whether in the states or in Canada then kind of trying to get your eyes on them ahead of time? Yeah, I mean we put a ton of work. Basically half our roster is Canadians, so we put a ton of work in into both. So we have a set of scouts that are constantly looking in the US and then we do a whole bunch of homework. We get all our players initially through the Canadian draft so we spent a ton of time on that and it's really your lifeblood of how you have success up here so we'll continue to work on that. In terms of what you guys are looking to add this year, obviously like you said the quarterback situation, all of that and a lot of resig these, but where do you think the deficiencies are you're looking to fill? We're always looking for, well you're always looking, there's always going to be two or three guys. Same thing happens with the Seahawks or whatever it is. There's always one or two or maybe three guys that stand out that are rookie guys that no one saw coming that become fan favorites. So we're always looking for those couple guys to add to our core base and then we need depth special teams. That's part of the reason our draft is so important is that those roster spots we dress 45, so those roster spots of 40 through 45 that they're strong as possible and that they're big special teams contributors. In terms of building this year, like you said with Vernon and we figured out the Nathan Ro of it all and once you knew it was going to be Vernon, how confident are you and him both on the field and then especially I think where he excels as that locker room leader, right? It's kind of the leader of men, but what do you think of Vernon as the player and this the man? Yeah, he's been great to work with. I obviously knew I had met him and I knew who he was and all that. I had never worked with him before but working with him has been fantastic. I think it's been a really good fit. He came in here and it was a tall task. Nathan was lightening it up and having great success and he was able to come in here and assimilate himself in and let us to I believe a four and two record in the regular season, which was a tall order and he did. I think it's been a good fit. He's looks like a very motivated guy. Our offensive staff is the same and our coordinators the same. So he's going to know the playbook and understand what we're doing going into training camp, I think nothing but nothing of that can help that. I mean nothing, it'll help him. So that's good. And we have a pretty good core coming back on the offensive side of the ball so I'm excited about it. I know he is and we feel lucky we were able to acquire him last year. What was that like? Yeah, I couldn't imagine being in the office or the field. Nathan goes down and then we have more injuries and we're bringing in Vernon, like w was that panic was it? What was that like as kind of the head coach there? Yeah, no, we thought we had a good team and we wanted to leave no stone unturned. We didn't want to throw in the towel and say pour us and when we did have a few injuries and so we had some key injuries but we had guys step up and we were able to acquire a couple people which we wanted to put all our chips in and we made it to the game to go to the gray cup and didn't quite get it done. But we think if we work hard and do all those things that we can play with anyone in this league and like I said, we're looking forward to the future In terms of the west here and we're seeing the movement and Saskatchewan's kind of re-upped and obviously Winnipeg and everything else. How challenging is the C F os right now and where do you guys view yourselves? It is really tough. I mean it's every team in the west presents big challenges and that's part of where we had success last year is we were able to win. We won two games in Saskatchewan and two games in Calgary, which really helped propel us to a home playoff game. So all those games are big in the west and it's going to be no different this year and most of the teams you play three times, so it's an automatic tiebreaker that third game. So they're all big for whatever reason the west and the CFL's been really strong in the regular season for the last several years and we expect nothing different. Winnipeg's got a bunch of guys coming back, Calgary's always good and then you got Saskatchewan and Edmonton trying to build so it's going to have to be at our best but I know our guys are looking forward to it. Yeah. Do you just internally focus on that? Are you peeking over the curtain that what everyone else is doing? How do you approach that? No, you got to worry about yourself. So especially as you get into training camp, you just want to make every day count. We only play two pre-season games so it's really imperative that we make all the days of training camp count and get ready to go and focus on yourself, focus on improving. It's a long season. We have an 18 game regular season so we always talk about you're running a marathon, not a sprint, so you want to just make sure you're getting better each day and try to put wins in the wind column and be there when November comes around. So we'll really work on us and then see how good we can be and then see how we stack up against everybody else At the end of last season in Winnipeg losing there, how it just was a crazy season. I mean for a couple of the CFL teams, obviously AZ kind of had a lot going on, but with BC and Nathan and Vernon and the injuries, what was that like? And then the season finally ends and you're there and I felt like we were competitive but it never felt like Nathan was all the way back. What was that whole experience? I think it's going to be good for us in the long run. Winnipeg's, the measuring stick right now in this league they've, they've been to the championship game three years in a row, which isn't easy to do. And then playing in that, playing on the road in their place with their crowds really loud and literally in the fourth quarter you couldn't hear a thing. So it's a lot of adversity to face but those are the things you grow from so that you're in those situations in the future you can say you've been there done that before. So I'm hoping that it'll help us and try to get over that hump to win the west. Yeah, I don't know if it's better or worse where it's like you who the enemy is who you're kind of gearing up to face. I don't know if that's easier of like hey this is who we need to take down, we need to build a team to beat Winnipeg or it's just a weird time and we're obviously new to covering the league but to have such a dominant team here for the last few years. Yeah, they've been the class of the league the last three years so we've been trying to build each year which we have been and we think we're right there with them. They beat us two to one in the regular season as far as the games we played and then we had that playoff game which came down to the fourth quarter. But they have a lot of veteran guys and veteran coaches that they know what they're doing and we think if we can keep building and keep working hard then we can get to where we want to go. Who are you excited to see kind of grow this year on the team? I'm trying to think of names on the spot we always talk about, a big thing is we have a lot of American guys that come up here and they're playing C, it's still football but there's nuances to the C F L. So it's fun watching those guys coming out of year one that are going into year two or year three that really get a feel for the motion and the 12 guys on the field and all those things. So I'm really looking forward to us as a team just growing. We thought last year was our first year of really having a solidified base of players and coaches and we were able to get some traction and we just want to keep that going as a group. It was so funny, I just remember off season last year and you guys were rolling with Nathan and all I hear is everyone like BC's crazy and this is such a gamble and this is it's going to flop or fail kind of whatever. And then coming out the gate just incredibly was that vindicating. I mean obviously you don't care what the media critics say but just knowing we had our guy, we were right, we kind of path our strategy in place and just I think you proved a lot of the people wrong last year who really doubted bc. Yeah, we were quite confident that Nathan could have success. I wasn't have predicted the numbers he'd put up or things like that, but do I think we could win with him? Absolutely. Most importantly I think our players believed we could win with him. So our previous year Mike Riley who's a veteran quarterback, was dealing with an elbow issue so he didn't practice very much. He practiced sparingly during the week just because that needed to be monitored. So Nathan got a ton of reps with our first group in practice and got some playing time so we had a pretty good idea. You never know until it's a game, but we had a pretty good idea that Nathan was going to be a good player and he proved us and I think he's going to continue to do that wherever he goes. Just a couple questions before I let you go. I appreciate your time. I obviously differing situations with McLeod here, going to the U S F L from the Argos and Nathan here going down to the N F L, but is that a concern now? We always hear a lack of quality quarterbacks in the C F L and I mean even as much as I love Vernon seeing him bounce around and you we're Saskatchewan and everyone's trade, is that a concern moving forward years to come keeping the quality of quarterback playing the C F L healthy? Yeah, you always want to have good quarterbacks in any league. That's how leagues work is when the quarterbacks are good. If we're losing players to the N F nfl, we which we're not going to compete against the N F L, we know that it's just a different animal when it comes to money and all that. But if we're losing guys to the nfl, that's a good thing. It means we're doing a lot of things and that we have good players in this league. So that part, the Toronto's quarterback, Bethel Thompson I think was just a specific family situation where he just needed to do something. So I think that's a little bit of anno anomaly. I still think the cfl, if you're not playing in the nfl, the CFL's, the place to play quarterback for multiple reasons for talent level money, all those things, the CFL's still the place to play if you're a quarterback and it's not in the nfl. So we just want to keep putting a good product on the field and keep trying to grow things up here. We're growing our fan base and we think we're on the rise and so we'll just make this as good a place as we can to play. And you're right that we got to keep attracting quarterbacks because that's what makes football leagues go Well. It also puts stability in that stability of the C ffl and the lobbying players to come up there quarterback or otherwise. If you want to talk about pros compared to the other leagues, right? And then like I said, there's a lot of pressure up here to win. There's a lot just we have a tradition and fan bases and people pay attention to it. So there's a lot of things that can build guys to be ready to go to the N F L and I think if you ask a guy like Nathan Rourke, I think he'd say his experience appear was fantastic as him developing as a quarterback. So yeah, that's about all I can say about that. Last question. You said building excitement up there that obviously we've had the mardo on and here his second kind of full season of having the rains and you were hearing all these new things. How nice is that beneficial? Is that as a head coach to have ownership there that really believes in the team and including the fan base and kind of everything else he's working on? Yeah, it's awesome. He's a local guy from here, lives here, cares about the community, all those things that matter. And so I think when the fans feel connected to the team, not just on the field but as part of the community, I think that's where the sweet spot is and I think that's where we're getting to. And so we feel very fortunate to have a, he's been awesome and we're really working hard to, like I said, to make sure we're totally connected to the community and people down there should come up to games. It's not very far. I have tons of friends from college and people that still live in the United States that come up to games up here and they always talk about how much fun it is and all that stuff. So it's a good experience to come up here and check out a game. Obviously excited for this summer and then certainly excited for here coming up next year hosting the gray cup and all that. That will be exciting as well here and everything else. So Coach Rick, I appreciate it. It's been a long time overdue for our listeners, but thanks for coming on the show. Go Lions, go cos Go ahead. Hey, now you're going to have fighting words. Thanks so much. Huge special thanks to all of our guests for coming on today. Like I said, really appreciate Bill's extended time coming on a long time kind of diving into all of the sustainability of spring football TV ratings and the business model with Bill. Super special appreciative for that. Josh Lewin taking the time. I know Josh has been traveling and dealing with his ex f l stuff and his other work and family stuff, so really appreciate Josh. Eric Ger has always taken the time. Eric is a wealth of knowledge. Tried to get him on more often if possible, but I know he's busy talking pro N F L football and everything else. But special thanks to Eric and then obviously Matthew Sexton. I tracked him all the way back to the Spring league, was great to get him on and kind of educate him on the history of the aviators. What are the Hughes? Well the Hughes, it was the Howard Hughes before the aviators. Long time spring football fans know that. And then like I said, special thanks to the BC Lions and Rick Campbell, Matt over there for studying that up. So really you don't like to get CFL talk every week if I can on hearing why not talk to the head coach of America's C F L team. So thank you so much to Rick and everyone. Like I said, a live show on Tuesday, not Monday next week. And then we will have a special live U S F L kickoff preview of all that stuff on Friday finalizing all of that and I'll be tweeting out and posting all of the guests as I can. That should do it for me today. Hope this isn't too long of an episode. Busy running for you, recording this in between shoots and everything else. Busy week for me, but we will be in sunny Las Vegas next week. So take care like and subscribers, always hope you guys have a safe weekend and God bless.

XFL 2023 Week 7's Most SHOCKING Wins and Losses! LIVE Reactions!!!

Well here we are, a week seven of the XFL season here, just like in life here on the podcast, it's all fun and games until someone gets hurt. We have an injury to report today. Kurt Banertt, friend of the show, enemy of the show will decide that today, but no more laughing. Really sad to hear about that. We'll talk through everything this morning as well as everything from X F L Week seven recap of the weekend, Andy riding High off a Aztecs Final, final Four victory. I think we need to start doing more. John Cena. I didn't know that that was so popular still in 2023, but he was at WrestleMania. I saw all the women's basketball this weekend as well. Andy Murray, how are you doing, sir? Great Reid. And yeah, I don't usually wear logo paraphernalia on your show, but I had to break this out today because this is my father's. This is my father's alma mater. He played for baseball, the baseball team some time ago and he is always been an Aztec. I've supported them. I obviously didn't go there, but I've always supported them and to see them get this far, I mean it was absolutely electric down here this entire past weekend opening day of baseball. The Padres were playing in town, the beer was flowing. The last were flowing, the cheers were flowing, everything was flowing down. Here was a great weekend for San Diego Sports, one of the best I can remember in a long time and the Aztecs have just been galvanizing this entire city and it's going to be all come down to tonight, so we'll see. But it's been really, really incredible, really fun and great to see. Also for my father as well who I'm going to be able to watch the game with tonight, so that's really special. Well, was I have my mariners's hat on. It was a terrible weekend for Seattle Sports. The Mariners lost three of four to the guardians. The Kraken lost and the Winnipeg Jets won last night. Calgary Flames won last night. That hurts all that Max. You need to let me know if you want me to play the voicemail today or if you want to save that for the proper Friday show. Max has a bet here. We got coming up, but enough final four talk here. We have the big breaking news. We'll get to everything else, but this was really sad coming out from the man himself this morning. Kurt Banertt, we've kind of made fun a little bit on the show and our chat might be called an Anti Kurt Banker chat, which maybe I'll have to update now. I thought I was getting on Kurt's Good side. He retweeted one of my tweets over the weekend, but Kurt Banertt hurt three fractured ribs per source. Obviously Kurt would know. I mean this is terrible. This is terrible for obviously Kurt, this is terrible for his family and the league and the team and the fans and kind of everybody else. I tweeted here. You can see my pain here at gif. What do you want to say, Andy? Well, first of all, my condolences to him, that's awful. Broken ribs are terrible from what I've heard. I've never had them and I can't imagine having them. They sound like one of the most painful injuries ever. It sounds like it's difficult to breathe when you have them. We've known several different players that have gotten that over the years. I know Drew Brees had any play he tried to play through like cracked ribs a few years ago when he was getting towards the end of his career. Justin Herbert played through rib cartilage all of last year and it clearly affected him the entire season. I can't believe he played through that. But for Kurt, this is awful and it's unfortunate because we were really starting to get one of the most budding rivalries between you and I over this player. I was really looking forward to that whole discourse the entire year, but unfortunately this has just been a continuing trend for the Brahmas. I mean, this is old hat for them. All these guys that they've been trotting out there just keep getting hurt. Jack Cohen, Reid sunk now. Kurt, Ben, Kurt Juwan passed is the last man standing at this point. I mean, he might be next on the list. I hate to say that, but it's just been just one after another. Parading another quarterback out there and it's, it's been unfortunate to see this and it's unfortunate for them because I think they have an opportunity to do something the south division now, but they're just so inept on offense and a lot of it unfortunately is boiled down to injuries. So really a shame and just sad to see on Saturday. Well, it's up. I liked obviously Coach Ward bringing in, Hey, we're going to make a move here, we're going to bring in the quarterback. I like that. I like still, we're trading Perez, we're doing all these things here even at the end of the season, but it's a mess. I mean Kurt, I, we've given them, we've made fun, but huge social media presences. I mean someone that's obviously wildly, we have 120,000 impressions already here and it's only been an hour. Huge personality, all of that good for the team. Arlington looking weak, right? Had a loss against the dragons we'll get into, but Y you thought the problems were going to do. What does that leave the X F L South division here? I mean Houston suffering another loss four and three. It really is all wide open in the south. Is it ironic that the team in the basement has the best offense in the entire division? Now the Orlando guardians are by far the most operational offense because everything else is just not working for the rest of these teams. It's been a Texas size power outage for every other team in the state this entire past few weeks really not just this weekend. So I can't believe that it's so wide open now. I can't believe the guardians actually mathematically have a chance. Still just mind boggling considering how dominant Houston looked for the first half of the season for the fact that even though yes, Arlington has had trouble on offense, they still had a better team overall, still had better coaching. Same with San Antonio. I thought maybe they'll be able to turn it around, but here we are. It just absolutely inept offense across the board for all these teams. And I mean I guess in for a competitor's sake it's good. Obviously for the league it's good that all these teams are still in it, but as far as a product on the field, it's been less than desirable for a lot of these teams and a lot of these offenses going forward. So I just hope that something can turn around or one of these quarterbacks can catch fire. Maybe Louis Perez does with Arlington. Maybe somebody on the Braas figures it out. I don't know who with Houston. I mean we'll see. Cole McDonald had a rough outing yesterday. That was just unfortunate. That was disappointing for him that it didn't go out the way he wanted to against St. Louis and maybe Brandon Silvers comes in again and plays well again, but yeah, would've, can you imagine, can you imagine saying two, three weeks ago that Quintin Dormy would be the best quarterback performance wise at this point in the season for the south division? He was immaculate yesterday. I think this is really, or sorry, two days ago, excuse me. And it's really funny that he has pretty much outperformed everybody in the last couple weeks. Really? It's kind of funny. Well that's the biggest story I think of one of the biggest stories of the season and everything off the field and all of that. I want to ask you a question. I got the standings up here. I do think this was to me the most compelling weekend so far of football. I think it was tough going up against March Madness. We'll, curious to see what the ratings look like. I've seen both sides here. We were talking in the group chat, this is great for the X F L, everything's still so competitive, whatever. And I've heard the same, oh this is done because the U S F L, we had tears, we had the better teams. We were talking last night in the group chat, it was boring because the U S F L like I, is this better? Do we like this better? Having four kind of equidistant teams here in the south and it really up for grabs here going into week eight. I think the competition's good. I'm glad that everyone has a chance, but as far as an entertainment product, it's been lacking. I think for the South division SA sake, there needs to be, be more consistency I think. Not only just in terms of the offenses but also just in terms of the players being trotted out there. There's just been so many injuries lately and that's really unfortunate for them for the product. I think Now conversely you looked at, okay, for example, San Antonio and Vegas, I was excited to see Jalen McClendon because I hadn't seen him before and he played pretty well on Saturday. That was cool. That was great for Vegas. Vegas has always had, I think they've actually put up a lot of good outings this year. They just haven't had the wins, whereas San Antonio and Arlington, for example, have not really been entertaining even when they win and then less, very much less so when they don't win. So I think that's the mark here is it's more of what sort of kinds of games you're getting from these teams. Obviously the south division is just going to be a slug fest. It's going to be sluggish and it's going to be low scoring and there's going to be a lot of defense. It's special teams, unless you're playing Orlando, when it's Orlando, it's just a complete wild card. It's crazy. I mean that game against DC on Saturday may have been the game of the year so far. It was absolutely Buck wild and I think that's the only team that really supplies a lot of entertainment value. Obviously Houston can they have, but unfortunately the last three weeks has been sort of short circuited for them in terms of their operations. So even on defense they've been, that's another thing I think we need to talk about. Houston defense has been lacking the last couple weeks too. Wade Phillips scheme has definitely had some holes in it and they've been taken advantage of by the likes of AJ McCarran and Jordan Tou and there's kind of better operations on offense. There's just a clear divide. I don't mind competition, but I need the teams to start playing better overall if it's going to be entertaining, if you're going to have that competition. Well, I thought Houston, I mean I was at the Sea Dragons game when they first, yeah, let's turn the ball over three times I think and to still be clear in favor of that game except for Houston kind of having the miracle at the end there and then silvers, fumbling, all that. I said it's very impressive to turn the ball over. It was kind of like win win Winnipeg when it was in the, what was it, the West Division semi-finals two years ago. I was like Saskatchewan had six turnovers in that game of Winnipeg. Still won by two touchdowns. I'm going to turn the ball over six times and you're still going to win by two touchdowns. That's a pretty dominant team. So I thought, yeah, Houston certainly showed some cracks three weeks ago and then obviously coming off the DC game this week and then Cole McDonald, I think people thought Nicole might bring a spark in there. We saw Brandon on the sidelines. I kind of liked that. Well, do you have any advice for Cole McDonald's like I don't know. I can't really see the place right now. I'm just kind of hanging out in my pickup truck. I kind appreciated that I were we expecting more? We'll go game by game, but did you expect a better outing from Cole, especially after seeing him play last Monday? I certainly did. I did not expect him to get shut out the second half for sure. I thought just with him being such a dynamic option on the ground and through the air, I thought they were going to just have more specific plays designed for his skillset and I didn't feel that way. I don't know. What I noticed, and I want to get back onto this maybe a little bit later, we could talk about it with the broadcast angle. I don't remember hearing AJ Smith very much during the broadcast. I don't know about you, but they didn't cue into him as much as they usually do, especially when silvers is out there. And I wonder why that is because I just wonder what his play calling style is with McDonald versus Silvers and it just doesn't seem like they were utilizing, in my opinion, it didn't seem like they were really utilizing some of those skillsets. Now McDonald also missed a lot of throws. He was very erratic and that played a lot into it. They just could not move the chains consistently at all during the game. And obviously he had that horrendous interception in the first quarter where he tried to throw back across the field and it just, yeah, he would've been better off throwing it in the stands. So I think that's something that he consider as well. So I just wish that it was just a little bit better offensively from his standpoint. I thought he has the talent. I think he has the talent and a lot of people would say the same thing. Evan Smore, our beat writer would probably say that. I'm sure a lot of people who are around Houston around the roster would say that, but the consistency is not there and that was kind of what plagued him in college too in Hawaii. He was the same way. He was so hit and miss sometimes he'd be great. Other times he just made a missing throws like he did on Sunday. Yeah, so let's go into the game show. We're getting a lot of comments. I see I, I lived through the weekend and I kind of forget everything we had. Let's talk this big, okay. Hey, now I'm all lost here. Okay, tar do, there we go. Last game, let's talk talk battle hawks. Rough next year while I have it, I had guardians on my mind for some regard, but we have the famous John McEnroe delayed game going into the pickleball championship, AJ Smith and all of that. What did, first off, I saw a lot of, oh, the ffl is so terrible. Here we have AJ Smith. I'm the real pickleball champion. We saw a lot of this is so terrible for the X ffl. Like Fox would never do this. It's a pr. The game's on the guy that finished the game and then they go on. That happens all the time with women's basketball and men's basketball. I see that with hockey. Were you up in the arms over the preemption? I just thought it was kind of funny more than anything. They were waiting, watching John McInroy play pickleball versus the X F L. What did you make of that? I don't think people know how TV schedules work. So that for one thing. Second of all, yeah, look, it's going to come back on guys. It's not a problem. It's going to come back on to the main channel. It's going to be on ESPN news, it's going to be somewhere else. Don't freak out. It's said clearly on the bottom line. This it's going to kick off at this time over this place. That happens all the time. That happens with all sporting events. It happens with sports in the same realm that help happens with college football, it happens with all kinds of things. I think people think are just a little bit on edge because they're a little bit nervous about the TV ratings, they're worried about the TV schedule. They're worried about getting every single eyeball they possibly can on this product. I get it. And look, actually you know what? I don't even think pickleball was the biggest enemy for them. I think the biggest enemy was, don't laugh at this, but it was the NCAA women's tournament games. Those were on the same mother network. Those were on espn. You know the big championship game was on ABC yesterday at the same time as the Battle Hawks game was like, that's really going to be trying people over. They want that. That's their main product. That's their bread. That's becoming their bread and butter now at this time of the year because they don't have obviously the men's games, but they have the women's games. That's more of a thing that I think is going to affect the operation going forward and that they have to sort of account for. PN has a million things on their tablet. They got to fill the programming somehow and sometimes that programming spilled over timing-wise just going to spill in. Is it hilarious thing John McElroy throw his racket? Yes it is. I still think it's funny but I think people need to stop being so up in arms about this stuff Until, and I'll eat my words when they cut off an X F L game to go to Saturday Live or something. We don't see the winner perhaps that happened with the US L then let's talk about something. It's on ESPN plus. We're trying to balance the stuff live sports goes late life is, but I just saw a lot of people up in arms about that this has nothing to do with FA or ESPN and Disney and X F L and what they prioritize. You can't cut off because as stupid as pickleball is, there's people that are watching that and if you cut that off for the X F lll be well, who cares about XF every, everyone's going to love their own thing. It is what it is. But I just really just kind of surprised me about that. We have the 24th to 15 victory, like you said, I didn't think they did anything to utilize Cole more. It really felt like it was Brandon Silver's offense. I don't know how late did we know that Brandon? I know he wasn't practicing. He showed up late on the injury report that we saw I think Friday that Evan Wilmore was sharing out. Could have been more. I thought AJ kind of had the one gaff where he was kind of telling Cole like, oh you really had the wrong read there. You were supposed to hand off the other way or whatever. Weird dynamic there. Weird relationship. Anything else to say about the Cole AJ of it all? Yeah, maybe they're just not on the same page. Maybe Silvers is a little bit more experienced. Obviously he's played in a lot of these spring leagues. He has a little bit more comradery that he can work with these different offenses. Maybe he just, him and AJ could just possibly fit better. I do. They were running the ball a lot more. That's something that I want to take note of here too. They're finally starting to use all of their running backs. I think they need to continue doing that going forward if they're going to have any semblance of consistency going forward or be able to actually maybe win some more games, especially in the playoffs. This is something they have to consider. Their game plan needs to be better, especially when they play teams from the north. They got to figure out how to play these north teams because as you mentioned, it's so clear that even when a North Division team makes a mistake, it doesn't cripple them as much as it does when a team from the south makes a mistake. There's not really getting in their own way there, just overall their ability to continue their operation is a lot smoother than the south teams. And so this is something that I think unfortunately doesn't bode well for McDonald's. He might just have to be a second option. Kind of like maybe a Chris traveler for Winnipeg when they won those Great Cups or Decoda Dakota Pru Cop when he was sneaking in the goal line plays or something like that. Having a backup option that you can utilize but not necessarily be your guy. He might just have to be relegated to that role again and just have silvers be that guy when he's healthy. So I'm looking on here, so Houston's playing the Brahmas next week, so presumably that's the get right game there and obviously talking to the Kurt Ben of it all and John Pass and everything because God forbid if Houston goes down to 500, that's that. Who would've saw that coming after the first four weeks, but we'll do our X F L week eight preview here later in the week, but I am assuming that this is a get right game for Houston. Am I reading that wrong? No, it absolutely is. They need this now. Them playing into the Alamo domes going to be interesting. San Antonio gets to play in the Alamo Dome for the last three games, which is a really heavy-handed backend schedule at home for them. Staying with the battle hawks too. Mind you, the battle hawks have not very much been at home much either and they've been pretty much getting all their road games out of the way. So now they get to go home for the remainder of their schedule and get to play in front of their ruckus home crowd. So big advantage there, whether San Antonio can actually take advantage of that is debatable because again, their offense is just not solid in any way, shape or form. Houston should win this game and for their own sake, they need to win this game because as much as Arlington has been in shambles and as much as I feel bad for our own Anthony Miller, obviously he is trying not to dive into the liquor cabinet too much. They're in the press box, but Arlington is still in this. If Louise Perez comes in and plays hero, they're in this and they could potentially steal the division, which is crazy to think about again three weeks ago. Anything else is, I mean what more is there to say about the battle hawks continue to impress. Second here, tied for in the North division with R C L C Dragons, AJ looks good again. We saw him, he kind of got injured for a little bit came out and that was going to be kind of scary, especially with the Kurt and all of that. All AJ is one of the main storylines of the season. What else can continues to impress you about Anthony Beck squad? Andrew McLaren's the mvp. I don't think there's any debate. He's, he's been so solid the entire year. He does not have really bad outings when he has a bad play, he just has amnesia. He gets rid of it. He moves on to the next play. Great outing from him on Sunday. He just was hitting all his spots. He's utilizing all of these receivers. They continue to use Brian Hill pretty well. I mean look, Darius Shepherd's coming on. He has been on a hot streak here. Hakeem Butler finally came back into the end zone. You got so many weapons here to work with and even guys like Austin Polands who was obviously the star of the first week. He hasn't really done a lot production wise, but he's still there. He's still a threat. They can utilize so many of these different guys. They have been the least biggest question of the entire season. We knew who they were from the beginning. They're really scrappy, they have great game plans. They're always in games. If they do their business on offense, they could play really, really well and play from in front because they'll play from behind. They're, they're just never really phased by what happens to them. They're such a cool operation. I think they are who we think they are now when they get to the playoffs, we'll see. They still have to play. There's still gigantic games on the schedule. We don't even know if they're going to make the playoffs. It would be a damn shame if they didn't because of how they've been playing. But there's the North division is so tight right now. We have to see what's going to happen down the stretch. But I mean there's no mystery to St. Louis compared to a lot of these other teams. It is interesting. I love Dear Chev on the show a couple weeks ago, really just balling out, I mean really phenomenal talent and they were showing his resume and bouncing around and how many different teams he's been on Brian Hill, even as far back as the N F NFL Alumni Academy, having him on just a really good squad, really impressive. And they're stepping up and I think back in the offense they run and we've talked about this and Pat Rapino won and AJ isn't trying to force for anything can run just a kind of a level offense. It feels really good. Yeah, I'm really scared. I'm scared. I think it's week nine, it's the Battle Hawks versus the Sea Dragons. Really kind of scared to see what that game's going to look like. Yeah, your Sea Dragons have a really rough back to back a home at DC and then at St. Louis. Those are the most critical games probably the rest of the season for both. I think for both divisions, they're probably definitely going to be the most watched and the most anticipated for the rest of the season because that essentially decides your entire playoff race in the north right there and crazy it is to say DC does not necessarily have that crown for the division title lockdown. You could steal that too. Either Seattle or St. Louis could steal that the rest of the way. So that's still in the question. Now the problem for St. Louis is they got sweats by DC so it'd be a little harder for them, but Seattle I think mean they have a chance, they have a real chance to steal that away. We're still talking here. Just wanted to show some of these comments where you we're still mad about pickleball. It's not something that actually matters. It's literally just like a publicity event and Mike says ESPN does it all the time. Just made there from years of watching normally gets moved to another channel. Yeah, all that's going on. Yeah, aj, I think it's the m b by country mile here. People still mad about pickleball. Anything else to say? We'll get next game here in the big upset DC Gardens. Anything else about either the Battle Hawks or the roughnecks for this week? I think again, just like the roughnecks have just got to get together, they've got to find a way. I don't know what the health status on silvers is going to be. We'll see what happens there. That's really the biggest question mark going into that game for the Battle Hawks. I mean, like I said, they have everyone in their dome the rest of the way they can really use that crowd to their advantage. It's a significant leg up for them the rest of the way. That's the only problem that I had with the schedule that I think I mentioned at the very beginning. I said, well they can play a lot of home games down the stretch. That's a pretty huge advantage if they're above 500 and they clearly are and in a playoff race, they're going to need to use that every way every rest of the way if they need to get in there. Yeah, it's funny it's, we kind of talk about this stuff. I'm trying to find a tweet here. It's like we talk about all this stuff and then we predict the way it was going to be. Hey battle hawks if they come in hot. Although keep in mind the Battle hawks are only 500 at home right now. Before we talk about on from the Battle hawks, and I want to get people's opinions about this, did we like the April Fool Day Battle Hawks Leav in St. Louis? I want to hear in the chat, I thought it was funny. I think I tweeted on here like haha, very clever, whatever. But did we like that considering none of the other teams did a lot of April foolery. I thought it was weird that we posted about the Vegas tickets for the EXE fell account on April Fool's Day. That was kind of weird. We had the Top Pale zero news about the signing for the Dragons as well. But do we like this this official statement? That's tough. I would not personally have put that out for that. I know which day it is, I understand what day it is, but that's a really raw topic for people. That's definitely under the two soon category for a lot of people and I get it. I mean if somebody did that here, it would be the same thing. People would be up in arms if you put that kind of statement out here. If there was an NX value us L team that did that. So I think it's, it's not in poor taste, but I think it's just not reading the room correctly in some ways, putting out a statement like that and playing a joke, no problem. I have absolutely no problem with pulling the strings of your fan base on that particular day, but that particular topic I would've strayed away from her. Just at least screened with somebody. Are we really sure? Do you think this is going to be a little bit too sore of a topic? And look, I know some people are maybe a little bit more sensitive than others when it comes to that, but I think I could see, I can understand why people were upset about that. I certainly would've been a little bit er if that come out because that's a little too raw, a little too much in the feelings for some people. Ty Valley, it was funny here. Primetime Fire said no, it was funny Mike thought, yeah, Vince McMahon's wearing a weird mustache right now. We just saw this morning WWE sold to UFC for 9 billion, which is insane. I will say years ago there was a WWE E Raw at it's now Climate pledge with a key Rita back then and I think it was Elias Walk with Elias, I think he made a joke about the sonics leafing and that it was a good like five, six minute boo. They had to go to the commercial and come back and people were still, I might have been on some things that it was very, very long and so people are very sore about this. People were very sore about the ball hawks and all that kind of stuff. Alright, so now we have, you knew it was coming. Mike Mitchell said, wouldn't it be in April Fools Day Guardians come out and beat the Defenders? This was the game of the weekend, the highest scoring that God, we hit the over. We didn't have to worry about. We did with Ian Fitzsimmons and in the Cashman field and all that. Guardians finally looking good with Doy. We talked a little bit about that at the top of the show. What did you make of this? Domany had the game of his life and it was incredible to watch how he was able to stay so poised. He hits on absolute lasers down the field. His downfield accuracy is really what has impressed me in a lot of ways. He, he's just been so smooth with his throwing motion with his ability to get the ball out and he's had to, because obviously their offensive line is still in shambles, but how he's been able to compose himself in all of the chaos that he's had this whole season. And with the Coach Terrell, it looked like Terrell Buckley's head was about to pop off on SA Saturday. He was about ready to explode and I kind of don't blame him, but it was just funny. It was almost like a cartoon container character. It was just like you take a little needle to the balloon and it goes pop. But for Normity, I mean this is an incredible performance. Six total touchdowns is just absolutely nuts. Three to rushing, three passing really just men's props to him. That to me is one of the best stories of the entire season. It really is considering all that he's gone through and just give this guardian team life, they give them life after all these circumstances, you and what planet do you start oh and six and still have a shot to make it into the playoffs of your own league? That's just unheard of. And for them to be in this position is really incredible. I give immense props to him. I give immense props to Orlando for not giving up. Those players looked ecstatic on Saturday when they won. They were over the moon. Obviously being a six and oh team is awesome, but just to get that first win, just to get that feeling of always perpetually losing and thinking that things were going to go wrong, they finally get over that immense credit to them and just really, really immensely happy for Dormy too, just for the way he played and how he played given the circumstances. I just have this loop in here. I just thought Buckley looked really good coming out of the game. It never got the Kirby Wilson of it all with the Mallers. I have a short, so I'm going to post later today. I think about who's worst, the Mallers or the guardians, but I don't see the mallers rallying like that the guardians did and it's kind of almost like it's totally different circumstance. Cause a couple years ago with Vegas with everything and when Gruden got fired and then they had, there was a D U I, all these things were going on with the team and they really kind of rallied around that ride and Derek Carr kind of let him through and they really could have all fallen apart and they used that as like, no, we're going to come out and we're going to kick ass. And I thought they really did. I thought Buckley clearly has kept the guys motivated and we kind of had questions about that going on earlier in the season and he's yelling and we need new guys and we've made jokes about all that. But I mean they looked really good and good for them. I mean this is proud. It says here, it didn't happen overnight. Domany played great. Was it more Orlando rising up here and trying to take over or was TEU and them, did they kind of falter a little bit? No, I think the defender's offense was doing its job. Tommo looked great again, he's really starting to come on strong. I I'm really impressed with where he's been at developmentally. Abram Smith just continues to be a weapon. I mean he is clearly the best running back in the field. He is leading the league and rushing by a wide margin and for good reason. He's been an absolutely fantastic number one overall pick and look, they're still doing their thing. They're still running the ball at men's authority and now they're throwing the ball too. I mean their offense is not the question. I think this is just a game that the guardians just got out for and yes, obviously DC's defense has played better in other cases. They've given up a lot of points the last couple weeks. Now what you're looking at, let's see, so last week they played the roughnecks, can't remember how many, but they've given up back to back weeks of High point totals and that's something that they have to monitor going forward too, but I just think that's more of a credit. So Orlando, I still think DC's the best team in the field. They're still the best operationally they got out done by a team that really, really, really wanted it and also those two field goals. Look, I hate to rag on Matthew Mcra, but you can't miss a sub 30 yard field goal. You can't just inexcusable the 63 yarder. That's tough. I can't blame him for that. The would've potentially been the game winner asking a lot, but that first one, you can't pull that one. That's just bad form. Yeah, so oh and two didn't help. Obviously I look DC just lost in the wrong phases but they clearly at times it felt like they were in control of the game and other times they weren't the guardians, they were just relentless on offense. We got some comments here. Denzel. Denzel, I still am waiting for a photo of you in your spring league jersey. I think I got photos from everyone else that Denzel won one of those. Daryl's laughing. Mike says Game of the year. Amazing. Scott, a longtime friend of the show here. Scott says Orlando's biggest problem is taking super penalties to kill drives. Max Trab Buckley is fighting to keep his job, but hey, he could not be fighting. We had the comment here too, I really like after they score, they turn the lights out. Yeah, I thought my TV was broken. When Orlando scores, they turn off all the lights. I was like, what the hell is going on here? Then maybe I just didn't pay attention before because it was at the last day game in Orlando or maybe I had never noticed that and I was like, what the hell is going on here? What's the tv? Whatever Ty guardians better demolished. Andy, do you have any other takes on the guardians? Muellers any new takes before we move on? I was going to say, look, I know we flirted around the idea of the guardians being oh and 10 this season, which is not going to happen. Even if they did, I still think they're better than the Mallers. I'm sorry, the Mallers individually did not have the talent. The guardians too. They didn't have a guy. Yeah, I mean even their quarterback room I think is worse than the guardian's room and I know some people will debate that. I don't think it's debate in my opinion. I'm sorry. I think you've had a lot of different playmakers here. They didn't have a Cody LaMer in the team for the Mallers. They didn't have a guy like that for example. They didn't have just any individual talent on offense that was not even close to what they had on the mallers and just the mallers just would give up. I think they would just quit. In my opinion, I'm sorry. They just would fold in these kinds of situations. The guardians are fighting their butts off and they have been the last few weeks. They're not a team to me that really folds that easily. They just get in their own way. They like how it's been for the last few weeks. It's been bad penalties, their offensive line's not consistent at all. It's been pretty horrendous. But overall, individually a lot of points on their roster. I like more than the mallers and I would say that all the way through, even if they went winless. We had a comment here, Doy, I've showed this before. Prime time. Do we send Paxton over to the Braas now or do we write what you want pass? I think we talked, we batted that around this morning. Yeah, I could see that. I don't know if that really helps San Antonio because I mean again, the problem is that guys just keep getting hurt, but I think it could be, I mean it's worth looking into I think for San Antonio also, this is an idea I floated a couple days ago. They need to trade for a running back and I think they need to get someone Morgan Ellison on their team because I think well Has that doesn't want them anymore. See, doesn't want 'em. Yeah, the Sea Dragons aren't going to use 'em so might as well. I think they should try and think about getting another running back because they can't run the ball. That's the other thing. They just absolutely cannot run the ball. That's been their biggest problem. But yeah, I mean sure you can switch Pax and Lynch over. I don't know if that really changes their fortunes but I don't know where else they turn at this point. Yeah, Monte, you could trade Monte Sam here saying that we Cam Newton is never playing in the X Ffl. I don't like, I don't know, cam Newton is not doing pro days for the N F L teams to come in. I did want to show this before we get out of the Guardians win. I was so happy Our chairwoman in chief, Danny Garcia here finally got a win. What a win from the Orlando Gardens. Very happy for Danny and Danny also liked, we were, myself and Michael and Paul, we were featured in the Seattle Sea Dragons marketing campaign for the last two games. Danny liked that post as well. Fair to say that Danny Garcia is a fan of the Mark House, so very excited for that. Alright, and Danny, any thoughts on Danny Garcia's team getting their first win before we move on? That's about time, but it's not, it's been tough sledding for all the owners handpicked teams, so it's about time that she finally got off the Schneider. I do, I will say this, I see Danny Ride, I see her being a little bit more, I obviously they're all invested in everything, but in terms of the win, I see Danny sitting there and being like, yeah, we won. I don't know. Is Jerry card now like, oh we need got the Vegas bikers two and two and five here at the Rock and he's kind of tweeting a little bit, but I do see Danny taking the personal interest in vested interest in the team's success in general. We have here the speaking of the Braas and Vipers. This was the Kurt Kurt Banertt game, the Jaylen McClendon game coming out of nowhere playing lights out. This was interesting game. I watched this one start to finish. I was able to watch this Saturday games. What did you make of this? I think it's just great. It's a great example of when you put someone out there that has never really had that opportunity to play even in the collegiate level and see what he has. Jaylen McClendon just does not have the reps as a lot of other guys in this league. There are other people who played extensively in college, got a little bit of burn in the nfl, guys who've had burned in the nfl, people who have played in other leagues, Jaylen McClendon. He has not had those reps. And for him to be able to come in here and play like he did is pretty remarkable and he just seemed very calm and collected the entire time. Obviously Rod Woods saw something in him. That's why they traded away. Loose. Loose preez. Would Preez have played well? I think so. I think he's the steady veteran hand, but I think for them at this point, they just need to see what they have. And for McClendon, this is great. It's wonderful that he's been able to come in here and play like he did on Saturday. He looked just really in terms of the entire operation and that was even without Jeff Bette who got unfortunately got hurt during the game, pulled a hamstring kind of came up, lame in the first half. But for McClendon, this has been really nice to see him play the way he did and again, it's just a shame. I think this Vegas team could have been better. They had a lot of good pieces going into the season. They still can't really run the ball. They never have. That's been one of their biggest problems. McClendon obviously getting in hi, they're out with his legs a little bit, but overall I, I'm happy for him. I think this is something for him to springboard off of. Maybe he starts to play better or play more in some of these other leagues. Like now maybe we get to see Jalen really get to see him in his full form because again, it's just the fact that he never really got to play before this is, and I didn't know if he was going to because it looked like it was Huntley and Lou and Perez the rest of the way. But good on Rod Woods to give him a shot, give him a real opportunity. It, it's just weird. The whole Brett Huntley of it all and we're bringing him in and we had all the stuff with Brian Scott and everything and then we kind of thought Luis Perez was going to be the land duck quarterback and then he ends up taking over. Huntley never has really played up. I know we were talking about that again this morning in the chat and injuries and everything else. I mean I don't see how you go back to Huntley at this point. That experiment kind of seems to, what do you make of that? It just kind of seems like a failed experiment and 200 grand down the drain there. I mean good for Brent, good for him getting that paycheck, but it seems weird. Yeah, I I'm really not sure what's going on there because I think he played well enough when he was in there and then he got hurt and then it just seemed like he stood idly on the sideline. There wasn't really a role for him. I'm not sure really what happened there. I think there's a lot of notes that need to be taken by Rod Woodson going to the off season. I'm not saying he doesn't know his football, obviously he does. He's a very talented, very smart man. I think there's just different things he has to evaluate as far as running a team, running different athletes, personalities, different expectations. Obviously they had to fire the offensive coordinator a few weeks in. It just seemed like it was kind of a mess. I know this, we've gone on and on about Cashman field, which I am with never seeing it again, but that doesn't seem to be the case. It sounds like other people are under the impression that it's going to be the same thing next year, which, but that's something that they had to deal with that handicap the entire seasons. So I understand that part of it as well. And for Huntley, I don't know, I don't see him getting back into the N F L with what he showcased here. That's kind of out of the question. So maybe he just becomes one of these lifers that sort of just floats around in these type of leagues now for the rest of time. Yeah, we had a comment here Max. Yeah. How do you feel about Vegas starting to sell season ticket deposit? Yeah, it was so weird that it was on April Fool's day. I'm like, this is really weird timing for this and I know it was like their last home game and that makes sense and they want to do all that, but it's fine. I don't know. I see people and oh they need to go. We need got to get to Allegion or we got to get to, they got to add more stands. We got to add more stands and cash. I go, they're not at capacity. What is the point of adding? I think maybe you could fix it up and paint whatever, but you got to deal with the city owns it and they're leasing it and the guy, they're all these different parties involved in that. I think they need to do some more stuff, build a bigger tower, whatever. Let's do all the broadcast stuff. But I don't know if we need to add stands when we're hitting 6,000 of a 10,000 capacity anyway. I could just, if you add more stands, it's not like, oh, we're going to get more people if we're not filling the stands. Are you surprised they're they're going back there next year. I'm surprised that we're putting this out already. Yeah, I am surprised that they're digging in their heel so quickly now. Look, I know they paid for the lease. I know Jerry Cardinal wants to have a team there. I know that they, that's obviously they went to all the trouble moving the franchise and people are up in arms and saying like, well this is not going to work. Or I get also the idea of it's hard to move a franchise once you made a decision. But I don't know. People were saying that after the last iteration of the X F L, they were saying that about Tampa. They were saying that about la. They were saying that about several teams and it was like, okay, no, I don't know how much capital are you willing to put into it as far as moving a team. I know with the U S F L, they moved from Tampa Bay to Memphis, but that doesn't really factor here. So I look, I don't know, they have to have some sort of long-term growth model or at least believe that it's going to work at some capacity. Now it certainly doesn't seem like it based on the eyeball test I have for it this year, but I'm not the one that's in the operation of the team. I just don't think it's really going to pan out and not in that venue certainly. But as far as other venue capacity or what other options they have, I don't know what that would be. So this is, it just seems like it's a bandaid for a longer term problem that that's really their answer is, well this is all we have for now. We're just going to keep with it all right, fine. But we'll see what happens going forward. I, I'm, I'm skeptic they, but they have to put more money into the tructure. You're right. If they're going to do this, they need to put more resources in here. Yeah. John here has a comment. They have a two year contract with cash and it's all paid in ful. From my understanding, it's the them, the amount paid at cash and field is about one rents at the battle dome. So it's not this overwhelming capital here. I have a comment what's, what's the deal with me holding the microphone? My chief Mike stand. This show has evolved from Andy and I casually talking about what I do a whole, we do the whole edited three hour and read and I got the backdrop and all that. This, we're just having coffee Monday morning. We're just hanging out. It's just casual. Andy, does that offend you that I'm not holding, I don't have my mic stand with me right now. I mean maybe I should just take mine away too and just fit the vibe here. Like you said, I'm not, I'm not I'm, maybe it's on me that I'm not actually fitting your style, your mantra Here. I wake up, I got my PJs on, we're in the kitchen. This is just this Monday morning live recaps, all this stuff. Yeah I have, I have heard jerseys. I've heard the jerseys were coming next week since the first week of the season. No, happy to talk about it when we get there. Last game, we'll get to this and then I have a voicemail, we'll play a couple other things before we get out. This has been a lively show today. I think we have the Seattle C Dragons here. I will be there on Easter here coming up this Sunday, taking on the Renegades. I was at the Mariner game. I saw the beginning half of this and I caught up when I got home. What did you make? Renegades still not looking great. Seattle Ben throwing, we're throwing the red zone interception still. What do you make of the Sea Dragons? Well Ben Ucci continues to test the patients of Jim Haslet. But look, they're winning. They keep winning. They've been playing outstanding the last few weeks as far as their defense is really coming on. Their defensive line looks awesome. Their offense, offense. I think it says a lot that again, they're not using Morgan Ellison. We've talked about that. He seems to be out on the fold here. Deuce just continues to use his legs and his arm. They could again steal the division. They really could. They have an opportunity. They have a huge opportunity. This Sunday you're going to have your hands full with the DC team that just lost of the guardians who I would have thought would be less on their guard coming to this weekend. Cause I assume they're going to be seven and oh they're not. So we'll see what happens there. But this the C Dragon team, it's good to see that they were to adjust after they started Owen two and it felt like the sky was falling and they've been able to come all the way back here and 0.5 rattle off five straight. They just look so smooth on offense when they decide to be Jaco Pearson looks awesome. Even Josh Gordon getting re-involved here are back on the offense again. They are so smooth at times when DeNucci throwing the ball into the other team, if he's not throwing to the other jersey's colors, they look really good. And I love seeing Blake Jackson getting involved too. Jeron Green, it's pretty sneaky. Sneaky good on the perimeter as well. I like him a lot. But this Sea Dragon team I think has a real shot. They have play, they have championship potential. They really do. This is a team that can play for a title. They've proven that they've gone and done it in different divisions. They've played really well at home. I think they can do it again at home this weekend if they just don't turn the ball over, they need to stop shooting themselves in the foot. But that's, that's been the same narrative Had this, here was the other, we mentioned this a little bit at the beginning of the show, but Tom Ero here, one of the N F NFL Network insiders tweeting. This was also on the April Fools Day veteran, right about Philip Lindsay going to be signing with the Sea Dragons per source. We know that Mike has reached out to the team and we've heard from people on the back ends, this is coming this week, this, are we able to plug him in ahead of Sunday? It certainly seems like we could with coming in on the Monday. We sign the contract, we do the physical, am I reading differently in this? What do you make of this and when he's coming or what effect he can have on the dragons with Ellison kind of not being used anymore. I mean if it's going to happen, it's probably going to be announced on Tuesday or Wednesday at the very latest. But I would imagine that he could get a few carries if he's on the team. He's going to get a little bit of burn for this weekend, but obviously you won't know the entire playbook yet. So I could see him being used in a limited role. But this is clearly, this is down the line move too. This is the best case you're hoping for is this is the stallions signing Bo Scarborough last year where he came in and he was just able to be really authoritative on the ground and kind of supplied a necessary element that helps that stallion team win a championship. That's what you're hoping for with Philip Lindsay here. And I've seen him, I, he's played pretty well for the steam undrafted. Obviously he did great in the NFL when he had his opportunities. Seeing him again in this offense would be really fun. But I'd imagine you're going to see five or six carries from him this Sunday. If anything, if he gets actually assigned by the team, if this reporting is true, which Tom Peso is pretty high ranking N F L reporter, so I would imagine this is true, but it's interesting that it hasn't been confirmed in outlets and we'll see what happens. But yeah, he'll, he'll be in limited role this Sunday. Yeah, it's interesting because there's a lot was made of it like the April Fools of it all and do we trust this? I don't, don't, air's not coming out with news about Philip Lindsay like is April Fools that I think they're a little bit more zigs and Tom Ero could do than Zig Sarah for April Fools Day. It's interesting, I saw Scooby friend of the show here, Scooby with the ESPN n comment on this, which about maybe we see this in the future as well the last couple weeks. And that was kind of what Kurt was trying to do. Let me come in the last three, four weeks, play, get some tape. Obviously you get a little bit of paycheck as well, but getting those reps in kind of looking that way. I want to talk before we get out of this too much. Renegades really just still cannot figure out anything. We saw Ke Kevin Anderson, we stand. Kevin Anderson one attempt here. Really kind of a mess for Arlington still here at week seven At least Daveon Smith is starting to do some things and they're finally able to get him going, but other than that, yeah. What else do you want? What else is there to learn here besides that it's not happening for Drew Pli. If it wasn't happening before, it's not happening now it's It's not going to happen. It wasn't happening for counselor. This entire offense just can't get anything done and I don't know if they're going to have anything changed at the offensive coordinator position. I know that's been a question coming up constantly. Look, Bob Soups can avoid that question all he wants. It's a problem. It is a big problem and for them, I mean the, the faster that Luis Perez can get ready, the better for them because that's really their last hope. If he can come in and even just play at a moderately sufficient level, this offense could do a lot more of things because they've been so deficient at quarterback. They've had the worst quarterback play in the entire league and I know they've been injuries from other quarterbacks and other teams, but this has been abysmal on their offensive end for the entire season. So for them it's going to have to come down to Perez is going to be ready or not and he should be. And also this Victor Bolden signing, that's the other thing. If they're going to be able to utilize Victor Bolden at all and if he's going to be able to have the impact that people expect him to have, this is look, it's frustrating because it's like watching, I don't know, it's like watching the Chicago Bears. They play so well on defense special teams, so they just caner have any consistent quarterback play and it's the same thing here with this team. I we'll see, but I pres has to be, he's going to have to put on the superhero cape if they're going to do anything. Well I'm looking here, so we have next week renegades at Houston here, Saturday at four. It's a bit, it's a big game now. It's a big game, especially with the guardians coming back. Are they able to kind of rally there after their first win? What do you make of this here? And I know that I see comments, why didn't they have Luis and I don't think you can trade Luis on a Wednesday and have him play Friday. That's just not going to work. I mean as simple as you want to make the playbook, I assume we see Perez because I dunno why we make that trade otherwise, but what do you make of Renegades going into Houston here Or going into Orlando? That's what I mean. Yeah. Yes, Yes, yes. Yeah. Now, well it's interesting because I know Mark Perry was saying that this could have been the potential first win for the guardians. Well they already have it but now they're invigorating because now they think, oh, now if you're the guardians are saying to yourselves, well now we have a chance to get in the playoffs and if you're talking about which team I trust in an offensive standpoint, absolutely I trust Orlando more than I do Arlington. I mean what team's going to put up more points? I know Arlington's defense is better obviously and they have better special teams and they probably won't shoot themselves in the foot as much as Orlando does, but I got to go with Dormy right now man. He's playing so well and he's had two incredible games. One in Vegas which they didn't win and then the one this past weekend, he's looked the best out of all their quarterbacks that if he's going to continue throwing the ball at the way he is, I think I'm going to have to go with Orlando here. It's crazy to say but they just seem like they know what they're doing and they can actually score and that's a big deal. That's going to have to be the biggest thing. Which team is going to be able to actually be able to put up points the rest of the season. I know this whole south has had a problem, but as I said at the top of the show, Orlando has the best offense in the division right now just based on how they've been the last couple weeks. So I got to go with Orlando here. That's what really put a serious den in or Arlington's pride and also their ability to get into the playoffs. If that happened here, No one was more pleased to see the guardians be at Mark Perry's DC defenders than this guy right here. So happy Abby thinking we can have some prayer in the league and don't all need to, it doesn't need to be successful and all that. We have some comments here we'll go through. I got a voicemail we'll play before we get out. Anything else on that game and then we'll start blowing through. I know John's got a question here and Gregory's got comments. Anything else from that game or any of the other three games? I just want our Arlington to score more than 20 points or 15 points for that matter because even them just getting to that second digit two in the getting to that point, this season has been a struggle. I want them to get there but I'm again, I'm happy that Orlando is in this. I know people would say, oh my god, if fifth four and 16 got in the playoffs, that'd be terrible. Look, you have to put up, yeah, rest of the division has to put up the performances if they want to be able to keep it that way. If they don't want to keep them in the playoffs, but guess what? They're playing better than anybody else right now. Yeah. If Seattle can win the N F C West was it years ago? If seven to nine or we can, it's fine. We can host it. It's not at the end of the world here. Mike has a question. Anyone else see the US L jerseys they're promoting for sale, their hideous hope the XL jerseys don't look cheap like that. Yeah, I have a Star Jersey. It's really quite poor. I know that. We're all retros ones Dustin over there makes good quality. I don't know if see XE L jerseys before the end of the season. I think that's a shame, but that's something they could promote in the off season. Do you have any other comments on the jerseys? It is a shame. I was really looking forward to at least getting my hands on one of them and that's not going to be the case, so look, what do you do? You want to blame it on production line issues or all that fine, but you had time to prepare for this and it just didn't come through and maybe they just want to be really perfectionist with this. Maybe they just wanted to look absolutely fantastic. They want to have the scenes and they want to have all the right coloring and all that. I get it. Okay, but it's a missed opportunity. Again, it was really stood out to me when I went to that Arlington Brahmas game and there just wasn't any new jerseys. There weren't people that were able to be patriotic and really be able to wear their colors. It's just a lot of people who kind of have jerseys or t-shirts from other teams or even other sports because they don't have the gear of the paraphernalia and it really goes a long way in promoting your league, so absolutely they got to find a way to get that out the door and they better be announcing it this off season because I think that's when it's going to come because that has to be the case. They need to get these out. John has a question here about the championship. I don't know so much about the trophy. I do think it's odd. We haven't started selling tickets yet for the championship game. I know that they sent out the huddle survey here last week. Hey, are you traveling to the game? Are you only going to go if certain teams win that whole thing? We have the buy week in there so presumably people can figure out their travel and all of that. I don't know. I would like them to start selling tickets just so we can get that squared away. Do you have any other thoughts on the championship? Yeah, we're coming up on a month out from that game, so they need to get on that and I guess if you're a fan, my question is, is it going to be like the CFL's breakup where teams from other or people from other teams or fans of other teams just show up even though they're not supporting the two that are playing the game, it's just sort of a whole event. Are they going to going to be people from all the other teams that don't make it, that get into the game? Obviously I think you and I are going to try and make it and you are for sure I still need to buy my tickets, but I will be hopefully I'm going to most likely be there and there's not really going to be a team that maybe for example, for a lot of these other supporters with these fans or is there just going to be a lot of casual people from San Antonio? The San Antonio area are just going to show up. I don't know what the mantra is going to be. I was trying to figure that out. What the US fell championship game last year. I wasn't really sure what kind of group was going to show up there. I mean was it a lot of stallions and stars fans? I guess I don't really mean It was really hard to gauge that so It was all those Canton can Canton, it was all the Canton Brahmas Birmingham fans that were there. I know. I do think it's going to be more eclectic. I think it's going to be a party time. What I think, I don't think that there's biggest Viper fans just waiting to bite. I think if you're going to go to the championship game, you're probably going to go couple more before we get out. Now Max has a voicemail I got to play. Chris wants to know what does the professor think will be the top quarterback when all things are said and done. Now when you say top quarterback, do you mean in terms of the MVP or in terms of someone who's going to make it in the nfl? Because if you're talking about MVP, it's going to be AJ McCarran, but if you're talking about in terms of individual performance, I don't think it's going to be Ben. Yeah, he just makes way too many mistakes for his own good I would say. See I like Brandon Silvers. Those are some good, there's another suggestion there, Mike, Chris, I like Brandon Silvers, but I don't see he plays the best in AJ's offense compared to Cole McDonald's, but I don't know if I could plug him into other teams and would work. That's the other, and that's the other thing we're starting to see with some of these quarterbacks guys who can be traded and still play well in other teams. I mean Luis Perez has been well documented. It's just playing wherever the hell he goes. That's his whole mantra. I don't don't want to say he's the best, but he's definitely the most adaptable dorm. Look, I Dormy has a chance to really show himself and really shine at the end of the season here. He could end up being one of the top performers. He may not statistically because he didn't get enough reps, but as far as individual games, I mean he's already got two fantastic games under his belt so he could be by the end one of the top names as far as who's performing the best right now and if the NFL scout came by and said, Hey, look at this guy. Let's get him in a camp. I would say absolutely. He's looked, considering all of the circumstances, I would absolutely be willing to give him a shot in camp. Last question here. We're getting some debate about the jerseys as well. Max wants the comment they need to change the playoff format next year. Now I was the guy when, because we didn't know they do an East Wests, where do they do? I said, we don't need divisions. Just top that. Reid is the biggest idiot in the world. This is so stupid to because this is why. It's because there's eight teams and there's only two. The two, you got to be able to get all this. Do you like the idea of doing just top points whatever next year? Get rid of the divisions in that way for the playoffs? I think so. You have to, especially with, look, the reason that you can do it in the NFL is because there's so much parody, right? There's so many different teams. There's so many different ways to match up the schedules and people. Now I know people get upset when a team that's 500 or below wins the division, but that in my opinion, it's like, look, I understand why there are divisions and if you win your division, the rest of your teams don't perform. That's on them everyone else's fault. I can't blame the n FFC south for Tampa winning that game because look, if you're a professional team, you go on the road and you absolutely kick their tails and say, okay, well we're going to go in there and prove it. And sometimes wild card teams didn't do that. So I understand why that's the case here. It's a different story. I absolutely think there needs to be either be a crossover or some sort of case where there needs to be best. I think it needs to be best records or best, most points scored all of that because there's such a clear divide and if it's going to be a real shame, can you imagine if we have a case where let's say like DC's eight and two and Seattle is seven and three and St. Louis is seven and three and one of those teams doesn't make it, that's a travesty. That is an absolute travesty. And if you're going to have a team like Arlington or Orlando or San Antonio be below 500, get in the playoffs, that is a real shame and we're on track for that to happen right now. So yes, absolutely. I agree with you that we need to set that up next year. Yeah, it should be the best figure. I had the other comment here, I think I lost, oh, the chef an X L award show the weekend before the championship maybe about something we can do on the Mark House. Maybe that's something we can do. We're going to get out of here soon. I do have a voicemail I owe as a bet. We're going to play this, I think I have this set up so that we hear it. We should be able to hear it. If we can't hear it, start waving your hands, but Max has a voicemail. If you ever want to leave a voicemail for the show, the mark cast.com/voicemail. I had said many months ago, I thought Dwayne the Rock Johnson one, the co-owners of the X Ffl was going to be wrestling Roman rains at WrestleMania. This is kind of the end of the rock's window to wrestle. I know they've really wanted to do that. The Rock tweeted this weekend, good luck to my bloodline. I'm not going to be there. And Roman ended up beating Cody Rhoads inexplicably and now Roman I think is going to, he's probably going to get hurt or something tonight. They're going to take the belts off it, but Max has a voice. Somebody here. Hopefully you can hear the Sandy. I just want it to be known that this man, Reid Johnson was certain to me in dms that Dwayne the Rock Johnson would show up at WrestleMania and fight slash beef with Roman reigns. This man hates Roman reigns so much and yet he's still obsessed with them. We're not watching the mar cast. This is the Roman cast from now on. Thank you very much. I'll be enjoying this week's episode of the Roman cast and cashing this bet for all of eternity. Thank you. Goodnight or good afternoon or whatever time it is and enjoy the Roman cast. It's really an all-time voicemail right there, what's really, really an all-time voicemail. Appreciate that, appreciate that. Thanks Andy. Any reactions to that before we get out of here? Man, I thought my vendetta against you for Kurt was one thing. That's a whole nother level that's like months and years of buildup right there. That's something special. Yeah. By the way, I've watched, I watched some WrestleMania, which that venue putting in SoFi was incredible. It was so fun to watch that. I knew a lot of people down here who didn't hear that it was going to happen in SoFi and then after the week of they were like, oh, I would've gone to that. That sounds awesome and not, there's a lot going on down here obviously, but it sounded like it looked, sounded amazing on TV and even for people who attended it that were able to make it from here or were in the LA area. But yeah, I wanted to see the Rock two. Obviously it was clear as day he was not going to make it, but that's a missed opportunity. But yeah, I, I'll make sure to let people know that I'm going to be hopping on the Roman cast from now on whenever I let them know I've got something to do on Monday morning. Yeah, I'll tell you in a different world where this show still has a permanent, I probably would've been at that WrestleMania la but the Times move on and we kind of do all that stuff. Scott says here, yeah, he would like the CFO crossover Rules for work. Thanks. It's going to be a crossover team. I think that's going to do it. Andy's got to get to work. We try to keep this an hour a good show coming up this week. I have to work all week so I got to kind of get these interviews scheduled around all that. But we're going to have Eric er coming on formerly a PPF F and all of that. We're going to have Bill Shay coming on from the Athletic and then Cole Kubick, I think I have scheduled as well with a e s, ESPN N and he was on the sidelines. We'll see I'm working on some more U S F L player interviews and some X L stuff, but we'll just see my schedule this week. I got to go film some more stuff. Yeah, Ty says, go Aztecs here. Andy's going to be excited for that. So anyway, I can subscribe. We'll be back Friday and look for the shorts. Trying to do more shorts. We've getting some good views. Andy, we did wonder about the, what is the XE L Hub got some good views over the weekend, so trying to work on that as well. Break up these. I have a little guy on Fiver now that breaks send in the video and I get like five shorts back. I go, this is freaking awesome. Anything else before we get out of here? I think this was a good show today. Thank you as always, Reid. And listen, this is going to be really interesting. The next few weeks, this whole Orlando winning thing has thrown a giant wrench into the entire operation and also all the quarterback injuries of course, but this is really, I'm really excited the last few weeks I have a lot to talk about as far as like what's going to happen with the teams. Good luck to your good luck on Sunday. Have fun Easter Sunday on in Seattle. I'm sure it's going to be a blast. This is probably the biggest game in franchise history for you, so try and maybe, hey look, maybe you get another promo and you get into the promotional for the Sea Dragons again, like you did this past week. We didn't share that, did we? I'm not sure if you have that, but We did. Plus, I do want to forget too, before we get out of here, Andy's article, I always forget to do this and then we got off the show. Andy's takeaways article is on right now. XE L, week seven, takeaways, lessons learned, guardians Talent, San Antonio, quarterback Proportion. Oh, look at that. That is a halfway. Gentlemen, go check out Andy's article. XE L, new sub. I like this because Andy's kind of like the catchall. I know everyone has teams over there, Mike and everyone else, but I do like that you kind of do the more broad, you're kind of the aerial view of that. Same with the US L. Any other plugs from your article and I can pull up that C Dragon thing. I'm really just happy that I was able to finally for the first time, put a Orlando photo for the first time in the entire season just to have them celebrating. They looks like they were having a blast in that locker room afterwards. But yeah, just overall pretty much what we talked about with the guardians finally getting off the Schneider, having San Antonio quarterback problems and just not being able to not see what's going to happen with the south division. The division races being wide open, everything we covered here, but I'm just more pleased that it's not so monotonous and so one note for everything this week, every week I write this article, there's still something that I always learn and there's something new that comes into the phrase. I don't always feel that way with some league, some spring leagues, some alternative leagues. Sometimes it's the same stuff over and over and over again because there's such defined roles and defined outcomes for a lot of these teams, but I have not felt that way. It's really even here we are just getting past week seven and the narrative is still changing. Even though you know what we think was going to happen after five weeks is really not the case. No, it's exciting and I'm a hater, but I got a little bored of the US of L season at the end of last year. I think it was kind of like, here we got the Mallers whatever playing here and who really cares. I do think it's a little more wide open. Again, I'm a hater though. Yeah, before we go look at that, at group Audi and Seattle Sea Dragons there And covering Matt's face no less while doing it. Yeah. Oh yeah. I'm covering, yeah, you can see, yeah, Matt's face is, I don't know if you can see my curse there, Matt's face and then Michael Payne. My friend was sad that his, he's covering his nose face. Yeah, but that is Matt's face with his hat there behind that. Anyway, I think that's it. Yeah, Chris says I'm not a hater. Anyway, appreciate it. Can subscribe. We'll see you on Friday and Andy, get to work and thank you guys so much.

Episode 138 - XFL Season 2 Confirmed! - "Who's Next???"

Coming up this week on the Markcast. Well, here we are haters. B damn. We made it XFL 3.0. Season two is confirmed for 2024 via Chairwoman, Danny Garcia and Dwayne the Rock Johnson. So Whitney words of a slightly less famous wrestler. Exe fellows asking the question, who's next? It Ain't left. It's who's Next tape. How about ladies and gentlemen? Colberg, Really eclectic show this week somehow ended up with six guests. Again, Austin Carp, joining us from the Sports Business Journal. We're talking TV ratings now looking ahead to 2024, what does the X F L need to do now to prepare for 2024 success? Getting year two approved should take a lot of weight off everyone's shoulders and there will be tweaks, okay, from the league side, from the broadcaster side, there'll be experimentation and I, I'm, I'm bullish on what ESPN tries. I think they're very good at experimenting. They know where they sit in the landscape. They know that they can adjust, they know that they can put out a great, great product out there on the Television Airways. Then Eric McClain joining us, mountain of a man, ESPN and X F L, sideline reporter getting the Eric's thoughts on the X ffl season with his heat. Think giving players second opportunities. Eric was melting the way in Orlando last week. This week he's going to be the Friday Night Lights game going to be there with the Seattle Sea Dragons coming in against the Arlington Renegades. Like you said, if you can go in a day early and do a community outreach and maybe the first one's just your star players and then the middle two are the whole team and then the last one, maybe your star players again, but just doing something to keep building that brand, build that loyalty, build that trust. I've got to think that's in future plans In longtime friend of mine and yours, Greg Parks joining us X F L board. Really impassioned please from Greg this week. Not only talking football but just it's a stressful environment we're in right now. Really appreciate Greg coming on kind of burying his soul in the way that I haven't heard Greg talk Before. You have that in the back of your mind even though this is a completely different X ffl from any that has come before almost in a lot of ways it's hard and it's hard to cover the league with that cloud hanging over because you know, ask yourself how invested do I, should I get in this? How much of myself and should I give to this? How much of my time and effort should I give to this? I don't know. I don't know if anybody else who covers the league feels that way. I don't know if any other fans feel that way, but it's just almost draining emotionally. Re And Devin Darrington joining us courtesy of the Orlando Guardians came up short last week. Devin had a phenomenal game getting Devin's thoughts on everything Ffl this season and then it look at that, some U S F L content coming your way. Case Cook is quarterback for the Philadelphia Stars joining the show, courtesy of the team catching up with Case he's at training camp now we're getting ready for season two. What does it feel like for Case to be back in the saddle? And then Toronto Argos historian Paul Woods for the C F L joining the program. Paul is literally writing the book. I'm McCloud Beth Thompson. Paul was down in Birmingham checking out the sites we catch up with Paul should be a good show this week. Thanks as always. I can subscribe. Hey guys, welcome to the Mark Cast here. Really exciting week. Woke up Monday morning in Exe L season two confirmed. Not that we really didn't expect that but it's good to have that in writing courtesy at the U S A today. Folks over there. Really appreciate that. Got a good show for you. Going to try to keep this short, trying to get more guests in but maybe not three and a half hour episodes. Hopefully you will all enjoy that. Like I said off the top Austin Carp joining us, Eric McClean really appreciate Eric taking the time. Greg Parks case cookies. Really excited to talk with Case. My quarterback, I think the Philadelphia Stars are kind of the unofficial US F L team under the Mark House. I think we're allowed to have a U S F L team of the Mark House cases with us at Devin Deton. Really appreciate that. And then Paul Woods as well. Like I said, you like can subscribe. Get us up, try to hit 3,500 subscribers. I've started to posting some like YouTube shorts, just trying to generate some more content that way. Hopefully if you see those you'll give him a thumbs up. Give your boy read a thumbs up. Like I said before I go, don't want to make this too long. This is I think the last week that you can vote. I mentioned it a couple weeks on the show. We are nominated for the Sports podcast group, best Sports Business podcast of the year up against some heavy hitters including you, sports business journal zone, John Oren trying to get John on the program. We got Austin on today. Austin saying that John's running around putting out a lot of different fires but we're up against John Oren and them over at the Sports Business Journal. We're up against sports illustrators in there, DraftKings is in there. Everything else, I'm going to put a link in the description. Voting closes April 6th so if you do nothing else for your boy Reid, I would really appreciate. That's an independent podcast. Really proud that we got into that. I think that's going to do it for me. Make sure, check back in on Monday. We we're still doing our post X F L weekend recaps. Those have been really fun. We have Paul Reese on this week. I thought Paul was a great spot coming in kind of midway through the season and haven't talked with Paul at all. And of course Andy, my Shannon Sharp as always on the Monday shows there. I think that's going to do it for me today. We'll check back in at the end of the show. Thanks as always, like and subscribe. Well I'm excited here. I always like you. We live in this little world here, echo chamber on Twitter and everything else for spring football. I like bringing in real reporters. We have Austin Carpenter, managing editor digital at the Sports Business Journal. We've had Ben Fisher on in the past this, so I appreciate your time sir. How are you? Fantastic, thanks for having me. So I have your article here and I can pull it up here if we want to talk specific numbers, anything, but what do you make of this we're, we're week seven here of the X Ffl 3.0 now going in season two confirmed per Danny Garcia this week. What do you make of everything? It's been X ffl 3.0 has kind of been an interesting experiment. All of spring football is, but this iteration as far as the numbers go, as far as the ratings go, they're not what they were for 2.0 back in 2020 that came out of the gate really strong, well over a million and a half per game, but it also had way more exposure on broadcast tv. So abc, Fox, CBS's of the world, those are your broadcast TVs. It was on more ESPN this time. They just took a different approach. They put a lot of these early week games on FX and it was kind of curious because FX really hasn't been a destination for live sports probably since the heyday. NASCAR numbers of the late two thousands or early two thousands, mid two thousands in that range. It, it's just not where you go for sports these days. So to see Disney, which acquired FX when it bought all the Fox assets a couple years ago, be like, all right, we're going to put the XFL on fx. It was kind of a head scratcher for me because you're not really going to come across it as you're browsing around or even on your YouTube TV type of guide there. And I think that was really reflected in some of the numbers you were seeing there out of fx. They weren't very strong and the ownership and Disney slash ESPN executives saw those numbers and then you started to see the schedule changes come out. They moved some FX games, the ESPN two, maybe some of the ESPN N games over to ABC to try to drum up more numbers. The numbers these last couple of weeks, week four, week five or week five and six, I guess we're going to be tough up against NCAA tournament and you know, saw some of those really low numbers on fx. But now as we get into the back half of the season, I think there's only one more FX window. You're going to start to see these numbers climb back up. Maybe you'll see some more, a better narrative around the numbers as games return to either a abc, big espn and you might see some more coverage there on ESPN too because college basketball is going away. You're not going to see as much tge there taking up the room that X ffl will now get. It's this, I just don't know when the best time to do it, right. We've seen U S Ffl last year, we do April end in July, maybe not the best getting players into camp at that point. So here we have XF L we're going to come in right after the Super Bowl guns plays and you're dealing with March MAD this year and now baseball starting, right? You're going to be dealing with that. I've got my Mariners hat on, we've have a Seattle franchise. You're fighting hockey, you're still going to do the same. I don't know when the best time of year is to really have a clean slate if you're one of these all football leagues. It's tough. And you see the U S F L, which is kind of on Fox and N NBC networks take a different approach, U S A FS one, et cetera. The numbers that they had in season one last year with that later start that you're talking about are doing better than what the XFL 3.0 has been doing. The story is not finished yet. Like I said, by any stretch you got the back half, they'll be able to pick up some of those numbers and like you said, there's going to be a year two, there'll be some fine tuning as to the scheduling, but yeah, there's not a great time. But anything after the N nfl, I think what the U S F L and even these X ffl numbers have shown is that there is appetite for spring football on these networks. Yes, you're going to run into the N H L postseason. Yes, you're going to run into the the NBA postseason, particularly on cable, but there's really, I think there is a spot for the X ffl games people turn to ESPN naturally even turning to ESPN too naturally for all right, what's on? Okay, maybe it's for U S F L. I don't think even U S A yet has gotten to that point where you think that this is a natural spot for sports and they've done a good job kind of converting what used to be the content on B NBC Sports Network into usa, but I just think U USA for many people out there is not yet that sports destination that ESPN is. So I think the X ffl has the leg up there and I'm curious to see how the numbers develop as we get going and people get comfortable with the return of the X F L. Are you surprised that we haven't seen more national exposure of, we had a couple ads, but even unless you're watching the games, you really don't know when the next games are. I mean I cover this every week and I'm going on the website when the hell is okay, it's Monday night, it's on the espn. Yeah, I just, are you surprised for the casual viewers here? I don't know how you're discovering these games like you said, unless you, you're surely not turning to FX to find that. So unless you happen to stumble upon it, I just don't know how they're finding that. No, and like you said, sometimes there have been a Thursday night game, sometimes there's been a Monday night game, sometimes it's just two on Saturday and one on Sunday or three two on Sunday. It has not been that consistent in this go with the xfl. So I also think you hit the nail in the head, there really hasn't been as strong a marketing push and I think some of that has to do with who's behind this xfl. It's not. Vince McMahon, one of the best marketers we've ever seen, 21st century PT Barnum. He really was. That's what he was, that was his thing. He's a marketer, not what the rock does. That's not his bread and butter. His bread and butter is acting. While he was good at marketing himself, marketing a whole football league is fine and he showed up in week one, but I don't think he's out there like Mark Cuban is with the Mavericks promoting his property day in and day out, week in and week out. He's not sitting on the sidelines for every game. He, he's the face of the league essentially. And with, I don't know that he brings that same qua I suppose that Vince McMahon or even Mark Cuban does. I've seen a lot more retweets the last couple weeks. I've seen a lot more of the rock like, hey, we got the games on this weekend. Like I said, if I didn't live on Twitter, which I do, it's probably unhealthy, but if I was on Twitter earlier, Jim, I I'm there totally unhealthy. I just don't know how we're consuming this content. I think they're doing a tremendous job and the teams are pushing out and I've been really complimentary here. They brought them in at this season was starting, right? Hey, we're hiring these teams, we're doing all this stuff. I just don't know what just, and I know the ad, the marketing budget's been reported that like 120,000, which really isn't a lot. I don't know what more they could be doing outside of just the rock retweeting on Twitter. It's tough I think in the back half of the season, especially during these playoff games that you're going to see on espn, you know those are decent numbers. Those are really decent sized numbers. So hopefully you'll see some promotion of hey the X ffl playoffs are coming or the final week of the regular season. I'm hoping that you'll see some of that push during ESPN and ABC's coverage of the N NBA postseason during the coverage of the n Hhl postseason as well. So I think you have some space there for some solid outreach to show that the x ffl is on and I'm curious to see how much ESPN does on their airwaves. We have a quote here in the, they were in ABC here. I'll pull it up you the U or USA AR today had the article this week with the Rock whatever Dwayne say. I think it's not really apples to apples here. Comparing 2020 to 2023, obviously that's what people are going to do. Do you feel like 2020 aside the numbers this year have proven that there is enough of an appetite? Like you said you feel like there's a place, but besides just the hardcore looks like 300,000, 400,000 people that are going to watch some of these games, is there a market for a national audience on this? I think that they are correct in saying the pandemic numbers. It seems odd to talk about, hey it's only three years ago. Of course we can do apples to apples. We are in a different media consumption landscape, post pandemic, what people consume, what platform people are on, the number of Netflix type platforms, whether it's a peacock, whether it is Paramount Plus and you're streaming one of these 900 Yellowstone spinoffs. It just seems like the massive amount of entertainment content out there, it's just different. It's just different the way that people consume. So yeah, the TV numbers are going to be a little different. Maybe if it gets up to a million viewers on average for the season, I think that's a good place. I don't know that it's going to get there and I don't think it's going to match the 2020 numbers. I want to see my barometer I guess is where it settles in vis-a-vis these U sfl numbers, particularly in year two for that property and whether there is enough out there. Well, can we have two spring football leagues? We went decades without any and I means it's like throwing in the NFL back in la they're like, okay, we're going to do two at once even though we haven't been there for 20 years. You're now throwing two spring football leagues out. There is do viewers want that? Can you sustain? Nevermind the TV numbers. These are expensive properties to run just from having a football team, having operations, having fans in attendance. This is not cheap. So I want to see that you are able to survive on TV and operationally it's good to have the backing of Fox if you're the u s Ffl, it's good to have the backing of ESPN if you were the X ffl and honestly this X ffl U S F S ffl thing is kind of an extension of this whole Fox versus espn. I hate, I don't want to call it a media war, but it's like Big 10 versus the scc. You see the two networks picking up properties in different sports and they're kind of going out one another and this is just another extension of that and it's kind of fun to watch from a nerd media perspective. Well a lot of people when they were getting ready to have the X ffl, we didn't know, okay, what's it going to be in the TV deal? Obviously back in 2020 it was on Fox and abc, you know Fox. Now that's out of the picture and it does seem like the X ffl now was left holding the bag of, well we only had half of really the exposure we had before where Fox has that they're able to podium. But then we see it does seem like both leagues are maybe hurting themselves and hey, we each need to have our own property, but now obviously we're not promoting each other. Yeah, I mean it's tough. It's spread out and when you have game fewer games on a, you mean looking just at the xfl, there is less, a lot less broadcast TV exposure and it's going to hurt your numbers. The natural order of things is that if you're on broadcast tv, that's your cbs, B C, Fox abc, the numbers are just going to be higher. Not that often. Do you find that something on ESPN is going to really out draw something that goes on broadcast TV and that's where properties want to be and the X Ffl does have some but not as much as the u s Ffl was getting in year one on NBC and Fox and they're going to continue to do that. I think they're going to be more games this season if I read correctly on Big Fox. So it's what kind of exposure can you give them and if you are the Rock and Danny Garcia and Jerry Carton, now you're going, you're talking with ESPN already about like, hey, we really got to bump up the ABC exposure in year two. If you look on here, and I have, I'll share this tab here so we can look at it, but 43 games, 13 primetime, 29 on Fox and N nbc, 18 on Fox seven on FS one. I mean it's really, and for someone that gets caught into a lot of X F L versus U S F L tribalism online, I think that U S F L is going to come out of the gate really strong, does that way a heavier burdening than them than to really perform, right? Hey, if X F L gets 350,000 viewers on ESPN two on a Monday night or whatever, what is the different expectations when you're putting 29 games on Fox and n nbc When you're putting that many, many games on broadcast tv, you're putting a lot of juice behind what this is could potentially do. And I know the executives at Fox and I know that they are bullish on what the U S F L is going to be able to do in year two. I know N B NBC is also excited about having the property. It's a time of year when there really isn't a lot going on. It's at the tail end of N B A and N H L season. Yeah, Fox has some baseball once a week. N b NBC has some golf on the weekends, but these Phil hours that just weren't there, they were usually be, maybe they was going to a time by, maybe it could have been obscure sports stuff that you might see on the OCHO trying to get some exposure on a broadcast TV network. This gets you football and if Americans show have shown anything, we love football, okay, it's the number one sport and it's the number two sport when you talk about college. So if you're Fox, you're b, nbc, you know this, you're partners with the nfl, you have college football packages you have seen this year in and year out. That's why they're like, we can put this stuff on the broadcast network in the spring and it's going to do better than what we probably would've had there anyways. If you had to grade the X ffl here on what your expectations would've been, what they would've done this year, and I know we haven't finished the season yet, but prior to having seen what the broadcast slate was going to be, are they performing better or worse than you would imagine? I think it's a little lower than what I would've expected. Even with what I was talking about vis-a-vis FX not being a visible sports network, I thought the numbers would've been a little higher and it's drawing in almost the MLS range sort of thing. And there's a reason that no one really wanted that primary MLS package on linear tv. The numbers just weren't there. So I think you'll see less fx, more big ESPN and the numbers will probably end up tripling what an MLS game would've done on TV last season when it was on linear television. But year two, I really think if you are the X F O ownership, you are talking to executives at espn, I need more coverage on a, B, C, you don't want to lose the fox, we don't want to lose the fox. We want to show that this is a viable business. We want to make our money back and we're partners here. Let's see what we can do to give the numbers a little boost there. XE L has the XE L Today show on espn. I think it's kind of midday during the weekend. I think a lot of people made fun last year of Fox and Colin Cowher and stuff like doing some U S F L recapping stuff, which really felt like it was written to him. Colin Cowher is not watching the Breakers games or whatever, but at least you have that synergy there Mean would you look if we're not going to have the slots at least to get more of that marriage with ESPN and leveraging that, leveraging that, I mean we saw that with the uniforms and some of that stuff. How can we fill more of the outside of the game content? Well, for the TV perspective, the grail is getting maybe a top 10 sports center highlight, right? Okay. You want to see that. You want to have, if you're ESPN executives, you're telling your staffers and the sports center people who look for those, be paying attention, see if there's any good games. If the XFL is probably telling their staffers, make sure you get this over to the ESPN people. If it's a good game, give them as many options as they can because if the more times you see that on top 10, that's good. That's great exposure for any sport, whether it's women's basketball, whether it's corn hole, you see when they love when they get a top 10 look on SportsCenter, but the way that people are consuming things these days, you have to do as good a job on your social media feeds. You got to make something go viral and it's tough. If I had the answer for how to make something go viral, I'm sure I'll be selling that secret sauce, but the X ffl has to have some more of those moments. Maybe it's bringing in the Rock knows a lot of people, maybe it's bringing some more of a celebrity feel to it. Okay, you see Ryan Reynolds doing that with welcome to rexo and you'll bring in all those people into the box and having that star power feel for it. How can the rock take advantage of his credibility in Hollywood to maybe bring some more star power into the X ffl? Is it as a minority investor in the league, is it something like that or is it just having people on the sidelines? Is it having games in certain locales? You see what even a sport NASCAR did, taking one of their exhibition races to the LA Coliseum, what if you took an XFL game to someplace that was really cool one week? I think they have the ability to do creative things like that that could help maybe boost the broadcast numbers in particular In terms of ex, besides just going and saying like, Hey, we need better TV slots, which obviously I mean anybody in the world, unless everybody Wants that, everyone's fighting for those slots. So how do you do these numbers prove that worth? How do you prove that worth? How do you talk to the TV people and say like, we deserve more. You look at if you're the X ffl, you're saying, okay, here's what we do in year one on ABC or espn an ESPN two. What were you getting in those time slots last year? And I think even if the numbers by my expectations are slightly lower, I'm pretty sure especially on something like the Deuce Outdrawing, what may have been in those time slots previously, there's a reason they're given the X FFLs chance because they probably weren't happy with what they had there. If they had something that was doing really well, they probably wouldn't have given up the window. So I think it's out doing well for, for ESPN two in particular do probably doing okay for ESPN and that'll be the conversation, what did we have this year versus what did we have last year? Can we improve it? What were and on in the case of abc, what were we showing that maybe wasn't sports programming in that slot? Can the X ffl draw something similar? If you're only going to get 700,000 viewers, but you were in a slot that ABC was showing a cooking show and getting 2 million viewers, it's pretty easy business decision. I don't think the advertising department's going to like it very much if you're cutting a million and a half viewers to put the X ffl on. In terms of the demos, X ffl seems to be drawing well, I know that was a concern. U s Ffl is skewed a lot older I think, and obviously with the nostalgia and all that, but you feel in terms of the demos that the X ffl is doing? Well, I haven't dug too much into the demos. I know it draws, obviously, I think it draws younger than what the NFL does. The F NFL obviously skews a lot older. It's not like tennis or golf old, but it slowly, slowly below that. I think that's also one of the appeals of e s, ESPN bringing on the property. It X Ffl has an edgy reputation to it. It has a younger demo and they love sports like that. They love the nba, they love usc. That's one of the reasons they partner there. They love boxing. These are sports that are drawing incredibly young and the X ffl helps them draw in, I think a younger male demo, which is really cool for advertisers Far. I let you go here. I let you run if I'm a spring football fan, I've recorded another interview for this episode, Greg Parks with exit full board. It's a stressful thing. We've lived through this in oh one, we've lived through this in 2020. How should I feel now looking forward to season two, how we're seeing everything success or not? What would be your advice to me if I'm a little stressed out right now? I think getting year two approved should take a lot of weight off everyone's shoulders and there will be tweaks from the league side, from the broadcaster side. There'll be experimentation and I'm bullish on what ESPN tries. I think they're very good at experimenting. I think they let things kind of brush off them like, all right, let's try this. Oh, that didn't work. Let's try this. That comes from decades and decades and decades of experience. I talked to somebody at Bristol I feel like every single day, and they don't take things. They take it all with a grain of salt. They know where they sit in the landscape, they know that they can adjust, they know that they can put out a great, great product out there on the television. Air Airways. If you're an XFL fan, I, I'd kind of stay the course. Let's see how things adjust in year two. It's definitely not a panic mode sort of thing. I don't believe that Jerry, Jerry CarNow or the Rock are going to pull their money. I don't think, I think they kind of understood they were getting in this for at least a number of years to see if they can execute this. So to see if they can use the brand equity that the XFL had, which was incredibly strong. You saw that with the 2.0 numbers. And like I said, we're not in that media landscape anymore, but I think that it still has enough Jews to be a viable sports business. Well, Austin, I appreciate your time managing editor digital over at the Swartz Business Journal. I love getting more of you guys on, so it is exciting. Like I said, I appreciate you guys the real work and coming on here and spending some time. So thank you so much. Thanks for having me. Well, last I saw this gentleman, he was trying to hide from the sun. I don't know how successful it was there, and they said it was like 85 or 90, I can't hearing, it's like 80 degrees, but it's like 90 on the field. We have Eric McClain here, espn, how are you doing, sir? Man, I, I'm healing slowly, that's why I'm wearing this gorgeous basketball golf course hat and man, it was hot. It was super hot. It was probably 90, 91 kind of everywhere, but on the field it was getting close to a hundred and yeah, just your boy got nuked. Absolutely nuked by the sun. I was just saw the, they were rich was doing the head coaches breakdown for the N F L and Brian, his head is about this red as you know, you're sure this well there and so that maybe I don't have much hair. So all of us, we need to stick Together with that. Stick together man. Need a higher SBF count. That's what I need. Yeah, but you're the million view man here. We got 1.1 million viewers here for the, which is, I would've preferred maybe a more, it ended up being a lot closer. I think it should have been. I mean, Orlando's pretty terrible. What did you make of that? I mean, I'm Seattle here now above 500. We're rolling. We have all these wins. What did you make of that? It it's what Seattle does. They find ways to make games interesting for whatever reason. I remember that Thursday night game two weeks ago where man, they're just airing 'em out. Houston, I mean the number one team in the south division and we're just like, wow, okay, this is for real. And then second half happens and they let Houston all but come back and win that thing at the very end there. And then kind of similar thing, you've got a team that is Winless in Orlando. That man just up to really the week before hadn't been playing great football at all and then just something switched when Normandy comes in, new quarterback, Quentin, they just had new life and all the craziness that happened with him and the allegations and then come to find there was an investigation and nothing is close to true to what was said and what he was accused with. And so really thought Seattle was going to have their way with Orlando, but that new win under their sales for the Guardians, they're right in there. And it came down to the fourth quarter, kind of a last drive type deal. There was a quote, I was just looking here at N F L on espn, shared on Twitter, I guess with Rob Woods's, Reggie Barlow talking about how he plays Tim McGraw ahead of his at their meetings or whatever. I said, Troy Buckley probably plays slayer reigning blood. That's probably the vibe. I don't know how, and I'm going to talk with Devin Darienton here as well on the show. How do you keep motivated here with if you're potentially going to be oh and 10 for the season because they're playing for wind bonuses? I mean, it's more than just pride at this point. I don't think that they'll go oh and 10 because they are so close. Seattle's a good football team and they're ascending now. I know they keep making it interesting and keeping it close, but when you look at how they've played these last two weeks, much different team than the previous ones. And so I think you're right there and keep trying to knock down that door, get that first win. Yeah, man, it's something where, remember why you play, why you're doing this. It's not maybe necessarily for this team or this league, it's for the next opportunity, the bigger one. So I think at the end of the day, I don't think it sounds shallow, but you got to worry about yourself and you have to make sure that you perform as individuals and then hopefully that will breed team success a little bit different than what we normally think, right, with these teams. Well, and I, I'll talk more kind of philosophical here with the X F L, your thoughts, but in terms of players playing here, we have Ben de Nucci and we were even talking on our Monday recap show. I love Ben. Bens been on the show fans here, but it really does seem like every time he steps on the field, it is almost getting further away from we're throwing another pick, we're making it more challenging to potentially get anywhere after the season. What do you make of Ben? I think that the turnovers are a problem. I mean obviously the fumbles early and now the interceptions and even I feel like I've been on his sideline like four or five times, but just talking to him about it and just saying it's on me, man. I'm trying to force the issue instead of just taking what's kind of given there. And I think that is a little bit why maybe he didn't stick in the N F L, why he got released and cut and things of that nature, but here it almost feels like he's good enough to try to fit those things in those window and it's just not quite happening. Obviously he leads the league, I'm looking at the stats over here, 11 touchdowns, he's at 64%. All these things are good. And I think that the turnovers though, that's what N F L GMs and Scouts and whoever are looking at this are going to be like, yeah, we don't need that. We that on our team. And so I hope that doesn't put him behind the eight ball. I do think that he's going to be in an N F L camp, but the key is can you stick and can you make either a practice squad or prove that you're good enough to be a backup because the talent is there and the way that he sees the game, it's just that risk reward. It needs to be more calculated to let's just throw the ball away or make a quicker smarter decision. I think you covered the game. I was at the game, so I didn't see it till after I come home. I have the clips of Jim Haslet threatening to kill Ben Ucci over a slate game turnover being on the sidelines with, I mean, I know it's kind of joking, but what do you make of that relationship between, he doesn't do a lot, he's not doing the media stuff as much Twitter and everything else. What is that relationship like? Yeah, it's a defensive guy talking to a quarterback at the end of the day. He's like, do not put my team in jeopardy. A lot like Nick Saban used to be when they were making that transition from the power eye and power offense offense to the modern day spread that they're running now, it it's a struggle for those guys, man, because they do everything that they can on their side of the ball. And even though they're a head coach, they're still defensive guys. But no, I think he understands how good Ben is. Obviously Seattle is the team that hasn't done any type of quarterback rotation at all. So I think they're very comfortable knowing that he's the guy and probably the best guy in the league at the quarterback position just with that kind of Brett Farve a bunch of years ago. Those turnovers come with the package. He's a gun slinger. He's going to try to force the issue at times In terms of it, and we'll talk the turnovers and stuff here. It does seem weird or turnover with Louis Perez here in the minute, but it seems weird. I don't know, even if you bring in Steven Montez, I don't know if the Seattle and the way that they run their offense, if that works for him. I do feel like it's kind of DCI's ship or I don't know who the other person would be. Yeah, and what's interesting too, man, is it very easy for outsiders and you know, I who don't know the playbook and don't know what was called or routes or protections to blame it all on the quarterback, but man, it just felt like that Thursday night game, a couple of those were on Josh Gordon not being in the right place, not running the right route, not giving enough effort on a route and then blindly trusting that and throwing the ball where it should be and there's nobody there. So it is something where I think if we really dove into it and kind of knew those answers more than just the average bear, maybe you can make up for maybe half of those or three of those picks and then you start to feel a lot better about yourself. In terms of Orlando hosting the DC Defenders here, who I guess are you surprised that, and I know you didn't cover the game, but that DC just really killed Houston on Monday night? Yeah. Yes. And what was weird though is how quick Houston started. They got to stop March down the field score and I'm like, okay, here we go. This team's looking really good. And then Brandon Silvers just couldn't get it going. It was really struggle and I know they're missing their guy and John Trey Kirkland who is just a special talent at Wide Receiver and maybe that adds a little bit of a wrinkle, but it was a little weird that they weren't able to pick it up better than they did. And then you're seeing Jordan Tamu just ball it, throwing the ball We hadn't seen him do before, really effective and just their run game. I mean, they are a fun team to watch when I look at dc. But yeah, I was a little bit interested and thought that Houston would be able to get a little bit better pass rush, try to at least hit those guys. Maybe not sack 'em, but at least hit 'em and really they couldn't all night. Yeah, I blamed the mark has curse. We had Brandon on Brandon Silvers on last week and all he wanted to do, he was salty after losing to the Sea Dragons. I said, you're going to get it back here this weekend. And then I was surprised because I was slipping, I had the cracking on and I turned back over on my Cole McDonald's running around, he's passing because they really only used coal for kind of short yardage before. I mean, good to see some looks there. Do you have any thoughts on Cole? I mean, I know like I said, you didn't cover the game. Yeah, well I think what's interesting is if you go and watch his film when he does get opportunities in to throw the football, I mean there's been like four touchdowns that either he's just as overthrown by a little bit, just miss the guy shorter or out of bounds or he's getting sped up and has to take off and run. So the big plays have been there. He just finally actually hit on 'em. And then I think they felt good enough with what he was doing. The one thing that I would've loved to see Mark, just because he seems to not be able to operate in small areas like the extra point, the conversions, I would've loved to seen Brandon go back in there for all those conversions because he, I don't know either. It's not enough space for him. His arm's too strong, whatever it is. But man, every conversion, it seems like he just really struggled where the ball wasn't even close to his wide receivers. And I don't know, in this crazy of a league where you're moving and changing guys anyway, why not just put him back in there and see if he can get it going for you In terms of that, the movement here, the big news, and I was kind of for that, Mike Mitchell had posted in our group chat, he said, big news coming, okay, whatever. And we get Louis Perez here, my boy, I call him the Spring league forest comp. I mean he's been everything you would ever want. You see him, I hear it coming to Arlington floaters out, which was kind of surprising. Anyway, just to have them. What do you make, obviously you're going to be at the game on Friday, but just overall the Dallas Renegades now as they exist. Yeah, I mean I think it's huge. I mean, he is the fourth leading third lead, or excuse me, fifth leading quarterback passing wise in the league. And he has a game less than everybody. I mean, he's a baller and super smart guy, very passionate about the game of football covering him, I think it was week two or three and just hearing him about how much he loves this game and wants to keep chasing this dream. He's going to be a great coach one day when he does decide to stop playing in these spring leagues. And if he does ever get a shot at the N F L, but he, he's a heck of a ball player. I'm not sure if he's going to play this week, that'd be a pretty quick turnaround to get an entire offense. But with guys being able to tell you what to do, literally the entire play, I mean he's got the talent, why not? I mean, I'd throw him in there and see what happens, but I think it's a really good playoff push type of thing for them. And who knows, maybe the way things could turn out, maybe they're the number one seed in the south if Houston loses a couple more times. So that'll be fascinating to see. But that, that's a big ripple, probably the biggest that we've had in the X F L. Yeah, well that's the thing is it does feel like Houston got a little exposed on Monday here where they're foreign though. You lose to Seattle now they lose to dc, they play the Guardians twice in one. It does feel like there may be a little more fallible. Is that fair? No, I think that's very fair. And when you look at it, just the consistency man, and it's hard to keep going and to be on top and to get this thing going. So yeah, these next couple of weeks we thought there was a little lull and these are the four teams, but now, hey, look out, there might be a little bit of a curve ball coming In terms of Arlington, you know, have John Hazer as the play caller and Anthony Miller asked about it after the game, whatever, what was that Sunday, whatever the Renegades game was when they lost to the braas. Are you looking at play changing play collar are you're looking at changing quarterback and stoop said not yet. Well then obviously slow there and all this stuff that is ringing Inez enough to fix what does feel kind of like a broken offense. Yes and no. I mean think that obviously it's the most important position in all of sport, not just football. It is single-handedly the guy that does everything for you. I mean we've seen N F L, we've seen college every level high school. We, we've seen guys go at the quarterback position and really change the dynamic of a team and the things that they can do. The only question mark is who, who's going to help him? I know they have canella, the big tight end and the things that he's been able to do, but who else else is going to step up catching the football? And again, maybe that's looking at a guy who, I'm not saying he is Tom Brady, but you're looking at a Tom Brady just getting the ball in the right spot at the right time and now we start to see guys emerge. So that'll be the biggest thing. But yes, I do think that it's enough that good of a player on a team that is struggling to find identity and who they want to be that, I mean it's an instant upgrade. Instant upgrade. It's, it's crazy. We bring in Luis and he's been around forever and you're thinking, okay, he's going to be a backup somewhere. And he obviously Brent came in late and he has had some injury issues. But I mean just see, Louise is still, it's very exciting for people that have tracked his career that he's still in a position where we're genuinely talking here. He's going to come in and make a move for a plant, push for a team. It, it's just cool because again, his story, I mean the fact that he never played football at a sustainable thing until college and YouTube did figured out I want to be a quarterback. He's like, what? No, that's not how that works. But he was D two I believe, player of the year, the high D two Heisman wins a natty, all these things. It, it's an incredible story. So no question I think that he's going to be in a really good spot to help the renegades. In terms of overall your thoughts X F L, whether you making of just talent season, I mean what is Eric's thoughts here as we sit week, we're what week eight now, 7, 7, 8. Yeah. Yeah man, the skill players are good and I think everyone kind of knew that there, there's enough of those guys kind of everywhere that you can find some fast athletic dudes to go and make plays. Quarterback play has been a little bit better than maybe I thought originally before it was all announced of who was going to be who for certain situations. There's some others that I had a little bit higher hopes for that, that maybe haven't quite reached to where I thought they could be. And then defensively, what was interesting, before the season we all thought that the offenses were going to be going nuts, scoring a bunch of points, high flying the rules certainly cater to offenses just like all of football does. And we thought that it was going to be a bunch of points, a bunch of yards, all this deal and the offenses really up until maybe last week, a week before were really struggling defenses. Were just kind of having their way. And the reason we thought that was because what, you can't hit people just every day practice. If you're just in your house, you can go outside, you can run routes, you can throw the football, you can do all these things you can't tackle, you know, can't shed past blocks or run blocks and make a play. So we thought there was going to be some struggling there, but it's actually been the other side. And I think offensive line has been the weak point of this league. And I think it, man, if this thing can last two, three more years, man, you're going to have a really, really good product. Because now it's a proven commodity. It's this farm system where you can go and develop guys and guys will see that it's valuable. Instead of just sitting on my tail and just going and lifting and doing movements, I can go get some valuable experience blocking some pretty good guys. And so that's the last piece to me to where this league will take off and be tremendous. So sustainability, is it possible to stay that long? Certainly that's what we've heard from all the owners and my leadership and things of that nature, which why wouldn't you until you don't. And I love football, man. I'm a football guy through and through. This is good for football. Having this league for developmental purposes, look at the N F L, you can't develop guys anymore. You can't train guys. You're either good enough or you're not, and then you're out. So now this provides that, and it's kind of personal for me too. You see the Clemson jersey here behind me, I wasn't good enough yet. I wasn't developed offensive line for three years in my whole life. I can't just go to the N F L and do that. I needed something like this. Dwayne DJ says all the time, he's player number 54, what I am too. And so I take that super personal to where I needed this, it didn't exist. And now that it is, man, I'm doing everything I can to support it and hopefully it survives and keeps growing. So everything is looking great. Ratings are awesome for the channels and networks that it's been on. Seems like every time it's on a, B, C, it's touching a million and there's some genuine interests, man. So that's the key thing. I think our society, our country loves football, so they're going to watch it regardless. I like the spring aspect and it, it's good for the game of football, like I said, Difference for you in terms of the stuff you do for college and having more access, less access and doing sideline stuff. Yeah, I see. I think when I've seen a couple where you're interviewing guys and people are coming, this guy is as big as a football player, which is funny. I mean obviously you're former and all of that, but what do you make of that and just from a broadcast aspect, what you're able to do? Yeah, I mean, I love it, man. It's straight entertainment. And I think when you, this league and I talk about the developmental of the development of players, and I didn't mention coaches, but I think that's tremendous too for football. This is also kind of a nice training field for rules, for access, for cameras, for mics, all these different things for other leagues and also our network with E S P N and the things that we do. So I've loved it, man. Some guys I think forget that they're up all the time and everybody can hear everything they say, but at the end of the day, the access is fantastic and guys really understanding after they make a big play, it might be a little uncomfortable the first couple of weeks that someone's putting a mic in your face right after it happens. But how good is that exposure for you that if there is a scout watching, if there is this in that watching, they don't have to scroll around and try to find your number. They see you right then and there. And I think guys have really understood that and really have bought in. So I love it, man. The access, the mics, the uniqueness of hearing the call being made by each coordinator and the quarterbacks and just all that fun stuff that from an analyst perspective, I would tell you on a broadcast what I think is happening, what I think communication is now, you can just hear it straight from their mouse and then I can kind of digest what it is, what that means, how do you get it going. So yeah, that aspect, man, it it's been an absolute grand slam. Well, it's good. We heard this week and Danny, I think it was U S A today, said, we're coming back next year, which I don't like said you kind of say it is till it's not right. You're certainly not going to say that, but that excites you moving forward. Anything else before I let you go? I appreciate your time, but yeah, I mean it seems like everyone I've talked to, we've had quite the s swat that the ESPN crew on. Everyone seems bought in at this point. Yeah, well the talent that espn, besides myself, I'm just kind of the low hanging fruit that I guess they just asked to do it, but the people that committed to doing this are a bunch of big dogs. It's been fun to watch them be a part of this thing so successfully from that standpoint. But also the ownership, you know, mentioned in Danny DJ and Jerry man, their vision, their plan, their work ethic. I mean you look at all three of them as individuals, everything they touch turns to gold. Then you look at 'em as this super team and how can it fail to be quite frank? So love the way they've done it. I love the hub. It's a really smart thing to do. Now, there surely are some negatives. You're not fully embraced in your community because you're not there travel, you're having to be on a plane with a team that just beats your tail on a game. I'm sure that's awkward, but monetarily and being able to provide the absolute best with training, weights, food, nutrition, all these different things to do it how you can, I mean, that's been genius. So love their vision, love their leadership, and really think that that's going to be a reason why this thing succeeds farther than a couple years. Yeah, I, and we obviously talk a lot about this as you I'm sure can imagine, but if we can get teams in on a Friday before Saturday and try if we can expand that footprint out a little bit, because I wish that it was, I don't think they've gotten as much out of being in the cities as they potentially could have. Obviously the cost savings is worth it, but I think this is the next step we need to get to. And that's what honestly, year two for me, and if they said, Hey Eric, we want you in our ownership group, what do you think? This is what I would do. But I think three or four events a year in a 10 game, 10 week season, if like you said, if you can go in a day early and do a community outreach, and maybe the first one's just your star players and then the middle two are the whole team and then the last one, maybe your star players again. But just doing something to keep building that brand, build that loyalty, build that trust. I've got to think that's in future plans because it's hard to sustain, Hey, we're the Seattle team, but we never see our team. So I think building that will certainly be necessary. And then just, I'm super interested to see what does the off season look like? Does, and I don't think there's a decision that's been made on this. Nothing that I've heard of or that we're privy to. But D does Seattle, if Bend Nucci is not on an N F L, do they still have the rights to him next year or are we starting over from scratch? It's a draft and we're redoing everything each and every year. That will be a fascinating piece, just looking at this off season. Yeah, I will be curious. U S F L after their season kind of died until now. Training camp we're back. Trying to keep this interest for the other eight months of the year is important. Well Eric, I really appreciate your time here today. We'll be looking for you Friday here in Arlington at Choctaw. It'll be good. We were there for the kickoff. That was exciting. So appreciate your time. Today means a lot. No doubt, brother. Appreciate you man. Well, if I had half a brain, I would've scheduled this not on Greg Parks, this busiest week of WrestleMania 30. What WrestleMania is it now? 39. 39. So if I say we have Greg Parks here, last we saw him, it was the X F L kickoff day, but now we have real X Eczema L football to talk about. Greg, how are you? I'm Doing well, Reid. Thanks for having me on. Yeah, I was like, this is literally the worst week in the world to do that. Now Greg, I have a question for you first and foremost, and we're going to preview, we'll get all your thoughts on everything. This might dictate how this interview goes. Okay. On Sunday there was a football matchup between the Arlington franchise of the X F L and the San Antonio franchise of the X F L. San Antonio won that game. Which quarterback won the game for the San Antonio bras? Well, if we're going by the actual quarterback win stat, that would be the person who started the game. So that would be Juwan Pass. Okay. All right. Just checking, just checking. I didn't know why Kurt Banker got the big post game espn. I said Jovan Passe has been there since day one. You probably missed this has been quite the ongoing drama. I mean, mark cast family the last week. If you couldn't tell. Well, I had no idea. I hope I picked the right answer. You can. Well, I don't, I understand Kurt's a big star. I understand he's a big Twitter and everything. I just don't like him coming in and there's like Juwan Pass. Who Juju's been in training camp this whole time? Yeah, I think in terms of S P N and trying to weave an interesting story, Kurt, Ben Curt coming off the sidelines and having one day of practice that's a lot more interesting of a story to tell than here's a third string guy who's been here all year and is just now getting an opportunity. I mean, you can tell that story and you can tell it in a way to make it compelling. But I think Ben Kurtz just his odyssey to get to that point where he's actually in a game a day or two after he signed. That was also a compelling story. We have a private chat that for the longest time was called the alt football media chat and we could add you to that if you'd ever like to be. It's very, very busy, but it is now currently called, this is an anti crit banker chat. It's because I control the name of the way, Greg. Just, okay, so jokes aside, we're here approach you week seven, xfl, what do you think? Wow. Lot of possible answers to that one. I will say that the games have not been perfect in terms of on field play. I think there has been, it's been good. I have no problem with it, but the on-field play, there's been some sloppiness, a lot of penalties, probably more turnovers than you'd like. We haven't seen necessarily that signature quarterback play like we saw in 2020 with PJ Walker or even Jordan tamu. AJ McLaren's been very good. Brandon Silvers and Ben Ucci have had their moments, but they've had a couple rough games lately. So we'll see how they rebound here toward the end of the year when it really starts to count. So I think that's maybe been lacking a little bit. But this is what happens when you're really sharing the top players that are not in the N F L with another league and that being the U S F L. So if you were to take probably the best players from the X Ffl and the best players from the U S F L, you'd probably have some really good gameplay. But as it is, this is the X Ffl awards and all I will say one thing that I've been pleasantly surprised by is how close the games have been. Almost so many games, three quarters, two-thirds of the games have seemingly been one score games. And I've been really impressed by that. Really happy with that because the last thing a league like the X ffl needs is a lot of blowouts. And I think that's not to say that there aren't haves and have nots in this league. I think there's a pretty clear delineation of the teams that can really make noise here in the last four weeks. And the teams that are basically out of it, it it's pretty clear. But even those games have been pretty close. So that's what I've been really impressed by. And so I'm optimistic we saw the story come out earlier this week in USA Today, Danny Garcia confirming a second season 2024. So that's good news. There's still a lot of people who won't believe it until they see it, which look I get, but I, I'm optimistic that we're going to see a second season and that we're going to see seasons beyond that as well. It's hard. I echo your sentiments that the close games are good and the US F L really leaned on that as well. The problem is sometimes it really feels like it's a long way to get to that, it being close at the end. Some of these games and I mean even the Renegades Brahmas game was close. I, so I give the same caveat, did the US F L I, if people aren't making it to hour two 15, they don't know that. I do feel, I wish we could get three steps momentum at any point this season and it really doesn't feel that way. I mean that seriously, even this Monday game, oh man, this is going to be so awesome. Roughneck defenders, great game, da da da da. And then the radians, well, it was against X, it was against WWE E and they're getting ready and it was bad. And it's s ESPN two two, the Saturday game they did a million, but it was Orlando not a great franchise. The comms didn't work. The broadcast was like, I never, and it's not X l's fault. I just feel like they can't, it doesn't feel like there's any real momentum building at all. And I think that's partly a story of alternative football. I mean, that's when you're an alternative league in your first season, and really this was the first season. I mean it's kind of like XFL 3.0, but there wasn't a lot of continuity I guess from X ffl 2.0. So they were really building this from the ground up and we've seen a lot of bumps in the road to get to this point. So I guess it should be no surprise that during the season we're seeing the same bumps in the road. And I agree, it never feels like they really have sustainable momentum. And this week was a really good example because you get maybe two or three games with really good ratings and then two or two with how you're really disappointed. And so it does give you the feeling of some good, some bad every week. But again, I think that's just the nature of building a brand from the ground up and experiencing those growing pains in the first season hopefully. And my hope is that the X Ffl and ESPN n learn from this in the off season and they take a month after the season gets over. And basically what I hope to that that happens is ownership tells every part of the league go off for the next month, analyze how things went, come back and tell me how we can do things 10% better. It doesn't have to be a complete overhaul. It doesn't have to be in year two, a hundred percent better, but come back with an idea of how do we get tickets sales 10% better? How do we get marketing 10% better? How can we draw a 10% better viewership on E S P N? How can we make broadcast 10% better? How can we do social media 10% better? And it's one of those things where Rome wasn't built in a day. The X ffl isn't going to come out in the first season then be perfect. And I don't think anyone was expecting that, but it, it's got to be, you got to crawl before you can walk. And I'm throwing all these cliches out here. I get it. But it really is just how can you get incrementally better and make your product better in the off season so that when the second season rolls around, you're that much better and that much more prepared. I had a and we'll, so we'll kind of philosoph, philosoph, however you say that word philosophies here for a few minutes and then we'll do the we'll breakdown here before we get out of here, Mike, how this ratings article this week and wrote up for News Hub, and I know you guys have your commentary at EXE board and I wrote on Twitter and in U S F L, they learned and this year it's just Saturday, Sunday, obviously Saturday. Sunday network always going to be the best ratings. You're always going to get 1 million, whatever. I don't care what day, what day it is, what network it is, what time it is. It just needs to be consistent. I would take FX at six o'clock every Thursday, doesn't look at wwe, right? Yeah. Smack down every Friday. It's not the best. It's Fox, it's eight o'clock, whatever, but this, well, it's Thursday and then it's Monday and then it's Saturday and then it's Thursday again. And then I don't I, ideal world Saturday is Sunday, one o'clock and six o'clock or whatever, but there needs to be some sort of consistency in whatever way. I don't care. Like I said, I don't even know when these games are and I talk about them all the time on here. You win are the games this weekend, Friday, Saturday, and right Sunday. And it would be one thing if E S P N was absolutely hammering this stuff during the week and it was being talked about on Sports Center and you had ads after ads after ads on television, hammering home when these times and dates are, but to my knowledge that hasn't been happening. So you either got to be paying close attention to social media, you got to be paying attention to espn.com or you got to be watching the games when they advertise the next week's game. So it is hard to find, I think you're right in terms of the improvements made to the U S F L schedule, I think that's going to be a boon for them in season two. And you hope that the X ffl gets to that in season two as well. The X ffl came in, it was not a priority for E s ESPN N to be honest with you. It was one of those things where, yeah, we'll invest in you, but we'll find time when we can to put your games on. And you also have to take into account, okay, what are the dates that are available for the stadiums? That was a big thing too, and I think I'm not a hundred percent sure, but I think that's why Seattle has such odd games is it has to do with the sounder. So if you can get your schedule, and we talk all the time about how the X ffl was behind in prep and part of that was getting the stadium secured. Part of that was getting the dates hammered down and if they can do that much earlier, they may be in a more advantageous spot to lock down these dates for stadiums and times for stadiums and work with ESPN and its partners that way. So hopefully that comes in season two. And I think that's baked into the ratings as well when e s, ESPN N and the X ffl analyze the ratings and the viewership numbers, I'm assuming that's going to be taken to account not only just the variations of the days and times, but the lack of advertising for those dates and times. I know, and I don't know, one of our guys was talking with one of the XL coaches this week and one of the games in the press box and they said they don't care what the ratings are, what the attendance is, we're coming back and obviously Danny can said that this week and I don't think anyone would expect otherwise. It's like I understand, I understand. Not like we don't care about ratings, but at some point you have to have ratings to come back to you next year. I mean, you can't bottom out at 200,000 viewers or whatever and they'd be like, yeah, we're coming back. There has to be some sort of baseline level here that we're concentrated on. And I think that's the hard part about this discussion that we have here, that we have on Twitter that we have on X ffl board in the forums is we don't know what the expectations are for the ratings for the X ffl and espn. What are they internally seeing? Not only that, but what are the ESPN plus numbers? We don't have access to those, so you have to take those into account. But our discussions of these viewership numbers are really lacking that important context of what does S P N find as an acceptable number? What does X ffl find as an acceptable number? What is built into the contract between ESPN and the X ffl? Because I think Mike Mitchell has reported, and it's been speculated on long before that part of the reason the financials for the contract with ESPN have not been released is because it's dependent upon hitting certain escalators and viewership marks and stuff like that. So without knowing that stuff, we can discuss viewership till we're blue in the face, but we simply don't know what the expectations are for the league and the network. So you had said that if you ran everything you tell everyone, take a month off, figure out, make it 10% by, so what would be, if you were in charge of pick whatever department, what would be some of your marching orders that you would look at? Well, I mean so much of it is tied to advertising, whether it's advertising through S P N, whether it's advertising in the local markets, whatever the case may be. I think you really, it's an off season coming up, but it really shouldn't be an off season for the local markets. They have to, and Danny Garcia talked about this before being a 24 7 league living in the minds of fans 365 days a year. And we're going to see how true they are to that mantra in the off season. Do they go dark for six months and then in November up now tickets are on sale and all this kind of stuff and here's the draft and we haven't heard anything about anybody for the last six months or whatever. But really it has to be working hard in those markets and just getting the visibility of the league and the teams out there, because I don't think we expected viewership numbers to be down from 2020 just because the nature of cable television and ESPN plus the emergence of that and things like that. I think we expected a hit, maybe not to this level, but we certainly didn't expect the numbers to approach X ffl 2020 level, especially taking into account advertising and the lack thereof. But I don't think we expected the attendance numbers to be down as much as they are. And hopefully that's a wake up call for the league to say, we went into this season one hands off for a long time before we got into these markets. We can't do that again this year. We have to fill these stadiums a little more. And that means, it may not mean hiring team presidents and it may not mean structuring the front offices and these teams the same way that they did in 2020 and having all of that overhead, but it does mean working hard in the off season to just get these franchises out there in the hearts and minds of people in those cities. This is, and I've kind of thought about this, we've talked about this so different than anything that Danny the Rock, everyone that has really promoted before, it's so different than Tarana or Zah or even go see Fast five or we like you're trying to turn these one-offs, right? You're trying to get people invested in this long term and I think League building, I equated it like black Adam in dc but then you kind of hear these stories about what was that whole negotiation like? But it is the X F L is a little bit more like that. Have we did a big breakdown of the USA article on our Monday live stream with Andy and Paul Reese on there. But I do want to get your comments on, this is obviously the article where Danny says we're coming back next year. The quote here where she calls Danny Garcia calls the milestone, the monkey is off our back. Garcia told U S USA today, we are now creating our history, a history that will not be compared to what happened in the past, but our X F L history, you've been around longer than I have covering this. What do you make of that? A little dramatic, a little eyerolling maybe. But I think for the most part in that article they said all the right things aside from that. And in fact the very end of the article, they seem to have a good perspective that they're keeping their expectations in check. They're not coming out expecting to blow everybody away. And it was something Dwayne Johnson said at the end of the article about when asked about the attendance, and he said something to the effect of, look, we don't have any recognizable players to these people in these cities. These franchises are brand new, a lot of them. So there's really no connection to these cities. So for these fans to come out, even in the numbers that they're coming out today, says volumes about the passion of these fans who are coming out. And I thought that was really good perspective and I thought that he has done a really nice job on social media of managing expectations, I guess is what I'll say. He's very conscious about, I think how the league is viewed in terms of the football talks of the world where it's, oh my gosh, the sky is falling because they drew 350,000 on FX or something. So I think his job is to go out there and say, Hey, we're building this for the long haul. It's a slow and steady race. Thank everybody for tuning in. We were up this week in the ratings over last week. It's a big step and pointing out the exciting games and the exciting finishes. So he comes from the world of professional wrestling in Hollywood where it's all bombas all the time. So for him to be a lot more reserved in how he is presenting this league publicly, I think that's important. And I think it's a good thing. I thought the tweet, it was the tweet after the combine when they tripled the combine numbers, which weren't Combine doesn't do great numbers on NFL network, but they tripled it. And yeah, he said, these are like you said, humbly numbers or we're working on, I thought that's really weird from the Rock, you just do not see that sort of thing. Yeah, it was also interesting on one of, I think it was the first player 54 where he said, I'm fine if this doesn't, the X F L doesn't work out, I'll be fine. Danny Garcia has a lot tied into this and we want this, but I think that this is so much harder than anything they've ever done. So this is so much more work. Absolutely. Creating a football league from scratch is not being handed a script and walking into a movie scene and a director says Action. It's completely different. And I do think, yeah, Dwayne Johnson is going to be fine if the X ffl fails, but I do think too that he has a lot emotionally invested in this because you know, can make jokes about it or whatever. But I do feel like this is a passion project for him and he really does. Maybe I'm buying what he's selling and I shouldn't be because he's an actor and all that, and this is his pitch. But he was a football player, he didn't make it. He was in a lot of these guys' shoes. So I do think to a certain extent, he wants to create a place where these guys can make a living playing the sport they love, even if they don't reach the N F L. And I do think he wishes he had something like that to fall back on when he didn't make it in the N F NFL and then later the C F L. He wants to make money, I'm sure, and he wants this to be successful so that he can make money too. Absolutely. But I do think more so than Vince McMahon who wanted to cash in on the television rights fees, boom. I do think for Danny and Duane, this is a little more than that. You're saying, you know, don't buy if he is an actor or whatever, it's like those need the Ben Stiller, the Coke Zero or the Pepsi Zero commercials. This is delicious. Or am I just acting, whether it's U S F L or X F L or Ville Football, I have talked to enough players in my three years here of doing this. I firmly believe there is a space that this needs to be for players to be able to do this. So Eric McClain's on the same episode here from ESPN n and Eric said, I would use this as well coming out of college. I mean, this is someone now that's on the sidelines at ESPN is doing the interviews. People can live through, they recognize this, the people that are even on the broadcast right now. Any other philosophical stuff or we'll get to kind of the game matchups before, because we could talk about this for, oh Yeah, I could really don't get me started down this road any further because we'll be on here for two hours. So let's talk. We've talked a lot philosophically, Reid, about this league in the many times that I've been on this show. I'm ready to talk football man. So I had to hold my desk when I saw this. So first we have Seattle C Dragons here, Arlington, the Friday night game at Choctaw, Louise Perez traded from the Vipers to the Renegades. I was floored. Mike Mitchell had tweeted something's coming. What do you make of that news and this matchup and anything you want to talk? Well, with the release of Kyle Slowder, you knew Arlington was in the market for a quarterback. You don't know how many quarterbacks are out there on the market ready to go, who could step in and really Arlington was going to be looking for a quarterback who, if not immediately then maybe a few games down the line might be needed to step in. We haven't seen enough from Drew Plitt to know that he's the guy who is going to help get Arlington into the playoffs. I think the jury is still out on that. So Arlington really needed more of a quick fix than bringing someone in off the street then. So you look to the rest of the league and who would be available in a trade? Well, Vegas is sitting there at one in five, not really a contender for a playoff spot, even if they're mathematically alive, Perez coming off a two interception game where he was replaced by Brett Hunley from. So from that perspective, it does make sense. I think Perez probably is an upgrade over Drew Pli if only a slight upgrade. But if you're Arlington, I mean you're pretty much in desperation. Your offenses look terrible the last few weeks. You need something, you need some kind of spark. And even if Luis Perez isn't going to play this week, which it doesn't look like he's going to based on, I know Anthony Miller at X Ffl news hub, talked to Bob Stoops today and put out an article that basically poo-pooed the idea of Perez playing this week. Which again, short week we get that, but it's going to be a big game for Drew Pli. This is going to be a prove it game. Does he go into week eight as the starter or does Luis Perez go into week eight as the starter? That's basically what this game is going to be about for Drew Plitt. But yeah, the Renegades needed to do something here. I mean, yeah, I think play has a very short leash. I've never understand. I mean we've followed Kevin Anderson and he's been in the Spring league and he's been all around and veteran guy and he coaches in the off season. I just don't know why he has never, I mean he's getting the backup role this week, but just weird that they are still sticking with play that you wouldn't give ke Kevin Anderson the start. But yeah, you would like to see Luis Perez come in here, but it's crazy. It's crazy to think that people expected him to be a backup now he's one of the major trading storylines of the season, so it's good for him. Yeah, absolutely. And now it looks like Vegas is starting Jalen McClendon this week over Brett Hunley. So I don't know if that's an injury. Hunley has been hobbled a bit this year and that's part of the reason Perez has played so much. But you don't know if that's just kind of the one in five Vipers throwing up their hands and saying, well let's take a look at what we've got. Or if it's an injury to Huntley that's precipitating this move, This is weird. And I tweet the def threats every week and then everyone has a heart attack and it's like, take this with the grandchild. But yeah, Jim McClendon here if I don't know how sure of a leash that has to be coming into. Yeah, I don't think I have the Braas step chart yet as we record braas here coming in last game at Cashman Field, presumably Kurt Banker is going to be, I think I'm calling him. My God, Kurt is going to be the starter. The playbook is so easy, he should have no time picking this up with all, what do you make of this mashup? The final one in Vegas? Yeah, it really depends on the quarterbacks, right? Because we have two quarterback team, two teams that have their quarterbacks up in the air. Is it going to be Ben Kurt? Is it going to be Jujuan Pass? Is it going to be McClendon? Is it going to be Hunley? How much to each play? So this is another one we talk about Arlington really kind of in a must win situation. San Antonio is even more of a must win situation because they're a game back of Arlington. So Seattle wins the Seattle's four and two, they haven't looked great the last two weeks, but they're four and two, if they beat Arlington and San Antonio beats the one in five Vipers, we've got a tie for a second place in the South. So these are very important decisions that these coaches have to make in terms of what quarterbacks am I going to go with and how short of a lech leash are they really going to have. Do you like that? Something that's kind of trivial as spring football here. I mean we're week seven of the X F L, but we're making moves here. We're bringing in Kurt, we're training Louise. I mean we're demoting Elizondo, we're Vegas got rid of people too. Do we like that? I feel like, I don't know if all of the U s F coaches would be making moves in week seven here. Lemme just put it that way. I like it in the fact that it shows the competitiveness these guys want to win and they're going to do whatever it takes to win, whether it's moving coaches around, whether it's benching quarterbacks, acquiring quarterbacks late in the season. But on the other hand, it does give the impression that maybe these teams weren't as prepared coming into the season as they thought or the league thought they made some wrong moves on the coaching staff. They made some wrong moves on the quarterback depth depth chart. So it does make you wonder about the coaching prowess and the decision making process of some of these coaching staffs. I've see I've had on the Facebooks, which I don't spend as much time on, but I'm in a group chat with one of the guys that moderates there many discussions about, we're trying to bring in all these former players as coaches now they don't know what they're doing. I don't think you give that up mean do we need to get more DPPs more around to be able to shape these because we want to have more first time head coaches and more players and minorities, all these different things, but then we have to put them in a position to succeed. And I think Anthony Beck has certainly done a really nice job in St. Louis. So you can't throw the baby out with the bathwater, right? Hines Ward has kind of been dealt a bad hand with injuries and San Antonio's lost a couple of really close games. And so some of these teams just need to learn how to win and learn how to get over that hump. And when you have had coaches who haven't been there and haven't won before as coaches, it's hard for them to get the players over that hump. Even if the players have extensive college and N F L experience and Spring League experience, they're playing together for the first time. There's no continuity with those players coming into this season with some rare exceptions. So I don't think it's as easy to say the first year head coaches have not worked out as planned. I think there's more to it than that and there's a lot more. You really have to delve into it because each situation is really different. Will we ever see Cashman Field host an X F L game again after this weekend? Yes. Whoa. I don't think that's the answer people are looking for and I don't think that's the answer, that's not the answer I would hope for, but they've got a multi-year lease there. Russ Brandon, after the first week was pretty complimentary of Cashman Field. He could have been a little critical at least, but he wasn't. I think for better or worse, there might be a level of stubbornness with the ownership about certain things. Vegas being one of them and it took them so long to nail down Cashman. I'm not sure that they're going to be ready to give that. I'm not sure what the alternative is to be honest with you. If they are absolutely locked out of a Allegiant stadium, I'm not sure that the alternatives are substantially better or in line with what the league is willing to pay. So I guess the other idea then is well Vegas, maybe Vegas doesn't have a team next year. There's already talk about how if the X ffl comes back, they got to move some franchises. Well no, that's not the impression you want to give off if you're a new league is to start moving franchises in year two. Even as unsuccessful, I think we'd all agree that Vegas was as a franchise this year, you're not going to be able to set, it's the same thing with the league In some ways it's similar to the league itself folding people aren't going to trust and invest in these franchises if they're seeing two or three franchises move after a single year. I mean people pay attention to that stuff in these local markets. So all of those reasons combined, I think they're back at Cashman next year. I get the comments or people comment on the YouTube if they were just in the Legion, they, I'm like, they can't fill Cashman's field. They're not going in. No. You have spent your life tracking wrestling attendance figures, right? Reports and crowd reports. Do you think there's 6,000 people at Cashman every week? I don't want to get into that. Okay. Alright, Go ahead. That's fine. I truly don't. And so part of it is, I know there's a lot of doubt about the attendance numbers. There are multiple ways to report attendance. One is butts in the seats, one is ticket sold. We don't know which one the X ffl is reporting because if they're reporting ticket sold, maybe that's an accurate number. I don't know why you would juice the attendance at Cashman Field and still only have it at 6,000. That's that. That's not still looking good. I don't know what the point of that would be because the only people who are really paying attention to those numbers are the X ffl die hards like us. So who are they trying to impress by doing that? And I'm not really good, I'll be honest with you. I know some people can look at a crowd shot and pretty good estimate about how many fans are there. I can't do that. So I'm, I'm going to sit that argument out. This is like Chris Jerricho wearing when he's got the pads in his boots to make himself taller. Exactly. Alright, last two games. So I guess first let's get through these because I don't want to hold you Trevor. You think Sea Dragons coming into Arlington. Do you think Sea Dragons take care of business here? They've been a little inconsistent. Yeah, I don't know how much home Field Advantage Arlington's going to have. I think Seattle's going to probably not having to travel, so that may be advantageous to them actually. So yeah, I think Seattle takes care of business there. Arlington has a good defense. Seattle's got a pretty good offense. So I think Seattle also has a little bit of an underrated defense and if Arlington can't get their stuff together on offense, I don't see them putting up much of a fight. So Brahm is coming in here, assuming Kurt Vipers didn't really get a bounce back after their one victory last week, what do you make about Brahma's Vipers? I think it really depends on who starts the quarterback for the Vipers. If it's Jalen McClendon, I'll give the nod to San Antonio. But if it's Brett Hunley, I mean he might find a way as good as San Antonio's defense has been, he might be able to find a way to manufacture some points there at Cashman. And we don't know the quarterback situation at San Antonio. Ben Curt did not look good in his limited action, although he has a pretty good excuse. So maybe after a full week with the playbook he'll look a little better. So it really all depends on the quarterback situation there. It's a tough call without knowing what the quarterback situation is really for either team, I would fall over off my couch if DC did not beat ar Arlington or Orlando. I do think for better or worse, for the most part, I think the X F L, these teams have played pretty consistent. Who, it's not like Vegas came out and blew out. I feel like there's, we at least know sometimes in the C F L you'll get that. You'll think at Winnipeg they have won 10 in a row and then they'll come in and just get their ass beat by Edmonton or something like, what is going on? Do you presume DC goes in here, takes care of business and they looked really good against Houston on Monday. I think it would be a really cool story for Orlando to get the victory. And I don't think it's going to happen. But I mean they've looked better the last two weeks with Quentin Dormy at quarterback. Their defense looked good at times against Seattle. It's just those penalties and key moments, those turnovers and key moments if they can clean those up. And that's a pretty big if because we're six weeks into the season and they haven't been able to do that. If they clean those issues up, they can be competitive down the stretch in a couple of these games. I don't see that being against dc. DC is just, they're too talented. And the one thing I love about DC is they don't rattled. They got down eight nothing to Houston and they didn't look like they sweat it at all. So multifaceted on offense, defense, special teams that I think it's going to be hard for Orlando to break through here. All they needed was to give Buckley new guys, you just said you needed new guys, I need new players on the field. I can't do it With the ones I had, I was like, well okay. I mean to blame for that, it was kind of how they built the team and he had a pretty big say in that. So I think that was very telling. Last one here, hopefully we don't have any flagrant water s worthy in, which really was the most bizarre between Dean Blandino saying they gave the ball the wrong possession and then the ball, the water squirting really not a banner week for some of that stuff. What did you make of that? And then what do you make of St. Louis coming in here? I Actually wrote about that in my parks' pulse on X F L board.com, which was just posted at the time. We're recording this. That's certainly a first for me. I, I'd never seen a sportsman like for squirting a linesman with a water bottle. So that'll go down in x Ffl history I'm sure. But this is probably the game I'm looking forward to the most. St. Louis has just been so much more consistent than HU Houston. I think Houston's highs have been higher than St Louis's, but at this point of the season you're really looking for that consistency. And I think St. Louis and DC have been the two most consistent teams in the X ffl. So I, I'm really interested to see how this matchup goes. I don't know if St Louis's defense is enough to stop Houston's offense, but Houston has a new look receiver room. They've acquired quite a few receivers over the last couple weeks including one just today. And so we don't know how long it's going to take for them to mesh with Brandon Silvers or Cole McDonald who came in relief of Brandon Silvers in the last game. So we don't know maybe if McDonald is going to see more than just short yardage and goal line situations going forward. So another quarterback situation that seems to be in question, but I like what I've seen with St. Louis and I wouldn't be surprised if St. Louis gets the victory here. Yeah, that was going to be one of my last questions was just I was bouncing with the Kraken and I turned back on at Cole McDonald's in there. I mean Silvers I don't think was playing atrocious. I mean I think he was having trouble, he certainly struggled a little bit against Seattle and that, but they came back roaring. I don't think he's earned a benching. No, I don't think so. But McDonald did provide a spark and he did well. So I think it's, even if silvers isn't benched, there might be a temptation to go and say maybe let's go from five plays a game from Cole McDonald to 15 and see what happens. So there might be the temptation from the coaching staff to do that. Any other thoughts from you or extended over here tonight? I appreciate it, but I think we could could do the whole hours just talking just us. But I won't make you do that tonight with WrestleMania. Anything else before I let you go? No, I mean it's tough. It is because it, no, and what I mean by that is for someone who has been so invested in the X Ffl for 20 years, I mean really how you feel that week in terms of the league and its potential success rises in falls based on what's the viewership this week? What's the attendance this week? How are the games? It's almost hard to enjoy the games because you're always so concerned about something happening that's going to lead to someone deciding to say, whether it's Red Bird saying we're pulling out, whether it's ESPN saying we don't have a place for you guys next year, that cloud is constantly hanging over the head of the league. And for someone like me who's who wants this and want, if I could, I would will it to succeed myself because I think it should succeed. And I think for the players and the coaches and everything like that, it deserves to succeed. It's hard week to week as a fan, especially when there is so much negativity out there, whether it's on Twitter, whether it's on the message boards, whether it's, and I'm sure you see it all over the place, the negativity about it. And it's hard to not let that seep into your own mind and your own heart. And so I know I'm getting a little philosophical right now, but I wish I could just sit back and guarantee that. And that's why I love that Danny Garcia came out and said, absolutely we're coming back for season two. But Oliver Luck said that in 2020, and I know that was a different situation, but Vince decided almost out of nowhere that we weren't going to go forward and Redburn Capital could do the same thing. And when we're all aware of that, we're all cognizant of that. And the X ffl, it's happened twice before. So it's like you have that in the back of your mind, even though this is a completely different X ffl from any that has come before almost in a lot of ways it's hard and it's hard to cover the league with that cloud hanging over because you know, ask yourself how invested do I, should I get in this? How much of myself and should I give to this? How much of time and effort should I give to this? I don't know. I don't know if anybody else who covers the league feels that way. I don't know if any other fans feel that way, but it's almost draining emotionally, Reid, and I know it sounds dramatic and stuff like that, but it is like you just so desperately want it to work and you have no control. You can turn your TV on and that's about all the control you have. One viewer is going to count and I can click follow on social media and I can watch the videos so they get those impressions, but it's not up to me. It's up to the public at large to look at what the X ffl is doing and saying, I'm going to invest in that. I'm going to give my time. I'm going to give my money to that league and that's what's going to help this league survive. So I, I'm getting on my soapbox a little bit, but I've kept that in size and I needed to get that out and it, it's very draining. That's the word I would use by the time the ratings roll around and you're so nervous about is it going to be 250,000, is it going to be 500,000, is what's the temperature of the league going to be this week? Is it? And so it's glad we've gotten this far. I'm glad this far. I'm glad we're going to have a season two. But like I said earlier in the show, we're only going to have a season two when we have a season two. It's one of those, I'll believe it when I see at things just because of past experiences with the league. Yeah, I, I've really hit the wall I think the last two weeks and I think I've talked with, I know Andy's talked with me and Pat whatever, talked me off the ledge a little bit, really hit the wall. So I definitely understand where you're coming from and I think it's important to vocalize that because I do think that it's one thing to do something for work and that's another thing to work, to do something. And I think a lot of us work to do that. The last thing for me, when training camp started, I posed the episode was the training camp, training camp day, whatever with Denzel and all that. And it's all about, it was Ethan Hawk talking high in the movie and he said, you got to manage your smiles and cries because that's the only thing you thing you can control in your life is your smiles and cries. So we will continue to manage our smiles and cries here. I appreciate, yeah, I get a lot of kind words on the YouTubes and everything, so I appreciate that. That gets me through. But yeah, it's really hard, Greg, I appreciate you coming on because I do not think that everyone involved understands the stress that goes into, and I know that they have different stress that we don't, could not imagine, but I do think that there's stress. There's stress all over. Yeah, I wouldn't compare my stress to Danny Garcia's or Jerry Cardinals or Duane, but absolutely we want this to succeed and we give our time and effort to it in the hopes that it does. And that in and of itself can be, I'll use the word again, draining. Well, Greg Parks appreciated exe a board, every time I see you in Parks, pulse, everything else, I always try to retweet that, but follow Greg and check out board of the, I do think journalism right now for alt football is really good with the work that everyone absolutely doing. I mean that, and Anthony knows this and Evan and Pat and everyone and you guys overboard just credentialing and allowing a lot of the reporters to actually do what we've been waiting three years to do. Yeah, I think it has really proved really valuable. So I appreciate that and in treating this more like a real football league, which I think only helps build that. So Greg, thank you so much for your time. Thank you Reid. Well, talking to the man of the hour here. Devin Darrington out of the Orlando Guardians. How are you doing sir? I'm doing great, man. Blessed to be here. Thank you for having me on. Just excited to keep the season going this weekend and I'm just blessed to be here, man. How about yourself? I'm good. I don't want to give you PTSD ts, I do have my C Dragons hat on right now, so I don't want too much exciting game. Biggest game of the weekend, over a million viewers watching even in a loss. You played outstanding, right? Two touchdowns running good. What was the game like for you? It was just exciting, man. We came into the game with a plan to run the ball and I was just glad that I could provide that. And my line opened up the holes and really you all credit to them. I couldn't run the ball without them. And those guys opened up the holes and all. We just training coach, working with Coach for Coach Wag, coach Shane, all the coaches on working our second level moves and everything. So really just thankful that the offense came in with a plan and we really established ourself in the run game. So I had a great game and it was a lot of fun Hot out there. I heard it was like 95 degrees. I talked to Eric here that was on the sidelines for you guys. He had his head burned. What was it like out there? Oh yeah, it was very hot. I haven't been a man, I haven't been that hot playing football in a while. And it was hot. We got off the bus, but then when we got on that field with the turf kind of rises a little bit. So we had to make sure we stayed hydrated. A lot of sodium, what I'm saying, make sure we fueled up. But it was very hot, man. It felt like a hundred out there. I ain't going to lie to you, but it was good. I love the heat. I'd rather play in the heat than the cold. I had too much of the cold. But yeah, I enjoyed it out there. It was very hot, but heat is good. Real talk for you. What's it been like so far this season? Because I mean guardians, they've looked good. You looked good to get some Vipers looked good. I mean I thought the Sea Dragons were going to blow it, but what's the season been like for you? Season's been pretty good. Came in early in camp, balled out in camp. My last week of camp, actually had a small little hamstring tweak running down at Gunner at qu, so that really only lasted two weeks. Got healthy, I was on ir, then I came back off ir. Thankfully thanks to the people up at the center of X working with me. Those guys did a great job. I was excited to go there every day and just rehab and get better. And so when I came back I hit the ground running a hundred miles an hour. So the season's been great, man. I've been loving the X Ffl. I love the team, I love my teammates, coaches, all the energy is here, the X ffl. They're doing a great job with the players and the fans and it's an exciting league and I'm glad I could be a part of it coming back and being one of the guys that stands out. Have, what has Coaching South done to keep you guys motivated head in the game here with It's been a little bit of adversity. Yeah, yeah, it definitely starts with them, but I think in and just as a team, the type of guys that they drafted us as players. As players, we're not the type of guys to hold our head down every week we go into it. It's start of the season zero and zero. So we're just every week just excited to compete. We don't care about the record, we don't care about the past. We're just excited to be out there practicing. And even in practice, it's all smiles and laughs and having fun. And the coaches what I'm saying, same way they don't hang their heads. Coach Buckley does a great job. Like I said, keeping us our heads strong and being first class, the first class team. So the coaches and the players we're just excited every week that we don't care about the score just or the record. Just happy to play. How did you wind up? I was reading a little bit about before we came on here, how'd you wind up in the X Ffl? Oh yeah, yeah. Well, from high, I start from high school. From high school. I was one of the top recruits out of Maryland. I had a lot of FBS offers a lot of Ivy League schools and I always wanted to play big time ball, but when I got the Harvard offer it was kind of harder to decide I couldn't walk away from that degree. So I ended up going to the Ivy League. I played there for three years. I graduated from there, but Covid canceled my last season there, so I had to sit out and go just to school. And luckily I had the opportunity to transfer to University of Virginia as a graduate student and I played one year there. We didn't really run the ball a lot, but I had fun and I made the most out of my opportunities just like I'm doing here. And after that I had Pro Day and then I had a opportunity with the Chiefs and now I'm here man. So I'm just thankful for this opportunity just to ball out. And like I said, it is a league coming back man. And it's exciting. There's a lot of energy, a lot of fans, all the fans are here and we hear it all the time. People cheering us on and just excited that we're here. We started all this with XVA and obviously going the way and with Covid and everything, it's made this weird multi-year gap now for guys like you and so many people that didn't play or the pro days were canceled or they lost years or the eligibility, how important is it having a spotlight like this for you? And I mean there's hundreds, thousands of other players to be able to and now for years to come, but at least even right now, they give you guys that opportunity. Oh yeah, it's very important to me personally, me and my family. Like I said, I had that covid year at Harvest, so I had to sit out a whole year playing ball and it just seemed like it was forever. And then I had the year at UVA and unfortunately we didn't run the ball a lot, like I said. And then day happened, I had a little minor hamstring thing there too. So I just was really grateful for this opportunity because it meant a lot to me. What I'm saying, a lot of guys I feel like are overlooked by the NFL and to me, just being in this league just meant the world to me, what I'm saying. I wanted to be able to give all I can give to this league. So I was appreciative and I was grateful that the league wanted me and these coaches wanted me. So every time I put the helmet on, I just remember that I'm playing for them and playing for the league and my family and everybody else. So this lead means a lot to me personally. You're from now, you ever give any thoughts to the U S F L? I mean, I know you're from mobile and any thoughts to that? Or was it always the X ffl for you? Well, I never mean really thought about it. I soon as I got done with the chiefs kind of thing, it's X F L thing came up and that was the first thing I looked at how parents talked about the U S F L. But it just was never like a press thing since the x ffl was their first. So I think about it now cause I got a lot of friends in there, definitely I wouldn't knock the opportunity, but X FFL definitely was my first option. Yeah, so I mean don't really have much to say about the U S F L, but I'm enjoying it here in the X F L. No, that's fine. I'm a known U US L hater apparently, so I just always have to ask What's going on with that Big game coming up here. We saw DC just another peg down, knock down the rough next year, who we kind of thought was the best team of the south coming in. They run the ball too. Have you been impressed seeing what they've been doing here just from obviously your experiences and what you know about football? Yeah, I've been impressed by DC I think they have a really good offense. Defense pretty good. I think what we're doing is definitely will help going against their defense. So yeah, I think I'm impressed by them. They're undefeated and they're undefeated for a reason. They have good guys, good, great talent on the team, great group of coaches. So it'll be a good challenge for us going into the game and we're excited for that. What I'm saying, we're not a team that, like I said, backs down or shot away. So we're excited just to play those guys and give 'em the first loss. Yeah. How do you prepare for that? I think it's on the April Fools Day here. That would be quite the April fool to give. I think DC is dual a loss at some point. I think you guys are certainly do a win. So I How are you preparing or what are the coaches telling you how to this weekend? Oh yeah, this is the time to do it. There's ever a time. This is the time, you know what I'm saying? Oh, and six, they're six. Oh. So we want to give them their first loss. We won our first win and I think us versus DC what other game could you want to get The first winning, you know what I'm saying? Like I said, they're undefeated. Great team. We're excited. You know what I'm saying? So it'll be good ball, it'll be great football, physical football, fast football, X F L football and we're excited for that. Hey, I watched my Washington commanders deliver the Eagles their first last year. I'm on night football. It can happen. Anything can happen in that. Just yeah. Before I let you go, I mean just thoughts on everything. You've talked coaching staff, you got all, I've heard from all the players and all the teams. So impressed with you. All the staff, everyone coming in, facilities, everything else. I mean, how is just your life treated being treated right now in the xfl? It's been great. I was really shocked, surprised by the organization and just everything that they have to offer and how they're taking care of us coming in. I knew they were coming back so I didn't know how they were going to run things or how organized they would be, but they, they've surprised me a lot. Everything's very organized. We're very cared for. We're a group of guys. We're a family and thanks to the X F L, you know what I'm saying? I've made bond bonds with a lot of guys and a lot of coaches. So I'm thankful and my experiences in the X F L has been amazing so far and I don't regret anything. I'm glad I'm here. I'm glad I could be a part of it. Something coming back and I'm just glad I can be in the league. What does hub life look like for you when you guys are practicing? Are we going back or are we playing video games or I don't even know what that looks like. Are we at summer camp here? How are we staying occupied? So we wake up early, you know what I'm saying? We eat, hop on the bus, go to a practice. Soon as we get back we wearing meetings, we have lunch. Then treatment of course got to take care of your body. That's one of the most important things as an athlete. And then from that point on, you're free to go. If you have other things you want to talk to the coaches about to meet about their, you're welcome to do that. But for the most part, after those things, we're free to go. So for me, I'm a little bit of an introvert. I like staying in indoors. So for me really just hopping on the game, what I'm saying, watching film, always studying film and just calling my family. I really miss them and appreciate them. But yeah, so for me just chilling in the room man, I'm already, that's what I do at home. So it didn't really phase me during the year. What did it mean? Last question for me. What did it mean for your family to be able to watch you have the game that you did on Saturday in front of over a million people on b, C All meant a lot. My parents are my biggest supporters. I've been playing football since I was eight years old and they've always believed in me. I think they've only missed one or two games since I've been eight years old and I play every year. So they're my biggest supporters and I love 'em so much and mean's the world to me that I could give them a show like that because they believe in me and they know what I'm capable of and it's just something to me just to show that. So I just know they were happy and smiling and cheering and I'm just excited that I can make them happy Again. Yeah, then we'll continue to. Well Devin, I really appreciate it. Like I said, I couldn't care less about DC I hope you guys win. I mean I got my own sea dragons thing, so we'll figure ourselves out here. But best of luck. I hope it's a good game and thanks for spending the time today. Yes sir. Thank you for having me. Well I went to my closet, I dug out my Philadelphia stars jersey here. Have a little dust on it from the end of last season, but we're back here. We have case cookies on the show. How are you doing sir? I'm doing good, thanks for having me. This is good. So the Philadelphia stars are basically the team of the cast. So I think that you are our official quarterback here for the US fel this season. How does that sit with you? That's fun with me, I think I'm just glad to be back and looking forward to season two and having a lot of fun. This is exciting. So yeah, we're back in the saddle better than last time. How does it feel here going into season two? Oh it feels good. I think we got a good group of returning core guys some new faces. So that's obviously exciting to get to meet them and kind of learn how they learn and get to see what they do well, what they bring to the team. So we're really excited about gearing up for season two. What's it like here now? We're multi hubs, we're not all out of the Birmingham. How's everything going in terms of that regard? It's good anytime you get to go do a new city and check it out, try the new food, just kind of see what it's like. I've never really been to the Michigan area or the Midwest that much at all besides last year when we were in Canton. So it's been cool to check it out and try a bunch of different stuff and football and the weather's been a little cold, some real football weathers started out but everyone keeps telling me it's going to warm up and get real nice over here. So I'm excited about that. Well because you have a phenomenal field or stadium I guess to play the games, but you guys were practicing right? East of town? Yeah, we're playing eastern Michigan so the gray turf is a little funky on film. I hadn't seen that in a while. I remember turn on the TV a times and seen Eastern play. You got the gray turf on. So it's cool to play on that. And then in college we played on the red turf when we played Eastern Washington. So I'm used to it a little bit, but the gray was different, that's for sure. So what's life been like for you since last summer? Obviously the injury, the end of the season you got married. Congratulations. I'm a wedding vendor in my real life, so I always just, weddings are always important. First off, how was that? How was the wedding celebration and everything else? Oh it was awesome. I think everyone says be ready, something might go wrong, this and that. Well obviously I broke my leg so I was what went wrong. But everything else, the food, the dessert, every, the venue, they did such a good job. My wife did work so hard to plan it and all the people were awesome. It was good to see all the family and friends out there. So wedding went really well. I promised my wife I would take pictures without a big scooter. I think I have a picture on my Instagram of us and I got the scooter rolling down the aisle so I'm going to take some more pictures. But everything went really well And this is not uncommon, I think he was a professional motocross racer and he broke his, he was in a boot the two weeks I think before the weddings. I mean this isn't uncommon. You guys need to be careful here when you're, you know, high quality athletes. Yeah, I know. I think I took a hit early in the game and I was worried about my teeth but I didn't realize I'd have to be worried about my leg. But yeah, that was good. Recovered from that, that injury ended up breaking my fibula and a piece of my other piece of my ankle. So all that recovery went really well and I was very thankful. I felt bad for my wife because I was basically on a couch for the first two months of our marriage sitting there and she did a great job taking care of me. So thank you Tyler for taking care of me. I'll give her a little shout out. That's good. When kind of hanging out with the Rams for a little bit exciting, what was that process like? And I know we tracked Luis Perez as well and a lot of you other alt football guys after the season. So I tried working real hard to get back, rehabbing really hard three, four times a week running and throwing the nice part about it being a lower body injury. I was able to throw the ball a little bit throughout that early process but ended up, it was kind of a weird story. I was actually in LA with my whole family doing an early Thanksgiving. I drove back to Vegas where I live with my wife and then the next day I got a call from the Rams and ended up driving right back and they ended up signing me the next day after the physical and everything and got to learn a bunch from them, McVey and Stafford and then when Baker joined us it was awesome. So it would kind of pick those guys' mind, learn how to be a true pro because those guys, they all do it the right way. It's crazy just to think how small the world ultimately is here. Where here you went from Birmingham, break your leg, get married, everything and the next thing you're talking to Sean McVay and Baker Mayfield and kind of hanging out. Yeah, abs, absolutely. I think, I don't think I really could have pictured or drawn up a weirder way I guess to make it to my first P squad in N F L experience, but that's the way it happened and we kind of just rolled with the way it went and I think everything happens for a reason and that's just the way everything went down and now I'm back here with the stars in Michigan. I'm super excited to, like I said, to get started for season two. There was a lot of talking online and cause now we're seeing it's the Monday night wars with wrestling, we're seeing people jump ship and everything else. And as is case going back to the US F l, what was the thought process going back to season two and being a part of everything? Yeah, I think after finishing up the season of the Rams we kind of weigh our options and was it cause I'd been that fourth quarterback before first guy to get cut, first guy when they need to make a move and had a lot of long talks with my wife, with my agent, with my family, just with everyone because I think what it came down to it, what I do best is playing football and running an offense and I think trying to make a team by getting the film and being out here and participating in year two of the US F L I felt really comfortable here. I thought they did such a good job with the league last year. They took care of me with my injury. They were so awesome and on top of everything there. So I think it was an easy choice for me to just come back and come back with all our coaches returning so that a lot of things weighed into it. But it seemed like everything kind of pointed back to the U S F L. How hard was it or frustrating, I think a lot of people would've seen you get shots before November had it not been for the leg and everything else just was that frustrating? What was your emotions there? Yeah, I think it didn't hit me for a little bit because I kind of jumped right in the rehab mode, but after the two week mark and getting through surgery and kind getting through the tough part of it, the thing I can really only say about it is it just kind of sucks. It was one of those things where it felt like we were like me, I, I'd finally had my shot and made it and gotten the opportunity to play football. We made the championship, we were up in the game. It felt like everything was kind of falling into line A and then the injury happened. So there's not really much to say about but it's just a huge bummer. I know that's not really well spoken or well said but it's really the only thing I could say about it and it is what it is now and like I've mentioned before now is everything happens for a reason and I think good things are going to happen for a year two and just excited to be back and the rehab went well. Yeah, because that's the thing people, it's like this fantasy football mindset nowadays. Like oh cases hurt, okay, move that off. Okay, let's focus on, and this is months you have to go through shifting of your life and what you had planned to hit at that point. And then like you said, rehabbing then being on the couch and trying to get married. There's so many other off the field, it's 98% off the field, all this stuff people don't see that you still have to live through. Yeah, absolutely. I think right now we're, me and my wife are in the middle of buying a house. We're trying to do taxes right now and I'm trying to talk the tax guy and make it through camp and this and that and we're on separate hour. She's in Las Vegas so I'm three hours ahead. So there's a lot of stuff that goes into it and I think it's important to why we do shows this and talk to do these interviews because I think some guys have some really cool STO stories and we're able to share that with you guys and get to know the people can get to know us better. And so I guess thank you for getting this opportunity. Oh I appreciate it. I am glad that you could come on. Like I said, I appreciate all the new media hub people, whatever now coming back right season one we're trying to get through Fox and kind of everything else now we have everything in place. Are you sensing added, excitement added resources, added anything here now that we've kind of laid the foundation? Yeah, I think moving to the four hubs was a positive sign getting closer to our market. Philly, I'd love to be there with the fans and be able to reach out to our market, but I think we're moving in the right direction as much as we'd love to be in Philly right away, I think the US fell has a plan for where it's going. So it is exciting. I think everything is a little smoother this year. It was the first year last year, there's some hiccups last year early on and what the league did a great job of doing last year was listening to the feedback from us and fixing whatever they need to fix right away and it was awesome to see them respond that way. So it's another reason why I'm back here. They're doing such a good job of listening to the players And not to, I don't want to get you in trouble with anything mean. What were some constructive things that you had that you now you're glad to see that they're doing now in season two? Well I don't think anyone could have foreseen 450 hungry football guys at the lunch table at the same time. So it was one of those things just pl the planning of lunch and things like that where it almost has be scheduled down to the minute and I don't know how to do it and I'm so glad that these league officer guys, they're taking care of it and doing such a great job being in the four hubs now, you know really only have 120 guys to cater for in each hub and maybe some coaches and EQ staff and extra staff around. So that's just one little thing that it wasn't a major issue, it was just something where it was like, hey look like now we're taking care of it and it happens a lot quicker and like I said, last year they fixed it within I think it was a day and a half, they fixed EV everything all. So yeah, that was one thing and the one thing I've noticed here is it goes a little smoother and like I said, when we get to Philly hopefully it'll go even better and better and better and just keep taking off. What did you make of Ryan Cave and everyone with the C B A and union, everything getting you guys to protections you wanted the head of the season? I think it's important to have representation and I think Fox did a good job of allowing us to have those conversations and I think it's something that is important but I think the whole process in general, from Fox's side to the player side, we've all been kind of in communication already so it was a pretty easy step to step over there and do some of the union stuff but everyone's been doing a great job. I think it's still early too, the first day of the union, so there's probably going to be some things that maybe come up that we're going to eventually address. I don't know, but everything's been smooth so far and I think everyone's doing a great job with it. Well I think it's important that, like you said, that Fox is willing to work with you guys because ultimately if it isn't for you guys there's no product. I mean there's nothing to put on the field so that's good to hear and I do in talking with the union guys and they've been on the show, it does feel like everything that you guys have wanted as it comes up is addressed. Yeah, absolutely. I think like I said now where it's like everyone's doing a great job and we're still in year two, which is crazy. It feels like we've been so long, been so far and kind of been on this journey and so there's going to be some growing pains and this and that, but everyone's doing a great job responding and fixing things when it comes up and I'm really excited about the future of the US fellow. So now we're in training camp, we're here. What's it like? I mean there's some carryover, there's a lot of new faces. What's it like hitting the field? Oh it's good really Coach Bart does a great job of getting the work we need to do without stressing us too much. Camp is kind of a grueling process. Lots of meetings, practice lifting, you're in a hotel so you're not at your house so you're trying to get to learn this new environment but overall it kind of feels like we never left. There's some new faces around but one thing coach Bart is and that is that's consistent about the way he approaches practice and the way camp works. Having the carryover relationship from last year it does that help you just hit the ground running even better? Yeah, absolutely. I think we're addressing things early in camp that we were addressing in the middle of season last year, which is awesome. We're making mistakes now so we can get 'em out of the way and learn from 'em now and then that way when we get in the middle of season, we'll have already been through this kind of stuff. I think first practice coach went blitz, blitz period on the first day. That's the kind of situations we like to put ourselves in early on so that we can learn from it and coach it up on film and then not make those mistakes later in the season. A couple more here, I'll let you go, I promise. I know you're walking out of the media and I appreciate it. Just how challenging is it for any of these spring leagues to come in, how you got four or five weeks to get everything going? Like you said you've got carryover now, but for people that aren't in the room, how hard is that to get up to speed and get everyone up to speed? Yeah, I think that's another thing Coach Bart does well, makes it simple for his guys. We got some returners so that part of, hey, learning a whole new offense some of us don't have to do, there's some tweaks here and there that we've added to our offense so everyone's going to learn from that. But we definitely are focusing on making it simple so that guys can play fast and execute on the field and everyone's been doing a good job picking it up and like I said, there's 35 guys coming back or so those guys are now able to step up into leadership roles and kind of mentor some of those new guys. Stepping into roles. Last question here. In term obviously made to the championship game lost but save for that and winning it all, what would be a victory for you this year? I mean what are you looking to do personal accomplishment wise this season? Yeah, I think for me my goals are kind of lame. I'd like to focus on small things. I know that's not super exciting but for me I like to have clean up my footwork and ball placement and things like that that I can really work on to my elevate myself as a quarterback but really just stepping into leadership role or earlier on I think being the guy from day one is going to help me mentor some of these new guys and just run the offense that every quarterback's slightly different so every quarterback's going to run the offense slightly different and so that'll help with that. Just being in it earlier, we're trying to set up some new stuff to where we're going to take off and take off where we left off but add some twists and tweaks to our offense, which is exciting. Are you excited to see VAD there as well on the team? I know and he came in late last year with the modelers and how's that going to work? Just in terms of you guys kind of motivating each other, working each other? Yeah, vad VAD was a great addition Kevin. Kevin's been great too. They're quieter guys and I got to get 'em to talk a little more. I don't, but it's still new. I didn't really get to meet VAD that much last year, so I'm excited to get to know both those guys more and I'm excited because they're both genuine people and they're going to help each other on the sideline. I think good quarterback rooms have constant communication so I'm excited. We have our first kind of scrimmages coming up, we're going to kind of learn from those and get to our work on the sideline and communicating and talking how we're breaking down defenses. So I, I'm really excited about our quarterback room So I appreciate your time today. Good luck. Like I said, you know got our heart here at the mark cast with the stars, so appreciate it. Good luck and we're excited for the, we're almost at the sea in all and X F L and everything and we're almost to the US F L as well. It's going to be spring football overload so Let's go. Excited about it and thanks for having me again. Well I can't remember the last time I had this gentleman on. We have Paul Woods here, Toronto Argo's historian, everything's C F L and now what do you know we're talking U S F L with the C F's C ffl historian. Poet. How are you doing? I'm doing great Reid. Thanks for having me. So this was big shocking. I remember I was actually on the beach in Port Lavata when the news came down that Beth Thompson heading to the U S F L. Obviously you're a Argo's historian working on a book about Muon Beth Thompson, which you just announce as well. What did you make of that and then tell me about your journey here that we're talking about today. Well I wasn't surprised, I mean I've been working on this book for more than a year with the cooperation of McLeod with Mac and he told me a number of times over the past year we had many, many conversations and he told me a number of times that being apart from his family was not something he was prepared to go through. Again, it was a tough year for him and for his partner Janac Kaha mean she was in down in Atlanta working really, really hard on a streaming service television program. He was up here quarterbacking the Argos ultimately to the Gray Cup and they have a daughter who just turned two at Halloween or sorry at New Year's and they were sharing responsibility for her. She was down Atlanta for a good chunk of the season, so Mack was not with either of his two women and she was up here for seven weeks during the season, which was also a real challenge for him as you can imagine. And so he had said to me a number of times, I can't do this again, I've got to be with my family. I have to figure out a way to do that. And also, I'm going to be honest, he admitted to me a number of times over the course of the past year that he has not given up on his N F L dream and so when the opportunity came for him to go to the U S F L, which of course will run a season that will end just as N F L training camps are opening and allows its players to go to camps in the N F L if they get the opportunity and it happened to be in Birmingham, which is only not even a three hour drive to Atlanta where Janaka spends much of her professional time. It was just a fantastic opportunity for him, albeit a big cut and pay and no guarantees that it's going to lead to him realizing his N F L dream. But he's a different cat than most athletes. He's the kind of guy that's going to march to the beat of his own drummer to use a cliche and I know he believes that this could lead to him getting back to the N F NFL or really getting to the NFL for the first time. He had many, many tryouts over the years but never, never ended up shooting up for a game and it keeps his family together so it, it's sort of achieving a double purpose didn't come as a huge shock to me. I was pretty much expecting as of, or even during last season, he wasn't going to be back in the Canadian football league this year. Interesting. And I'm be curious, we have your article here at Toronto son Macon Beth Thompson moving the ships in on the pretty bizarre hand for the US belt, huge pay cut and that was I think the note that came out last week because they have all their salaries and the extra fellowship, Brent Huntley's getting paid more and you pay a little bit more of some of these that McLeod's coming in on the 53 or whatever, a thousand for that he turning down, I know it's Canadian and you got to deal with all that but 450,000 probably right to go back to the Argos. Yeah, I think if he'd stayed in the Canadian Football League in 2023, somebody whether the Argos or somebody else would've paid him somewhere in the range of 450 to $500,000. I mean it's a bit of a ballpark. We know Zach Colis is making more than 600,000. Trevor Harris is making more than 500,000 this year McLeod's in that caliber and there was demand for his services. I mean he indicated that there were multiple teams that were interested in talking to him in free agency so somebody would've paid him. Yes, the Canadian dollar doesn't make, isn't as highly valued as the US dollar, but it's still a huge pay cut to go from four 50 Canadian to about 50 us. What did you make just of your time in Birmingham? I was pretty impressed with the operation. I mean they've got the four hub cities going this year, last year as all eight US F L teams played in the hub city of Birmingham, which I think was a bit chaotic at times from what I was able to gather. Now they've just got the two Birmingham stallions and of course the New Orleans breakers who will not play a game in New Orleans this year. They'll play all their home games in Birmingham, but it seemed very well organized to me. I mean they've got a very nice setup there where the new stadium is, excuse me, right, essentially adjacent to a couple of high end hotels which were sort of the headquarters for these two operations at least during training camp. They, they've got a good PR operation that was very cooperative with me, really helped me speak to Mac and speak to Coach John DFA Lippo and to speak to Jim Pop and other people I to took in, I guess it was probably the second day of practice for the Breakers, very well run high tempo practice. There was no standing around, they were moving up and down that field and moving the ball and doing a lot of stuff. It seems like it's a pretty sharply operated thing. Jim Pop's been around football for, oh man forever. Basically he is been in Canadian football for more than 30 years and he's now the VP of player personnel for the U S F L. He knows what he's doing. Daryl Johnston there, I think he's either the commissioner or the head of the league. I'm not sure what his title is. So they've got a pretty sharp looking operation obviously we're going to have to see how it plays out on the field at how it plays out in the ratings. They've got Fox money behind it. I expect many of their games are going to be on regular television over the air television as well as on more cable properties. So we'll see how they do head-to-head against the X ffl. We'll see how they do just on their own merits, but I was pretty impressed with what I saw. I thought it was funny that one anecdote you had in your article about how, and it's a great article, people will go check it out, but McLeod throwing the interception and then getting yelled at for not having down the McLeod's been around a long time and it is interesting I think just from a social whatever to a reality show, the Watts side of McLeod coming back in here after just winning the Gray Cup and getting yelled at by John Dip Felipo and Birmingham, it's a little bit of a culture change there. Oh absolutely. I mean it's a crazy story in many ways. I, I don't actually looked at every single player on every team's roster in the S F L, but I be willing to bet he's probably the oldest player in the league. He's 34 going on 35, he's trying to obviously win the starting quarterback job with the Breaker and Coach Flip was pretty adamant to me that it's not being handed to him, he's going to have to earn it and he is trying to get back to the N F L or to get to the N F L and I mean the idea of a guy at age 35 suddenly appearing in an N F L game, a quarterback for the first time, that's more than a reality show Hollywood movie type stuff. It seems like it's pretty much a long shot, but having got to know Mack very well over the past year, I would not bet against this man. I think there's a good chance he's going to be in an N F L camp and if he gets into a camp then who knows, right? Maybe he gets onto a roster, maybe somebody gets hurt, maybe he starts playing and if that happens the Sunday morning pre-game shows are going to be just going crazy over the story of a 35 year old. This is Kurt Warner times 10, right? I mean Kurt was 27, max 34, he is going to be 35 when N NFL camp starts. Do you think that he could go in and pretend to be Ryan Fitzpatrick and maybe could shot that way? I think that might be his better shot that maybe we could get him on the Amazon broadcast and he could be doing some play by play. Well, he's not ready to give up on his dream for sure. It's funny, one of the things I found in my research over the past year is I've been delving into his incredible story because it really is an incredible story going all the way back to his childhood. When he first started playing high school football, there was an interview done with him by local TV in San Francisco picking up on the fact that this guy was the hottest prospect to come out of San Francisco. Since Dan Fouts San Francisco is not normally a hotbed of football talent as it turns out, but he was the most highly touted quarterback to come out of that city since Dan Fouts about two decades earlier and they interviewed him for a local sports cable show and is a great quote from Mac McElroy says, I love playing football and I just want to play as much as I can for as long as I can. And here he is 20 years later still trying to play for as long as he can. I mean the beard certainly he does look a bit like Fitzpatrick and that's one of the reasons some people seem to hate him. He funny guy, he was one of the most polarizing figures I've ever seen in football. I'm a big, became a huge fan of his in 2019 when he was with the Argos, he came up in 2017, but I really became a huge fan in 2019 when I saw the way he comported himself in a really bad season for the Argonauts that year. But man, so many fans just seem to hate the guy either. He's too old, he's immobile, he throws too many picks, he can't get touchdowns when they get down in the red zone, all these complaints and people just stuck to that even through last year when the Argos rolled to the gray cup and granted he wasn't on the field for the last 14 minutes of the game after busting up his thumb in the fourth quarter of the Gray Cup, but I mean he got them to the Gray Cup game and he had them in a position where Chad Kelly was able to come in and lead them to the touchdown to put them on ahead to stay and even after that, fans were complaining about him. It's, it's crazy. So it's one of the reasons I'm doing the book. I think he's just a fascinating story. I don't understand how anybody cannot like this guy. His story is unbelievable. Doug was not a star in college football. He's been to I think 13 different N F L opportunities over a six year span and never resulted in getting a job anywhere. He played in the U F L, he played in the Arena league, he played in spring football, spent five years in Canada and he had to fight for four of those five years. He had to fight for a spot with the Argos. It's an amazing story of perseverance and overcoming obstacles and it had what I thought was the happy ending with winning the Gray Cup and then now it's whole new chapter has begun. Well that's the thing and because I would wager the guess that most people that McLeod is on their radar now going into the U S F L, I did not track all of that. I mean I do what I can and we promote and obviously do the C F L shows and everything, but yeah, McLeod was not really ever a made man in the C F L, like you said, always competing with the Argos, number two, and then they give him the spot and people are like you said, people are still complaining. They're like, oh, I can't believe they're paying him that much money and he doesn't like for if we're going to be given Nick Fitzpatrick or whoever the or Fitzgerald, right, all this money I got right Fitzpatrick, I'm like, we're going to give Dick Fitzgerald money or kill Evans or whatever. I think McLeod his kind of earned that spot there, but it is, yeah, he certainly was not a made man by any stretch in the C F L. Well, no, I mean when he came to camp with the Argos for the first time in 2017 after at that time exhausting his N F L opportunity, he had the rules in effect at that point were that you could not be on a practice roster for more than four seasons and he'd run out of time. They couldn't keep, no team could keep him on a practice roster any longer. So he was told by the Philadelphia Eagles where by the way, coach John DPO was his quarterbacks coach and that's one of the reasons that he's now with the Breakers that Max now with the Breakers, they was told you got to go to playing Canada if you want to still play that Canada's your only option here. He can't comes to the Argos cap. He's number six on the death chart, right? Do not, most teams don't even have six quarterbacks in camp. He was number six on the death chart behind four guys. Well, Ricky Ray who was a hall of famer and then three other guys who had played playing time in Canadian football and then himself and Dakota Pock, who's also in the S F L now were the two sort of unproven, had never been in the C Ffl guys and by the end of that season he'd moved up from number six to number two if Ricky Ray had gotten hurt in a year when the Argos did end up winning the Gray Cup. Matt was the guy that was going in next, he was the head of Cody Fajardo on the roster, but then the next year they bring in James Franklin and James Franklin is the anointed successor to Ricky Ray. And so for two years Mack battled out with James Franklin and he was pretty clear to me he was better than James Franklin. James Franklin's a good guy, but he just wasn't the quarterback that Mack is, but the team would not give him the job on for any sort of permanent basis. Then in leading into 2020, the season that ended up being canceled because of Covid, the Irish spent big money to get Matt, Matt Nichols, a tired old quarterback who'd been with Winnipeg obviously they were looking at him as the number one quarterback. Had the 2020 season been played, Mack was still going to have to scrape and claw maybe to get the number two job. They don't play 2020, they go to 2021. The yard was given more money to Nick Arbuckle and he's perceived by everybody as the future. Mack finally beat out Arbuckle. He was to Ryan Dinwoodie's credit. He actually had an open competition for the job and while they went back and forth a little bit for the first part of the season, Mac started the year and then they went to our buckle and then they went back to Mac and then didn what he said, Max's the guy and they traded our buckle and that's the first time he'd ever been basically as he described, had been given the keys to the car. And then in 2022, of course he is the first time in the only time in his professional career that he took over an offense that was designed for him and the result was first place finish, get to the Great Cup and then win the Great Cup. It's not only because of Mac, they won the Great Cup for a lot of reasons, but you can't argue with the end result that this guy that a lot of fans wanted to toss out of town in 20 18, 20 19, 20 21 and even 2022 was the man who started a quarterback when they won the Great Cup and now he's starting this next chapter on his journey. Last question for me today because we can talk, I can talk, we'll call about Los Concerta forever. This I do think he, and even because I obviously we, I did not know anything about the C F L is seeing him come in with the Spring League with the aviators and the track playing in the off-season. But yeah, per cop coming in as well. Mcleods PCOS with the stallion With the New Jersey, New Jersey Generals, Generals Gen. Okay, so he's with the generals, right? And then we have McLeod here with the Breakers. Do you see both of them starting either one starring, what do you make of Pru Cop as well just to add to the conversation? Well, he is Aru cop's a really intriguing individual. He came up in 2017 with Mack, as I said, and he's been around the C F L since then without ever really getting a crack at starting. He's been a backup in Toronto. He was a backup in bc. He was a backup in Winnipeg. He's got it very in intriguing, tantalizing potential. He seems like a good mobile quarterback. He's a smart young man. Well he is, well he is not that young, but he is younger than Mack. He's about five or six years younger than Mack. I think crew cop's probably going to be somebody that's going to play in the U S F L who also may end up back in the C ffl afterwards. He's talked about that as a possibility, although not sure that the contracts allow that unless the team were to release him. My understanding is that to go, you can get released automatically if you've got an NFL opportunity, but I don't know if you can get released automatically if you've got a CFL opportunity. He may have worked that out with them though when he signed with them. I think Mac is going to, we're going dominate the u s Ffl. He's that good. But I got to tell you, the two quarterbacks he's competing against look pretty darn good as well. I mean I only saw the one practice. I saw a keel glass and Davis cheek and they are both big young guys who can move throw the ball and Matt did make he not pull any punches, but he said he's still getting used, he's getting used again to 11 man football. He's still recovering from his hand injury, right? I mean he not only dislocated his thumb, he broke bones in his hand. He was in a cast for a long time. He said his hand, his grip strength heading into camp was only 80% of normal. So he is getting used to the different spacings and splits on the smaller field with 11 men. It's going to take him a bit of time there. He is fortunate that they've got a full month of training camp before they start on the 16th, but I expect having seen this guy in action the last few years, I expect he's going to start and I expect he's going to be a star quarterback in that league and I think some N F L team is going to say worth bringing him to camp. Yeah, he is old, but you know what? Let's bring him to camp and see what happens. Well, if nothing else, I think having that veteran presence in the U US F L is really good and they have former N F L guys as well, but I think as many of those kinds of, Hey we've been to, we've done these things and let's kind of lead through this, I think is good. I have one more thing but I can't Oh, just yeah, with the injury and all that. Yeah, this is how much McLeod would rather be with his family in seven. I mean the second the Gray Cup was done, he was gone. He wasn't even in Canada for the celebration. He was getting surgery and then being with his partner and kid like McLeod is a family first kind of guy and then obviously football, but anything else? Well, Paul, I appreciate it. Like I said, your article up on the Toronto Sun, you have the book coming out you're working on, so I'll be excited for that and that we should check in during the regular season. Again, I think we had you on season or two ago, but we'll certainly get back on in tacos some more. Argos. Sounds good. As part of the research for this project, I may be seeing a couple of Breakers games. I'm trying to figure out what to do as that season unfolds, so I may be able to talk to you about, I'm hoping to maybe see Dakota Procop against McLeod, Bethel Thompson when they play on, I think it's May the seventh in Detroit or Canton, so you never know. Maybe we'll talk then. Yeah, those New Jersey home games or whatever in Canton now. Yep. All right. Paul Woods, thank you so much again. Thanks Reid. Nice talking to you. Special thanks as always to all of our guests. Austin joining us, Eric McClean, Greg Parks, case cookies, Devin Darrington and Paul Woods. Really appreciate everyone coming on today. Six guests. Listen, trying to hit that again, but I think it was a good show. It was working on a theme, Goldberg, everything else, hope we did it. It's another week in the can. A lot of work here on this. I thought Greg at the end of Greg's interview for the episode today was really good. I think Greg speaks for a lot of us. I was really surprised. I think Greg is usually pretty calm and is kind of the ones talking me down, but it was good. Greg got a little soak boxy and I think that that is important. Talking about the stress and just wanting this to succeed and doing what we can and only being able to do so much. And I know that management and ownership and leadership, everyone else with the X F L got a million different things like who the hell we don't care about. I totally understand that, but I use the gift a lot on Twitter. We are all in this together from Greg and me and Austin coming on and Eric and Stormy last week, and Mike and everyone else. We all want this to succeed. We all want this to grow and so anything we can do, I, I'll continue to put out the content, but it is hard. I run out of gas some weeks and I certainly do my best putting together these shows, so I appreciate the kind words I get on Twitter and YouTube, but it's a lot to get six guests every week. It's a lot to kind of keep promoting, promoting the podcast and promoting the league and doing everything. It's kind of an unpaid internship I feel like, but happy to carry that along and do what I can. Thanks as always. Hope you guys enjoyed the episode. We'll see you Monday. Please vote if you haven't already for us for the sports podcast groups. If Best Sports Business podcast. Really appreciate that. Like I said, I'll put the link in the description and just really appreciate all your guys' support. We're winding down the XL season, getting ready for the championship game. We're going to be having lots more US L content. I've been working on that. Hope you enjoyed the interview with Case. And then Paul Woods, I think gives a neat, unique perspective that way on the cloud. Bethel Thompson for maybe people that aren't and you didn't know him before. I don't know how many of our listeners or are checking out the Argos. We certainly try to promote that game, the CFL game as much as we can. So I can subscribe. As always, thanks as always. Take care and stay safe.

XFL 2024 Season 2 Confirmed? XFL 2023 Week 6: What Did We Learn?

Let the record show here. Good morning everyone. Let the record show. I was willing to do an hour on the San Antonio bra starting quarterback situation here. Had I needed to, had I needed to, but we have lots of breaking news here, coming out today. XFL 2024 season or yeah, be season two confirmed. We'll get to all of that. We have a special guest, Paul Re standing by. First off, I'll bring in my co-host here for the morning show. Andrew Murray. I want to congratulate before we get into the show ju Pass starting quarterback for the San Antonio Braas with the win this weekend against the Arlington Renegade Pass. Andrew Murray, you got to see the God Kirk play in Arlington this weekend. How are you doing sir? All right. I have to come off the top rope for this one. It's good. I'm semi fresh off the plane from Arlington. I was there this weekend so I got to to see. Yes, I got to see both of them in person as to their performances. We'll get into that later, but it was interesting for sure. We'll get into all that earlier. I'm just checking the feed here, making sure people are logging in here. And then we have Paul re standing by the big news. We'll get into here, you know us X ffl Season two, confirm. We'll bring in Paul. Paul, you're our Jen Hale today. Paul Reece. How are you doing sir? Well, how about you Reid? We're good. I appreciate you. Andrew. Wasn't sure if he was going to be making it back with his flights and if he was going to teach and anything. So we have Paul Reese here. Paul, first off, just how are you doing and then we'll get into all the breaking news here. Things are well here. I'm enjoying the X F L season. It's just fun having football this time of year. It is good. And you've been, now I will say I was a little down this weekend a little watching the games. I'm flipping back and forth. I'm watching the Kraken. We know we have the seven two win over the National Predators that was excited. Little down the game yesterday. Wasn't great little poo pooey and just when I think I'm out, they pulled me back in and we have the USA Today Article X ffl season two. Were coming out at Paul A to F right now on the C and then we'll get into the breaking news. I'm going to give them a B minus. I think one of the things that we're seeing right now, especially in regards to attendance, is that actions have, so does inaction. We had the X ffl announce that it was coming back for 2023 season and then we waited and we waited and we waited and we waited for the markets to be named. We waited then for a schedule to come out probably because of the Vegas situation. But regardless, I think what we're seeing is that all that lost lead time had a consequence and I know a lot of fans are jumping on the attendance and it hasn't been great in some places. It's been much, much better in other places, but I think that the league could have mitigated a lot of that by having things. They're ducks in a row a lot sooner now. What I have liked is the X F L rule set and especially the pace of play has made, in my opinion, for some really compelling games. It's big. Yeah, I think the quality of play and we'll get into I think a mix mixed results here this weekend in terms of some of the games. Let's bring this up here. We have from U S A today. This was Tom. My text is so small. Tom shot on here. I'll pull this up. I was scared. Our streamy yard was showing. We had zero viewers on the stream, but I checked on YouTube. We very much do not, but I was like, did I set the link to private today? What's going on? We have Tom shot here talking with Danny Garcia and the Rock. Paul, had you seen this article or is this the first time that's come across? It just came out this morning breaking news. I just had it mentioned to me within the last hour. Perfect. So Tom's here sitting down. Danny Garcia called this milestone with six with three week six games over the weekend. The latest iteration of the XL officially crossed the halfway point while also surpassing the point of the 2020 version. This is an interesting quote. I want to get both of your guys' thoughts on this. We'll kind of go through the article and then we'll talk through the other games and stuff. But this is exciting right now the monkey is off our back. Garcia told U S A today's sports on Friday. We are now creating our history, A history will that will not be compared to what happened in the past, but our X L history, Paul, you're the historian, we'll go to Paul, we'll get Andy's thoughts. Paul I what do you make of this? We don't want to be compared to the X L 2020 anymore. Stop asking us. So complete the championship game then let's offer some pats on the back. This is what the U S F L was able to do last year completed Season X ffl I think is well on its way. This is certainly a great sign to have. Yes, we're coming back next year rather than, oh, we can't pay people this week, but everything's going to be fine guys. Way better situation than that. So they have surpassed the 2020 X ffl, but the real milestone is completing that championship game. Andy, we have talked a lot on the podcast about this, about we want to buy X ffl 2020 but we're buying the house, but we we're knocking it down. No emotions left over here You, what'd you make of this quote? I think this is an interesting quote. I mean I get the monkey off our back like, okay, we've made it further than we ever made it in 2020, but we don't want to be compared anymore. This is our history. Dammit. I think Duane has been waiting six weeks to use that quote. He's had it in his back pocket the entire time. He could not wait for weeks six to roll around just so he could throw that down. Just as a affirmation for the fact that this season has finally gotten past the midway point, which everyone knew everyone had in the back of their heads since the last time, even after week five, I think our group chat, I think jokingly said like, well, this is when the aliens start coming down and the next great tragedy happens and it's going to stop the season. Because that was the last thing that was in our minds as spring football fans and X F L fans is that idea of, well, okay, the season could just suddenly halt again because it's almost like P T S D, right? That's sort of part of it. So I understand the quote. It is funny to say that, and I do agree with Paul, there needs to be the full season play out and there needs to be the championship game before you really start affirming to your base. I suppose that this is going to be going into season too, but it is nice that they already starting to think about that in terms of that, and I think they already were anyways. They've talked about this being a long-term process. This is not new in terms of their planning stages or in terms of their mindset in terms of running the league, but as far as the season goes, yes, they need to get through the second half as it were. And there's still a month and a half left of that. I think that everybody, I will think for the most part, unless you're Marshall Ferguson, Michael Ball or just cowards high time avatars on Twitter, I think you expected X ffl season. I think we could expected a championship game and I've had C F L people messaging me like, Reid, what do you think of this? And the radios, I said, I really think they're invested. I mean, Paul, was there anything in this world short of aliens that you really thought were not at least completing the season? No, I think that there would be way too much egg on the face. It seemed like they had adequate capital put forth to get through one season. So I didn't really see that as a tremendous possibility, which is really weird when you're talking about alternative football, that the greater chance would be completing the season than collapsing sometime during the season. So we have here and they're talking the ratings, they're down XL viewership is down 64% over the same five week period. Attendance is down 21%. I can tell you as a content creator, I think XL interest is down a little bit right now. Andy, thoughts on that? We'll get Paul just, it's just kind of the same story, but we'll get to some more exciting quotes here. I think it's interesting. Now, again, like I mentioned, I went to the Arlington game yesterday, which for the record was actually the highest attendance for the entire season. It was 12,000 and I think the weather had a lot to do with that. It was 80 degrees and it was sunny, it was perfect. It was one of the best weather day I've had all year personally. It was the first time I'd worn shorts all year, so if that means anything. But I saw the TV schedule I think was more accountable. I saw a lot of families, saw a lot of children at this game. That was a big deal. We talked about that at nauseum last week about the TV schedule and how uncomfortable it was for some of these people because you can't just bring small children to a game at 8:00 PM on a Sunday night. So that I think was a big factor in that as well. But overall, the feeling I get is that yes, there are some people I think that are aware of the history of the league from 2020, but I also think there's a lot of newcomers. There's people that are just now learning about this and understanding that this is back and B, this is a new iteration of the league. And so I think with that you're trying to combine all of this, all of these fan bases are these people who are coming at it from different angles and trying to get them all into the same page. I do think it was interesting that, again, I saw some people with renegade shirts, but I didn't see a lot of fanfare, a lot of paraphernalia in general unless people made their own custom stuff because again, there's no jerseys for sale. So I saw a lot of people wearing random jerseys. I saw Justin Herbert's jersey two times yesterday probably because it's just light, it's powder blue. I sorry, I didn't wear one. Hey, I didn't wear one. I thought about it, I didn't wear one, but I saw two people wearing that. I saw people wearing other teams jerseys. Obviously a lot of cowboy fans. Obviously there's a lot of people with other paraphernalia from other leagues, other leagues and other sports. So that was interesting to me and I think that's part of the aspect here is that maybe people can't show their full patriotism yet and that unless people had the jerseys from the last league, which some people do not, everyone does. And so that's another a factor in it as well. It's interesting. It was interesting to me to see how many combined fan bases from now and then the past three years were there. And I think it's still fluctuating to be honest. And that's maybe why there's not that solid number that people expected the second time Around. I think I have four accidental 20, 20 jersey. I think I have two authentic a replica. I think I, I kept going in the bag because I said this is going to be worse than Monday day. Paul's going to come back on the show in a couple weeks here. We'll get Paul Longform deep dive. But I do want to get your, Paul, your thoughts because we've obviously did the whole US F l, the attendance, your thoughts we're down, like I said here, 21% attendance figures, 64% tv. Is this better or worse than Birmingham? I mean, what did we expect here? I think just having fans in the stance has been so much better. It adds so much more life to the broadcast and really that's what both the U S F L and the X F L are primarily are broadcast products. And I do think even the small crowds that we've seen at Cashman Field, for instance, bring something, bring some life, bring another thing for the camera to focus on that adds to those broadcasts. So in front of the crowds, hands down way better. When you look at comparing these broadcast numbers, comparing the attendance, I dealt with the attendance a little bit earlier. I think the lack of lead time, we've seen that borne out in the attendance struggles in some places quite heavily. And I think that it, it's just that lead time of selling tickets, of selling yourself to the community that the X ffl. Unfortunately they didn't take full advantage of the time that they may have had there. Ratings. Oh, I was just going to say with the ratings in the three years, we've only seen more splintering in the media market and there's heavy competition right now with March Madness. So not surprised at all. Let's see what happens going forward here. The X ffl has taken some kind of different strategies to try to work around March Madness. Maybe next year they don't do those same things. Maybe not so much late Thursday games or Monday night games will, they're going to have to put an emphasis on those ratings. And so to a degree what we might be seeing is a strategy being tried out that just isn't working particularly well. I did not, I went to Gonzaga, did not realize, I mean I am so out of it right now. I'm like, I'm in xfl, I'm in Kraken. Turn on after, it was after the whatever, the Vipers game on Saturday turned on Gonzaga and it was the biggest ass whooping I've ever seen and I've seen our team take some ass whoopings in my time here. After I grabbed, I lived through Adam Morrison, I was watched the game, him crying on the floor. I saw the Adidas commercial, all that. I texted my buddies first. I said, I didn't realize the game was on. They said, how did you graduate from this school? And then I said, this is absolutely the biggest ask kick I've ever seen talking to ratings here. And we'll go to Andy. And then Paul Garcia and Johnson said, well, they know the numbers well, they know the numbers. They do not view the old version of the league as a fair measuring stick. I think it's not really apples to apples. Johnson said, however, we do keep an eye on these things and you have to again, quit asking us about before we don't want to talk about it. It's going to keep happening. I'm sorry, until they surpass the ratings. It's going to happen. It's going to say it's the same thing with U S F L. I mean it's the first iteration to the second iteration. I know there's a bigger gap in time for that and that circumstances have changed drastically since that point. But I still feel the same way about that. People still make those comparisons back and forth as if it's the same situation. It's the same scenario, it's the same expectations. I think that's just when people have that idea in their heads of this is what it was like last time, I think they're going to stick to that. That's just how it is. I do think it's important to keep that in mind when it comes to maybe the standard that the league could shoot for eventually. But as we've seen and just the feeling that I get just even from the game that I attended yesterday and from talking to my friend all weekend who I'm trying was trying to explain all the rules and all of the aspects of the league, which a lot of it he liked actually. He was really interested in the rules. He was very fascinated by the kickoff rule, the conversion attempts, the double pass. He absolutely loved the idea of the double pass and trying to convince people of the idea because there's still a lot of buildup, there's a lot of time being allocated to this slow ramp way, which was not the case last time that it was much more like bam, here it is Vince's idea, they're running full speed at immediately. And that was not the case here obviously. And we knew that going in and yet still, I think there's the expectation because of what it was like in three years ago. And by the way, I just want to say before I toss back to you don't crucify me, but at halftime I was actually paying more attention to March Madness myself because San Diego State has had a historic season. This is the best season in all of its history. They've never been to the lead eight and they had never been to the final four. I watched the last three minutes of the game against Creighton. It was terrifying. But my friend at one point were simultaneously watching that game on my phone and then half paying attention to the end of the half and the halftime because it was just so thrilling and it was a huge season. So yeah, that's the thing. Marsh Madis is going to be a huge distracting point too. I mean we all knew that we didn't get that answer last time. We had no idea because Marsh Madis didn't happen. So now you have that historical perspective now they can sort of work off those numbers. That was not the case last time. We're getting new research. Essentially we're we're going into Untreaded water, so it's really hard to base it off that as well. Well I think you and a friend of the show in that storm in bonnet, Tony, I think she was tweeting about San Diego say as well. I thought, oh man, she was watching Paul. We have the quote here. They're talking about the ratings distribution's important. It's one piece of an elegant puzzle that includes what we're doing digitally, who we're reaching, making traction, talking about digital engagement numbers. They're making traction and that's how we're winning called attention to the second half shift of the TV schedule. What do you make of that? I mean, again, at the end of the day, okay, digital impressions, they tweeted, I think it was last week, we had 400 million views on EXO related platforms. I thought, oh, are we included in that number? Exo, what do you make of this digital reach here that don't talk about TV ratings? And it's kind of a tough thing to quantify. You can throw out a number like 4 million, what does that really mean? Webpage views or whatever. It's kind of a soft metric to engage, to gauge interest, but eventually you need those soft metrics to become hard metrics, which are viewers, which are, the other piece that we haven't talked about is the streaming piece. Are there hundreds of thousands of people tuning in on s ESPN plus? Probably not. But is it driving some empl ESPN plus subscriptions, which is a hard number that S P N that Disney can look at and say, Hey, this is helping us. Those are the things that we don't know. So that can be both a soft and a hard thing, but to me the real proof is moving forward that it's enough of an encouragement to them that they are moving forward with all of this. Andy, they say here, we've been very much in the pocket of understanding of where our ratings would be. This was Danny. We understood the challenges that would happen all the way through week five and as we get to week six and the later half of the schedule, we knew where it would open up. So we're really pleased, really, really pleased. I and I believe God, was it in Mark's article today where he was sharing about this talking that obviously a shift more to the network games. Do you have anything to add to this? And then I think we finally have the quote here where the season's coming back. My first reaction was it was a bit of corporate speak, but I do think on one point that one of your contributors talked about, or you may have spoken with him last weekend and your podcast was about how Dwayne a few weeks ago, remember when Duane Johnson was talking about the ratings on fx, I think it was for the Seattle game, and he said, this isn't exactly where we want but we're building on this. It's kind of the same mentality here. I think that's been the permeating idea as opposed to the continuous sort of, I don't want to say cover up, but a lot of people who take those ratings and would say, no, these are great. Look, this is why these are great. And I don't think that that is the same idea here. This is not the idea of like, oh, these are fantastic for X, Y, Z reasons in this time slot at this time for whatever reason. I heard that explanation a million and a half times about a Friday night game on FS one last year. That's not the same. It's not the same. And I think that's something that is not, there's a little bit more grounded reality in that observation from Danny Garcia and Dwayne Johnson. So I'm glad that there's at least a little bit more there. There's a little bit more reality mixed in here with this observation and that's true. I think it's hard for fans to hear that or for people who are curious about the leagues, all long-term prospects to hear that because they look at the hard numbers as always referring to and just saying, well, but this is what it is. Isn't that a problem? And I get it, I understand that, but I agree with him as well. I wonder about the ESPN subscriptions. I will say this, I personally locked into it when the C Ffl season was around, cause I wanted to watch C F L football, I locked in the espn. That was the most efficient way for me to watch C Ffl games last year because it wasn't always on ESPN two or ESPN News of all things. So that is something that has to be accounted for. I don't know if I'll ever get those numbers. Obviously that's very much corporate knowledge, but that is something that has to be looked into. I agree. I don't know if either of you tracked the whole black Adam saga of it all, but I will say that there might be a reason why they're trying to be a little bit more transparent with the numbers they're sharing now. I think Duane got into a little bit of trouble with sharing some of the black Adam numbers that maybe were I, it was like they were projections, they were related to something else and shared. So I think they're a little bit more focused on that. Paul, any thoughts about the TV schedule opening up here? And I'm going to find this last quote. Well, with March Madness of course, which is exactly what she's referring to that without, with that out of the way, things open up a little bit and I think that the X ffl is facing the same thing that the U S F L did last year in that, because this is the first year, there are already some preexisting broadcast commitments for A B C, for p n, for ESPN N two that, so you've had this, they're trying to work around March Madness. They're trying to work around preexisting commitments, they're trying to work around venue availability. So okay, we're going to have Seattle on a cold Thursday night, so it's sometimes it's left. So I think things do begin to open up a little bit then with March Madness coming to a close and the league then has one of those variables taken out and so that they can standardize or at least optimize some of those broadcast options. Last quote here, this is kind of the big chunk. This will come out later as far as what these dates are, but we have our showcases, we have our future combine. We are planning our dates as said Danny Garcia, the first female owner of a major sports league. Remember Mike got nitpicky about the verbiage of that. I can't remember, it's like the first major professional sports league majority owned. Absolutely there will be a 2024 X F L football season. Johnson said they're passion for the league dates back to when we were married and we're doing the player 54 and all that stuff. Paul seeing that quote or I guess I'll go to Andy first cause we were just Andy seeing the quote, there will be a 2024 X F L season. We already have our days. Like Paul said, hopefully we can work around and not have Thursday night, six o'clock kickoff games at Lumen Field in Seattle is just throwing it out there. Random situations, but what do you make of this last chunk of quotes? So what Stonewall do we need to etch that into to make it permanent instead of it just because I think people will now hold that accountable, right? They're going to say, well, let's see if that actually happens. You can say it and it may not even happen. I'm sure AAF people, I'd have to go back and see if the AAF was talking about that too because I can't remember if they were even thinking about a season two at that point with all their financial misgivings. But no, I mean it's an affirmation and I think it's an expected affirmation. That's something that I, I'm not too surprised about in terms of, again, their long-term planning in terms of the fact that this ahead of them. I do think there's a lot more internal planning as far as what's going to be done as far as marketing you. Mike Mitchell came on a couple weeks ago and said that they'd spent what, $120,000 on marketing overall. So obviously that you would expect that number to go up or at least be adjusted in terms of attracting more people. One thing I do want to say before we move on, which I did notice a little bit which was interesting, and this is sort of again that more of long-term planning. I saw an advertisement at the stadium for the Frisco fighters, which is the indoor football league team. Now we all know that they have a partnership with the indoor football league in terms of player allotment and in terms of players having an opportunity to play in that league in case for whatever reasons they're not in the X ffl. I thought that was interesting. I hadn't seen an advertisement for another league while being at that league's game, so I thought that's obviously part of, again, the long term planning of getting these partnerships, getting these foundations in place and sort of digging their feet into the soil. But I think that again, the question is, all right, now, how much water are you going to put on the plant as we go into season two? That's really the biggest question, Paul. They say This isn't a one and done let's, let's not just trying to expand the portfolio, make a little money. This is a passion project. Anything else on this? And then we'll get to the three games and we'll talk to some comments here. Anything else on this that you want to share? It's what I like about the X ffl is that they seem to be getting out in front of this. This is the subtext of all the rating articles is that, ooh, how much longer can the league possibly go on and for them to get out in front of this and say, yeah, we anticipated it, we'll be back next year. Regardless of how things turn out, I think it's a very good move. Yeah, Jared says having local events in the markets, I will say, and I was, because again, whenever Vegas plays, you always get, and I get a lot of C F L people like, oh, the Vegas posse and they had all this and that was a million years ago, I don't think and whatever. If we want to look at this as a trial run season one or whatever, I do not think that they've gotten the juice was not worth a squeeze of what they could have potentially gotten in the local markets right now. Andy, you were at the Renegades game. I know and that was the most attended, but we're doing all this circus act of flying everybody and flying it back at 10 in the morning and all this kind of stuff. Have they gotten the full picture of what they could have out of this season within the markets? I mean I think they could have done more promotional value, but again, that's not where they allocated the money. I will say I understand the hub concept, I understand it in full force now being in DFW and seeing how easy it is to travel back and forth from Arlington, I totally get it. It clicked for me when I was traveling there from when I flew in and then when I was traveling around the greater Fort Worth area, which is massive and I think there's still a lot of more space for them to advertise and be able to allocate resources as saying, Hey, here are the Arlington Renegades, here's the hub of the X Ffl. You didn't really get the sense that that event was even happening until you approached the stadium. So that's, that's a big aspect of it I think. But again, that's not what they were going to do this season. That is not their end goal. Their end goal was get people to games, get teams to the games and get them there in one piece and have no hiccups along the way. Paul, we're talking here, ticket sales going up. Yeah, I thought it was good attendance. I'll be curious Audi Field tonight, just with the Monday night aspect of it, are you looking forward to seeing the ESPN two Monday night football game? Absolutely. I mean the atmosphere in DC has been tremendous and that that's kind of the additional layer that I think that the X F L has brought this year is that home game atmosphere has been really great and we've talked about how it probably could have been better. This is not an argument against the hub concept, but even things such as having mascots and cheer teams, which would be locally based units that could be out during the week and then maybe you fly AJ McCarran in or keep him an extra day so that he can attend some civic function. These are things that could be, you know, could stick with the hub concept and yet maximize kind of local impact and have these people out at local events and civic gatherings and parades and things just to continue to increase awareness of the team. Yeah, I saw, I think Houston some of the really good job with that. I think their team in terms of getting, okay, we're going to go to the mayor's office and I think they have a city hall event, but I agree and I talked with President Russ Brandon there at the Arlington event at where Andy was at Choctaw. I'm like, we're going to be in there early. We're going to be the first people in the last people out. We're really going to use this and I do think they're doing the best they can. I think getting a lot of these people on board back a little bit earlier this season, I think would approved dividends. I don't said this before, I don't understand the order of events of hiring certain people and why we wanted directors of team operation in August and social media people in January, but I think obviously going into next year, but I think they're learning you have to have more local presence than just day off. Okay, what can we squeeze in one radio appearance and then get into the game and then they're flying right out afterwards. It's just, it's hard and I get it's tremendous work. Can we buy a hotel room? Can we fly 'em in Friday night, do some stuff and do it that way? Is that how we can mitigate that? Andy, any other thoughts on this and we'll get to the games? No, I absolutely agree and that's the thing, I don't really remember there being any promotional events for the renegades themselves, even though they were playing a home game. People who showed up there were in the know of, well the teams existed and they played a couple games here. It was interesting just overhearing people's general confusion of how many home games do they have left? Wait, how long has this been going on for that we spend so much time in this space, so locked in that it's interesting when you start getting into that open space and realizing, oh, there's people who are not clearly as up to date or up to speed with all of this and I don't expect them to, honestly, again, this is an effort to be as involved with this as we have been and it's, I think a lot of that has to do with promotional material or lack thereof in terms of general knowledge of what's going on in terms of the players, in terms of the coaches, in terms of the overall mantra of the league. Again, it being new, but I can tell that there's definitely still some general catching up from the public that's going on here, so that's still really fascinating to me and I think that will come with time. But I agree with you. They need to make sure that they lock in and do a lot of work in the off season. The off season is absolutely crucial for them to continue this momentum and they to can't just shut it down. They can't close the laptops after May 13th and be like, all right, that's it. No, they have to continue working at this because this is a long-term process. They're serious about keeping this league around. They have to do their work in the off-season. I know they will from a scouting standpoint, but from a promotional standpoint and community building standpoint, they must and they absolutely have to. Yeah, us f l I think really suffered from that. I mean now it was like the second they showed back up at camp last week like, okay, we're tweeting, we're here, we're here, we're here, we're here. I thought they really falter there. In the meantime, let's go to the games here. We have three games obviously. We have the Monday night game tonight, Paul, you're kind of walking into a lovers spat between Andy and I, so I'm going to give you the floor first and then we'll toss to Andy, but I want to make sure you get what you have to say on this. We had the thrilling 15 to nine defensive scoring winning promise here against the Reneg against Paul. What did you make of this? And then Andy, you will have the floor. I promise. The question that you come out of this game is how can a Bob Stoops coach team be struggling this much offensively, as you know, have an experienced quarterback in Kyle. Doesn't matter who you put in, whether it's PLA or Slowder, they can't move the team consistently and they certainly can't score. It's kind of mind boggling to me. San Antonio, if you bring anything out of this game, okay, San Antonio, yes, they salvage their season for at least another week or two, but at least they can say, Hey, maybe if we get Kurt Banertt sometime maybe something happens. What do you see if you're Arlington, you've tried pli, you've tried, what are you going to do next? You, you're, you're going to have to rely on your defense and your defense is probably going to have to score. You got Kevin and Bob Stoops, has Kevin Anderson there sit in the third quarterback? I don't know why we haven't seen that. Andy, let's get into this. I don't even know what you want to get into. So Andy's taken off. Shannon has taken off classes. Andy's going Foleo Here. All right, listen here, Marie, I got to defend my guy, Ben. Kurt, he's, I get it. I get not the greatest outing by him or by, I understand, but listen, these is my guy, the Ben Kurt is I, I've loved him from day one. I've always been in his camp. I've always been in his, one of the funniest guys I've ever seen on social media from a player's standpoint. He denounces, Mike Flore left and which is one of my favorite online battles ever. I look, I get it, I understand you have your qualms with him, you have your quibb bulls with Mr. Br, Ben, Kurt, but I love this guy. I absolutely love him. I am blindly in love with him. Former Packer legend, Kurt, I, I've, I've Reid, you and I usually get along pretty amicably, but I'll tell you what, there was points where I wish I could have drawn out a sword yesterday when I was at, talked to Stadia with you going off on him while I was just mercilessly sitting there and trying not to say anything And all of that affable social media attention and all of his followers equated the one of six for two yards. That was a tremendous alley. This is my thing and I've said, I just wanted to make sure because I do think that the anti Kurt God cur, or I think I'll call 'em God, what is it, Kurt? So it's God, God, Kurt, no God, Ben bang, Kurt God cur. Does that make sense? I think this will permeate here. This is going to be an online storyline now, right? I'm feeding with Marshall Ferguson. This is, here's my problem with Kurt. Kurt was in assigned to the teams, the official like Exel post, we're assigning Kurt to the roughnecks. He's going to be here, we're going to do all that stuff. This wasn't like Mike Mitchell. Okay, I'm hearing the da da da. This is the X ffl, whatever. Kurt decided he didn't want to do it. He wanted to be with his family. He was done playing football off the X F L, whatever. So he posts, I don't know what the deal is with these reports. I'm going to be with my family. Sometimes there's more things more important than football. That's fine. But this the league, the league posted this wasn't a err account. So then he comes out now they're struggling. He comes back in. Juwan Pass has been on the team since day one, assigned quarterback has gone through, lived in Arlington, lived through the Arlington ice storm. Everything else is the starting quarterback of the game. It goes eight to 1457 yards, not great. Why does Kurt get credited with the win for this game? Paul, when has a starting quarterback not been credited with the win ever in the history of football? Well, I guess Banker was handing off late in the game, so he's like the closer, right? But then he's the game. He finished things up. I don't like this. I don't like that. Kurt got the post ESPN game slot. I tweeted about it. I'm a Kurt fan. I think Kurt's a great guy. You Don't sound like a Kurt fan. Well, he's never been a Kurt fan. I've Never been a Kurt fan from the second I learned about him earlier this year. But no, that, that's my thing is I stand when you earn my loyalty, like Andy, I would walk into traffic for you. I would defend you, but when you come out there, I don't want to deal with this ex f l. They're saying I'm part of this team. I don't even want to be, okay, then you're out. Right? Ask Mark Perry how that feels like you're out of the fold. Okay? You want to be in the fold, you want to be out of the fold. Current is out of the fold right now. Kurt needs to work his way back in and in the postgame like, well, they called me up and I said, well, what's the deal? What's going on? Yeah, please, You've seen Jack comb play, right? I have and that's fine. I, Kurt might be a better quarterback that that's not the debate we're having here, but the debate is Kurt did play like crap. Kurt should not have gotten the post-game press conference. Jujuan passed has been on that team since the beginning and I just wish that he had a little more recognition for the time that he's put up. I agree with the last thing you said. Okay, Andy, anything else on that? And then we can talk about the game. I will just say his knee downs are legendary, so I got to say he knows how they're run a good victory formation, but yeah, I'm going to disengage here. But listen, I will say this watching now that we've watched what four different quarterbacks for the San Antonio, if you combine all four of them, do you get a halfway decent quarterback? I'm sorry, this has been a miserable operation. I feel bad for HS Ward. This has been awful. This has been awful to watch as far as their operation, they can't, well, they were able to yesterday. I mean Jock Patrick finally was able to do some things, but before that they were having a miserable time running the ball and I can't understand how they're not able to use their receivers. That's the most baffling part to me. They have these tall, lengthy receivers that they can throw to now they don't have a lot of speed on the perimeter, but they at least have, they least have some maneuverability as far as throwing vertically. But man, seeing Jajuan pass just sky that end zone fade, I believe it's in the second quarter and you heard Heins Ward just be like, man, you overthrew it. All right, send out the field goal. He's just almost resigned to dealing with this problem now. And it's funny, you said Paul, about how the renegades needed to score a defensive touchdown, be in games. Well, that's exactly what San Antonio did, and that's exactly the difference is that they had a defensive touchdown Also, this will be in my takeaways article, really the best player on offense for San Antonio is John Parker Romo. He's having an amazing season. He was money yesterday, just absolutely cool as a cucumber and he was fantastic. But that can't be your saving grace on offense if your kicker's the best player and the most productive player on your offense. So this, it's really unfortunate. It's, it's really kind of just baffling that it's not at least been a little bit better. They had that one breakout game against the guardians, but since then it's just been absolutely miserable and they'll just continue to go through this carousel until either it gets better or it's just going to stay the same way the rest of the season. Yeah. Cole KU Black, who I think is come, I think is coming on the show next week. I think he's asking because Parker Romeo's wife was in the crowd. So you just had a gender feel like what was more exciting watching him kick a field goal or the gender reveal for your child really putting her on the spot there. Cole Paul? Yeah, just the Heinz Ward. They were asking him, okay, what's the deal with the quarterbacks? And he's like, we're looking for a spark. I mean, Bob STOs was looking for the, is this elusive spark for the Southern division teams? What is going on with this San Antonio offense? And then that's what you look for with Banertt. I mean that's really the deal. Yeah, one of six two yards. That's nothing to write home about, but it's what could be possible going forward On the other side, Hey, we've tried both guys. It's just not working and here at least it's an option. This is a guy that the X Ffl wanted on the field from day one, and now they've got him. He's going to have to learn a lot and he's going to have to produce really fast, but it's at least something that we haven't seen. We've seen Jack Comb, we've seen how he's struggled back there. That's not working. The backup now is not an option because he has a broken foot. Johan pass, the passing seems to be something that he's going to have to work on, but bankers at least a possibility going forward. So if you look at both of these teams and there's not a whole lot of difference, as Andy mentioned between these teams. Defense first absolutely have struggled on offense, but bankers kind of the question mark, can they get something out of him over this last stretch? Well, he's such a genius that he didn't even need time to look. He knew the playbook. It was so simple. Immediately he was able to just to walk in. He was building sandcastles on whether, I just don't like this fawning. I just X ffl. What have we said on here? Like X F L? They're better than no player. We're not paying up. Okay, we gave Brett Huntley a little bit of money, but we don't need to pay up for anybody, but oh, we got to get the postgame with Kurt ne. I just don't like that. I wish the X ffl, it was like the WWE E back in the day when WWE E would have, and I don't want to get political, but like, oh, we're doing the cash giveaway. Donald Trump's going to be on the show. Oh, Donald, we love you. Or David, our Arz is going to be our be on the show. Oh, David, tell us about your time at W C W. I think X F L can carry themselves better. Do you understand what I'm saying? You're the rock. Damn. You don't need the f. You care about Kurt Banker here. I mean, promote some other stuff. Alright, let's go here. I think we've exhausted that rousing game here. We had, and I did watch this game in full, one of the first full games of the X season and I was able to watch Paul, any thoughts here on the absolute trance scene of the Vegas Vipers at home against the Battle Hawks? Well, after the Vipers get their first win, just look like a team that should have still been Winless J almost no defense. It's tempting to say it's attempting to point out their offensive line, but you really have to save those criticisms for Orlando. They've got a lot of bad stuff going on there and I think that Woods, rod Woodson is still kind of learning the head coaching position as well. Lu Perez numbers, he threw a couple interceptions. The second one, he's trying to make something happen and he had been absolutely brutalized on that drive, so I don't lay a whole lot at his feet solely anyway. Hunley may be their best option going forward, but Perez has acquitted himself fairly well behind a really shaky offensive line. Andy, you love Lu Perez maybe more than I do. How did you think the Vipers fared here? I be sure the Orlando guardians didn't swap bodies with them because it certainly looked like during this game, but look, I said this again last week about Luis Perez. It was almost due time that he was going to turn back into a pumpkin because that's what happens every time. He'll have an outstanding performance, he'll play well for two weeks and then suddenly boom. It's like he turns into another person and he has a four performance. And then Brett Huntley, once again, mystery to us all does play well, fairly well. In his limited time, I, I'm kind of surprised he wasn't starting to game to be honest or at least didn't have more playing time. It's just kind, again, it's just this rotating door at quarterback for the Vipers. But yeah, just absolutely listless performance by them. It was, and we only get one more game of catch would field. You have one more maybe then it's gone forever because it's just, again, that's another operation that is just not working, period. It's really not as far as the Be Hawks go look, Adrian McCarran, he's your MVP front runner. He's, he's been outstanding this season. He's completing almost 68% of his passes. He was outstanding in this game. He is hitting Oliver's receivers even if when Hakeem Butler's not available now, Darius Shepherd, friend of the show, of your show, Darius Shepherd has been outstanding. They've been able to just utilize all their weapons on offense. They're running the ball consistently. They just seem like one of the most consistent operations in the league. I would say from week to week, you pretty much know what you're getting with the Battle hawks. It's a lot of good effort. It's a lot of consistent effort on offense. It's a solid defense that's going to get you turnovers, which they did in this game. I really think that the St. Louis Battle hawks are really the most consistent operation in the league, and a lot of that has to do with Agent McCarran. He has been outstanding. Even when he has a pick or a fumble at any point in the season, he is unflappable. He doesn't really get affected by it too much. He sort of has amnesia. I think that has a lot to, with his veteran experience, especially being so long in the N F L and knowing how to measure himself against other players. This has been really good for the Sea St. Louis and they needed this bounce back after that demoralizing loss of the dc. They needed to bounce back and especially with the Sea Dragons winning, they have to keep pace and a very contentious North division Is enough made that there's a Rod Smith on the Vegas team. Did I, I'm just kind of looking at the satellite here. If I was Rod, I would utilize that a little bit. The other thing from this game, and I want to make sure we talk about it because I know that there were calm issues. I think there was a little bit of calm issues in the Arlington game as well, or was it was the there or the Orlando game? One of the other games. But this was the big comms game where AJ McCarran was hearing. He says he was hearing his defensive coach, which I don't know why the defensive coach would be talking while they're driving down. There were articles written that he was hearing the defensive calls, which I do not think would be possible. Paul, any thoughts on that? The AJ McCarran was able to script his own plays down the field, hearing the other teams opposing calls the whole time. It sure looked like he knew what was coming because he completed 19 in a row. He was lights out there for a while and building on McCarran. I mean, he's a guy with big game experience in college. He's been with an N F L team and you just see that unflappability that I'm going to turn the ball over every once in a while because I'm a quarterback, but I'm just going to bounce back and continue on with the next drive. Absolutely agree with Andy that outside of DC this is the most poised, consistent unit in the league. I that I don't know. I wish the storyline, I don't know. It was confusing to me and I know that, I think it was Brandon that was in the postgame that was asking about that in terms of the comms and stuff, you need to get that figured out. Oh, it was because it was the ABC game. It was one we'll talking about here too that we didn't have the comms for the whole first half that we couldn't hear on the TV broadcast. Yeah. Andy, I mean aj, I think we've talked about this, I know Pat was on last week talking that like AJ is more just playing for the love of the game and not like, oh my God, if I do not complete this pass, I'm never going to make it back to the N F L, which is a little bit more. Do you think that just gives him more calm and is that something we need to think about here moving forward in the future of balancing the guys that want to get a shot versus the ones? Yeah, like Brandon Silvers, Brandon Silvers is happy playing golf and sitting in his truck and doing interviews on the mark cast and being in the X F L right now. I think it's from the players and it's from obviously AJ McCarran. But again, I go back to that quote about Anthony Becks talking about how if all the players went to the NFL next year, he would be happy. But again, getting the players to buy into now and being able to be a part of this experience is incredibly important. And I truly believe that's what the Battle Hawks are doing here. They seem to be bought in every single week. The game plans are always usually exquisite, especially on the offensive side, even if they don't always go correctly, I think that they're always very well prepared and I think that has a lot to do with the players being all on the same page. AJ for sure, he seems to not playing for this league. He's obviously playing for his family. He's playing in front of his kids, his wife. He's being able to have another opportunity to really showcase his talents and whether he goes back to the nfl, I'm not sure if he's overly concerned about that. Would that be nice? Sure. But I think he's having an absolute blast playing right now, and that's something that can't be lost on a lot of people is just the fact that these players are able to get out there again, they're able to do something, they're able to have an impact in a game which they may not have had in quite some time. Obviously that was the case with your interview with Jeff Bette really stood out to me last week. Him just being healthy, just being able to play the game again. I mean, I'm sure he would love to get back to the NFL to get his first catch, but that I think right now he's so solely focused on being a part of this organization with Vegas. He's able to be able to just play, just do something that he loves. Two things. Yeah, two takeaways from the Jeb Bette interview really wants to be healthy and absolutely hated his time in the US F l. That was the two big takeaways I had from that. We're going to talk about the last game I did. I forgot to mention this. I did have a funny joke talking about the Bravos. I want to figure out some sort of be, I'm going to get this stat line tattooed somewhere on my body, this, we'll figure out the bet here, but I want to get the Kurt Banker, one of six for two yards. Which one? Pass above it here for that. No, Andy, Andy's shaking his head. I'm going to pull up the game stats for this Paul. It got a little precarious here. I was split screening the Krakens seven two win over the National Predators. Were eight points above them. Fourth in the Pacific right now in our wild colored spot. But I was also watching the Dragons almost very much lose to the Orlando guardian. So do you think that that was going to be possible? No. And the reason is Orlando, Orlando looks way better with Doba Day at quarterback. I mean, there's no doubt about that, but to me, when you look at the Orlando guardians, their offensive line and their defensive line look like they are so far behind the competition that they practically give Orlando no chance to win most days. The number of false starts in holding penalties alone on that offensive line is simply staggering. If Dormy shows anything, it's that he knows he has to get the ball out of his hand fast, and that I think is where he's succeeding. Where Paxton Lynch didn't have terrible numbers, but he just would hold onto the ball too long behind that offensive line. On the other side of the ball. We saw Orlando get some pressure occasionally on the Seattle on Ucci in the first half. That all dried up in the second half he had forever back there and if he can make some better decisions with the football, Seattle is going to be tough to stop down the stretch. Andy, I think in our group chat we've said basically Ucci is, I don't laugh, UCCI is throwing away his N F L chances at any time he passes the ball. I mean it's really getting to that point. I don't want to be too harsh on friend of the show. Ben Deci here, boy, what do you make of Gucci's performance? I think he's just doing it just to see how much further away he can get it with the haslet because I think that's still the ongoing battle of how many turnover's going to get before Haslet throws me under the bus. But I think, no, it's odd that he turns it over at such a high frequency and as Paul mentioned, I mean he had all day to throw in the second half and he still was not as consistent as you may have expected with that kind of protection in front of him. I mean this offense is, it's all there for him. The the skill position players, the offense line, the play calling, everything is there for him to be tremendously successful. And while yes, he is leading the league in passing yardage, it's still not maybe to the degree that other people were expecting at this point. And certainly I would think that he would have better numbers because of that. And to go back to a little bit to the guardians, yeah, look, you can have more consistent play from Normy. That's great. You run the ball with a lot more frequency. That's fantastic. You have two punts blocked in one game, that's inexcusable. You can't have that. Absolutely not horrendous special team scs. They finally were able to get a pick off off of Ucci in the second quarter. That was their first turnover created since week one. They're not getting any turnovers. That's a huge detriment to your operation if you're not able to get any sort of pressure or any sort of turnovers. You can't create opportunities for your offense and that is a huge, huge thorn in their side. And yeah, of course it's been well documented. They're offensive line. It's unwatchable honestly it's unbelievable. It's iho how many penalties they get, how poorly they protect their quarterbacks. I feel bad for doorman now because I think he's actually, as Paul mentioned, he's doing the correct thing. He's getting rid of the ball quickly. But at that point you can start to key in on those receivers if you know that they have no time to develop their routes, you can just play everything underneath. So it's the same tale. We have to really start considering whether Orlando's going to win a game and I can't believe we finally got to this point, but we really need to start thinking about that because it's not looking good. Paul ask you about that. And then I have a follow up about Ucci. I first week of the season I said, are the guardians worse than the U US F L modelers? And Paul, I was by people laughed at my face, they said, absolutely not. The mallers are the worst he that's ever been in the history of all football. I ask you the question now, Paul, who is worse? The US L modelers under Kirby Wilson or the Orlando guardians under coach Rob Buckley. I'm still going to go with the Mallers. Even when they found something with VAD Lee leading for leading the team for a win, it was all of a sudden he was tossed on the curb within a week. That was a bizarre operation and I was really critical of Terrell Buckley as a head coach in the early going. I thought that he was throwing his team under the bus. I thought that he was kind of losing emotional control a little bit on the sideline and I've been a little bit more impressed with him going forward. I still think his lines are awful and the special teams play there. As Andy mentioned, no excuse for what happened there, but I think that he showed some self-awareness and realized that he was overly critical to begin with and he's turned that around a little bit and just having the guts to make the call and we need to sit packed and Lynch and we need to go back to Dormy, which could have been disastrous given the history with Dormy and the allegations against him. That could have been, I mean awful. And yet they have managed to play despite two terrible lines, they've managed to play two consecutive competitive games. Gives you a little bit of hope, but they've got to get those lines figured out. The turnovers are a direct consequence of inconsistent to no pressure on the quarterback and their offensive line play puts them behind the down and distance markers time and time again and they just cannot survive that. And actually I wanted to say real quick going off what you were saying about not having Pax and Lynch in the game, they didn't even activate him. And same with Quintin Flowers. That was a really interesting move we discussed in our group before the game started. It was just the fact that that was such a line in the sand that was drawn by Buckley saying, no, we're going to stick with Domany and Francois and that's the end of the story. Not this merry-go-round of three or four different guys. Let's see which one works out. He clearly threw his way behind Domany. We'll continue to do it forward. We'll see, but and for my money has looked the best out of all of them and he looked fantastic in Vegas. He had really kind of almost an immaculate game. People didn't want to talk about it because it's the guardians that are winless, but he was outstanding in that game and I think he would've had better numbers here again if his offensive line just gave him more than two seconds to get rid of the ball, which we could talk about it as well as I think across the league there's some really inconsistent lines. I saw a lot of bad line play yesterday in Arlington between them and San Antonio, so they're not too far ahead of Orlando, but Orlando is definitely the gold standard of poor line play so far. Yeah, if you know anything about the ENT domany situation, him being on the roster just with Fran law here, going into the game is interesting to be sure. That's the thing for me and we'll wrap up here. Andy and Paul got timeout. Sir, I appreciate you guys' time this morning. The thought that Quintin Domany has gone through all he's gone through this year and it's still coming. That's why when I talk with players on the show, I'm always so appreciative because I'm like, you hear you're coming off of practice or you just got out of the shower and you got to go eat and you're trying to go lift or you're like, you're doing all this stuff and the thing that Dormy has, hiring a lawyer and dealing with all this stuff and talking with the X F L and talking with the team and has played as well as he have is just a testament. Paul, anything else on Domany? The Russ Brandon made a comment in Orlando during a press conference that the X F L was going to be kind of this player first league and I think they really showed it in the dormy situation. That is not old school football, old school football as we cut you, we cut you for any reason and there is no recourse. And yet Dormy was able to air his case before the league. They found that yeah, this was unjustified and they reinstated him and that could have created a very tense, uncomfortable situation in Orlando. Let's get him out of town, let's trade him. Full props to Buckley for realizing, you know what, he's back on the team. He's our best chance. I'm putting them in. We also, and I think we see a little some shades of what Brandon said too with the bant situation where he's not going to Houston, he doesn't want to be there for whatever reason, but we want him in the league. How can we make this happen? And that's what they did. The last question I had and then we'll get out of here. We were talking Ucci, we had a comment about him. We have a prime example needing more than the year. I think Ucci came in and thought, I'm going to run circles around this. I'm going to be out of here. I played for the Cowboys, I'm good. This is the X F L. Maybe more challenging than Ucci thought. Is he not as good as he thought? How do you read that Andy? And I mean I don't see DeNucci walking back on next year. I mean does he come back to the X ffl? Is this kind of one and done for him? What do you make of just that player mentality? I think he needs another year. Honestly. I think he still needs another year to play and develop because there is something there. His arm strength at times, he's made some very impressive throws and I think he's been able to work really well with a really good receiver skillset. Obviously Jort leading the league in receptions and yards. That's fantastic. Josh Gordon has disappeared a little bit, but he's utilized him pretty well and I think this has been a pretty nice, a little set for him to use. But he just needs another year. He needs time to develop. He needs more reps, he needs more practice. He needs to be able to not just fold or just fall into these bad habits that he has. I mean that game you went to against Houston, I mean that was awful that those three interceptions were terrible and if he had thrown those, I think they would've blown Houston out of the building. So that's something that he has to work on personally and that's not going to show well on the tape. Obviously when he goes in the camps and everyone says, well what about this, what happened here? And that's going to be a talking point for a lot of teams. So I still think he needs to develop a little bit more. I do think he has the talent. I think he's actually fully capable of being a serviceable quarterback. He just needs to get over these terrible habits, which look sometimes that takes a while to iron out of your game. I'm sure. I'm sure there are plenty of quarterbacks like AJ McCarran probably would've been the same way eight years ago. I think he could have been the same way in that vein. So it takes time with some of these guys longer than maybe others expect. Well, I really appreciate everyone's time today. Just a reminder like and subscribe, trying to get up to 3,500 subscribers, big show Friday. I have Austin Carp coming on from the Sports Business Journal. We're going to, he did a big TV ratings analysis like last week and we can talk here about X F L returning, kind of get his thoughts on that. We have Eric McLane coming on, he's one of the sideline reporters as well as Greg Parks with X F L board joining us. And then I have Paul Woods, another Paul joining us, Paul's at Argos historian. Paul was just down in Birmingham talking with Macau, Bethel Thompson and kind of all of that. So we'll talk about the transition from the C F L to the U S F L, everything else with that. And I got an email about some player interviews today. Paul Reese, I appreciate you joining us. Anything else from you today? R sports central.com, stats crew.com. Anything else you wanted to say before you get out of here? I appreciate you hopping on, We talked about a lot about the improvements that the six teams that have already played could make. What we didn't talk about is tonight's game and there's two really, really good teams solid on both sides of the ball. So it feels like it was a little bit, here's how these teams are improved, here's the weaknesses, but we have the two best teams in the league facing off tonight. Lot of strengths on both of those teams. Andy, are you looking forward to, did you and I don't know, Paul, I enjoy my branded silvers interview. I hope people enjoy that. Andy, are you excited to see the Spring League gun slinger here tonight going into Audi Field? I am. I think Houston may get into a little bit of trouble with this DC team. Look, this DC operation is, as Paul mentioned earlier, is the most consistent operation in the entire league. They just know how to finish games. When they get a lead in the second half, they put their foot on your throat and they pound you into submission. And I think for Houston, look, John Kirkland is a huge weapon. That's a big mist for them to have that injury with him and heavy out in the rest of the season, they have to find a way to replace that production. Now maybe Justin Smith comes in, does a great job, Deontay, burette steps up. All the other receivers come in and contribute. But I think it's going to take some adjustments and AJ Smith is going to have to find a way to adjust around that as well. Maybe even running the ball a little bit more consistently. I know they don't like to do that, not offense, but they might have to. Especially going down the stretch. This might be a little bit of a rough stretch for the roughnecks because DC is firing on all cylinders. They're playing at home. The beer snake is undefeated. That's the last historical streak can play here. The beer snake is undefeated and maybe Houston can spoil that party, but I think it's going to be another coordination for the defenders. I am looking forward to the game, but it's going to be really interesting tonight. Yeah, I mean, Seattle killed Houston when it came to the turnover battles and everything else here at Louisville. I'm like, what the hell are, what is DC going to do if Seattle did that? Paul give you last words and then we'll get out of here. I appreciate you guys and this was a fun one today I got to yell about Kurt Ben and I got to talk about X Ffl season too successful day here. Really have really enjoyed this X ffl season. The close games compelling. The pace of play has been really good. We're looking at some offensive improvements going down the stretch with a lot of teams, but we have two great teams facing off tonight. I'm really, really looking forward to seeing how this unfolds over the final month of the season. Let's going to be good. Thank you guys. Appreciate everyone checking it out today. We got a little breaking news and it's good. I'm like, I like this Monday morning if anything comes out, but I appreciate Andy, as always, we'll see you guys next time. Thanks again.

Episode 137 - XFL 2023 TV Ratings: Is This Fine?

Coming up this week on the markcast. Oh my God, the sky is falling. The sky is falling. Depending on who you talk to here, X ffl ratings are plummeting, cratering declining. I have seen more articles and I can count this week. A lot of them shared by our friends to the North Up Canada. We are here XFL 2023, week six. We've made it halfway through the XFL season. Just not good enough. We're up against March Madness now. Ratings are terrible. The with the end is ni. Everything else. ESPN supposedly we're happy with everything. So today on the podcast this week we are asking the question, you've already seen the meme xfl. Is this fine? This is fine. I'm okay with the events that are unfolding currently. I've already tweeted this is an all-time episode this week. First and foremost, from ESPN and Ex Ffl Sidelines, we have Stormy Bonnet. Tony joining us, stormy all in on the X F L season. Love getting her Inside perspective here. Storylines of the season. She's covering the big Monday night game this week. Roughneck at Defenders. What does Stormy think of all this? When you talk to a lot of the players at, or at least that I have throughout the course of the season, they genuinely feel a connection to ownership where I'm not sure that that's been the case in previous iterations. And they feel heard. They feel seen. They are so fortunate for every opportunity, like every week that I'm doing the one-on-one phone calls with these players, they're just over the moon appreciative to be talking to us, to be sharing their stories, to be having more eyeballs on them. It's been really cool. And Then two fantastic XFL player interviews this week, courtesy of the league. If you're a fan of the Houston Roughnecks XFL 2023, you're going to want to hear from this man. If you are a fan of the X Ffl Dragons back in 2020, you are also going to want to hear from this man. But especially if you are a fan and listener of this podcast, you are going to want to hear from this man, Brandon Silvers, formerly known as Chase and Nick on our podcast to bachelorette fame. Brandon Silvers joining the show. How the heck are you? I Just wanted to get back playing football the way I knew I could and being in the system that fits me and not just some random deal. So for me right now, it's just playing in this system and having fun with the guys and scoring a ton of points, which we are right now and then winning games. I know that for me that's just my goal. My goal was just to win games and play good football and we'll see what happens next. And then so glad the Vipers set this up. Jeff Bette here, a wide receiver coming off a huge weekend last week with our friend of the show, Louise Perez talking with Jeff Bette, the no longer Winless Vipers. We're checking in, seeing how he's doing going into The season. I had no expectation on stats, no anything about that. My only goal this year was just to be available for 10 games. That's literally, cause I know if I'm available, I'm able to sky's the limit for me. I can go out and make as much plays as I want to. So I just want to continue to to build and just continue to build. That's all I want to do. And then we're going to take this head on. We've got the XFL ratings, the poo poo ratings, cratering ratings, the end of the world. This year we bring on Andrew Buckholtz of awful announcing. I wanted to get a sports reporter's thought, not that I don't value the opinions of Twitter, but I wanted to get a sports reporters' thoughts. How is the X L faring this season? Is this fine? I Do think in general TV executives and league executives are maybe higher on the audience for these alternative football leagues than the actual public is at this point. But that's the thing that can change. That's the thing that can change with Time. And then Cody man of established the Run joins us full X ffl 2023, week six preview. Cody has just a genius brain when it comes to all of this fantasy dfs, everything else dying to get Cody's thoughts. And from my perspective, if we can sit down, know the players that are playing each Saturday or Sunday or Thursday as it may be in some cases and can have a little bit of action on the game and a little bit of sweat equity, that's perfect. So ratings aside, everything else, aside from fantasy and gambling perspective, it's been a really good product for us. And then who had prop best for us speaking with a sitting senator on the podcast? Can you believe it? Canadian C F L football fans. You don't want to miss this. And even if you're American alt football fan, you do not want to miss this. Larry Smith, former commissioner of the C F L now in inducting to the Canadian Football Hall of Fame, he was the one that oversaw the American expansion of the C F L back in the nineties, sitting down with the senator. I really appreciate his time. You do not want to miss it. I told you it was a good one. Hope you enjoy. Hey guys, welcome to the Mark Cast. Read here the BLE video you just listened to was probably already five minutes. I am tremendously excited for this episode today. If you could not tell, tweet it out. You know, all time this is going to be I think an all time fan favorite with the guest list that we have assembled. That's the joy kind of I get from all this is like who can we get? Oh my god, we got Larry Smith, we got a senator on here, we got Stormy from espn. You know, Brandon and Jeff and everybody else. I really appreciate you guys all taking part in the journey with me. Should be a good show this week. Like I said, off the top, stormy Bonna. Tony joining us from e s espn. I like getting, yeah, I was telling Dorothy this the other day. I like talking to the ESPN people because they're doing the show and they're on the sidelines and all that, but I love unscripted 20 minutes. How the heck are you feeling about the season? Are we excited about this? What do you think of the quality and all that? Really appreciate Stormy sitting down. Big special thanks to the Houston roughnecks and the Vegas wipers. Jeff Bette was a pleasure. I never know getting players on if I haven't really interacted with them before. I bet Jeff was a delight. Really appreciate that. And like I said, I have waited three years to talk to Brandon Silvers on the podcast a long time. Listeners know that back in the day they pushed back the season. We didn't have Spring League or anything yet. Paul and I had nothing to talk about on here. We literally tasted Z flavors and talked about old episodes of The Bachelorette where there was a contestant chasing Nick that kind of looked like Brandon Silvers. I'll probably put the side by side up here somewhere in the episode. But we started the podcast, they pushed everything back. We didn't want to go away or do anything else. Pushing out episodes every week. And Brandon Silvers unbeknownst to him, I think at the time, really got us through some hard times. So really appreciate that. And then of course Andrew Buckholtz over at Alpha announcing, I appreciate just the outside perspective. We live in this X F L US F L thing every day. Appreciate someone outside as a sports reporter. What do you make of all that? And then Cody may just brainiac, like I said, all those guys, the dfs, everyone that over at established the run, really appreciate that. And then Larry Smith, what do you know? We got a senator on the pod. Hi, definitely highest ranking official we've ever had on former C F L Commissioner. And like I said, even if you're not a C F L fan, check out Larry's interview. He was the one that oversaw all the expansion back in the nineties, the Baltimore stallions and all of that. So yeah, check out Larry's interview. You're really going to want to hear what he has to say. His thoughts on expansion nowadays with this, the C F L B doing now. Larry knows SH Pop, who's over at the US L See we're all connected on here. So check out Larry's interview. Banner is rolling, don't forget like it subscribe. We hit 3,500 subscribers, two tickets to either the X F L or US F L championship game. I'm going to get the heck out of here. Please enjoy the interviews. I really, really, really hope you enjoy the show this week. I'll check back in at the end. Thanks. Well, we're continuing our trend here, bringing on our parade of ESPN honor talent. We have Stormy Bonna Tony here. I was so worried I messed up the stormy the first time. How are you doing? No, that's perfect. I'm great. Honestly, my name is a mouthful, so I'm very, very impressed that you took the time to find a video that had my name being said. There's so many vowels going on, so I'm doing great though. How are you? It's good. We're excited here. We're midway x ffl and we'll talk about lots of stuff today. You were coming off of the loss, I guess the traumatic loss and the battle dome with the battle hawks and now we're getting ready for the Monday night football. How is the X F L treating you so far? How do you feel about everything? Dude, it's been a blast and obviously following and covering the league the way you do that for a reason, it's actually interesting and these games have been super fun. I keep telling my bosses, I'm going to be so bored when we have to go back to regular college football and the standard way of broadcasting because this has been so cool. If I have a question, even if it's not something where I'm going to go do a live interview with a player or coach, if I just have a question about anything, I'm watching the whole game from the bench area and I just go straight up to the coordinator and ask, Hey, you're getting Gased in the run game right here. What can you do to fix it? And so it's just so unique. It's so cool. I love it for the viewer especially getting to listen in on the officiating. I think that's a really, really unique part of what the X ffl does. But it's been a blast. I absolutely love it. I feel like every time I leave a game, I go to the production truck to say goodbye to everybody who helped the game go. And you cannot wipe the smile off my face because we're having so much fun. And I'm very fortunate to have a really good crew for these games too. When you got brought in, when they're like, Hey, you're going to be part of this crew here, coming up with thoughts. I mean, did you know 2020? Did we follow? What was your thought process? I had watched it from afar as a fan just because it's unique and it's different and I was very curious to know what it was all about. But now being a part of it is obviously such a different animal and such a different experience. And I think that under the new ownership that they have with Danny Garcia and Dwayne Johnson, they've done a really good job of personally connecting with the players and branding and getting more people excited about the league that I truly, I genuinely have a belief that this is the time, this is the iteration that the X F L is going to stick and that it's going to last and that it's really going to be one of those more developmental leagues that I feel like the N F L is hungry for and wants. And so it would be awesome for that to be the case. And I genuinely get the sense from the coaches and players that are a part of it and everything that the league is doing that that's going to happen this time around For the people are in the X F L or the US F l, you get all these dissenters, but there's been a lot of obviously DJ and everything, a player 54 and Danny, a lot of their branding. And I think for a lot of the X F L fans, oh that's like he's said that a million times we don't care. But when I watch Player 54 and I see Danny interacting with a lot of the players or the rock, it seems like they really buy that messaging. Is that your sentiment as well? Yeah, absolutely. And I get that it's just because you've heard something before, it doesn't mean it's disingenuous and that really is part of their story and that's part of what's helped connect them individually with so many of these players because he has been in those shoes and wanted to have a platform to be able to continue to grow and develop and reach that next level that he was never able to get to in the N F L. Granted, he's done just fine for himself, but I think that it's very true. And when you talk to a lot of the players, or at least that I have throughout the course of the season, they genuinely feel a connection to ownership where I'm not sure that that's been the case in previous iterations. And they feel heard. They feel seen. They are so fortunate for every opportunity every week that I'm doing the one-on-one phone calls with these players, they're just over the moon appreciative to be talking to us, to be sharing their stories, to be having more eyeballs on them. It's been really cool In terms of talent level and obviously you're someone that you've done a lot of college and moving through better, worse talent level than you expected here. Yeah, it's interesting because still, even though we're halfway through the season, we're still just figuring out who teams are at this point. But in terms of the product, I've been really excited about it and I've also been fortunate to be on a few good games that have been pretty back and forth and fun and exciting and you get the ebbs and flows of a game, which has been cool. But I've really enjoyed the product. What I hope Ben Ucci just stop turning the ball over. Think about how good Seattle could be right now. Oh yeah, there you go. With the Sea Dragons in the background, they've been fun. They're a team that part of my background is as a betting host as well. And so that's been a big role in my part of the broadcast for the X Ffl as well as talking about the betting portion of it. And from going into week three, I've been telling everybody to buy in on Seattle Futures because they were not as bad as they looked. Those first couple of games. The offensive output has been there week after week after week, just the touchdowns and point production hadn't matched that with wins because of turnovers. And when you have a negative turnover deferential, it's not going to be great. But so their defense has caught up, they have so many weapons that Seattle's a team I'm really excited about and I hope they keep putting it together. But the product in general, just to go back to your original question, it is better than I expected it to be. And you see how motivated these players are to make their mark and to get noticed and to work really hard. One of the top things I feel like we've heard from coaches over these first five weeks is that when you work in the N F L, a lot of the players can get a little bit complacent. Obviously there is something to being a pro and what it means to prepare a pro, but at times when you're at the top of your field and you, you're great, you don't have to do quite as much. But all of these guys want to be there so bad that they're really giving it their all. They're putting everything into taking notes in every single meeting, doing extra reps. All of those things are very, very real. Speaking of Seattle, I want the player 54 with Jim has threatening to kill Ucci and Ben Nucci wanting to bench Josh. I mean that's my team. But there's a lot of chaos on the sidelines right now. A little bit, a little bit, but that just makes it more fun. That's, that's why it's the extreme football league. You're supposed to get that inside stuff, make it a little bit more fun, make it more exciting. I really like Seattle though, so hopefully everything can come Together. No, we need that a therapy session up here at Lumen Field. But honestly, every team's like that, some of the sidelines I've been on, I'm like, you said what now? Well, and that's the thing nowadays, and I've heard that even with real, the N F L whatever, you know, can't hide anything on the sidelines if people are throwing stuff or being upset and especially in the X F L and you have microphones everywhere, it does seem like you can't hide from the cameras. Yeah, There are so many cameras that, I mean you got sky cams at every game. There's handheld in front of your face at every turn, but it makes it more entertaining for sure and it's fun and everybody kisses and makes up after the games anyways. Even in DC St. Louis, that week three game in Washington DC when there was the chippiness at the end of the game, all those guys still had to get up on a plane together afterwards and they shook hands when all was said and done. So like I said, they kiss and makeup, everything's fine. Speaking of that, we were at the game last week of the St. Louis. Were you surprised that DC and I mean it was close, but I mean they came in and undefeated still. Yeah, DC's the real deal, I feel like, and it also just goes to show from an odds perspective how little we truly knew about these teams coming in because both Houston and DC were among that D deeper in the basement echelon of teams in terms of odds and now they're among the betting favorites and DC five and oh their role in, they do something that no other team really does, which is actually run the football first and foremost, but also utilizing quarterback run with Jordan Tou and Derek King. And I mean obviously the performance we saw from Abram Smith from the running back position, that game was something pretty special. But they have it all. I feel like they're a very complete team when it comes to what they're able to do offensively that Greg Williams led defense while from a viewing perspective, you know, can tell that there are some holes on that defense, nobody's really been able to figure 'em out and they're so good at disguising and shifting and blitzing and doing all the things that even five weeks into the season nobody's really been able to figure out a best plan of attack. And you see that that game was close on the scoreboard and I think that there's something to St. Louis in the fourth and being able to put some things together to rally, but it wasn't enough. That game after the first quarter was never really in question whether or not DC was going to win. It was just by how many and another win in cover for the defenders. And I've been fortunate, we've had so many DC games has been four of the five weeks I think, whether it's home or away, we've covered them. So I feel very confident and we've done 'em again this week against Houston. So Yeah, it's going to be good. We'll preview the game here in terms of, you were talking about putting together the sports betting and getting kind of research on the teams Spring football's so hard because you come in, we got a couple week training camp, like you said, we're week five six now we're still discovering who these teams are, then we go to the playoffs championship, it's over. How hard is it to really dive in and figure out doing the job that you need to do in that short timeframe? Well, And even our stats are so limited, right? Because it's such a small sample size and you can't carry over anything from the 2020 iteration because all the players, coaches, teams are so different. So at the very beginning it was definitely a bit of a challenge with the exception of some of those marquee names that everybody knew about and being able to find stories and stuff. So the PR directors have been super helpful because prior to the league starting, they were out there in Arlington getting to know some of these players, putting together little profiles for us so that as we got set to call a game and we're trying to pick out which players we want to talk to, we could kind of dig through the more intensive bios that they had and put together for us, which was super helpful just to give us a little bit of a head start. Whereas like you said, we, there's not really a ton of Googleable information about a lot of these players because they hadn't played for the last couple of years, they've been working normal nine to five jobs, a lot of them. But that was honestly part of the fun of it is getting to when you watch college football and you watch Alabama, how many times throughout the course of the season are you hearing the same exact story? So we have the benefit of getting to present new faces and new stories and all of that every single week. But yeah, credit the PR folks on all of these teams and helping us highlight what we need to highlight In terms of, you know, as an honor talent and do they just give you free range, do what you do and we trust you or how much direction do you get from the league and the espn? So I was So scared because at first I had no idea what I was getting into. I n have never, and unless I get fortunate enough to be on the X ffl again next year, I will never broadcast like this again. It's a very, very unique viewer and broadcasting experience and we were originally supposed to do some rehearsals where each one of us would get to do a half a football kind of a thing, but the weather Arlington was so bad that they ended up getting canceled. The Texas ice storm, the great Texas ice storm, the Great Texas ice storm. We even flew into Arlington and didn't get to do what we wanted to do because of the weather and we were all stressing trying to figure out how to get flights out of there and I ended up getting the very last flight before the weather got super, super bad and all this stuff. Otherwise I would've been stuck in Arlington with nothing to do for four days. But so we didn't get to practice. So that first game led me to, I was so, so nervous and had no idea how it was going to go, but they were awesome. Basically we hang out on the sideline with one of the PR people attached to our hip as we're going up and down the sideline the entire time. Anytime we want to talk to somebody on camera, we just let the PR person know, Hey, I want to talk to so-and-so. They'll go tap 'em and say, Hey you good. And then we go right up afterwards and talk to 'em. So it's like it's a very quick seamless process. There's not much tape if any to go through because all of the players and coaches at this point know what they've signed up for. So it's not a surprise when any of us go up to him, but if the coaches haslet is in the heat of Colin plays or something like that, we're going to back off. We're not going to intrude him in his space. But if we'll tap him, be like, Hey Stormy's going to come chat with you in about 30 seconds or after this next play or after this series, then he's mentally prepared for it. I'll come up and do what I'm going to do and go from there. But it was all very much so a learning experience that first week I was so scared and then it ended up being just really easy and fun and it's some of the most fun broadcasting that I've ever done. These guys are so excited, it's so fun to be able to get that raw emotion coming off of a play because we do all that research leading into the game. We know so many of these guys backs stories, so even in the heat of a quick play happening, we can reference something from their past or being a hometown kid or something special. And so bringing as much of that to light as we can has been great. It's interesting, we had AJ Smith on during that week because nothing, I'm like, can we get some people on here? You know, guys are sitting and he was talking about how he used because he has his virtual training and he was using sitting in the hotel lobby, running reps through everybody with Brandon Silvers and whoever else utilized all that. I just thought that was interesting use and only AJ was like, oh, I've got stuff on my virtual whatever that they can work through. And have you been impressed with AJ Smith and the Houston offense? Yeah, absolutely. Which is why I am bummed for him that last week they weren't able to have showing that they wanted to have. But hey, when I interviewed him after Houston's win over Orlando the second time he in the post-game interview said, June Jones, you're next. So maybe he got a little too big for the britches once before we going to play his mentor for a minute. We'll see if this past week was a little bit of a let's bring it back down to earth and level out and now you're playing an undefeated team. We'll see how that goes. But I love AJ Smith. He's been great in our meetings. He is so open to sharing some of those key words that we're looking forward to explain to audiences on play calls. He is all about just keeping that line of communication open and obviously airing the football out. He would love a football game where he didn't have to run it one single time. Just Brandon Silvers aired out, my man, do what you need to do, take what the defense gives you. Very impressed with him though. It's such a young offensive mind and the lines of communication that he's had with Brandon and with some of those pieces on the offense and the headset I think is really unique because you'll notice as you're watching the games, he'll talk to them up to the time that the ball is snapped, still telling him what's happening on the back end where I would've thought that maybe you would for, I mean we see it with most of the teams where the OC kind of steps out of it for a second, lets them read what they're going to read because they don't want to be distraction. But Brandon wants that and that they have that communication. I think it's made the offense that much more effective. Well I think they have that relationship where they've known. I think that, I don't know if June Jones could be sitting in there yelling at Bendon Nutz or whatever it was. We were at the Lumen Field game there. The roughneck year against the Sea Dragons we're the front row 50 yard line. I said if we shut out Houston for the game, I might have to storm the field so it's probably better for my livelihood. That didn't happen. But that was a very hot game there where I think it was squirrel list through the third quarter. I mean it was really Starling to see. Yeah, I mean for a team that leads the league in passing touchdowns and scoring in general for them to be held scoreless through three quarters was kind of wild. But also leave it to them to make it a game in the fourth quarter still when it had been all Seattle to that point that with the way that the XFL point structure is like it's never over till it's over. I very firmly believe that. A couple questions Cheryl, I'll let you go. I appreciate your time to talk real talk here for a minute and then we'll talk the game before we go. Ratings not wonderful this week we're going up against March Madness and it's a lot of late FX games and stuff. How do you feel momentum wise here? The season is going? I feel good and I think that the ratings that we got that first week were really, really good because the league had come back and it's this new toy and everybody wants to see what it is. The Super Bowl had just happened two weeks prior. So there's still that feeling of we want football. And I think that the product really did deliver that opening weekend. How fun were those games and you had St. Louis with the comeback and executing the fourth and 15 and all of those things. And so that was really, really positive to get people to know, hey, the X ffl is back, we exist. This is the kind of product you're going to get on a regular basis. Come tune in and enjoy it. And I think since then it's still been pretty steady. And now with March Madness, I think it's just tough to compete with because every single person who's not even a sports fan is going to have their TV screens onto this. Every single bar is going to have it on March Madness right now. But I think as the games get less and less, the X ffl numbers will start to rise again as well. But I've been really pleased. People that don't even know me particularly well have reached out to just say how cool this league is. And I think that really says something about what it is that they're like, oh yeah, I saw you on an X F L game like you did. Okay cool, keep it going. And being on FX I think has exposed us to an audience that otherwise might not be watching football as well. So I'm very pleased with everything and I just hope it continues to grow and get some traction. Yeah, I went to Gonzaga, I was like, oh yeah, they're in the tournament. I'm so out of it right now. You're so tunnel vision right now. It's all before I let you go. Previewing here, big Monday night game. I'm excited. Yeah, that's my quarterback. Brandon Silvers back. XE L 2020 was really excited to see him succeed. Yeah, teu, curious your thoughts on TEU as a quarterback and then any other thoughts on the game before I let you go? Yeah, I like Jordan and I still feel for him so much when you think back to the 2020 season because he was one of those guys that was really becoming a breakout star. It was like him and PJ Walker and everybody talks about Taylor Hynek as an X Ffl success story when Tom started ahead of him with that St. Louis squad. So he's a great guy. I think that he's made steady improvement. It's been nice from early in the season where he wasn't really running the football. To see him utilize that part of his game and to be dynamic, the duo that they have with he and Derek King when he's had to throw the football, I feel like largely it's been good. They just haven't had to as much because they've been so efficient running the ball. As far as the matchup goes, DC is a favorite in the game, which I think is rightfully so, especially being at home in that environment that they have. It's a Monday night. So I'm curious how many people are going to show up compared to what they had on a Saturday day game or a Saturday evening. But we know that they're passionate and they want to have their beer snake and they've even embraced the lemons. One of my favorite quotes of this entire season was Michael Joseph saying, when life gives you lemons, make a pick six. So they've been really fun. I just am still trying to get a read fully on who Houston is, whereas I feel like I know what DC is. They have made their identity clear and like I said earlier, most complete team right now in my opinion, Houston, because of the relationships that AJ Smith and Brandon Silvers has had had and the players that they drafted that were very familiar with the system that they wanted to run in Houston, I think they had a little bit of a headstart. Whereas other teams were really just trying to gel and create chemistry and figure things out. They had already had things figured out prior to week one. They also played a slightly weaker schedule. So now as you get into these tougher teams on your schedule, you're playing the best team in the league. You've maybe gotten brought down to earth a little bit after losing to Seattle. How do you respond to that and what type of team are you really? So I think this is going to be a good prove it game for Houston. I'll tell you Brandon, I talked to them today very salty over the loss. So I think you should be coming in guns and blazing. He's A character. So I I'm going to bore you with something you don't even care. So when the X Ffl existed in 2020, went away, whatever. So then we do the podcast. Then when they push the league back, hey, we're going to go 20 22, 20 23. We had nothing to talk about on the podcast. So my old co-host and I, there was a character on one of the seasons of The Bachelorette that looked like Brandon Silvers, his name was Chase and Nick, I don't know if you've ever watched The Bachelorette. And we would literally do recaps of the Bachelorette talking about brand. This is how, I mean now we're in hog heaven because we went through about two years here where we had nothing to talk about. So Brandon Silvers is a longtime fan favorite of our podcast here. That's so funny. That's really, really Awesome. It's really, yeah, it's kind of crazy. You'll notice one of his go-to cliche sayings and it's cliche because it's true. He's very take what the defense gives me type of a quarterback and keep it simple. So when I interviewed him post-game after the Orlando game, I was like, okay, take me through X, Y, z, whatever, da da. And you can't say take what the defense gives me. So he is like, dang you're making me think a little bit here. No, those Go to everybody has those go-tos though I have them as a broadcaster. We have them as people and day-to-day life. And so that's one of his, it's his version of Coach Speak. No, and he was that and I, he likes being in the system now. He had a couple of one, but I thought it was good. I think he just wants to hang out in his pickup truck and play golf it sounds like. I think he's a, He's just that Alabama boy. Yeah, he is. Good. Well Stormy again, thank you. I really appreciate your time and balancing everything and coach calls and everything else. So thank you so much. Yeah, thank you. I appreciate you. Have fun. Well now have in Seattle we have the Bendon ucis of the world. But true X F L fans will know this man. We have Brandon Silvers here. Longtime listeners at the podcast will know this man is chasing Nick Brandon Silvers. How are you doing sir? Doing good, how are you? I'm good. I feel like we have lived a lifetime apart. We've never really spoken. I've watched you play in numerous spring leagues, now you're back in the exe. How is your life going right now? It's going good. It'd be a lot better if we were five though, but we're four one Tough lost, you're Seattle C Dragon. So just got to put that behind us and keep moving forward. I know. So we were there. I might've tagged you in some, I was very excited Video stream. Talk about that. I guess first off, what was it like returning to Lumen Field? I think it wasn't even Lumen Field last time that you know played there, but what was coming back to Seattle? Yeah, I think it was called something else back then, but I mean literally it was almost three years to the day when I left to go back home cause of Covid. So it's crazy, it's been long but kind of quick. Three years during all the Covid pandemic and stuff like that. So it was a weird game maybe cause it was late game but just we didn't click as offense at all cause to go our way. So it was good to be back and I went by my old apartment building and stuff like that. So it was good to go back out there Now. It was cool, it was a homecoming, very different and we had everything with Coach Dorn and Mike Riley having to take time off yo. A lot of chaos in 2020 even before everything happened in the world. What's X F L like now versus back in 2020? Well my OC did not leave for reasons, for good reasons for him. So I do have offensive coordinator. I think I'm just in a better position, a system that fits my game and just me and OC that can see eye to eye and let's play football. It's the same type of offense I was in college so for me personally, I'm in a better position now than I was back in 2020, especially when Mike Riley left for his reasons. So I'm just trying to take advantage of this opportunity and win some games. Talk about, we've had AJ Smith on before as well. Talk about Coach Smith and what has it just a genius it seems like behind the football. What has it been like under him? Yeah, I mean you definitely listen to him on TV in our mind and also the receiver's, ears, the whole, almost every play for the most part. So it's been fun. Luckily me and him see eye to eye so he does switch some plays late in the clock so I'll have to say something to him every now and then. But it's great. It's great for him to call out what probably what coverages are looking like and what the receivers should do because all our routes are post snap routes, they're all option type routes and to do that and he just helps out with all of us and making it easier for us. Yeah, we've heard it's almost like, and we've had the XL riders on it almost seems like a Chico where he's in able to talk with the wide receivers and tell them kind of the route or how they need to be looking out. Do you think other OCS and coaches are going to kind of pick up on this either this year or next year? Because it does seem like it gives you guys a good advantage. It gives us a good advantage just from, like I said, switching plays but just getting us in the right opportunity situation and he does a great job at that. So I mean every team can do that. It's not just like our team, every team has the same amount of mics in our helmets and stuff like that. So if they can do it, why don't they don't they do it. So just cause our OC does a lot more than the others. I mean that's on them. That's not our fault. Getting brought back in to this round of the exit fell we had on John Vogel on the show, one of the draft guys and audible gasp from us. When you walked out on stage, it was kind of like the Royal Rumble riot. Like okay, we're bringing out all these people. What was it like getting the call, getting to come back and be a part of this, The X F O? Yeah, Last two years I went and did the spring league with AJ Smith the year after the X Ffl. So really I knew I was going to be with him. I passed up some U S F L backup and CFL jobs so I really wanted to be in the system cause I didn't play well in Seattle. I didn't have a good showing out there. So I really just wanted to, even if it cost me a little bit, I wanted to be in this situation with him and him as my oc. So I cut down a lot of couple opportunities but now I'm thankful and I'm in the best opportunity I've been in my pro career. Yeah, I was going to ask you about that and I've heard different stories. How come you never wound up in the US F l? Was that a personal decision? Well they called the VP called said. They sent me a contract and I thought about it but I wanted to be with one team just cause that fits my needs. I didn't want get thrown in this situation where it's not, doesn't fit my game. So Darryl Johnson called me, we were talking to him and they said I wasn't one of their top quarterbacks. I was like, well alright, I don't know if I'm going to play then because I know I was AJ's top quarterback. So they called and had some discussion. I think I ended up signing the contract at the night before the draft and couple teams actually called AJ to try to draft me and they said that I wasn't on the list. So some weird stuff that happened, they said that wasn't the case but I just, it's whatever and I move forward. So now you're in AJ's system and we've talked about this, we're at cnc, we bring in Cole McDonald for a little bit. We have you, what is it about this scheme, everything now that fits you that because and I watched you in 2020 but this is a far better showing than we had back in Seattle in February a couple years ago. Yeah, for sure. And I was just like I said, the showing in 2020, it was hard on all of us. It was hard on coach when OC comes in and brings his own, plays his own system and he leaves for personal reasons, which is he had to do what he had to do. It was hard on coach as well as long as all of us too. Cause that wasn't his system. So it was just a bad deal. It happens, but I feel like me, we're both air raid backgrounds. AJ has a running shoot background, so we're doing a bunch of that stuff that I did in Spring League and then mixing in a couple air raid stuff, which I did at Troy. So we just get each other. I mean this has been a two year deal that I've been talking with him. So just finally coming together and I ended up winning the starting job obviously. So I still had to win. It wasn't like I was given nothing and just enjoying it and enjoying every day as well. You talk about the spring league and we watched you there and with the conquerors, which I know I think listener Harrison would say is probably the best branding of any alt football league here. I would say the Jers, I'm a little more prone to the Jers, but what was it like in the spring league with aj and I remember I was sitting out on my deck and you coming out, I think Kevin Anderson was the other quarterback and just going ballistics, running balls down the field. What was that whole experience? It was definitely weird but it was like well that was the only thing y'all could go do at that time. And AJ called me a week and a half beforehand about that league and I was like, oh I'm not doing nothing, might as well go do it. Because obviously I watched the Houston team in the XFL and they had a great offense and I was like, well this is my opportunity to play football again. I'm going to go do this. So it was different. I mean it was so chill, laid back. I mean we didn't have workouts, we just go and practice for hour and a half on the field at the other team and then we would go, I was in Indianapolis so we would go to the gym rec center and just go play basketball. I would go play basketball, a little workout sauna. It was just kind of like you got your practice over with in the morning and you had the whole afternoon just to hang out and we had a great group of guys too. So it was fun. It was fun being around India that whole time. Hub format. Now are we liking the travel? We heard Ucci kind of talking about it. It's hard. I mean it's the pro of getting in the stands and getting people. What are your thoughts on the travel? Yeah, I talked to Ben every week. So Buddy Palmer workouts and then obviously we're in the same system. I mean especially them they have the worst. We don't really have it that bad. But the night games with the bus travel, no fun. I'd rather be in Houston obviously I have family there and then just staying in Houston, I'd much rather be there. So yeah, our travel is not too bad. I mean we have seven games in Texas, we're about to finish our last flight of the season so we don't have it as bad as those, the north teams I guess. But yeah, honestly it sucks. I'll just say that Coach Palmer going through all of that and I remember when the Instagram videos came out and we're seeing trying to piece together, we had people, what was it kind of going through that whole experience? It was really fun. George Chill dude out Southern Cow had a nice little golf simulator that we hit golf balls and play golf a little bit with some other quarterbacks so that whole deal was fun just flying out there and hanging out. So yeah, he is a great guy. I obviously have another quarterback turn I use and mobile but any time you can get with another quarterback turn you just try to piece together anything you can just to make yourself improve. I'm curious for you coming back here now it's three years removed and where do you view your place and what is Brandon Silver's next goal here? I think for me it was just getting back. Obviously I had a bad taste in my mouth leaving Seattle didn't win, didn't play very well. So with all that stuff that happened, I just wanted to get back playing football the way I knew I could and being in the system that fits me and not just some random deal. So for me right now it's just playing in this system and having fun with the guys and scoring ton of points which we are right now and then winning games. I know that for me that's just my goal. My goal was just to win games and play good football and we'll see what happens next. But that was for me, I had to wait a long time to get in this opportunity for the last three years to have get people suspect back I guess I could say. Well it seems like we've had Pat Rapino on the show here this week talking some people we watch how Slowder watching even your friend here at Ucci and they're really like, this is their one thing and they got it. They're pushing and it feels like they're trying really hard and it feels like you're just at a place where you're more comfortable and just who you are. I don't know if that makes sense and just like you're with AJ now you're here and it's more about having fun and just winning than it is trying to get the next big contractor or whatever. And like I said, I'm just focused on playing good football and that will take care of itself. But just getting back to having fun and playing in a real league and at some other little league like the Spring League and stuff like that. I wanted to be back in this X F O cause I knew this is where the most I were going to be on I believe. And obviously besides the nfl, so just getting back to having fun playing the game. And I personally, I didn't have fun out in Seattle and Spring League was Spring league and so I just getting back to having fun. This is the most fun I've had since my Troy day so I'm just enjoying every minute of It. A couple questions here, I'll let you go. I appreciate your time. We saw Unseated here are two different franchises, unseed by the Sea Dragons, what was it coming out? I think it was shut out in the first half and then you guys had the late surge and did the fourth and 15th. What was it about Seattle's defense or like you said, was it the late game? What was it that made you guys a little bit of a struggle? It was just we didn't clicking, we had a draw play for touchdown, called Back for holding and then had the strip shack that I thought be a touchdown I believe on one of our plays. So just everything that went wrong kind of went wrong. We couple holds here and there but that's just football so it just didn't click. And then we played so badly and then we had a chance to win the game at the end of the game. And so with all that said, with all what happened in the first 58 minutes, we still had a chance to win the game at the end of the game. So it was a weird game. It was just kind of like John Trey obviously went out, he's out for the season, which hurts but just got to have someone else step up. So just got to play ball. It was just like a weird game and I can't really get my head around it maybe cause it was a late game. Maybe it's going back to Seattle but it was just a weird game and all Tre out. We saw the news this week. How big of a hole is that now for the offense? Yeah, Ja is a big part of our offense. He is. Just throw it up to him, he's going to go get it. I believe the play he got hurt on, I thought that was a catch. That's another thing. But just got put it anywhere around him and he was going to go get it and just sad to see and he is going to be out six months but we'll have other guys step up. They got to, there's no choice. Just keep rotating guys in and let them get their opportunities. All my job is to get them the ball and see what they can do. Big game here Monday night right at dc another strong defense and we, we've seen them the only other undefeated, what are you? I mean to me it's the biggest game of the weekend by a long shot. What do you make of the big Monday game? Yeah, it's Monday night. I know it's, it's on ESPN two so that, that'll be good for us. Obviously they're five and oh beating St. Louis twice so they're a good football team but we just got to play our game and do us and it'll take care of itself. Well Brandon, I really appreciate it. Long time listeners know we filled after the covid and everything went away. We spent a long time of our show actually there's a reality TV contestant that looked like you on the Bachelor and his name was Chase and Nick wasn't quite as handsome but we filled a lot of time and kind of that off time when we didn't know what was going on. Recapping episodes of The Bachelor as if you were a contestant of the show. So I appreciate you getting us through the doldrums of Spring football. Yeah, yeah I saw notification or so someone sent it to me, I was like, no, no, no Bachelor. I actually mess messed with people who kind of watch that show. So my girl I talked to, she watches it while her girlfriend so I was like yeah I don't want to get into it but that show is just funny. No, it's good. I appreciate it. I think you have a future in some sort of, it doesn't need to be dating but some sort of reality TV show. I could see you here coming up, you know, want to take a break from football or anything else. Yeah, I mean it's just all up in there now so we'll see what happens after. Maybe we'll see Seattle in the championship game. Maybe you'll be down in San Antonio. Well no, yeah, I have my flights blot. We'll be there. I hope to see, I think we'll see. I mean think it's fair to say, I think Houston will at least be contending. We'll see you there. I appreciate it Brandon. Like I said, it's been a long time coming three years of watching you and I still have here somewhere signed your X Ffl 2020 shirt back there so I don't know if you can see that, but there's always part of the show. Yeah, for sure, for sure. I appreciate it. Awesome. Brandon Silvers chasing Nick here on the podcast. Really appreciate your time and good luck. Yeah, I don't care about DC at all, so good luck this weekend. Yeah, I appreciate it. Thanks. Well, coming off of a monster game and getting a win and Vipers and everything else, you have Jeff PT here, how are you doing sir? Man, I'm doing great man. Blessed to be able to sit here and talk with you man. Appreciate it. Thank you. I really appreciate it. We're halfway through, we've, you made it past week five here and we'll talk about kind of X F L 2020 your time as well. But how is everything feeling for you right now? Man, that's kind of, when I sit back and think about it kind of gets me emotional, man. Cause all the things I've been through and now I'm finally getting recognized for my talent that I know I always had and just being available, you know what I'm saying? So still trying to suck it all in but still be prepared cause I'm not done yet. You know what I'm saying? We only halfway through the season man, I'm just looking forward to just continuing to get better. You attribute that to not getting the right looks or not being in the right circumstances. I mean, what do you feel like you've gotten to this position you're at right now? Yeah, man, like you said, my N F L career, you know what I'm saying? Being an undrafted guy. So that's that. That's tough anyways because you in a room full of millionaires, so that's tough. Anyways. And then like you said, being not being in the right position, not being able to showcase my talent, not having the opportunity that I felt like I needed. And on top of that, the icing on the cake has just been injuries, you know what I'm saying? Been dealing with injuries these past two years. So I think my main thing is just what keeps me going and gets me happy that I'm available. I'm saying that Jeopardy that is available to play. So I think those are really how my career has been so far This season. Not off to the ideal start. Got the big win here. Last it was that Sa sa Sunday night, Saturday, Saturday, it all kind of the weekend kind of blurs together, right? Last weekend against Orlando. What was that like for you guys to finally get the W Man, it was such a great feeling, what I'm saying, going into the locker room and seeing the smile when everybody faces. It was just something that we want to continue to see after a game. You know what I'm saying? It was just something that we can build on what I'm saying, the auto losses we took, it wasn't really lost, it was a lesson learned. You know what I'm saying? Looking at what we can get better at. So we just looking forward to just keep trying to stream wings together, you know what I'm saying? Just trying to go one and know each and every week. And that's what our focus has been on. Oh it was cool to me. Knight turned down the game and I saw Luis Perez there and he's been on the show before and he's been around. You've been all these leagues and challenges and here's someone that's all the way through and us f l like you did and part of the spring league, Luis Perez was and everything else. How cool is it that you guys are both kind of here together now, really accomplishing stuff together? Yeah, it's funny you said that, man. I've been trying to be on the same team with Luis in 2018. We were training together out for a lot of that when we was coming out in our drive class. I know what type of QB he was, you know what I'm saying? Working out with him for the longer time and me, him staying in contact over the years and just pretty much just dreaming like, yo man, I wish I could be the same team. Y'all do this. I'll throw you this ball, I'll do this and that. And seeing that together and seeing it at we actually spoken into existence man is just kind of crazy to me when I look back at it. You know what I'm saying? So it was no question that I know it was going to be clicking once I find out we was on the same team together. He, I say he's been on the show, but what do you make of Louise? I, I called him the Spring League Forest Gump. I meant that in a good way. Yes. He has just been a part of everything. What is it like spending time with him? It's funny you said that man. Cause Forrest Gum is my favorite movie of all time and that's literally who Louise is. Louise is the free football for gum. Nah. But Louise is a guy that man, he's so passionate. You could say he loves the game. He can be a bit annoying sometime of how much he can talk about stuff. You know what I'm saying? It's a good thing though, Louise, I love you. But he's a guy so many times he's seen the hallway like, yo man Jeff, I'm thinking about this. Yo man, what do you got to think about this? So just a guy that just loves the game man and he's one guy that I know going into a game, he will always be prepared. That's one guy to not have to worry about. Cause he prepares, he works hard and he's just a genuine guy. We said no matter what team he's on, he is going to get on the field no matter who. Who's the starter, what's going on. Everything else, you know, had a huge game here. Two tds, five receptions, 80 yards. How, how'd it feel? It felt like you guys were finally clicking. I think it was the highest scoring game of the season thus far. Both sides and they talk all those over and under and everything. I don't understand but what was it really kind of feeling like you guys were clicking? Yeah, man, on a personal tip, Orlando was a team that I had circled on the schedule. Cause Orlando is my hometown, you know what I'm saying? I'm from Orlando. Orlando was the only X F L team. I was communicating with the whole process, did a couple of workouts with them, was thinking that was a team I was going to get to, but things end up happening and I didn't. So it was kind of a game to where, what I'm saying I have to prove to them what y'all was missing out on. Y'all missed out on the hometown guy. But as far as the team wise, like I said, well me and Louise clicking and stuff like that, like I said, I just knew that that time was coming. Cause like I said, me and Louise been knowing each other. We click and practice, we make no same plays in practice. So we don't make him in practice, we won't make him in the game. So he just a guy that, like I said, when we out on that practice field, we take it very serious cause we know that stuff translates and just seeing that it did translate that night was just a beautiful thing to see. I don't know if you've been paying attention, I think you're probably better off not on Orlando right now, this whole Oh Yeah, yeah, yeah. Without a doubt. Without a doubt, without a doubt, without a doubt. In terms of, we talked to Rod Woods, coach Woodson here pre-season when we went down to Arizona during the showcases and I mean really struck me. I'm not someone that speaks with a lot of M F L head or football head coaches, but struck me as the leader that he seemed to be when I interviewed him along with the others down there. What is he like and what is the message you get from the coaching staff on your team? Man, coach Wilson is a very passionate guy. It almost Coach Wilson sometimes tap into his player, coach Wilson. Sometimes he leaves the coach and goes into his player. Coach Wilson. The way he's very passionate man, I just love seeing that Coach Wilson just a guy that I truly value his opinion about me because like I said, he's a hall of famer, he's been around a lot of great guys. So just hearing them speak to us. What I'm saying, my eyes are wide, my ears are open cause he just be dropping so many gyms, you know what I'm saying? Cause he been playing the game for so long at the highest level and speaking from my receiver coach, coach sermon who's a guy that been coaching over 40 years in the nfl, he coached the top receivers in the league like receiver, like Jared Rice, Randy Malls, Terrell Owens, just to name a few, just name the top guys. So just to have him and to pick his brain out, like I said we, I want to say we got 278 years of coaching the screen, which is kind of crazy to say, you know what I'm saying? So it's just truly having a blessing to have a coach. Cause as a player, I've been playing the game for a while so I know what players need because it's so mentally and physically on you. So you need coaches that are transparent and players coaches and our coaches staff is just a beautiful example of that cause they're so transparent and they're player coaches so they try to look out for us as much as possible. So it's a true blessing. How did he keep you guys and the rest of the coaching staff? They keep you guys terrible first four weeks, right? I mean I know that there was bad luck and I've watched all the games, you know, see teams. I don't want to call Orlando out but you know, see them Teams. Maybe there's a little bit more chaos there. You guys, Woodson we saw him halftime at, I think it was field getting into it with the referees. But otherwise I crazy. But it has kept you guys motivated in the games. How do they do that? Yeah, so man, if you actually go back and look at all our game, we literally been in every game we played in the Arlington game. Literally was winning all the game and then we had those crazy turnovers, you know what I'm saying? The DC game we was leading at halftime tied up at the end of the third quarter. Then the fourth quarter we ended up, you know what I'm saying, doing something crazy then of Seattle game. We literally was winning the whole game until the last 30 seconds of the game with y'alls. Gordon made that crazy play. So all our games, we literally been in the game. So that's why I said with all our losses really wasn't lost what they look like. Losses of course on our record board. But it was more lessons learned. What did we learn about these games? You know what I'm saying? So that's how Coach Wilson kind of keep us, what I'm saying motivated what I'm saying. Just us really seeing that man we been in most of the games, you know what I'm saying? If we can stop shooting ourself in the foot, you know what I'm saying? And actually playing mistake free football that we have a good chance of going on the run. So that's pretty much all I like. Well like I say on that, cause like I said, it is just all lessons learned that we know that we can play mistake free football in the Scotland limits for us. I was at Arlington for the kickoff and I'm, I'm the Louis press guy and I remember that, I think I was in that corner where it's like the outfield whatever, when they threw the, he had the pick and I'm like, oh my god. Oh See yeah, that was crazy. No feel bad for that. In terms of now moving forward, we've got the one under our belt. How do you guys feel poised here? You got St. Louis coming into Cashman Field this weekend? Yeah man, we treating this as a must win. You know what I'm saying? We already in our division, we're already down two from DC and took one from Seattle. So we really can't afford any more losses in our division and we going against a really good St. Louis team coach. What's to talk about 'em today? How that's a team that finds a way to stay in the game. Every game they played in, they find a way to stay in the game. You know what I'm saying? They playing mistake free football, you know what I'm saying? AJ McCarran is taking care of the ball. They got a very good running back, you know what I'm saying? Good receivers and then on the defensive end those guys are flying to the ball. So we do have a good challenge on us, but like I said, we've, we've been preparing this week, you know what I'm saying? Going hard at practicing. Just looking forward to the opportunity to play this game In terms of, you know, were part of the X L back in 2020 with the renegades differences. What's it like now versus back then? As far as team or as far as the X F L and the whole Yeah, just your experiences. Yeah, so X ffl man the first time X F L, like I said, going back to my career personally about having opportunities and all that stuff, renegades, we was hoping Landry Jones would be our quarterback but he battled with so many injuries. So we was bouncing around too many crew QBs to where I couldn't really find a groove in that. So that first time around as far as an ex, it was real funny, you know what I'm saying? Being able to allow for them, allowing us to express ourself and getting the opportunity to play the game. But on the personal tip, I feel like I ain't really ball how I wanted to this time around. It's different on the sense of it's a bubble now all teams are staying in Dallas and as far as games, the same teams are flying on the same plane together. So that was kind of awkward, you know what I'm saying? So you know what I'm saying, you go in, you lose the game and you get a team that's turning up in the back of the plane and you got to lose the team in front. That's all quiet and stuff. So that's the one thing that was kind of awkward about it. So I think that was the main difference. But as far as play the same thing, all the same rules, everything's the same. You know what I'm saying? The mics on the field, you know what I'm saying? Everybody might, all the skill players are micd up and like I said, the special team rules, so those two are the same, just the differences like the bubble and the teams climb together. I can only imagine Ucci there after that Seattle Vegas win and just how loud he was cheering on the, Hey, I would say this though, I would say this A team that gets lit after the win is DC though. They be acting a fool DC they be acting a fool after a win. Well I mean they are undefeated right now, right? Hey, hey, I don't got nothing to say about it. Hey turn up if it was me, I'll be doing the same thing. So y'all hey they deserve it five and oh they deserve it. A couple last ones from me, I'll let you go here. In terms of talent level 2020 to now a lot of work and the scoutings we're bringing in you all these different types of head coaches and we're doing all these showcases, everything, how do you feel the talent level is now? Yeah, so I would say this time around there's more big time name players, you know what I'm saying? We didn't have the AJ MCs, the Vic Beas leagues, the Josh Gordons, you know what I'm saying? The Marus Bryants and this league, I mean 2020 league. So I think this league right here as far as name guys that made a name for himself in college and nfl, I saying that that was the difference. But also too, it's a lot of guys in the league that can without a doubt play at the next level. You know what I'm saying? I feel like I'm one of the guys without a doubt. I think my confidence level is through the roof. I'm saying I been playing this game for so long to where no offense to anybody, I don't see anybody who lines up in front of me. Know what I'm saying? I'm picking me every single time, you know what I'm saying? Cause I know the work that I put in and my confidence level is super, super high. So as far as skills, it is a lot of guys in this league I can play at the next level without a doubt. You talked about the hub and everything, obviously you were part of the US F L and the bubble there. Not bubble but yeah, whatever they call it. The hub stuff. Experiences compared to this versus back in Birmingham. Man, man, I don't really have too much good things to say about A U S F L the first time. You know what I'm saying? I don't want to turn to a big thing, but U S F L I got to a very, very, very dark place in my life playing in the U S F L. So I didn't like that experience, not one bit, you know what I'm saying? I went through a lot of stuff during my time, my short time there, you know what I'm saying? Dealing with an injury and having a couple of people alive lied to me and stuff like that about my injury. What I'm saying it was only caring about God being available and stuff like that. So yeah, I didn't really got too much good things to say about A U S F L. Not going to lie about that. Okay. I'm known online, this is a big U S F L hater so no I'm kidding. But no, I understand. I Understand you're here now one bit Coming off of such a game last week do here before I let you go, how do you look to build on that or maintain the momentum, everything else? What are you looking forward to here the second half of the season? Yeah man, I just want to see what this takes me. What I'm saying. I'm a guy that's starving man. I just feel like I got so much catching up to do cause this is something that I've been wanting to do for the longest time, but it was never my time, it was all God's timing so it ended up being the perfect time to do it. So I want, my main thing is just being available and just continuous, getting better. That's all I wanted that that's literally all I care about going into this season. I had no expectation on stats, no anything about that. My only goal this year was Jeff to be available for 10 games. That's literally, cause I know if I'm available, maybe the sky's the limit for me. I can go out and make as much plays as I want to. So I just want to continue to build and just continue to build. That's all I want to do. Well Jeff, I'll be rooting for you. I couldn't care less about the battle hawks. I'm not one of those cock high guys, so you're fine. I ride with the dragons but this weekend here we'll get you St. Louis and everything else. Really appreciate your time. I know it's crazy with practices and everything else really means a lot for you coming on the show, so thank you. Nah man, thank you man. I appreciate you Alana. Come up here and you know what I'm saying, just showing love, man. I really appreciate it. Well we'll rock and roll here and good luck the second half of the season and yeah, tell my buddy Louise High. He is a good guy. I like Him. Yeah, that's my guy. About to see Louise in about 10 minutes, man. I'm about to holler at him. Awesome. Thank you so much All man. Thank you. Enjoy your day. Thank you. Well I'm excited. Today we have Andrew Buckholtz here, one of the riders over at offline announcing we're having, if you're an X F L fan, maybe an awful week with all the different ratings and everything else. There's panic and tech and contextualizing and all that. I figured I would bring in an expert that covers sports business. I like getting outside perspectives because we live in this every day about where are the x FFLs at ratings. Everything else. Andrew, how are you doing? I'm doing well. Thank you for having me. Perfect. So first off, just if people don't know who you are, who are you, what do you work on outside of coming on the next F L podcast here? Yeah, so my main job at the moment is news editor for awful announcing. I've been working there, which is a sports media site. It grew out of initially just like criticizing announcers, but it's now fully sports business, all sorts of of sports business stuff, rating ratings, deals, interviews, all that sort of stuff. I've been working there since 2012, more and more full-time over the last few years. And the other thing that may be relevant to alternative fans of alternative footballers said I did use to run the Yahoo blog covering the Canadian Football League from TW 10 to 2017. So I've got a lot of experience in the alternative football world. Well, that's good. I just wrapped with the c Ffl Hall of Fame inductee, Larry Smith here, one of the commissioners over there. Yeah, Well very important figure. Absolutely. Yeah. Well good. So Andrew, we're here, we're talking all of this. I see my landscapers pulling up outside, so I might have to close the window here if the nose gets too bad. Here we are. We're the midway point. We're further than we've ever made with the X F L back in 2020, approaching week six we're going up against March Madness. That was always kind of the concern back in 2020, what everything was going to look like. How do you feel like the X ffl is going thus far here in 2023 version 3.0? Yeah, I mean I think with all of this is with any sort of these ratings, it all depends on your perspective and it depends on what you're comparing it to. I think the big thing with these current ones is, as you mentioned, they're going up against March Madness, so getting 320,000 fans as a high is not great. Getting in the 200,000 average viewership for the other free games, it's really not great. But there's the context of what you're going up against and I think the X ffl and any sort of US alternative football league is interesting in that so much of it is about is this a viable TV product versus does this work in terms of selling tickets in the stats. A lot of it is about trying to make content for these sports networks during a period where they may or may not have a whole lot else going on. These numbers aren't great, they're below what we've seen in the past certainly, but all of that comes with some caveats because a lot of these alternative leaks have had very weird distribution agreements from like CVS Sports Network to Bleacher Report Live, et cetera, et cetera. And the ones this weekend in particular, they're all on cable. That's a thing to keep in mind. A couple of them are on fx, which does not usually have sports content. That's a thing to keep in mind. I think my overall takeaway would be this isn't great for the X ffl, it's probably below what they would've been expecting for this reboot at this point, but it's also not necessarily, let's blow it all up And I get kind of whatever you want to believe is your favorite league online. I kind of get criticized. I'm the big US L hater. I'm the big X L hater. There's nobody in the world that does this podcast every week talking about this, these things that wants this to be bad. I want this to be good. Same with the US F L I want all this, but yeah, when I see quarter of a million people, these games are not at phenomenal times. The one on Thursday night here we see the 2 56 Houston at Seattle. That was a six o'clock kickoff in Pacific, nine o'clock kickoff up against the behemoth of March Madness. Would these ratings even be bad if they were on A, B, C or ESPN Prime? Well, I think that I really is the big thing of if these were a B, C ratings, this would be much more concerning because you can draw 300,000 viewers for a rerun of almost anything on broadcast television. So if this was on a B, C, there would be a whole lot of why are we doing this With it being on espn, ESPN two fx, that's a little bit of a different conversation. Would you expect, knowing the marketing brand we have behind this and the Rock and daddy and everybody coming in here and it's three years now passed and we're trying to get this resurgence, would you expect better? Are you okay with this or would you expect worse? Well, I think there's a couple of interesting things here. I think in particular if you compare it to the U S F L, that's interesting because the U S F, so the X XFL is broadcast on the Disney networks, but Disney does not own it. The Rock and Danny Garcia own it, whereas the U S F L is an owned property by Fox Sports, and so FOX has a whole lot of incentive to make that work for them and to take even bad and keep rolling with it and hopefully grow it into a thing overall with the X F L, there is a chance that these bad ratings could lead to some consequences maybe if it's continuously bad, if it's not really doing anything for E S P N and if it's not really worth their time, there's a chance they renegotiate that contract, get out of it early, whatever. I think that at this point it's certainly not like, this is terrible, let's bail on it. Absolutely discussion. But I think it's something certainly that everyone involved is keeping an eye on and if it isn't necessarily better, if it doesn't get better when there's less competition, then there's some major concerns and some major potential impacts. What do you think the thought process is behind and even on here, obviously ESPN's carrying a good bulk of here, the women's basketball, men's basketball and all that, but we're putting it, it's kind of the leftover, we're just putting it on effects. We're not trying to prioritize it. Like you said, ESPN isn't incentivized the same way that FOX and N B C Ishmm to position that thoughts behind that. Any other things to add? Well, the B component of the S F L is interesting because they are not incentivized. They do not own it. Making it good is not good for them long term. So they do it when it works for them. It's a different conversation with Fox because there's equity there and there's a future in making the league into being something. So the B NBC B C with the U S F L is much more comparable to esf, ESPN with X ffl of they'll broadcast it when it works for them. They'll continue to do so if it continues to work for them, if it continues to be valuable programming for them. But there isn't really a push to try and get it over. I mean we're seeing even on here, nascar, the 1.01 million here, FS one, I mean I view that as a comparable network size of fx, right? The FS one in terms of clearance, how positioned is fx? I know that part of this was them wanting to use the X F L to drive people to FX to view it as a sports channel, but what is the scope of FX as far as you can far as, Yeah. Well I mean that history is all interesting of course because FX used to be a Fox fan and was sold to Disney as part of the giant Disney Fox sale a few years ago. And yeah, it definitely doesn't have a majority sports identity at this point. It has a mostly scripted, scripted TV identity. Things like what we do in the shadows and so on. It's a fine channel to throw a sports fan on in terms of what we were talking about with carriage, it has acceptable carriage relative to an FS one or relative to whatever. It's not the issues we were running into a few years ago where sports stuff was winding up on FS two, which is way lower numbers of homes. So the, there's a decent amount of people that can get to FX if they want. The challenge is that they have to be motivated to get there, so they have to be seeking out this X ffl content rather than just tune into the channel and oh, it's, there You go Mia. Then now the lawnmowers pulling up here. We got it. We're all windows closed, we're ready, go. We've talked about this at nauseum on the podcast. It seems to be the philosophy of the X ffl is we're going to post on Twitter, have the rock retreat it post on Instagram, have the rock retweet it. Are you surprised there hasn't been more national, a national marketing push, a national, any sort of like, hey, this is happening and either across America, this is happening on TV or in specific markets this is happening in your market? Yeah, it's a difficult question because I think yes, absolutely. I think they're doing the social marketing part of it recently and I think the Rock in particular has helped in bringing some awareness to this. I think they're also, they're finding some success with the social clips of even at awful announcing that the comeback, our shared general sports site, we've had some X ffl clips take off decently when we post some on Twitter and so on. So they're some interesting this, I think they're doing it on the social side, they could invest more sure in promoting the actual games and that the game these games are coming, that these are going to be going on, but that also becomes an investment investment versus reward debate of like is it worth spending that much for X marginal gain of viewers that you don't even know you're necessarily going to hit? So I don't know. And I think the other thing to keep in mind here is that while this is the latest version of the X ffl, in many ways this is a new league. It's very different from what's come before and there's always growing pains for new leagues and it takes time to build up that brand identity and convince people, hey, you should tune into this thing. So I think with any new football league in particular, surviving the first season is the big faded. If they can do that, then maybe there becomes more of a marketing push afterwards Is talking to U S F L last year, that was their big and has been their big, Hey we're the first spring league decades to not only crown a champion and return for a second season because obviously the X ffl didn't do that. I would argue the spring league that begat the us, yo, I watched the mega bowl. I mean I know that, what is it, wry, Willis Wright was the champion over there with the lineman or whatever, if I remember that right? But us F l dipped came back, it felt mid-season cold to me. The championship game did decent viewership here. Is this just a mid-season lull that we should expect to rebound? I mean obviously too early to tell, but it's gone down every week and all I see online right now is like X F L ratings or crater an X F L ratings or crater. If I'm an X F L fan, how should I feel? Yeah, I mean I think you should certainly feel somewhat concerned these current numbers, if this was the numbers every week, I don't know that this will be a viable thing for anyone, but I think there is context to these numbers of the other thingss going on, there's there's context to what it's competing for eyeballs with. I think the big question is really what it does going forward and how that's going to look. And I think the other thing to ke to keep in mind there is just all of these leagues have had bad numbers at some points. And so the U S F L was an interesting one on that point where I think that the Fox ownership really helped them alleviate a lot of the questions that they would've had just from the ratings numbers. They've had very public and they've very publicly stated this multi-year commitment from Fox to funding this league and keeping it going. So the X ffl doesn't necessarily have that. I think there's a few more questions about how long everyone involved is going to keep doing this if it doesn't produce. And one thing the X ffl very much does have going for it though, is that it has at least a more credible claim to actually being in its markets by playing these games in the whole markets versus what the U S F L has been doing. That's an interesting question, and obviously this week is an anomaly in terms of the super low ratings, but 256,000 Houston at Seattle, we had I believe 9,100 reported audience there. I was there at Lumen Field last week for that game where the C Dragons one, is that worth going and paying, doing the lumen field and flying everybody up and if we're getting a quarter million people anyway, I understand that yes, he better to stay, we're in the markets and all that, but if you're getting a quarter million people, is it better off just displaying at Choctaw in Arlington? Yeah, well I think that's a question. I think that it depends on what your league is valuing. I think it's certainly better from a perspective of actually connecting with local fans. It's better from a perspective of selling tickets. I mean the U S F L attendance was really dismal in a lot of ways f from playing all last year, from playing all the games in one location and really I think it allows that really hurt their attempts to integrate with other markets and even get local media coverage. I mean, I was surprised at how much local media coverage they were able to pull off for teams that really don't have any connection to those cities. But even with that, I think the X ffl is doing a little bit better on that front from actually having some games there. Even if the teams aren't based there all year round, it isn't it expense, absolutely. It becomes a further operating expense. It becomes a further challenge on that front, but I think especially if you're looking at it for the long term, I think the X ffl is establishing a decent presence in markets like Seattle and so on from doing, from having games at those spots versus just the like, okay, you've got this team name and that's all we're giving you. And I know it's year one and like you said, there's always growing pains. We had Russ Brandon was at the event where they announced the hub and we talked with him there and with Danny and the Rock and everybody, and I said, how we saw the U S F L, we lived through all this and he's, how are you guys going to do it different? He goes, well, we're going to be in markets, we're going to be hitting the ground, we're going to be the first people there, the last people leaving, we're really going to I'm, I don't know if just to take the Thursday game last week for example, I don't know if flying in the afternoon of a Thursday game in Seattle flying out at 10 o'clock, getting back home at whatever time they did in the morning that we saw Ben and Nucci talking about it for the post-game. I don't know if that's like, that doesn't speak to me as going all in on this market. That seems like we got to be as cheap as possible. It's if you're trying to book a flight for a, you're working at a conference, well, I got to fly in, gives me just enough time to get from the airport to the hotel and I'm going to book it on the other end. I might have to cut out a few minutes early, I got to get back to the hotel. It just doesn't feel to me as we have this long term investment right now, it feels like we're trying to have our cake of being in markets, but also we want to save as much as possible and only be there as minimally as we can. Yeah, I mean I fully agree with that. It's absolutely a half measure. There's absolutely more they could do if they were in the markets on a more full-time basis. But I do think it's a notable half measure and a step up over the U S F L. I mean, I'm a big alternative football fan, any sort of alternative football whatsoever. The us I live in New Orleans and the U S F L has a New Orleans breakers team, but they've never set foot in this city. They had a coach who coached a whole season without ever saying foot in this city. And so I can't go to a New Orleans breakers game. Whereas that feels a little different in the X ffl with even this limited approach. Are you hyped for the four hubs here in the April? Yeah, I mean I think that's a step up. At least it's a step up from what they were doing, but they're still not here, so I'm still not super thrilled about it. See, now you're going to get everyone saying, I read only brought Andrew on because you have a No, I mean again, I just reached out and I never, I don't even really carry your opinion before you come on. I just want people that are knowledgeable in the space that can talk about it. So yeah, it, it's better. I don't know. I don't think that this is the answer either. I don't think that that whatever you want to call it daily, just sending in the troops just for the blast. We did some of the stuff and we had the events here and I know we're getting through. I just, and I worried the same with the U S F L. If we get enough of these articles that don't have the context by the end of the year, then you get ready for season two and it's like, God, they lost whatever viewership and who cares I is the damage going to be too done or do you think they can live through this? Well, I think when it comes to the viewership in the ratings, the article, the articles are interesting, but the articles don't actually matter. What's actually going to matter is not how sites ours are writing it up. It's going to matter how the executives at the TV networks and at the league actually feel about these things. And if you're Fox with the US F l, if you have that ownership interest, it's a lot easier to shrug whatever off as acceptable with the X ffl, it's maybe more of a question, but it's also still, it all depends on a variety of things. And that's the thing with any sort of ratings discussion is that ratings are not raw viewer, not higher numbers of viewers are always debt. Absolutely. But there's a whole lot of context to that of what are you paying for the rights? What are you paying on production? What other things would you be showing if you were not showing this, what sort of viewership would ze draw? So it it's not necessarily about this number is bad, this number is good, it's about how is this doing compared to what you're paying for it and how it do replacement program it would do, But I mean to be fair, the radiance this week were quite poor. Oh yeah, absolutely. Well, no, I mean they're absolutely poor and I think that if it is a trend for the whole thing, I don't know that it continues to work, but The difference to me, and I think we tied, can't remember who it was on here a couple weeks ago, and these are both competing leagues. We have the US F L and the X ffl, but I think fundamentally they exist in really different spaces where we've said Fox, this U S F L could be a money loser for them. Hey, this is a business expense. We're writing this off. I mean it's basically a writeoff, I think the most disingenuous thing that was ever, this is a low or high bar, but on Colin Coward when he talked about the profitability of Fox with the US F l, I'm like, how could this not be profitable? They're utilizing secondhand people that work at Fox, they're doing social media now this year. They're hiring people and all that. Of course it's going to be profitable if anything, you want it to be not profitable, so you can write off this stuff, but they want cheap content. We want to fill our tv, we're going to fill three hours times, two weekends, whatever. I do think Danny and the Rock and everyone I've heard from them really want to build this into a separate league. How do you view the ownership mentality of both of these entities? Well, I think that's fair on some levels. I think absolutely Danny and the Rock and the X F L ownership, they're much more concerned with this as an overall business rather than as part of a TV business. I think there's some of that there with Fox as well. And in particular, there have been some reports of they want outside investment and there've been some reports of ultimately they'd love to turn these teams over to local ownership groups, which is interesting too, because that brings in a further conversation of, oh, all of a sudden now you're operating this as a startup and it can lose money if you're able to sell it for a profit in the end. So with all of this, yes, it becomes about ownership models, it becomes about what your eventual plan is. And I think that is very different for the U S F L and for the X ffl. And if we're really talking to alternative football, it's very different for the CFL as well because for them, the whole US thing is entirely a side business compared to where they actually make their money. How many, let's say USS F L really does want to sell, we really want to sell off. We've got the FedEx guy or whatever we really want to sell in Memphis. I mean five years in without, would you even invest in the US F L team in five years in three? What would be, you know, cover sports business a reasonable, okay, I've seen proof of concept now for long enough is enough seasons and if the X F L wants to sell off too, we can do that. But for really to bring in an outside investor to buy one of these teams, Well, I think that is entirely a startup conversation and it depends on your tolerance for risk. And if you look at startup businesses overall, so if you invest incredibly early on, if you invest in an alpha round or whatever, a lot of those things are never going to go anywhere. If they do, you're going to cash in at a huge rate. And I think that's exactly the conversation with these football leagues of if you want to buy into the U S F L or the X ffl, now you're going to, and if it does eventually succeed, you'll get a huge return for that, for it to actually be proven and successful as a thing that's going to last for long term, you're going to want to come in after free or five years. And I think even making it through one season is impressive as an alternative football league, considering how that has gone recently. So the U S F L already has an advantage on that front. They've done one thing, they've awarded a champion, they haven't folded, there haven't been huge stories about missing payroll. I think that's fine. And if you are a risk minded investor, I could absolutely see gaining on this right now, but it's going to have a much better idea of the overall direction of the fame in three to five years. I'll see. I mean, Andrew says invest in the US F L now. There you go, right? They should be lying that anything else that means state of spring football right now. I'm still trying to figure out what theme we're going with this week, but I just thought it was important to kind of get some context in here. Should I be blowing in the paper bay trying to call myself? Should I walk away from the step away from the sharp knives or anything? What should I be doing right now? Well, I mean think the general sense for me at least is everything's fine until people say it's not fine and until important people say it's not fine. It doesn't matter what we write or what a one writes or what anyone writes about the ratings, what matters about the ratings is if all of a sudden you start having panicked emails at Disney or panicked emails at X Ffl headquarters or at the U S F L of this isn't sustainable, that's an actual problem and everything can be tolerable in the right circumstance. And that also goes back to the startup conversation and how long are you willing to endure losses? And so I don't know that anyone needs to panic right now. I don't know if there's any imminent signs of any of this folding. This is certainly all better than the mid-season of the AAF where they couldn't figure out how to pay people. So I think the big thing at the moment is, hey, there's some reasons for concern. There are some reasons this may not work out long term, but no one seems to be really pulling up stakes just yet. I think you helped me with my theme right there. I think I can use the Yeah, this is fine. The dog or whatever sitting in the room counter. Well, there you go, Andrew. Andrew, you helped me workshop the theme this week for the show. So was X F L Radiance? This is fine. Question mark, anything else before I let you go? I really appreciate it. Like I said, we just live in this world and people are still going to think I bring you in to prop up one thing or another, but I do appreciate outside of the opinion, sir. Yeah, no, I mean personally I don't have a stake in any of it. I would love to see some or all levels of alternative football succeed. I do think in general TV executives and league executives are maybe higher on the audience for these alternative football leagues than the actual public is at this point. But that's the thing that can change. That's the thing that can change with time. If highlights keep going viral, if people keep going to the gains, if you get actual connections in the community, there's ways for all of this to grow and maybe in free five, 10 years or whatever, we're like, what do you mean? There's always been an X F L? There's always been a U S F L, but for the moment it's all in a very new state. It's all in a very fragile state and that's going to draw a law comment and a lost speculation on where it's actually going and no one really knows other than the executives at the league and the networks. So I have one more. So you gave me a q I have one more question, but then you gave me something here. Sure. So you said you always think that maybe there's, if I listen, I've heard this correctly, TV executives believe there's a bigger market for this than there actually maybe is in the public. Can you please expand on that? Yeah, I mean I don't know. I that for a fact. I don't know what numbers they have talked about internally, but I do feel that every level of spring football since the original like 2001 x ffl has not really lived up to maybe what they were hoping for it. And there have been high points, there have been good writings, especially for various kickoffs and kickoff weekends and whatever, but it does feel in a lot of ways like a fame that TV is trying to put over that the audience isn't necessarily there on yet. So EXE fell is the Roman reigns of tv. There's a reasonable comparison there. Yes. Well, no, that's interesting because I, I've had conversations and people have told, I don't do a lot of insider talking with people, but I've heard where maybe expectations I have said, I think the X F L is far more the C F L of Hey, let's embrace and let's get the C community and let's go do the fundraiser. So let's go work in the local cities and bring in fan podcasts and kind of do all this up versus the N nfl that's like F you you're going to watch or not Absolut and yeah, and I don't know if you've said if all the executives or whoever at X FFL or U S F L for that regard because U S F L I think views themselves pretty high brow too, right? Well, we're the US F L, we're a real football. I don't know if either one of them knows who exactly they're doing. A lot of hands if either of them really knows who their target demo is. I don't know. I don't know if are really aware of who's actually watching all the time. Yeah, well, I mean, yes, I don't know that I, they are, I don't know how deeply they dive into it, but I think there's two interesting and different potential demographics for these kinds of alternative football things. One is people who are hardcore alternative football fans who are going to maybe go to a game in person, buy some merch, buy some jerseys, listen to shows like this, that sort of thing. The other is people who are like, it's springing. It's Saturday. No. Oh look, there's some football on. I'll throw it on. Even though I know nothing about these teams or these players in, the interesting thing to me is that those are two very different groups to appeal to and the idea of going to markets, doing more stuff in markets, that all matters for that first group. It does not matter at all for that second group. The second group, you want to do the approach of let's play it all in one hub, let's do it as cheaply as possible. It's a made for TV product. So I think it's interesting to sort of consider from that front. And ultimately you want to try and grow both those groups, but you have to do slightly different phases to appeal to them. I would also add a third of the fantasy degenerate kind of sport matters. Yeah, I think both X F L and U S F L, like, okay, wait, we know we need to do this. I don't think either one of them has said that particularly. I don't think putting the over under and talking about hitting the over 18 times during the broadcast is appealing to the sports better. I think there's things they're doing and we've had conversations about this, but I would say that's kind of a third group in there. But that's interesting that it's, yeah, because the US F L is really kind of a hardcore, I think just if it's on Fox at three o'clock on Saturday, there's going to be quarter million or three quarters of a million people there are probably going to watch this. Well, and the other thing to consider there too is with Fox. With Fox, this is such a big thing for them because of the stuff they don't have, they don't have the college basketball. They have some regular season, but they don't have the men's or the women's N NCAA A tournament. They don't have the N H F, they don't have the B. This is a product for them at a time of year where they don't have a lot of live sports stuff going on. And so it has higher value to them or as a follow to that. Whereas with espn, they don't own the X ffl. There's a million things they can show. They're going continue to show the X ffl if it works for them, but only if it works for them. I like that. That was good. That might be the one that we share online here. I think that was good. Last question from me. I could talk to you for a long time. I really appreciate it. If you could talk to Danny, the Rock Red Bird tomorrow, call him up the answer, what would be your advice for them here going through the rest of the season of marketing? What should you guys be doing? What should you be focusing on? I mean, I think they're doing a bunch of it already. I think the way they're doing social to me is smart. And I think the way they brain Dwayne in on various social things, it's very smart. He has a huge audience there. That's important. I think it's important the X F L has done a good job of sharing various viral highlights and things that are maybe going to get at least somewhat on the radar for people who aren't all right tuned in. I do appreciate their community approach, even as limited as it is, as you mentioned. And I think there's seeing some good results with that. I think in particular with St. Louis and the tickets they're selling there, that is an impressive story. I think the big thing I would tell them is this isn't necessarily a huge year one success. That doesn't mean it's not going to be a success year free year five, whatever. You've got the money. I would say continue to invest in it, do so in a smart way. Don't just throw money in into a pit or anything. But I think if you build this smartly, build it a little bit at a time and get set up for a few years, you might see something good in the end. And I think to go back to the C F L, I think that's a big thing that's really worked for that leagues. It's had so many terrible patches over the years and so many rough patches and so on, but it keeps ticking. And a big part of why it keeps ticking is just that it's there. It's a known quantity you can build on what's come before you, that this team is going to be around next year when you put down your season ticket deposit of that. And I think that's a thing that the US alternative leagues have not really found yet is that kind of commitment and that kind of we're going to be here Awful announcing Andrew Buckholt says X ffl season. What? Not a success. I got it. Well, no, but last comment for me, no, and I think that I Jess, but I think this is really good constructive chatting here when I think it was week three, it was the weekend of the N F L combine and it was coming out of the weekend, so whatever that was week two, week three, and the X Ffl had done I think double or triple what the combine did, but it was still only like 660,000 viewers or whatever. And the rock tweeted out, these aren't great numbers are, they're humbling numbers or something, but we're building on this. I just thought that was interesting because the rock is the biggest, strongest, fastest in air quotes in any movie. Doesn't take damage always has. And I thought for him to tweet out, we're building this and these aren't all star numbers yet, but we're going to build on it. I just thought it was interesting. I just don't see a lot of the rock interacting in that way. No, absolutely. One, I think that's interesting and refreshing the sports TV ratings space in as well of so much of what we hear in the rating spaces, network executives talking about how they're not great numbers are actually great. So to me that's appreciated when you recognize that there's a lot of room to grow. Andrew, I really appreciate your time today. I'm glad we made the connection and thanks for hopping on this crazy show and talking through everything. I really value your opinion, so thank you. Absolutely. Thank you for having me. Well, it's been a hot second since I've talked to this gentleman. We had him on for the X F L draft. We did a lot of U S F L content last year. We have Cody Maine established the run here. I really appreciate your time. How are you sir? I am good. Happy to be back on the mark cast. I missed the X Ffl kickoff weekend, but yeah, it's been since the X ffl draft that we have chatted, and boy, a lot's happened since then, right? Yeah. Well, I want to get your thoughts and we have Andrew Buckles on this week from Nancy as well. I appreciate we live in this all the time and you are doing a million other things, which is great. So I always like to get, because we're like an echo chamber. So how is X ffl 2023 for you so far? Yeah, look, I've been around for X Ffl 2020 was around for U S F L, and this will be the second pass at X ffl. And for those that don't know, I work for established the run. We cover fantasy at the fantasy aspect of these spring leagues, these alt leagues, and that's specifically my title as the director of niche sports, trying to handle all of the nuances that go with the X ffl, the S F L, and all these alternative leagues. For me, from a fantasy sports betting, gambling type perspective, I think the X ffl 2023 has been a resounding success from our perspective and my little community as people that just want to watch the game, have a little bit of action on the game, want to kind of know the players' ins and outs. And Reid, you've done a good job of this too, with helping communicate injuries, helping communicate transactions where there have been changes on depth charts and things of that nature. And from my perspective, if we can sit down, know the players that are playing each Saturday or Sunday or Thursday as it may be in some cases, and can have a little bit of action on the game and a little bit of sweat equity That's perfect. So ratings aside, everything else aside from fantasy and gambling perspective, it's been a really good product for us. I have seen them now and we just had Kurt Ben Beckert get signed today. I am seeing them now trying to do more tweeting transactions. They're sending out the depth charts and the injury reports. I try to facilitate. We've had other content creators like yourself talking about these need to come out from the teams and I'm happy to get some followers tweeting that stuff out, so that's fine. But compared to, and I will say just compared to the U S F L last year, even the postgame stuff I get from the teams and here are the stats, this is what happened, here are the notes, here's links to things. I don't think I got any of that last year from U USS F L And it seems like things are a little bit more centrally located. Any if that means coming from you Reid, if you're going to be the Adam Shefter of the X ffl in terms of reporting entry news and things of that nature, to me you kind of are because you're the kind of go-to source for death charts and transaction related notes, injury news, things of that nature. So as long as people in the gambling space can understand where that information is going to come from, where to find it and add you to our X ffl Twitter list, that's really what matters most to me. All of the extra stuff that they do reporting from the inactive list, from the PR account, getting the stats out on the website, things are updated in a timely manner. I know back to the U S F L days trying to update our fantasy projections, our player by player projections, a lot of the injury related news was coming out overnight in our time zone, so we're waking up the next morning and trying to update things on the fly here. So at least the general flow of things here for the X ffl in 2023 has been relatively smooth from my perspective. I do. Yeah, I've, there's been a lot of complaints. I was just thinking of, we've had a lot of late games and we have 6:00 PM kickoffs and whatever on the Pacific Coast. I think that's payback for the U S F L and their 5:00 AM Pacific news drops and things in the overnight. I think we got a favor. I think that the East Coast got a little bit favor in there in terms of getting, so we've got the transaction stuff. Anything else you wish that you would see from them while we have you on that would make your job? Because I think these leagues know we need to to target DFS or we need to do fantasy, but it, it's more than just putting the over under on the screen or scrolling. So what do they need to do better for you guys? I think the in-game stuff that they have done has been incredible and I'm glad you brought that up because it kind of slipped my mind as well because it just becomes second nature at some point as someone who's watching these games, what the over under is, but the general population that's watching these games might not, and look, I know there's varying views on gambling and I'm not here to push gambling or anything of that nature, but I think it's a big thing for them to em at least embrace that community or understand that that community is part of the people that are watching these games have a rooting interest in these games. A lot of my fellow content creators in the sports betting and DFS space are now buying merch and buying tickets to games and all of this stuff. So it's kind of a flywheel effect. Once you get the people interested in the games and our community, they're going to support you by all of those things. Buying merch, going to games, watching games. I think from one perspective, and this is really tough for them to do because a lot of it comes down to the DFS operators such as DraftKings, FanDuel and et cetera, et cetera, but I wish they would, if there's any way for them to more so embrace that community and understand that how big fantasy football is for N F L, how big fantasy football is for the major leagues, how big fantasy basketball has become and daily fantasy basketball has become for the N b I think that's just a great avenue for them to continue to grow this audience, my audience and we're talking about million dollar prize pools every week in the N F L and now they're getting smaller in the X F L cause it's just tough to gain the attention and gain the trust of this gambling, the sports betting community. So I don't know what that necessarily means. I hate coming to the table with a suggestion without really having a solution to offer, but if there was any way for them to try and guarantee that there would be more of an emphasis on the fantasy side would be great. And I think our community would respond in droves by attending games, by watching games and all the things that the X ffl is looking to accomplish. Well, because even some of the dev charts we post and some of 'em they'll say on there subject to change or you have the quarterbacks, you'll say Quintin Dormy or Quintin Flowers or whatever. I get a lot of feedback when I post those, right? People sometimes like, oh, well I thought this was going to be, so yeah, I think they need to, and I know there's competitive advantage and all of that, but I always look at it if I was building the exit L the same way I do this show where I want this many different little things to attract a bigger audience. Not everyone's going to care about Larry Smith this week coming on from the C F L, but if I can get you talking fantasy and previewing him, okay, we get stormy I want, and so if it's the f l, like anything I could do that really doesn't cost a lot of money to put this information out, updating Google drives or whatever, that's free. Anything you can do to further incentivize, I think it's a no-brainer that I would want as many of these little avenues as I could And it's almost the more the merrier, right? I don't think you could necessarily have too much information. I think one thing that would be great, probably not nearly as cost effective as some of the things that we've already talked about, but a beat reporter type situation, a credential beat reporter that is paid by the X ffl or by the team or however that would work for each team to kind of report those news, those nuggets, those things that we don't necessarily get by seeing the depth charts, by seeing the weekly reports or the tweets from yourself. I know a lot of people are digging and diving and have rapport like yourself and connections, but it would be great if there was essentially located and credentialed team type access that we would get from each team individually and certain information that was reported from each team, but those are things that are wishful thinking. It's also part of what creates a little bit of an edge and why I find this so fascinating from a fantasy and from a gambling angle is because this information isn't readily available like it is for the N F L or for the b A. You have to dig for this information and I think that that gives a competitive advantage and for anyone that's trying to enjoy the X F L and make a little bit of money while doing it, then I think it's a huge advantage to be paying as close attention as some of us are. Yeah, I think it's talked to fancy guys last year in the U S F L and I think I even Adam Levitan instead of talking like, oh, I love this because the information isn't out there and I'm able to game the system. Yeah, okay. Yeah, it's personally that's great for you. I know the BEAT report because they have Josh now. Josh does the X F L and I don't really listen to, I'm sorry, but I try to watch X F L today and support some of this stuff. I wish Josh as opposed to doing a weekly recap show, which a lot of people do. Yeah, I think let's use his resources, so let's, I know they have another beat reporter now that was writing up press releases or something. Let's utilize them more like you said, the not readily available. Yeah, Trell Buckley does press conferences every week, right on Zoom. A lot of people can watch and share. Let's get Josh doing stuff that not everyone's going to have access to. Yeah, I like that idea of we already have people hire maybe let's focus their attentions differently. Agreed. And how can we get more access to the players? How can we, not even from a fantasy perspective at this point, but how can we build storylines and narratives around players and how can we get people to be invested in the athletes that they're watching each and every week? We know all of the N NFL players. How can you get me to know the X Ffl players understand the journey that they're on right now and I think that that creates a deeper respect from your audience and a deeper love for the game and for the product that they're putting on the field. All right, so anything else here? We'll go week six. We'll talk to matchups. So I'm excited. My wife's going to be out of town this weekend for a bachelorette party. I'm going to be locked in, haven't had some Sundays, right? But I'm like, I'm all in. I got Kraken plans, I've got Sea Dragons here. Week six. First off here is EEO C Dragons going into Orlando. This seems easy to me, but any thoughts you have on this matchup? Yeah, look, the line here is ballooned up to nine and a half. I think it initially opened at eight and a half and the Sea Dragons I think are one of those teams that they're record is not indicative of how good they are. We know the first two weeks of the season they kind of have those two heartbreaking losses and Bend Nucci to start the season just had some ball security issues and I think he's corrected a lot of those issues. I think he's now, if not the best, one of the best quarterbacks in the league. And if you're coming from a fantasy perspective, if you followed any of my content through X Ffl 2020 through U S F L through this season that I love these high tempo outpace offenses that are going to drop back a lot and that's exactly what June Jones is doing with Seattle. The wide receiver quarter that they can trot out there is as deep as any that we've seen in spring football. I absolutely love this team. I think that it's your Sea Dragons all the way this week. I listened to Ben at the Postgame and Ben had, I mean we were there. We were at Lumen Field, really bad game, I think one touchdown on the three turnovers and he's screaming for Josh Gordon to get benched and a lot of frustrations after the game and the postgame, he was talking like he's exhausted and they've had these Thursday games maybe having the, he's got 10 days off now. I think from maybe he just needs a break here to kind of refresh. I mean, what do you think of Ben trying to clean up and figure out? Because you can't be trying, I mean we can't have three interceptions every game, turnover every game. What do you think Ben needs to do? Yeah, and who would've thought that game, the C Dragons roughneck game would've been the one game of the week that kind of turned into, for lack of a better term, kind of a dumpster fire. A lot of the rest of these games last week in week five really delivered and then we see a 13 to 12 kind of ni type ugly lop fest from these two high-powered offenses. I'm one to believe that turnovers are inherently random and certainly there are players that have more control over them than others, but there have been a couple of ucci fumbles that have either shouldn't have not been fumbles or just completely fluky type plays that I think he will clean up. The interceptions certainly needs to be cleaned up, but I think over the course of a full season, I think that Ben Brandon Silver's Agent McCarran kind of the three top quarterbacks in the league, I think they're going to regress close to what we would expect from a season long average from them. Whereas DCI's got seven interceptions as of right now. I tend to believe that that's going to come back closer to what the league-wide average would be and he's not going to be some interception machine for the rest of the season. I'm a big believer in the CD dragons offense. I think they have what it takes to certainly go all the way Fit here. In terms of the Guardians, we had Quentin Dormy, sorry, played really good last week in the loss against the Vipers, him I presumably getting the start again, did that excite you at all here? Seeing Orlando even through a loss, feel like they had a little bit more life even though they all started their way into the end of the game? What did you make of Orlando coming out of the Vipers game now going into week six? It's tough because both of these teams had struggled in the win-loss column and I think both of them played albeit sloppy on occasions and albeit the defense not looking great on either side, but I think the offenses played really well and I think Quinton Dorme gave them a huge spark last week, 22 of 25 coming in relief of Paxton Lynch and maybe he gave them a little bit of a spark, which I hope because from a fantasy perspective, this wide receiver chord is a ton of fun and a lot of fun to try and take shots on. If you're playing daily fantasy from Cody LaMer who has looked like an absolute matchup nightmare in this league. We've seen some of these bigger wide receivers slash tight end hybrids do. And then you've got the trio at Wide receiver between Eli Rogers, Lance Lenore and Charleston Rambo, who I think all offer very unique skill sets. I hope Quentin Dormy gets to start this week, which I assume he will and I hope they can try and keep pace with this C Dragons offense. I'm not sure that they can, but I would love to see a shootout here. I would love to see the Guardians get on the wind column. Maybe not against your Sea Dragons, but I, I'm a little bit more optimistic about this team now than I was two weeks ago. Quintin flowers not on, I mean are we off Quintin already? That seems weird that they have Deandre Braz. I mean I know he had the concussion stuff and I think there's other things going on there as well with that. But in terms of I Quintin Flowers, I didn't look great in the game. It looked like someone that was kind of signed off the street. Yeah, I mean what a series of events for the Quentin Dorm Day stuff, given that the fact that they released bring back and then not only brought back but comes in and plays a dynamite game against the Vipers last week, I'm kind of led to believe at this point in time this is going to be his show until further notice. We're kind of projecting as much for established run this week and I think he's an interesting option for fantasy and I think that he's got something to prove. I think he looked capable last week and I think that that might be enough to get his weapons the ball a little bit In terms of, I was going to pull up, so the next game here is at I talk Jeff that's on the show this week. Jeff's feeling good. We had a win. It was almost a loss. Orlando that was just a cr. I came home, we were at dinner and I came home watched the, I'm like, oh, I'm so excited. I watch the last quarter of this game. I was like, what the hell is going on here? I don't know if Vegas can maintain the momentum coming in here, especially with the St. Louis law. So what do you make of this matchup? And I'm trying to find the charts here. Yeah, I think St. Louis is probably just in a different class I think and as we'll go through it, I think there's kind of a clear tier one, maybe another clear tier two with a couple of teams, St. Louis certainly in that tier in my opinion. And then it's kind of a slew of guys and teams next before we get to Orlando. And I think St. Louis is probably that tier two team that should probably be favored by more than three points this week, particularly after that emotional win Vegas getting kind of off the Schneider last week and getting that win over Orlando. I'm curious what they do at the quarterback position. It would seem, in my opinion, that they're going to keep rolling out Louis Perez, although we, we've kind of projected a little bit of Brent Hunley here and there, but it just didn't seem like they had any interest. And again, as someone who doesn't have all of the information readily available, I don't know if that's an injury related thing, is that a performance related thing? Whatever it may be. Louis Perez looked good. This team also, speaking of Jeff t, a ton of weapons that are a lot of fun to watch in case Sweeting has been an absolute dynamite anytime he's gotten the ball. And then we've loved John Morale and Mar Davis Bryant dating back to their N F NFL days, so seeing them with the ball in their hands has been a lot of fun. Perez has been a guy that's capable of getting it into their hands, so I like this offense. I just think that this St Louis side is a little bit too much for them this week. Yeah, Luis is weird. It's it, I think Lu was one, we do our Monday post, I think it was on one of 'em that Andrew Murray I think was talking, Luis just can't be a week to week. He's not going to be your guy. He'll have a great week and then whatever, and then he'll like, because he played incredible, he played incredible against Orlando was getting the post game and the Vipers were retweet and Louise MF Perez and all this stuff and Jeff Bette's talking about him here. But obviously you would think they'd bring in Brett Huntley highest paid guy. I do think he's suffering with some hamstring or there's some lower body stuff going on, but it just doesn't seem like he say clear. Brett was benched, I guess against was at the DC game and they said it was performance related. It wasn't performance related. It's just weird. I don't know. I can't get a handle on their quarterback situation And Perez has played good to his credit. One of those things where I feel like I've been short on Louis Perez dating back to the U S F L days and I've been proven wrong in almost every stop. Every time it seems like he goes under center, he's not only doing enough, he's outperforming my expectations and a lot of others expectations. 65.3% completion rate, 7.9 yards per temp this season and eight to three touchdown interception ratio. Of course a lot of that coming in the last game. But I, he's exceeded expectations. I think he's an interesting option. Again, like I said, I just think that this St Louis team is kind of in that tier two probably unto itself. I think that they're one of those teams that's got a shot to run the tables and take home the championship as well. We're talking here, obviously DC it's DC's world right now in the north. You that number two spot between Seattle and St. Louis. Who would you ultimately, and I don't even know the schedule coming up, but who would you put there at the number two between Seattle and St. Louis? Yeah, look, I think it's Seattle right now and a lot of that's just going to go back to probably a personal bias for June Jones and a personal bias for just seeing these past happy offenses that have a very long track record of being successful and being efficient. It's a unique beast to try and deal with and we saw two coaches that are very familiar with one another, AJ Smith and June Jones of course familiar with each other's offenses. We saw them kind of sty one another in week five. I wonder if anyone else will be able to match that blueprint going forward. But Seattle, I like the rough max as well. We'll see how big that John Kirkland injury ends up being for them that it's a huge loss. But that next group to me, obviously DC's world, I want to talk about them in a second of course, because this run heavy nature has been a lot of fun to watch on the opposite end of that past happy spectrum. But I think anyone between Seattle, St. Louis or Houston on any given day given their best performance could certainly topple this DC team. I'm glad it felt like Seattle's defense had, coach has big, he's coming in, he's like, I'm not even want to talk offense. I'm leaving that to June Jones. And I felt like our defense didn't play phenomenally well the first few weeks when we were had that shutout going into the half against the roughnecks. This is insane. I would just never think. And like you said, I don't know part of that, the June AJ and them being able to give info ahead, kind of know what each person's doing, but I thought that we played a lot better on that side of the ball. And now if to NCI can kind of stop yelling at this wide receiver and Jim Hasler can stop and threatening to kill DeNucci still my favorite clip of the XO season thus far Impressive that I love these coaching staff where it's like, Hey, I know my strength and I'm going to let the other guy handle his thing and he's going to let me do my thing. And we're seeing that with Wade Phillips and AJ Smith, Wade Phillips seems very hands off letting AJ do his thing, kind of be the boy genius that AJ Smith has proven to be at this point. And it's a very similar thing, as you mentioned with Jim Haslet and June Jones. It's like let the guys cook and they're allowing these offensive guys to do that and June Jones and AJ Smith have been an absolute treat to this point. I love both of those offenses. I would love nothing more than to see a rematch here between the Sea Dragons and the roughnecks, see if it gets that far. But yeah, I love those teams. All right, moving on here. Brahmas Renegades, I have this one here as well. I used to, we saw Banertt get signed. Obviously that's not going to come into Factor this week. This was not a great game last Sunday. Was it nine to 12 or whatever the final was? Yeah, we get the rematch now. This is at Renegades. I'm a little scared for this for ratings and for attendance and kind of everything else. But in terms of on the field play, what do you think the Brams need to do to be competitive? Yeah, look, re this one. I wish there was a lot of nice things to say about the promise Renegades rematch here back to back weeks, but I don't think there's very few very many things I can paint in a positive picture for this matchup. Looking just across the board at Totals for this week, 42 and a half for that C Dragons game, 45 for the Battle Hawks Vipers and then 43 for the rough Next defenders, which we'll get to next. This game is down at 33. A whole 10 points lower than the next highest. It's really tough to talk optimistically about offenses on either side. We've got the injury with Reid Sonnet, we've got ca, Kurt Banertt signing. We really don't know what's going to happen at the quarterback position for the Braas. I loved Kyle Slowder, not only dating back to the U S F L days but dating even prior to that in the N F L preseason when, I don't mean this facetiously or hyperbolically this, he was one of the NFL's best pre-season passers over a large enough sample size completing 74% of his passes a really high touchdown interception ratio. It's, it's been tough for me as a fan to kind of reconcile how has that not translated more from the N F L preseason into the U S F L, into the X F L. So I don't know if they're going to go back to Drew PLI or if this is going to be Kyle Loader's show going forward. I would imagine that the fact that they pulled off the win last week is probably a feather in his cap. These teams are just rotating through wide receiver pieces, running back pieces that it's just really tough from a fantasy perspective to get really excited about. The one steady force on the Renegade side has been Sal Sal Canella as kind of the teams past catcher one and operating that tight end slash wide receiver role. He's been phenomenal as well. It's tough for the San Antonio side and it's tough to be too negative and too hard on them because they've dealt with just so many injuries through their wide receiver court. Sounds like they're going to get Landon Acres back who played really well in week one, but then they lose Jalen Toliver. They've lost a lot of these guys from this wide receiver court. So I just don't think there's a ton of continuity there. I think this game probably plays under, probably plays pretty slow and like you said, from a ratings perspective is not going to be one that if people do tune into aren't going to be tuning in for long. Cause I think it's going to kind of be an ugly football game. Yeah, the under, I think Mike Mitchell was talking on, we were group chatting last week during this year, so whatever, whatever it is go under because know it's insane here. Arlington's three and two, I mean the most boring, I can't even imagine that they're plus 500, right? It it's insane. I feel bad for Anthony Miller. He covers Renegades there for the he'll be hat Choctaw. I think they need to have espresso or something up in the press box to keep these guys awake for this. I don't know. It is. I don't think the renegades were great in 2020, but it's certainly kind of a far cry right now with Bob Stoops and everything else. And that's the thing, I think the teams that we've been most excited about to this point have really boasted strong coaching staffs, really experienced coaching staffs and coaching staffs that know their strengths. And I thought coming into this Bob Stoops, Chuck Long, John Hayes, I thought that this offense would be humming and to not see them performing even at expectation, let alone above expectation has been a bummer. Maybe they get some life in there and I know Victor Bolden was recently signed. I loved him in his U S F L days for the Birmingham stallions. Maybe there's an injection of life into this offense. I will say at three and two, they kind of control their destiny at least to make the playoffs. And once we know, as they always say, once we get to the playoffs, anything can happen. So could this team beat the roughneck and then go in and not shock the world in the X F L championship game? Sure. I just think that this north, this division, it kind of belongs to Houston and the Renegades are just a very distant second. Yeah, Victor Bolton coming in signing a couple other transactions this week. I don't know if, again, do they come in? Is it too quick to come in to get down this game's in Arlington? That's always the thing too is like, you know, got to get him in and then we're traveling and all that. I'll be curious to see if he hits the field. Any other thoughts on the moves to Renegades or make, cause I know I saw that tweet here this week. Yeah, it looks like they added Brian Harrian as well. The running back position. Deion Smith has been kind of the workhorse. I know if Kenneth Farrell just went down last week with I believe the knee injury, he's been placed on the reserve list. Don't know a whole lot about Lettie Brown or Brian Harrian, but look, they need in injection of speed and injection of dynamic ability and some talent in order for them to start making plays. This offense has just been very milk toast. They haven't had to do a lot because their defense has done enough in recent games to give them that three and two record, but it would be nice to see Bob Stoops led offense. I thought there would be a little bit more pass. Happy, happy. I thought they would be able to get the ball out to their playmakers a little bit more. I think if Victor Bolden is able to play this week and if not this week next, I think he's immediately the best wide receiver on this team and can hopefully give them some consistency at the position. Yeah, I feel bad Kenneth and because he got signed late, brought in, placed on the injured reserve. I mean he's obviously a friend of the show and just tracked him through even all the way back to 2020. So certainly feel bad for Kenneth there coming in late and then having to get injured here. This is the game I do think everyone's looking forward to. We just had Brandon Silvers here on the show, my quarterback all the way back to the Dragons in 2020, the Monday night game hopefully. Hopefully we can spark some ratings here. Seven Eastern feels better. Rough next, looking good coming off a loss. I think they're going to be pissy here. And then defenders, this is obviously your game of the weekend and my overstating Absolutely my game of the weekend. And as we say in the fantasy world, this is the Monday night Hammer. So they'll have all four games, all three of the first games we played Saturday and Sunday and all of us DFS players that are heavily invested in this game will be sitting back from Monday at seven o'clock eastern waiting for Brandon Silvers waiting for this high powered rough next offense to take on this high powered rushing attack from DC and hopefully we'll watch the scoreboard numbers rack up like a lottery machine and the same thing will happen for the fantasy points. I'm very excited about this game. I will say as a roughneck backer, you can check back on the tweets heading into the season. The roughnecks are my team. I'm a big fan of AJ Smith, big fan of the way Wade Phillips is handling things and the way that this team is constructed as a whole. I am nervous about John Tre Kirkland. I think that by no stretch can I say that he hadn't gotten lucky on some of these touchdown catches on some of these long plays that he had. But a lot of that just goes back to him being one of the most talented wide receivers in my opinion in this league. I think his loss could be a big one for this team. So it will be interesting to see how they step up with Justin Smith with some of the recent signings that they've made. If these guys like Devon Salter and Jacori Robertson will be healthy and ready to play this week, not entirely sure they will be, but Deontay Burnett, Cedric Bird, Trevell Harris, these guys need to step up and give Brandon Silvers some plus targets to operate with because this defender's rushing attack is going to be going from the first whistle and it's going to be tough for them to stop. We just saw what Abram Smith did last week, the dynamic ability of Jordan tamu and Derek King in the backfield under center. It's just a lot to deal with and we've talked about it in the U S F L, but these teams that are willing to zig while everyone's zagging and kind of operate this run heavy approach can have some success if they can be efficient and there's been no one more efficient than this defender's team on the ground. So it's a lot of fun to watch from a contrasting styles perspective. Even for me, someone who likes the past happy natures of some of these teams like Houston and Seattle, it's a ton of fun as we call it in our world, the established the type teams can be effective in doing so. It's a lot of fun to watch this DC team. I like Houston plus two and a half. I don't like it enough to personally bet it, but I hope that this game remains close. Maybe we get some overtime here on Monday night and hopefully a lot of points. I was scouring here, sorry, I was looking to see, I don't have a defender's dev chart. Yeah, and again they kind of recycle some of these week to week and the game's not till Monday, so I was looking to see if we have that. We do not yet. So we have the rough next one. I don't, don't know if I expect too many changes from dc. They're doing pretty good. My question for you, someone that watched obviously with the U S F L and TEU really struggling, even silvers and I know he was in the US L, but some of these quarterbacks getting a bounce back here, just are we finding the better use for him here? What do you make of teu because it's like a different man compared to the US F L? Yeah, you nailed it. You nailed it. And same thing with Brandon Silvers. If you look back to the X ffl 2020 days with just some of his completion rate and turnover, a touchdown interception ratio been a much improved quarterback for the Houston roughnecks and credit to him, credit to AJ Smith for operating a scheme that has been beneficial to what Brandon Silvers does. Well, exact same thing happening for Jordan Samu. We saw him be very successful with the battle hawks in 2020 was a very good fantasy quarterback, was a very good real life quarterback for that team as well. That didn't translate to the U S F L and it was kind of surprising to see that in that Taha system, him not playing very well in that past friendly system. Now he gets back in this Fred Kai system that's operating him more as a running back, more as a rusher, utilizing his legs a little bit more, getting him out in space, making some of those throws a little bit easier for him. And we're seeing a really dynamic Jordan tame, which is a lot of fun for this league and that's one of the reasons why the defenders are kind of the class of the X ffl at this point and really the team with the target on their backs, the team to beat. Well I think we got two good games here. I want to see St. Louis at Vegas and I want to see Houston. I hope that for my sake, I hope the Dragons game is not good that we just go in there and absolutely kill them. And then that, Cody, I appreciate your time. Anything else, any other thoughts, anything else you want to touch on before I let you go? I appreciate your time Today. No, I appreciate the time, Reid. We're covering everything over at established the run. If you guys are interested in fantasy, any interested in sports betting or anything or just want a community of people to talk to, we've got a Discord channel for subscribers as well. So check us out, establish the run.com. Appreciate you having me on and it's always a lot of fun to talk spring football. Well, I like it was because again, this is really outside of my wheelhouse, but last year when I kind of des, I'm like, I need smart people to talk to about U USS F L stuff and I go, oh my God, there's all these guys that know so much. So I appreciate, you guys are doing great work over there and obviously we got the US F L here coming back and they're in training camps and it seems like I'm seeing more social media stuff. I feel like they're doing a little bit more. We have the mallers uniform revealed today that it wasn't a lot, but I think we're trying there. I think we're getting the US F L steam back going here. Yeah, get the flywheel started, get the fans, get the people talking and that's all we can ask for. Cody, appreciate your time. We'll enjoy this weekend. Thanks again. All right, see you Reid. Well this has to be the highest serving member of any government body here We have Senator Larry Smith out of Canada. How are you doing sir? I'm fine, thank you Reid. It's great to speak with you. I'm very excited for this track to you for a long time. And then obviously now with all the Hall of Fame, everything with the Canadian football reached out, thought we could get you on. First off, congratulations on the getting inducted into the Canadian Football Hall of Fame. Well, it's a great honor and there's a lot of people when you look over time, whether it's a C F L or the NFL or any league where people have made major contributions and not everybody gets recognized. So I feel very, very honored to be in that group now. How did you find out about it? How did you get the news? I received a call about 10 days ago from one of the senior executives of the CFL and said, Larry, just to want you to know that you've been nominated to go into the CFL Hall of Fame as a builder. And I said, well that's fantastic. And so it came about. I had really no expectations because I've been out of football since two 10 and involved in another world in the Senate of Canada. I'm very honored to be here. But it was a surprise, but I'm a pleasant surprise is probably the easiest way to explain it. You said you know that not everyone that contributes or obviously has the ability to get recognized. Where do you view, obviously as a player and you were a team president and you're the commissioner, where do you view your greatest contribution to the C F L? Well, truthfully, there's been a lot of great players in the C F L and I was lucky enough to play with some of them, including Heisman Trophy winner Johnny Rogers set a Nebraska. I was lucky enough to be one of the first Canadian running backs to actually start in the seventies. We had a legendary Canadian named Ronnie Stewart who played in Ottawa during the sixties. But after Ronnie, there weren't too many Canadians and we were regarded sometimes as Canadians to play offensive line, defensive line, maybe linebacker because we weren't necessarily the greatest athletes. But I never considered myself a great athlete, but I considered myself someone who was capable of doing a lot of things so I could run, I could catch, I could block and do sort of different things. I could throw a few ducks as option passes. And so I was lucky enough to be drafted number one in Canada and played for nine years. I had a good career. As I look at my time in the CFL after that as commissioner, I'm very proud of the fact that the expansion, which people criticized was critical to the survival of the league. And the 18 million of revenue doesn't sound like a large number, but when you're in a smaller league and you have that money coming in with some of your franchises in difficulty because of whether it's lack of funds or poor management, and I know the XFL and the reiteration of spring football have had those same types of challenges. When you have those types of challenges and you take a product like expansion of a league and you can get five teams and you last three or four years, whether it's three or four years or five years, whatever it is, it gives an opportunity for new referees to come in, referees from the states, the nfl, CFL changing. You have more American players recognizing, hey, there's a hundred year old league I can play in it's great football. And so there's lots of opportunities. So I look at the expansion when I was commissioner as probably a major, major element of probably why I was selected. I would think also helping to rebuild the Montreal franchise and that was a very tough experience because we started from nothing. We had 1800 season tickets in a 55,000 seats facility and football had not been in Montreal for many, many years. But to rebuild that and have 10 years of sellouts and having a very successful football team, we were a dominant team for a decade and that's pretty impressive when you look at it. Those two combinations probably swung the gates for me to get into the hall. That's good. And we'll talk Al Letz here in a minute. They're a team that's near and dear to my heart. We just had Cody Fu Jaro won here a couple weeks ago, then you started in quarterback there. But in terms of the American expansion, and I know 1000000000th of a percent of the great history of the C cfl, right? We're still learning every day in our listeners, but a lot of people view the expansion as a failure. Well, it didn't work. They didn't want to deal with it besides the fact that it was decades ago, the world is a completely different place. How do you view, besides the monetary right, we needed the money to survive. How do you view that as a successor failure, their expansion back in the nineties? Well, I think it's important to understand is that when you expose your product into another market, especially as big as the United States market, the US market and the power of the nfl, basically suddenly you get recognition that hey, what's this league about? Who are these people? And you have players suddenly who had no knowledge of the CFL during the seventies. We had great American superstars come out of the NFL near the end of the careers like Terry Metr as a running back came up and played. Anthony Davis came up and played. We had super players that came up and it gave other us players of lesser fame knowledge that they could come up and play in the league. And I mean we've been around well over a hundred years. So when players come up, when referees suddenly start switching between N nfl, C F L to learn about a different product and to improve their own skills, which was a major thing when ESPN suddenly gives us a contract. And at the time back in expansion back in 1992, it was only a million bucks a year, but now it's on five or six of the US channels. And so it, it's one of these things that it grows and at the time that it existed, and when you get into sports leagues, and you'll know this with the U X Ffl, whatever league you want to call, there's moments when you have to pivot. And the expansion was a pivot and the pivot at the time didn't last long. The pivot worked in that we had Bob Wetenhall come in from the states bought Montreal. Bob hired me to run the team. We were lucky enough to have Jim Pop as a great, great general manager, and Jim is now tied with the new league. And we had people who contributed to building not only the Baltimore team, which was our best US franchise, but also coming back into Canada to help us rebuild the aos. And we had great players. And so when you look at the combination of all these factors, pivoting in any business is a key element to success. We made a major pivot. We got a great owner in Montreal and then we had the former owner in Hamilton bought the Toronto Oros, David Braley and the BC Lions. And so once we had those two fellows in to secure the league, then we had other big time owners come in to take over the Toronto oros to take over the Ottawa franchise to take over the Vancouver franchise. And so suddenly now, 10, 15 years later, 20 years later, we have solid strong ownership. So now what do we have to do? We have to make sure we market ourselves and make sure that we do the right things to make the CFL stronger. In terms of that, we've heard even as early as last week, we're expanding to Halifax and we're trying to do that again. And our listeners are primarily American, right? We care about C F L American TV deals, let alone expansion. And how would you view trying to expand the C F L today, either physically or marketing wise? You have to understand one of the major success factors behind the National Football League is not only is it a great league and a great history, but you have a huge television contract, how much is your television contract worth? Two 3 billion. And so once you have it, the exposure, but you have the money and funds behind the exposure, you can then expand your league and expand your franchises and expand your stadiums and make sure you get the best players. And so for Canada, we have a very different economy of scale. You guys have what, 380 million people in your country? We've got 38 million, so take a ratio of 10. And so for our television contract, we'd only have out of 38 thou, 38 million people, we probably only have how many, what would you figure 1214 television set. So when you look at the size of your market opportunity for networking, it is reduced. So then you have to make the best of what you've got, and then you have to really build local relationships and national relationships with your sponsors. And then you have to make sure that you have the quality of product on the field so that you're going to get people to come into the box, which is your stadium. How would you grow the game further south? Would it be getting it on TV, sets your border, trying to redo what was happening in the nineties? How would you grow the game besides getting a 10th team in Halifax? Well, again, let's talk about Halifax for two seconds, is that Halifax is a great idea, but Halifax at best is going to be a regional franchise like the Saskatchewan franchise where you get people going to the Saskatchewan Rough Rider games, okay, drive 10, 12 hours to get there. And so it is a social, if you want type of activity for people down in the Maritimes if you're going to have a franchise. The issue is where do you put the franchise? And you have to have a big family, a rich family that's going to get involved like many of the rich families do in the nfl. Will that happen? Well, yeah. Then you have to have a stadium. Well, you can't go to a university stadium because our university stadiums are small. They're not like in some of the US schools where you have 8,000 thousand seats, you know got 10, 15,000 seats. So you have to have a stadium plan in place. And so is it a real realistic expectation that you will get that type of interest in a regional market? I think it would be fantastic if we could, but at the same time you have to take your base and build your base, and we've been through very many pivotal movements. We're doing very well right now. And what's the future going to be? The future could be, hey, the new league in the States, they want to have some franchises in Canada because they can come and maybe expand their league. But then again, think television, think about your viewers, think about the eyes and the box that are looking at your prog programs, is that it makes more sense for us to try to expand what we have in our own country if it's realistic or at the same time making sure we do the best with what we've got Time's running short here. I'll get a couple 'em before I let you go. I promise I got the time here. You talked about Jim Pop and your relationship, he's obviously with the U S F L X F L here as in mid-season. What do you view this right to success or anything of these alternate spring football leagues in America? Well, it really comes down to the strength of the National Football League is basically that. It's a sort of late summer fall, early autumn league. It's entrenched in terms of the strength that it has. It's a very powerful operation. And spring football has been tried for what, two or three gyrations until or incarnations till this point. It'll be interesting to see. One of the pivot points they're talking about already is, well, instead of playing in the spring, should we talk at the same time the N F L does but play on a different day so that we can sort of leapfrog onto the type of ratings options that exist and that could be an option. Or do we just focus on making sure that the franchises we have in place now we solidify those franchises, we help them to succeed. And once you succeed, then you can add incremental franchises. So there's some options available for the new league, but it's determined on the strength of ownership and making sure that the people are committed and people don't run as soon as there's some obstacles or some encumbrances along the way. Two questions for me. Do you think there is a place for spring football in America? Well, football is such a important fabric at the high school levels, semi-pro, the level of football in the states and the penetration is huge. It is part of, it's a national game. And of course you have national games with basketball and you now have baseball. I shouldn't say now have baseball, but baseball's a long institution and now you're starting to get the evolution of the National Hockey League in the States, which we have to comment and say congratulations to the commissioner for the Gary Bettman for the job he's done. And I met Gary Bettman back when I was recruiting an owner trying to get a franchise in Portland back in 1991 and he was the assistant to I think the commissioner of the basketball league. But yeah, it really comes down to what options and opportunities does the new league have in the states, how they're managed, how they're owned, and having some stability in making sure that you set the rules and people follow the rules. You can't have entrepreneurs who like to run all over the place and do different things and blow their own whistle. You have to have a real balancing act. That is not an easy thing to do. So for the new commissioner in that league, I wish him the best luck. Best of luck because you have to deal with it, the human dynamics so that you can make this thing grow. Will it grow? Hey, let's see what happens. Last question for me, we'll get you out of, I promise it might be 30 seconds over just the sale here in Pierre coming in P K P buying the tz. How do you feel about obviously a franchise near and dear to your heart, their health now moving forward? Well, let's put it this way. Mr. Pedo has a net worth of 1.9 billion, whether it's US or Canadian funds, I don't know. But we have been looking for an owner since Bob Wetenhall got sick and passed away unfortunately. But the importance of having a local person with funds and capacity and the desire to involve themselves in the community. Mr. Pedo is well known in Quebec. He is very successful. He's a strong-willed individual, but he's doing it for the right reasons. And so now the challenge is how does he launch, how does he execute, how does he put in place some of his personnel so that they can compete right off the Well? Senator, I could talk to you all day, I really appreciate it. I know your time is short, so thank you for spending some time on an American football podcast today talking C F L. All right, well it's great to talk to you too, Man. Thank you. So what'd you think a good show we do this week? I think it was good. Like I said, the joy I get running down talking to some of these people means a lot. Stormy pudding up coming on the show. She doesn't have to do that. Larry Smith coming on, everybody else means a lot when people take the time to come on means a lot obviously when you guys stick around and watch and listen. Special thanks, like I said, stormy, Larry Smith's office, Senator Smith, and then congratulations for him as well on his Canadian Football Hall of Fame induction. I don't think I said it at the end of the interview with him. I know I congratulated him at the beginning. So congrats to Larry. I certainly deserves that. Huge thanks for the rough Next crew and the Vipers crew getting players this week. Really looking forward to the Monday night game. You're probably listening to this before at the big Monday Night Football ESPN two game with the roughneck at the Defenders, so that should be fun. I certainly appreciate Andrew for coming on and Cody as well. Like I said, thanks everyone, like it, subscribe. Get us up to 3,500 subscribers. I know people were excited about the show this week when I posted it. Hope it does good in the viewership and everyone checks it out. That's going to do it for me today. Thanks as always. Hope you guys have a good weekend. I post these memes and stuff. Not part of it's a joke, part of it's not. I think it's funny. We need a theme every week and I thought this week we did all right with ya. You know, is this fine? Is this fine? So hope you guys thought it was as funny as I did. We'll see you next time. Thanks.

XFL 2023 Mid-Season Review + XFL 2023 Week 5: What Did We Learn?

Well here we are, week five. Recap. Welcome to the mark. How'd to get a false start in there From my boy T Buckley out of Orlando Guardians. How to get a little false start in here today. Exciting day here midway through the XFL 2023 season recapping XFL. Week five. Going to have Andrew Murray joining us today. And then special guest Pat Rapino should be exciting here. We'll get all your comments, everything. We'll do kind of week five and then I do kind of want to do like how do we feel like we're at now mid-season here? There were some highs and there were some lows this weekend. First and foremost, bringing up my Mountain Dew. Drinking Shannon Sharp. Andy Murray. How are you doing sir? I'm still trying to think of like one-liners from Shannon every time you bring me onto the show. He, I, to be honest, I haven't really watched undisputed recently and I need to get my repertoire back into the fold so hopefully I can do this soon. How are you? I'm good, I'm good. I told Andy last night, I said I want to be too negative today. So Andy said he was going to talk me off the ledge here a little bit if we had to. Yeah, I'm going to try my best. I'm going to, I got some rope, don't worry. I'll tie around on your waist and I'll make sure you just don't fall off buddy. It's okay. It's good. And then we have here another, and you're the bearded gentleman here. I don't know more or less beautiful beard than Evan Willmore, but we have Pat Rapino here. Pat, how are you? I'm good because my beard actually goes in my cheek and stays up above my neckline, so I consider myself having a real beard. I don't know about that. A real beard. Well this is good. This is good. Today, pat was at the Battle Hawk game this, and I saw hanging out, been post game and everything that looked exciting. I was at the Houston Roughnecks first loss ever here against us. Seattle Sea Dragons on Thursday. I don't remember, but I spoiler alert. That's why when I go to the game, I go as a fan, right? I don't, I'll do the press box for the kickoff, whatever. I was down there with Matt Lyons, we were hanging out, but the next morning that I had to wake up and I was like, yeah, we really were really close to losing that game last night. I kind of had to recollect that. So we'll get into all of that. Pat, first off from you we're coming off, I guess we'll get into the rough next braas of it all, but how do you feel about week five overall? I don't want to use the word regression in quarterback play, but we definitely didn't see the most exciting quarterback play and I don't know if we've been spoiled for four weeks or this is just how football is and shame on me for not doing enough research before coming on the show. But if we were to go back in an N F L season, how many weeks do we see none of these quarterbacks just blow the head off of the week? You know what I mean? So with a shorter season, we're not going to get that as much statistically, but when I do my quarterback rankings this week, I've had Brandon Silvers the number one. I don't really feel comfortable moving really anyone other than Paxton Lynch down and TEU up with because there really no one wowed me and McCarran might've been the closest one to wow me, but then he threw that last second pick and I don't believe his lack of statistics was indicative of his play, but more or less, I feel like the play calling for the Battle hawks was a little too cute if in my opinion. Yeah, Andy thi to me this was the hardest week so far. I felt like overall and even Ucci and we had all this stuff with this, Seattle should have never, Houston didn't have any chance to come back in that game. I thought obviously the game last night we saw issues and injuries here and now with Reid sunk hate to see a fellow Reid, we don't have too many of them in the world here. What did you make overarching view here of week five? To sort of piggyback off of Pat's point? There are a lot of times during the N F L season when there are ebbs of flows of teen performance and quarterback performance. He's right. I mean there are times where even the most outstanding quarterbacks have their down weeks. And when you're in a league like this, that kind of statistic is going to be magnified when you don't put up outstanding performance. I mean, I don't know what I would've reacted to if you told me going to this weekend that Quintin Dormy and Luis Perez were going to have the most outstanding statistical performances in the entire weekend. I would've thought, well, really nice for them. That's great. But that is absolutely not what I thought was going to happen because based on all these performances, it's pretty interesting that you had just a litany of turnovers from so many of these guys. Obviously Ben Ucci was up to his old tricks. I hope Jim Haslett's not going to kill him because he's, he's going to gone after him for how many picks he threw in that game. Brandon Silvers obviously did not perform well. I do agree with you Pat, that Adrian McCarran did have a good game. It was unfortunate that he threw that pick at the end to Michael Joseph, who's again having an outstanding season. The DC defense is awesome. And that's the other thing. There are good defenses in this league. Arlington great units stout unit. It's just they can't muster in the offense DC outstanding. Even St. Louis I think has some good defensive components to them. They just got run over in the battle Nome. But yeah, overall the quarterback play was much left to be desired this weekend and I think that's just the ebb and flow of the entire operation. Teams are establishing their identities, but also they're putting more film on tape for these other teams to study and be able to maybe measure their tendencies and be able to understand what kinds of things they're going to do or what predict what sort of operation they're going to run in. Some of them are a little bit in flux. For the most part though. You sort of have your offenses as set in stone save for maybe San Antonio, which still is stuck in the mud anyways. Well what you were saying there, it felt like a regression, and I want to pull this up here too. I mean it felt like a regression quarterback play. It felt like a regression kind of across the board here. I'm terrified to see what the radis look like this week, but we have the attendance here, St. Louis down 3000. Okay, that's fine, whatever. But we have San Antonio down on 11,000 compared to their home opener, Houston, Seattle. I was in Lumen Field. I do not believe a 9 9200 people were in that lower bowl of that game. That might be the official attendance and then 6,000 at cash. It just felt like we're getting into March Madness now. These games are late. We get into the schedule and all that later. But just felt like across the board here, this we're, and I don't know if you're just going to hit that anyway, but it felt like we kind of hit a wall there this week. Pat, thoughts on that? I'm a little disappointed in San Antonio. Excuse me. I've been very vocal about this league. We will ride or die with San Antonio and St. Louis and for the second week in a row, St. Louis has been competing with another market playing because the St. Louis FC was playing and they brought in 35,000 and they're like four or five and oh, which is the first time in an expansion franchise. And then the week we broke 38, we had a blues game going, which the team, the blues haven't been that good, but St. Louis loves its hockey. So yeah, those two factors going on, world Baseball Classic was going on. Maybe that took a couple people out, but someone ties writing it there. These late games for the overall, in my opinion, when you have these late games, and I don't want to put Seattle on the spot, but when you're putting that game out there, you're alienating half of the country based off time zones. Because for me being in Central, that's nine. Well, on a Thursday. Thursday is my busy day for my work. So it's like I'm struggling to watch this game, but I'm not watching it to talk about it. I'm just watching it to go to sleep at that point and then go to, as someone who used to live on the East coast when the Yankees or Mets we'd play on the West coast, it's like, man, I get four innings in and I got to go to school the next morning or work the next morning. So I'm a little disappointed. I thought San Antonio was going to break 20 k St. Louis 35 k. It doesn't it, if anyone's talking about that being a negative, I think they're a hater. Seattle maybe in that double digits if we're on a Friday night instead of a Thursday night. I don't know mean Vegas has its own conglomerate of problems that I don't think we have enough time to talk about in my opinion. But I mean St. Louis seems to be holding the league to a standard that technically only San Antonio can get percentage wise because obviously the stadium's smaller but a little disappointed. Maybe it's a mid-season taper off. Maybe if San Antonio was more competitive, maybe if the game was on the Saturday night. I feel like I'm coming off as an apologist a little bit and I don't like that because in the end, and I hate to breaking this up, but if the U S F L was doing these numbers, would we have better opinions? Would we have worse opinions because of we're creating the baseline of what we've seen for each league. So that's my opinion on that. Yeah, I mean 35,000 is, that's a huge number. I mean that's 35,000 is every non Birmingham game combined throughout the season. But there was this expectation we're spending the money, we're going into markets, we're renting the venues, we're doing all these things. Either has to be a really large turnout and I know being here in Seattle, the team is outside of social media, which I think is tremendous, at least for the Dragons is doing a really good job. If you're not online, you do not know that exists. We had Mike Mitchell on last week talking about 120,000 reported in budget that's been spent on marketing. Cautiously minimalistic in that way. But you don't know the team exists here. We've talked about the crack and the death. I think that's a major part of it. I think it's really hard when they're playing. You have a playoff contending team in they're second year two miles down the road playing sold, I mean sold out to capacity and then we're at the Dragons game. Yeah, I had a blast. It was a blast. I felt like that was the first bit of fun I've had really being, because we were in Arlington and that was fun. It is stressful. We're doing the show and doing the press box and stuff. Andy, what do you think of this? And then we can get into the game breakdowns. Yeah, I agree. There has to be more emphasis on the atmosphere of that's up these games. If you're going to get these people involved, like you've mentioned about the Kraken game, about these teams that are already established in the local area, in the local markets, you have to build up that trust of course. And when you don't have an enviable TV schedule, that's not going to help. I mean for me, I'll be honest, this was the hardest week for me to try and watch games just based on scheduling, based on other things that were going on. The fact that Sunday came around and it took so long to wait for that Brahmas Arlington game, which quite frankly was not worth waiting around for, did not bode well and I wish that there was a game or two at least during the daytime to fill that gap to fill that time. Some of the NCAA tournament games were good, but by that point you're at round 32 and there's not as many games on tv. Thursday was just like that's unapproachable. Thursdays on that day is impossible cause you have so many teams playing at the same time. You have upsets going on. You have so many people geared towards their TVs on Thursday and Friday especially of the tournament and it's so hard to get people to invest it on that. To play on a Thursday night, Saturday was a little bit better. I think the St Louis DC game will probably rate well and just based on the matchup as well and also the time slot. But again, you had Vegas in Orlando just playing late on a Saturday night and again in a venue that everyone doesn't like seeing in person or on TV personally had about enough time watching that grass seen people say that the grass conditions are better. I said to someone this week, I was like, I don't even know if most cows would eat off that grass. So I'm not really keen to watch it again on tv. So yeah, it was a rough spot just based on the timing, the schedules and good point made by Mike Mitchell. Ashley, we talked about this last night. It's tough for these families to come out to these games, especially on a Sunday night. Are you kidding me? You think your family's going to come out at 8:00 PM for a start kickoff time in San Antonio when you have school the next day, you know can have these U S F L games trying to invite families and try and get people in for cheap. Well the X F L should have that, but the problem is their schedule is just unviable for these families and that's just something that has to be factored in going forward if you're going to draw more people into the stands. Well, and that's the thing Mike was on and we had the U S F L schedule came out, I think it was last week now, early last week, the actual TV networks and stuff and it looks great, it looks really good. I've said that. That this is what happens when you have them. They own the network, they're able to leverage that season one felt like a test in that regard. Okay, let's try Friday. Okay, let's try. Okay, the don't work at all. Let's Saturday, Sunday, and I agree you're sitting around all day yesterday, it's six o'clock here. By the time the game kicks off 6 0 6 we're heading to dinner. I've sated around all day. I don't watch, haven't watched a second of any and I didn't even realize Gonzaga was in the tournament. I mean I guess I should have known, but I'm like sitting there last night, my father-in-law, he's watching the tour. I said, oh yeah, cause I went to Gonzaga. Oh yeah, I guess the rest, I don't have any knowledge of that, but it was hard and like you said that to Wade around all day for a game like that, X ffl is like the C F L. We can't hide these bad games. We only have four games a week and next week now the a b ABC game ride is going to be back at Orlando with Seattle. That's not going to be good. It felt like we were trying to hide some of these games on FX and stuff before we're getting to the later part of the season. I don't know if we can flex some of those games now to get, let's get the Houston whatever we got Monday night football coming up. But Pat, any other thoughts on that and then we can jump into the Brahmas Renegades game. The only thing I want to add on is it kind of scares me for the future of Seattle and Vegas a little bit and even Orlando and I think those are kind of the three stepchildren we've talked about a little bit in the group chats of is the X ffl going to eventually have AJ McCarran living in St. Louis or the surrounding counties or Ben Ucci living in Seattle and I don't know if that's going to add butts in the seats. I don't know if these players want to do this because it's a lot easier to tell Katherine Webb, Hey babe, four months in Arlington not a big deal. I don't think she's modeling anymore, but regardless, we all know has his own brand based out of Dallas and whatnot. So it's like while I think that would be great to have these players back air quote home because that makes them more like, yeah man, I went to Cafe Napoli and I saw AJ with his wife, which is one of the spots in St. Louis. I don't know if this model is going to allow for that because when the benefit of the hub in Arlington is everything centralized, all the trainers are centralized, media go down, the list is centralized. But I do think eventually these guys do need to live in the city, which is going to get more gener, more off season, like September nonsense going on, especially with St. Louis not having a football team to have open mini camps and all that stuff like they did in 2020. So St. Louis is the only one that's proven that they should have a team like living there. I think San Antonio's not far behind. Seattle is the next one off my list. I mean Arlington's, Arlington, I think you could put anyone there and it'll be a decent showing regard because of the demographic and whatnot, but I'm very curious to see their plans moving forward because I think once the St. Louis team is the St Louis team, not just splitting time between mom and dad, that could see more benefits in my opinion. We talk about in the U S F L all the time, why should someone about Philadelphia care about the stars? The stars have never not been to a championship, but why should I care? Well, and I don't know if it's a combination of we do the hub model, we fly him in a day earlier a make it easier for travel. Heard Ben Nici talking about that this week in the press game, post game press conference. I thought that was very, he's like, I'm not going to get home till 10:00 AM tomorrow. We've been out of a short week. If you fly 'em in the night before, you can do more media stuff because right now They're fine. Which St. Louis did. They went to one of the malls and they did an autograph signing. Granted they announced it five hours before and I don't have children, but two people I work with are in love with this. They know what I I'm doing with the team and they're like, wow, if we knew a day before we'd go up there, we give you, if you weren't doing anything, could you bring our kids up there? Because they know I've talked with AJ and whatnot and I'm starting to get to the point where AJ gives me the head nod on the field. It's like, yeah, that would be great for these kids who don't know who the Rams are. So I mean I get it to an extent, but it'd be cool to get that in September when there's not like, okay, I have a game tomorrow. I could spend five hours at Dick's Sporting Goods and it's not going to mess with my wife. I agree. And that's the thing is it's trying to balance coming in and even even so bad they're doing the local press game press like get these guys on the road, get 'em the hell out of here, let's go do all that. So we circle back here at the end if we want the bar burner, that was Arlington Renegades here, putting up 22, 22 points in the last two weeks because it was 10 to nine and then, or that was that two weeks ago that not a high scoring affair here we saw Reid sonnet go down. Marquette King had an awesome punt and then punt returned and it was incredible. Andy, overall thoughts, this game was not a classic by any means. Yeah, my only comment last night was at least it's not 10 to nine, but even then there was just a lot of things to be desired on offense here. Obviously Kyle Slowder was, I think he was about the same that he had been in the past two weeks at least. They started running the ball a little bit more trying to commit to it. Did they get a lot of explosive plays? No, but they at least got a little bit more the Reno Hall run. I mean that was an end around, that wasn't a traditional run, but at least they're trying to get a little more creative in the run game. They have to no choice. They can't just continue to rely on the passing game here. This for the Renegades, I mean it was the same story. Their defense is really good and their special teams are awesome. Marquette king punting his ball and then downing it himself is insane. I've never seen that from a punter before, but that's something that is going to help this Renegade team going forward. As far as the Braas go, it's a real that Reid Sette got hurt. He was playing fairly well up until his injury. I thought he threw the ball with decent authority. He was utilizing TJ Basher who was back in the lineup who was having a really good game in the first half. They still also cannot run the ball with any semblance of authority. I know the yards per average is a little bit better here for Jacques Post Patrick for example, but they're still just getting stonewalled in a lot of cases and they just can't seem to work off any play action. It's been a work in progress for this team. So regardless of who's play calling for them, whether it's Jaime Elizondo or now Jimmy Johnson, it doesn't seem to have changed the narrative very much. I feel bad for Hz Ward because I think this team, I think the team is prepared every week. I don't think it's the problem with the preparation methods. I just think that the personnel sometimes doesn't really match up to what they can do, especially on offense, which to be fair, I thought they could throw the ball willy-nilly to these top receivers, these guys who are so big and tall. But the problem is now I'm starting to realize, and some other people have pointed out, they don't have a lot of vertical speed. They just can't seem to stretch the field very much and they can't get anything going in that way. And as far as running the, again, the running game, they can't seem to get anything going. They've also had a lot of offensive line injuries and that is also starting to accumulate in this league too. Offensive line injuries, which is already thin to begin with. We've talked about this a lot leading up to the seasons, these spring league seasons. Finding offensive line is hard and when you have injuries to that position, it's going to be even harder to get any sort of cohesion up front, protecting your quarterback, being able to call out of certain plays, being able to run the ball with anything. And so this is kind of tough for San Antonio right now and it's really tough letting at these two teams are going to play each other again next week, which by the way, I will be at that game. So I'm already preparing myself mentally to not see 30 points past as the threshold for either team, but this is going to be happening again I'm sure because right now it just seems like both teams are stuck in the mud offensively. Yeah. Pat, what do you make of this? I've seen a lot of comments in the chat. We're calling for Swamp Pass here. What are we doing ettes down Eli Elizondo, the whole OC switch. I don't know, is he not wanting to put in Reed and that? What do you make of the San Antonio woes right now? Oh man, I was a big ette guy. If he watches pre-season film, he's not scared to go vertical. It seems that. So here's my opinion on a lot of these quarterbacks, you have Slowder and Cone and PL who are so close to the N F L that they're playing to not make a mistake. And it seems like in per source that Kyle is pressing so hard right now because he knows that this is his last shot and he's very jittery and I don't think we're at that with Cone because I think Cone is still young enough and there's still more a couple injuries in camp in the season. He could, Cohen's going to be getting workouts and whatnot. I think he had two more workouts after he was drafted. So that's an opinion on that. But with these quarterbacks, that's why I think even DeNucci, I don't want to go too far is just slinging it because this is the final shot. Like AJ could put up mid numbers and because he's AJ McCarran, he's going to get an opportunity. So I'm seeing with Cohen and Slow and Kyle, a lot of pressing a lot of nervousness while Ette knows who he is, he's like, Hey man, I've got the contacts in the league because these connections are big, I'm just going to do what I do. And he is got a decent amount of experience. I thought he should have been the starter day one. Maybe Jack Ho for whatever reason is a more sexier name because of the Notre Dame maybe, I don't know, maybe he liked Elizondo a little bit, but the sea, their lack of running game with two proven running backs for the Brahmas is very disappointing. As Andy mentioned, none of these receivers are really burners outside of Vasher you. They brought Tatian who's more of that physical lining up, get my five yard slant possession receiver. Losing Landon Acres was a big thing early in the season. He was that Cooper Cup practice squad type guy that when N F L teams are playing, they're like, okay, you're going to put on the number 18 jersey today, that's Cup. So that was a big loss. But these offensive line issues have been evidence since week one. I think they were down, they're probably down to their fourth or fifth tackle at this point. I don't even know who's their offensive tackles anymore, so I don't know. But yeah, somewhat. Darryl Johnson commenting right now. Reid had a boot on, it was on the telecast, so I'm assuming he's done for three weeks. You have a playoff game. While I think it would be awesome for Juwan Pass to come in, there's a reason why he was number, he was QB three. They knew they were going to draft this guy in September and he didn't get the job. Same thing with the other gentleman. They had Anthony Russo, so I don't know what they're going to be doing, but this is a maker, this is their playoff game. Like yesterday was a playoff game and today was a playoff game to Shiv over to the Renegades. First off, I don't want to spend too much time on this, but awesome job by Mark White King to know that they were not going to return this ball as like punter kicks. He's the safety on the punt returns. He just went up because he was like, it's either going into the end zone or not. So now it's 11 on 11 to go down this punt. These punters are amazing. They can put the spin on the ball, all that goofy stuff. He was all at one point, he knew what he was doing, he made it happen. So that was just good football awareness. As I stated with Kyle, it just seems like he's so jittery. He's looking at his number one option. If it's not there, he's looking for Canella or the Checkdown. I don't, I mean think he's pressing too hard. I think they need to go with Anderson because put doesn't look like he's ready. Anderson's a little bit older, but he's been in the C F L, he's been in, he put up great numbers with AJ Smith in the spring league and he was with the AAF with Scott Spurrier, who's one of their offensive coaches. We talk about that spark. Well, there's your spark, 10 points, 11 points, 12 points. They're due for 13 points this week. So kind of getting so goofy at this point that, and this defense is so good that it's almost, it's getting, I wonder what their locker room is personally because it's not going to be a long-term solution. Matt Fresh was like, I saw a tweet he put out. He was like, yeah, Arlington's going to be one of those teams who's going to go seven and three and you're going to be like, how did this happen? Because of how bad they are. While the northern teams are all going to beat themselves up and one of the battle hawks or the Sea Dragons or maybe even the defenders aren't going to be in the playoffs, which is just disrespectful to the league because Houston's going to be Arlington. Well, it gets to the point. Yeah, no, and we were talking about that on in our group chat, Matt Fresh, who, no, we were talking in the group chat about Mike Mitchell. I think in his article today, the power rankings was saying, I don't think you can do it this year now, but they need to look at doing top four, top four teams going in. And that's why I remember when they, I can't remember if it was Andy, one of us was on and we didn't know what the divisions were. We didn't know if it was going to be east West or just we don't need to have divisions. And people are like, read your fricking idiot. It's like this is why. Because then you could just have the CFL does all that weird and five and four and you, that doesn't work in the C F L here. Yeah, just do top four points and I think it would've been a little more simple. Andy, any other thoughts? I don't know why we don't see Kevin Anderson. He was great friend of the show, he veteran president. She could bring in anything else for the renegades or we could talk about this stunning Orlando Vipers game. But anything else on the late night game last night? Yeah, Orlando's going to make, sorry AR Arlington is going to make a lot of people upset with their appearance of the playoffs, which is almost inevitable at this point just based on the ineptitude of the South division. But as far as there being a crossover, I would like to see that. Obviously the CFL I think does a great job with that. And I think that's something that makes sense. It's the only thing that allowed people last season to entertain the idea was Saskatchewan, who at some point people started to speculate, well, if they win enough games, maybe they go over to the east and they win a really bad East division and then they get their home great cup appearance because they can't go to the west. Well they didn't end up anyways, but a lot of people were speculating that. And so you have maybe have the same thing here where a team could Seattle St. Louis sneak over into the south and then play Houston and have a chance to play spoiler. So I don't think that's going to happen yet, but it could happen sometime in the future. I could see next year this and believe me, it makes it a lot more interesting for the broadcasters to talk about it as well. Even a successful crossover. And the CFO L hasn't happened in 50 years or whatever, but they still talk about it every year. Well they could come in and win and da da da da da, But, and I think Houston will go eight and two or nine and one maybe. But what if Seattle won six and four eight St. Louis win six and four, Houston and Arlington win six and four and then the 10 and o and O Defenders for just the argument's sake or any team like that. How is that? I find it pretty disrespectful that one of those six and four teams, especially with the south being significantly four free games of victories, one of these six and four teams doesn't make it in when they were one of the best teams. And then DC kind of gets a little bit shafted where they have to go play and whatnot after dominating the League League so far just in that scenario. So I don't know. Yeah, it is interesting here. So let's to, I have this and I watched the beginning of this game and then we went and wine tasted and then I walk, came home and I was like, oh good, this high scoring game, going to get to watch the end of this thriller down at Cashman Field. And then we were all talking in the group chat, but the comedy of events at the end of this game, the double fall star, if you were listening at the top of the show, I had to call it to it. You knew Quin Domany is not going 99 yards down the field here at Cashman Field. I mean that would be the stuff fellows made legends up. But to have the sack and then the two false stars and then the clock just runs up. Just get off the field. Just get off the field. Andy, we'll go to you first and then we'll get to Pat. Thoughts on this game. I mean the guardians are who we thought they were and they continue showing that every single week and that double fall start at the end of the game is an embarrassment. It's complete embarrassment. And I can't believe that all the talk with penalties from Terrell, Buckley, the coaching staff felt penalties, penalties, penalties like that. That was a clinic at the end of the game. That is an absolute clinic. I have to give my shout out to Quintin Dormy here. This guy had an amazing game considering all the controversy he had to fight his way through to get reinstated onto the team, to have the blame on him from the false story about him releasing the playbook, which wasn't proven not to be true and internal investigation good for him to play this way to come out like this because this is quite frankly the best. This might be the best performance that the Orlando guardians will get the entire season because he was outstanding this entire game. And look, this is the thing about the guardians. They have a lot of talent, especially a receiver. They just can't get out of their own way. It's like their often shows up and then their defense disappears into a vortex. The Vipers obviously still have great Playmakers themselves. Jeff Bette is fantastic. He'll be in the N F NFL as long as he doesn't get hurt again. He's been awesome this year. It's so nice to see him finally playing well. But you're also starting to see that Vegas offensive skillset at receiver kind of panel its way pan its way out. And that's something that a lot of people, including me have been a little bit surprised about. You're seeing guys like Maravi Brian and Geronimo Allison just kind of disappear and me. Meanwhile you have Cinq Sweeting being the second receiver behind Jeff Bette. You're starting to see, obviously you have Matt, you Sexton, you have some of these other guys stepping up and playing better than the supposed N F L veterans who know everything and supposed to be the established presence here and they're not really doing much in the offense. Luis Perez, I told you, again, I hate to keep harping on this, but I told you he's a zombie. The guy will not go away. Luis Perez is the spring eternal king. He's never going to die. He's always here. But it is interesting. I mean every time he plays great the next game he doesn't play so great. So sometimes I wonder if it's a starting pitcher where you kind of have to put him in the bullpen for a while and then kind of pull him back in and have him throw six shut out innings or something like that. Do we see Brett Hunley again, which is also befuddling a lot of people. Where's Brett Hunley? Why is he not playing? Is he injured? What's going on? Is he just standing? He is just kind of standing idly on the sideline. It's a weird situation. But that's the case with Theise Perez. Every time he is on a team, he always has some sort of musical chairs at quarterback with somebody else. Every time he's playing, he's sometimes in starting the season, sometimes he's not playing because he's not performing well, then he gets back in. He's always, it's always back and forth with him. So look, Vegas, take whatever win they can. I personally think they don't have much of a shot to get in the playoffs. Cause the North division is so stacked and it's so dangerous. I feel bad for them. I feel bad for the field that they play on. We've already talked about that a hundred million times. But I just feel bad for Vegas because I think they're a better team that the record shows. But I think at this point it's too late. I think they're not going to be able to make much ground. And we'll see. We have two more Vegas games, two more Cashman field games. Are those the last ones we see? Who knows? Yeah. We'll wrap that up the end. I do think this will be a one and done at Cashman Field. Pat. Yeah, thoughts on Louise? I heard Quinton Flowers looked like someone that probably was on the forklift a week ago and got a call to come play in the X ffl, which is no disrespect to this is just life and you get called to come off the street and go play thoughts on Vegas, Orlando, anything from this? And I got my tweet up here showing Lou Perez is just balled out. Isn't the Spring league forest compass I call him. I mean, if you've been in the group chats, you obviously know I'm a big Luis Perez guy For the listeners, sure I've said this or if they follow me, I've said this, but he's thrown for over 4,000 yards through the spring league, A F X F L U S F L, and he just passed 32 touchdowns this week. So I mean b I don't know. I have to look at how many air quote games he's played because it gets wonky because he's essentially a relief pitcher or like Andy said, a starting pitcher that can only go five innings and whatnot. But I mean regardless, anytime Luis Perez does anything productive, I think it just validates the league in such a way, any league, he's in such a way that it's like guys like this need to be playing football and whether they're going to be on an N F L practice squad or whatnot, it's keeping these dudes fresh for if Brock Purdy tears his U C L in week 16 and Josh Johnson gets hurt in week 17 that you do have people who have played football games are in game sh shape. Kind of a shame. We didn't see more Quin flowers, but like Reid said, what do you expect? He hasn't played football since 2021. He wasn't in the F F C F in 2022. So it's like he gets this random phone call and he is like, oh sure, yeah man, driving a forklift sucks. Come out Big kudos to Quinn. And I mean, I'm very curious to say when that allegation came out, how many people knew it was hogwash? I'm curious on the second half of the story, which has been going around obviously, but it's not been made official. It's a shame because Orlando has a decent amount of playmakers on this team that we're not seeing more because even we saw Paxton put two decent games together. Quentin comes out, throws a decent game, this team is way better than they really are, but they're so undisciplined and I think it feeds off the fact that Robert Ford kind of doesn't know what he's doing sometimes. And Buckley puts all his emotions on the sleeve that we're seeing these excessive penalties come in versus the Vipers with it is just their playaway all the time it seems. But ironically, these two teams have some of the best receivers in the X F L in the most impressive receiving course. And there are two of the worst teams in the league. So I mean, I don't know. I don't know how much time they weren't on the show based off they're probably either one isn't making the playoffs, but overall it's, it's crazy that this was the best football, football at the passing in a passing wise that we saw this week with the battle of the the basement type thing. I'm going to pull up here. Andy's got his article up. It goes live every Monday on EXE L News top. Kind of his takeaways from the weekend and we'll touch on the other two, but the one, Andy, too little, too late for Vegas here. Any other thoughts on Rod, rod, Woodson's, crew, anything else before we get to the, the KA is no longer the lot, but anything else on the Cashman field debacle? I mean he makes, I just don't, oh, I'm sorry. No, go ahead Pat. I mean these guys make great television. My girlfriend didn't watch the game and I was like, we just need to watch the fourth quarter right before the San Antonio game. I was like, just watch this nonsense because she loves, first off, she thinks Robert Ford is adorable, which that's a different conversation, but she's like, I love watching this guy. He's so entertaining and she watches football but she's not into it into it like we are. But yeah, she watches like Buckley and she just goes, man, even in between plays or if they don't spotlight Buckley, she'll like something nonsensical will have and she'll just sit there and go, man. So it's good for the casual viewer. It's good. Like the Kirby Wilson of it all. Andy, anything else here on this? Just, I don't know, my head was shaking at the end of this one. Whatever hair is left on Rod Woodson's head, I hope it's not being donated because I really just can't believe he still has anything left in his follicles after this season. Poor guy. I really feel bad for him. And as for Buckley, look, I maybe he'll find a coordinator job somewhere next year, but this is him and K and Kirby Wilson can talk about that in the off season because also we need to talk about, at some point we need to talk about our rankings of the Spring League basement as far as history goes, we're going to need to get into that conversation at some point because Orlando's steamrolling into that conversation right now. Well that's a good point. Yeah. Andy sent over some talking points that he had for the thing. And I remember week one of the show week, we've been doing these now every Monday and I said, are there Orlando guardians the worst team in spring league history? Everybody read, you are a dummy dumb. It is the Pittsburgh Mallers by a country mile. What do you have? Is your opinion changed, Andy? It's close. Okay, it's real close. I if it's the Orlando guardians have a club in their hands and they're about to whack them over the heads because it's getting real close. There you go. Now I remember that and everyone said, oh Reid, you're you're crazy. And this is absolutely not, let's get here and then we'll probably breeze through the Seattle game here at the end. But I want to make sure we give due credit here. Pat was in attendance for this. The unseating of, how do I get back over this? The unseating of the St. Louis Battle hawks. I tweeted out per X F L rules if the SA St. Louis Battle hawks lose at home this season, St. Louis for Fitzer N F L team again. So Pat, what did you make? You were in the press box there, I saw you taking photos, you were on the field getting head nods from aj McCarran, everything else, and what was the experience? I mean, overall, the whole atmosphere of St. Louis is amazing. The fans are showing out. We've talked about despite other things to do the whole X F L team that works for St. Louis, not obviously the coaches and players, but the support staff. Nothing but great. ST is great. Yeah, Stally is an amazing human being. He takes care of everyone as long as you're not there to be a fan and to do your job and whatnot. So that's always a big thing as well. So just there's not much, I could say e to stroke their egos even more. But a huge shout out and big thing about ST too is for the media side of it, they took care of the DC media that there's a couple DC kids and guys that were there, so they took care of them. So that just shows, I don't know the character of that staff maybe, but yeah, awesome. Very equal as far as how they took care of everyone. So big shout out to them from the offensive side of St. Louis. We're getting too cute. And we've seen this beck when I've actually watched the games not being at the game when you'll hear the beck isms if you want to call it, but it, he'll be like, Bruce, let's open it up, Bruce, let's open it up. And it seems like when they open it up and run maybe a four minute offense that we're seeing these results, Greg Williams gave the seams to AJ the whole game and they weren't running seam routes or anything like that. It seems like they're getting too cute. At one point they put a levels like the outside receivers ran levels, routes, and then they had Jake Sutherland go out into the flat and they're throwing it to Jake Sutherland, who's a power lifting tight end and he gets two yards. And I'm like, dude, you're, you don't throw into that, that to Hakeem Butler type thing. So it seems like sometimes we're getting too cute because Beck's been on record about talking about the offense is like a mc floor, McVeigh Shanahan type offense, which I think AJ can run, but sometimes we just throw the ball, pitch pit, pitch it around. Brian Hill is coming to his own, he looks healthy. The offensive line, despite losing the left tackle looks a lot better. DC's got some ballers on the defensive line. So I mean you're going to give up sacks. It happens. It's all football. I'm not losing my mind about it. But I mean AJ threw that last pass. It was an underthrown ball to Steven Mitchell who had a step on Mike Joseph. So while that's why I hate the interception stat because Mike Joseph had that pick six in week three. That's a nine yard route or gain if the receiver doesn't slip and if AJ throws a good ball, it's kind of that Trayvon digs metric where, oh, Trayvon had 11 interceptions. Yeah, well he gave up 13 touchdowns. So what's up dude? So it was a little bit disappointing on the defensive side of the ball. I s I was next to TEU and he is a lot bigger than I remember him being. And granted this is the first time I was ever next to him, but seeing him in college and whatnot, he's definitely bulked up in my opinion. And I think I counted seven missed tackles on him and whether it been him rushing the ball or even from the defensive pressures and whatnot, it just was a very disappointing to see. We were so close. It blows my mind. DC is five and oh, not because I think they're a bad team, but it's just like they are completely one-sided. Like Abram Smith MICUs talked about him, I've talked about him. This guy's a stud. He's definitely an N F L caliber player and he put together this performance, but it's like, man, you just throw a body on him and tackle him. He had one, he had that 70 yard rush, he was untouched. That's football. It happens, I get it. But it's like it just seemed like broken tackle after broken tackle and it's like now you're taking a loss for seven that goes into a three yard game. And it's like that changes the whole dynamic of the game. I mean Greg Williams baited AJ a couple times still throw the sea, and I don't want to say he baited aj, but baited Bruce ga Greg Kowski to throw these seam routes. He left that open, I would say 50% of the passing in plays. So I mean the only time they really challenged Greg Williams was that touchdown, the George Mitchell, because he gave everything underneath and said my G, you can have a three yard gain but my DBS are going to stop you at three yards. So have fun with that bud. And I mean I talked with Greg after the game. We didn't really talk football just because he was getting ready to leave and we kind of ran into each other in the tunnel. But I mean Greg, Greg's smart dude, we can talk about Bounty Gate, but I mean that defense regardless of cheap hits or not in oh nine, that they have an attitude and that DC team has that same attitude. And having Reggie Northbrook there definitely brings up the level of swag, if that makes sense. Andy, I got you. We have a couple comments here, John Defender strong games and saying what's coming, you can't stop it. I had your article up and this was one of your talking points as well. I got your key takeaways here. DC best team in the league by a country mile. Is that where you're putting them? I'm not going to say country mile. Cause I do think Houston is still very good. I know they haven't had a lot of wins against top line opponents and they didn't have exactly prove themselves Seattle against Seattle on Thursday, but I still rank them very high and I think it's one A and one B for me right now. But DC look to Pat's point. I know you said that it was frustrating because they seem like a one trick pony. Well their Pony's pretty powerful. They have a really good pony in that stable because the way they operate their offense is so effective based on just the fact that it's simple, but it's effective in how athletic all of the pieces are along the offensive line in the backfield. Abram Smith had an immaculate game. He was incredible running between the tackles. His speed on the outside perimeter was awesome on those two breakaway runs. Jordan Tommo, yeah, he looks bigger than in person than he is on tv. I can tell just based on his build, even though he doesn't throw the ball with a lot of semblance of authority or doesn't really pu push the ball down field very much, there's still a lot to be said about his athleticism and he's very effective as a runner. Dear King, obviously can be a cheat code sometimes just running him out of the back field and the R P O and them being able to just run such a simplified college style offense is really effective. And I think that's a credit to the staff for realizing what they have in this entire unit and how they utilize it because they've been able to just run teams over the entire season. And if no one's going to stop it, so be it now, is someone going to stop it Eventually we'll see if they do, are they going to be able to throw the ball? And that's really the biggest question with them. I thought St. Louis did a better job of that the first time around when they were playing in dc but for whatever reason they just had no answer at home. And I agree with you too, Greg Williams was definitely opening the door for some of those seam routes to be hit by Adrian McCarran, the offensive staff. But I, I'm not sure why they didn't do that because they seemed like they were doing it the first game. I thought they did a better job of it in the first matchup and they had a lot more. Just in terms of the game planning. I really liked what St. Louis was doing more in DC. I know that they were also down in that game by double digits, but I like their game playing more. I just thought it was horrendous luck that they had sometimes with the officiating, sometimes with the turnovers they just had, I just thought the ball didn't bounce their way a couple of times in that game. Whereas this game, I felt like they were just kind of outmatched honestly from the second quarter on. It just felt like DC was in control of this game and they can do whatever they wanted to on the ground. So that is a bit disappointing from St. Louis's end, especially your Safe Haven has now sort of been violated by the DC defenders who can lay claim now to a three and oh all time record against St. Louis. Good dating back to 2020. So that's a big deal for DC and a big talking point for them going forward. Yeah, I remember this, sorry, this you St. Louis and this is cheat code and they're going to run the table here and then here DC came in and I don't know they Santa what, who is it? Drew? Was it Drew Plant wanted to send 50,000 people home outside or whatever it was. Pat, sorry, cut you off. No, and for the defensive side of the ball for St. Louis, I touched on the tackling was extremely poor because obviously that sac goes into a three yard gain and now you're looking at second and 17 or second and seven verse second and 17. But also there were times where, and I don't know if it was a missed assignment, but they had no spies on Te Amu and we, king wasn't very effective as a runner, as a runner in week three. He had a 12 yard gain on the third and 18, but they just had spies on him. It's like, yeah, we we're playing the sticks, an inflated statistic. So there were a couple times there was no spy on Tey amu and then he's already five yards down the field he makes one guy miss and then it's an eight yard gain. So it was a little disappointing some of the game planning and whatnot. And you could see the frustration on Beck, even from the press box, move his hand and whatnot and it's like in frustration and you're just, it's not reinventing the wheel. It's like I'll give you a 70 yard game. Especially I, I'll give you that. But there were two or three times where we were in field goal range and we didn't get points and it's shift the field. Now they have the ball instead of starting from the 27, they're starting from the 36th and my nitpicking, but they're, in my opinion, I counted a six point swing. I did in week three where they had that one of the shepherd returns. They didn't get any points from that. So, and then DC went down and scored. So it's like, come on guys, it's so close. And we saw DC kind of swing by with in week two with the Seattle, with their Seattle victory. And it's like, why do you think they're the best team in the league? It's like, guys, we know what they're doing. Even TEU when he threw, threw three 50 yard passes in week three, it was like, man, all you got to do is start your hand up these, it could go either way. These are 50 50 balls, you know what I mean? Slightly underthrown just getting beat or the receiver makes a great move, but that's football. I'm nitpicking and whatnot. But those five and O team could easily be three and two if the win shoots one way or the other. And it's Mike Mitchell. Mike Mitchell's one of his confidants. Yvonne Hutchins has done a great job of building this team, so let's not take away from that. And Reggie Barlow is proving that he is going to be an N F L coach, maybe not next year but the year after. And then it wouldn't surprise me to see him be a NFL head coach in the next five years because he's truly a leader of men and he's getting this team to buy in, especially with these offensive line injuries. That's the most impressive part. You can talk about TEU shaking, tacklers King being the cheat code, but Eric Dungy is playing running back right now and looking as a lead blocker. So overall the DC team is the most impressive team of the bunch, whether I agree they are the best team. Yes they are. I don't think it's a country mile because the ball can go either way, but overall overly impressive on the staff side more than the players on the field in my opinion. Last game here, speaking defenders and yeah, we've had comments. We get Monday night football next week here, get Monday night football, seven Easter in the ESPN two, but we have the aforementioned the DC defenders and then we have our Seattle C or well we have our rough next, but talking to last game here we have the Dragons victory. I'm glad I was there historic night. Kraken won two one in overtime because the San Jose Sharks and then we had the Seattle Creas felt really like it was going to be a runaway. And then I'll tell you when Ucci threw that last interception screams in the stands of what I are you doing, we saw Ucci cussing out Josh Gordon on the sidelines. We'll toss to Andy first here. Thoughts on this and we don't need to go too, I mean this is Thursday now at this point, but thoughts on the roughnecks loss here First ever franchise loss. Yeah, like I said, I'm surprised you didn't see Jim Haslett unsheathing the knife underneath the bench after that last pick, but I do think some of it was on Josh Gordon because he stopped running the route and it just went, floated straight into the hands of Harrison. It was like what happened? There was obviously some miscommunication. Look Seattle, I mean this is the biggest thing for them. Again, just as long as they don't get in their own way, they have a really good team overall. Their defensive line is outstanding. I really, really like what they did on Thursday night against the roughnecks. They forced their hands, they could not run the ball and they said, Brandon Silvers, you beat us. Good luck. And it didn't happen. And I know they had been able to do that all season, but they were just able to get so much pressure on him the entire game and just stonewall every single drive that Houston even had in the first three for them to be shut out in the first three quarters. I mean that's an outstanding effort by a defense for you to just completely shut down in that entire operation and just no, no way to be beat down field. They took away everything, the seams, they took away the sideline routes, they took away so much for this Houston team. They just really could not hit anything down field and that was a big deal for them. Obviously you had a couple injuries in there here and there as well. I know Tre Kirkland got hurt as well. We'll see what happens to him. I hope he's okay because he's been outstanding. This receiving cord just was not able to get as open as they had been in previous weeks and this is a huge deal. Even with Max Borge coming back, it still didn't matter. They just could not run the, and I know Houston doesn't run the ball very much anyways, but what they could try to do on the run game, they yearly can get done either way. So outstanding game plan by Seattle. Again, I think they have the staff and the talent to do it. They just got to stop turning the ball over every single week. But that's really been their biggest Achilles heel cause they can move the ball just fine. They should have scored at least 30 in this game and they should have won easily by double digits because they were outclassing Houston for about three quarters. We always have a joke so when we go to the Kraken games, we if so-and-so, hey, if so and so gets a hat trick, I'm storming the ice. I'm going to go to prison tonight if this happens. We're so excited. And I said when we had him shut out and go, we shut out the roughneck year at home. I might go to jail tonight. I might just run because we're front row. There I go. I might just hop over and I might just go run in that. It was that exciting Pat thoughts on this. So we'll keep it abbreviated here because Andy's got to get to work here after this, so we'll get going there. Two things, just touching on the quarterbacks. The reason why Ucci is not going to win the MVP is because obviously turnovers, it did seem that they didn't go the Morgan Ellison until late in the game. Am I remembering that correctly? It seemed like he was kind of on the sidelines for the majority of the game until about the third quarter. I mean Reid, if you remember him. Yeah, And then you came in and fumbled the ball. So I was told because we missed the first home game and they're like, oh, they told me, oh, Alison came in and hyped the crowd and we need you to get him on the show. And I'm like, okay, I'll email whatever and then he comes in the ca and immediately fumbles the ball. Okay, I'm not calling him anymore. Yeah, I mean I don't know. It was kind of a shame because of how well he played in the week, week prior. I have to do the all 22 of the film, but sometimes it feels like Brandon Silvers is making to make an N F L throw versus a five yard throw. Am I crazy for thinking that because and kind of goes back to my SLMs is like this is it for Brandon. I feel like he was kind of done wrong last year in 22, not playing. He should have been the U S F L last year. I don't know the politics if that was him or He said he wasn't called. I mean that's what I heard. Yeah, that's my opinion. Disrespectful. You know what I mean? He's a proven spring league guy, his spring league numbers, we can go into that another day but are up there. So I feel like he also presses at times a little bit too much where he is not taking, I saw a couple times where it was Holly or Putnam was in the flat and then he went no risk. It risk ITT for the biscuit type mentality, which awesome makes him great film, but I'd like to see that with, but not to take away what Seattle was doing from the majority of the game. I watched obviously that defense, I think Ron Zeke's underrated, Jim Haslett's put together some great N F L teams as well and a alt football U F U F L like six zero records. So the guy's not a slouch whatsoever with how anemic the offense was for the first three quarters. What I probably would've done is put Cole McDonald in there and have some cute little dump offs to Garrett Owens just to kind of shake things up. If I saw Cole McDonald throw four passes for 30 something yards just to keep even if you're not scoring, you're sorry you're moving the ball a little bit. I think that would've been a nice little touch because just something had to have give given at that point. Maybe May, and maybe I'm going too deep into it. Maybe that was a part of the plan. Granted it was a late game, so I'm not watching it as a analyst. I'm watching it more as just like a casual viewer. So shame on me obviously. But that that's the reality I saw based off the box score and what I've watched as well. So Kirkland getting hurt is terrible, but I mean if it wasn't Kirkland week one week, it's Cedric Bird next, Deontay Burnett the next they have weapons. If Nick Hawley's your fifth receiver, you're doing pretty okay in the X F L. Realistically, Before we get out of here, we'll kind of preview this coming up and then let Pat and Andy say they're final the words and get out of here. Make sure like subscribe, give away the championship tickets before if we're kind of on the roll and then now it's stagnating. Kind of like the XFL season a little bit here, but exciting nonetheless. I don't forget a big episode I have with Mike Mitchell and everybody for Friday. It's pretty evergreen. So we did a week five preview with that garden, but it's more just kind of breaking down the offensive schemes. I know Pat really enjoyed that, commented in the group chat that he wants to add Zach into our private group chat, but Mike's in there and all that. I have a good show coming up this week as well, getting everyone squared away, but should be good for this Friday. So like I said, can subscribe and then check out Mike Mitchell's interview and all that from Friday, the big games this week we have our return to a b, ABC C Dragons at Orlando. I hope the Orlando crowd tunes in for that. Then we have the Battle Hawks at Vipers. That could be a little bit of a wash here. Another this, it is feeling like the C F L now we got bras at Renegades, but then the big Monday night we'll figure out, I guess Andy and I guess we'll do the Monday show ahead of time and then we can kind of preview that the Houston at dc. Pat, any thoughts from you? We'll go to Andy and get out of here. Thoughts on the week, thoughts on the season, thoughts on anything? I mean right now, week six is another important slate of games. We saw 32 points obviously from the Guardians. I mean this could be a air quote trap game for Seattle. I know we all think Orlando is going oh and 10, but I mean I don't think that's happening personally. I think they'll win one game. I personally think they're either going to be the Battle Hawks or Seattle. So pick your poison just because one of both these teams need to win. Going into St. Louis versus Vegas. Biggest biggest thing for me is how do they, obviously stereotypical media guy, how do they respond? It's a lot easier to lose in week three, but be like, Hey, we're at the dome. Get it together. How do you get the troops motivated to go on the road for the next two weeks and play in the less than desirable conditions and welcoming conditions in Vegas and not from the fan aspect, but I mean I'm willing to say that St. Louis has the best air quote experience for the players. Not just from the fans, but just the setups and everything like that from the dome. So I mean, I'm very curious to see how Beck rallies the troops and what the message is of it's easy to go in the week four after their defeat and be like, okay, home games, get it together verse yeah, no one can go out in Vegas the night before because we're trying to not do anything silly. San Antonio and Arlington, I mean I think slow there starts this week because he is two and one and that nice incremental spark percentage-wise that he's been providing. Very curious to see what San Antonio does. Obviously I said it earlier, I think they grift their way into the playoffs at seven and three because of a favorable schedule. Houston versus DC is the one that everyone's going to be tuning into kind of the Monday night vibe of everything as well. What's time they're playing at seven. So it's not an unreasonable time for a lot of people. I mean that's the one I'm going to be tuning into after the Battle Hawks game. But I think St. Louis obviously beats Vegas, but this one, I have no idea. I mean, I don't think either team goes, I don't think DC goes 10 and oh. So I mean they're due for a loss at some point and it's always better to lose on the regular season, get it out of the way. How do you respond, make the adjustments. Okay, let's push on. So that's my take on then another good set of games standing wise as well. Yeah, it should be good. We had Argo Fluffy here checking in on the chat asking how are the X C Ffl players doing? Darnell Sankey is doing good. I let me hide. I don't want the high Pats beautiful face here, but I am more curious. Does see N B T and now Pru Cop here in the U S F L, so you got to keep an eye on both leagues now. It's not just the X ffl. Anyway, a Andy thoughts on what are you looking forward to for this weekend? Yeah, this is a much better TV schedule. First of all, this is a lot more enviable obviously for me. It won't affect me too much as I will actually be at that game in Arlington. God, I hope there's more than 25 points score total in that game. We'll see if Jajuan Pass does in fact get into the game if Jack Cohen struggles again and we'll see how Arlington does. As far as Kyle Slowder being, getting more acclimated to the offense. Like you said, pat, I think he's been pressing way too much. He's been trying to impress more than he has been trying to just play to his strengths. And that's a big thing for Arlington. If they're going to even be a decent offense. If they're going to be a playoff team, they better start getting it together. This is the point of the season. Look, there's always mid-season fatigue even in the N nfl. There's mid seasons fatigue, and this is going to be the same case here. You're starting to see this teams where fans are going to look at it objectively and go, well, these are the teams you should be or these are the teams that should lose. Well, these are still professionals and honestly the talent disparity is not that much between some of these teams. Is Orlando's talent that much worse than Seattle's? I'd argue no, but it's just the fact that they're operation is just a lot more misplaced and a lot more maligned. That's why they're probably favored EAs easily. The Seattle Dragons, the Sea Dragons are a favorite to win in that game. We'll see if the Orlando crowd shows out. As Pat also mentioned, look, it's hard for St. Louis to go from the Taj Mahal to Tool Shed and that's going to be really tough going into Vegas here. I think motivationally, they should have everything they need. I it's going to be a tough game for them, no doubt. Again, I do think Vegas has a lot of good offensive weapon and has a lot going for them as far as their roster goes, but I do think St. Louis is going to be able to win this game pretty handily. And as far as the Monday night game goes, Houston, I mean aside from injuries to John Tre, Kirkland and a couple other pieces, they should be able to show out in that game offensively and be able to adjust from what happened. Seattle, I probably give the edge to DC just based on how no one's had an answer for them yet. They've played so well and they've played to their strengths. They've been able to shut teams down on defense. They've run the ball again with an absurd amount of success. And I just, it's hard to beat the beer snake. The beer steak is undefeated so well, and that's the last traditional thing that had been kind of standing in the xfl, right? St. Louis had never lost at home. They lost at home. Houston had never lost. Period. They lost Is the bc, is the DC beer snake going to fall at home? That's the biggest thing here. I'm going to say no for this week, but I don't think Houston is far behind DC and it's going to be a really great matchup on Monday night and I hope a lot of people tune into that game because that is a marquee primetime matchup. Yep. Yeah, need to tune in for that. Tie here is weird there. Aren at somebody tickets. No, they It's like the Houston stadium. It's like old school Wwe e man, Phil to one side. Phil. I think they should do that at, I mean Cashman, they don't have an option, but I think Lumen Field, I think they could do that. I think they could do a better job positioning some of these tickets. Pat, anything else real quick? We'll get out of here. I'll plug everything. Just the final, they're what they're doing in the 400 level at St. Louis, they're filling the one side and now they're kind of opening up because it hasn't, an exclusive right here is I believe that students can get in for like $15 or something in the 400 level. So big win. I think St. Louis is the only market that could do that because we are filling the 400 level one and two, about six different colleges within an hour of St. Louis of the dome. So I mean, good job on that. Andy, just before you have to go, would you start past this week? I'd like to see what I have because at this point there's no more answers. This is getting really desperate for San Antonio. I don't think they have much options left. And Jack Cohen, I think he's exhausted every bit that we're going to get out of him, so I would, yeah, It's a shame. I didn't think Cone was obviously the best. I had him as a backup, but very, very surprised to see the production from college and the drop off here in my opinion. But yeah, I mean this is going to be a good week of games, Reid. So I mean they all mean something. So it's all, it doesn't get much better than this in the mid-season right now. Benefit of 10 game seasons, obviously We'll get, we'll let Andy get to work here. Appreciate it Pat. Check out his analyze and educate YouTube channel. I know he has some more interviews coming up at U US F L here, prepping for this season. I also have all of Pat's articles prepped and ready to go for the Mar this week. So Pat sent over for some look for Andy stuff XL new up. He had his key takeaways this week and everything else there. Really appreciate it guys. Like I said, like it, subscribe, get us 3,500. Appreciate it. I'll roll the outro music here and thanks everyone for checking it out. We'll see you on Friday.

Episode 136 - XFL 3.0: Flip OR Flop?

Coming up this week on the Hey there. Did you ever watch the long-running HGTV show called Flip four Flop? Well, it involved two investors coming in, buying dilapidated properties, trying to spend money and build them up to a higher value. Sound familiar? Well, this week on the podcast we are asking the question X Ffl 3.0 flip or flop. The Bigger the disaster, the better the makeover. We turn distress properties into beautiful family homes and we love what we do. Big time show this week, five outstanding guests. First and foremost, one of the lead broadcasters for X F L on espn Matt Berry stopping by the program. You're up against conference tournaments, you're up against March Madness and for the numbers to still be what they are, you can't compare the two with the 2020. And I know that's the natural thing to do, but when it's all said and done and you look at it what it's up against in its time slot, I think there's every bit of the reason to be optimistic about where this Is. And then you wanted him, we got him everything you would want to know from X F L Insider, Mike Mitchell approaching the midway point of the X Ffl season, attending marketing ratings, everything. We got you covered with Mike Mitchell. An hour and 25 minutes If you ask anybody close to me, anybody I've talked to about this, I didn't feel the same anticipation or buzz. Maybe not just from personally for this league that I felt for the X ffl of 2020. And it has to do a lot with the lack of promotion, lack of buildup, lack of energy spent. That is part of their strategy. I don't think, I honestly don't think it was a great strategy. I think I know that we know by the day article we mentioned, we talked about they've spent a bare bones amount of money in promotion marketing. That's the proof, right? It's an embarrassingly low figure. So we know that that that's proof of their strategy. And then if you wanted a full scheme analysis breakdown of all eight XE L Teams plus an X F L week five preview, we have Zach Garton here nerding out football talk for almost an hour. And then courtesy of the X Ffl, Arlington Renegades, we have Donald Payne standout defensive player coming on the program. And then don't think we forgot C F L Talk con. Joining the show, we're talking the Montreal Alet sale. What is next for the franchise up there in the Canadian Football League? A 10th team in Halifax? What are most thoughts? We get all of that and more. Hey guys, welcome to the Mark Cast Reed here. I'm going to keep this so short today. I got a promise everyone on Twitter. Three and a half hour max could be the longest episode to date. I apologize. Mike Mitchell and I went long. Tons of great stuff there, Zach and I went long. Tons of great stuff there. Hope you guys enjoy book market. Come back, it'll be all time coded. Huge thanks to Matt Berry with ESPN coming on, balancing all of those duties, his FFE broadcast duties, spending time to come on the show. Mike Mitchell has always extended time with Mike balancing his work and his family, his job, his covering the Jets. Aaron Rodgers crazy week for Mike. Appreciate that. Zach Garden coming on. And then the team over at the Arlington Renegades and then of course Mocon. I really appreciate everyone coming on this week. Couldn't do it without everyone's support. One huge plug from me and just to ask if you guys have a moment, we have been nominated. I posted this on Twitter. Very exciting for the best Sports business podcast of the year through the Sports Podcast group. Tremendously exciting. Don't know how us as an independent podcast kind of got pass the checks and balances here but nominated, honored to be nominated, honored to be included. Mike Mitchell and I talk about it a little bit in our interview. We got the Sport co people over there mad that they weren't nominated. Oh, we didn't fill out the application. Well we are here really some heavy hitters. We have Sports Illustrated in there, we have DraftKings in there. We have the Sports Business Journal and New York Post with John Orran, that podcast over there. Couple other independent oness as well. Really appreciate it. I'm going to include the link in the audio and the YouTube descriptions. You can sign up for a free account. Mike Mitchell did it. People have done it. I posted it on Twitter. Doesn't seem like it's too challenging to make a free account and do that. So we'd really appreciate that. Voting closes April 6th. I always see on here it subscribe. Get us up to 3,500 subscribers X F L tickets to the championship game or U S F L tickets to the championship game. Two of those, hopefully we can hit that 3,500 subscriber mark. But please vote sports b sports podcast group.com. But I'll put the link in the description. Thank you guys all so much. We'll see you at the end. We have Matt Barry here, espn, you know one of the rockstar. I heard you debating hotdog condiments and everything else over in Audi Field on Sunday. How are you doing sir? That's the beauty of the X F L. You get football and you get a little bit of those conversations mixed in for the entertainment value. So I'm doing great. Look, we're heading to the midway point of the season. It's been fun to this point and I I've enjoyed every one of our games and just being a part of this league, What is it coming into this now and being a part better than you expected? Worse than you expected? I didn't really have any expectations to be honest with you. I knew that I wanted to be a part of it cause I liked the idea of being on the ground floor or something. And I know this is the third iteration of it, but it was a startup again. And so that was intriguing to me. I knew a lot of the names that were playing in the league and so I knew that there was potential for some really high level football because of some of these guys I've obviously covered in college. And then what some of 'em were able to do in the pros. And then the one thing that I was really looking forward to was the style of broadcast that I knew that we were going to aim to put on at e espn. And so the expectations are like anything week one without a preseason, I think you expect a little bit of sloppy football even though we got lucky, we had San Antonio in St. Louis week one where they had the crazy comeback St. Louis. And then as the weeks have gone on, you can tell the football's getting better because these guys are getting more comfortable and the broadcast have lived up to the expectations and that the access and the fun that we're able to have doing them. Learning curve for you. I mean I know they tried to lean a lot into the college analysts and broadcasters and hoping to kind of know, like you said you recognized a lot of those players. Has there been a lot of a learning curve or are you used to it? No, so many of the names are familiar. I mean so many of them. And going into week one, we were talking about Jack Cohen when the remarkable season he had at Notre Dame after he transferred from Wisconsin and Caitlin Baj went to my alma mater, Arizona, Arizona State. And at the time that he had in the N F L and then AJ McCarran, everybody knows his story. So the names and it's like anything. There's actually more of a challenge when I'm calling Thursday night college football because in those games there's kind of a handful of guys that on the team. But then you got to really dig into the depth chart because in college you start off as an 18 year old unknown. You're 20 18, 19, 20 years old, so you really got to dig in there. These are guys that have gone through college, some of 'em have played at the N NFL level and so most of them you kind of have an idea of where they come from. We're actually having a discussion today kind of in our little X F L media group in terms of talent level. Has anyone surprised you maybe that did belong or didn't belong? Or has the talent level been as high as maybe you expected? So look, I think in, and Galloway was talking about it in one of our broadcasters, maybe it was after the broadcast that Ben Ucci is going to be on an N F L roster. Again there, there's just no question about it. I mean the guy's arm strength you can see and he puts ball footballs where only a few guys can. And so he's a guy that I think you're going to see pop at the next level and get another opportunity. Jor Jor Pearson, he's another guy, a receiver and on a team that's got Josh Gordon and got a lot of other I, he's a leading receiver in the X F L. And so there are some guys that the running back for, oh it's escaping. He's escaping my name now. Ellison, the running back. Is he a Seattle guy as well? Okay. So maybe I just like the Seattle guys but he's another guy that's going to pop Abram Smith. The running back we had last week, he was the number one overall pick with the Baylor big kid, fast kid. There are some players out there that you look and you say, well wait, why? What's going on here? And I think a lot of these guys are going to get a look at getting opportunities. Matthew Sexton's a little dude for Vegas, I think he's five 10, he's that little slot guy that can just find his way in and around the ball. So there's a lot of players that when you look at these rosters and you're ena enamored by the Mars Bryants and Theo Allisons, it tends to be some of the other guys that end up stepping up. It's cool. Yeah, I mean someone like SE Sexton we've tracked since 2020 and the Spring league and kind of going through all that stuff. So it's cool to see. In terms of your other colleagues, e s, espn, like are we all excited? Are we hoorah about all this? Yeah, I mean we have weekly calls about it. Weekly zooms and the scent is, look, we all come from traditional broadcast games and that's our background. The traditional college football broadcast, the traditional N F L broadcast back to the matter is there just isn't that much access in those games. Those are very traditional type broadcast we put on. And so for us, I mean this is fun. I, I remember this year when I'd be sitting in studio with Galloway and Jesse Palmer on Saturdays and we'd be talking about the X ffl he would bring up even before I knew it was going to be a part of this, even going into that 2020 season and then afterwards after it was canceled Covid with Covid, he would always bring up how much fun it was and how much different it is than what we're used to. And so that to all of us that are used to that typical traditional broadcast to have the freedom that we have with this has, it's been a lot of fun. And Has it been pretty much that from management or leadership like you guys find your voice, find what you want to do? Yeah, I mean I think the goal for us as a network is to grab the viewer with something different. If it's just about the football, well we just got through football season, you can't make this just about the football because you got to grab the audience in different ways. And so I think that's been the great thing, not only what ESPN's allowed us to do, but what the X ffl has allowed us to do and encourage us to do, which is find a way to grab viewers in a unique form. And that's what we've tried to accomplish. And I think that so far we've done a pretty good job of hearing the offensive coordinator and defensive coordinators. I like to lay out and hear their quarterback make the play at the line and it, it's informative for me, it's fun for me. And that's why I say it's fun. It goes by quick. Those three hours go by quick because you feel like you're in the action and that's a credit to the league. That's a credit to league ownership and ESPN for just allowing us that kind of access. Something obviously the exit felon access and then obviously the rule replay kind of all that stuff. Ben mixed results, I mean Dean Blandino friend of the show, he's been on it. I know he's doing his best. Ben mixed messages about that. What do you make of the rules? I mean we had kind of the review on Sunday, Rob Woodson, I thought he was going to be put in a straight jacket, taken off the field. I mean I like to see that passion, but what have you made so far of the replay? So two things. One, I love the transparency. Love it. And if I were leagues, I'd find a way to, it's so tough because a command center for an NFL weekend or an s e C weekend, there's multiple games going on at once, whereas Dean has the benefit of one game, a window, but the transparency is all fans want. And when we had that play before the half with DC and Vegas even, I wanted clarity on it because it all happened at once. It was a touchdown. We had a game going into the half and then it wasn't a touchdown. And then because they didn't have a timeout, there was a five second run. So they went from a touchdown to go to the locker room and so we're what the hell just happened? And so the fact that we have the transparency, we can hear Dean doing it and then I can get in Dean's ear and ask him. There was another example where there was clearly passenger interference on a Vegas receiver. It was as clear as day, no flag was thrown. Woodson didn't challenge it. So I took the power of the microphone into my own hands and knowing that I had Dean at my disposal and said, Hey Dean had Coach Woodson challenged that what would've happened? He goes, well, we would've called past interference. And it's amazing how many times we watched another game or another league and we're all yelling and screaming about the officiator. Well here you get to A hear him walk through it and B, ask him about it. So there's more transparency with the calls. Well I think Dean gets the benefit too, where I think Dean Dean can explain and kind of sell it Well I think don't think anyone can be put in that position and kind of No, He's a TV guy. Yeah, no, you're right. He gets it. It's difficult. We have, when I call Thursday night college football with Lewis Riddick, the replay officials come in and introduce themselves to us every week. And it'd be difficult to expect every single one of them or someone else to be right on it and comfortable with the camera like Dean is. And I think that's what makes him good In terms of being in DC. And we'll talk Vegas here because you're going to be doing the Vegas game, but Audi field we're undefeated. The defenders like what's your storyline that you're tracking there? And I thought they weren't as good as they looked in the standings early on. And it really does seem like they're coming into their own here week four now into five. Yeah, I mean they're good. I mean they're a really, really good team. They do it defensively, do it offensively to Amu is a nice player. The fact that you can throw D King in there is a little buffer to get you some yards on the ground even though tamu will run much better than he'll lead on and that he wants to, but he's really good at it. I think Reggie Barlow's a great story of how he's come over, he's got this thing going in the right direction and so they're a really, really good team and a fun one to watch. And that North division, if you really think about where that thing stacked up s I know I've brought 'em up a lot cause I saw 'em with my own two eyes and I think the reason they have the record they do is because of their propensity go for three point conversions all the time. But Seattle's good. I mean between Seattle, St. Louis and DC, that's going to be fun to watch down the stretch. Cause I think all of those teams, all three of those teams are more than capable of going on a run and winning this thing. Yeah, I'm scared we're going to be at the Lumen field on Thursday. Roughnecks coming in and I don't know if the roughnecks just look really good because they've only played Orlando and everybody. Or if they really are kind of, I don't know. Any thoughts on that? Dragons versus roughnecks? Yeah, so the South is different. I mean you had mentioned I think ar Arlington's good. Houston obviously is really good. Yeah, ar Arlington exactly. And San Antonio has the talent, but you're going to see, we talked about a little bit on the broadcast when we put up the standings. It's clear that the north is the more talented division top to bottom. So it'll be fun to see who shakes out from the south. But Houston, look, you can't take it away from 'em. They're undefeated. But yeah, you're going to get to know real quick how good they are. You talked to Jack Cohen in tracking him. Are we surprised we're still going with him with the braas and that We haven't, it just doesn't seem like they can get, I mean he's been fine, but it hasn't been Well from what Hines told us week one and we were preparing for that game, it's no secret that they want to be a run based first team. And I think if they can get Kalin going and get the running backs going, the kid from Florida State, if they can start getting that going, I think it's going to open up a lot for Jack Cohen because there were times in our game where the run was just stymied and stopped and he couldn't get anything going. I think he's one of those quarterbacks that would benefit from a Jack West Patrick and some of these other guys. And just to get some rhythm play, fake, tie it in Alize Mac, whatever you got to do to get that thing rolling a little bit. I think you would benefit from the run game continuing to progress similar to what we've seen in dc. I mean it's no secret DC wants to do, they want to run the ball. I mean they've got two really good running backs in Raquel and they Abraham Smith and then they have the opportunity to sling it. And so look in this league, it's interesting to see some of the quarterback decisions, but like I said a minute ago, we're reaching a halfway point. If decisions and switches are going to be made, I would assume that it'll happen within the next week or so. Yeah, with Jack Cohen in his 39 pass attempts here last week. Yeah, he more, I mean is that, Yeah, he did a band of the run, didn't he? Yeah. Well that's the thing is mean. Do you credit that or discredit like Hynes really trying to figure this out because he can say this is what I want to do, but it's not necessarily looking that way. Look, you're right. Statistics tell the story and record tells the story. I mean you'd lose 15 to sick, you don't have much offense to speak of. And maybe they do, maybe they decide to pull the trigger and make a switch. But it is interesting to look at where some of the teams are offensively because some score Seattle with June Jones scores, St. Louis with AJ McCarran, when they're in rhythm, they score DC can score. And there was a moment, we had Seattle and Vegas a couple of weeks ago where Brett Hunley in Vegas and those guys, they were humming, they'd come out and they scored. They had going into my game, our game the other night, Vegas had yet to trail at halftime in a game, but yet they've yet to win one. And so what's that tell you? I learned how to win. And so the tendencies that we typically see in other leagues and in college football, it's really entertaining to put those up against what we're dealing with in the X ffl with phrase DC here's one, I had said it during the broadcast, they hadn't led at halftime all season yet. They're undefeated. So trends in this league haven't lived up to 'em yet just cause we have such a small body of work. I call, yeah, I called the dc Yeah, the DC Vegas hand. That was Rod Woodson's like awful, terrible, no bad, very bad day. Whatever the hell that book is called. I mean it was really just a colossal kind of failure from the get-go. Vegas Owen four should be better. You're calling the game this weekend. Thoughts on just, they just cannot seem to get anything going. I was surprised and we'll find out more, but I was surprised that Hunley got pulled from that game so early. They said it was a performance thing, but I don't know that it wasn't an injury thing because of what Brett did to his hamstring or his leg the week before because he was moving him down. Remember they missed a field goal early and I know that he fumbled the snap and DC took advantage of that first play of the game, but I don't know that it was performance based. And then Perez comes in and they were moving the ball quite effectively. I am surprised they're on four. I mean they have the talent. I'm really surprised that that they've struggled to get a win. But again, it's about you got to finish and the game against Seattle, they need, they were up the entire game. They had it Seattle, no timeouts in the fourth quarter, late in the fourth quarter, I believe it was under a minute when it was third and five, Vegas decided to throw it. It was incomplete. Seattle gets the ball back again. No timeouts had Seattle down to a fourth and two ballgames over. If you make the play when DeNucci threw it up to Josh Gordon, they couldn't make the play. Josh Gordon scores, they win. So it's just about, it's finishing games, it's learning how to win. We can talk about all we want about the differences in football and rules and this, that and the other. What are the tried and truest things in football is learn how to win. And because they've got the talent to do it In terms of here now we have the battle of it could be considered, the tank bowl could be considered. We have the Owen four guardians coming in there as you kind of prep the game this week. And I mean Orlando's just had a lot and with the quarterback and we have the Dormy stuff, I just, there's been chaos there since day one. There has, and they're point differential is the worst in the league. It doesn't seem like they can just find anything to get going. And it sounds a little harsher than I mean, but when you've got two teams that are coming in that don't have a win, one of you's coming out with the first victory of the season. Does that make sense? And so if there was a week for both of these teams, Orlando, you'd mentioned all the drama that's gone on there. If there was ever a week for both of these teams to go to Cashman Field and say, Hey, you know what? Someone's coming out of here with a win. It'll be interesting to see how this one unfolds because there's only going to be one oh and five team in the league after this and that alone. I mean these guys are pro athletes. They've got pride. And so Orlando's the only team that I haven't seen yet. I've seen 'em all called 'em all. So I'm really, really interested to see how they come out knowing what Buckley and those guys have been through this season. Well it's hard where you have two of these newer franchises bring Bon over. We have both of them. It certainly doesn't help attendance in Orlando to have it be oh and five or attendance in Vegas. You really would wish that both of these new franchises would find some modicum of success You have. Yeah, because here's what I'll say about some of these cities that have been like San Antonio, we were there week one, there was 25,000 people there close to it. And we know what St. Louis is capable of based on last week in DC it was cold and it was wet and it sucked. The weather was awful. They came out and supported. And so you kind of hit it on the head. A lot of these cities, even when we were at Houston, week two for Houston and Arlington like Houston brought a nice crowd. And so you're right. When you have something new again that needs local support, it can be tough when you're not winning games. It's like that in any sport. This isn't just X F L related, but especially it can compound a little bit when you are new, trying to get your fan base into a new franchise in town. And if you're not winning, it's hard to sell these people. Here's why you should come out and spend your time in money. It's still a very entertaining product. So hopefully, like you said, both these teams can get something positive going on the back half of the season. Last question from me. I really appreciate your time today. Yeah. Just from a philosophical here we're about the time back in 2020 where all this kind of came, went away and everything else and save aliens and invading or whatever here. If the X F L concludes the season, do you feel like they've done enough, this has been enough, shown enough to warrant it having kind of a place here in the spring and kind of existing as it is? Yeah, I would say the numbers and the ratings dictate that there's a spot for it. I think that enough people have tuned in to show that there's interest in it. That's part one, part two, I think the sports betting aspect of it gives a lot of people some fun and something to look forward to in the off season. But part three for me, I was actually just talking to Lewis Riddick about this today, the biggest thing for the X ffl, in my opinion, they haven't said this, no one said this. This is just me being a football person and looking ahead, the success of this league, I believe will be enhanced by the number of players who get opportunities to make and make N F NFL rosters this off season. Because the timing of it's perfect. Now the semi-finals are April 29th in the championship games the week after. So you're done in the first week of May. And these teams that are getting to put tape out there for N F L GMs and N F NFL presidents right now when they're scouting and doing work anyway. And you get to go right from that early May to have an opportunity to sign with the team and be in there for OTAs and mini camps and training camps and a chance to make the roster. And so there's already a partnership with the N F L. And if these players and a couple of them get legitimate opportunities to resurrect their career and then go on and do that in the N nfl, then yeah, it's done more than enough because now you've got a really good partnership where what's everyone always say about the nfl? Everyone says this. Well, there's no developmental league now. The NBA's got their developmental league, baseball's got 25 different. Well here you go. And if that partnership works and these players take advantage of opportunities with how the ownership is invested in this with how ESPN's invested in it, I think it's a home run when some of these players get that chance back to have an NFL career. You think the ratings hit me good? You feel solid about it so far? Yeah, if you put it, I mean I know people are comparing it to 2020, you can't do that. You just can't. Well why? Because when the first iteration was 2001. So I believe that's when the that first, okay, so what's the math between that and 2020? Well, it's 18, 19 years. Okay. The math between 2020 and 22 is two. And so there wasn't that long of a gap between 2020 and now one of our games, our opening game on a b c peaked over two and a half million viewers. The game that we had last week on ESPN two peaked at plus 770,000 viewers. That's good for a live event. If you put it up against other sports, that's good for a live event. It's all relative based when you start comparing it to other leagues and things that are going on. I mean two week, was it two weeks ago? We were, which week was it? Three weeks ago? I think it was. Yeah, it was week one. We were up against Tiger Woods, John Rom, and we were up against the Daytona 500 and we were still getting over two and a half million viewers. I think we averaged out, I think at 1.7 mil off the top of my head. But it's all, look, couple, you're up against conference tournaments, you're up against March Madness and for the numbers to still be what they are, you can't compare the two with the 2020. And I know that's the natural thing to do, but when it's all said and done and you look at it, what it's up against and it's time slot, I think there's every bit of the reason to be optimistic about where this is. Well you also can't, and I'll let you go here. I promise you can't compare two games on A, B, C and Fox ands ESPN n to two games on FX and two games on ESPN N you can't, like it's very different clearances there A reason. Look, the networks are networks for a reason and it's about TV households and being accessible. So I mean it's no secret a b ABC primetime and college football Trances, E S P N primetime college football. That's just the way it is. That's how the network system works. So yeah, I, I've seen enough, I've been around enough and I've heard enough to where I know that there's a lot of excitement about where this is. Well Matt, I really appreciate your time. Busy guy. It means a lot for you taking time to come on today. So thank you so much. Absolutely. Anytime. I enjoy your work on social media and your support of the league, so it's been a lot of fun to get involved in this with you. Good, thank you so much. You bet. Well, if you ever doubt this man's commitment to alternative football on the day that Aaron Rodgers his, I guess committed himself to the Jets and half a million more S F L viewers and a lot of X ffl and watching the Pat McAfee show half a million Crazy. We have Mike Mitchell here. How are you? I'm Doing well Rita. Thanks For having me on. And before I forget, I want to congratulate you and your show being nominated, a sports business podcast of the year. Really awesome man. You've put in such hard work when you step back and think about it, you go, well, he's interviewed league executives, coaches, players, commissioners like Randy Ambrosie, all writers, sportscasters, all that, Kevin Seaford, crazy football writers like myself. So you run the gamut all across the board. So it's nice to see you get some recognition. However, I Reid, just to let you know, my inside sources tell me that some guy named Scott Slapstick or something forgot to apply. It's a rough sport, go in this landscape to try to get recognition, but when you forget to apply, you know, don't deserve to even be considered. So that's just way that It was so funny. So first off, thank you very much. We're up and I, I'll try to remember the preface out of the intro for the show. Please vote post the link and stuff. We got nominated for Sports Business Gallery. I have a hair on my face Sports Business podcast of the year, heavy competition sports illustrators up there. DraftKings. What I really like about it is I've been trying to get John Orand on for a really long time with the Sports Business Journal. So now that maybe we get to go to a green screen party, green room party, whatever. But yeah, I tweeted out, hey, please vote for me. We're independent podcast and yeah, Scott, the editor-in-chief over at Spco Retweets, well I forgot to apply, that's why we're not there. I'm like, I'm like Scott, you're the editor-in-chief of spco. Like I do this out of my bedroom here. Let's Got to be frustrating for, that's an actual sports business site, a very good one at that. But the pettiness, I mean come on now. I mean why pick out on an independent guy who dedicates his time to this and works very hard at it? I mean what you've pulled off is pretty damn impressive. It's a lot easier for John RN and all those people to book guests. It's a lot harder for you to do it. So it's taken a lot of hustle for you to get notoriety and recognition. So for someone like slapstick to go out there and take a shot and an independent guy said, oh, I forgot I would've applied if I would've applied, you wouldn't have even gotten recognition. That's, that's just low class. Well, I mean I'm sorry and I've listened to slapstick in a few interviews, interviewed Danny Garcia and a few others. I mean there's not nothing really there. There's no real insight coming from him. So even if he had applied, I wouldn't nominate 'em. So there it goes. That Reid, you can't say any of that stuff but I don't really care. So I mean it's just like I wouldn't have said anything about it. And let mind you and I are not going to match, we'll try, but we're nowhere near going to match Aaron Rogers appearance, future jet quarterback appearance on who I consider Pat McAfee a former X F L sportscaster. That's how I consider we're not going to match the amount of views that the Pat McAfee got with Rogers today, whenever this airs airs. But this, we're recording this on, I guess it's Wednesday night, but we won't come close. We're just going to come up a little bit short. But it is what it is. Well that has to have been the, one of the highest views whatever broadcast on YouTube. But I know in the day that I was nominated for that, I was also asked for an appearance fee from a C F L reporter. So it was really the highest. I'm like, I don't think you understand what this is anyway. People aren't here for that. People are here. Mike has been chomping at the bit we've been trying to get Mike's balancing his family and real work and Jet's work and everything else we have Mike on. I've been brainstorming all week. Hey, what is the theme of this show? We, we've interviewed Matt Barry here with espn, he's talking on the show as well. Should be a good one. There's a long running HGT V show with a husband wife where they come in, they buy kind of decrepit or forgotten houses and then they try to build them up and then sell them. And the show is called Flop Flip or Flop, that is the name of the show. And so I we're going to go today, Mike x Ffl 3.0 flip or flop Flip, I can't call it a flop. It's funny, so many gray areas to this read because if Danny Garcia, Duane Johnson and Jerry Cardinal had started their own league, let's just say they ignored the X Ffl, they didn't buy it out of bankruptcy. Even if they had started their own league, whatever they had called it, the Opportunity Football League or whatever, they still would've been measured up to the X ffl in 2020. So there was no getting around that and the X F L in 2020. I've said this for the longest time of these leagues that I've followed for many years now of these leagues. It was the best new league, best first year league that I have seen. Now they had their flaws too, don't get me wrong. And I certainly criticized them and wrote about it and made some enemies along the way by doing so. But that was a really good product and it was well promoted and marketed and say what you will about the man. But Viz man is a pretty good brand builder, so you have to give him credit on that one, right? So I mean that's the story there. And he hired great people. And so I don't know, flip or flop, I don't think it's a flop. A lot of what I report on and obviously tweet about, I'm not much of a social media guy, but I've been tweeting out all the attendance figures that I get directly from the venues in the league and of course putting out the ratings that I get from Nielsen and sources at Disney and FX and all that. But I really care more about the football than I do the business end. But I understand how this works with these leagues. I can't tell you how many viewers the Jets had in week seven, but with these leagues, our focus is so much on the attendance and so much on the ratings and it it's of a import because you know, want to see progress, you want to see the league grow, you want to see the league do well the ratings are a mixed bag right now depending, you know, mentioned John Aand at the opening of this thing. If you're a shill or not for specific networks, you can put out certain narratives. So there's a lot of disingenuous stuff out there right now if you're pro football talk and the N B C affiliated, there's a lot of disingenuous stuff right now. People are comparing week one ratings that were on network television to FX games that aren't a one o'clock in the morning. That's not even like, oh what a dip. So of course it's going to be a dip. So I think that part of the X now we, there's so many layers to this. Read digiday.com wrote an article a few weeks back with Janet Duke who's like the head of marketing for the X ffl and they talked about their strategy and how they were going about it differently, this go round. And one of the things that was in that article, and I'm forgetting the writer's name and I apologize, but one of the things that was in that article was that it was revealed that the X ffl had spent $120,000 in marketing and promotion, which is nothing when you're l launching a league that's next to nothing. You're talking about eight teams, all that. So they took a very different approach and strategy much different than the X ffl in 2020, which had Fox promoting the league, Disney promoting the league, of course viz man with his money being put in, they had roots in all their markets. So a lot of what the X F L has gotten in this iteration is by default because basically they didn't, I want to say I, I'll just say it, they didn't go all in on marketing and promoting and that's part of their strategy is to not do that. They decided to divvy it up so to speak, and put their resources in different areas. Now there's definitely sections of the league. We're sitting here, we're approaching week five now, and I don't know why the league hasn't sold jerseys. It's like, I know that seems like a fan thing, but you had Kevin Seaford on a few weeks back and he said, he asked Russ, Brandon, what's different about this iteration to the 2020 version? And Brandon told Seafer, well we got different uniforms or whatever. So I mean if you're going to tout that as something that's new, fresh, interesting, and Under Armour is definitely something to brag about. That's a cool, it's different than an XFL 2020 where they had some, no disrespect but some generic brand making uniforms. It's nice to have Under Armor as part of it, but if you're going to tout that, you'd figure you would sell them. You'd have fans that the games wearing them, that would be a revenue source for the league. It's free advertising people around the city wearing the new jerseys. I see in the comments section, I pay attention to all this stuff. People saying when can I get a jersey? I'm coming to the game, I bought tickets to the end zone, blah blah blah, I want to wear a jersey. And so some of these fan bases are wearing their 2020 gear, so it's like, because they haven't sold it yet. So it's little things like these little things usually get ignored, but they count. So it's the transactions for example, we just, you've been posting out, you've been doing a great job X Ffl news hub, a lot of people do this stuff. They got a lot of the writers, they post the injury reports that they get from directly from the teams. The teams should be doing that individually every day. They should be posting their injury report, their practice report. That should be an easy tweet. Boom, you're out there. But they don't do that stuff. That little stuff counts. They just recently added a transactions page on xfl.com, whatever it was the other night, long overdue. I mean we're approaching week five. So there's a lot of little things about the league that I think they haven't really done well and there's strategy there that maybe I can question how they've utilized social media, how they choose to post a whole highlights and don't each individual team account. So some of that is on purpose, some of that maybe they're understaffed, I don't know. But it seems like they have a totally different strategy of how to connect. And so I don't think, like to get to your original point, I know I've been rambling on, but to get to your original point, I don't think that this is a flop. The ratings they've gotten on FX and ESPN two about what I expected. There were this past week, they were second in, they had the second highest rated program on ESPN two, what else do you want? They were second highest rated program on FX week before they were first the Defender's Battle Hawks game, which had whatever it was, 665,000 viewers. So the real test with this league is how they do on network television. So how they do when they get back on a B, C, I don't expect them to match what they did in week one, but can they stay? There were games last year, the U US F L had 500, 600,000 now 600,000 viewers on Fox and N B NBC during the season. It was at the end of the year during the playoffs and of course the championship game where it went back up over a million. So you want to see if the word of mouth, the quality of the product when they're on big networks, if they can do respectable numbers, maybe a million maybe in that range on networks, that's going to be the real asset test. We're hitting a hard part right now with March Madness. So there's like so many viewing options in terms of college basketball and all that. So it'll be interesting to see how the league performs there. I would say the ratings have done really well on cable. The network, I know from my sourcing, they're extremely ecstatic with the 1849 demo. Every one of their games is ranked highly in that area. That's very important. That's the most any rating site you go to, that's the top demo they show you for all these shows. And so that has value. The question is how they perform on networks and how they perform moving forward. The attendance in some markets in Seattle haven't been as good as they were back in 2020. There's a lot of reasons for that. The emergence of the Kraken, the Kraken, That that's huge. The team, not the team not setting up shop there in Seattle. The Jim Zorn, as much as we criticize him as a coach, that was a factor. He's a local legend. He helped push tickets for a long time. You remember they set up shop mini camp in the fall of winter of 2019 before they even sold tickets. So there are so many layers to this. I apologize for going on so long and in so many different directions, but it's really, it's a nuanced conversation. It's not a simple answer as flip or flop and I don't flip flops. Well that was good. No, and we're going to get into all this. It'll be me, Andrew, today. I think this, I did find the article, it was that Julian Cannon here on Digi Day and so I've been kind of flashing it on and so I wanted to make sure I like this dreamyard now cause I can just pull stuff up if we, and I have your ra, awesome. I have your ratings article here because couple things and I want to talk, we'll talk attendance. That to me not as, it's fine, whatever. We'll talk Radis all that stuff. When you say, and I've heard this, okay, it's by design. They don't want to be, and I do want to play kind of devil's advocate today because you've been us be stuff as well too. But of course the league is going to say, well this is all by design. We're we're not going to come out and say, yeah, we really fit the bed here. We probably should have spent an extra couple months. We probably should have hired our social media people. Not the month that training camp was starting. We probably should have hired them a little bit before that and had everyone up to speed and not did onboarding of this team. Social media people and the team communications directors while the players are at training camp. I was talking to one of the team directors today doing one of the interviews and it's week five that he feels like they have things under control now, which is great, but that's why you don't onboard people when everyone's coming down. So when they say, well this is all by design, it's been a softer rollout, we want to build, we're happy. We'll get into TV ratings in general. But the specifics of it, do you believe that when they say this is by design, Their financial plan kind of? Yes. I'll tell you why. Because if you look at their league, this is a lot different than 2020 in the ways I've already mentioned. But if you look at it, they have a hub. So they're saving money that way. They're saving money on teams traveling. They save money on having facilities in local markets and renting places. So a lot of what Red Bird has done has been to save money to have more of a fiscally responsible approach to this league than say Vincent Man had. So I do think that there, and I know this too, that there was higher, the expectations for week one were higher on network television. They thought they were going to do better than they did. Yes, world's changed a lot in the last three years. The streaming world boomed, people got YouTube tv, they got all this different stuff. I watched the games on E S P N plus my laptop, all that. And that's changed for me big time. So yes, that's definitely been a factor. But they expected better ratings in week one than they got. And I think one of the mistakes that they made is assuming that, okay, X ffl 2020 built up a nice brand, they had a great following. We'll just inherit that again. And if you just add rock to it, that rock's promotional power. His marketing is 14 million followers on Twitter or whatever, et cetera, et cetera. All the follow millions of followers he has on Instagram and everywhere else that if you just add him that this legal match or better what they did in 2020, and I could have told you that two, three months ago that wasn't going to be the case. So they expected to do a little bit better than they did in the opening week. I don't think it's a complete excuse. Like I said, a lot of what they've done is bare boned in these individual markets. They haven't gone all in marketing and spending money and marketing and promoting. And if they had, I think they would have better attendance. But then there's the trade off. How much did you spend to market and promote and how many more people did that equate to? So I mean there's that. They have a five year deal with Disney. Now a lot of people don't know the specifics. We've talked about that they do have a rights deal. Sport code did report, we mentioned them. Sport code did report. I've Had sport code reporters on the show. I know mean it really shouldn't be that contentious of a relationship I know, but they reported that the five year rights deal is up to 150 million. So for that's what Disney is paying the X F L. The reason why the league hasn't come out and said that, because from what I've heard and what I've reported is that there are a lot of incentives and escalators involved in a deal that you can't just put down a certain number and say it's 120 million, it's 135 million. Because there's a lot of, now whether or not they're reaching all those incentives in terms of what they projected in terms of ratings for cable and all that, I don't know. I do know that Disney's very happy with the cable numbers. That's why those games are flexed. They figure if we're doing nearly 700,000 viewers on FX for the Battle Hawks and Defenders game, which was 6 65, we can do a lot better if we put it on ESPN Now, if I were them, I would flex some other games out. They have in week six, they have two ABC games now I don't know if they can make this work. There's there logistics involved and everything else, but they're, when they're back on network television, they have the Orlando, the beloved Orlando guardians who are going to be playing at home that day. Now I would venture to guess that they're not going to have very many fans there. Maybe quitting flowers plays and that helps a little bit. But that's not exactly the game you want to showcase on network television. You almost wish because we'll see what happens this weekend, but you almost wish that DC and Houston who are going to be playing Monday night on ESPN two, you almost wish that game was on B ABC because not only could that be a championship preview, but we could be looking at a situation where DC's undefeated at field hosting the team that's never lost in the X F L, the Houston Roughnecks. That could be a battle of the beaten there. So that's a juicy football game. Two very good teams anyway. But there's a lot of different layers to this. I don't think, I do think you get what you put in. And so we'll see in the long run whether or not their strategy pays off in terms of what they're, they're trying to accomplish. The real test of that is the end of their season. Are people still interested in the league? How do they do on network television? And so we'll see As the Seattle C Dragons fan, I do not like your assertion that the Houston Roughneck might be undefeated still when they fly the DC defender. So I don't like that. It's odd to me. And we've talked about this before and I don't want to, I've been treated very well by the league. That's great. When you say, okay, we thought they thought they could come in. We buy this with the rock tweets. I thought it was interesting. Not a friend of ours but C F L Red on Twitter, I was shared. Brandon had a thing. The rock, a normal Instagram post gets like 7,500 impre. What interactions, whatever, a normal one and X ffl one does about 20% of that on braid and crunch a bunch of numbers, which is interesting and you can comment on that if you want, but the idea that, okay, we're going to buy this old league and then from the beginning we talked about this, we're going to keep fans at arm's length. We don't want people to use the name and the thing. We are going to take X F L. We can review. We're going to use that. I still think it's weird, Josh Levin or Lewin, whatever, doesn't interact really. And we have some of these people interact and some of them don't. Like if you're buying all this Goodwill and then not, I just don't feel like they capitalized on a lot of that, that they could have very easily and very cost effective. Like you said, posting the transactions things. But there's a lot of things they could be doing that don't cost money at all. Retweeting stuff. You write retweeting stuff, mark writes retweeting stuff like Matt doing these things that leveraging this community that we have versus we want to own this and we're going to run it. You just doesn't feel like they've ever embraced it really in that way. Yeah, you see a lot of new league issues with them. They're doing a lot of the things that I've seen a lot of these new football leagues fail to do. You, it's like the cap. They posting injury reports and practice reports is so easy. It really is. They got a cute little graphic there with the, you just put that on your, your Twitter feed. That's really simple. And then people want to know this stuff. How many people hit me up with the depth charts? And then unfortunately some of the depth charts get put out with guys who've been released and injured and they're still starters and all that. So that's not quite clean either. So it's like there's a lot of things like these little things, they seem like nitpicking, but they all add up, selling the jerseys, putting the practice reports, putting the injury reports. They help with fantasy, they help with gambling, they help with all these things. They help continue when you sign a player post it, look at this, we signed Raymond Kaus or whatever. It's just like these kind of things are very simple as far as them like embracing outreach, embracing guys who contribute to covering these leagues that that's not completely necessary. It's good if they do it. I prefer if they do that. I think they should. You got a lot of people like yourself. It's fun. It's great to see Brandon Perna and fem lo raps out there that are doing great videos on the X Ffl every week you want, thank goodness they're not pulling a U S F L and pulling down that stuff like the U S F L did last year. Those guys, the more people you have talking about the league and covering it, the better it is. You know, need as much promotion as you can get. A lot of these leagues, they struggle to get any type of mainstream attention. Nobody's writing. I don't blame 'em. I was concerned with Aaron Rodgers too. Nobody's thinking about the Seattle Sea Dragons and mainstream sports fans are not thinking about the Sea Dragons receivers against the roughneck defensive backs on Thursday night. Like so you need to get the word out and promote. And that's my opinion on it. Maybe their strategy works out. I'm watching, I'm paying attention to social media as I'm watching X F L games and I'll see maybe one or two tweets from a team during a three hour game. Like you posted Rod Woodson's, TIR rated halftime. That was interesting, entertaining, captivating moment. It happens in football controversial. So it was cool to watch. And you look all over, you can't find it anywhere on social media can't, unless somebody goes out of their way. Now I know, do know the league has made a strong effort. They don't want to be as, they don't, I hate to say this cause I'm not really taking a shot at barely, barely Carlin who ran social media, but they're not looking to be that type of social media presence where they're joking around and doing all that kind of stuff, which Bailey's awesome in social media, no doubt about it. And I know they made a concerted effort to retweet and post fan accounts. So you'll see fans out there, they'll say something about the XFL and the X ffl will ree retweet it and put it on their main page, which is cool. I have nothing against that. I think that's really cool that they're doing that. But I Didn't see that this weekend and I agree. I just cut in. I saw that the last two when we were gone, whatever this last weekend, because you were saying we and we were talking like the Battle Hawks game wasn't a lot coming out the Vipers game, but I did know this, a severe drop this weekend of them. I don't don't know who runs that, the actual main account. We know most of the people that run Hailey or Leah, I don't know who has the finger on the nuke button of that main account. But what that was not utilized this weekend. I did notice And after these comments are probably going to be unfollowed by the X ffl. So sorry, I just got a man. I'm just keeping it real. So I look don't not hating on anybody on the staff members. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. I just think part of this is a little bit strategy, to be honest with you. I think there's a clear, there's steering away from doing things that traditionally sports leagues do, which is post highlights. If you watch, you just pay attention to an N F NFL game. You watch the commander's account or the Jets account, which the commander's account has X F L people. But from 2020 you watch the Jets account, they post highlights, they post post clips, they post pictures, they do all these kinds of things. And sometimes they'll joke around the jets today, did the Leonardo DiCaprio meme with him pointing at the tv, look, I noticed something with the whole McAfee business, so you know, don't have to go like that. But during the game it seems like minimal effort. During the Vipers game there wasn't any clips, any highlights. You had to look very hard to find them. And I know I'm watching the game so I want to watch it there. But you'd figure they would do that to attract people to go, Hey, let me check that out. What a play by Josh Gordon or whatever. Let me turn that on. What's, what channels this on? So anyhow, but maybe it's just me overthinking things. So that's possible. But I think there's a lot of little things that are not quite up to speed the way they should be That I just highlight. They don't do a lot of things that traditional sport league sports leagues do on social media post highlights. No, I don't seen, I think don't know if it's Haley doing it with Seattle. They seem good. The braas, I don't know if we just don't have equal numbers for all the teams to be able to facilitate that, right? I don't know if all of those positions that we want got filled, but it is, it's just weird to think, I think it was even James Larson was talking and he had had one of the clips of the Battle Hawks and same thing, it just wasn't anywhere online. And what is it, the M F L or X FFL on ESPN n account, right? That's the one that they do tweet and then you can kind of get off of that. But that's none. No one from the X ffl or from any of the teams that seems to be Doing that. And it seems blatant to me, like you said, NFL on espn, ESPN Sports Center, those handles will tweet out X ffl highlights during ESPN two. But those N F L on ESPN tweets, a lot of the X ffl stuff, thank goodness, that's good. I'm watching the games live, so I'm seeing everything, but I'm noticing whether or not they're keeping their fans updated, that kind of thing. And I understand they want the fans watching the games live. They don't want 'em on Twitter waiting for a highlight, that kind of thing. But it's part of the experience of sports fans right now in 2023 is Doing, it's all, all you I love and I got it this last weekend with the, was it the three games or whatever for the X F L, but being able to sit, watch football all day and just live on my phone and feel like I'm watching this along, texting you guys, messaging retweeting stuff, seeing that is like you said, in this day and age, that is how a large portion of people consume. And so you're posting those highlights not only for the people watching the game but watching the game. I mean everyone, the X F L should cover whatever day of the week now they're playing, right? If they're doing the double header this Sunday should be wall to wall all day. Get everyone on there talking about that's how people are consuming this And you know, have the hardcores. You got to try to learn some of the people and that's great. I'm going to mispronounce his name. Ari. Yeah, yeah. And a few other people like that. They've been posting and retweeting great highlights from the X F L. Great moments that we've seen already. The battle hawks, comebacks, Josh Gordon, game winning, touchdown, all that. Talking about how lit the league is, how cool it is, how these games have not disappointed. And the football, with the exception of here and there, a couple things here and there. The football's been excellent. I've had no issue with the football by the way. I think it's progressively getting better. We're seeing a lot of high powered stuff with the Houston, with Brandon Silver. I think AJ Smith is a rockstar. He's such a tremendous coach. He's so fit for this league. He's one of the few coaches out there that's actually utilizing the multiple communication system. He talks to his wide receivers up until the very snap. So those guys, you hear that on television, it's so really cool. It's really cool. So it's somebody's coach is no disrespect, but June Jones or whatever, I know that's your Dragon team, but they refuse to do that. I don't know why. You've got multiple offensive player AJ's looking at the play, he's looking at Kirkland, the coverage, the defensive shown. He is telling Kirkland, okay, run this and they do it and works. So you know, it's like a cheat code. You should be utilizing that. So there's been a lot of fun aspects and immersive aspects of the league. And I think the quality of the play is, I don't know, I'm still measuring it to X F L in 2020. I'm measuring it to the U S F L we saw last year. I'm really excited about the football games that are coming up this weekend. I really would prefer to talk about that stuff over the business stuff. But that's a big part of this. The business stuff, the how the league is perceived, how it comes off, making it a good impression. That's all part of this game because I would rather focus in on DC and St. Louis. It's going to be such an awesome atmosphere. Those two teams are really good. That's going to be an awesome game. And these things are important that we talk about. Well, and I mean, not that I don't value your football knowledge tremendously. I can bring on, there are other people I can bring on to preview dragons, roughnecks or whatever. Yeah, this is your lot in life right now, whether you want to, It's what it's, it is what it Is. I just, I'll be remiss to say, talking about just asinine social media, the US fellow announcing their coaching rosters today, full coaching rosters literally during the Aaron Rodgers Pat McAfee thing. And then I've yet to get a press release. Do we get a press release? Do we get bios for all these people? Do we get, I was, I'm like, oh, okay. Surely they're going to send out something here when we get everything done and then just wild that way. I want to get to ratings, but I want you because everyone's going to call you home or Mike, but objectively where we're at week five U S F L X or X F L versus U S F L week five, how do you feel like the football is living up to what we just saw in April? I think it's better in the X ffl right now than it was in the U S F L. You look at the us, look at, I think the production is better. I think the broadcasts are better, but just strictly the football, when you look at the U S F L, their first team all U S F L quarterback was Kyle Slowder, right? And Kyle Slowder is in the X ffl right now. And last year when your first team all u s Ffl quarterback has nine touchdowns and 11 interceptions and completes less than whatever it was, 58% of his passes. You look at a lot of those quarterbacks that were in the u s ffl last year and Jamar Smith co excellent, he did a tremendous job in Bar Andrews' scheme there. And I think he's going to be a league leader for the U S F L. But when I look at the receiver play in the X Ffl, Jaco Pearson, Josh Gordon, John Tre, Kirkland, Deontay Burnett, there are a lot of really good wide receivers in this league. So I mean I've been impressed with that. So from a football, my opinion from watching these leagues for four decades nearly the X F L play on the field has been better. And so now if you're watching a guardians game, they look very ma or que. So the guardians are not exactly waving the flag brilliantly there. And there have been some ugly aspects. We saw the Vegas field situation with the stupid tracks on it and the issue there. So I there there's been some ugly aspects there too for sure. Stuff I've written about, talked about. But as far as the overall plate, my opinion, it's, it's been better than what I saw in the U S F L. The Vegas thing hurt my heart. I mean that week and I was coming back from Mexico and I was watching the highlights on the, because I hadn't, was like couldn't even watch the game and I watched it when I got home. I'm just watching the highlight, the post-it clips, I'm like a, why would you post that clip? And then this hurts my heart and I don't want you to get crazy out of hand. Do you want to address the Marshall Ferguson, Orlando guardians and him poo-pooing anything? Or do you think we covered that on the Monday show with Andy? Yeah, I think I heard your show. I went back and I listened to it. I didn't hear it live, but you guys did a very good job of covering it. I have respect for Marshall Ferguson as a former quarterback at McMaster. I think he does a good job as a sportscaster. I think a lot of time what we're seeing Reid in this space a lot is tribalism. And it comes from up north in Canada and I understand that people get very defensive and they want to poo PPO that people play favorites. There are a lot of X F L loyalists right now. They'll want to give the U S F L respect. There are a lot of U S F L loyalists that don't want to give the X F L any shine. So we got a lot of tribalism there. When you're in a professional position, not that I'm always professional, but when you're in a professional position, you really have to be a little bit more objective and a little fair. You have to try to be reasonably fair even if you have an allegiance. And so Marshall, he caught that game, had a lot of big plays that I'm not saying for good, for better or for worse. I think, I don't know there 81 yard pass play, I think there were eight plays over 40 yards. That game had a lot of big plays, a lot of points. Obviously that doesn't necessarily equate to an exciting game or anything like that. But Houston with the double four pass, they're an exciting offense. Exciting defense. And so I think the nitpicking that was done by him was a little bit unfair kind of. And it's like, it smells like an agenda. Oh, I turned on this XFO game, I saw an interception screw that league. That's garbage. That's kind of like, you can do that to any league. If I turn on the N F NFL last year, almost every Thursday night game, poor Al Michael suffered miserable deaths every week calling the worst games in the N F NFL season. I could turn on the cults of the Broncos and if I had never watched the N F NFL and I'd just watched that game, I'd go, boy, why aren't people all wrapped up in this? Why is this the highest rated thing? So you think the F nfl, oh my god, the N NFL's really falling off this quality of place garbage. So you know, can do that with any league. I could turn on C F L games and trust me, I watch every C F L game. I have ESPN plus I watch all of them multiple times. I'm a huge Argos guy. I have been my whole life, but I I've lived through a lot of horrible, really bad C games. Bad, yes. So it happens. I know after Covid it was really bad, really bad. The Argos actually played halfway decent that year. There were a lot, was a lot of, they got to the East Final, they were a decent team. Ryan did what, he did a tremendous job putting that team together and they won a championship last year. But a lot of the CFO games were, unless the Argos were playing the tie cats, there were a lot of really ugly games in the C F L. So you could do that. That's not like a fair thing. And then broadcasters talking up players in the league sometimes they can beat you over the head with the same point over and over and over and over again. So I do see that sometimes during the X ffl telecast, but I've watched C F L telecast, a lot of the players are talked up. A lot of the players who are from youth sports are talked up the, there's always announcers on T S N talking about how great the C F L product is. This is why our league is so great. Look at this. So it can be a little excessive, especially to the casual listener. If you're a loyalist to the C F L and you hear them talking about how great eSports is and how nothing's better than a C F L, then maybe you like that. But if you're somebody who's a casual follower of it, you go, oh come on, take it easy with this. So I have nothing against Marshall personally. I didn't like the fact that he tried to tweet out a picture of Andy Murray. I, I'm not here to fight battles for Andy Murray, but I thought that was like, okay, have an intelligent discourse with someone that would try to, he's trying to, Andy looked pretty cool in that photo by the way. It's kind of funny. I think it's kind of a jokey thing. Him pointing with the sunglasses. It's fine, it's fine. Yeah. So I don't think even Andy's like, okay, this is going to be my GQ shot, but Andy's like, and so Marshall posting that as a way of trying to troll Andy. That's when you lost the argument my friend. Well yeah. I just said if I had posted a photo of Marshall with his child on my Twitter feed, I would probably be sent to jail. So all the tribalism thing is crazy. And we deal with the U S F L and I have so many accounts muted now and I know you do. I can't even count how I pulled up. Who was I? Oh, I was interviewing Paul Reese. I'm like, we pulled up something on Twitter on the street and it was just like media can, I'm like, oh, we need to cut this out. They can't see how many accounts. But it's crazy to me. I am just human nature, people that are easier to work with or people that come on the show. Marshall Nailer comes on the show all the time. Farhan comes on, I'm going to okay their opinion, I'm going to give them a little bit of grain of salt with it. I've reached out to Marshall a lot, doesn't seem to want to have anything to do with me. If he comes at the X F L, I'm going to come back at him. It's just human kind of nature that way. And why this Reid seem like he favors the X ffl. Well, because I get more players from the X L on the show, of course it's going to look that way. Of course it's going to look that way. Or with the cfl. And when I email the CFL and they give me, here's the list of every single person that you want to talk to. Time coded exactly in an order that you can interview them. Of course it's going to seem like I prefer the CM more. The agenda is who decides to come on the show. I can't control who comes on the show. And a lot of these guys, of course, like Farhan, who's tremendous, Dave Nailer, all these people, of course they have leanings towards the cfl. That's their league, that's what they've been covering their whole life. And they're always going to be skepticism towards the U S F L, the X ffl because they've seen this movie before. All these leagues that come out and they talk a big game and then die quickly. The tribalism is funny to me, Reid, I it's, look, I come, I don't frequent Discords and Reddits and all that so I don't come. You got to understand the birth of Mike Mitchell writing about these leagues started with the old school Reddit and Discord on XFL board.com, shout out to Mark Nelson and all that. I used to spend a lot of time writing stuff to the point where Mark Nelson said, Hey, do you want to cover one of these teams? Ended up getting press credentials to see the XFL in 2001 and here I am today. So I think it's really cool that there actually are Reddits and Discords that are dedicated to the C F L, to the X F L, to the U S F L. I think that's really awesome. But I think sometimes people cross the line from fandom and fanaticism and fanaticism is when people have willful ignorance, they lose all reason. They don't really, so they try, you know, can support or advocate but advocate for whoever you want, whatever you like, that's cool. Whatever you like. But I think sometimes the, you'll see U S F L fans say the X F L stole their PO conversions, they stole their overtime, they stole their double four pass and I'm like, oh, come on now. And I even saw Mike Perrera saying, look at our innovations in our league, the conversions and all that. And that's dishonest. That's just wrong. Sam Schwartzstein and that team in the X F L tested all these rules from 2018 with junior colleges and pro players and all that. They came up with it first. So you can't say it's your innovation. So I think sometimes there's a lot of, there's of course blind loyalty and the tribalism is pretty ugly. But on the flip side of that, the positive is that I'm happy there are actually people who care about these leagues. So that's because you need those people because a lot of people ignore these leagues. Last point, I want to, we'll get some more substantial stuff here and this goes, I, I've lived through WWE E and W C W and W W E now and what is it, A e w and all this stuff. If you think Redbird Fox Sports, if you think these billion dollar companies need you advocating for them on social media, you're like, you're high. If they don't, the people that support certain political candidates, and I don't want to get too, but if you think that X, Y, Z person cares at all that you're online arguing with your family and getting kicked out of reunions or whatever the hell else is going on, that's, it's insane. It blows my mind. These people like, well I'm spend 16 hours online fighting for Lamar Jackson. Like Lamar Jackson doesn't care about you or Aaron Rodgers doesn't care about you or U S F L does not care about you. I hate to tell you that, but they do not X ffl 2023 gameplay. We spend all this time, we're scouring the globe, we're doing the Hawaii bowls, we're doing all this stuff. Is that better than x Ffl 2020? Wow, that's a close one. I'd say the receiver play in this league, that's what stood out to me the most is better. There's more bigger star receivers. We knew in the X ffl 2020 we had Cam Phillips and then there were several other players and for quality players, no doubt. But I think the receiver play in this league is really what stood out to me. I think the scouting has been very good. I think the Jaco Pearsons, John Tre Kirklands, the number of F NFL practice squad players, guys who didn't sign futurist deals that signed with the xfl. That happened too in 2020. But there's some real very talent. I think we're going to see a lot of guys get opportunity Luke bark, who, there's a lot of guys in the X ffl that are I It's a close one. Reid, I got to say it's like I think Orlando drags down so mean to them. I know, but I think they drag down a lot of the league's quality because when I look at each individual roster, I see a lot of quality coaches, quality directors of player personnel. Von Hutchins has done a tremendous job with the DC Defenders. I wouldn't be surprised he on an N F NFL front office, Reggie Barlow's done an excellent job as I coach. I look at these teams, Lil Bridge and Houston has done a tremendous job. You they're so the Muellers, these teams are so well constructed. And then I look at Orlando and I think nobody, even though the Seattle Sea Dragons I were weren't great and the Vipers weren't that great in X ffl 2020, they had good aspects to their teams. Vipers were number one in offense and all that. So even though they didn't have a great record. So it's a tough one. I think the jury's still out on that. But I do see certain aspects of this league that are better. It definitely in the passing game wide receivers, I think Deutche Ucci is going to break a lot of records. This league Silvers boy is it great that he's with AJ Smith. He lit it up in the Spring League. Look at him right back there. So he lit it up in the spring league with AJ Smith and he's in the right system. I was a fan of his when he was with the Memphis Express. I thought I was happy when the dragons got silvers. I was a big fan of silvers in the Afaf and then it didn't work out in 2020. But it's great to see him excelling in that offense. So it's a close call. We think of 2023, we think of PJ Walker, Jordan teu. Right now we're looking at ucci, Brandon Silvers, those guys. Maybe some AJ McCarran, like AJ McCarran could be a league mvp. I think the quarterback play might be better. This go around. It might be, it might be better if you look at the top of the top versus the top of the X Ffl, of course you have PJ Lighten lighten up the world, but ucci, McCarran, even silvers are really performing at a high level. Well I think pj I think clouds the 2020, right? Josh Johnson was coming on and he had the trade issue and all that and then he was really coming on in la so he's the strong number two there, right? But PJ, I think we all in our mind, but no, Cardell was a bust. Andrew was a bust. Luis was Luis, right? Air Murray was whatever there. I think that we remember it more that way that where, and I don't know, that's why I'm asking because I said the US develop quarterback talent was better and I got skewered by, was that Ian Har or whatever was and we were debating that. So yeah, just anyway, maybe like you said overall UCCI and all them. But it is a curious conversation I think. Yeah, it's a tough one. Like U S F L, we know about cookies and Jamar Smith did a good job for them and they're coming back. So that's a good thing. Cal Loader has been a disappointment thus far in spring pro football and I'm a slaughterhouse guy. I wanted him so badly in spring pro football. I watch him tear it up in the NFL preseason say when's this guy going to get a chance? And nine touchdowns, 11 interceptions. That's not really your number one quarterback, first team quarterback. So if that's the guy you're saying is your best quarterback, that's the worst quarterback in most leagues. If you have not touchdown 11 interceptions, you're under 60% completion presented. So anyway, I do think that we'll see how it turns out the rest of the way. I think when you're comparing these leagues, like the U S F L I think had much better performance from their running backs like the Bo Scarboroughs, Darius Victors, the, we're starting to see Morgan Ellison come on for the Dragons. He's a really nice runner. Brian Hill's talented. He's eat, he's eating. I'm glad he's getting a full opportunity. I've always been a fan of his. Maybe the U S F L's top Tipity top runners are better than the xfl. I think the X FFLs current version of quarterbacks and receivers are better than the last two major leagues from what I'm seeing right now from Ucci, McCarran and Silvers. This Kirkland, what a star like he was on the Cardinals practice squad in 2022. He backed up at LSU Jamar Chase and Justin Jefferson, arguably the two best young wired receivers in all of football. And so he's getting a chance now to play. He played quarterback at lsu. We saw how well he threw that double forward pass. I'm so impressed with him. Jaco Pearson's fun with your Seattle team, that four two speed. He's good in the slot. I can see him in the nfl, Josh Gordon, right attitude. A lot of times you get veteran players who come into these leagues and they're just like loafing it or they're just upset about their lot in life and he's like reborn. He's been great. So I, I'm really impressed with the tippy top. I mean we still have a lot of guys who are struggling. The jack cones and Lynch hasn't all been his fault. Jordan's starting to pick it up. Him and DRA King are a fun tandem in DC. So I think the football is on level and in some cases you can argue better if you exclude Orlando. One thing about this, and I do want to get the TV ratings here before we go, I have your article ready to pull up. So I to spoil by, I think U S F L will win this ratings battle here and I'll get your thoughts on that. What I do think is the X F L is going to get so many guys signed to leagues and we've taught you, you've reported every and X F L in 2020 still has X number of players on rosters and all that stuff. I just interviewing Donald Payne today, this is why I came to this league and it works out and I get done in April and I'm able to go, I think they're going to ship a ton of guys that are actually not just going to go to camp, but are going to actually stick right to be on rosters, not just like Kavante Turpen. Do you agree, disagree on the talent, the timeline for the X ffl here and what we've seen so far with the play? Yeah, I think they're going to have a lot of players that get opportunities. We'll see how many of them there are. I know in 2020, even though they only had five weeks of play, it was close to 70 players that signed on with N NFL teams. And then obviously that got whittled down. But three years later, over two dozen X Ffl players from 2020 is still in the N nfl. We'll see what happens with PJ Walker now. He's a free agent. But anyhow, so we'll See how not go to Washington. He's not going to to Washington. I was trying to say good vibes today. Watch him back up Hynek in Atlanta or with Desmond Ritter, just get a, but anyhow, but as far as the ratings go, that's a very interesting point that you bring Up. Yeah, well we'll get to that. Talk about the players. Yeah, so I do think that the X ffl is going to have a good number of players comparable to what we've seen in this space of spring leagues. But the main key with a lot of these players is their opportunities to make teams. So we saw, so the earlier you get onto an NFL team, the better your chances are and that's how you get over two dozen players three years later from the X ffl in 2020 still on N NFL rosters. And so I think maybe they don't have 20 or 30 guys make an nml NFL 53 man roster. I don't think it would be that much anyway. But I do think getting in there earlier will guarantee that there are more players like the U USS F L last year had one player who made the active roster, bunch of players who made the practice squads and then end up getting elevated here and there. Some guys made it onto the 53 by the season's end. But when the smoke cleared, only one player, a tremendous player at that kavante Turpin made an active roster. I think with this group of the XF X F L players, I think we could see a dozen players over 10 players make the active roster just like it happened in 2020. So there's still a lot of football left to be played, but I do think it's definitely beneficial. It just makes sense. If you can get on an N F L roster in May, it gives you a better chance of getting on one in July. Didn't you get in an argument with one of the U US F L people and they were like, they didn't believe you, the next number of X ffl players got signed and they thought that the U S F L had beat that and am I remembering that right and No? Yeah, and I had to send, yeah, yeah, I had to send them proof. So I had to go back into the archives, go through all my work and then go through and then if you didn't trust my work, which for whatever reason, some people might not, I had to go and get actual documentation from other sites and then they said, well they're not that many X F L players. And then what was funny was these individuals in the U S F L were conveniently forgetting that these players that were standouts in the U S F L were also X F L players too. And then you coached by X ffl coaches it like DeMar Gates, that kind of thing. So it's just funny how that works out. But yes, both leagues produce, both leagues have players that are for sure a hundred percent N F L quality players. It's run out of room in the N F nfl. So both leagues have players in the league that can play in the N F nfl. They don't get the opportunity to. And so that's great about these leagues, these guys over 800 players getting a chance to play pro football and it's going to give 'em a window and an opening to go play in the NFL again. So talking here, ratings and then we'll try to get out of here. I have your article this week, you've been tracking it every week getting and we retweeted as well talking about where on FX that X ffl I think is on average the second highest viewed program on there and on espn. I think it's the same. I think when, okay, first off, what are your thoughts? Honestly, about four weeks of X F L TV ratings. I think the early network, cause they've only had two network games. I think the early network games, I know that the expectation was that they would be higher. They averaged over 1.5 million viewers. Now if you can do that's good number on network television, I don't know if they can sustain that and do that number consistently. We'll see. We'll find out. I think the cable ratings have been fine. The time slots are a little bit questionable. I think F you got to under, people don't understand. When the Disney deal was announced with the xfl, a lot of people saw the FX portion of it and they thought, oh, that's just a throwaway, they'll just throw an extra game over there. And they didn't realize that a big component to why Disney wanted the XFL was because they want build up FX and they want to build up ESPN plus. And so that's kind of happening. Fx, if you look at FXs shows, I might have tweeted it out, their top four shows their fourth highest rated show of the week had like 80,000 viewers. It was a movie, which is what FX is known for. I think it was like 86. So fx FX has the movie is, yeah, here, I'll pull it up here. Yeah, it was like four. I think that the fourth highest, it might've been fourth or fifth was a movie that did like 80,000 viewers in front of us. 87,000. There we go. So I mean that just goes to show you, so the week prior the X F L had 655,000 viewers. That 405,000 comes on a night, by the way, which I'm sure Reid went through this as well where everybody was reaching out to him where for whatever crazy reason on YouTube TV and Optimum and some other places, people did not have X ffl games. So they got whatever that show's called MOM or whatever. Oh, I'll watch it. Yeah. So it took a while for the NEC network to rectify that. And I had hundreds of people who reach out to me, could you please contact them? And that's exactly what I did. So I ended up, it was a hassle. I'm trying to watch a damn game and now I'm trying to connect with people on networks and trying to figure out what the issue is here, daylight savings, whatever the hell the excuse ended up being or reason. I guess excuses mean I guess suppose. But anyhow, I think the ratings on cable are about what I expected them to be. Now I measure it differently. See, I look at these things differently. When the U S F O was on cable last season, they averaged 300,000 viewers. I and I look tsl forget about it. There were times when Nielsen had trouble forgetting me the information because they didn't even register in the top 150 cable shows. So sometimes and C F L games too, there's CFL games that have aired on ESPN two and all that ES ESPN news doesn't monitor the ratings anymore, but ESPN two where they had like 80,000 viewers or less and that that's just the way it goes. So I think the cable numbers are right along where I thought they would be the network. I thought their opening week for the X ffl would be higher. I know the league thought it would be higher. They expected with the rock and all that they would get a little bit of a stronger audience even though the games are in the afternoon, not in primetime. The key measure with the X ffl is how these games, I measure it differently when the games are on e s, ESPN standard. I look at that differently. And when they're on a B ABC network television, I look at that differently because those are more accessible networks that most people have rather than FX and what have you. I think E S P N plus is a huge factor. I think the way people consume this media is a huge factor. It skewed ratings for sure because this wasn't around three years ago. Can I watched, I have full disclosure, I've watched every game on E s, ESPN plus and I know a lot of pe I know I'm not alone in that. So a lot of people watch it that way. So anyhow. But I think the cable ratings read are right on expectations. They're doing well in the demo. I think that we're going to see as the season goes along, March Madness, how they do on ESPN and then how they do on network television. I think network television, you'd like to see them do 700,000 and above if they can do because they're airing afternoon games. If they're in primetime, that's a different story. That's one thing we saw at U S F O games last year, like in week five last year, Fox had an afternoon game on, I believe it was generals in the mallers where they had, I believe it was 600,000, 650,000 viewers and then their primetime games would do a little bit better. They were doing 700, 800, 900,000. And the reason why that is more people are at home. So I mean that's just kind of the story there. Saturday afternoons people do things. So anyhow, so I think when they get to, it's hard, you have to measure these ratings fairly people, if you're comparing something on FX versus something on a B, C, that's not really going to get realistic to think that the cable games are going to do a million viewers. It's just not, Well it, it's hard and we'll get into this, the U S F L and I think their TV schedule looks very, very favorable here coming in. But when you have week two of X F L in 2023 or four games on network and then all four games are on cable this time around it, it's really hard to compare that. I mean, I'm just looking on here. Week two, USS A S A did 360,000 viewers for generals First Panthers I, I've just gotten a lot of the ratings were bad on cable for the U S F L. Everyone said they were terrible, now they're whatever for the X ffl and they're saying that they're good. So I'm just trying to give you a platform to kind of share. Sure, sure. And what's funny, I never said the u S FFLs and I reported on it every week, I never said their ratings were bad on cable. That's kind of like, that's the thing. The ratings they got, the problem with the U FLS ratings on cable and in general was for whatever reason, they weren't scoring very high in the 18 to 49 demo. So they weren't attracting a lot of younger viewers. So that was a little bit problematic to me. But in terms of the numbers, I was not surprised that they had games. Obviously overall they averaged 300,000, but they had a game where it's 207,000 viewers, that kind of thing. It's also time slots, it's what station you're on. If you're on FS one, what day of the week are you on? These are all factors. What are you competing against? The X F L had that great Dragons Battle Hawks ending a few weeks back. That game was on against the N H L destroyed. It was tripled the audience of the N H L that was on head-to-head at that time. And that's a big deal because you were talking about a new football league that's on fx, which is not known. People don't even know how to find it. It's not even known for this kind of product. And then N H L, which regularly on their time slot. So I don't think the cable numbers to me for the X F L more than respectable, I know the leagues are happy with it. If you have this any sports entity and you put it on ESPN two and it's the second highest rated thing on that damn network, then you're doing a halfway decent job if you're, that's my take on it because you'll go look, take a look at the list of all the events that are on ESPN two and then why a lot of people would look at that and say, why is the X ffl on that list? I'm seeing ACC big 12, PAC 12 a college basketball, this, that and the other. Why the hell's the X ffl on that list? I'm saying that league, the secondary league, the minor league is on that list. But anyhow, so like I said, when we get into the U S F L, what I think is tremendous about their schedule, and this is smart destination programming, is that they have all their games on Saturday and Sunday and they're not scattered all over the place. So that makes it, every week you're turning on, you're essentially turning on Fox, turning on N NBC every week. Let me check out my U S F L game of the week. What game is on that is a big thing for me. Maybe I'm old school in that respect, but I like that idea. And that's what the X FFL 2020 had was every week on Saturday, you knew where the FOX game was every week on Sunday, you knew where the ABC game was. So I like that part of the schedule. The network stuff, any ratings you get on network can't be compared to cable. So w but I do think Fox and N B NBC having those two networks promote cross-promoting tremendous. I do think putting them in advantageous time slots is a smart move. The lead-ins everything else that helps because you want to get people to sample your product. So it we're getting close, they're not a lot of instances of this because the X ffl championship game that's going to be on primetime on a B C is not going head-to-head with the S F L, but which would've been interesting. But there are instances where there are X Ffl games and U S F L games that will be, if it's a network game versus an FX game, the network game is going to win. I'm just worried, and I want to pull up here, so I have the US F L here, like I said, I think they're going to really kill in the ratings when you see this and you see that there's 18 games on Fox and there's Lebanon, N B C and I, I'm scared to see the press releases that will be shared, the highest viewed alternative football weekend in America in the last 30 years or whatever. But that's what people are going to do. They're going to compare it. So again, I questioned at the top, you say, well this is all by design and that can be a thing. But then you also say, well some of these are on smaller networks and they have lower expectations. And so you can say they're looking for that and that can be questioned or not as well. But in terms of 7,000, 700,000 viewers on FX or 600,000, you feel like them flexing them to the bigger channels. Now that's a sign of them being positive about it. Not, oh shoot, now we got to get these on the bigger margins. They, they're definitely positive about it. That's why they were moved because they think they can do better. So it's like, wow, we did this on fx, I think we can do better on this because they, like I said, they had that Battle Hawk Dragons game on Thursday night and it obliterated everything that was on espn. It blew 'em out the water every single head-to-head, even the ESPN press release had it noted it, the DR that game, it may not have been a lot of a ton of yours. I think it was 553,000 during the game. But that rating on fx, if that game was on ESPN would've been done much better. And that's why they want to get those kind of games on ESPN because they're destroying the games. These FX games have no business destroying games that are on ESPN being higher rated than ESPN and ESPN two games. So of course ESPN's going to want to have the property that's more popular. So I know the media spin out there because there's some people that are in bed with certain outlets was, oh they're panicking, this is why they're doing this. No, they were overly pleased and surprised by the numbers and they see a product that's part of their umbrella that's doing better in a different area and we need to do better on this side of the fence. So if we got 200,000 on this, let's grab the 553,000 in FX and put it over here And this, can I just say, if you are inclined to be tribal towards USS F L or X FFL or C F L, whatever, if you are inclined to go yell at people on Twitter and spend time, go yell at Mike Floo or someone that's takes 16 seconds away from covering the combine to write a little oh XE L ratings down, 50% send and then back, go yell at him, go yell at him and the money he makes and the stature he has, don't yell at us. And that Mike's balancing taking care of his sister move and then trying to come on this show. And that's my 2 cents like Go fight people go aim up, go aim up to go take care of that. I Try my best to provide context. I did this during the U S F L season because a lot of people, there were some people, although there's media members that were conveniently willfully ignoring things, they, there's some people out there that were spinning things because it got to the point on Fox and N B C where the ratings were going down even on network television where if you look go and you find week five last year they had 600,000 viewers. 600,000 viewers by the way is what the XFL just did on FX a week ago, 665, they had 600,000 viewers on Fox. So there were periods that the network games are going to get higher ratings. There's no doubt about it. Where you're situated is a factor you would hope if you're the U S F L, an opening weekend that they're opening game with stallions and generals does over 2 million viewers, you know, would hope that would be the mark, their championship game, whatever it was, I think did 1.5 million, maybe the peak was 1 6, 1 7, whatever. So you would hope that that opening game, that's a big barometer there. 1.52, 1.52, 1.52, yeah, 1.52 on Fox. And so you would hope that that's what they do in week one. You know, would hope something like in that range, maybe more 2 million, they didn't average 1.5 million during their entire season on Fox. They were under a million viewers on network television in their entire regular season last year. And their ratings went down on network television, their championship game went up, which was an encouraging sign that means people cared and they want to see what the game was about and they had a very good championship game, the stallions and the stars there. So I think there's not a lot of the problem with the headlines that are put out by the Mike Florio's and everyone else's, there's not a lot of nuance and people don't bring up context. You have to, if you're reporting a story, you have to bring up context. You can because you can easily say, oh my god, they had 1.5 million viewers last week for Battle Hawks and this week the Battle Hawks only did 5 53. Well you go, well the Battle Hawks only did 5 53 because they were on fx and also by the way, they slaughtered every other sports event at the same time on that time slot. Everything on espn. So there's got to be a level of, because it's easier to go, wow, they did 1.6 million viewers against San Antonio the next week they only did 550,000, what a disaster. But if you're not mentioning the fact that there weren't on network television what day of the week they were on what station, then you're not really being honest about it. I just, I'll be curious here as we get to the second half of the X L season, how much interest there still is. Right? And that's obviously that, I mean I'm saying the obvious, but for me producing this show, right, US F l I could not pay for YouTube views last year to get eight people watching. And I would bring on people from Mark would come on from Yahoo, I'd bring on broadcast like yo know we'd have Brock Hu on, I could not get people to care about this outside of the hardcore. And I tried to be very honest with what we went up to Canada last year. I was not expecting the very high viewership for our Great Cup Show YouTube algorithm. It ended up, it's the highest feud show we've ever done. I try to be very, why don't we talk a lot of fan control football? People don't watch fan control football. At least the content I do on YouTube, right? That's why I talk X about. So I'll be curious because I always try to be, I want to talk about the thing that's going to get the most people watching on here. So I'll talk USS f l all day if I think that it's going to draw viewership. It doesn't seen the other YouTube USS F L channels that do doesn't draw interest. So I'll be curious, I hope that it maintains here because like I said, I I could not pay people to care last year about that. And I think by the time you, the time they get to the championship game at the end of the season, you're hoping that the X ffl has a matching audience a week one or better. And if you can do that. So we'll see if you could the U US F L last year they did a Sims cast on opening night. I think they got 3 million viewers, 1.5 each. Yeah, by the end of the season they had 1.5 million whatever average and I maybe their peak viewership was a little higher. Now we'll see what game we get. Now if it's Houston and DC that's going to be an awesome game. If for some crazy reason we got St. Louis and the X Ffl championship game that I don't think this is going to happen. But if it's St. Louis versus San Antonio and you got San Antonio home for the X Ffl championship game with two weeks in between the playoffs and the championship game, I think Battle locks fans will travel to that game. San Antonio fans will fill that stadium, that stadium will be packed. And then that Saturday night on abc Optimum Spot primetime, that's when you get the majority of your viewers because people are at home. So that was the case. If you go back and watch the viewership last year, viewership numbers for the U S F L, their primetime games are better than their afternoon games. So we'll see how it goes there. But I do think that there's different, you have to grade it differently when it's on network television than when it's on fx. It's a different animal and I think for the U S F L, they could knock it out of the park, but I think they'll do better than they did last year. I think one thing they're going to have more fans at their games because now they have four hubs. So that'll help their product from a visual standpoint because a lot of casual people turned on the games. I know the attendance for several of those games who are under 200 fans. It was one game where it was 83 fans and people were allowed to come into the stadium. So for free family members, that kind of thing. So I think having attendance, having home games for teams like Memphis and what have you of the Panthers, that's going to help just that energy even if it's not 30, 40,000 just actually that's a big thing with the X F L that I've noticed too. That's a big step up, makes this product better than the U S F L 2022 product. You have engaged fans that are into it. Even that Seattle Dragons fan crowd last week was hot. I mean Seattle's a great market. 15,000 fans modest, I know, but were, you would think a lot of these new people turn on these new leagues and they go really they're fans that care about it. Defenders games are lit, these fans are into it, it's fun. And we saw Battle Hawks them setting the X F L record there. So with the attendance, so I think that's going to help the U S F L product in year two is actually having more fans at their games. I think the fact that they're back for a year two, maybe some people who are like poopooing it and ignoring it will give it a second shot and go, you know what, hey, this league's back, maybe it's here to stay. So I think there's a lot of positive things moving forward for the U S F L. I think their product will be fun. I'll be watching every game I cover, the generals just wrote an article about them. So I mean it's going to be interesting to monitor when these leagues are going head to head. We only get a small stretch of the X ffl season with the U S F L that's very late in the X F L year. There's actually a period where there's a week off for the X F L between their playoffs and the championship. So I think we got week, if I'm not mistaken, it's week nine, week 10, first week in the playoffs and then the championship game. Conveniently, if you're into these leagues as I am, that whole day will be all football all day because there's like an U S F L game at 12 noon and then there's one at four and then the X F L championship game at eight o'clock. So I'll be, try as best as I can to watch all three I, I'll just be happy. I can watch real football game. I'll be happy when April comes around and watch real football and make me happy. Yeah, real football. I will just the last thing from me and then I'll give you the four and then we'll probably get out of here because it's, it's been hour plus here. I think we're good. I did the live show in Dallas. Does real football get to use the fake football league rules? Yeah, they could. Anyway, I'm sorry, go ahead. No, I will tell you that I said on the Monday thing with Jack with U S F L news tweet now. Oh, talking about the double four pass. I'm like cry harder. I get the F out of there. Let me just say this. If people think I am inflammatory online, you do not want to know what I really think about anything. This whole thing has been a learning process. We get in, it's been three years. We're getting ready for the thing we do the X L Live show. It's fine. Find viewers, it's fine. It wasn't the highest feed live stream, it wasn't the lowest feed live stream. We had good viewership adding some subscribers. I turned around from doing the show where over. I'm expecting to see lines of people out the door from the Renegade Stadium. Cause I'm sitting there with my back. We were in DC back in 2020. Mark's doing this show. People are hanging off the rafters, the Choctaw guys are there. It's out of control. And I'm like, oh, I get down and I go, this is different. Just very different than it was. And we've talked about the whole time by design, whatever it is, but Right. Well Reid, you're on it. You're on it. Because if you ask anybody close to me, anybody I've talked to about this, I didn't feel the same anticipation or buzz. Maybe not just from personally for this league that I felt for the X ffl in 2020. And it has to do a lot with the lack of promotion, lack of buildup, lack of energy spent. That is part of their strategy. I don't honestly don't think it was a great strategy. I think I know that we know by the day article we mentioned, we talked about they've spent a bare bones amount of money in promotion marketing. That's the proof, right? It's an embarrassingly low figure. So we know that that that's proof of their strategy. But I didn't feel the anticipation and buzz for X ffl 2023. I did in 2020. And maybe this doesn't add up a lot, but I do know that there's a lot of people, we talked about the U S F L loyalists that don't watch the league or don't want to watch it, don't want to acknowledge its presence. There's some people from the X Ffl 2020 and I know this is a small selection of people, it's more of an inside thing. But there's some people from I know that I speak with that have a lot of bitterness and are not interested in this version of the XFL because they're not a part of it anymore. So they're not invested in it as they were and there wasn't in St. Louis, that's a different animal. St. Louis. We knew from day one that St. Louis would be back. That market is so amazing. That city's amazing, that energy. It's great that they got off to a good start. We saw what they did with the 38,000 fans. We saw how great that atmosphere was. That was awesome. You live for those kind of settings in these kind of leagues. You want these leagues to have that. You want the entire league to have that, but you want that kind of success. So they lived up to it even though they tweaked the Battle Hawks logo, they lived up to the 2020 feel of it. The rest of the league. There wasn't that anti, I think there was the league, they debuted a lot of the stuff came in late. The Vegas stadium came in late. We know we saw what happened with that with ticket sales and then the field quality and all that we saw saw Player 54 is a tremendous show that's late to the party. They wanted to do a full ramo months before to get you into the league, before the league launches. And they ended up introducing that before the season and it's well produced. Peter Berg, all that. I love watching it. Anybody who hasn't checked it out, check it out. Very cool stuff. Especially the last couple episodes. They got a new one coming up this week. But anyhow, but I think that this league didn't hard to recapture. They've recapture in St. Louis. It's very difficult to recapture the magic they had in 2020. And I think a lot of people don't feel the same way that they do back then. And I definitely felt it leading in. So I'm not surprised in some of the markets that the attendance wasn't the beer snake lives. St. Louis is on fire, no doubt and as it should be. But there definitely was a little bit less anticipation and build up for this. It wasn't promoted the way you'd think a league would promote itself before launching. I had to refrain from telling Matt Berry. I would've been on the floor drunk if I had had a shot every time you guys talked about the beer snake and out field. But yeah, I mean they got to have something to talk about. Last comment for me. I'll give you the floor and then we'll get out of here. Yeah, like you said, they thought we want to buy this league, we want to utilize the league. We don't want acknowledge too much. You've sucked. We don't want to be compared too much like you said for whatever reason. And I guess I don't know if it's ignorance, we did not know how to do this or if some of the things they did in 2020, we purposely don't want to do the Bailey Carlin embracing X Fel show bringing in Alan and Brian and not that I like, but hooking up with Mark more and utilizing that partnership. I'm not like I'm the incendiary one, go with someone that's going to play ball, but for whatever reason, like I said, I don't know if it's ignorance or choice, but for whatever reason they left a lot of things that they could have done and I would love to know the thought process behind that in 20 years or 10 years or whatever. Right. Yeah. Well I'm sure we get the full story on that. I do know that this league is spending less made a, we do know that by the facts, we know by the hub, we know by the traveling. So this is all stuff that I went over already. So we know that by the marketing. So we knew, we do know this league's spending a lot less than the McMahon group did and they didn't plant their seeds in each individual market, which that would've helped too. So that's also spending money as well. So these are things I've enjoyed the leak, I can't wait till, I can't wait. I don't know when this airs, but I can't wait until the Thursday night game. I'll be staying up late to watch that one. I'm interested in June Jones against AJ Smith, those two offenses. It's going to be fun as hell. So I'm looking forward to DC and so I'm enjoying the league. I'm getting into the season. The last time you had a great tweet online where you posted the anniversary, if you want to call it that, of the X F L closing shop back in 2020 because of Covid and everything else. And I'm just happy it's not lost on me that we're approaching week five and I'm just happy that it looks like now I might jinx it, but it looks like we're actually going to complete an X ffl season crown and X F L champion. I'm really excited about that. Football continues to get better and as they get towards the playoff run all it's going to get more exciting because the games are going to mean more and we're going to see that with the Brahmas, crazy Brahmas Renegades games coming up. I also think it's kind of funny that X ffl teams are acting like pro football teams. They're firing coordinators, they're reshuffling their coaching stats. It's not one of those leagues where people are just going through the motions and they don't care. These guys are actually out there going all in trying to win a normal pro football team would. So I'm exci the football aspects to me I'm very excited about. You mean they weren't like Jeff Fisher and they just didn't show up to practice and then they didn't want to come back and now Letting other people run the practices and more concerned about fishing. That's the thing. You want to get people in these leagues that are fully invested that are not just doing this as a side gig just to make a little extra money and all that. So it's great to the energetic, the Anthony Becks, Reggie Barlows, all these guys watching them move up the ladder and this is so great. I'm so happy for those guys. I'm really happy for Barlow. He's a winning coach at college level. I'm happy for Wade Phillips back in the game. I think AG Smith's a major star. There's so many great stories in the league to focus in on once you get pass past the business stuff. Well Mike, this has been long overdue. I think this should be good. I appreciate it. Like I said, it's all love on here and we get oh got, oh, this could be breaking news on here. Just got an email there. Actually this official statement from the guardians, whoa, not upon completing a formal review that included players, coach and exe staff conducted by an outside firm and has been determined the allegations of impropriety and were unsubstantiated and there was no basis for disciplinary action against Orlando and guardian's quarterback Quintin. This is perfect Reid. I know we've gone on forever in a day, but this is definitely something to talk about the Quintin Dormy story because I knew this was BS from day one and I even made mention to it in a recent article talking about how this one of his teammates made up a bogus story about him giving up plays. So I think that's tremendous that this story has come out that they've determined that he didn't, he had no wrongdoing and that he's back in the league. That story blew up. That story definitely blew up and it shined a negative light on the league, made the league look bad. Oh look at these low rent players giving away plays and all this other madness. It turns out it wasn't true. That's why I didn't run with it. Other outlets did. We saw that idiot Don Harris and San Antonio run with a story of the Brahmas firing their football GM and then all of a sudden he was saying that there will be league wide cuts and everything else. People accept nonsense like that. So it's good. It's good to see. That's good news, that's good news. That's like the worst sin. They were mu N F L X ffl teams, football teams, organizations. They'd much rather hear that you got into some skirmish issue with the law. Then you actually, it's like a mortal sin to betray your own team by giving away plays. I mean that's a football sin. So that's good to hear that they investigated it and they found out that he didn't do it, which I knew he didn't. One of his teammates. So I can't really say too much about, but one of his teammates actually released that story out there and it to make him look bad and it, it's not true. I never wanted to make, yeah, well I actually was going to make a really poor joke but I'm not going to do it. Anyway, there we go. I appreciate your time Mike. I'm breaking news. Tweeted it out here. Appreciate it and just people don't understand all the things that Mike does to take an hour and 25 minutes here to come on the show just means a lot. But people do. And the same way you were talking the top with the sports podcast group and all that, people don't understand and I wish, I think the X F L is understanding and I wish the U S F L, the people that really cover your league day to day, do this as a passion project. So I appreciate every help I get because this is all it is, right? Like Matt Berry coming on or you coming on or Matt with the guardians getting paying on and Donald Payon like all that just, it means a lot. So thank you Mike. You do great work and keep up everything. Thank you man. And it's like, you know, deserve all the success you get, all the hard work you put in. I wish I had more time to cover these leagues to be honest with life and everything else. I'm paid to write about these leagues and I wish I had more time to dedicate to it. So I'm trying as best as I can with all with the C F L X F L U S F L and Horizon and the N F NFL and Aaron Rodgers and the New York jet. So yeah, they got to take a chance. They, they've been bad for so long. I don't blame them for taking a shot. It could backfire, but if it does, they're back to the same place they were anyway. So I why not add greatness? Why not add Lamar Jackson? Well that's an interesting one I wish. Yeah, yeah. I love Lamar Jackson. I think it's a question of the compensation package involved. I think when we look at, we'll fight down Here, Rogers is getting paid 15 million. No, no, no, no. I mean in terms of draft compensation, I want to see what the jets give up because yeah, I want to see, I would prefer over the long haul. Lamar Jackson provided he stays healthy, I'd prefer him obviously, right? He's younger, but it's a question of, you know, definitely have to give the largest contract in the history of the NFL to Lamar Jackson. And then you also have to give two first round traffics. So whereas we'll see what the jets give up. I mean maybe I'll be upset tomorrow when I find out Elijah Moore in a second round pick have been sent over to Green Bay, but we haven't seen the compensation level yet for the trade. So Green Bay might hold it up, but anyhow, but yes, Lamar Jackson would be tremendous. But there are a couple of things you have to concern yourself with in terms of that in terms of losing significant draft capital. Well Mike, we'll let you go. Thanks again and stay safe. Thank you Reid for having me on. Appreciate it. Well I'm really excited today we have Zach Garden here with Neptune Scouty and so funny, I get this DM from Zach like, Hey, could you check out this article? I did some film breakdown of the X film. I'm like, this is awesome. You should just please come on. And I know that you do. Now I know you and I know that you've done other podcasting and shows and stuff, but I'm like, we got to get this man on the show. So Zach, how are you doing? I'm great. It's been fun to get back into writing a little bit. Took a while off after the last iteration of the X F L kind of fell through to covid and stuff. I decided to focus more on school, my family, getting into high school coaching, coaching football, which has been a blessings, been amazing doing that. So learned a lot of football there. So it's been fun to take a break from writing. But now that I'm getting back riding a little more often with a little more regularity, it's been really, really good to flex those different kind of muscles. Well I'm excited. Zach said I'm going to nerd that on football. I said I think that's okay. I think our listeners, I've always said I'm not the Xs and os guy. I can kind of make the platform here. So I call it halfway. We're approaching halfway through and I guess I shouldn't jinx anything because we all know what happened back in 2020, but here we are. Protein, the midway point thoughts overall, a, B, C, D, F grades on the X F L So far. If we just want to look at a football standpoint, I'd say it's probably about, I'd say it's a B for what we'd expect at the highest level. The Houstons the St. Louis. I think St. Louis has been really, really well coached for what we expected. And even Seattle's been good. San Antonio's been a little underrated coaching-wise on one side of the ball. The other side's been a mess. We kind of see what's going on there, but we'll get into that a little later. But overall, just like there's a lot of diversity scheme wise, which I like a little more than the NFL because now the NFL's become very much, you see a lot of similar schemes go through because they work. So it's a copycat league up there. It always has been. This one's a little more similar to high school college ball where there's a lot of diversity in how people run their schemes. I mean we see the run and shoot, we haven't seen the run and shoot in the N F L for ages for reasons like body types, defenses have caught up, things like that. But it works down here and it's really fun to see. So I'd give it a B plus football, some of the player performance is a little iffy. You can see the struggle of evaluating players at the X ffl level because you're getting this weird midway point where do we take a shot on a guy who maybe hasn't played a ton of football at a professional level or do we go with this kind of washout from the N F L that hasn't worked out a lot Pax and Lynch and see if we can fix 'em. Which works with varied success. Or do you trust a guy like Asia McCarran who maybe hasn't had a ton of success in the NFL but he's a long time backup, which is kind of hard to get cause they make good money up there. I mean Mike White got what, 8 million a year down in Miami and stuff like that. So getting guys, that is not usually feasible but you can tease one or two guys who want to play football down here and getting guys like that personally I think is the best thing. Cause you get those N F NFL level offenses from those guys. You can watch St. Louis, that's an N F L offense. It is through and through all the motion, all the different formations, all the different personnels. They've started to spread it out more because they got the receivers to do so. But even early in the season there's a lot more condensed 12 personnel, 20, a little bit of 20 personnel, stuff like that to get the running game going. And we'll talk about that more later. But overall really it's good football. I think some people have said that, oh this is better than the nfl. I wouldn't go that far. Just I've seen it on a couple Twitter and things like that. Oh I like this. So you can like it more than the N F L, that's fine. But the football isn't up to that quality. You just see little things like the San Antonio game, San Antonio Seattle games last week, San Antonio couldn't move the ball. Not because Cohen was bad in my opinion. I think he was fine for what he was given. The receivers just couldn't do anything. Yeah, it was rough to watch. I was there, live was up in the media booth and I'm just watching, I'm like this might be the worst without TJ Vasser. It might be the worst wine receiver group in the nfl. It's like there's just a lack of explosiveness there. That's rough to see. And we'll talk about the little more later and how I think they should change the offense and I don't think they will. But yeah, it's been good football, it's been fun to watch. You kind of heard me nerd out there. We'll get more into it a little later. No, that's good. No, I mean you even talking to the backups, we just saw Heineke get a 20 million here today and then I just saw before we caught on here that PJ Walker Sonny with the bears. So like oh was doing the bears Good for him. Literally Just, I just retweeted it the second before I hopped on here. But I think you, like you said, you get these players, you get a ucci that maybe is living up higher maybe than what we thought or playing at. He's leading the league in passing yards, kind of all this stuff. He's turned the ball over. But like you said that you have Paxton Lynch where some people are definitely better than we thought and then some people are what we thought are worse. So yeah, it's definitely just this balance when it comes to, because I went back in this long time ago, aaf, I wrote about the aaf, I was into the quarterback play. I was much dumber football wise back then, but I was watching a ton of the afaf writing about it and I was a big brain of silver spans. Then he went through the X ffl again. He kind of went down a little bit. And then I have it signed somewhere on my wall here. I'm trying to pull up my sign XL 20, that's my quarterback here and forever. Oh yeah, Brandon Silvers. I loved him in the af. I thought Memphis did a terrible job putting Manzel in. I think they stuck with silvers. They would've done great if that week hadn't folded of course. But then he comes to X F L. He does pretty decent with Seattle. I don't know if that was the right scheme for him. Yeah, then he goes to Houston and I'm like Start Cole McDonald, go young. I'm always a fan of go young, especially in these leagues. I think it's a little more exciting. It may not always be better as you can see in certain places, but I think it's more exciting. You get college names that people recognize. A lot of people love Cole McDonald coming out because he just threw the ball everywhere. He ran around and they've used him well in Houston. But going with Brandon Silvers I think we see now was probably the right choice just because of the experience, the ability to take shot. And the thing about him is he makes, he tries to make N F L throws. He doesn't always get them. He misses sometimes, but he tries to make N F L throws up the seam down the sidelines. Stuff that you don't see a lot of these XFL quarterbacks willing to do at times that he's willing to do. And it's a ton of fun up in that run and shoot offense where he has kind of freedom to play football, which is good. Sling it around like he did. I don't remember the scheme he ran at Troy, but it's probably pretty similar. They were pretty wide open I think back then. Most of the small schools are nowadays. So. Well let's, we're going to preview here. Let's kind of go through and then you can tell me what you like, not like. We'll kind of look forward and kind of correlate around these games. Why does it have, oh there we go. So first off, so we're DC Houston and Seattle will have taken place by the time this will air on our normal Friday. I'll be at the game tomorrow. But what are you liking about what Wade Phillips and everyone's doing, AJ Smith, he was on the show I think pre-season or the first week of the season. What is it that they're doing that makes them so eminent? Well first off, always got to talk Joe's for Jimmy's and Joe's before Xon knows always. They've probably got the best receiver group in the nfl. I mean the X Ffl in my opinion, John Kirkland Burnett, all John Kirkland should be in the NFL right now if it weren't for him being kind of dumb about DUIs and stuff like that, off field stuff, which I'm, if I remember, cause he's talked about and he's like, yeah, I shouldn't have done that. He knows it and that's why he is here. But he should be an NFL receiver. He's fantastic. He's makes, plays all over the field. They've done a great job featuring him in this offense up the sea, stuff like that. AJ Smith might be the best game planner in the X ffl. I just remember him, Jim Herman and San Antonio's probably my favorite defense. Week three, they come in first half quarter, first half, they just wash them out, wash them out. They know that Jim Hermann's going to come out, play a lot of cover, three different rotations, stuff like that. But they just started attacking the seams, attacking the seams, getting one-on-ones on the outside and let their guys win. And he does a great job of that. Heck, this past week against Orlando, I don't think he didn't throw the ball for the first quarter and a half I think until maybe the two minute Warren going into halftime. He knows what he's doing. He knows, as he said before, I've heard it on the broadcast that he said he doesn't, if he didn't have to run, he wouldn't. He wouldn't. Which is a ton of fun, especially in the run of shoot. But AJ Smith, best game planner, they do a lot of, they live in 10 personnel, which is you have to do in the run shoot. And you have to do, when you have all those receivers, you have a ton of explosions there. You got to live in 10 personnel. I'm what he is going to do with Max Borge more. I don't know how good of a route runner he is, but I, there's some things you could do there. I don't think he's tapped into yet, which I'm sure he is thought of getting him, motioning him out of the backfield and empty things like that. Just being a little more creative with him in the future, which could be a lot of fun. But as of right now that Houston roughneck offense is just dynamite. Partially because the receivers are so good and they win against one-on-one. So if you try to man 'em up, which I think Seattle's going to do, they did, it's a great success against San Antonio, but it was a different scale of receiver. But they're going to probably stick to their guns, try to man it, make it so you have to throw those tough balls and see if they can make plays because otherwise they're just going to make their reads in the run shoot and kind of make things happen there. So go ahead. Oh no, it's good. So it seems to me that they're, and I think I was talking with Mike Mitchell and he's like, AJ Smith is a cheat code because he knows how to utilize the comms, give direction to the wide receivers. We're hearing some of that. What do you and Mike wanted to get your thoughts as well about that, about the comms and especially AJ Smith really knowing how to utilize that. June Jones does not utilize that at all. I think it's a different mentality thing I've heard multiple times. June Jones has said he doesn't want his receivers to hear him because he wants them to make the reads on the field, which I get that to a certain point. You want your receivers in the run shoot to read the defense, do that. But at the same time, AJ Smith's been really smart about this. He's up, AJ Smith is up in the booth. He has a better view than the players. He can see immediately, oh it's cover two, it's cover two. Or hey, as the snap counts going, he's like, he can say in his head, Hey they're rolling to cover three and it works wonders. He's talking with him until the snap, which I think is huge. You don't hear that very often from a bunch of other, bunch of the other ocs. I think partially because they're not used to it. It's new. It's not something you're used to giving the call maybe saying one or two things and then getting out of the headset you're done and you got to let 'em play and you got to watch. I mean in high school it's even worse. If I make a call, I'm a defensive coordinator so that's what I usually, if I give a defensive call, I can't tell 'em like, Hey we're in 10 personnel da, I have to yell it. They don't hear me half the time because they're just focused on their job, which is fine. But when they're at that this level where you can talk, the fact that AJ Smith takes advantage of it is huge because he is constantly like, Hey silver's there and this, you should look here. This is probably what's going to be open. And then it's open because he's the smartest guy in the room because he should be as the OC that offense full through and through. So the fact that he takes advantage of it is huge. And I wish more guys did it. But I also understand as a head coach, if I'm here and my goal, like Anthony be said, Becks, I can't never say his last name. Yeah. Said my goal is to get everybody in the nfl. You may not want to overuse the comps because they're not going to get that in the N F NFL one guy's going to get the comms, they're not going to change it anytime soon. It's just how the N F L is, which is fine, whatever. But you're not going to get that kind of access as a wide receiver. So I understand maybe wanting to get 'em ready, but at the same time your goal is to win games. You win games, they can adjust later. You got use that to your advantage in my opinion. So I can see the sentiment, but I'm definitely more AJ Smith size where I'm like, I'm talking the whole time. If I DC I'm talking the whole time, Hey motion check this. I'm talking the whole time. I think that's a fascinating discussion because I was, this whole time I'm listening, I'm thinking, yeah, do we see an evolution do more next year? We see some other ocs figure that out. But then you're back here in the X F L, it's one foot in balance. If we're really trying to get players ready to go to the N F L, we should play pro rules and we've had that debate. So yeah, I think your operative is to win Now I think AJ Smith is using that and I will be curious if more people pick up on that or if they just aren't smart enough to utilize that. I mean people watch strategy shows for 20 years and they'll figure out why some people could win and other people. So it's very interesting there. I like that. Yeah, no ands with one foot in bounds. Part of me is, I think that's more of a viewer thing because rule of cool man, you see some really cool catches in the NFL that are one foot and they don't count, but you're in the X F L, you got to get people to watch. So if you're ruling catches out of bounds when they only get one foot in because it was super, even though it was super cool, people are going to lose interest. So rule of cool at some point is like a, Hey you know what, we're going to make that rule, make it cool and have some fun with it In terms of the dragons and we won't, we'll do more deep time these other runs. But what are they doing good that you're liking? We got June Jones now we've talked a little bit about him and Ucci everything. We have Hazlet, I'm wanting to kill DeNucci on the sidelines, which I thought was possibly the funniest thing I've ever heard. Onno X F L game since I thinks like Matt McCoy back in 2025. Oh Dude. Yeah. Well for all we know Houston comes in and beats the dragons for you to zero. But what are the dragons as a whole doing well that you like As a whole? I think that June Jones runs a good offense. I know they struggled against San Antonio, but I will stand by the fact that San Antonio's a great defense and they've been a great defense since week one. But like Seattle, they run a good offense. They should run the ball more, but it's June Jones, he's not going to they. But they do go, sorry if you hear my baby crying a little in the background. We All have lies. Yeah, But June Jones just, well once again, sorry, got lost track. Runs a great offense. Slings the ball around. I still love the i'll the I'll kill you thing. But I think the funnier thing, I was rewatching the game and just you hear over the columns he, you see Ben Ucci before the play, cover it up, get the call and he's like, what the fuck? And he just drops an F bomb on it and then he goes and throws a pick. And I think it was the funniest thing I've, I've seen football in a bit, so with the ActX I guess you, which is really cool cause he just don't see those reactions all the time. Not sure why he threw it, but I mean at the same time you're going to get an offense that probably, I don't think they got first down the second half or they only got a couple the second half. Sling it around, get up more, who cares? But they do do a great job. He does a great job adjusting endgame. So there was a couple we'll talk about a little more, and I'm going to write an article on it. There was a really good chess match between Herman and June Jones about where they attack along the sideline. Early June Jones was attacking the flats. He was getting a lot of cover three. He knew he could get guys quick out to the flats, play with that flat defender, hit that quick, especially in the empty later, Herman started trapping the flat more, doing a lot more cover two Tampa two stuff. So to protect the middle with the middle runner and then having flat defenders, the corners be flat defenders almost got to pick six on it with Luke Bark bar who, who's an N F NFL player in my opinion, he's been fantastic or at least an N F L camp guy. It's tough to get on an F NFL roster but starts trapping it more. So then all of a sudden you see June Jones start running smash concepts more, which is just a hitch and then a corner behind it to attack the space between the corner and the deep half safety. And it's just a ton of fun to see that battle. There's a couple times where Herman would not drop into, it's just regular kind of cover too. And you'd see May, it's probably that run and shoot a little bit of being able to read. But you'd see those guys run right up to the middle of the field where it's open and they get a big game. It's how they got the big game before the touchdown going into the half. So he does a great job of letting his players make plays and I love that defensively, they're pretty fun. They run mostly 4 25, kind of look four down linemen. They let their players be players. Number 26, I can't remember his name for Seattle, is a pretty good player, pretty good linebacker for them. And their dbs are solid. They're pretty solid. I think they got a battle in, excuse me, they got a really tough battle against Houston this week. But they're solid. They can play, man. They do a lot more, if I remember correctly, they do a lot more match kind of too high. They do too high coverages where they're, they'll do match quarters where their corners and safeties are reading to and whatever two does determines what the guys do, who they match up with. So a lot more of that, A little bit more modern kind of style of defense. And they fly around so they get a good, I think Travis Feeney is one of our guys or I'm mixing him up with somebody else, but he's a good pass rusher. So yeah, there's a lot of fun stuff with Seattle. They do defensively. They're just going to be in for a treat when they see that Houston offense and those receivers really Brandon Silvers is good, but it's those receivers that really make it happen for Houston. It's why they're in 10 person all the time. Cause they got four great ones. So it'll be an interesting battle. I think what you can look for in that one, I wrote some notes here real quick between Houston and Seattle is really just, does June Jones commit to running the ball? Does he actually say, you know what, I don't want Wade's Wade Phillips to in that defense and I forget their DC's name, but he, he's done a great job cause Wade Phillips doesn't call him plays right now. He's been the head coach, which I think is good for him. He brought in a guy he trusts, does he run the ball to make them stay in base because if he can get the ball running to stay in base, he's not going to get blitz to all hell. He's not going to let those pass rushers get off. And I'm going to have a similar note for St. Louis, not later, but if they can get the run game going then they're going to be a little bit safer to start slinging at later in the game when they have to stay in base. That's kind of the value of a run game. You don't have to run for a million yards, it's not it. But there's value in being able to run the ball to keep the box heavier and make passing easier. And also just keep a guy in base so you know what you're getting because everybody's best run defense tends to be their base defense. So that's kind of the interesting thing there from that one. And then Houston, just keep playing football. Don't let them change what you do. Even if they're in a bunch of man AJ Smith's got it dialed up, they'll let them change how you play football. As soon as you try to adjust to them, that's what they want you to do. Cause they want to get you off their game. So don't change what you're doing. Even if you struggle a little in the first half, don't change what you're doing. Keep playing football and you should be good. They there's, I think Houston wins this one just schematically. I think they're a little better game planning wise. He'll have get that going quick in the first half and then they'll adjust in the second. It was nice to see him not let off the gas against Orlando. They have a little bit, I think part of the San Antonio game was Jim Herman being a great DC and adjusting, playing a lot more man because DC I mean San Antonio has some of the best dvs in the league, which we'll talk about a little more later as well. But yeah, so that's kind of the rough idea of what I get from that rough next Seattle game. Well you call the score on it. We'll see if you're the nore dame here when this comes out. Oh, Scores I'm not good at try to, million times I'd probably say, let me think. I think Houston puts up a decent amount. A Seattle defense is good but not great. And then I think Seattle struggles early, makes it close late. Let's say hi, I just got NFL scores stuck in my head. It's not going to be that. Let's do weird 33 26. I think it's going to be an exciting game. 32 26, you get that six 15 or whatever we're three last week. You got some promise. Yeah. So possibly the most exciting game. I think this returning to the dome, right? Undefeated defender St. Louis coming off a big, I don't know if it's a big win against Renegades, but what do you make of this? Is this your game to watch or what are you looking for? Well yeah, I think it's probably the best game on the slate. I mean best time, best environment. Seattle's going to be a tough stadium to fill on Thursday night in the p n w. It's just a bad time for Seattle. I know the sound play there or whatever their name is. I can't remember right now. But the soccer team plays there right now. Yeah. So the stadium's going to be packed again, maybe not as many as the first week just because, but it'll be packed and then it's going to be good football, really good schematic football. I got some things I'm looking for St Louis, they've discovered their identity more these past two weeks. I think the first two weeks they're trying to be something they weren't totally built to be. They're a little heavier personnel, a little more run heavy. And I think they've discovered these past two weeks they're a little more comfortable spread out, a little more comfortable in 1110 personnel. They can tighten it up, spread it out however they want. They love Hakeem Butler in the slot. He's a great big slot. He can be a little bit better blocker but that's maybe not a skill set. I think he just needs to, but it'd be a really good tool if he was a better blocker. So I think they found their identity a little bit picking on one-on-ones with their, they have really good receivers. Hank Butler and a couple of their other guys have good pretty quality. There was the one dude, I can't remember his name off the top of my head right now. He had 70 or something yards in the game on that. He had that really good corner route from the slot he played well. But the big thing in this game for me first that St. Louis offense is can they run the ball? It's very similar to Seattle as if they run the ball well it gets DC and Greg Williams into base looks that they can then find their matchups that they want and win on those in the passing game. So I don't care how you do it. They did some fun pin and pull stuff last week where it's, they've got guards, tackles, pinning down, blocking linemen, pulling the other linemen around. Usually it was a center guard in the Arlington game that was a ton of fun. Didn't work because he putler missed a block on one of 'em. But if he had made the block, there would've been a lot of green grass from Brian Hill. And overall there was still really good running against a pretty decent Arlington defense. So if they can establish the run, it makes it a lot easier. I know I sound very old school when I say that, but if they can get the run going the first half to at least show that it's there right, then you can start throwing a little more and get a little more comfortable. Slow down the pass rush and the blitzing of Greg Williams. Cause Greg Williams is aggressive. Always has been, always will be. Well and was, I can't remember who one of the ESPN guys I had on week or two ago was talking Greg Williams and his pre-snap and he's almost kind of like if AJ Smith's kind of breaking it on offense and figuring out his things. Greg Williams is excelling on the defensive side and what he's able to kind of do pre-snap, right? Is that you, you're saying establish run, kind of stopping from doing that. But what do you look at Greg to do in this game? Greg's thing really is going to be, how does he handle motion? He did a good job in their week I think. Was it week three game in their week three game handling motion. But Arlington St. Louis loves, loves to motion, loves to give you a different looks, condensed spread, a lot of different formations. They're not as simple as some of the other teams formally. So I think him handling motion, is he going to stick easy to go a lot more zone with the motion, if I remember correctly, he did against week three when he was doing a little more rotating stuff like that. Or is he going to go, man, bump it over, trust his recce, trust his DBS and blitz. Because at that is core, Greg Williams is a blitzing guy. He wants the blitz, he wants to play cover one. He wants to play man and he wants to blitz. I still remember that week one game against Vegas. One of the first things he stalled was something I think he called it, I don't remember what he called it. He called it something with, oh, but it's cover zero man, just man across the board we're sending seven. That's what he wants to do. So if you can get him for St. Louis, it's about getting him to not be able to do what he wants to do. Get him to stick with the zone stuff, get him to sit there, be impatient. And then when you get maybe a third and medium or a second and medium, right, you catch 'em like, ah, F it. I don't know. I'm trying not to curse but like F it, F it, I'm sending seven. You catch 'em in a look, you want, you get a touchdown off of it with a keen butler. So it's really for St. Louis doing that. And then DC is just great games has got to be patient. He's been a guy in the past, especially at the NFL level where his lack of patience has gotten him fired basically. I still remember that game Fourth and whatever late in the game. He runs cover one, which is like, and if they're not in field goal range, it's not a like, hey, if they convert this third down, it's a, hey, it's fourth and long end of the game and they give up a touchdown on it. So making him be impatient because you just are more patient than him is the big thing for them. And he's done really well doing a lot of rotations teaching those guys, getting him flying around, getting him staying hot. But I do think there is some shins in the armor just because it's, it is Greg Williams. There's a reason he's not coaching in the NFL anymore, right? He's still a good coach. He's better than I'll probably be in for a long time. There's a reason he's that good. He's very well renowned and they did a great job hiring him. It's just can you get him to be impatient, fall into his bad tendencies and then you can take advantage of that. And Brad Kowski has done a great job of that being patient, being a good play caller and stuff. He's probably my favorite OC in the league. And then because of just how he's realized what he has in AJ McCarran led him run an N F L offense and make it work from there. It's he Agent McCarran. I don't know if he's my MVP just stats wise, but just from how valuable, valuable he's to that offense. That man's another coordinator on the field. It's been said before, but you see it. He's doing, he has, he's shouldering more than probably any other quarterback in the X ffl from a responsibility standpoint. And he's able to, because he was at Bama where they don't hold back. You listened to any guy talk about Saban's defense and that's more complicated than some NFL defenses. They do the same thing, offense. It's just as complicated. So even, and then he got to the NFL Bengals, whatever he is been at, he's been the backup guy. And you still have to know the whole offense. You might have to know better than the starter sometimes because you have to be another coach out there. So they've done great there. Offensively dc This is kind of something I want to talk about because this is something that I find interesting. Fred Case or Kai has done a great job adjusting to his players and making it simple on his quarterbacks, right? Very. And when you look at its core, it's a very simple offense, right? Jordan teu, great athlete, great guy, great for the league, he is in the best way possible. Not a real quarterback. He doesn't so he can make all the throws, right? He's got a good arm, struggles with accuracy sometimes, but he's got a good arm. The problem is he doesn't really read things out well. So you throw regular past concepts in front where AJ McLaren's gone, oh boom, boom, boom, reading this defender, two, three, blah blah blah. Jordan ta, who isn't ill like that. He's never really had to play in that. Even the first original, the first iteration of the XFL at St. Louis, he was more, it was a lot of RPOs, a lot of things like that. Then he went to the NFL didn't stick because I think partially they can't read it. He can't read it out well and this is a knock on him. He's just never played in it comes here at DC you watched that offense, it's a lot of screens, a lot of half field or one man reads, a lot of RPOs, all of that. Their passing games are very simple because they lead on the runt game one and they don't, I don't know if KACE trusts TEU to read out a defense and yeah, he'll know one high to, hes a smart guy. I'm not saying he's not smart, but theres a certain QB that just are able to sit in the pocket no matter what and read out things. And there's other quarterbacks that just can, so the guys done a great job, but I'm really curious to see how he develops this pass game as the year goes on. Because eventually some of these defensive coordinators are smart. They'll figure out how to defend simple pass games. It's going to get easier, right? They're going to figure out how to stop the power reads and all the different types of read adoption that DC runs and it's not going to be as confusing for him. So yeah, I'm very curious to see how he developed, sorry, go ahead. No, I think that's fascinating because we watched TA move back in the US F L last year, really suffer really just everyone was all high on him coming in, looked confused the whole time, looked like he was not making good decisions, was, I don't know if you USS f l was on your radar at all, but makes a lot of sense your analysis now because that's what a lot of people saw back in April year. Yeah, it's just with tamu, it's about building an offense around. There's a reason he hasn't stick to the nfl. He's got a lot of talent. He's a really good athlete, good frame, good arm. But it's just the type of offense he, he's run his whole life probably, right? He's probably run very simple offense. He hasn't had to read things out a lot. It takes a lot of reps to get good at that stuff. KI has done a great job of saying, you know what, screw up screw any dream of an offense I had. I'm looking at the the ole misses, I'm looking at all this simple stuff that they do, the RPOs, all that and I'm ripping it and I, that's my playbook. And I'm curious of how he develops that further because eventually it's just the well's going to run dry is what I'm worried about. Yeah, it's a short season, which might help him, right? It's only a 10 week season. So if he can get this going for 12 weeks, they might win a championship. But if the well run dry is well runs dry in week seven and you're getting a lot more third and longs, third and seven plus where you have to break out the actual passing concepts cause an RPO is not going to work as well in third and seven, right? Cause there's not really the threat of the run that backer's not going to suck down as much. They're going to know what's happening. They're going to have to break out the actual passing concepts. And that's where tamu is still struggling a bit. And you're not going to have the time to rep that and practice during the week and all of that because you're not in pads. You're not getting rushed real, just not going to work. So I'm really curious how that develops. And then when it comes to St. Louis's defense with them, it's just how they defend power read, read option. And it's like how do you keep your defenders out of conflict? So that DC offense is all about putting guys in conflict, whether it's your end, whether it's your will back or whether it's your safety, whether it's the corner, whoever they're keying on, they're putting that guy in conflict. Does he have to defend runner pass? Does he have to defend running back or quarterback, right? So you have to define all those things beforehand, which a good DC usually has it all defined over the season. But it's a little tough when you have five weeks, when you have two months to prepare, build a defense, get it going and prepare for everything and you don't know anything about your opponents. So it's been tough for people to adjust that because they don't know their personnel very well. They don't know what teams are doing yet. They don't know other teams' personnel very well and all of that. But I think after seeing 'em once, and they should be able to have a little couple more answers. Week one, the first time they played St. Louis was charging the mesh a lot, which means right where TEU or Derek King is holding that ball and beating the running back, they're just charging that. So it forces the quarterback to make a decision better or worse. And you're trusting your guy to be an athlete to make a play on whoever's there just full speed make and make a decision. We'll react to that from there. Another thing is they can scrape exchange, which means the D end has running back, he chases running back, makes the quarterback pull your backers, scraping over the top of all the behind the alignment to get quarterback running away from that, right? That can be good. But it really struggles when the quarterback's a better athlete than some of your linebackers. Which guys like Dr. Kane, hey, I tend to be in this league just because all the good athletes at linebacker are up in the nfl. So we have some, but like dear, that's not the level that you get with some of these other guys. And then the other one, right, is the more traditional your defensive end surfs, which means he settles and slowly closes space, keep it, he's more playing quarterback. And then you just fit the run normally on the front side where the run's going, which they just have to have, in my opinion, you have to have all three of those in your bag to this game because they're going to run it a lot. They're going to run that. Any type of read option, power read, read option, counter option, RPOs, all of that. So you have to be able to play with how they make their decisions. Cause if they get used to seeing one thing, they're going to make the right decision every time. But if you mix it up, if you charge the mesh, sometimes they're, but oh crap, do that. If you scrape exchange, they might make a mistake if all of that. So just mixing it up helps that. And then dealing with RPOs, it's about finding out who the offense is reading and then making sure that guy knows his job. Some stuff you can do, running man is usually the best way to deal with it. But then you're a little lighter in the box against run. So that's a little tough if they spread it out. There's some zone stuff you can do, some man match stuff that protects you a little more, which I'm sure that if they've looked into and they understand. But really at the end of the day, it comes to figuring out who they're trying to read, who the offense is trying to read, and then making sure that guy is not in conflict. And if they can do that, they'll be successful. So I wouldn't be surprised that DC struggles a little bit early, especially off offense. See this game because St. Louis has seen this before. They should have more answers. They should. And then it just comes down to Canu execute, which I think he can. He's really good at his read options, read RPO stuff. He's done it his since college, it's his, it was his whole college offense. It's been his offense in every league he's been in. So he's really good at it that they just got to build on that. And then secondly, for DC on offense, can they get Derrick King to throw the ball at all? I get it. He's your change of pace guy. Absolutely. They use him great. They do a great job using him. He know, I think Derrick King knows his role, but until you scare me a little bit, passing the ball with him, as soon as I see him come in, boom. I'm like okay, I think I see what's going on here. Not stressed. We just got to play our rules. Realize it's going to do still works, especially in the red zone because you make one mistake and Derrick King's Electric with the ball electric with it. So slippery really good lower body to take contact and stay up. So I think it's going to be interesting to see how that develops and that offensive helps Cause KA has done a great job. This is not a shot at ka. This is not a shot at town when not any players. It's just the nature of the offense they run So Well that's the thing. Yeah. You know like you were saying, you Year King still is finding the end zone even if they know exactly what's going on there. So we're going to double time just a little bit. Oh my bad. No, no you're perfect. But I wouldn't be sitting on an hour 25 minute Mike Mitchell interview. So no, I think this is fantastic. I perfect. I just wanted to make sure that this episode isn't four and a half hours long than Yeah. Bye. My Bad. No, no, you are perfect. And this is great. This is exactly why we brought you on and this is why this is running circles around me, but I'm understanding a lot of what you're saying. So let's go not as maybe enticing of a matchup here we have the unofficial tank bull thus far with the guardian chair against the vipers. Anything happening with Ra Buckley that excites you at all? And it does just seem like Ru Rod Witson just has the worst luck on humanity. Buckley man, man, that's that team's just so poorly coached. I don't know if it's poorly coached may not be the right word cause I'm not in the building, I don't know what he's doing. But just everything I see from the outside screams. Poor coaching cause penalties, right? Penalties is the first thing foremost. It's not just play penalties, it's not just stuff that's happening, the play, it's happening pre-snap, post snap, all these things. And any pre-AP post snap penalties is coaching. I don't care what anybody says, all coaches will harp on, oh, make sure these are things we can control. If you're not controlling him as a coach, it means you're allowing him to happen. Yeah, he can be all frustrated on the sidelines and things like that, but that's not the time to be mad in my opinion. I don't know, it just strikes me as poor coaching on that side of the ball. You don't know what you're doing with your quarterback. There's that argument on the sideline, oh Deandre Francois scored, I get that. And then they put Pax and Lan in the next drive and I'm like, apparently I think Deandre Franco had a concussion. So I don't know about that, but there's just a lack of communication all around. It seems like you've had to switch. Who's giving calls you've had to, that offense just seems sputtering at best. They can get some big plays, but they struggle to do anything consistently because they shoot themselves in the foot and they just, they're constantly pulling guys constantly, constantly. And sometimes it makes sense. Jermaine Martin fumbling twice in the game the same way. You got to pull 'em for a drive. Hey, sit down, what's wrong? But then they just don't play the rest of the game. And I'm like, this is the X F L, you got limited, got limited resources already. You got to trust your guys. You got to know who your guys are and you got to trust 'em. Even if they make mistakes. You can't just pull a guy, I'm going to get into this again in Fight Vegas in a second. You can't just pull a guy because he made a mistake or Mr. Reid, you can't do that in my opinion because it doesn't let those guys get better. It doesn't show 'em, you trust them. Hey, I'm going to correct your mistake, but then you stay in and fix that mistake playing. Otherwise you're just sitting there. And this is a coaching philosophy thing for me. I coach a lot of JV football in high school. I get kids making mistakes all the time, love them to death. They make mistakes all of the time. I can't just pull. For me it's a lack of effort. High school is a little different. You see a lack of effort. I'm pulling you instantly. But I guarantee these guys are trying hard, they're trying to feed their families. It's not a lack of effort for them. Most the part, you'll get the one guy occasionally here or there, but for most part it's not lack of effort, it's poor coaching at that point. So there's that defensively, I don't hate it. I don't hate what they do defensively. I think they've got a young guy that's decent. I think once again it comes down to coaching a lack of emphasis on things that matter, tackling, being sound in your technique. So I think there's those that you struggle with there that really kind of mess you up. And as a young, he seems like a young dc I don't know his coaching history, but those are things that you can forget about emphasizing. I'm a young coach myself, I forget it sometimes too. So just those things. But overall I just don't have fun watching them. So I don't watch 'em. But done, I watch them when they played San Antonio, who's kind of my defacto team that I watch cause I find 'em really interesting. But I watched 'em against Orlando. I watched Houston demolish 'em really quick as I kind of sped through that game. Cause I wasn't going to write about it. But it just strikes me how poorly they seem to be coached. And so hopefully it gets fixed. Don't, I'm not usually one to say I don't like firing guys mid-season when I'm a, especially at leagues like this where you don't have time to fix things and change everything. So I'm not saying Fire Terrell Buckley this year. Heck, maybe you stick to the next year. I don't know, maybe it's a player thing, but the culture doesn't seem right there. The environment doesn't seem right there. It doesn't seem good. Losing isn't helping of course. But it was before losing, there was something up. In my opinion. Everyone else did this right? We all did. This is in the classroom. We all did the same exercise. And you seem to be the only one that's absolutely having horrendous results right now. Yeah. Everybody's kind of having the same cards dealt to them and swirl Buckley, if I remember correctly, it's the first time head coach so I don't want to write him off just yet. But it's learning too. I'm sure it's very different being a head coach than being a position coach. You have to have a different mentality about you than being a position you can get a lot matter as a position coach than you can as a head coach. Especially in a league where everybody's listening to you. Yeah, This go ahead. Oh no, I was going to say no. Speaking of anger here, and it was kind of the worst day in the history of head coaching. Very horrible bad day for Rod Woodson here out at OT Field. Are they just having bad luck? Are they just, I mean is schematically, are they just not delivery? What's going on? I think it's a mix. They haven't been lucky. That's for sure that Josh Gordon catch. They could have won that Seattle game that Josh Gordon catch where he had the oldest touchdown I've ever seen. Josh Gordon has lost a little bit of juice because he is older. It happens. He's not going to be as explosive as he won. But that was the biggest you ever hear the old man, old man or old headed a gym where he is only doing post moves and things like that working the poster. He's just, and he's jogging up and down the court. That was him on that touchdown. So they got really unlucky there. Really great play by Seattle to kind of pull it out, pull it out of the hat. But otherwise there have been some coaching errors. I don't think Rod Woodson's been bad. He doesn't strike me as very inspirational. But that's like besides the point that little, I know some people like to dance and cheer that he does in the locker room. I got your back. But me as another coach, I'm just like, oh I cream a little because it's kind of corny. But hey everybody else is, everybody's got their own thing, right? If that's his thing, that's his thing. Get it. It's not my place to say it's bad. It's not bad. I just think it's a little cringy, that's all. But that's not a detriment to him as a coach or anything. But I do think what's going on on offense is a little weird. I've never been the biggest Luis Perez fan. Hey you're going to get slander here. Don't like I know, I know, I know. But I've just never been the biggest Louis Perez fan. I think he limits you athletically and arm talent wise. And he's smart. That's, he's a smart quarterback. He can tread water for you. That is a hundred percent true. And he's got heart. That's something you can't measure. Absolutely get that. I think Brett Huntley's the better quarterback. I think so. I don't know why they pulled him when they did. They said him up report, it's like a thigh thing. But he's practicing full as soon as he gets back to the, to the games, back to the practice this week. So I don't know. Yeah, it's a weird, no, it's just a weird situation there. Cause even on the broadcaster, well it is a performance. It seems like he's her. We're not really sure. I mean the problem is, I mean Brett came in late. I mean I don't know if that's still are. Is that hindering him in week five that he came in two weeks later in the training camp? I would like to think not. I'd like to think The one week he started week four. Week four. Even in that windstorm he played actually pretty well. He throws some darts. They have to keep it a little simpler for him. When they played Seattle they put up 28 points at 26 and we t play pretty well. Yeah, yeah. They put up 26 and they played well. They were moving the ball well he threw some darts late in that game that really, really made him look good And he was starting to unlock that offensive vertically, which is what they should be built for. They have guys Barta Bright who's not as fast as he wants was, but he's still got some speed. They got Jeff Bette who's fast as hell. Dude ran like a four three. They got drama. Alison, who's probably been the most disappointing receiver that's coming to the XFL this week, I saw him, I was like, oh that's a really good sign. Hopefully he does well cause he was pretty decent in the nfl. Like not anything crazy but he was a burner. He got size. He's been disappointing. He saw one of the biggest loafs I've ever seen in that Seattle Vegas game from John Allison where it should have been a touchdown. But he just gave up on the ball for some reason and he was a healthy scratch this last week against DC So because he has not been on any entry report from what I've seen and he just was, did not suit up against DC So one of the bigger disappoint, one of the more disappointing signings I think. So they should be a very vertical offense and Luis Perez just doesn't allow them to do that in my opinion. They were a little better running the ball at times this past week I think. But offensively just kind of seemed mediocre at best. Defensively they struggled. I haven't watched a ton of their defense really analyzed it but they seem to have struggled defensively over the past couple weeks. So that's something I might look at. If they struggle again, especially against Orlando, I might take a look at that. But they should lighten up this week. Honestly I think they're a better team than Orlando. Just from a personnel wise. Rambo's fun for Orlando. He does some fun things. I wish he was in a different offense. Send him to San Antonio please. But they need the help. But Vegas should win this one. Marta is Bryant being out. I don't know how much it hurts them because he has hasn't even been used how I thought he would be used. I thought he'd be a field stretcher, get him down the field. But he hasn't been used that way. Maybe he just didn't come into camp in shape. Maybe he's just not as fast as he once was. Like I don't know. So hopefully we see a fun vertical pre like test your limits like running gun, throw the ball down field offense. But just with Louise Perez in. You're not going to get that with Brett Huntley, you'll get that. But Luis Perez just, you just won't. Luis is a journeyman. I called him the forest gum of spring football. So I stand by. He's been in everything last year. I could. We do another hour here and this, I mean I think this is great stuff but you know your team, you said you're big into the braas here. We just let El not gone like Elizondo got demoted and then we're promoting, we have a new and I love Jaime like he was in the C F L and I don't know if he's just not having good luck. What do you make of that? The coordinator changed and then Arlington before we get out of here. All right so that offense, it just to start with, they don't play like how I feel like they're built to play. They got those big backs which doesn't preclude preclude you from spreading out. They got two pretty good tight ends. I'm thinking Louisiana, Mac and Lin that play pretty well. Lin's probably the more blocking guy and Max's probably more split out receiving guy receiver. They're little, they're not as explosive as he would like. They're not. But VA's good when he is healthy. He's been really good. And then they have some other decent pieces in that receiver room and then they got Jack Cohen who has played decent in my opinion. I'm not saying he's been wall burner, I'm not saying that but I don't think he's played bad or anything. He has not made mistakes. He is been patient with the ball. He's kept it so I feel like they should be dog barking in the vacuum. That's okay. I just apologize you got But I just feel like that they're built to be a 12 personnel, which is two tight ends. One running back downhill running team that can be a little more multiple informations. I'm not saying just be two tight ends lined up on the screen. But you can be multiple in that 12 personnel thing. Run downhill, find what your running backs are good at. First off is a zone or is a gap they haven't decided yet. They haven't figured it out and then commit to that. But I feel like they play so much spread out but they don't have to speed for it. They don't have the athleticism that positions for it that you need to be that spread out. And I think getting vasher back healthy will be huge. I just don't know how much devoting a guy and promoting a guy will change cause they're running the same offense. Right. So maybe the play calling will get better. Cause I'm assuming play calling do dizz will change. So hopefully that does because some of the play calling was pretty horrendous this past weekend when you realize that Seattle's pressing all your receivers, they cannot get off the line in any separation, right? Jack Cohen's sitting back there waiting for three, four seconds for anybody to get an ounce of separation before you just either dirt sit or tries to scramble and get sacked. Do I wish Cohen sometimes would take more of a chance? Yeah because you're down late and you need to do something. But that's not his D n A. You got to realize that as a coordinator. I don't know if the other guy would do any better because nobody's open. You're not scheming anybody open. You're not going to condense that. You're not going to bunch, you're not motioning guy in and out to try to get him off of press. You're lining up two by two doubles and just running routes and this isn't routes on air. You got guys defending you, you got to do something to help your guys who can't get off press. They've shown you all game, they cannot create any separation, right? You got to do something to help them. And he jaim ano just did not this past weekend. He, he's gotten away from, I think he's gotten away from what they want to beat. I think that's why H's. Word made the change. So that's what I make of that. I just don't know how much it'll help, especially if they don't get Vasher back. Cause if you do that 12 personnel stuff, you have to have a really, really good outside receiver, outside number one guy who can win and without Vassar they don't really have that yet. Jay Halver's been decent. They had a guy coming, Travis Toon, I can't say his last name. Travis Ton, yeah, yeah. Who did decent this past game but he's two, he's one game into the system and he's not super explosive. He's just a little more savvy, which helped him out. He got some nice back shoulders. He was probably the best receiver in that game, which wasn't saying much but so I'm hoping that they do something there with they get faster back healthy, they go more 12 personnel. They, I'm not saying pound the rock but they decide what they're going to be running game wise and then they play action. It find ways to get guys through motion, be a little multiple information, do go look at, go look at St Louis's film motion guys. Do something like please be a little more creative, don't mirror routes, stuff like that. So hopefully they do that defensively. Of course I can get, I'll be quick about, let me go into Arlington real quick to be quick so I can talk about a say same their name as defense. Cause I love it so much but Arlington offensively is another team where I just don't know if they know what they want to be. They don't stress the ball vertically at all. They don't push the ball vertically at all. I don't know if that's a conscious decision or just a with because of a lack of playmakers or they just haven't forgotten about it. I don't know because what that does is you pass the ball vertically, right? You've threatened the ball vertically. You got a guy that can take the top off that opens up a lot of your underneath stuff that opens up your run game a little more because guys can't just stack the box like St. Louis did and just be comfortable giving up four or five yards of South Cannel every play. Cause you're not going to hit 'em. Every play. I think I saw somewhere, I don't remember where they're averaging like 4.6 yards per drop pack, which is good for LA tied for lasting league with San Antonio. It's not great. Not at all. And then you can't run the ball at all, which has gotten San Antonio out of some trouble. They've been able to run the ball a little bit. Arlington camp and I think it's a little more of a scheme thing there where they haven't decided what they are. They're trying new things week in, week out. They had some fun stuff this week they were doing some tackle and guard rapping, which is pretty cool with double wraps, which is basically they're just pulling one gap over and kind of going up to the near backer or whatever. That was kind of fun. And then our length's offense has some fun short game stuff. Their short games really well schemed out. They have some really fun mesh stuff where the their two receivers are crossing paths. We've all heard of it. Mike Leach ran a ton air raid stuff and then they run a rail route, which is almost like a running back wheel, but he's not faking to the flats, he's just going straight up the numbers and they run it great in the shorty yardage. They did it once out of empty, which was fantastic. I hadn't seen that presentation for it before. That was a ton of fun. I have it on my Twitter somewhere, but it's a really, really good option for them in shorty Yard is red zone. The problem is it's just everybody knows that's what they're going to do. And when you don't press vertically, nothing good. You can't, can't just do that all game. You can't ship whale all game because you're first off, you're in the X F L. You don't have the best quarterbacks. This is not late, this is not late career. Drew Brees who can ding and dunk all the time because he literally knows what's going to happen on the field before it happens because he's the smartest player on the field because he's been in the league for 20 years so he can just, oh I'm going to throw it here because that's what's going to happen And he knows it. No, you have Slaughter or Drew Kyle Slaughter Ruit who have been decent, they haven't been given much to work with, but Slaughter's probably been a little better, but I wouldn't say by a whole lot. He's been better at not turning the ball over other than three times against St. Louis, but whatever. That's when he was trying to push the ball vertical. I don't know. It's a tough situation in Arlington. I don't know. I don't think they're a bad schemed offensive team. I just think they're lacking a component. You need that either you can get through play action, you can get through heck, you can get it through RPOs. There's some really cool vertical RPO stuff you could do. There's some just plain drop pack of vertical game that you could implement that they just don't have that element. And maybe it's a personnel thing, maybe it's a choice, maybe it's just they forgot to do it, I don't know. But it's tough to play offense when you don't have all condensed really tight and then defensively they're pretty fun and it's watched a ton of their defense. So it's more focusing on St. Louis's offense. When I was watching they do some more match coverage stuff, kind of similar to Seattle does. They have some fun pressure stuff they do that I enjoy. They're they're a good defensive team. I think losing Josh Hawkins for some a little bit more, but not to the end of the world. They still played St. Louis pretty good defensively. They just lost a couple that are tough to win in those situations, especially when the field that much. So I think they're not a good team defensively. I think San Antonio Hass some trouble, but I just think that it's tough to win football games when you can only put up 10 points against the team like the guardians who are just a mess, A mess fundamentally on defense. So yeah, it's tough to see. They had that spark, they had the Kyle SL spark there. That's what, yeah And they got 10 points that bugged me so much. I know they were trying to be positive about the game but they were like, oh yeah, how about the Spark Kyle Slaughter? But I'm like, they scored 10 points, how about this? Or people talking about the gardens like oh that was really good to see them compete. I'm like, they scored nine points. This was a bad football game. Let's get Brahmas defense. We'll get out of here. I appreciate your time tonight. Yeah, No worries. So San Antonio's defense, when you look at it at its core, it has a lot of things. This is going to confuse you. A lot of things I hate. So they run a lot of spot drop cover three, which means they're landmark so they just go to a spot and they're reading qbi. I don't love that personally. I think it doesn't let your athletes be athletes. I think it gives a lot of din and dunk throws and then they do a lot of cover one, they're, they're really a middle of field closed defense, which means they have a safety over right bet right in the middle of the field a lot of times. And that killed them early against what's their names against Houston. That's what killed them early being very exclusively that very vanilla in how they presented that. There's been other games where they've had a ton of fun blitzing against Orlando. They'd sent the safeties so many times and I love seeing that because it's crazy. It's fun. Again against Seattle, they got back to being a little more creative in how they did things. So they were doing a lot more road safety rotation. They were doing this really fun Tampa two thing. They did a little too much I think late in the game. Herman got loved that call a little too much where I think he got a little complacent with it. But they do this thing where they have the two nickel corners because they run almost exclusively out of nickel or dime actually out of dime. So they have four linemen, one backer and then they have 60 bees on the field and they're all really good. I don't know how they got away with that. They got Cam Kelly who's been, I think he was pretty good in the C F L. I don't know how good he was, but he was pretty good there. He was great in the Afaf when he was there and he played in the NFL for a couple years. Really good player. He's a little slower than he used to be, so he's more of a box guy. They got Jack Corner who's been fantastic this year. Fantastic. Flies around, plays with his hair on fire. They love blitzing him, which is a ton of fun. Ran Anthony Tejada is really good in the slot. Luke, Luke Barco, everybody knows about him at this point. If you watch the xfl, he's one of the best corners in the league, if not the best, just straight man to man. And then they have a rotation on the other outside guy who's always a solid player. They don't need him. Great. He's a solid player so just they're allowed to do a lot of different things back there with them. So I think what hurt 'em a little bit against Seattle was they got caught in a lot of light boxes because they're doing Tampa two, they're naturally a little bit lighter in the box so they got gash a little on the run. And I'll finish up here real quick, but I think what makes them so fun is their ability to just show so many different things and send people from everywhere when they want to. They love sending safeties against bad quarterbacks, which I think they're going to do a lot against Arlington. They did it against Orlando. They sent a ton of safety pressure and key moments. So on the red in the goal line, red zone, they're sending safety pressure like anything there. So I think we're going to see that all against Arlington. I expect if they get Delante Scott back and the other Scott brother, I think Delante is the more explosive one. I think he's really, really good. They're going to be really good because they missed that a little bit against Seattle. They weren't able to get a ton of pressure with four. They were still really good in the backend of coverage. That's why they were to stay in that. But if they got a little more pressure, I think they might win that. They might keep that game a little tighter. I'm not about when it sucks when you won score six points, but they're really good. Another shout out, San Antonio has the best special teams in the league. I stand by that all around kicker. I mean he's got the XL record for longest field goal now. Well the Longest field goal at Lumen Field ever I think is what they said. Yeah, he can boot it a little bit. They fly down the field on every coverage team. I want them. They were doing a lot of fun stuff early in the season on kickoff with on kickoff return with pulling different guys down blocks, kicking guys out. Kind of fun there. But I want to see more of it. I would love them to make it more consistent with it because I think they could get some shorter for their offense, which they need. But yeah, so it's just a really fun team outside of offense, really fun, such teams, really fun defense. They just don't have any offense to speak of if they can get suitable there. They're second place in the south easy because I think they're a better football team than Arlington. I think they're easily a better football team than Orlando and I think they're better coached. I think Hines Ward ISN done a great job even if they're one in three, I get it. Not a great record, but I think he's done a great job getting them flying to the ball on defense and on special teams. The head coach has a role in that emphasizing that and he's emphasized that. Even you heard Haslet say it in every interview. I was there in what do you call it, in the press conference afterwards and unprompted he was like, that team plays hard. They play the hardest in the league. That's a coaching thing that is a hundred percent a coaching thing. He does a great job down there. I hope they get the win this week because man I low bias because I just enjoy seeing that team. I think they're really interesting. They do a lot of fun stuff and I think that if they can get it figured out a little on offense, find their identity, play to their strengths, they'll be good. Well there you go. This is exciting. I appreciate it. You said you wanted to nerd out. I think you nerd it out. That's good. Yeah, I appreciate it. The only thing you have to come back on now at some point, do you do this and then we're going to get everyone excited. But really appreciate it Zach. It's going to be good. This is going to be really, I think, strong episode in all aspects of it. I really appreciate anything from you before we let you go. Yep. Just thanks you guys. Thank you for having me on. It's fun to talk football in this kind of environment, not in just with a bunch of other coaches and yeah, I'd be happy to come back on again. You can follow me. You see it on the screen, all 22 addict. I post most of my clips late night because that's after I put my daughter to bed and I'm done with my day. So it'll be like two o'clock Easter co East coast time and I'll be posting clips from the game. But yeah, thank you guys. I'll have some writing out here soon. I do it about every two weeks. Busy schedule. But yeah, just want to say thank you once again. You do great stuff. I love the podcast, love listening to it ever since I kind of discovered it fairly recently, but you do a lot of good stuff with the community. Bring a lot of good interviews to everybody and a lot of good information so I appreciate it. Well there you go. We appreciate each other. This is good Zach, it's a good to meet your acquaintance on here. Love adding new friends to the show. Yep, absolutely. Thank you. Have a good one. Well I'm excited here. Fresh off of practice in Arlington. We have the leading tackler and the X F L right now. How are you doing Donald Payne? I'm doing very well. Just got done with practice and meetings, so relaxing for the rest of the day. What is life like for you right now? How are we doing here? Approaching week five of the season? Oh man, we getting in the meat of the season. We almost halfway done with the season and these next two weeks are pretty big for us. Houston being four. Oh, Orlando being owning for. So you got Arlington and San Antonio in the middle of the pack and we play them back to back weeks, which is even more crazy. So basically this is not our playoff, these not true playoff games, but into getting the playoffs. These two games matter the most. We're going to stick with this one the first the way game, but these next two games are huge for the standings. A lot of pressure wi with the renegades and you know, got stoops back here and it feels like there's like, for whatever reason, more eyeballs on you guys and I don't know if that's fair or unfair, but thoughts on that. And the pressure, We're the hub city, we're the team that every team is at, so we have a lot riding on us. One of the teams that had the Dallas Renegades the first time around so lot. We've had a lot of fans, a lot of people been excited and ready for this. So yeah, it is a little bit on us because everybody knows the renegades knows what we bring to the table. Bob Stew's legendary coach. We have a great coaching staff as well. And if you take all our players and you stack 'em up, roster to roster, we have some ballers on our team guys who played substantial amount of times in the nfl, you know, things such as that. So it's a lot riding on us, but we're ready, ready for it Here. Yeah, you were saying tight race in the south, you've got the bra coming up here, they're just, they're changing offensive coordinators and stuff, clearly making moves, which I think speaks to how much everyone cares about this, right? We're in the must win kind of right now. Thoughts on that and just how do you prepare for that shakeup, I guess midweek For these spring leagues specifically. Sometimes, you know, might not see much change come, it's just like, hey look, some people see it as, oh, Orlando might be giving up or they're on for it, they just know they're going to suck the rest of the year. Things such as that. But as you can see with San Antonio, San Antonio, they're one in three, but they were in close games, most of all four of the games. So they're looking at us, hey, we're just as good as other teams. Teams didn't fall our way, so let's make a move. So you're not seeing teams get complacent or just be like, oh we're just going to, we just don't have a good enough roster. You know, see teams making moves, they're transactions every day, transaction every week. I have new teammates all the time, so it is everybody's out here trying to win and it's some great competition out there. So I think we're going to be in for some new stuff. San Antonio will have a new oc, but we'll be prepared for as a defense, we have set rules and techniques for whoever we play. So it doesn't matter if it's Houston or Orlando or St. Louis, we had this past, we have rules and we stick to those rules. People can't move the ball on us. You obviously excelled in the S F L coming over big signing and we tracked all that through the draft here. You're leading the X ffl as well in tackles to mean. Are you just used to being in an elite in that position now? Are you surprised to find as much success as you have this season or how do you feel? I wouldn't say I'm surprised at all. If anybody who knows me, I wouldn't say I'm surprised. I mean I hold myself to pretty high expectations and when I was in the N F L, when I got to start five games for the Jacksonville Jaguars, I also led the N F L in tackles during those five weeks. So this is nothing new to me, but it's not just about making tackles, I mean I like to make game changing plays. At the end of the day, I wouldn't say I'm so sea ball, go get ball person, but once I see that ball's handed off or it is thrown, I want to be one of the first people to the ball. So I wouldn't say I'm surprised and I think I'm just in the U S F L I played last year. We played less than a year ago, literally our season was from April to July, so I played less than a year ago, had great success there. So I'm not even a year removed from that season, so I still got a lot of juice flowing through my veins. I'm 28 years old but I'm still young so I'm prepared try to do it in the entire season and try to help lead this defense. How challenging is that mentally, physically? What is the most, I guess challenging of that? Carrying over here and playing a second league here, second season of a league while within the same calendar year You got to love football, that's for sure. You got to love it. You got to love being around the guys. You got a lot. Love the camaraderie you have and you got to love winning. I didn't do a lot of winning in the U S F L unfortunately, even though our defense was defense, I was for the Houston gamblers, even though our defense was pretty style, we didn't do a lot of winning. So coming here to Arlington, Arlington Renegades here in the X F L, I expect us to win. We have so many great players. Like I said, again, when you stack up our rosters it goes crazy against anybody else roster you stack it up against. So it is really about us to mesh at this point and know we've had some really close games, even the games we've won. So it's about being resilient and know that hey look we could be down, we were leading Houston going into halftime so we all know we can be the best team out here. It's just we got to put our best foot forward and come out to play each and every Sunday or whatever day we play on. Yeah, don't the thing with Renegades haven't had as much success as I think people expected, but certainly not anything on defense. I mean you guys need to also score points as well as not, but I mean you are certainly taking care of your side of the ball here. I think anyone would argue, Hey man, a team, it's a team effort out there man, it's a team effort, but our quarterbacks offensive line, our wide receivers, tight ends, they all taking it on the chin and they know they have to play better and then we know we have to play better as defense side of the ball as well. We got they back, they have our back, it's going to be some games where, hey look, we might not be up to par and they're going to have our back and then some days, hey look, they might not be up to par and guess what? It's our job to have their back. Hey look, I see it every time the defense goes onto the field, this is just another opportunity. I know some defensive players be like, oh man, it's an interception. Oh put their head down, shoot, it's another chance for us to go make a play. That's what it sound like to me. I get to play some more. So I think it very, very soon as in this week you going to see us put it together as a whole and see I don't think we played a full game where offense and defense played as one entire game. So we going to see it this week, we going to see this week for sure. Coach Stoops obviously gets a lot of the accolade, just the visibility from the team, you know, got the Hayes brothers in there, coach Lewis as well. In terms of the defensive side and the staff on there, what's impressed you with how they've worked with you guys or messaging they've given you? Hey they a very, I mean they might have 120 years of experience all together to be honest. And we're talking about experience from the collegiate level into the N F L level. They all have been defensive coordinators in N F L before, so it is so many great minds back there and they put up a great plan grand game planning for us every week. So it is, it's, and it's a fun group of guys to be in, man. It's a fun group of guys. I was with Coach Lewis, he was my DC in the U S F L, so I got, I'm back here with him, coach Hayes, they're both defensive coordinators and to see how they work together, the camaraderie they have and the knowledge they have is really what brings forward. I know there's not a lot of knowledgeable coaches in this league, but as in on the defense side of the ball, people knowing the game, it might not be anybody better than who we have. In terms of with U S F L last year, coming over here at Thoughts Behind wanting to take the leap double down here, like you said you get another league in go to the X F L. What was the thought process there? Hey, I had a pretty great season last year in the U S F L and me being having five years in the N F L me having four years vested in the N F nfl, having my pension and in my insurance and for life and all the benefits, I still didn't get a workout from the N F L team after the U S F L and a lot of it talking to scouts and coaches that coached me in N F L before, it was because of the time and aspect of it, of the U S F L getting finished in July where a lot of teams are at 90 and you don't have that time right for training camp. Whereas the X ffl has it set up perfectly where when our season gets done, we'll be an ot, it'll be N F L OTAs, it'll be right before the draft or right after the draft and you'll be able to get in that time mini camp OTAs and stuff like that. So it's way better timing in order to get guys who want to take that leap or want to get that first chance or want to get another chance to get back and X L has timed it up perfectly. So that was the main reason I took this leap to the X ffl and I knew how much the ROCK had put into this league and talking to scouts and other people who were part of the league before they even started, they told me it is going to be a great league and we're going to have so many benefits and things such as that and they definitely promise on their word. You said not getting the workouts, not getting, being able to go after the US belt. Is that frustrating as a player? Is that motivating and I got to prove people wrong. How do you internalize that? Oh yeah, I mean it's definitely frustrating galore. Just imagine how many people at the U S F L season were asking me, Hey Donald, hey a dp, Hey bro, why didn't you get a workout? Why? What's going on? What's up with you? I had a great season, I seen so many people from the U S F L get picked up, how come you didn't? What's up? Of course it was frustrating and always with the Rock has the 54 everybody being the 54th man such as that. I've been the 53rd man multiple times in my career and to be the 54th guy now it makes me feel sort of okay, hey they turn their back on me for a little bit, they shoot away from me a little bit. So these leagues, especially the X F L, has given me the opportunity to showcase it on a national stage showcase that I belong and it showcases again other great talent as well. We not just out here playing backyard football, we playing against other great players as well. Players who guys who play in the N F NFL for a substantial amount of time. So this is just another avenue to show 'em that show the N F NFL teams that you're ready to go Talent level in the X ffl better than you expected. How do you feel about that? Oh it is better than I expected because of so many guys that have been vested in the N F L. So many guys that have had a substantial amount of time in N F L. We do have a lot young guys who just got out of college and stuff like that, but we've got guys who play 5, 6, 7 years in the league on the Arlington Renegades as well, such as myself. So you see so many guys with so much experience and that experience, it definitely help out in so many ways in the football field. So many guys are knowledgeable about what's, what plays might be run, how the coaches are, things such as that. So having that experience definitely helps out a lot. Just a couple last questions, I'll let you go. I know you're coming off of practice, I really appreciate it. In terms of hub setup here versus you know, did the hub life, USS f L now here in the X F L differences, what do you like about it? What do you like worse or just any thoughts to the two comparisons there? Yeah, I mean no offense, Dallas is better than Birmingham. No offense to Birmingham or nothing like that, but Dallas is a little bit better city than Birmingham I would want to live at for four months. But in the U S F L in the hub last year we had all eight teams staying in the same hotel, all eight teams. So I see the guy and we all eat breakfast together, have the share the same meeting room. So after I just get beaten up on this guy, we eat breakfast with each other the next morning, Hey, what's up bro? Yeah, you remember that time. Things such as that. It is kind of cool and everybody playing in Birmingham in the U S F L, whereas here we all get to play in our respective cities. We all get to play here in Arlington, Seattle gets to play in Seattle, Orlando gets to play in Orlando. So we have a much better fan base, got the fans involved and I think that that's really the biggest thing in the U S F L. Last year when Birmingham played, there was a lot of fans came out because Birmingham the hub was Birmingham, but when the Houston gamblers played the Pittsburgh mallers, it was nobody in the stands but our friends and family. So it was almost like playing in when I played in the 2020 covid year in the N F L, it's nobody there. We got fake noise point in. So playing in your respective city, playing in front of your hometown fans, people who actually care about your team, I think that's probably the biggest change. And it's great playing in front of here, 10,000 fans or when we play this pass in St. Louis, great atmosphere playing inside of 40,000 fans in that dome. They had the stadium rocking. I mean that was dope to be in for sure. So I think that's the biggest difference. Yeah, I was going to ask you here, you got to go into the Almo dome here, that 24 I think thousand they have for the braas opening weekend St. Louis. Was that just crazy? 38,000 plus in there and absolutely going nuts. I mean shoot, I played at a small school, I played at Stetson, so a lot of people who played at Michigan and Penn State might've felt that on that level, but I mean it felt like a college atmosphere to be honest. It felt like I was in that I was at a U G A game really, that's how they had the stadium rocking. I played in the N F L know multiple years. The fans are loud, the fans are great, but it almost had that college atmosphere where the fans are just riding for their team do or die no matter what type thing. No matter if my team's good or bad, I could just hear in the stadium, the stadium was rocking. You almost could feel feel the ground shake almost. So they definitely had a great setup. I mean we have great fans that come out here, they have this here at Choctaw, they have this stadium rocking. So I think it was a big thing and I'm so glad that the fan base has definitely come out and supported each and every team for sure. Yeah. Last question for me. Yeah, how do you go in here? You got to go into the Alamo Dome, what are you doing personally or as a team to, it's a big huge game I think for both the Braas and the Renegades here. So how are you looking forward to this weekend? Just get back on track. We've won loss, won loss, and so we are not trying to continue that pattern. So of course we want to win this one, so we want to win this one, but we want to keep that momentum going. So after we get a win, we want to keep that momentum going, keep that momentum pushing. And I think this week we went back to a lot of the techniques we went. It wasn't so much scheme this week, it was more, or let's get back to the techniques that we perfected in camp, the techniques we perfected the first three games, even though I think we did play well against Houston even though we didn't come out with the win, but get back to the techniques this week and then from there, shoot, we all are ballers so we going to go out and make plays as long as we get our technique right. We'll be good to go. Well Donald, incredibly well spoken. Really appreciate your time. I thought you were fantastic on here and good luck. I'm a C Dragons fan, but you can be renegade. Renegades can be my team of the south. That's okay. I really appreciate your time today. All right, I appreciate it. Maybe we'll see y'all in the championship game. We we'll be there, we'll be there. I've offered, we were at the kickoff and I've offered personalized Alamo tours before the championship game, so we'll be leading people through. It's going to be a fun time down in San Antonio, so I appreciate it. Hey, That's dope man. Sounds good. Well I appreciate Jim Mullen giving me the hookup here. We have Mocon here play by play for the Montreal Alliance and just super knowledgeable. I've seen him on other programs talking C F L, everything else. Wanted to get him on. How are you doing well, Thanks so much having me on. This is good. So we've been living through, and Gary Stern was on our show and kind of lived through the whole Twitter and everything and then now the awe we've been sold and big breaking news. I wanted to talk awe sale this week and then expansion talk, kind of everything else going on. First off, just what are your general thoughts, Montreal awes here as we sit at the mid of March, I think there's a sense of relief for the alos for fan base included, because you think about where they were say four or five months ago after the season just ended, no one knew where this team would be, right? There was whispers. Would the team fold or would the team be under administration as it was for the CFL in the early part of 2023? And thankfully for the angst that was in Awis Nation, that was all solved by Pier Carl pe by the team as he did last week, and now they can look forward towards training cam, which is in too much from now when you think about it today. So I think right now for ETH has a lot more relaxed today than where they were say two weeks ago. Now we're American, a lot of our listeners are American, and so I've been trying to research and read along and he's involved in certain TV rights and we have TSN right there with the cfl. And it seems, I don't know if competition's going to be better here in a couple years with the TV deals, but how do you read all of that with the situation? I think for now it it's what it is. It's Bell Media that has the TV rights for all CFL games, English and French. For those who don't know, Pierre Carl PE is the rival Quebec or is the rival of Bell Media when it comes to TV rights in Quebeca and Canada for that matter. And he's voice opinion about perhaps trying to get himself more of a presence from the sports property that he has att vs Sports, which is the French version or the French rival of r d s in Quebec and get them more properties. We'll see, because again, look the CFLs with TSN and RDS for the next few years and we'll see if they'll open up that negotiation avenue to perhaps bring in another partner to expand that team of your ship. But I think for Pierre Carl Pedo, the main focus right now for him is to make sure that he stabilizes the alos and that they're going in the right direction to get more fan involvement and make this team more desirable on the field and off of it as well. It seemed like, I mean, and I know this is all Randy talking, whatever, I mean, was this a hot property to get here with the Al at sale? I think in reality, the team was at its lowest of lows when it came to the financial operations because if you read various reports locally here through printer, through radio or through tv, the team was hemorrhaging money. They were bleeding money. But now you finally get a local owner into this prospect here. I think that's the key because you think about it right now and unfortunately for Gary Stern, he was an outsider from the viewership of Quebec. And there's a civic pride in this promise to Quebec that if you have a local guy or a local person owning this franchise or owning a business for that matter, it just brings more to it where people are going to be, I'm going to support that person or she to support their business. I think now from Carlo PDO to be in that position, I think we'll see an interest that will increase for these families to come out to games and to watch games on TV to buy the merchandise, to buy more beer and hotdogs as they sell out stadium on a regular football night for them. So I think this will definitely help them and I think they're now on the right track and provided that they have the right marketing in place, which they do, I think this team can definitely make some noise in terms of the prosperity that they want in the next three, four years. We've seen the Mar Domen come in and BC that's our team. I call them America's C F L team, and we've seen try this feels like another forward thinking person of means can come in, bring in some new ideas, has some money to do things. Is that how you read that? Yeah, absolutely. I mean look at bc, right? Ahmar came in and same thing with BC Lion, right? They're at the Losal, Lowe's and Doman comes in and he rev revitalizes the whole franchise with these cool initiatives, pre-game tailgating, bringing in concerts and whatnot here. And he saw in the playoff game right in last November how they had over 30,000 plus to watch that win over the Calgary and nearly beat Winnipeg in the West final. And the same thing with Edmonton. I think they brought in the local angle and I think that's the same blueprint that the CFO wanted for Montreal where you bring in a local guy like P K P to run the show as an owner and put the right people in place. And I think the ALS as is have the right people in place in their organization from top to bottom. Now's the question of making sure this goes in the right direction, which I think it will with what they're trying to build up moving forward. It's the crazy thing because with everything last year, I mean the outlets were still almost, we were a couple points away from Gary Stern being on our live show there in Regina for the Grey Cup. They were, with everything that happened last year, they were still a really successful franchise. How do you view the awes in Montreal and in the C F R right now as one of the, how do you view them as a franchise? Well, I think I'll always say this about the C F L, right? When you go to Regina Hamilton, Ottawa, Winnipeg, Calgary, Edmonton, those are CFL cities and the biggest issue for the CFL when it comes to say Vancouver, Toronto or Montreal, it's cities with CFL teams and in the metropolitan cities like Montreal and Toronto in particular where the NFL is very popular, let's call it what it is in these cities here it it's sort of trying to connect with the younger demographics and that's going to be the key for this franchise base moving forward here under the new marketing that they might have. With Pure Carl PE though over on the show, how can they increase that visibility with that 18 to 35 with that 12 to 35 demographic that's going to say to their parents, Hey mom, dad, bring me to an AZ game on a Saturday night or on a Friday night or on a Thursday night, whatever it is that they play on, and let's go watch a game for three and a half hours or so and I think that's going to be key for this team here. Can they connect with the young, younger demographics moving forward? If they could do that, I think it'll help them grow this franchise and this in interest in this football team because 20, 30 years ago this team had that fan base in place, but now you look at it overall read, they're an older demographic and now they got to figure out how to get younger, which I think they can do, but it'll take some time here, which may not be an overnight sensation here, but might take two, three years for 'em to develop that seeds and cultivate it to become more popular with the younger fans. Obviously the demographic issues of the C F L and age and everything for years now, how do you view the C ffl, their general health right now in 2023? Well, I think it is definitely older demographic and I think the key for the C F L moving forward is how do you make it hip? How do you make it fun? How do you make it more appealing to the TikTok age through the Instagram demographics? That's what it is now, right? Sports today is you go on Instagram, you go on TikTok, it's quick highlights, right? That's what it is. And working in schools as well, I see it what the student embodies out there that it's all about that type of platform to kind of promote it. And I think the C F L can do a better job perhaps and get more of that moving forward, which will be key for them. And also just trying to get them into more visible areas, whether it's beyond the tsn, RDS platform, maybe M T V parent companies or sisters stations of edia that kind of help enhance the profile here and I think that's going to be key for them moving forward here for a broing, for the cfl, how do you make this league much more appealing for the younger demographics like it is for Montreal, Toronto, Vancouver? I think Vancouver's on the right track now. Toronto winning the couple who will be able to succeed in that department and now from Montreal being that last avenue, can they now get this all into one road here and that road leading to the pot of gold, that will make them much more relevant for the younger fans to watch In terms of the awes management. Right. And I've been reading that Mario, he's right going to be brought in or he's with it, one of the junior hockey leagues up there to go in as their commissioner, is that what i's right? I'm reading That's right. Yeah. And so that's leaving a gap. It feels like there's someone there that maybe Pierre has that'll take over is that Mario's was there and then bat all that. How do you view that position and someone else coming in to take over those reigns? Well, I think, look, marriage Chii should be commended for what he did during this time as the awe president, he made it much more, he put on his own platform to say, look, I need to make this team more desirable. If I got to shake 5,000 hands on a game day, I will do that. If I go after I go visit a school, I will do that. And that's what he did. And you saw that there was a ticket increase, fan increase in the stands for all Ali Whack games. That was last year in 2022. And yes, it is a big loss from that connection demographic, but I think for part pure collar Powell though, if he has that person in place here or she that can definitely carry that torch from zucchini, then it should be a seamless transition for this franchise moving forward here. But there's no question that Mayor Jo King did a wonderful job as the president of the ALO West and now the OS will look to get someone to of equal value or better that can make this franchise a lot more relevant than before We had. So we, we've had a longstanding feud with Cody Fu Jaro for a long time. Yo Saskatchewan, Ralph Ryders quarterback you, we have now buried the Hatchet, he's with the ettes. He came on our show and we're unblocked on Twitter. It was a very exciting day. How do you view Cody coming in and fresh start just from a football angle there? And he was not in a good spot last Year. No, it was unfortunate. I mean in Sask it was a tough spot. He got banged up. That was a tough environment to be in for him and for the entire Rough Rider organization. I think there's a lot of pressure on that team to host a great cup playing it as he did in 2013, which they won and they came up well short of that expectation level. And now he comes to Montreal under Jason Moss, who he's very familiar with. And I know given the situation that the s might have wanted Trevor Harris by given the ownership Claude that was hanging over the team couldn't keep him in here. You bringing Fordo who can definitely have a trip on his shoulder where he might say to himself, look, everyone wrote my career off as a rough rider quarterback and now I come to Montreal where the expectation levels might be a little bit lower than saying SAS or in Hamilton where people think they're going to make a run this year with what they've done with the off-season moves that they've had so far. And I think that's where the alley can definitely strike when they least where people least expect it. Ken Fudo adapt to the offense, which I think he can here and can Jason Moss make sure that he puts his players in the best position to win football games. And I'll be curious to see how Jason Moss is in this chapter of his coaching career because we saw what happened in Edmonton unfortunately didn't really play out well towards the end of his time in Edmonton. But now with that time away from being the head coach, how mature is he? I think this is something that he said, look, I'm much more mature now than where I was three, four or five years ago and I think that might help his progress as a head coach and having Cody Ferraro in the fold here can definitely make this team a little bit more fun to watch in terms of what they can do with this new offense. The comments when he was on our show, there was a lot of pressure in Saskatchewan and he's got to go to the grocery store and you're kind of like the A-list person there and all that. And people commented when they got posted, well good go play in Montreal where no one cares about the cfl. How do I, you view that as someone that cover knows the outlets lives there, all that stuff. Yeah, I think look it, Saskatchewan is like here, I'll give you an example to Reid and Montreal. Hockey is the go-to sport. It's live and die by the Montreal Canadians. If you go to Saskatchewan, that's the equivalent, right? The Ruff rider is the live and die by the rough rider. And if you can't play well, you'll get scorched earth by Rough Rider Nation. As it was unfortunate for Cody Fu Jaro, now he comes to Montreal where in this city the expectation levels will be relaxed. They're not going to say, Hey, go win a great cup now or go win 18 games and be 18 and oh and win a great cup. No develop, make this team fun to watch in the football field. And if you win 10 to 12 games, that is deem deem a success for this TZ team under year wonder for Coach Moss and for Cody Jaro. So I think right now the expectations will be very modest in a good way, but they win more than 10 games. I think that would definitely renew that love affair with this football city when it comes to loving the sport of football and making them much fun to watch moving forward. Before we go, I want to talk in the, so the sale goes through and we've been talking and Randy's been on our show and everyone like, yo, okay, we're a 10th team and is, it's the long promise for it's however, like 30 years and they said that with the new sale we're really going to utilize this energy where we got the Halifax games and kind of all that I'm hearing pop-up stadiums now I nailers reporting that the schooner's people don't want to be involved anymore. How do you view a tent team, Halifax, whatever else it looks like here for the C F L? I think geography wise would be great to go coast to coast from Vancouver to Halifax, that would be huge for the CFL and the profile that they're trying to build up. I look Halifax, I have a lot of people who live in Halifax or in that part of the country in a Latin Canada, you love football. I think the C F L has options, whether it's Monkton Halifax to decide where they want to perhaps lay down the 10th franchise in the C ffl and with the idea of a pop-up stadium, you think about the BC lines, they had that for a couple years when BC players was being rented back in the early 2010s, 2011 seasons. If they can put up a pop-up stands for now and kind of lay down the foundation to the people of Nova Scotia or to the people of New Brunswick that look, we're getting 10 to 15,000 per home game. Think about what the revenue can be generated if we have a permanent stadium and we build around that with plazas and whatnot, that makes it fun to come to downtown Halifax or downtown Monkton to watch the C F L game. And I think now with what they've done with Touchdown Atlantic, with them coming back second in row with SAS and Toronto playing again, this is where you start to cultivate and kind of wet the appetite moving forward here. So I think the CFO has a plan in place. Do I think that franchise will come in the next two, three years? Probably not. I think five to 10 years more. Five I think is a realistic number for the CFO to say, we're okay financially speaking here, let's expand to the tent team and make this a legit coast to coast league. We were looking at, because we're all America then we're looking at the map and stuff, it's so far away. I mean it really is that East coast we're like, I mean you might as well fly the Europe here from Seattle or whatever. I mean geography speaking, I get it. And the coast to, they're like, I think when we have the MAR on, he's talking, oh yeah, it'd be great coast to coast. It's like, ain't a hell of a flight there. They go from BC to Halifax. It it is, it's about, I believe from Vancouver to Montreal it's about four and a half, five hours. So you add another hour to it. So it's almost a six hour flight from Vancouver to Halifax. Do you think, and that guy's kind of lasts for me today, I appreciate this has been really rapid fire, this is good. We have through a lot of stuff. You say five, 10 years, more like five. Is it getting to the point, how many times can we talk about this 10 theme without seeing anything? Well look, the N F L went 20 players just without a team in LA and they brought in two, and I'm not saying that this is what the situation is for Halifax, but it took them that long. But this thing from a blueprint perspective, you're from a project standpoint for Randy and Brosy, I mean look, nine teams is great, but it increase that uneven schedule. We have that and it kind of doesn't help where you have say a team on a bi-week for two weeks at the end of the year and maybe not play for three weeks. I think having that 10 team will be instrumental for the team. It increases the viewership, it increases the financial stability of the team to kind of bring an expansion money towards the other C F L teams. And also most importantly though, that's more games now revenue for those who are going to be working in operations for the team that might be in Halifax or Monkton. I just think it's a win-win. But again, you want to keep this modest here and make sure you don't overvalue what the project cost could be for a stadium down the road. That's going to be the key moving forward here is are the provinces, whoever might be involved with this New Brunswick or Nova Scotia, are they okay to for over money? Is the new ownership group, whoever that might be, are they okay to be 50 50 partners? What is the breakdown when comes to that? So I think right now laying down these seeds here, having these games, these one-offs, I guess you can use that term for the next, who knows two, three years can help make this much more desirable for a team to become permanent in Atlantic Canada. Yeah, they're talking to right the touchdown Pacific or whatever. Kind of doing that and expanding that. I know. So it's exciting. I think it'll be good. Excited for the outlets and everything else there. I really appreciate your time today. I'm glad we can make the connection and hopefully we can bring you back on here now that got you in the Rolodex. Absolutely, my friend. Look forward to it. And Look, we're only two months away from camp and three months away from kickoff, so it should be a fun time for football fans across the board. Well, well we're week five x, FFL got U U us, US F L I. They reported to camp this week. I mean it's tell my wife, it's all football all the time right now, so it's very scary. Best time of the year. Well, did we survive today? Really long episode. I'd have to go back and look. I know we had a double episode back last year. We had, I think that was when we had the Steve Earhart of the world on all of that on. And that might have been close to four hours, but certainly one of the longer ones today. Thanks again to Matt Berry, Mike Mitchell, Zach Garden, Donald Payne, and then of course Mohan coming on, continue with our C F L coverage. Really appreciate that. That's it from me heading to the Dragons game right now. You're listening to this in the future. Going to go cheer on our boys against the roughnecks. Don't forget, please like and subscribe, get us up to 3,500 subscribers and then if you have a second, would so appreciate you voting for us for the Sports Business Group's Best Sports Business podcast. Really hard for me to say, huge honor. Really appreciate them for including us in the list. I know that it is a stack competition. We have some podcasts with national reach and websites and things like that, but it doesn't hurt the vote for the little guy. I really appreciate that, that you do it for me today. Always. Take care, stay safe. We'll see you next time.

XFL 2023 Week 4: What Did We Learn?

Well welcome everybody here week four of X F 2023 I, I'm going to call it Rod Woodson and the terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day. Rod Woodson not having the best time right now with the X F L. We will talk about that all today. Everything X ffl. Week four, we have Andrew Murray standing by and then a special guest as well. Appreciate it. We're going to bring in first and foremost the professor Andrew Murray, the Shannon Chart to my skip bailiff. Andy, how are you Ski? That's alright. Doing all right today, man. How you doing? I'm good. This is, I finally was able to sit and watch. I watched all day X F L yesterday. I have not had the opportunity to do that yet. I felt I, it's feeling real now. We can get into it with Evan as well, but it's feeling real. I felt some emotions watching the Battle Hawks day yesterday. So overall good. You enjoying things? Yeah, I don't know if I saw as many people hanging from the rafters as I thought I was hoping for. I was waiting for some lights to fall down, some scenery to get destroyed. But no I, I'm doing well. I had a really fun time watching this past weekend, which we'll get into later. Yeah, this was good. This was good here. Jenna's checking in. Scott's checking in as well. Scott and I just talking on the Facebook and now we're going to bring in live from I think Cabo the Jen Hale here on the A bearded Jen Hale. Today we have Evan Wills more with exile news. Have Evan, how are you? I'm doing great man. Yeah, excited to break down all the games from this week. It was a pretty, I thought, pretty decent slate, maybe nothing too surprising, but I enjoyed it. Yeah, like you said before it feels, it's starting to feel pretty real now between St. Louis and everything else. So Yeah, it's feeling good. I think. Like I said, me finally it was the craziest first couple weeks and going to the kickoff and like you Evans we're all kind of going all over the place to be able to sit now watch. I thought it was a lot of fun. We also have U S F L TV stuff we can talk about today as well if we want on this live Monday morning. I just remember when we hit 3,500 subscribers, we will be giving away a two tickets, either the X L championship game in San Antonio or I think it's T B D according to the broadcast schedule for the U S F L championship game here. So make sure you're liked and subscribed for that. We'll break down everything else. It was a really exciting Andy and I having new C F L media feud we can get into later as well. First off, Andy, big takeaways from the weekend. The Battle Hawks came back in historic fashion. I mean they were out to prove something yesterday and they did. It was kind of incredible with how much energy was in that building even you prepare for it, you anticipate it, you talk about it, you mu over it for however long was, I think it said on the broadcast 1,107 days since there was pro football in St. Louis and yet we get there and it was just overwhelming. The amount of energy in that building was insane. The Austin grabbing the mic, getting the crowd hyped up. Anthony Beck doing his best hype man impression. I mean everybody was just there rock and rolling for anything like that. That was an incredible event. I saw, again, a lot of non X F L people tweeting about it. A lot of EL N F L media people talking about it because obviously St. Louis being in formerly being in n NFL city getting that many people to show up for a spring football crowd is insane and they could've had more, I think they really could have if they really had decided to sell those seats. So that, that's me. I mean that was going to be the biggest takeaway, but even for me still, you just can't mentally prepare yourself enough for an event like that. That's kind of what I realized. Yeah. Evan, thoughts on St. Louis. I mean, I thought it was great in terms of attendance. The only team that really comes close to that is San Antonio, but even that in the Alamo dome did not compare to the Domen St. Louis. I mean, yeah, it was fantastic. I think St. Louis, I think the battle hawks are there to stay. I think Stan Croke was definitely wrong when he said St. Louis is not a football city and I'm a Rams fan. I know obviously they're in LA now and I'm a fan of the LA Rams, but you have to give credit to St. Louis and everything that was accomplished there. But you can see why those fans, I mean they've been waiting for so long and they only had a little taste of it in 2020. I forget how many games they actually played in St. Louis before the week six or week five shutdown. There was only two. Yeah, so this is only the third time they're playing in the dome. The battle hawks are, but you saw that crowd and you would've thought it was the hundredth time. I mean it was a special event. So I mean there was probably going to be more people there than normal. But even that, I mean that crowd was fired up and I would expect it to be the same for the rest of their home games this season. It was cool. I have been very welcome by the X F L thus far this season and part of that I don't think i's ever going to feel like it did back in 2020. And I remember Paul and I being in DC and just it felt like two years and we're going and now we're kind of going through all the minutia and we're fighting with people online and we're talking to C F L, we're doing all this other stuff. The rollout has been interesting and we've talked the Vegas thing to death and we've talked kind of all this other stuff. It really did feel like yesterday like that this was what was promised all along. We we're one eighth of the way. Okay, we've got that now we need to figure out some other stuff. But it really did live up to it. Brian had emailed out yesterday morning from the Battle Hawks, Hey, we're expecting 38,000 and you know, knew it was going to be rocking. They sold everything that was available. Coach Beck said they still have space to fill here in the remaining week. So very excited and I'm glad that words got through the X ffl, that it was an X F L attendance record, not a spring football attendance record because I think we were walking the fine line there and I'm glad that however that came about. I think we know how that came about, but cooler heads and that all kind of got further away. Andy, were you afraid of the PR backlash of the player 54 combined with the spring football attendance record? Clearly not because I sent out a tweet yesterday saying that's the biggest attendance of any alternative football event at least for the last two years. Because I mean it there. Listen, there are bigger stadiums obviously in some of these venues than there are with the Edwards Dome, but obviously there hasn't been that as much capacity in some of these other events. But yeah look, would've just said it's the TW 21st century mark. That's basically it. It's the biggest attendance in the 21st century of spring alternative football. That would've been my qualifier, but maybe it's obviously not as fun to qualify those things when you're sending out in the T tweeted and just putting out, hey, it's the biggest spring crowd. It sounds a lot sexier, but yeah, mean you have to be fair to history and you have to be fair to all the pre sittings before that, all the what it's Canadian football being here or whether it's us develop in the old days in the eighties, whether it's all that, it really depends on how you qualify it. For me though, I mean it's still in this day and age, I have that many people again at a game like that in only the SEC year, I guess in a year and a half of the actually no, not even, we haven't even reached a full actual calendar of games yet. It's only been nine games total if you're counting 2020. So for that to happen is pretty incredible. Yeah, I did, and I'll get to Evan here, just Mike has a comment here. US Twitter trolls trying to the thing to me is I don't think the rock is right rolodexing back in his mind like C F L 19 Baltimore, the Baltimore whatever back in, but also like U S F L in the eighties is not the U S F L today. So when it's like, oh, that's fine, that existed before you were even the thought in your parents' minds. Let's just be happy now. We got about three Argos games worth the fans yesterday, so let's be happy with that. Evan, any other thoughts on this? And then we can go kind of game by game breakdown here. So I think piggybacking off you with the S F L stuff, I mean, you're right, the U S F L in is not the USS ffl now there is a lot of people saying, oh well the USS F L in the eighties was attracting much larger crowds. I think one game had upwards of 70,000 but at that time, and I think it was Mike Mitchell who brought it up, the U S F L was competing for players from the N F nfl, whereas now both the X Ffl and the S F L are sort of a step below the N F nfl. You're not really competing for players that would be in the nfl. You have guys that fell out of the N F NFL or just never got that shot whatever the case is. So I think it's hard to compare those. And even if you do want to compare 'em, I mean, hell, that was what, 40 years ago? I mean, the fact that we're here in 20, 23 years after the X Ffl left and there's still that level of fan interest, at least for St. Louis and a couple other teams too, have drawn pretty good crowds. The fact that that's still there I think is phenomenal. We really need to appreciate that for what it is. Yeah, I mean it's a team like you said that played two home games three years ago, went away and now came back. Let's just be happy. Let's be happy bigger crowd than we saw Birmingham last year. Bigger crowd that we saw I would wager to say, and we'll see what St. Louis attendance does here the next couple weeks, but could be bigger than any attendance we see in US fel this year. We'll have to see. And I don't know what Memphis is going to draw and I don't know what Detroit's going to draw, but certainly there we talk more. Battle Hawk Slater, let's go game in reverse. I watched, this was a fun one, the Rod Woodson Invitational Classic out there having his worst life. Vegas falls again to dc Rowdy crowd, little Rainier, not as many people as last week, but still good attendance. I will say I'm over the beer snake now officially. We're done talking about it on the broadcast every five seconds. Andy, what did you make of the beer snake in the Audi field and everything else? I think you're going to have to get prepared for two more times of it, Reid, I'm sorry. But that's just how it is. It's the narrative that's going to be overplayed over and over again. And look, ESPN and FX are going to be doing that at NA because that's kind of the easiest storyline to go after. And that's sort of how you build identity in the league. That's kind of what they're going for. But I mean of the battle of the snakes, it was clear which one was going to come out and prevailing. And look, the defenders are now undefeated at home. They are five and oh at home, no six and oh, excuse me, at home all time now. And they have been just lights out in the second half. They've always been able to run the ball with authority. Their defense comes bearing down on every team that comes in there. And I don't think Vegas had much of a choice in this game just based on the fact that it's DC at home like that. That's kind of a tough sledding for them. Also, Hunley getting her didn't help either. That was unfortunate. I was hoping to see a little more dynamic play. Look, Luis played well off the bench and that's what he does. We've talked about that before. I said two weeks ago, this is not the end of Luis Perez. He's going to show back up at some point he did not have, unfortunately for him the end of the first half didn't go according to plan and that's why Rod Woodson was in such a tizzy. But Luis Perez did as much as he could give in the circumstances. But this DC team is just, I mean, they're firing on a lot of cylinders right now and it's really tough to slow him down. Yeah, this was a disaster from <laugh> the first side by the six seconds of the game. Evan thoughts on it? Just the vipers just cannot, nothing can go their way. They seem to be cursed with bad luck. Yeah, I mean, boy, the Vipers have had some terrible, I mean, if I'm Rod Woodson or even anybody on that team, I'm just kicking myself because you're oh and four. But the roster's an oh and four, I don't think the coaching's ing four. It's one of those tough things. And I we'll talk about San Antonio later cause I think they're kind of in a similar position, although they've at least won a game up to this point. But yeah, DC's a tough opponent. They've really proven themselves, and I don't want to say DC's surprised me because I've been a deer at King Stand for many years now and the rest of that team, I mean that run game is insane. Just kind of like Houston's passing game. It's like how do you stop it? But I think it's more the coaching for DC that surprises me. I did not expect Reggie Barlow to be undefeated up to this point. And that's not to discredit him, it's just all the jobs that he's had in the past. Were at smaller colleges you're working with a bit of a different talent level here in the xfl. It's honestly above what he was dealing with in college, despite what some people might think or believe. So I think that to me is the most impressive part about DC. And yeah, I mean that game went about as I expected, it's a shame for Vegas, they were put in a tough spot. Oh three, you really want to get your first win because at oh and four, your playoff hopes are all but gone unless you went out essentially. But yeah, I mean tough spot for them. And I feel for every game I watch Rod Woodson on the sideline and I feel for him. It's not like The Guardians and I brought that up with Terrell Buckley where it's like, okay man, what are you doing? Clearly there's some problems here that you know can't control when you're not handling right. But with Woodson it's just like he seems to get the bad end of the stick every time. It's like no one can do the right thing for him. And I think at this point Vegas should at least have one win under their belt. They definitely have not been one of the best teams in the league. The record doesn't indicate that they have a bunch of old NFL guys, but so far they haven't been that great. But oh and four is pretty surprising. And again, it's a shame that that's where they're at, but maybe they'll turn something around. And next week I guess we've got the XFL X FFLs version of a tank bowl with the guardians and the Vipers. Both are oh and four. So someone's going to have to win that next week. It's going to be, I like Woods. I've liked him. We met him down at the Arizona Showcase. I thought he was great. Behind the scenes, we're seeing the sidelines in him in the locker room and he's singing to the guys. I thought that was a good look. I feel like I'm more anymore. And then at the end of the first half, Luis runs in, he gets stopped. And it's one of those things that I think everybody in their mind understands why they didn't get the ball again. But it's so hard to explain that on the broadcast to the, when you're in the heat of the moment, well no, if he was stopped, you would never be able to get the ball back up. Go again. We're running it off. I thought Dean at least was decisive and clear with that. But I mean Woodson, it looked like they were going to have to physically escort him off the field mean he was looking heated. But I like to see that. I like see that from a coach, really care. Andy, what does she think of Rod? I mean meltdowns not the right word, but it was a meltdown. It was, but I mean it's frustration mean his team is oh and three, he's about to go oh four. There's just been no good breaks with this team. One of our commentators pointed out that Vegas took the bad weather with him to DC and he is right. They've had some just horrendous, horrendous luck with weather this entire season. Whether it's cold, whether it's wet, whether it's windy, doesn't matter. It's been awful for them. And that's really unfortunate for his team. It's just been bad luck for Vegas. Ironically enough coming from a gambling city, they have not been able to hit any of their numbers or crap at the crap table at all. But look the rules the rule, and Dean Blandino explained it carefully and articulately that that's the ruling on the field and that's just how it is. I don't blame Woods feeling emotional. He also was starting to get into it with one of the officials saying, Hey look, they're really chippy on the other side. They're starting fights. I think he's drawing to what happened with St. Louis the week before and maybe trying to drum up sort of an idea of, hey, there's a little bit of a reputation with this DC team. They fight a little bit, I don't want to say dirty, but maybe with a little bit more chippiness than some other teams. And maybe they do, but I think that's their play style and they play to it well and they frustrate teams and they shut them down on defense and they run the ball and they keep the ball away from you. And that's just something that's not fun. A play style that is going to mess your day up. Now let's see what they can keep doing it on the road, but at home at least, I mean you play right into their hands every single time, but what's an understandably frustrated? And then they come out from the half, they get the kickoff fumble return, and then they go and they get stop. Cause you're like, okay, this is the world making things right. Okay. And then they still can't get anything going. It's just a nightmare there. Evan, anything else from this? We can go back to talk more in depth about the San Antonio game or the St. Louis game. Just really hope Vegas wins next week against Orlando. I just want to see Rod Woods, that team get a win. I don't want to say I'd rather see them win in the Guardians because there's a couple guys on The Guardians I'm rooting for. But I think someone commented earlier, this Vegas team at oh and four does look a lot different than The Guardians at oh and four. It's a tale of two worlds where Vegas has just again, had a lot of bad luck where with Orlando it's like, okay, yeah, you guys are really bad and this is a problem. Yeah, no, it absolutely feels totally different. You feel like Vegas is just almost there where I don't think you've ever felt like the guardians have been anywhere near winning any of these times. Another team that certainly not doing well, I don't know if anyone honestly expected them to come in and give the battle hugs. They gave 'em a run for their money for a minute there. But Renegades two and two, that feels like they could be oh and four really not doing well. St. Louis, Darius Shepherd had a touchdown friend of the show there was excited to see that. Andy, big takeaways battle Hawks looking like who we think they are. Are they better than we expect? I think they're right about where I expected them. Their defense plays also extremely well and most circumstances I think their offense gets it done enough. I do think Adrian McCarran played really well yesterday and the stats don't really even show that. I think he was very decisive. He moved on the run really well. He did have that one pass that sailed over receiver and got picked off. But other than that, I think he played very well. He's clearly putting himself into the conversation for potential MVP voting down the stretch. I was a little skeptical the first two weeks, but in the last two weeks have convinced me he's really been starting to lock in with his receivers. Brian Hill was great, had a great game, really balanced attack for St. Louis. I think even though at times it was a little sluggish, I think they were able to get enough done. I mean, look, Arlington has a good defense. They have a really good defensive unit that can't be lost on people. It's just that their offense is just done the water right now. As far as running style, as far as getting any semblance of anything in the passing game, I know Kyle Slowder is trying to come on. I think he missed a couple throws yesterday. There were a couple that he didn't get there on time or just under through and just couldn't quite get through. His receivers I think play calling wise, they had a better game plan yesterday than they did against the Guardians. But again, they're just stuck right now. They're really stuck and they could be own four, but because of their special teams and because of their defense, I think they've managed to squeak by and get enough there. But if they're going to, like I said last week, if they're going to even think about being in the playoffs, they've got to start doing more on offense. Yeah, I just can't figure out, he can't get anything going. He felt like he was under duress the whole time. I don't know if that's his issue. I was glad to see you said Dear Shep and then Brian Hill, like Joe Wallace, all friends of the podcast, all had the outstanding days yesterday. That's exciting to see talk with. And I will say it was so funny Darius, she was on really quiet guy, just doesn't have a lot to say trying to do the interview and I'm like, it is what it is. And I see the halftime, he just gets a walk off touchdown going in halftime. He's the same for the ESPN crew or whatever. So good to know. It's not just me the can't properly interview Dar Shepherd, but good to see him have success. Evan, thoughts on just the renegade stagnation here? Yeah, well I think the Renegades at one point, I think at the beginning of the season they had the best thoughts to win the championship and I think that's pretty far away from that right now. The Drew Ploy experiment did not go to plan. I was very interested to see how Drew Plitt would perform. Again, I did expect Slowder to start from week one and PLI came out there for the first two weeks and it wasn't great. Unfortunately. Again, that was a guy where I thought maybe there was something in camp that we didn't see considering he got the starting job, but now it's apparent that floaters the better guy even if the offense is still slow. But yeah, Arlington's an interesting team. I do think they could make the playoffs just given San Antonio's recent struggles. But yeah, it's really just a tale of their offense is very far below where they need it to be, maybe far below expectation. And then their defense has been great. I mean, their defense man, geez, I know Houston when they came and played Houston, I've seen 'em live and yeah, those guys know how to play. It's quite something I think that could definitely help them out later in the season. But even they barely beat the Guardians and that to me was a bit of a worrisome sign. I was like, okay, well everyone looks at The Guardians. It's like, well, that's going to be your get right game. And it wasn't their get right game that was 10 to nine. That was not what it should have been at all really for either team, but especially you couldn't shine the spotlight in Arlington. So no, I did not expect them to go into St. Louis and win that game either. Just given the way things have gone for them the past couple weeks. I thought it was kind of funny, Kyle Slowder at the beginning saying, let's send 50,000 people home, sad or whatever. And I was like, all right buddy, well we'll see about that. I mean, I think you said something about, well hopefully he doesn't get criticized for getting the number wrong cause it was really less than 40,000, but hey, it makes it sound better. So we'll give him that. But no, I think Arlington the next couple of weeks for them are going to be pivotal. And really again for San Antonio too, haven't talked about them yet, but I keep bringing 'em up. Those two games that they have against each other, that's really for that second spot in the South playoffs. I think that's going to be a fascinating matchup to see. Obviously they've got games to play after that. They could really be the deciding factor, but those two games that they still have to play against each other I think are going to be one of the better storylines to fall this season because Houston looks like they're already going to have that number one spot in the south. Barring in the setbacks, they could lose a game or two and I think they'll still get it without a problem. But really that number two spot I think is up for grabs. I view Arlington or San Antonio as almost equivalent. I think Arlington has maybe a bit of an upper hand because they have one more win, and B, their defense is probably better. Both teams have had offensive problems but yeah, that'll be something to watch. I know that's getting a bit off topic from the St Louis game, but Yeah, no, that's good. I like it. No, I would agree mean he, it's Houston number one with a bullet there and then San Antonio and Arlington somewhere in there. Yeah, I didn't want Slowder to be canceled by the u s Ffl stands when you got the attendance figure wrong. Or 50,000, 38,310. Saw a lot of numbers floating around. It's like 47 more than the DA demons game back in 2001. Andy Mike has a question better Bryan Hill TD celebration, the people's elbow or the surfs up from yesterday. I like the surfs up, but I think the people's elbow plays a little bit better. First of all where is there any surf in St. Louis? My question, I don't see a beach anywhere near there. So I think that the people's elbow and it just plays better to the atmosphere. Again yesterday. I know this has been brought up a million times and you can agree or disagree, but I think there really is a WWE e atmosphere to some of these games. There's just a lot of hype, a lot, I don't want to say manufactured energy, but there's definitely a lot more just a effort into being a little bit more showmanship in some of these games. And I think with the people's elbow it really feels that way. There's all of this just energy that goes with it and it plays into the history with the league in 2001, obviously Vince McMahon being the previous owner, obviously the Rock now being involved, it's just kind of goes with the theme of the whole league. So for me, the people's elbows probably a little better, but I like a good surf stop. There's no beach in St. Louis. So I saw someone post the Rock because Danny was at the game, right? Rock did a pre right. Was she at the same, she was at the Houston. Was she at the St. Louis game? Am I making that up? Yeah, she was interviewed at the game. Yes. So she was there, but then the Rock had the video and I don't know how you don't just finally, the XFL is returned to St. Louis. I don't know how, that's not part of the video, but the rocks new catch fries, catch phrases like, let's ball out baby. Like that doesn't play. Duane a happy to workshop. You've had decades of success here with wonderful catchphrases, but it's time to whatever it is, it's time to ball out. Baby does not work. Evan, do you have any thoughts on the Rocks trademark line? Anything else from this game? Or we'll go back to the Dragons game. Yeah, I mean, you know can say what you want about it. I thought it was okay. Yeah, it's very basic. It's very boring. But I mean Evan's trying to maintain his xfl follow The fact that he even said something to put up on that big screen, I think signified the event mean he was at the Oscars that day. He could have easily just left it all to Danny. But yeah No, Evan's trying to keep that next Ffl followed. Don't want to set them too much. Anything else from the Renegades or St. Louis here? We could talk general thoughts at the end. Anything else from the game? We'll go backwards As far as the game goes, I think St. Louis is coming into their own as far as an identity. Their offense and their defense all plays cohesively together. And by the way, they get four more of these home games. So they have a significant advantage down the stretch. Also being three and one and second in the division, that plays a huge role going down the stretch. So you still have four more basically death traps, <laugh> for other teams to deal with the rest of the season. So good advantage for them. And look, Arlington's got to figure out the next two each, which we'll get into. Yeah, when I saw the crowd coming in through the gate, they're showing, I mean just the crowd shots at the beginning, it really was overwhelming there. Next game up here. And <laugh> hate to say your boy Reid was watching the Kraken had that and we were down the road at Climate Pledge watching. I watched the game highlights, checked out everything later, but we watched the Kraken, I take the Dallas Stars number one team in the central division to overtime we lost. But it was wonderful there. For the first half of this game, I'm looking at the score on my phone did not seem like we missed a lot. So I turned to my buddies because we sold our tickets to one of my friends. I said, I think we made the better decision here with six at halftime. Ucci had the one one turnover at the end. I forgot I was going to start the show today until Andy, I am going to kill you. Any thoughts? Wild wild with Haslet and all that at the end there. Thoughts overall on C Dragons in San Antonio? Andy, Look, Seattle's defensive line won this game. They hassled Jack Cohen the entire game. He was completely flustered. He was under pressure. I mean, look, they don't want to be throwing the ball 39 times. That's not their game plan. But they had to because they absolutely could not run the ball again. This is the same problem that Arlington's having. They just cannot seem to get anything going on the ground. They don't be. They're able to play action, which I think Cohen works a lot better off when he is doing play action boot legs. And he can't do that here because they just don't have any threat of the run attack and he can't get the ball out to his receivers. His really tall receivers. I know he had a couple of injuries as well, but on the offense. But look, this is just this St. Louis, or sorry, excuse me, the San Antonio operation offensively is just not getting it done. And then for the Sea Dragons, look, Ben Ucci played well enough. Obviously that turnover at the end is what drew the ire of Jim Haslett. He was about ready to take him down. But one of the biggest things I take away for the second week in a row is that Oregon Ellison's a beast, man. He's great. This is such a asset for Saint for Seattle to work with. This is a great running back who plays hard. He runs angry every single time he gets the ball. He's been outstanding for this team. The last couple weeks he's really given some balances attack. Finally, June Jones is running the ball finally. They're also not going for three every single time they score a touchdown. That's almost shocking that they didn't go for three. I know that math played out and they went up by nine. It's like, okay, all you need is one, they go up by 10. But I've seen this team go for three every single time. So for them to finally, I think balance wise, Seattle's figuring it out. They just got to stop turning the all over and I think they'll be okay. Yeah, I had looked at the box score until I just <laugh>. Yeah, 40 pass attempts to 39 pass attempts is really crazy here. June Jones is seemingly allergic to running the football. Evan thoughts on this and I just thought that was so out of character for Haslet. He seems like such a, and he was very serious. I mean it wasn't really that joking. Yeah. Well to start with the hazard stuff before I get into the actual game, I mean, yeah, I was a bit surprised. I thought it was kind of a joke, but then I re-watched it and I was like, maybe it, he was really that heated in the moment. But personally I was surprised to see that. I mean I know Seattle lost to pass. It's the running shoe with June Jones, when are you not going to throw the ball? I was still surprised to see him throw on that last drive after they stopped San Antonio on fourth down. And then yeah, UCCI threw that pick and I was like, oh, well I knew it wasn't going to be a big deal because San Antonio's offense had been so poor in that game that I really didn't think that was going to be the time for them to stream together as some sort of crazy game winning drive where they get the touchdown and then in the three point conversion. I just really didn't see it. The big question or the big not question, I guess takeaway for me from this game is when are we going to see Reed a quarterback for San Antonio? Because I look at Jack Co and Jack Co has been very, very okay for the past three weeks. It's been nothing spectacular. He moves the ball well, but San Antonio's biggest problems, they can't score. I think back to that Houston game in week three where they pitched that goal line stand and that would've had San Antonio score there. I mean that would've been a game that would've really given, I don't want to say San Antonio would've won that maybe I'm biased, but I would've given them a really good shot at that point in the game just given they had been trending upward in that second half. And then in the Seattle game, it felt like they had a lot of opportunities. It was still only a one score game. When the clock hit triple zero, it's 15 to six. But yeah, I just look at that team and it's a lot like Arlington. Again, I mentioned before what the offensive struggles. It's hard to say who's worse on offense. I mean, Dallas has already played two quarterbacks, whereas I guess San Antonio's only played one. But even then, man, it's just, it's a shame because I feel like both teams that are struggling on offense there in the south, Arlington and San Antonio have a lot of talent. I mean you look at this team, you've got what, Jacque Jacque, Patrick Jacque was Patrick and then you think of their receivers, you think of, well they've got Jaylen Tover TJ Vache, although he didn't play in that game he was pretty good against Houston. And then I won't name all the Arlington guys for time's sake, but it, it's kind of a head scratcher. I think some of it's play calling. Will that be changed? I don't know. I think maybe, you know, got to lose a couple more games before you start deciding things like that. But with playoff spots on the line, again, I keep bringing it up, it's just this Arlington San Antonio game. I mean whoever loses that kind of matchup or ends or comes out of it with a disadvantage, they're going to be kicking themselves because I feel like both of these teams could easily be above 500 right now just from a pure talent perspective. And it's hard to say what's happening. But this is, I think sometimes just what happens in a new league. You're bringing in guys on short notice and everyone kind of has to gel. I mean a lot of people would say, oh well we're already in week four and these guys had a training camp together. Well still a lot of things to figure out. I mean it's not like we're dealing with new rules here and everything. It's all different. You're operating from a hub. This is not the NFL really in not anyway. I mean it's similar. But to finish my point, I think I thought San Antonio, I didn't expect San Antonio to win this game either. Just like I didn't expect Arlington to beat St. Louis, but I thought they could have made it a bit more competitive. I felt like this was not the best game for Seattle either. And they've had a couple times the season where I thought they were that close. If Ucci doesn't fumble or turn it over, maybe they would've won. But with the Brahmas it was like, okay guys, are you going to compete or are we just going to sit here and kick a couple field goals and then wait till the last two minutes to try and do something, but it's not going to work out cause you've lost momentum. I don't know, it's all interesting to me. It's interesting to see how all these things play out and how they will play out. Well and I, and I found, I did find the clip here I wanted to play just cause I want to hear it on the pocket because Dorothy's going to be like, what the hell are you guys talking about? I do, I wonder if Hines, you know, give Cohen, we give 'em a longer leash and I've been a player and I don't know if that goes into it. I have a little more empathy that way. We got to, and I think I haven't said up so we can hear the audio on here. I'm going to kill you. I'm going to kill you. I'm going to kill you. There you go. Put that in my cell phone. I want that to be my alarm clock. Waking up in the morning. Anyway, just remarkable there. But good crowd. I thought good crowd at Lumen. Like I said, my buddy buddy took his fiance and kids to the game. It seemed like it was a good time entertaining. Any other thoughts about the Sea Dragons? Andy, who looked to be maybe second in the north, but now St. Louis is coming up here. I think they're going to be fighting for that third spot. What do you make? Yeah, the North division is going to be a heavyweight fight the rest of the way. And if Seattle continues to perform well on offense and not turn the ball over again, that's the biggest thing. They're really the only team that other than teams obviously likes the Orlando guardians or the biggest fighters who shoot themselves in the foot as well. Seattle at least has potential in terms of their roster. And I think also in terms of what they've been able to get out of a lot of their skilled position players, they just have to stop making these mistakes. By the way, I just wanted to say real quick before we move on. Luke Barco, the cornerback for the Brahmas balled out on Saturday night. He was incredible and I know the kept highlighting him over and over and over and over again, but he really was that good. He was locking down Josh Gordon. He didn't let a lot of passes get over his head. He got the pick off of Ucci. He was exceptional on Saturday night. And I think that's the kind of play style you will hope to get from some of these guys who just step up and have that game and get their names on the map. And I do think Seattle bouncing off of that has a lot of kinds of guys like that, but they have to make sure that they finish games. Otherwise you're going to be seeing a lot more clips like that from Hasley, but maybe inside the locker room and not on the field. And I, I'll bring up your article at the Andy Annie when we kind of do our recap because I don't want to forget that. And then you almost let me forget, we were going to talk about the announcers and the broadcast for this game. So I'm glad that I remembered and I want to get Evan's thoughts. There was a lot of feedback, especially the C Dragons Brahmas game coming out. All they're talking about is players wanted to go to the N F L and they're talking about the N F L. They're talk. That's all I saw when I came home Saturday night and I could have me talking about the beer snake like they did. I mean they got to talk about something. Evan, thoughts on that, that there's too much emphasis on the X F L broadcasters talking about players wanting to get to the N F L versus winning X F L games or winning an X F L championship. Yeah, well I think it's an interesting part. I'm glad you brought it up because earlier I was going to say, well we were talking about Morgan Ellison and how June Jones I think has finally discovered who that guy is and what he can do. That's a guy who I would say he deserves the NFL shot. Just the broadcasters would say about guys like Luke Bar and a couple others. But yeah, I think is it a bit much yes, but the broadcast I think has done a bit much with other things too. The betting stuff, the gambling, they talk about the over under a lot spread. Again, that was a big part of the X F L in 2020 and I don't imagine that to change. I think the reason they're probably talking about that so much is because they know that a lot of people who are watching those games are N F L fans, not X Ffl fans. So you're kind of trying to draw in that connection of, hey, maybe this guy will be playing on your N F NFL team next year. So you can say you were watching him here first and that's kind of like your, no, not claim to fame, but oh well I watched this guy when he was good in the X ffl before he came and did this with whatever team. So I think that to me is the reason why they bring it up so much. But I do wish a bit that they would talk about just the team that they're on now. Okay, it's great. You're playing well, you might get a chance to be in a camp come June or July or whatever, but it's like for teams like Houston or DC it's like, well maybe you should talk to these guys about their path through a championship, what that looks like, how they've been able to accomplish that so far. Not just, oh, this team is really good. They have a lot of talent. That means the most guys from that team will go to the nfl. So yeah, I again, do I think that's going to change either? No, I think we're going to hear about the NFL every week on the X ffl broadcasts, but there's a reason for that. And I think it's justified enough for people like us who just are watching it for the product that it is and not because we're just N F L casuals who kind of miss the season. It does get a bit annoying, a bit repetitive, but kind of hard to escape that they're going to keep talking about it, especially by the end of the season once players have really sort of completed their season. I guess It's hard and I'll get Andy's thoughts on this and then we'll go to the last game. You got to talk about something. These games are a little bit slower sometimes than your traditional N F L game, especially when we're doing replays and we're talking to Dean and what, there's a little bit of dead time sometimes we could be talking about hotdogs and beer snakes and we were talking mustard on the hotdogs the game last night. I watched even the cracking games on TV where it's pretty intense actually. We're talking food and so we got to talk about something. I do think it's a crutch there. You're never going to have it. When I had Kevin Kuer on a couple times with Fox Sports and we talked with him about how does he prepare for calling the spring league games or the US F L games and he said, you talk about Tom Brady in the game. Everybody knows Tom Brady's whole history. I got to sit down. I got to research every single one of these players before the game. And there's just not that much to talk about for every single one of these people when this is only one game of whatever you're doing for the week for Fox Sports or ESPN or FX or whatever. So it's a crutch. And thell is called the League of Opportunity. It's called the League of Opportunity. We're going to be talking about that. Andy, any other thoughts on that? Then we can get to the Guardians game. I mean, look, all I have to do is point to the interview that you two had with Anthony Beck down in Arizona who literally said, if all of the players from my roster went on to the NFL the next season, I consider that a success. I mean, there is that permeated idea in this league that there's going to be an opportunity for these players, these coaches, these scouts, personnel, all these people in this league are going to move on to bigger and better things at some points. Now, would they love them to stay around? Of course, yeah, of course they would. You know, want to have stalwart co coaches, you want to have star players, you want to have consistency in your staff from year to year. Of course you do, but you also have to be realistic in that some of these people are going to move on at some point and their intent and purpose is to be in this league, is to move on. A lot of these players have talked about the calendar works better for me and the calendar works better for them because guess what? It's earlier time for them. Prepare for training camp. I know it's at nauseum. I know if we bang the table about it, but that's just the reality of the situation. Should the broadcasters have maybe a little bit more maneuverability in terms of maybe talking about certain plays or talking about certain storylines? Yes, I agree. Maybe they do use it a bit too much. The NFL crutch, but again, it's espn. I mean they have Monday Night Football on their product. The NFL's on the minds of everybody, even when they're watching this product. That's just how the casual fan use it. They always are going to compare it to how does this compare to the NFL if you're, even if a casual football fan, that's just going to be one of the first thoughts that comes up. So I think it's something you have to work through. I agree. But I'm not surprised that it comes up as much as it does, and I don't think it's offensive in my opinion. Andy, Daryl Johnston told me that the U s l's, April to June timeline was the best timeline to get into for the nfl. So I don't want to hear what any of these players that they're playing in these leagues have to say about that because that's what Darrell Johnson told me. Last game here. And then we'll do key takeaways and everything, and this will dovetail, and Andy and I are going to have a personal story here at the end. Hopefully you watched more than two minutes of this game if you're Marshall Ferguson, but for those of us that watched the game, saw a 40 burger put up by the Houston Roughnecks here, I really not even close sometimes my sports app that I get scores sent to me for the X F L. It's like delayed or it's wrong it. And so I got the notification, we just got to the bar, it said 20 to zero, the roughnecks. And I go, this can't be, can't be right. I go to the XF website and said, holy God, they're up 20 to zero here. AJ Smith running the clinic. We saw the double forward pass as originally created in the XL in 2020 back with Sam. Evan. Thoughts on your Houston Rough next year, really just a wrecking shop against the Guardians? Yeah, well, I talked about it in my preview article a bit. I was kind of saying, well, this game there, there's no reason for Houston to lose this game. As a matter of fact, they should probably improve on their victory from week one, which was by 20, what, 21 points. And yeah, they easily did that. They won by, I think it was 28 this time. So yeah, I mean it was about what I expected. And then even though we were playing in Orlando, I mean hell, AJ Smith breaking out that again, that forward double pass. And that was beautiful in honor of Mike Leach. And at first I saw that and I had to jog my memory because it looks so someone put on Twitter, they go, cool play, but it looks so illegal. And I thought the same thing. I saw that, I saw John Andre throw it and I thought, is that going to count? And then they brought up the rule and I was like, oh, that's right, you can do that. They definitely drew that up on purpose. And then after that I was like, wow, that really is amazing. You wouldn't really see that very often. And I think it helps too that John Tre is a former quarterback so he has the ability to do that. And he was joking around after saying, oh, the ball's a bit wobbly. I got to be better than that. And John Tre's a really funny guy. I've talked to him a couple times. He's a very good dude. But yeah, no, I mean clinic would definitely be a way to put it. As much as the score at 44 16, it was a blowout, but there was a time where Orlando was crawling back there, it was 26 to 16 at one point. Charleston Rambo an ADR touchdown. Good to see him get going a bit. Charleston Rambo was one of those guys that I had high hopes for going into the season. Obviously not knowing then that the guardians were going to be this way. But yeah, I mean there were definitely moments. Houston kind of had their bit in the game where they slowed down, had a couple three outs, but by that point it really didn't matter. I knew we were going to win and what's his name? Deja Lee. It was good to see him get involved in the second half with two Russian touchdowns. I put out a tweet and said before the season Wade Phillips did an interview. I forget who it was with. And I think the person asked like, oh, what players are he looking forward to watching this season? He could have easily said, oh, Brandon Silver is Tre Kirkland Max. But no, he said Lee was one of those guys that he really had his eyes on like a gem, I think. And to see him finally get involved, especially in an offense where you're not running a lot and put in my article too, I said, well, in the second half it would be nice to see kind of a different offense where you're running it more to put the game away. And that's exactly what they did for the most part. They were running a bit more, they felt more comfortable doing that. I think it was a good game all around, at least for me. I quite enjoyed that. Again, it was over pretty well, pretty quick. I mean, it was 20 nothing, and then Orlando tried to come back and then by the third quarter was like, nah, this is going to be Houston's game. But yeah, I again, I feel like every week Houston finds a way to build upon themselves and improve. And even from week one right out of the gate, they've been really good. They've been sort of set in the standard across the X F L. Like, okay, hey, this isn't just some Bush League that has some random players. Like, no, these guys can really do their job well. And it shows. So again, this week again, yay, you plan Orlando. It's not the best opponent, but I mean that was again, another just all out fantastic performance. And I do think Seattle, given the way they've played recently, will bring a bit more challenges on Thursday because it's a short week and they're playing in Seattle. It's the first time that they're really, I guess going to the cold. I don't know what temperature in Seattle's supposed to be that night. It's cold. It's cold right there. I was going to say, it's definitely not, the weather's been in Houston where it's like 70 at kickoff every night. But yeah, that might be, again, I've had that game on the calendar for a while circled. I think that'll be an interesting matchup. At least schematically. But yeah, no, all around I was impressed with Houston. Orlando again, still got work to do. Buckley was chewing out his OC on the sidelines and there was a couple other things that, the one thing I'll talk about or point out about Orlando before, I'll stop blabbing on and I'll let Andy talk the penalties, man. Every guy, every Orlando game that I watch, I feel like there's a yellow bar, yellow light next to the scoreboard. Every time I turn the game on they got to get that cleaned up. I know that at this point you're kind of just searching for a couple wins to make the season look bad rather than a complete disaster. But my God, I mean those penalties, Houston had a couple too. We've had a couple in the games here and there, but nothing that's killed us. But for Orlando especially, I mean that offensive line with the holds, it's unbelievable. We're false starts or I just, at what point do you try and revamp that line or get rid of the offensive line coach or, I don't know. It's just like, to me, we're in week four and these guys, it just, that offensive line feels very Bush League. If you know what I mean? Yeah. It's like, okay guys, I mean you feel bad for Orlando, but how are we supposed to get anything done offensively with the amount of times they're being set back? And again, I'm not the biggest Buckley supporter. I think he could have done a better job through the past couple weeks. Again, he could turn it around and prove me wrong. I really hope he does. But him, I get his frustration to an extent. When you're players are, I mean that that's not really his fault. He's not the one out there jumping around and doing all that. I do feel bad for him cause he was, I mean he didn't have as bad of an outbreak this week as Rod Woodson did. But he was pace on the sidelines. He had his hands and his face and I felt for him in a sense, He needs new guys. He needs new guys. Just, I've been showing the pre play here and now toss to Andy. They were talking funky and I just heard JU four pass. I will say Jack cry harder. Us f l newsroom. We're talking about the double four pass. Where did that come from? I don't want to hear this. Cry harder. Cry harder. That's all I have to say on that. Andy, any thoughts on the game? We'll get into Marshall's comments and all that. My thoughts on the game as a whole. Before I get into that, I just wanted to say the number of people I saw on my timeline this past weekend, calling this double forward pass gimmicky was astounding. I want to let, let's, let's point out a couple things. By that token, if you're going to call this play gimmicky, then what is the waggle in C F L? What is playing a yard off the line of scrimmage and basically making the quarterback sneak automatic? I think your definition of gimmicky or innovative is in the eye of the beholder. That is, in my opinion, what has happening on my timeline this past weekend. Look, I think it's a rule that you take advantage of and AJ Smith did a fantastic job of that. The U S F L ran it last year. I didn't hear one peep about it being gimmicky last year. I didn't hear anything about one, about two point or three point convergence be gimmicky last year. So it's kind of funny that suddenly that becomes a thing. And yes, Sam Schwartzstein was pumping his fist this weekend because he's seeing all of this play out and this was part of his mindset of getting this into the game. Look, also, you can't overvalue the emotional aspect of that play too. AJ Smith talked about that play. They called it the Mike Leach play. They called it that play in honor of Mike Leach in the air raid offense. And he had been waiting years to run that play. He said it himself. He had been waiting so long to run that play and you could just see with the confidence that he ran it with how excited he was when he ran it. He was so proud of himself after that game. And he should be because it was a great play. It was a great design, drew up and it was executed perfectly. Is that not kind of the whole point of this entire operation here is having these plays put into the game to innovate the game, to push the game forward? I just don't understand this whole thing about it being gimmicky. That part really kind of miffed me this past weekend. That's really the only thing I wanted to say about that. I don't want to get further into the individuals about that. Hey, you touch? Yes. Sorry. I was just trying to show, but just seeing the emotion here of aj just absolutely going bonkers. Friend of the show here has been friend of all of ours and we've, we been tracking ag for a long time in incredible. Sorry, I didn't want to cut you off, Andy. No, not at all. And I mean he deserves it. He deserves his flowers and he deserves what he got from that play. It was fantastic for him. It was fantastic for Houston who just steamrolled the guardians. I mean, I'm not surprised, but man, 40 points and they should have scored 50. They didn't make some of their conversion of attempts. They should have scored 50 points in that game. They ran them over. And I'm also happy to see that they finally started running the ball with some sort sort of authority, especially in the second half. That was kind of one of the big criticisms about Houston was they were not scoring in the second half of the games. They were kind of going to cruise control and just letting their defense do the work. That was not the case here at Dejan Lee looks great, even though Bryson Alene got the start, Lee was running people over. He was really kind of a great chance, change of pace for this offense because offensively they weren't able to throw the ball with as much authority as they were in the first half and Orlando was starting to make some plays there in the third quarter. But good to see Houston really adjust and just kind of show a complete performance overall. They were just fantastic from start to finish as they should have been against this Orlando team, which we've talked about at nauseum is just being in shambles. But Houston put on a clinic and I'm already going to go ahead and say the set the over under for 80 points next week against Seattle because that is going to be an absolute BART burger. Yeah, give Mickey you want? Yeah, give Mickey three minute warning. I think that's gimmicky in the c l. Why is it a three minute warning? Why do we have a three minute warning on that Ev Andy, and I'll get into our new feed here. Evan, any other final thoughts on this game? And then we'll talk Marshall Ferguson and then we'll talk key takeaways with Andy's article. We'll try to get out of here at the hour. Yeah, I mean just going back to AJ Smith for a minute. I remember being there in week one and there's this guy Joe Gleason from a b C Houston who was doing an interview with AJ and I've talked to AJ a couple times at the games. Again, great guy, but in that interview he was saying, or at least he told Joe whether it was on or off the camera, I forget. But he was about how surreal it was because AJ was on that field three years ago at that same stadium with the same team with June and the rest of those guys running the same thing. And that only lasted five weeks and then they had to pack it up and leave. And AJ, he was just talking about how he never thought we'd be back and yet here we are. I to see him now be the guy who's calling plays and doing all this stuff. Cause he remember he was only the wide receivers coach in 2020. Now he's the offensive coordinator. So he is moved up a level. But to see him do that, I mean it's phenomenal. I'm so happy for him and he really deserves that. I don't know if he's watching this or not, but I left the X ffl, went to the spring league, did some stuff at Tyler Junior College and I think he went back to Calvary Baptist in Shreveport, up in Louisiana if I remember correctly. He's been a lot of places, but this to him I think really means a lot. And it is good to, it is just a very, I don't know how to put it. My heart warms to think of that, seeing that play specifically. I was like, well he really has been waiting years for that. And even before the XFL in 2020, I think AJ's known or he didn't know Mike Leach for a very long time. So just to see that all kind of come together and get such a dominant win. We joke about the script a lot, but that was a pretty damn good script. If I can write one up. It was good. So one person that was not so thrilled about G and I will say, so everyone here knows Reid and we argue with C F L people and all that stuff. Burned a lot of, or men did a lot of bridges. We had Cody Fu Jaro on here a couple weeks ago and we're all good and Ira and I have always been good and whatever, but three down dunk and we needed a new, I guess adversary and Marshall Ferguson here, broadcaster over at C F L on T S N. He calls some of the games and then he works for the CF perspective, who I've had on people from them in the past or O'Neill's been on the show. And Marshall works for cfl.ca tweets out tuned into the X Ffl game. Five Flags, a Paxton Lynch interception and a play-by-play trying to convince me three separate times how great the league is coming out. And it seems like it's the inv vogue thing right now. We need to poo poo if we're the C ffl and because we all know the CFL and the X ffl talked a couple years ago and so people got all terrified this win. It was big viral and Marshall's talking about everything. My first one I said funny, I turn on many CFL games since he repeated two and out penalty flags that Marshall tell me how great the CFL is. Andy tweeted on here and then I have my final one. Andy said this is watching the equivalent of a movie for two minutes and calling it a disaster. Finally, the one that I, and then we'll get Andy sauce on this. The one that, I don't know what the definition of ratioing is, but I think that this might've it. I said Marsha woke up and chose violence. It's a tough scene when the C F L media who'd been championing their players stories and opportunities for decades now, wanted to pass judgment on a four week old league because it seems to be the invoked thing to do. And two, Randy and Danny DJ had a cup of coffee two years ago. You guys cared about your league changing its rules. I support all players in all leagues. More leagues means more success for opportunity. More means more opportunities for player, staff and broadcasters. End of story. The final takeaway of this and we'll get Andy Marshall ended up, I guess this was in reaction to Andy's tweet, ended up tweeting out Andy's profile photo, which I guess was a gotcha. Which to be fair, if I had tweeted out Marshall's photo of him and his child, I would probably be in prison. So let's call a SP made there. Andy, what did you make of this? This was just wild. I think that photo posted to me was a good looking guy. That's what I'll say. But I look man, if he wants to clutch his pearls, fine, so be it. And I don't really care for this vitriol, this war waging that goes on between the Canadian and American border. This is insane. I get it. If you don't like the game, fine, don't watch it. It's okay. It's fine. You don't have to buy into it. I don't have to buy into anything that goes on across the border either. I choose to watch the C F L I choose to watch the game because quite frankly, and I'll be honest, the only reason I really started watching was because guess what? The X F L people started talking to them. I can't believe the amount of vitriol that goes on in the other side here. It's insane. And I look Mr. Ferguson, if you want to have an amicable conversation with me about whatever, about movies or games or anything for that matter, profile pictures, my dms are open, come and talk to me and my friends. I'm open, I'm the professor. I will amicably talk with you about anything. Just come on down. We'll have a beer, we'll chit chat. It's fine. We'll talk football talk shop. I do it all the time. And I'll get Evan, if Evan has any thoughts on this. I used to be at a point where Mike Mitchell's responding to Marshall and Marshall's talking with Mike. And so I'm like, I have a following. Do I get that same courtesy? No. Like Marshall, no response. And I don't know if you just kick someone's ass so bad that they're like, okay, I like I'm muting this conversation. I don't get it. I don't get even why? Like I said, I've had people from Marshall, I've emailed Marshall many times, inviting him on the prog program. I've sent him dms, corresponded with him on online. If you want to stay in your hole up there in Canada in the great wide north, go ahead and do that. Andy, you know, or Evan, we love the c l I can't think of a single X ffl, U S F L related. Anybody that's ever spoken a negative word about the US about the CFL ever, what do you make of this? Yeah, well I mean originally when I first started writing, I mean the first stuff I did was for the cfl, for the Hamilton Tigercat really before I got too deeply involved with the X ffl stuff because at that time in 2021 the CFL was playing. That was really the only league I guess besides the spring league that be going on a bit before it was really operating. So I figured that would be a good investment. And it was interesting. I went back once all this sort of, once I started covering the roughnecks and especially once the X ffl season started, I went and I checked all my traffic on articles from all the sites that we do. CFL X, ffl, U S F L. And I look back and it makes me sad because it's almost like the C ffl ones. I shouldn't have wasted my time with. All the X ffl ones have thousands of views. And again, that was right when the season was starting. So you kind of expect clicks to go up when there's a buzz in the news. But I mean the CFO ones, it's like those guys just never really wanted to bat an eye. And I feel like it's not the same way. How do I put it? A lot of, I feel like we've talked about it many times before and we're not going to name names here, it's just more of a general thing. But the C F L sort of homers, we'll guess we'll call 'em, tend to criticize people more. Especially people like us who are in the United States who are either trying to cover their league or B, think that the X FFL or U S F L are a better product. Now do I think that the X ffl is a better product than the cfl? Maybe it, it's hard to say. The CFL's been around for so long and I've watched that league for, well a couple years now. Can't say I've watched it my whole life cause I'm really young. But I think there's pros and cons to everything and it's a shame to see this type of criticism where these people from the C Ffl, at least some of 'em, again, not all of them guys like Faron have been very open and talk about the X ffl and people like him I appreciate. But you look at these other guys and they just, they've shut everything down so quickly. It's like nope, no X ffl, no u s Ffl. CFL is king. Where I think the three of us and everybody else in our group and I don't know a couple other people outside of that, we're all, it's more of an equal playing field. We look at the CFL and X FFL and U S F L pretty evenly. I mean Reid, you went to the Great Cup, man, you went this year, you went last year. It's kind of hard to discredit you from that when all these other people are saying, oh well you're X ffl lenient or you don't like the US or whatever the case is, it becomes a complex matter. And it's a shame that things have gotten like that Again, the more leagues, I guess the more competition. I was sort of hoping that once all these leagues popped up alongside the CFL that maybe we'd all just kind of come together and say, hey, the more opportunities, the better. This is A player's first, well player's first league in any league I guess. And those are the people I'm rooting for. Cause that's what makes these leagues interesting. But people pick sides and pick and choose whatever. I won't go on about it for too long. Cause yeah, it's okay. <laugh> not something that we're really going to be able to fix I don't think. But life goes on. I'm enjoying the X ffl season. I'll watch a bit of the U S F L that kind of overlaps at the end of the X ffl season. And then C ffl will start in the summer. So for me, I'm just enjoying it all, man. That's all I'll say. I'll put a bit of a pause to spin on hold that Quick. Andy, let me know if you got to get out of here. I don't want to hold you too long. We do have a little bit of breaking news here. I just got an email, have a oh here we got have a couple more flex games coming us L announcing or ex L announcing week five the go into ESPN N two and then a couple games for the April 1st and second. So if you're keeping track of that, just emailed out. But the Sunday March 19th game, the Renegade and Brahma is going to be on ESPN two and then the Saturday games, it looks like we're moving to ESPN two and then ESPN and then the final one on espn. So flexing up some of those games it looks like a little bit. So just to keep an eye on that, Andy, I want to make sure I at least show your article on here before we go takeaways. And then I just don't want to hold you too long, you know what I'm saying? Of course. Final thoughts from XFL 20 22, 20 23. Week four, Andy. So as I mentioned already, it was fantastic to see the St. Louis Battle dome in full force. That was incredible and I think it's going to continue the way that it has it going through the rest of the season. I think that same energy's going to be brought every single week. I don't think it was just a one-off. I think this is going to be a consistent thing for this team, for this crowd and for these St. Louis supporters. I think they're going to continue to bring this energy every single week that they're there in St. Louis. I mean they've been waiting three years for this. They've been waiting a long, long time just to have this back. I don't think they're going to be going away anytime soon. And also I thought about it, it's like you only get to go to this event five times a year. That's like think that's kind of the special element I will say about some of these Spring leagues is like this is more limited than even more than NFL games. And people make it at an event to go to an NFL game of course, but you already have eight or nine home games in the nfl, in the cfl, you have nine home games here. You only have five chances to go. One of these. If you're invested as a fan, yeah, you're going to make a point to go to it. That's really the case. Unless there's some other circumstances, maybe like a Kraken game but I give giving you a little hard time reading, but you know what I mean. I think they're going to make it a point to go to these games and go to this event every time it comes up in St. Louis. And then moving on to my next point, obviously besides the attendance record, which is also tremendous. Houston obviously offense looks great. They're to, I think they're going to be in for a barn burner against Seattle as I mentioned earlier in the program. They're going to probably continue playing hopefully a more balanced attack. Again, Brandon Silvers has been great and obviously the receivers are awesome, probably the best receiving chord in the entire x ffl. But I want to continue to see them run the ball but the same authority that they had in the second half and maybe even try doing it in the first half. Who knows? Maybe get Dejan Lee or Bryce and Lene to come out. Also, max Borge forgot to mention that as well. Max on even that game, that was a big thing as well. Him not being involved really the first time, not having their dual threat at running back kind of involved there. They still were able to do a lot. So they give him back. That's another weapon on offense. And then finally, last thought before I go. I have to say that I just wanted to point this out. Our relocation franchises are not doing so hot. They're combined one in 11 between San Antonio, Orlando, and Vegas. This is not looking so hot for the handpicked franchises for Danny, Dwayne, and Jerry. This is not looking so hot. And look, I get all the fanfare around them. I get why they relo located them. I get some of the venue choices, some of 'em great, some of 'em a little questionable obviously for various reasons, but it is not going so hot on the field for all three of these teams. That can't be a good look. But I think it also just shows you that the established brands, the dcs, the St. Louis's, and even to an extent the Arlingtons are Seattle, seem to have an identity and seem to know what they're doing. Also, and I don't want to make too much light of this, but the fact that you have these three rookie former player head coaches kind of trying to find their way in the league and trying to establish these new franchises, it's tough. It's tough to establish an identity and to do this for the first time and they're finding that out the hard way unfortunately. And for the league, I'm sure they would like them to play a little bit better, but it's kind of the biggest story is that the established brands are making it known that they're still around and they're still playing at the best level in this league. If you want to check out Andy's article, it just is up to date. It always goes Monday here on news seven. Evan, final thoughts from you and then I'll touch on the USS f L schedule and then we'll get out of here. I appreciate you guys' time. Yeah, I mean look, week four I'd say again, kind of started off with the show saying pretty good slate. Again, two things mostly went as expected. Couple games were a bit boring. Houston was a bit of a blowout and then a couple others. It was like maybe the other team gave them a run for their money. But ultimately the team who was supposed to win did win. But again, we're really at that point in the season now where you're really starting to feel like storylines are coming together. We know now who's good and who's bad in week one. I mean going all the way back, so much has happened since then. Week one feels like a year ago. But going back that it's like you didn't really know, you know, didn't want to overreact. You know, were looking at teams going, oh, well maybe this is their identity, maybe this isn't. But I think week four is a good time to start saying, well this team is good and this team is bad and these are the reasons why. That was kind of my main takeaway I think from this week. It was good. Like I said, exciting kind of on the field, off the field. I like getting in fights and I like, it's fine. I try not to get too crazy about that anymore. Final thing, we'll get out of here. I appreciate you a little over today. Try to keep this an hour. Us Abel, just before we came on today, they announced we had the game schedule, but now we have the TV broadcast schedule. The takeaway from me, every game is going to be there's like no peacock exclusive games. Every game's going to be on Fox or N b NBC or FS one U s A. There's no, every game's going to be on linear TV in that way. There's going to be 17 games on Fox 11, or I can't even I 18 games on Fox seven, on FS one 11 on n C and Peacock, and then seven on U US, U S S A and Peacock. 22 games on Saturday. 21 games on Sunday. No weird Fridays or Mondays like the X ffl. And then the championship game I believe is going to be on e s, ESPN N to me. And if you guys, I don't want, I'll stay here forever. You guys have lives. They're utilizing Fox, right? We're X ffl. Okay. We got to kind of pick and choose, take what is given to us by espn, ABC fx. I think this is great, right? Fox, we want this to be programming. Let's put it on Fox. We just saw here earlier in the broadcast X ffl now flexing games up to better networks. Kind of going the opposite way where I don't know, does U S F L flex down? Do they keep when you start them at this, right? You kind of got to, yeah, you can't be pulling games off of Fox. Andy, any final thoughts from you on this? No, I think this is much better than the peacock exclusives that were going on last season. That was obviously not fully utilizing the power of the broadcasting wheel, the broadcasting power that basically Fox and N B C had. And I think this is a lot more uniform. Obviously the Saturday Sunday consistency is great and I think the X L can get there as well. I think while it's fun to have games on Thursdays and on Mondays and potentially Fridays, I don't think the national audience really has too much of an appetite for it outside of the nfl. So I think having that consistency in the programming is really the biggest key here. And having it on those two days that'll only do things to help Fox and the US F L in their ability to get it out to more television sets. So yeah, I think this is a great schedule for TV purposes. It's a lot more consistent and it's a lot more uniform and it's kind of the next step you would hope for. Especially after having being a little bit difficult for teams or people to find these games on TV last Year. Oh, you heard it here first from Reid. This is a better TV schedule than the X F L has. I will admit that it, that's the benefit of being owned by the network expectations lot lower for the X F L B on FX versus the US F L being on Fox. So 655 whatever thousand viewers they had last week for the Dragons game or whatever that is way more acceptable. Whatever it just, it's a higher network clearance, higher ratings expected. Evan, any final thoughts from you'll get out of here? I mean, yeah, haven't taken too close to the look at that u s Ffl. It came out. I mean have to, once we're off this, I'll take a closer look at it and the games that reflected in the X ffl. But yeah, I mean I think the U S F L season, we'll see how much I'm able to watch. Cause right now I am doing a lot of X Ffl coverage and again, I support both leagues, get it twisted it. It's a matter of time. So I do plan on watching it. But us f l, I've got plenty of guys that I know that are playing over there and I think it should be fun. I do expect it to be better than last year in terms of, well, not just overall viewership and overall quality of play, but I think expanding the hubs. I've never been a fan of the hub format, people know that. But I think expanding that to at least get more fans in certain markets. Not all of 'em again, but it's better than just having that centralized Birmingham hub is that point that I'm getting to. Cause you guys went there last year and I know you didn't exactly have the best reviews about, well, the city of Birmingham hosting a pro football league, not just a team. But yeah, that's kind of where I'm at on that I Think. Awesome. Last thoughts for me in the US L championship game. I didn't realize this. I guess when they announced the schedule, that's on my birthday. So maybe I can go to Canton and get in a fight with a bunch of us l Homers. Wouldn't that be fun for my birthday here? Thank you guys so much. Check out Andy's article on xfl news hub follow, Evan Evans. Everything Houston Roughneck. Appreciate everyone's time. I'm going to cut off here. I know you guys had to go. Thank you guys all so much. Again, we'll see you Friday. It should be a good episode. Emailing people today to get all that figured out. We'll see you next time. Thanks.

Episode 135 - Is XFL 2023 Living up to Expectations?

Coming up this week on the markcast. Well, as we approach week four of the X Ffl 2023 season, it's time to ask the question, is the XFL living up to expectations? Is it handsome squid word? Is it ugly squid word? Somewhere in the middle you tell me Squid word, you're even more handsome now and the crowd is in a frenzy. Really fun show this week. Eclectic show is always lots of things to talk about. We welcome Scooby Maggea onto the program, one of the hosts of Exe l today, Scooby with ESPN talking all things x ffl what his he make of the season so far. Fan reaction players that are standing out to Scooby and more. It's great for the game of football. I said this on the first episode because it's not just giving the players an opportunity, but the coaches, the referees or trainers, the scouts. So this can trickle all the way up or even all the way down to the college game as well with their new rules and how us as a fan get access into the game. You can really see the passion that these guys have for football and the beautiful part about it is the rules are really showcasing themselves on a national stage every single week where it makes the game that much more exciting. And Then Justin Freeman of ren, the sims.com, stop spy. We do a full weekend preview, all four x Ffl games. Who's Justin taking standout players? Who should you be playing in fantasy? All of that. I think I've seen a lot more positive reception towards it this time around. I think people are going to always be skeptical of spring football until we get repetitive seasons, 3, 4, 5, 6 years of the league being in existence from year after year. There's obviously excuses or reasons, whatever you want to call 'em for why the past iterations haven't worked out, but just for the casual fan who wants to be a bit of a hater for spring football in general, you're going to have a tough time convincing them until you get a little bit more longevity. And then three tremendous player interviews this week. Joe Wallace, one of the standout defensive players with the X Ffl DC Defenders, Darius Shepherd of the Cock, St. Louis Battle Hawks and then your friend and mine qb, one of America's CFL team, the BC Lions, Vernon Adams returns to the program. We catch up with Vernon and see what's going on. I Took it up on myself to say, Hey, I know it's going to be tough, but that's a good team over there in bc, so let me just come in and just do my job, get these guys the ball. We had a great defense and let them do the rest. It was a lot, but it was fun. That challenge was fun and just trying to stay here all the time, not getting too high, not getting too low, whether no matter what's going on. So it was tough, but it was definitely a fun challenge. Thanks is always like and subscribe. Hey guys, welcome to the Mark Reid here coming to you a day early this week. If you're catching this live, have to go to the mountains tomorrow, do a little filming for a retreat. So coming to you a day early. Hope okay, gives you extra time to kind of preview get ready. I think Thursday is probably the better day for the Mark House here during the X ffl season, but we do what we can. I like keeping the normal Friday, but hopefully you'll enjoy this week. Really loaded show today as you listen to this. Also, I should be appearing or have appeared on the Rod Peterson program today as you're listening to this. I'll be sure to plug the episode, but if you're checking this out, check out Rod's YouTube channel going on there to chat. All things X F L I'm sure should be a fun time with Rod on the show today. Like I said, Scooby Maggea of XF L today, one of the hosts there over at espn. Really appreciate that Justin Freeman coming on run the Sims. Justin is a wealth of football and sports knowledge. Really appreciate Justin deep dive. He does all his fantasy DFS and all of that. Some of that knowledge on us. Listeners getting ready for the weekends games and then the three tremendous player interviews today, Joe Wallace, Darius Shepherd, and then Vernon my friend over at the BC Lions. Really appreciate Matt Baker over at the Lions for facilitating that. And then the teams over at the Battle Hawks and Defenders should be really exciting this weekend both in DC and Audi Field for the defenders game versus the Vipers. And then obviously we are all awaiting the rock is tweeting. Kind of everything else about the battle hawks return to the dome should be fun. Just talking point today, how are we feeling? Is the extra felt up to expectations? I'm having fun Justin seems to be having fun. What do you guys think? Just trying to spur conversation there. Get all of that going. Should have another tremendous show next week like and subscribe. Remember when we hit 3,500 subscribers if and win two free tickets to the X F L championship game in San Antonio or two tickets to the US F L championship game. Your choice. Get us a 3,500 subscribers. Like I said, big show next week. Already have another E S P N guest lined up. Should be fun. And they're working to schedule Mike Mitchell on as well. I know that he is chomping at the bit to come on and talk some X F L. We'll try to get Mike in the mix next week. Stick back at the end of the show, tune back in here and I'll give you an update on the giveaway, kind of all of that stuff. We'll see you at the end. Next well fresh off a Jamaican vacation here. And we're at week three of X ffl today. We have Scooby Maggea here. How are you doing sir? I'm doing good, doing good. Starting to get a little bit better over here, so I'm just looking forward to the spring. Looking forward to more football. Life is good right now, man. We can see it. We can see the other side of the hill now. You know what I mean? <laugh> good. It's coming. So I am curious, I mean first off here, the XE L today fun studio show. Obviously we advocate spring football and kind of getting that visibility there. How did you get involved in all of that to begin with? So I've been ats ESPN for almost a year and a half now, and I cover college football as well as an N F L show. So in our digital talent pool our bosses, were trying to figure out who they want into this show and Fitz and I have worked together quite a bit ever since the first time that I got to espn. We just have some good chemistry together and we have a lot of fun. We both have a strong passion for football and enthusiastic energy for the game of football and our bosses saw that. So it's truly an honor to be able to help pioneer this league and give it a platform where other fans can join in on the fun. Well, it's exciting and it's necessary. I mean there's a lot of fan led initiatives and everything, but getting the platform of e ESPN and on there, getting you guys your knowledge, bringing the guests did you view any of X F L 2020 or are you coming into this fresh in 23? I did view a little bit of 2020, but 23 was the first time that I dove into it because in 2020 I was working as a local news anchor in Iowa, so my attention was on what my coverage area was worried about, but as a fan, I watched the game of football. So now that being at E S P N hearing that that was a possible relationship that they have, I immediately began to dig into it and invest into the sport and just get myself up to date once they announced who was going to be on the show and obviously we knew a little bit earlier from when they announced it to the public and we have access towards stats information that just, they give us a lot of tools to be able to understand the league more and that has helped a lot. So here we are, we're approaching week four. What do you make of three weeks of X F L football? It's fun to watch, man. I think it's great for the game of football. I said this on the first episode because it's not just giving the players an opportunity but the coaches, the referees, the trainers, the scouts, so this can trickle all the way up or even all the way down to the college game as well with their new rules and how us as a fan get access into the game. You can really see the passion that these guys have for football and the beautiful part about it is the rules are really showcasing themselves on a national stage every single week where it makes the game that much more exciting. So I would consider it really good success. Hey, yeah, I'm seeing a lot of you know guys and girls, people in ESPN and outside. It seems like it's extending into the football Twitter kind of zeitgeist right now. Are you feeling that way that other people are watching that maybe wouldn't normally be involved in this? Yeah definitely because we know what the power of social media does and just posting Josh Gordon scoring a 60 yard game-winning touchdown and Ben Ucci screaming down the field like a child, that is something that we can all relate with because it takes you back to when you were a kid playing football in the backyard and your buddy catches it and you're both celebrating. We hear that excitement and to be able to post that on social media and for those to get hundreds of thousands of views, even millions, you kind of say, oh I want, let me check out one of these games, let me actually see what it's about. And when you actually watch it, it's entertaining. It's good football, these are good football players that they have on that field and they'll showcase their skills. Is it in terms of the actual football talent, is that living up to your expectations? Is it succeeding, exceeding it? I would say it's been a sloppy start. It was a sloppy start, but you've seen each team get better and I think we have to keep in consideration that they only had a five week training camp together. So if you're only together in training camp for five weeks, that means the chemistry still has to be built. The coaches also have to understand their plays a little bit more. They had a good idea and it was great football week one, but I think it's just continued to get better and we are seeing some guys who are N F NFL worthy Ben Ucci, N F NFL worthy Josh Gordon is clearly still a N F L wide receiver and J Jaqua Peterson on Seattle as well is a pro receiver Kirkland for Houston. He showed himself to have that type of potential. So this gives those guys a chance to just gain their confidence and put 10 games worth of tape on and you show that to an N F L team, you say, okay, they're still getting their reps, they're getting better and you don't have to have them on a practice team doing that. It's live game reps. What I like about it too, and I know you guys had Ucci on here after because it was after the Seattle win on Saturday and he was on our show kind of preseason and a lot's been made of, oh when you going back or how are you going back? And he told you guys, I'm just kind of enjoying this right now. I'm enjoying being able to lead a team, be in the field that way. And so I like players being invested like yes, obviously that's going to come down the road but you need them to be invested now as well. Yeah you just think of it in the sense of type of reps that they're getting. Reps are great when you're in the nfl but a lot of those guys have been the guy their entire life and now all of a sudden you're on special teams and you're the test dummy in practice and then you all of a sudden get thrown in a game due to injury and it's like a hundred miles per hour and you really haven't been used to these game reps. So to give guys an opportunity to have more game reps live game reps is just going to get their confidence up and they can feel just the same way that they felt when they were in college playing football and in high school playing football and bend nucci. I think he's just having some of the most fun that he's had in his career because he's just getting to play the game still and when you get to the N F L, those are some different type of cats in there. Everybody gets to just step on the field and get consistent reps. Well you said the word fun and I know this and you guys in the studio show try to convey that. I think it was Tom Lugen last the game over the weekend. He was on our show as well talking, we're at the defenders, it's fun, it's rowdy. We watched all the U S F L stuff last year and I don't know how much of that you caught, but it just feels like there's a different energy here right now even if we are trying to build the crowds up and obviously we're looking forward to St. Louis and everything else, but it feels, the energy feels infectious And maybe that comes from the culture that the X ffl has already established. I think there's already kind of a nucleus of a fan base in it and people are excited about it and Danny Garcia and the Rock are they're just doing it right. They're done the right type of promotion and you got a backer like Disney, E S P N that's also going to do a lot for the game when you got some great players here and the fans are buying in and I think it's just with the culture, but you can feel that there's a different type of energy with this game and it's fun In terms of, and I know you do your power rankings and everything and deep down at the bottom I think Mike Mitchell ranked Andy Garcia the referee of the Vegas game holding the football for the kickoff above the Orlando guardians in terms of his power rankings. But we've seen the guardians make moves this week. They had a couple trades I think trying to bolster their O line bringing in Quintin Flowers here. I don't know how long that's going to take for him to get up to speed. How down or how scared should we be of the Orlando guardians right now? Early in the week we had a meeting and we were going to just plan it as Arlington is going to kill the guardians and I was like, hold on. Now I feel like the guardians are going to play this game better than most people expect because they have a pretty good throwing offense. However, they can't get out of their own way. A lot of dumb penalties, a lot of dumb decisions. I think they're a team that is lacking a lot of discipline as well unfortunately. And who knows what that could attest to. Maybe some people like to look at the head coach position, who knows. I'm not going to speculate necessarily on what that is, but I think they're at a point right now where it's like, all right, this team just doesn't have a culture and you can feel that they don't really have somebody that's a leader in that locker room as a direction to go. So I'm down on them, but I like where they are because the stats and the numbers show themselves to be a good team, but then the other stats and numbers show that that good team is beating itself up. It's hard because you talk about the challenge of developing the culture in five weeks of training camp and now here we're going into week four, but some teams were able to do it. I mean we saw this in the U S F L last year were the modelers were horrible, but it's like everyone started at the same period. It's not, you've been historically bad for 20 years. They all came in at ground zero here. And it's like how you going to establish that chemistry, especially in a hub where every single one of these players live in the same place. They all travel to games in the same plane together they eat in the same cafeteria together. It's just, it's a lot and it really starts at the top. The guardians, they just need to figure it out. I don't know what Vegas saw early on in the season because they were automatically out on the guardians way before teams even kicked off on the first game. So that was interesting. And now we're seeing that kind of reflect itself within the season. I mean just looking at what the guardians are right now, they're the lower scoring team in the X F L. They have not scored in the second or the third quarters this season. They're outscored 36 to nothing in those corners. They have a five turnover differential, which is second worst in the X ffl and they were sack 13 times, which is the most in the X ffl. Just a lot of the basic stuff that you should be good at in football. Yeah, I think it was this last week they improved to the only allowed four sacks or something. This is last week and that was a huge improvement that they only allowed four acts And just a lot of things that doesn't look good for them and they also don't know what to do with the quarterback position. They're a little bit different from dc. DC kind of, I think DC needs to figure it out as well at the quarterback position, but that's, that's another story. But you have packed a lynch, you start him and then you sit in him, then you bring him back and then you kick off another quarterback off your team because he was sharing his playbook with somebody else. To me that screams just a toxic locker room and that energy isn't right and it's showing on the field That whole situation. And I was actually surprised that you guys in the league, they even talked about it on the air because I, there's been so many conflicting stories with that. It is kind of weird. Something happened. I don't know what it was, but it certainly, it's not a good sign. Oh yeah. And I thought it was interesting how the league brought that player back and now they're investigating, he's in the inactive pool and that's the only player that's really gotten there like that. So interesting story to say the least In terms of the defenders you were talking needing to figure it out, they're kings of the north right now, but it felt like they finally got some stuff going this week. I thought they looked better in the standings than they did on the field. Do you think they deserve that top spot now? No, that that's still goes to the Houston roughnecks but I they're most definitely the second best team in the league and that is because of their defense. When you have a defensive coordinator like Greg Williams, a guy who was during that bounty gate in New Orleans a head coach a defensive minded coach who can really put his players in the right position to be successful, who can instill his dog attitude into his defensive players. That defense plays with an attitude unlike any other and you can just feel it. So I trust their defense more than I do their offense because Tamu is supposed to be the throwing quarterback, but yet he's top five in the X ffl in rushing. But then DRA King is really their rushing quarterback and sometimes they put him in there when tamu has a flow I think it was laying in the second half. Tamu drove him right down the field, they scored, they hadn't scored in a while and then the next drive they put King back in and that was a three and out drive and it was like why that other quarterback had a rhythm going, you kind of threw that off. So they just have to figure out what they want to do at quarterback over there. In terms of looking forward here to the matchups this weekend, obviously the big, I think everyone has circled the St. Louis home game expecting 30,000, 32,000 i is that your matchup of the weekend? You're most excited about Arlington going into St. Louis? It, it's exciting because we're looking at it from a perspective of St. Louis is going to be home. But no I'm not that excited about it because Arlington has not been an entertaining team to watch for the most part. I don't know. What if we saw mostly about Arlington this year with their offense scoring their first offensive touchdown of the season Just this week I think I'm looking at the Vegas Vipers and the DC Defenders and I'm also looking at the San Antonio and the Sea Dragons because the Braas are a better team than people give credit for but I also like the Vegas Vipers because I think Brett Huntley is just going to get better and make this offense better because he got into training camp late and mind you, he's also the highest paid player in the X F L and there's a reason why he's a talented dude. Yeah, I think I sat on our show on Monday here. I view anything at DC right now as kind of must watch just because of you never know what's going to happen. Yeah, what are we going to throw on the field and the crowd and everything. I contrast that with the Cashman field of it here. Having this rematch it at Audi field is certainly going to feel different For sure. It's going to be fun to watch and that's why it's primetime. That's why it's got the 7:00 PM spot and I love that That one should be one that everyone keeps an eye on. There's nothing like Sunday night football and I'm glad that the X ffl has brought that back. It's weird. It does. You were talking to the Renegades, it does feel like Bob Stoops gets, we remember more back to 2020 but the renegades weren't that good in 2020 and then they bring Stoops back and he has all this college coaching legacy and like you said, they just cannot seem to get anything going. They're all running or passing. I mean the score of 46 points this year, that's the second fewest in the X F L and they also have the fewest yards per game in the X ffl at 183 yards per game. Their offense has the fewest in the X X ffl three offensive touchdowns, two, three touchdowns total, which is three pick six s two pick sixes on defense. So they just haven't done much at all on offense last in passing yards last in yards per rush. What makes football fun to watch is its offense and you would think that Bob Stoops would have that figured out. I think him as a coach, what he's really good at is adjusting and keeping his guys in the game and that's why all the games that they've played have been closed for the most part. But I think it's St Louis's game for sure from what I've seen on offense from the renegades In terms of, you said you were going to have the Renegades kill the guardians last week or whatever. Are the roughnecks going to kill the guardians here sa there Are the roughnecks going to kill the guardians you said? Yeah, I would say so. The roughneck is so good, so good. And we saw them in that game against the braas and I was like, all right, let's see how good this team is. I kind of like the Brahmas they've just lost some closed games, see how they come out and the roughnecks still showed to be dominant great on offense, great on defense. I mean the guardians right now like I said, they're the lower scoring team, they just don't have a lot of good things going for them and the roughnecks are just getting better this year. You're against a team that has the most S in the X ffl. That's a roughneck going against a team that gave up the most sac in the X ffl. How are you supposed to be able to throw the ball at that point in time? Probably going to get ugly. Yeah, the Wade Wade Phillips defect. I mean it's remarkable here that, and I guess it shouldn't be someone that has the coaching pedigree that he does but really feels like he's coming in here and running circles a little bit around some of these first time head coaches. Yeah, and it wasn't it funny in week one when he was kind of trash talking <laugh> the coach the other side. But yeah, it's real Buckley Samuel, he is not the real coach. He does not, he's just Exactly wave Phillips. He has that pedigree and there's something to be said about the experience and he knows exactly what he wants and there was already this energy and this culture with the Houston roughnecks of being a good team. They were five and oh in 2020 and now here we come the they're like we're a winning team. They have that winning attitude and I'm sure he's made sure to instill a good culture. It's all about culture on football teams. I played on football, I was on multiple football teams as well and it's the thing is does everybody believe buy in for some reason the guardians are not buying in the roughnecks have bought in w Bob's to still great head coach. I think guys are buying in but there still needs to be some systematical stuff figured out but as long as you have a buy-in, you know can win any game but there seems to be no buy-in on one side and there's on the other. I'll ask you about the Brahmas and then have a philosophical question. I'll let you go. I appreciate your time today. In terms of the Braas, they're playing our C L C dragons here at Lumen Field. You said you think that they're slightly better than the Renegades and we've had Jack Cohen in there and he's been the quarterback and he's like fine. I mean what do you make of them offensively with Hines Ward? I think they look good so far on offense but some things that they've done hasn't worked out with Jack Cohn. You like what their defense is doing more than anything, right. Their offense has kind of been the concern 232 yards per game, second fewest in the X F L this season, but they're running the ball really well. They're a good running team so it's the best thing that they can do is put themself in shorty yardage third down situations, the best third downplay is going to be first and second down so if they can figure it out on those early downs, they'll probably be better off. But their defense has just done everything that they need them to do because they lead the X F L and tackles for loss and on top of that they have nine sacks as a team, which is third most in the X ffl behind DC and Houston and we know how elite those defenses are, so the braas need to just figure some things out offensively and Jack Ho needs to be a little bit more consistent. He was better the first two games struggled in the third one so he just needs a good bounce back game and give them points when they need it because the first game that they lost was kind of crazy and they've just been losing some close games. Last question for me today. I appreciate your time just in terms of being involved in this world now with spring alternative football and like you said you've covered college and what do you make of just the culture and the fandom and just how people embrace the league and the fan base and what do you make of just this world that now you are a part of here? It's got a little bit of like a W W E culture to it. I can't lie and I think that's kind of the craziness with some of the fans as well, but that's fun because this isn't fake, this is real. I mean this real WWE too. Yes, I know that, but this is real football and this is football during a time of the year where us as sports fans have a hunger for football, especially on a Sunday and sometimes on a Saturday and they're fun to watch, it's good football with some players that have great skills and it's like, you know what? I want to see this grow more and I would love to see what the NFL is going to do with the growth of this league because there's opportunities for this where you can be like, well there's 32 practice teams and those are some really good football players. If I'm an N F L team and I'm like really want to see what this guy can do, why don't I have him get 10 games of tape and get more reps and develop more at this position instead of that position that I have him at doing what we want, how is that going to work out for us when I eventually want to bring him up? And the timing of the league is really perfect because it ends in April right around the N F L draft. So teams are reshuffling their rosters. This is just great to see opportunities for guys to continue to be a part of their league. So I love that culture aspect of it because pro players are happy to see it because all football players know each other from top to bottom and for them to see each other get opportunities is cool. And us as fans, we love an underdog story. We love to see guys overcome and go up levels start with them from the ground up. So it's a fun trip then. I'm just happy to be tagging on Los Scooby. I appreciate it. Hold down the studio for it. I think it's great. Like I said, getting that visibility and everything else, appreciate you and all the guys over there and everything else you're doing so thank you so much. No problem. Thanks for having me on. This is fun. You have a good day and I don't know who you got for the season, who you got winning it all? Well I got to be Seattle. I mean I live 15 minutes from the stadium so that's got to be mine and Ben's good. I like Houston. Brandon Silvers was our quarterback back in 2020 so I like seeing him now finding the success that we didn't have with him back in 2020. So either Houston or Seattle, I should be happy. Yeah, I like what your choices are It it shouldn't steer you wrong. Well I can't remember. I think it was sometime during the U S F L season. I think we had Justin Freeman on. I don't think you hopped on the X F L draft show. I can't remember but we have Justin Freeman with ren the sims.com here. How are you doing sir? Yeah, I'm living the dream read. I appreciate you having me on. I have really had such a good time with the X ffl so far this year. Didn't really know what to expect in 3.0. Been pretty pleasantly surprised. It's been a roller coaster though for sure. Yeah, so we'll get into and Justin will be my big kind of week four preview here. We'll talk about the games but broad sense is Y X F L living up to your expectations? Yeah, I'd say so. Overall I wish that we could get a little bit more star power starting to build up. I think you're seeing that at the receiver position. There's a couple guys to me who really are starting to separate themselves. I wish the quarterback play could pick it up, but overall I love the TV product. I think it's been fantastic so far and that that's just such a big unknown when you enter a season like this. So far I'm thrilled with it. I think the TV product looks so much better than what we saw from the U S F L last and I love the U S F L so don't get me wrong, no hater here but playing in front of the empty stadiums was definitely kind of tough for the casual person to want to watch. I think the crowds have been great. Obviously Cashman kind of stands out as an asterisk, but overall I give the X ffl really a minus so far. Yeah, I've said that too in Cashman and that is what it is and it's not great but have field we're going to see this weekend with the battle dome but that just shows having that beer snake and the people going crazy and it feels like a college party. It's even such a weird demographic there where the U S F L was. Yeah, we got friends and your families and kids and let's get as we got to get as many people as we can in here. DC might have 15,000 people but it it's every single person there is of all in. Exactly. It kind of reminds me of some of the MLS stadiums are starting to take on some of these personalities too where it's like the team may not be that great but the fans are amazing. They're going to show up week after week, they're going to have a good time whether the game is any good or not and they, they're kind of taking ownership of that and making it their own and so I appreciate that. I love that and that's why I love that small stadium atmosphere. To me that's miles and miles better than playing in n NFL stadium that seats 70,000 people and having one sixth of the way full or something. To me it's much better to have that intimate setting, pack it out. It's kind of like the, I'm a Duke guy. Cameron Indoor stadium is notorious for not having a ton of people there, but it's every seat's packed wall to wall, not a inch to move around and that creates a really dynamic atmosphere. You talked about building, seeing the stars being built, wide receiver who's standing out in terms of must watch or people you're keeping your eye on. I'm really fascinated by this Houston offense obviously I think John Tre Kirkland is the guy who's stirring the drink right now leaving the light on for Deontay Burnett who also shined in week one. But really I'm fascinated by this coaching staff. I would love for all these guys to not be in the X F L next year because they've all done enough to earn a bigger job, a more lucrative job the one that they're all looking for in the N F L or a big time college position. So yeah, I love this Houston team. I love everything they're doing. Their defense is lights out, their offense is fun and fast paced. I think you're seeing guys sort of flying around and make plays and that to me is the sign of a really good coordinator. So hats off to AJ Smith who I think really stands out as the class of the OC group here in this league so far. Well it is because you brought in, we've got Elizondo and June Jones, even some of these older, I've been kind of around the block. Then you have AJ here coming in and it feels like it's just running circles around a lot of these guys For sure. And I think it's, it's not like he's trying to make everything overly complex and I think that's where a lot of these coordinators really get lost in the sauce is they really want to install these NFL offenses. I'm not to say Houston's offense is simple by any means, but the terminology is a lot and that's one of the cool things about the access that we get is we get to hear that terminology. It's a lot more condensed, a lot more straightforward and that to me takes a mental burden off the players, lets them go out there and just fly around, make plays, that's what they're good at. These guys are all obviously fantastic talents. They can go out and make plays, just don't burden them down with terminology and that sort of thing. And when your defense is setting you up to be in good offensive position yeah, then you're really going to be set up for success really on both sides of the ball. It's been kind of breeding. I anticipate this team to continue to steamroll their way through the south division straight to the championship game. The north obviously a bit more competitive. Well that's the hard thing and if you think through it, because Orlando is out to lunch here, not even competitive, even Arlington and I had Scooby on here with ESPN n kind of on the same show today and it's like Arlington just cannot get anything. It is a really weak southern division. It feels very unbalanced with Houston in there And obviously it's going to be a quarterback driven league and you know, really want to see a bit more competent play. I was impressed with what the guardians finally were able to do and I mean the bar might not have been the highest in the world in terms of how they got there, but overall I think Paxton Lynch is capable. I think if you just stick with him, let him write it out, subbing out quarterbacks every two series, let him develop a little bit of rhythm. I wouldn't be surprised if they end up winning a couple games this year. I mean I know they're obviously going to be projected to lose probably in every game they play for the rest of the season and not a lot of favors on their plate this week taking on Houston who we just talked about as made the class of the league, but maybe once they can get past that there's some opportunities for some wins on their schedule. It saw Quintin Flowers be brought in here as well. Don't cool to see him obviously get that shot and haven't been in 2020 and he was with fan control football. I don't know what he does with this offense here coming in. Do we see him week five, week six? I don't know what that looks like. Yeah, I think it's job to lose at this point and hopefully they, they'll give him a little bit of leash and that's what I think is a little frustrating is you give a guy one game, two games to try to prove himself and obviously the, there's just not enough data to make that type of conclusion. I would like to see him, he makes some throws occasionally that you're like, wow, that's a big boy throw right there and maybe it bounces off the guy's fingers or just isn't quite where it needs to be for a big play or lacking some talent somewhere else. But I've been relatively impressed given what he's working with Talent level where we're at right now versus U S F L, kind of where we were at this point. Are we on pace here? Are we doing all right? Yeah, it, it's really tough to compare honestly but I think we've seen these teams gel together sooner in this league than we saw in the U S F L. I think the U S F L had more growing pains and that had to do with the fact they had an abbreviated training camp. They were really were, I mean it was obviously a race between these two leagues as to who was going to get going first and the U S F L was very dedicated towards launching L last year in 2022 X F L. A little bit more methodical in its approach and I think that showed up a little bit. I think they're all those teams were a little rusty getting started, but I think the talent level has been relatively even, I might give a slight edge to the X ffl so far through three weeks and I think that sort of shows up in who decided some of the better players in the U S F L did opt out and to go into the X ffl. So yeah, I don't think I'm breaking any new ground by saying that the talent may be a smidge better in the X ffl, but it's pretty comparable. Are you sensing more interest traffic however you kind of view your metrics on what you do at Run the Sims versus what you did with U S F L or is it kind of the same? Yeah, no, I think there's definitely the X F L has really a good reputation that it's riding on from 2.0 because the people who were paying attention know that it was working and know that if not for covid we'd likely, we'd probably be staple, it'd be a staple part of the seasonal rotation to look at spring football. I think the U S F L sort of changed that a little bit, but yeah, no, I definitely see a little bit more name brand attraction towards the X ffl just because of that 2020 iteration. I feel like, and I know it's, but I follow U USS F L stuff too. I just feel like I see a lot more Pat, pat McAfee is tweeting about it. We see all the different e s, ESPN people tweeting about it and I know I always felt like U, USS F L and Fox, it was like, we are going to promote this on our platforms and that is it. And it just feels like it's more, at least I'm seeing it more shared right now And I think that ESPN partnership is absolutely massive. I mean when people think sports, they thinks ESPN right off the bat. I think the Rock being a Hollywood megastar is way more important than people probably want to give credit for. He, he's stirring the drink quite a bit f for just sort of attention for the league and that's really what the league's all about is trying to get eyeballs on these players and the product itself. If you're an administrator of this league and I think the Rock does a lot just by showing up and being a part of this and associating his mega cloud towards this league and letting it just rub off a little halo effect there from him. But yeah, no, I think I've seen a lot more positive reception towards it this time around. I think people are going to always be skeptical of spring football until we get repetitive seasons, 3, 4, 5, 6 years of the league being in existence from year after year. There's obviously excuses or reasons, whatever you want to call 'em for why the past iterations haven't worked out, but just for the casual fan who wants to be a bit of a hater for spring football in general, you're going to have a tough time convincing them until you get a little bit more longevity. I haven't seen as much negativity I have seen this week and oh, sliding ratings or the ratings are down at the same time. They're flexing games to higher networks, they're moving games up to a ABC and espn that to me says they're happy with the cable ratings. We want to, we're getting 600,000 on fx, let's see what we can do back on abc. Like do you view it that same way? 100%. I think that the new statement that came out yesterday as we recorded this was fascinating and fantastic news for the X ffl in terms of how the suits in the Disney office are viewing these ratings and I think they're seeing that, hey, we can continue to foster this and water this plant a little bit and see what it grows into even if it's not for a short term result. Maybe it's a long-term play here, but they're saying let's get some more games on abc, let's get some more games on E S P N. People are clicking onto this, people are watching this when it gets to fx. I think some people are, it's kind of the black void out there a little bit, but luckily I've been a person who's obviously looking for these games, so I'm a little bit in the here, but having them all available through ESPN plus has been fantastic and made it really easy for me to digest these games. But now I think that's a great step forward for the league to get more and more of these games, especially abc. I mean a b ABC puts it on every person's television in America. Yeah, I just can't imagine that many non hardcore people stumbling upon it on fx. I think even with, and I don't want to be the Reid Homer here against the US F L or whatever, but Fox or n b nbc, there's just a base number of TVs that are always going to be on that, right, that are all whatever we have it on where you, you're really having to seek outs ESPN N two or FX trying to find these games. It was the same thing with the U S F L when it was on Peacock or FS one, like those games. Having the higher ratings on those seem always seem more impressive to me For sure. And I think it gives the league something to sort of hitch onto and claim as a point of pride for themselves that these ratings when you actually do magnify them and put them on your best channels, do show up and are worth gaining advertising dollars, the types of things that are going to fund the league for future years. I mean I think obviously the Rock is probably as well suited to continue to finance this thing as most Americans, but no, I think obviously they do want to turn to profit at some point, so having some legitimate eyeballs on network television I think is a great way to start. Last kind of general question then we'll talk the matchups here. Are you, and I know it was a thing with the U S F L, we're not getting enough transactional info injury info, who's ready to go? Kind of all that stuff. Do you feel like X ffl is doing better or worse? How do you feel they're doing If you're connected that you're probably getting better information than you were getting from the U sfl? If you're not a media member, you're kind of having to rely on secondhand thirdhand information to get a lot of this. I think a really low hanging fruit that the X ffl can capitalize is simply putting injury report information routinely on their website for the entire public view, not just simply sharing that out with media members and hoping that they disperse it. I think when you talk about how to appeal to crowds such as mine, which is the DFS and sports betting crowd the integrity of the game is huge and that means everyone has all the same information as everyone else and that means having up-to-date rosters and transactions. That's been good so far. We obviously had hiccups with that with the U s sfl last year but having that injury information disseminated and really just maybe thinking of ways to invite the sort of local media in a bit more, I would love to hear just more insightful news stories throughout the course of the week of such and such player not spotted in the open portion of practice that's an N F L headline throughout the course of the week. We don't get that sort of access and information for the X ffl and maybe there's not an appetite for it just yet, but hopefully at some point we can continue to iterate on that. But I think making a lot more of this public instead of private I think would be a really easy thing they could do to let more people in on what they're doing. Yeah, I was tagged in the Facebook discussion yesterday and they were asking about that, well how much interest? I'm like, well clearly they have the ticker on the thing, they're talking the over, we're going to hit the over. They clearly know this is we, we know we have to lean into and do this, but yet we just don't know all the steps to get to that point. And I think the depth charts, for example weekly depth charts and especially the depth charts heading into week one when we know nothing about these teams, whoever's hobbling those together and it's likely a member of the social staff or the media staff for those teams and not necessarily heins words, not stenciling that out for the San Antonio Brahmas. Right? It would be great to have those be a bit more informative and spot on. I mean there's just still going to be a lot of question marks heading into it and if a team is planning on making a change at quarterback San Antonio, a good example this week, are they possibly going to be switching over from cone to sunk? It's not incredibly clear at this point. And while I get there's a competitive advantage to your opponent not knowing who your starting quarterback's going to be like this is also a key point of fan engagement. Like fan engagement may say, oh man, new quarterback. Now I'm a lot more intrigued in how this game's going to go. So I think it would be worth them sacrificing a bit of those edges in the name of transparency just to bring the fans a bit more into it and especially that betting market who's obviously going to be super intrigued by that type of information. Let's go here. So we've got week four couple exciting matchups here. Well, and then I dunno, what do you make Houston running the way with the world right now, week one rematch here against the guardians? Yeah, it's a little strange to me that they're playing again already here in week four after playing in week one, but schedule makers making it pretty rough on our guardians. So I don't think the guardians, what you're really looking for is some continued steps forward in the offensively. They're going to have their work cut out for them, but they did a much better job last week of protecting the passer. If they can continue to do that against maybe what's the best pass rush in the X ffl in Houston I think that would be, you're looking for some moral victories here. Even if you think you may not come away with a win. And that may be tough for a guy like Terrell Buckley to come to grips with. He's obviously a very competitive and driven guy but I think you're looking for improved line play, keep your quarterback clean, make some sustained drives. Maybe if they don't even turn into touchdowns at the very end, let's get down the field, let's move the chains, let's make some progress, let's get some first downs. But overall, I'm expecting this to be a pretty one-sided affair with Houston really having their way with Orlando, especially when Houston's on offense. I still called back Kirby Wilson, he was know the Mad King back in the US F l I'm still trying to figure out what my, do I view TRO Buckley? Do you have, what do we, I need new guys out there. My guys don't care. I like what is his throwing someone under the bus? What's your metaphor for TRO Buckley? Oh yeah, I mean, and that really rubs me the wrong way too. I mean as just a sports fan in general, that there's a lack of accountability there. You're just saying it. It's obviously not me, it's these guys. If they could just make some more plays, we obviously we're calling the plays and just fine if we could just have them like that to me is not really great leadership. I'm trying to think who would be another Game of Throne's character that would show really poor leadership. Maybe he's the Joffrey Barian or somebody like that. What You think. Yeah, I like that. Yeah, it's never my fault I'm going to go, I rewatch it, got tagged up on something because I've been traveling. I've done my best to piece together these games in retrospect and watch as much as I can and it really is just a wild soundbite to have the coach be like, these guys just don't care. I have, they're like, they just need to make more plays. Yeah, exactly. So you can either throw 51 guys under the bus or take a little bit of accountability on the chin. We see what he's chosen. So obviously here, Houston by Country Mile, I mean any cause for concern otherwise. Yeah, and I think a lot of places you can get Houston if you'll lay eight and a half points, I'm probably okay doing that in this game because you're talking Nine Points is theoretically a one possession game here in the X ffl. So I think Houston won't rest with a nine point lead look for them to get after it and win by more than nine. Are we surprised to see Brandon Silver's QB one of an undefeated franchise right now in the X F L in 2023? I didn't expect that. It says a lot about the coaching staff in the X ffl and I mean it honestly probably says something about the coaching staff first Seattle his last time around and he did not look great in X Ffl 2.0 and looks really fantastic here in 3.0 and makes it look pretty easy out there connecting with his receivers. It just goes to show how many guys have been in the riot or wrong situation made to look better or worse than they actually are in college football leading up into the N F NFL draft. And then once they get to the NFL and have their cup of coffee with whatever team and just don't fit for whatever reason, they could be a Brandon Silvers who just needs the right coach, right scheme to find a little bit of success. I think that's absolutely a good point that it literally looks like a completely different quarterback than we saw back in Seattle. He does and he is lighting it up and it, it's not even just, he's getting lucky. They easily look like the easiest team in the league in terms of how they move the ball around and part of that's having dynamic playmakers, part of that's having a great coordinator. I think maybe I probably probably discounted Brandon Silvers a bit too soon in terms of his competence as a quarterback and I think he's kind of proven me wrong in that regard. Do you think having these comms and seeing everybody on seeing AJ Smith work through, does that make him look better, even being able to watch his machinations through everything through the game? Yeah, definitely. And I think having that feedback coming through the headset is actually kind of a fascinating angle as well. I love hearing those coaches talk and I love it when the coaches really tend to shut up, especially towards the last few seconds leading up into the snap. I think that shows a lot of confidence in the quarterback that they can go out there and execute without really looking over their shoulder and whispering every last thing into their ear. Watch out for this, watch out for that. I mean I think that sort of thing is helpful every once in a while, but I think the best play callers are the ones that are not coaching up into the whistle. Anything else from that? We can talk through the Braas he dragon chair. Anything else with roughnecks and guardians? I continue to be interested in the receivers from Orlando in terms of how they can potentially perform. We've obviously got a running back injury situation going on with Orlando where they should have a new RB two in place this week. Devin Darrington should be the RRB two for Orlando but Lance Lenore, I'm interested to see if they can get him going in this offense. Obviously Charleston Rambo has not been the guy who we all thought he was given the sort of draft capital that was invested in him. So I'm interested to see if Lance Lenore can be a second go-to guy in addition to Cody LaMer. Maybe those two guys can manage the inside of the field and the outside of the field there together. But Houston just every player's subject to have a big play on every single play. So if you're playing DFS this week, Houston is definitely the first place you want to get started with your stacks and stacking around Brandon Silvers and John Trey Kirkland and those types of guys Coming up here. We have another Lumen Field game here, second one with the Sea Dragons Brahmas coming in. Haven't felt like they're not the guardians. I mean they seem to be doing all right, still struggling. You talked earlier about potentially a quarterback change there. What did the Braas need to do to get going? Yeah, I think their running game is putri honestly. And if it weren't for the fact that they fed Caleb Baja about a bajillion carries a couple weeks ago, they they'd have no rushing stats to speak of at all and they're really relying on the quarterback position to get things going in that offense. And this past week that just simply was not there outside of that first drive that resulted in a touchdown to TJ Vasher, I think they have a lack of talent at the Playmaking positions that's really starting to catch up with them. They were able to play good defense against St. Louis and really just take that game down to the wire, try to protect the lead, which they obviously did not do up until the very last second and here they get Seattle a team that would probably be undefeated if not for shooting itself in its own foot continuously. So I'm obviously very intrigued in the Seattle offense. I think they're right there Tiff for tat with Houston in terms of offensive capability and firepower and talent but they seem to have be making many more mistakes and part of that you can put on the quarterback specifically just being a little bit careless with the ball like that game against DC where they were driving should have milked out a win right there. Keith fumble towards the goal line and just a little bit of sloppy play, but sloppy play is to be expected early in the season. I think you started to see Ucci really tighten things up with Seattle last week. I think you're going to continue to see I keep waiting for Jaco Pearson to come back down to Earth. It's not happening. He's right there in that same class as John Tre Kirkland guys who I hope should be wearing N F L jerseys next fall. And just to me this is another sort of big talent gap in terms of these two teams. To me it's Seattle by a mile. In terms of Ucci, I think they said on the extra Bell Today Show is the best stat wise game of his career. He seemed really like, yeah, we've been struggling, now we're getting it back together. Is this the turning point? Was this an anomaly? What do you think With Ucci I, I'm tend to believe that it's more of a turning point than an anomaly because I think this looks much closer into expectation as to what we thought we might see heading into the season. So I'm willing to dismiss those couple first games, those growing pains and even game one, you looked fantastic if not for a few costly mistakes and obviously football is a game all about costly mistakes and getting penalized for those types of things when they happen. And so I have no doubt that this team is learning from its mistakes. They've got a running back position, they've got to figure out mighty quickly. This week they did bring in Darius Bradwell off the street, a guy who very well may be the starting running back this week after Morgan Ellison went down with a injury in week three. Obviously they've got Brendan Knox on IR currently and so it would not surprise me if Ellison joined him. I don't have any information that says such, but given the way that injury looked there in the fourth quarter it seems like they'll be down to just one running back there. The other guy there is TJ Hammonds who's sort of the hybrid type guy in that offense, but they need somebody, and I know this is a team that wants to throw the ball, but they got to have somebody who can take a handoff and get five free yards if the defense wants to drop back. Yeah, I will say there's a power ranking in terms of the X F L teams and then they're very much as a power ranking in terms of just the efficiency in which some of this information gets out. So I would put Seattle more in the bottom four of that. No, I know everyone's working through a lot of different stuff, but there's certain teams are quicker back with emails than others. But yeah, I think to get the information we could with Seattle would be great to know what we have going into the weekend. Yeah, exactly. But I mean you talk about talent to me there's no question that Seattle is the more talented roster and obviously with the more experienced coaching staff or what that's worth. Last question on that, has June Jones elevated this? Are we glad he's back, we able to focus on the offense? He's not a heck are we happy with all that? I think him as an offensive coordinator is a good fit there and it just gives him an opportunity to focus on the play calling, not have to worry about the administration of an entire team and worrying about the defense and making conversion calls and fourth down decisions and that sort of thing. Leave that to Haslet. I think that's working out totally fine. I think the Seattle was a team that if I lived in a legal sports betting state, I would've wanted to put a little bit of money on to win the championship heading in the last week. I thought if they could get past Vegas, which that was a little tight as well, but if they could get past Vegas, they'd be in the driver's seat to really control their own destiny with games coming up against DC and St. Louis where they could easily leapfrog their way into the playoffs in the north. Talking to St. Louis here, kind of also the big just matchup in terms of finally seeing kind of the battle dome and all. Yeah, we're talking now opening up the 400 level aj McCarran, everyone else. What storyline are you tracking from the battle hawks? Yeah, no, I am so excited to see this crowd because this'll be our debut. It's hard to believe week four, getting our debut of the St. Louis crowd, but maybe this is designed to be a bit of a crescendo in the middle of a season here, but expecting a massive crowd for St. Louis and the guy who I'm really fascinated to continue to see his development is Hakeem Butler for the Battle Hawks and we're starting to see AJ McCarran sling it around a little bit more early in game. Obviously he had been a bit of a late game hero those first two weeks last week. He was a bit more wired to wire slinging it around a little bit and I think having Brian Hill back in that back field takes a little bit of pressure off him as well. But no, I am anxious to see what McCarran can do and whether Hakeem Butler can continue to build on what he's done, which has been really fantastic through over the last couple weeks he's emerged as really their best playmaking receiving option. He's kind of that wide receiver, tight end hybrid type player and he's starting to see his snap rates increase and increase in getting onto the field, making plays, and that's really all you can ask for. You hope. You hope the coach will get you on the field and you go out there and you ball out it and you make it really hard for him to take you off the field. We saw Austin really make plays, but he's struggled to stay completely healthy So far he's seen him limp off more than once throughout the first three weeks of this season. I think Butler and Pro can really dominate the inside of this offense. Yeah Brian Hiller's good too. He was on I think pre-season or when he was with the alumni Academy. Great to track the players through that and he's throwing the people's elbow and everything else. I think he was one of the guys that got fined with the big kind of scruffle, whatever you want to call it, at the end of the last game with DC and St. Louis. That was exciting. Yeah, the people's elbow was epic. I was texting my buddies about that when it happened. I was like, oh man, that's great. One of my friends texted back, is somebody going to be climbing on the field goal post catching Steve Weiser from the audience and clinging them together and drinking? That would be great. Just really lean into this whole WWE e storyline. But now Brian Hill I think plays great. I think he makes the entire offense better. I think McCarron has this extra gear that's deep down inside him that really only comes out in certain situations if the coaching staff can get him geared up a little bit earlier we saw that a bit more with DC then I think this team has a lot of fire power offensively and possibilities. The Arlington side, however I don't see that with, they feel like a team that's stuck in quicksand. They have maybe one of the most accomplished coaches on this league with Bob Stoops. Obviously a guy who has a B long track record in college football at University of Oklahoma and they just seem to not be able to get anything going. They're running backs or running backwards. The quarterback just can't seem to find an open receiver. And when you look at who are they supposed to be throwing the ball to, it's not a who's who cast of players outside of Canella. And I think there were a lot of hopeful people to say Cane laughter the reunion there with that narrative and that just didn't really seem to come to fruition in their last game. But they got the spark though. They got a Spark 10 points, they got the spark with Slowder. Yeah, they need something a little bit more than I think from slow. So we'll see if they can improve. I'm not optimistic here against St. Louis. I think what we saw, if you look back at old iterations of spring football, whether it's U S F L last year, X ffl the time before, there really is a point where these teams start differentiating among themselves in terms of who's the class of the league and that gap can be pretty wide in a brand new league like this. And so it just wouldn't surprise me if you see some of these bottom dwelling teams like Arlington, San Antonio, those types maybe start to really take on a bunch of losses against the class of the league. And I think this is a prime situation where among some of these favorites, I'm happy to lay points. I'm happy to lay four points for St. Louis and take them to win this game straight up against Arlington. Yeah, I think you can march anybody into St. Louis this weekend in there. I would probably take St. Louis on, I mean maybe Houston in there, but I think this is going to be, they're crowning, we're here what they wanted the braas to be week one against St. Louis. This is our big victory in front of our record crowd. Yeah, exactly right. And I think that's exactly what we'll get Last game here. I've said Audi Field must watch everything with them and just fast. It's like it's an extra player there. I mean it really is like Seattle with the 12th man and all that. What do you make of the vipers going the rematch here now, but at Audi Field? Yeah, no 40 mile an hour wins in this game. No rain hopefully here for DC and Vegas. I'm interested to see what Brett Hunley looks like in his sort of second real start here. He really hung with Seattle last week and sort of went blow for blow with them trying to keep that offense alive. And to me he looks like a guy who's capable of making the throws. He makes it seem mighty easy. Another guy who just seems to not get totally overwhelmed with the play calling and that sort of thing and just goes out there and finds an open guy. What's really disappointing with Vegas to me is the fact that two of their marquee players and Marta Bryant, Ando Alison have been really zeros for them in the passing game so far. So I just keep waiting for that sleeping giant to wake up. Wasn't that long ago. These guys were making real plays in N F NFL games and they just seem to may maybe it's something about the fact that once you've had some N F L success, there's not as much hunger there the next time around, especially in a league that feels like maybe not where you want to be. So yeah, maybe there's an explanation there, but those guys are still getting lots of snaps. They're out there and they're just not earning targets from their quarterback regardless of who that is. But on the other side, you got DC who just totally came alive last week. Jordan Tou I thought looked great Dear King came in and not only ran the ball well but got himself a touchdown passing as well. And I think that's, they're trying to lull you to sleep there with the Dear King run game and then once you kind of doze off, they're going to dump it right over your head for some easy points. But no, I think if they can continue to find their rhythm there, they can be really strong. I think DC's got their work cut out for them though against Vegas. Vegas obviously going to be super hungry coming into this game. You can tell Rod Woodson's ready to or run through a brick wall if he's got two to get his first wi or get another win going but think's going to happen in this game. I feel like I have less of a pulse on this one than some of the others. Well I think DC right now, it's the same thing with St. Louis where I mean anything in that field, I just think they vibe on that. I think they look really good. I was concerned going into last week that they looked better in the standings than they were, but they finally to pass the ball and the defense is still, we're getting pick sixes. I don't know, I would take DC in this, but if Vegas falls again, I mean they're really kind of out of any sort of contention here. Yeah, totally. They're obviously be completely leapfrogged by DC who's still undefeated at this point. St. Louis looks like a cupcake matchup against Arlington and then Seattle seems like a big favorite to get the win against San Antonio. So Vipers are going to blink their eyes and all of a sudden realize that they're playing for draft picks for next year at this point. So no, at this point I really don't care who wins and loses. I really want to see who can stand up and make plays. Because I think one of the things that the U S F L hangs its hat on from last year is the success Kavante Turpin had in the N F L coming straight in, getting a good job with the Dallas Cowboys after dominating the U S F L, just like a complete talent display out there week after week and goes in and makes a pro ball for the Dallas Cowboys. I think that's how this league justifies his existence is by having more and more success stories like that where a guy, a Jeff Bette could finally get his chance to get some real snaps with an N F L team, get himself that catch that he's looking for to go into the NFL stat book, would love that for a guy like that. And you're starting to see some sparks developing and some chemistry developing with these teams. If they can build on that, develop some brand and some personnel to hang their hat on, I think that'll mean more than anything. Yeah, it's hard for me to really cheer as a vested fan here. I mean like you said, it's more just watching the players and the opportunities. If anything I wanted Seattle to win last week is like how do you feel Lumen field at oh and three and here with the Guardians, I care more about it on that business side. We got to at least have some of these teams guardians, if you're in this or even with the Vipers, I mean they're only playing three more home games, but you know, go back in there. Oh and four, oh and five. It's really hard to get people incentivized to go. So that's what I care about. Yeah, exactly. We all want spring football to make it and part of that comes by having compelling storylines, having teams that are competitive not having empty stands show up on the TV product, having stuff people want to tune into. Having success stories that we can build on year after year and just sort of cycling through talent become a destination spot for, I think if you just look out on the horizon what the X F L or U S F L could eventually be, it could be not only just a place for people who went and had their cup of coffee in the nfl, but maybe even a place before you get into the N F L A place for maybe college players who could stand to put a little bit more film out there on tape, give them a chance to make a name for themselves. So I'm anxious to see how all of it turns out. Yeah, you want to call it the developmental league without calling it the Developmental League <laugh>. Exactly right. Yeah, do what you got to do man. Let's get this a really fun product. And so far it has been fun. I I've had a blast tracking it through three Weeks. It just a final note for me because I don't know where I'll say this anywhere else on this show, there's been a lot made this week because Nathan Rourke, right? He was the big C F L superstar, he goes to the Jaguars and then he's the third quarterback there and all the C FFL people are crying because like well he's not going to get a fair shot and he nee I'm like, that's why the X ffl and the U S F L exists. Let Nathan Rourke come play a year, play 10 weeks here and light up the world and then transition in that way because it's harder to look at the CFL game and bring it down to the NFL than it is to look at the U US F L or X ffl and say, hey we can slot this guy right in here. So anyway, there are benefits to having all of these leagues. Yeah, there's a bit more apples to apples comparison. I think that makes it easier for coaches. I mean you put yourself in the point of view of the coach who's turning on game film, they want to see it look like the way that they're going to play it on in their games when they're trying to make a decision on who they're going to invite and offer for that 54th spot on the roster or the 90th spot up here in the summer and in fall. So yeah, I think this is a great opportunity. I don't know whether two leagues will persist forever, but eventually something will win out and maybe it's some sort of amalgamation of both the leagues. I don't know what it'll look like, but I feel relatively confident in the fact that spring football is likely here to stay for the foreseeable future, The long rumored US FX ffl or whatever would be Justin, anything else from you? What do you do? Where can people find you? Everything else? Yeah, we're always trying to crack the code on D f s. So if you're find yourself playing DraftKings or prize pigs for X ffl go check out run the Sims, that's my site, run the sims.com and you can use Code Mark cast just created that before the show for your audience here. Read use code Cast for 10% off a subscription there. They get access to optimizers and projections and all the fun things that give us a little bit of an edge here and a sport that doesn't have a lot of information out there. Well Justin, I really appreciate it and getting people like you on that dive deep in and really care about the different players and everything else, that means a lot. I appreciate it and it should be a good one. Yeah man, sounds good. We're going to have a great time in week four and I'm pulling for these C Dragons to make it to the finals. I'm a DC defenders fan by heart so I got lots of rooting interests but I know only one of those two shall survive <laugh>. There we go. Thank you. So again, excited today to be joined by one of the kings of the north here we have Joe Wallace and DC Defenders. How are you doing sir? Man, I'm doing great man. Glad to have you man. Have me here man. How you doing today? I'm good. I reached out to the team and they said, Joe's been balling, you need to get him on the show. And so here we are we're approaching week four here. How's x ffl treating you? Man, I've been having a blast, man. Just anything. Anytime I can play football man, it's just a blessing. So I've blessed to have a great defensive coordinator, Greg Williams, him being able to have his hand and some of the greatest defensive players of all time. I have a great <inaudible> coach, great people around me, so I'm having, I'm blessed right now man. Blessed to be in this position man. Yeah, we had Coach Sharper on here I think preseason, I can't remember when that was. What is it like, you know, like you said with Coach Williams, with everybody having this staff around you helped to train you Man we get a little bit of both. We get guys that played in the league, like you said, coach Harp and legendary coaches. We got some college guys, head coaches, a college guy and my defense line coach coach Watkins is a college guy, no pro experience but he will get some but not yet. But just having that mix and he's just seem to work. I'm just getting a lot of different ways of coaching, a lot of different motive because cause Greg isn't an easy guy to be playing for but adding that type of guy to their room with these calm guys, it's been good. It's been a good time man. Honestly Undefeated here. Big home game here last week against the Battle Hawks. What was that like? Oh man, atmosphere was crazy man. DC fans came out and showed out man. I know you seen their beer snake man. Yeah man, we have some great fans man, office of Defense play played really well. We up a little special team stuff but man teams did really well man. And we are rolling right now so we just got to keep showing up to practice, keep working in stacking days. You talked about the atmosphere. Yeah, what is it? We had the whole Lemon G and then we are throwing all this stuff and now we're about to, what is it like playing in that crowd and having that audience there? Man, so I'm a small school. I had some experience at Tech in Lubbock, but I'm a small school guy. Particular I was at Sam Houston, we had 16. I never had anything like that. That's very unique and one of the million type of crowds man, just the roar, the passion man, those fans just behind you man. It's definitely different. Something everyone has the experience. I can't even really describe it sometimes. This is just so surreal you, wow, this is the X F L, come on now, we're rocking right now. Well especially they're in that end zone with everything. It seems like with the Sandy Ramon where the beer snake is and all that, it seems for whatever reason you guys have the most success on that side of the field. I don't know if it's because the crowd noise or anything else, but it does seem like you guys call kind of live in that area of the stadium. Yeah man, if I'm not mistaken, I think that's the fan. Our fans actual designated section and the v i P section over there, the honky, it is just pretty lit in zone. So I guess we just attracted to that. The fans go crazy right there, this's where the snake is actually located. So it is really fun man. We have a blast plan there Going through here three weeks in getting the team up to speed, defense, everything else. Do you feel like you guys are progressing well Definitely man. I think if you are watching film Man you see every week we're getting better and better on defense especially. So when it comes to the coaching staff, when it comes to just doing the little things, I think as a group we jailing even. We're getting stronger every week so I'm excited to see what the future has to come for the future, man, it's still going to be exciting. You talked about before I recorded you're enjoying your time. Next step to your goal, what are you looking to get out of this whole experience? I mean I feel like the obvious what everyone in X L is trying to do and let's go to the nfl. So I had some rookie mini camp invites earlier here in this summer at Arizona and Kansas and I didn't end up sticking. So I think this film and what I'm doing right now, if I continue to do that, I think I'm going to have another opportunity, a fair opportunity and just be able to live on my dream and continue to even get better. I think I have a lot more, I could get better and so my goal is to get better at playing the nfl. When you have near misses like that where you don't stick, is it motivating to prove people wrong? Is it frustrating, mean? What kind of emotion do you get out of that? Definitely motivating but I'm a young, I'm 24. It was a learning experience so I never been on that level. I never seen how they operate. I have no guys that when I was at school that been there and I had the opportunity to talk to them, but being the NFL or room and organization, it's different and I'm getting here being the xfl, it's kind of similar. So I'm just learning from these guys like Al Brown and Bell and all those guys that have extra NFL experiences, just I'm just absorbing that and I think once I do get the opportunity here soon that it's going to be ready and be able to just take what I learned from this summer from rookie camp and then what I'm learning now in the XFL and just go full speed when I do get my shot in the nfl. We saw things get a little chippy at the end of the Battle Hawk game. What was that plane ride at home like together? Oh man, it was nothing man. I feel like with all the energy that was wasted, nobody had any more energy after that one. That was just two giants fighting it out and I think when we play next here in next week and it's going to be another fun one, but you see that defense man we rolling <laugh> doing good. Well that's the thing and that's kind of how I look at it. You see even in single team training camps and they get chippy and people get what I mean I like having that motivation, I like seeing the energy. Does that tell you that both of sides but you guys really want it, right? I mean you're really going here full throttle. Yeah, definitely. If it wasn't anybody out there just trying to go, just playing half, it wouldn't be anything like that. But I feel like everyone is trying to get to the next level. Everyone is giving it their all and we're men out there so people got egos, people, people families watching that, people kids. So everybody, all the emotions going so it get a little chippy but it's all love at the end of the day, man football, it's a tight community man. We all love each other. We all love this sport man. So it's just all love at the end of the day. Playing here again, the Vipers, we played the whole Cashman field was I think slightly different circumstances will be this weekend here at Audi Field. What do you make of the Vipers and what are you guys looking to do against them? Man, just like every other team in the N F X F L man, they're getting better every week on their quarterback. They have the quarterback change and they're getting better with the new guys but they're the targets and we're not going to take them lightly at all. And when we get to DC we're going to defend. Did you expect to be undefeated at this point? Definitely man, when I, when we reported I seen the guys we had, you could just feel and tell a vibe. I just came from Sam Houston, we came off of a national championship run and even then in the beginning of that season, I just felt a vibe man. He was just like, you could just tell the face is everybody serious? And right now man in camp early in camp man you couldn't tell guys nothing want it, guys were hungry. So I've been knowing man this isn't a surprise at all. We've heard a lot of that and obviously with Danny and DJ and everyone and talking up the player 54 and we've heard that a million times but it feels to me like you guys do buy into that field at, is that accurate? Yes, definitely man, I feel like that if the X ffl and what this team represents, it's the same thing. We are looking for the opportunity. We have that chip on our shoulder just like our owners do. So it's a perfect example that 54 we just were that <laugh>. Perfect. Well I've said that any game right now at Field is a must watch so I'm excited for the game this weekend. I appreciate your time today guys. I'm a Dragons fan so I'm not as happy about your undefeated right now, but we'll get there eventually we'll get another matchup here. Really appreciate your time. Anything else before I let you go Man? I appreciate you for having me Van. For real though man. And hopefully man you guys get something Zero and DeNucci they looking special man. So hey who knows? Do you see? Yeah, I mean do you see the highlights and stuff with the other games and come On, got to. We have to see those guys again. Of course we know, like we said, we don't take anyone lightly and that that's a superstar. Zero's a superstar. He does. Why? I don't know why he's in the f l, who knows? I don't know but you better watch him. So yes, everybody sees the highlights. We don't take 'em lightly, man and Ucci too so yeah man we got to go up there to see. I don't hope you come to the game and watch us whoop up on the boys. Well yeah, when you come to Lumen our seats are front row 50 yard lines so we'll be chirping. They're very excited to see you there but Joe, really appreciate your time today. Hope you have a good one. Yes sir. Thank you having me man. Well I'm excited. Today we have Darius Shepherd here St. Louis Ball Hawks. How are you doing sir? I'm doing well, how are you? I'm good. Exciting season approaching week four. I think it's going to be a rocking time this weekend. How is your life going right now? Welfare check. So we're down here in Arlington living in the hotel right now and things are going really smooth. They're taking care of us and we're excited to get to St. Louis for the first time. We've been on the road for three weeks and finally get to go home. I know it's got to be a weird thing. You've been you, you're drafted, you're on the Battle hawks, you've heard this whole time about this crazy battle hawks Nation have yet to see it. What are you looking forward to this weekend? Just the support man. We've seen videos of how it was in 2020 and we've heard so much about the base, excited to get us down there. We had a few players and coach fly down I think in January and they're ready for football so we're excited to go play in front of 'em and get that home field advantage finally. In terms of team chemistry, aj, everyone else, how are you feeling on offense? Yeah, I feel like we haven't quite played our best game. I think we're dealing as a group and he's got to get it together and put four strong quarters together and I think we'll have a chance to do that this Sunday and people can hopefully see our best ball when we do that. In terms of kind of a tough loss here last week against about against the Defenders, how do you guys rebound here? Going into the home game, Right, I think we came in, we watched the film and you know, clean the slate. After that you move on to the next game. Arlington's our next opponent and we're focused on them this week trying to just push forward and be one to know this week. In terms of just experience overall in the X F L right now, what's it been like? You know, said they're taking care of you, you've been here now two months, what's it been like? Yeah, it's been a good process. I think this is a developmental league in a sense and they're trying to mimic an N NFL type schedule. So for guys that have been in the NFL or guys that this is the first opportunity, they're getting a real field for what professional football is on a day to day basis with meetings and your short breaks and going to practice and treatment and all that good stuff. So it's topnotch and we're just trying to take it one week at a time. Saw you last year in the U S F L, right? Really Excel had a great season. What was the thought process of going to the X Ffl this year versus going back? Yeah, I think N F L had a lot of really good buzz. I like the time of the year as well. I think for a guy like me, I'm hoping to come to this league to develop myself, to get good film and show that I can compete at the next level. And being in this league, it allows you to go play, learn from great coaches and then turn around and hopefully get into OTAs where you're not missing that window. So I think the Xs a really good did a really good job of timing up where when they're playing following Super Bowl weekend and hopping right into the football In terms of Coach Beckton, you know can see his excitement on the sidelines. It looks infectious to me. And someone that is all in with you guys and trying to be a leader there. What has it been like being on his team? It's been a lot of fun. Coach Beck brings a lot of energy. Him being a former player, he has a lot to give to us so every week we want to go to war for him and do our best. But yeah, he keeps things fresh and fun and it's a good time over here. In terms of quarterbacks, AJ has been one of the standouts this year. Any surprise to you seeing him and you guys having as much production as you have so far? I wouldn't say I've been surprised When I got the call to come to the battle Hugs, I was super excited because we had AJ McCarry, somebody that's been there, done that he hasn't met, experience all the championships he won in Alabama, that that's a winner. So when we got here we didn't have to start slow. He already knew what we were doing and we were rolling. The disappointing thing I guess is just that we want to put together for four quarters and keep it rolling and show what we can do in this league. So that's really where we're at right now. All right. How is the travel going for you guys, man? I know obviously with the hub been going out, are you guys used to that at this point? Is that a challenge here every week? How are you guys mayor with that? It's definitely interesting. It is what it is as far as traveling to Seattle one week and then we're going to St Louis. It's different time zones and schedules and all that, but you just kind of deal with it. We're blessed to be here playing football so I can't complain at all. What are you looking to accomplish personally here through the rest of the year and how are you looking to parlay that here into future opportunities? Yeah, I just think I want to show that I've grown in different areas, whether it's special teams or at the receiver position that I can compete and be one of the best players in this league and hopefully that turns into opportunity at the next level. In terms of the rest of your guys and camaraderie camaraderie, if I could speak your locker room do you feel like this has been a good chance to build and living together and traveling together and to be in a part that, do you feel like a tighter unit because of all that? No question. I think during training camp, you know kind of had that knocking heads thing because you're going against the defense every day and you know, want to see somebody new. But I think we really grew as a group and we have a really tight knit group right here, so I think we're going to have a lot of success and we can lean on that as the season goes forward. I saw we had one of the defenders on here following game you here last week got a little heated at the end of the game last, so what was that plane ride back home had to have been a unique situation, Kind of an embarrassing situation on both sides for the teams and not something you want to see, but it is interesting because you're turning right around and hopping on the plane with him to fly home but there was no drama. I think just heated emotions on the field, you know, kind of squash it and just be a man about it. Well if anything I look at it that you're showing passion and desire to compete and be a part of mean, I look into this, not a positive but I don't look into it as a negative on that side of things, but it shows that the guys really care to be there, No doubt, no question about that. There have a lot of guys that are very passionate about this and guys that want to win and compete and I think that makes the league better when you have guys that care that much. Anything else from you before I let you go? I appreciate it. I know people are looking forward to this weekend. I mean what are you expecting to see when you walk on the field? On Saturday, right? Saturday afternoon. Yeah man, I'm just in the dome. I played there in high school so this is my first time being back there in a while and hopefully it's full of blue and we can go out there on a good performance. Well I think it's going to be rocket dares. I appreciate your time today. Best of luck and safe travels here this weekend. Thank you sir. Take it easy Man. Awesome man. See ya. Thanks. Well last we spoke, I think it was about a year this time we had Vernon Adams salon, he was the Montreal quarterback. Many things have changed now Vernon, how are you doing today? Yeah man man, first of all, thank you for having me. It's always a pleasure coming on here with you. Like you said was hit on here last year with you but yeah, big changes, you know what I'm saying. Got traded the middle of the season last year as everybody know and I'm over here on the west coast just like you and yeah, it's all good. Yeah, west coast best coast. I will tell you now the people that I associate closest with online, all of our X F L riders and C F L riders you have big supporters in all of them. And the reactions we had in the group chat the day that all that news came out, I think Farhan said something and then they're like, we were over the moon. What has just the last six months even been like for you? It's got to been busy. Definitely, definitely busy last six months trying to, well going back to last year's season trying to keep us in second place when I got there and we did that as a team, Nate came back and did a tremendous job and then after season was kind of just a waiting game cause I was trying to see what Nate was doing, was he coming back or was he going to the NFL? And he went to the NFL and so now they kind of turned it over to me saying it's my thing, my show. But you know, always got to earn it in this game what I'm saying. So I've been just working hard man grinding, have some family stuff going on lately, but I'm back to the grind and ready to just keep moving forward and getting better. How challenging was it to trade mid-season coming in this all new everything, all new organization and playbook and everything else? It was tough, you know what I'm saying? But I pride myself in just coming to work every day regardless being the first one in there one of the last if not the last on our OC Jordan in there all day. So he's grinding. But yeah man, I took it up upon myself to say hey, I know it's going to be tough but that's a good team over there in N B C, so let me just come in and just do my job, get these guys the ball we had a great defense and let them do the rest. It was a lot but it was fun. That challenge was fun and just trying to stay here all the time, not getting too high, not getting too low, whether no matter what's going on. So it was tough but it was definitely a fun challenge. It just from an emotional standpoint and I always try to, this happens in all sports and these trades and people look at it so and so it's like someone's relocating their entire life here trying to figure this out on a personal level and going from Montreal back to, and I know that obviously it's closer to family here on the west coast for you, but the challenges with that had to be a lot. Definitely, you know, got to deal with all my stuff that's in Montreal. I'm on a six month lease, so depending on your landlord, if they let you out that lease or not, which mine didn't, you have to pay two rent. So now I got mortgage back home here in Tacoma, Washington. I got rent in Montreal and I got rent in BC so you know, pick up all this stuff, you go in the middle and you're trying to deal with all this stuff and paying the rent and then you got a offense playbook that you've never dealt with before in your career as far as all the movements and the motions and different how ooc calls the plays. So it a lot, it definitely was a lot, man, then family, get your kids and stuff like that. But again, I took on the challenge man, no matter what the naysayers were saying or my supporters, whatever, I just took on that challenge just to come in and we were in second place. Just keep us in second place, if not get the first. And I felt like I did a pretty good job with that. Yeah, that's the thing is, and people, we've talked with your teammates here over the last two years here and what a locker room leader you are and just in terms of a voice of that, how do you view that internally? What do you try to project when you're in the locker room? As far as being a leader? Man, I've been a quarterback all my life, so it's naturally in me, you know what I'm saying? I'm, I'm always trying to lead by example on and off the field man doing stuff off the field with my teammates, whether it's these mini camps that we got coming up or during season, going on bowling nights with the receivers or whatever. What I'm saying, I'm always trying to do something to bring everybody together and that's just the type of leader I am. I feel like if we could trust each other off the field, then we know we got each other's backs on the field as well. So that's what I try to do. Yeah, obviously the end of the year didn't end as anyone wanted it. It's certainly not me yet. I was up there, I went up to the BC that I guess it was the Calgary game and all that. What was the end of the season and I know Nathan came back and everything, but for you and the games that you played in, what was it like? The games that I played in, man, it was awesome man. I was able to play again, you know what I'm saying? Because Montreal, they had a motive from the jump, what I'm saying, from the off season of <laugh> out of there, got bare miles out of there, got me out of there. So when I came to BC they were like, Hey, this first week we'll see how it goes. But then after that they were like, hey, this is your show, you taking all the reps in practice, this is your show. So that felt good. All the guys rallied behind me. We had a good first game. Then the second game went so good against Calgary, then we came back, had another really good game, you know what I'm saying? So we were kind of up and down a little bit and we got our groove toward in October. And then like you say, yeah, Nate came back and then I still prepared. I was a starter. What I'm saying, I still came in and watched how Nate prepared and how he did things and nothing changes because anything could happen. If he would've went down in the Calgary game or the Winnipeg game, I would have to be ready. And I always say that I think the number two QB is probably the most important, one of the most important positions on the field because that starter goes down. Everybody's expecting you to come in and keep it going. We don't want to go down, we want to keep it going if not get better. You know what I'm saying? So that number two, qb no matter who you are, myself, anybody, you just have to be ready at all times. Knowing now that it's your show heading into this season and you obviously the conversations that you're going to have with coaches and staff and everything what excites you about this season now? Yeah, just the fact that I get to, and I've said it ev everywhere man, but just the fact that I get to learn start from the off season of learning the offense, you know what I'm saying? And just doing this first mini camp, I did three or four mini camps with Montreal receivers, but doing this first one with these guys, the BC guys, I get to know them even more. We got Dane Evans, we got Dom coming in to push the QB room and those guys will be here too. So I'm excited for an exciting year with these guys, with this team and just take it one day at a time and show what I can do. Yeah, I saw we've been trying to get you on for a couple weeks and I know you've had things that you've been necessary, things you've been working with. Dane coming in excites me just as someone in the locker room with you, I think that's a good positive and I'm like, okay, what's going on here? Okay, Rick's saying you're your show we're bringing in Dane, just in terms of locker room vibes and you both being just positive influences on that, what do you make of that? Yeah, I think it's going to be good man. We worked together in 2018 in training camp in Hamilton his first year, my third year in the league and he, he's been the two great cups man. So he, he's led his team to two great cups. So he's got that experience. I know I'm going to learn from him, he's going to learn from me because we've grown since 2018. And again, like you said, we're both positive guys and I think we're, we're going to compete all three of the QBs, Don, myself, and then we going to compete. We're all just going for that number one job, what I'm saying. And all that's going to do is raise everybody else up to the competition level, all the receivers, dbs, everybody going to see it. So as long as we're doing that leading the team on and off the field, I think everything's going to be fine. Yeah, we had some moving pieces and stuff here in free agency and the off-season. Who are you excited to work with here coming into to new season? Coming into the new season, who we got? We got some new running backs man, I'm excited. Obviously I love JB man and I'm glad he got what he deserved over there in Hamilton and stuff like that. But I'm excited to get these young running backs going. We got an NFL back, we got a young guy, Tavian Feaster who I was with in Montreal last year. I'm ready to get with those guys. I know what these receivers can do, I know what they can do and I know what they're going to do for me. Also got my left tackle or I got to tackle from Montreal who was my, who's my friend, you know what I'm saying? Chris sch slugger. I'm excited for him to compete for that left tackle spot and get in there and we play together again. So yeah, some new faces, a little bit on the offense defense. I know they going to handle their business and I'm just excited to get into camp and go against gp. One of the best corners in the league. TJ Lee, best halfback in the what I'm saying. Those guys are going to get me better and elevate my game. Question for you, and obviously Montreal has continued to have everything since you left and now the sale could have happened by this point, whatever we're talking, but coming into BC with the everything there, solid ownership, promotions, everything else, what is it like coming into an organization like that? Man, it is great cause I was watching it from afar, you know what I'm saying? I've seen everything Ammar was doing. Even Victor over in Edmonton seeing the stuff that he's doing. I love what Gary was doing. Shoot, don't get me wrong, I love Gary, that's my guy. I don't care what the fans say about him or anything and all that. Hey Montreal's been what it's been before he got there. He, he was trying to do his part to help him out and just didn't work out. So I'm sorry for that. But yeah, coming over with Ad man, he's just a great leader man. He is a great leader. He supports his players and does all the stuff in the community and it is just awesome to see man. And when he's shouting me out on his Instagram saying, Hey get behind Vernon, he's our guy. I love that man. That just makes you feel good and confident in yourself and now you can play with that confidence. So it's been a great feeling man, great transition and man, I just can't wait to see what we do, see what we do this year. I like that. I like ad, I like that. I like calling them ad. No, I mean Gary, we were one, I can't remember the end of the Montreal game there at the end, but we were very close to having Gary at our live show in Regina for the Great Cup. I mean it was like if they had made it, but no, I love Gary and all that and we'll figure all out out. But I mean Baker's promise, lots of excitement here with BC heading into the season and blowing the roof off and you being the face of all that. Talk about playing in bc, playing in Vancouver and trying to revitalize the team there with everything going on, Man. And that all really starts with Nate from last year, man, what he's done with the team last year, years before, I think two, three, they hadn't been to the playoffs for I think a few years now, you know what I'm saying? They haven't hosted a home playoff game in about eight years. So he started that man and I'm just trying to keep that groove going and not worried about it because when I got my teammates behind my back, my team owner behind my back I'm confident and when I'm playing confident, man, I've been a winner everywhere I've gone. You know what I'm saying? I've never been a loser and <laugh> just what it is man. And this has a lot to do with the guys around me, you know what I'm saying? These guys are athletes around me, they're great players, great human beings, great fathers, husbands, all that. And we all just push each other to be better on and off the field. So just excited for that. And that's it, man. I heard a lot of stories about, and obviously you came in after, but the legendary BC training camp last year heading into the season and when all the bonds were formed. I hope that we can keep that going this year and you there and everyone else, everything I heard out of that, I think Moj was talking and stuff like this is just a special group. So I hope for my sake here as America's C F L team, we're supporting the lions that we can keep that going and it should be exciting. Yeah, definitely man. And we got a lot of the same guys back. What I'm saying there's a few new faces, but as far as I think the core guys of the team offense and defense league, I think we got a lot of the same guys back. So it'll be another special group plus the new additions. We have Something. I'll let you go here in a minute. I appreciate your time. I know we are working through, you know, got kid duties, everything else here. Before we started recording you had mentioned, and I wasn't even going to think to bring it up, but you were at the X F L, you know live in Tacoma. They have the Lumen Field home opener, it'll be whatever couple weeks ago. By the time this airs what brought you out to the X Ffl game and what did you make of it? Right. I'm a fan of football man. I'm a fan of football. I live here in the area 40 minutes away, so just decided to go up there, check him out. Coach June Jones, he was my coach in the East West Shrine game and he was my coach in Hamilton for a bit when I was there. So I wanted to go out there and check him out and see if he's still doing the same stuff. And yes he is, he's still doing that running, shoot that name offense. So they got big names over there. Flash Gordon and Ben Ucci, the quarterback, a few other guys on defense. So just want to come check him out and show some love. I'm in the area, so yeah, it's football. Well now I thought that speaks a lot that here in your off season you're taking the time to go enjoy and support and all these guys, whatever league it is, it's all these same stories of trying to get back or show success or get tape. Everyone's kind of got their own story but it's all the same theme, if that makes sense. Yeah, definitely man. And obviously X FFL and U S F L is competition but for me, I just look at it, it is good for there it is more jobs for everybody man, for not just football players but coaches and media people upstairs, people behind the scenes. It's more jobs for everybody man. So obviously I love the CFL and I believe it's N F NFL CFL than whoever else y'all want to go, but it is just more jobs for everybody. So I look at it that way. It's cool. Yeah, I remember I think when they announced the McLeod going to the U S F L when someone's tweeting and oh poo-pooing, whatever I said for McLeod's family and everyone that he supports and everyone in that league they certainly care about that you claim to want to support especially the C F L. These are our teams and our players and our league. You want 'em to find success wherever it's going to be. Exactly man. And that's what a true fan is, man. That's why a lot of the fans, you just never can't get into it too much man with all the social media back and forth because one moment they going to be, oh whoa, that's this and the next moment is you suck and all this, you know what I'm saying? But the true, true fans man, they going to stay with you regardless and just show love and show support man. And I'm happy for McLeod. His wife has a great job. He wants to be closer to his family. If it was about the money, he would've came back up here, but it's not, you know what I'm saying? So he just loves the game of football and I wish him the best over there and shoot you never know. Shoot the Toronto fans, I might see him again. So pull up tea. Well Vernon, I appreciate your time. Excited for the season Now is our quarterback here for America's C F L team. I think that that's good. I'm booking my wedding summer schedule right now, but when I get some slots we'll try to make it up there at the BC place and see you guys. So very excited. I appreciate your time today. Yes sir. Thank you Mike. Guys, thank you for having me man. Have a great one. Huge special thanks to all five of our guests today for coming on Busy Show. Really appreciate Scooby taking the time to come on working Axl today. Everything else with this s ESPN schedule really am appreciative to Scooby his flexibility coming on the show. Special thanks to Justin Freeman extended Sit down with Justin like almost 35, 40 minutes with Justin. I could talk with him all day. Lots of knowledge there. Make sure you go check out run the sims.com if you want to utilize any of the tools that Justin has over there for fantasy. Remember he has the promo code Mark House. I thought that was nice Justin set that up and then the teams over at the Battle Hawks for setting up Darius and the defenders for setting up Joe. Really appreciate that. And then Matt is always with the BC Lions always so good to us there getting Brandon on the show. I have everybody's emails for the 2,500 subscriber giveaway, so Chris with the ball, the jerseys, all of that stuff. I'll be mailing out all of those next week. I've been really under the weather this week. It's not any of that stuff but just sore throat coming back from Mexico. I'm sure I caught something on the plane. And then we are, like I said, 3,500 subscribers. Get us there. Two free tickets, either the extra fellow championship game or U S F L championship game. Hope you enjoy the early episode this week. Should be back to normal programming next week. Tune back in on Monday. Andy Murray and I will be doing a breakdown of EXE week four I guess at this point. And I think Evan Wilmore is going to be calling in as well. So that should be a rocking time Monday and then should be normal as always, Friday there 7:00 AM Pacific. Like I said, make sure you check out my appearance on Rod's show. Thanks to the crew, Clark, Darren, rod, everyone over there for setting that up and I think it appreciate your time. Thanks as always. Like to subscribe. Have a safe weekend.

XFL 2023 Week 3: What Did We Learn?

Well, happy Monday here on Monday following XFL 2023. Week three, I think probably the most exciting of the three weekends thus far. We had no major controversies, lots of exciting gameplay. We will break through it all today, break it down with a, we have Andrew Murray here coming on a quick programming note while I have everybody here looking at a Thursday episode this week, Thursday episode, I have to go work on Friday up in the mountains. Have a couple good guests lined up, have an interview already with another C F L starting quarterback. If you guys were able to listen to our interview last week with Cody Fra Jaro should be a good episode. And then I think I have a media appearance this week as well. I'll be able to promote as well. I'll probably be competing against myself on Thursday, but anyway, we will welcome in Now the Shannon Sharp to my skip nails. Andrew Murray, how are you doing today? I'm good man, always. I don't have any Mountain Dew on me so I can't really do the full Shannon Sharp moniker again, but I'll work on that next week. Maybe it'll be a little prop that I can have on my desk. Interested sitting next to me. It's good. I like this and Andy and I have talked about this. I love this Monday morning instant reactions, people hopping on talking through it. It's fresh in the mind. We're coming off a Kraken victory last night in overtime, an enormous win against the avalanche. So exciting all around here. Lots of comments. And then I'm going to say today, so in the Thumbnailed stuff I always say taking your comments and calls and we've never taken the call, so if anyone wants to call in later in the show we're not going to do the whole live stream like, okay, talk for an hour. But if you have a minute or two, if you have a question, comment, concern, maybe we'll do that as well. We have Darryl checking in here. Mike Exel this weekend was on fire. Jacob says The Houston Roughneck, the Kings of the South. Overall thoughts and we'll go obviously game by game and we have all that Overall thoughts and then I do, I forgot when to talk the Battle Hawks ticket things, but just overall thoughts of the weekend before we get into everything, Andy. Overall, I think this was the best quality of play so far and I do think that there were definitely some a tier games and they're listed in that whole slate. I mean, every game was a one score game. Every game was within one score by end of the weekend. Now some of it obviously was more compelling than others and sometimes it wasn't as invigorating. I mean, take Orlando and Arlington for example, that was definitely a mid-afternoon snoozer, but most of them were very exhilarating. I mean the Sea Dragons Vipers game was such a kickoff that really set the whole tone for the entire weekend. That was unexpected in my opinion. That was unexpectedly better than I expected it to be. Then you had the DC and St. Louis game, which got really chippy but was back and forth the entire game. That to me was getting close to pretty close to a tier level of play. I think the Dragons Vipers game was the best. Houston, San Antonio, I think people maybe expected a little bit more scoring in that game, especially in the second half. I mean, Houston got shot out the second half. No one really, no one really talked about that, but they didn't score at all after midway through the second quarter. They missed a field goal and they never really recovered from that. But San Antonio just play calling wise, wasn't able to get it done. They just never, ever got their foot holding in. That defense for Houston was awesome down the stretch. I just think that there was maybe still a little bit of inconsistency on some of the offensive ends. I mean, as I alluded to Orlando, Arlington woof there's a lot to figure out here. But as far as the overall quality of games though, I mean I think this has been the best slate so far. Really do, Yeah, this is exciting. I think we needed to bounce back and even with the cash from the field of it all, that whole thing that was exciting. I was at our Hazel's birthday party. I turned on the game cause I was following along and I re-watched it yesterday morning before everything else and I thought, I wonder what's going on in this game right now. It seems like it's, I turn it on it's fourth and two, Ben deci throwing it down. I, I'm like, and I'm sitting there, I show it to my brother-in-law. He's like, wow, this is exciting. These are the kinds of things, turning it on, seeing close games, seeing momentum like that before we full on breakdown the games want to point out here and of course here we go. So this is going on right now as we speak Battle Hawks talking about a hit, talking about momentum coming off of a loss against the defenders, but opening up the 300 level for the first home game. I know Mark had tweeted that they were expecting 30 plus thousand for that game. This is a good sign for that. You can go on right now attendance and we can talk through that. I have the figures for Mark as well, kind of the week's attendance weekend, but exciting here. I think the dome is going to be packed. What do you make of this and $40 season tickets here at 300 level? I saw people already want them to open the 400 level. I'm like, guys, we have to call before we run. What do you make of this? I think this is really exciting. Heck, I think they're ready to open the roof mean it's been a long time coming. This is going to be by far the loudest game of maybe the entire year because it's just going to be so adrenaline for this entire community for the city. The fact they're two in one, honestly two in one is probably the best case scenario. They won two very close matches their first two weeks and they played well against DC Obviously there was a lot of controversy as far as the refereeing going on in that game, but all in all being two in one, going to this game with you, have a great story with Adrian McCarran as your quarterback, a really passionate leader. You have some great skilled position players. Beck has been just a vocal leader. He is really good with people. His interpersonal skills have been really good. I mean it's the kind of team that fits the profile that this city wants to fit to get behind the BA. Battle hawks are just really full of passion. I wonder what the final number's going to be. That's really what I'm trying to take more of a ballpark guess. I mean right now based on how it's going, it's to exceed the number that the highest level got to, which was the lower bowl in 2020. I mean it's going to surpass that level basically based on what we've been hearing and seeing. So that's pretty remarkable considering they took three years off and nothing going on between that time. So that's just a testament to the fan base of how patient they've been. I mean they have been the most vocal of all the fan bases since this whole thing went down with Danny and the Rock buying the league. Yeah, it's exciting. It proves strength of certain markets and I want to talk about Seattle later too. We're going to have another home game. Some of these people things carried over from 2020, like you just said, battle hawks, that was hot. And you still see, well, Seattle led the attendance back, da da da da da. Seattle's first opening game you on a Thursday against a cracking game, right? Guess who's playing this Thur SA Saturday? Same time as the Dragons game. It's another cracking game. That is something Seattle didn't have to contend with back in 2020. You had a starved sports franchise. Spoiler alert we are most likely going to the cracking game on Saturday. We have season tickets to that. We are in playoff contention. I love the Sea Dragons and everything else and we'll be watching the game and I'll rewatch it so I'll be able to give context, but that's something. So St. Louis is panning out. I think San Antonio is filling that gap that Seattle, I don't think it's going to be as strong this time. And then what I really like is the St. Louis DC defender's rivalry. Now we're going to St. Louis is like, we're going to get 30,000 in here. We're going to fill the dome and DC is like F that. We're going to have 15,000 of the loudest m f fers you've ever heard. We're throwing beer, we're throwing cuffs, we're stacking cuffs. I like that rivalry there of who is the loudest. We've seen DC now three weeks in the row and now we're going to see St. Louis here. Kind of open that up. So very exciting stuff. Yeah, I mean, look, St Louis already has a chip on their shoulder with dc. They've gone to that arena twice and lost in the last two times, 2020 and that was the last game they played. And then 2023 I the DC has had their number. So I think that's a big talking point. Now of course when DC rolls in St. Louis, it's going to be really, really contentious. I mean, I cannot believe they got on a flight last night after all the verbal tirades, all of the pushing and shoving at the end of the game. The special teams coach getting involved with St. Louis. I mean I can't imagine, can you imagine getting into a scuffle with somebody and being like, all right, well I'll just sit next to you on the plate and flight back to my house. I don't know how that would go for most people, but for an entire team, two teams to do that is very interesting. I'm sure we'll hear some reports about that later. But yeah, I think it's a great rivalry. But the fan base thing is so interesting because obviously DC can't have as many people, but they are as equally unhinged at least in some ways as the St. Louis fan base because they have the beer steak, they have that end zone, which is just an absolute pain in the butt to play in any team that ever goes down in the end zone. Things do not go well for teams on offense every time they go down there every single time. So it's kind of a badge of honor honestly for them. I think it's something that they're proud of and it's something that it's going to be going back and forth the entire year. And now, I mean that's the north division leader right there too. That was for the North division lead, say DC three and oh, and they can hold that over St. Louis's head. So Yeah, Greg Parks I think tweeted out like, oh, it'll be really exciting to see the next DC St. Louis game. I'm like, screw the next game. They got to fly home together. They got to share a plane on the way. If they're in Texas, they're busting them. Otherwise you got to get on a plane and fly home with them. But I do think that's a lot of heat of the moment. I'll be curious and this week and kind of his messaging, because if I don't see Anthony Beck to Coach Beck to someone that wants to deal with that, I'm like undisciplined and we're having scuffles or we're having all that stuff. So I think he's going to track that down, but we'll get more into that. Let's let's share, I guess we'll go back to front and then like I said, I want to take some calls here at the end game of the night, the Sunday night night cap here, at least back Toback weekends. We have Brandon Silvers, game winning quarterback and Wade Phillips and kind of all that stuff. AJ Smith, happy to see your friend of the show getting another W like you said I think people expected this to be high scoring, but then Houston's also the best the defense in the league, so I don't know how we get that. What did you make of this 13 to 22 matchup? Like I said, I thought there would be a few more points in this game, but honestly it just shows how complete Houston is. Their defense is just outstanding. That interception by I want, and I hope I'm not butchering his name, Aja Harris, the guy who picked off that pass from Cone that was in insane. I've never seen a pick like that where the ball is over his head, it's in the receiver's hands and as it's coming down being corralled by the receiver, he just kind of takes it away and then runs back towards the end zone. That was really insane. A lot of obviously the pass rush for Houston was good. The play calling you can kind of get into with San Antonio wasn't exceptional, especially in that Goal Togo situation, they got a couple of very fortuitous penalties and got down all the way to the one and just couldn't punch it in. Their running game really leaves much to be desire as you can see at 3.6 yards per carry. I mean they just haven't really had any explosive runs yet. They haven't been able to get any thing going in that game. I think they can, I really want to see them continue to keep Jocko Patrick in there. I look, I like Caleb, bj, but I he's been kind of hit and miss as far as an efficiency runner. I think Pat Patrick needs to be more involved. The fact that Cone got held under not just a hundred yards. I mean he got a hundred held under 70 passing yards, just nothing in the passing game. After they were able to do whatever they wanted to against Orlando, their receivers got completely shut down. That to me is a huge testament against their operation because I'd seen even in that, even that St. Louis game they played, I still thought I liked things that they did on offense. They just didn't score. But this case, I mean just didn't let 'em do anything, especially for an entire first half. They were just shut down completely. The only thing they got was that kickoff return at the beginning of the game that gave a short field to score. But other than that it just really tough sledding for San Antonio. Yeah, we haven't come here Ken. Surprising that Reid's going to regular season game Kraken game over the season. I goes not if my love for the Kraken. That is not surprising at all. We were at the bar last night. I had the Kraken on one tv. I had the Braas game on the other tv. I saw the Goal Lion stand. I saw that huge, I mean momentum shifting clearly. But I mean that was the game at that point and you felt like they finally got down there and throughout the Oney yard line you have the interference and really exciting. I mean Wade Phillips has put together, I don't think this should be surprising some of Wade's caliber we bring in AJ Smith. I want to figure out, and I know we talked about this last week, but where was this Brandon Silvers all along? Is this just the perfect scheme and coordinator for him? We're in the right system. We're utilizing, I mean, 24 up 35, 2 78 touchdowns, interception. I mean, where was he back in Seattle in 2020. <laugh> Trying to keep BJ Daniels off from taking his job. That's what he was doing, but not doing a great job there. But look, I think it's a better operation for him. I mean this offense just sings under AJ Smith. There's so much weaponry that he has. I mean Max Borge obviously dual threat there. Tre Kirkland, that guy is going to be an NFL team. I mean he's, he's so good. So Fluid helped me out of his breaks. Deontay Burnett has been very good. I really like that They finally got Bryson Alene kind of involved yesterday as well. He started to have a couple of good runs there as well. But yeah, Brandon Silvers, I mean that's the best he's looked ever and it might be the best he will ever look possibly. But this is just such a, I mean it's just the offense is really fit well for him. It's crazy to see another Houston quarterback just have these kinds of numbers. Again, not to the same level as PJ Walker obviously, because it's different style from what June Jones runs explicitly with it run to shoot. But still, I mean it's the same song. It's like they play well at home, they don't lose, and they have a quarterback that's putting up really good numbers and they have a lot of great skill position players. I mean Houston, it's the, that's what's so amazing to me, especially with teams like DC and Houston. It's like the identity didn't change, which is crazy because it's three years later and yet here we are. It's like the same thing. It's they don't lose at home. They have the same style of offense and they have these fans and it's really funny how the more things change, the more they say the same, it's kind, it's almost remarkable really. And I want to pull up here, and we saw as well, I have Mark's tweet here and I know Mike was reporting this, I don't know why Mike didn't get the credit on Mark's tweet about this, but Houston attendants here, 11,000 3 0 9, I think DC was up, the other three were down slightly over last week to Arlington. The 1206 i Dorothy and I account for two of those tickets that were not sold this week that were sold back in week one so that it's only whatever. But Houston dominant, three games at home, three late games at home, I expect to bounce back when they come back. We learn that in the U S F L people have other things to do than go watch a football game every Sunday night. I know that that is crazy. Same with me going to the Kraken game. I know that that's crazy that there are other things to do. But Houston looking good. 11,000, that is a massive stadium and that that's a concern for another day. But Houston looking good, like you said, it is really crazy. Yeah, see Darryl says here, Houston rodeo's going on. There are other things going on, but Houston by the way, the best team and I would put them a category above DC and we'll get to that. But I mean where do you rank Houston to one to eight right now? As far as out of the teams? Just most Complete Team. Yeah. Oh, number one, easily. I mean just defensively and offensively. They have everything they need. They have great coaching staff, they have the pedigree. I mean Wade Phillips is an elder statesman. He's awesome. As I've talked about AJ Smith that I'm like, they have everything they need to win the whole thing. And then the south division, which is pretty tough, although there's a lot of inconsistency on offense going on. The rest of the league mean just by de facto of them having kind of more there as far as their operation goes on offense, they're going to be fine in the south division. I'm really curious to see what happens when they go on the road now. Especially when they face I, when they face, they get to face St. Louis at home now they get lucky. They don't have to go to the battle boom this year for example, they get off the Schneider there, they facing a team like DC facing a better, maybe facing just a team that has a little bit more together on offense defensively. I mean I think the Renegades were a good test. And San Antonio, look, I like San Antonio. I think they've bit the bullet here in the first few weeks and I think Hines Ward's going to figure it out. It's been a bit of a tough sledding for them. Heartbreaker at home the first week and now this game just, it's a bad matchup for them and Houston's going to be a bad matchup for a lot of teams. But when they finally have to get out there and start to be in other people's environments, that's what we'll really see. But I have to put them number one and probably then is DC number two after that followed by, I'm going to say I well look through your whole rankings right now. Have to, I had to think about it. Okay. I definitely Houston then. Yeah. Well like you said, it is. You have this experienced vet, Wade Phillips, Brandon Silvers been around the block, these guys. AJ said you have a lot of experienced knowledge there and not that hindsight, like you said, first time head coach, rookie quarterback, you're bringing in the lot. Sam has no issue with attendance. It's good. But yeah, this was a tough sled for whatever. The Braas did not look exceptionally great week one against St. Louis. So I don't know why we thought that this was going to be the high scoring affair, whatever. I thought it was good. Right. I'm certainly glad that it wasn't. I'm certainly glad that was, this was the Sunday night game and not the guardians game, which we can get into. Any other thoughts on Houston on the Braas, this matchup We can go to the other game. Well, the only thing I'll say is Houston also needs to play in the second half. They, they've kind of fallen down a little bit. Especially they did that against Arlington, they did that here against San Antonio, even against the guardians a little bit. They need to be able to come out of these second halfs a little bit more smoother in operation. I will say about silvers, he does tend to throw interceptions and he's done that in second halfs of these games in the last couple a couple weeks. And I think he needs to be able to not let that get away from, especially again on the road that's going to be a different story than it is at home. So they have to make sure that they clean that up. But as far as everything else, I mean things are rolling huge. Like I said, roughneck fans literally don't know what the feeling of losing is. It's never happened. Hey, no, It must be nice. But you know, have a long longtime friend of the show here, Philip. He's rfx fan ride or die. Here you go. It's all coming back full circle again on this point. Jacob. Yeah, silvers only did you know how to clean game this week? Right? I mean we're putting him in positions to succeed. I think you ask him to do too much and there's a level here we're hitting and that's fine. And you got to have someone like AJ that can work around that build people to the strength. Talking pressure on Cohen helps so much. Yeah, bts high quality football. It seems like people were happy with this game A game maybe that did not live up to the hype, but I don't know what hype surrounded this game. Guardians renegades, are we retroactively remembering Bob Stoops and the Renegades from 2020? It's like better than they were because this is, they really weren't consistent back in 2020 and they're really kind of struggling right now. I mean at least they're winning at home this time. They couldn't even do that the first time around. But man, yeah, this is a problem. Their offensive line is really inconsistent. They can't run the ball. They really cannot get any semblance of any sort of rushing attack and that really can't help them in taking the pressure off their quarterbacks, which who both now of them have been underwhelming. Now look, drew put couldn't really throw much beyond the line of scrimmage. I mean it was the same story. They refused to pass beyond 10 yards beyond the line of scrimmage. And when they do, it doesn't usually go very well. Now he had that one drive that they were able to put together in the fourth quarter that really helped them win the entire game. But I mean, look at some of these numbers. I mean Davion Smith, unfortunately, he was dealing with an injury. I think he was a left eye contusion. He was having a problem with that. Couldn't really get anything going. Did Kenneth Ferrell? They just brought back on after he even cut. They just, there's no identity here in the run game. And with that said, you can't really do anything play. You can't do anything. Jonathan Hayes is having a tough time calling the plays. I just wonder if he's better at the head coaching role than he is the offensive coordinator role. He's just not been very good slutty for him. Jay, Jay Hayes brother's been doing really good on defense. Their defense has been, they're really the story. They get a lot of pressure. They create turnovers. They've been really good. And I mean, I know, well it's a Orlando, of course they are. But they've been good across the board so far. The this, this Arlington offense, this doesn't improve. This team's not making the playoffs. I, I'm going to say that right now. Their offense doesn't get better. They're not making the playoffs. I think San Antonio's going to catch them and I think this is something that they is, it has to be addressed. It's something has to spark. I don't know what's going on here besides quarterbacks switching, no running game offensive lines pretty much out of sync. And I think it's just, it's all the above really. Well was the whole, everything was made and we want play or we want Slowder get play out. We don't want play. We don't want play. And then even after the game, I'm listening because the game must have I don't know if it ended early, they had 20 minutes of postgame sound like I was driving home. I had a wedding show yesterday. I was watching the game and trying to talk to brides and grooms and I'm listening to the post game on the way home and Bob Stoops is like, well we needed the spark. We needed the spark. I'm like, you got 10 points in the game you got. And I don't know if it was, we need more time to get Kyle in here and it's only been a week, Andy, if I kick you off the podcast and bring in someone else and get one extra listener, I don't like, sure that's a spark. But I don't know, it just felt like you scored 10 points. This is not, this was not an explosive outcome at that point. Yeah, I mean, well you're kicking off Shannon Sharp and you're getting what c con Cower, I dunno. Callen Cower, sure, yeah, why not? But yeah, I don't know really what to say about that performance other than actually it might have been worse than the first two weeks. It was just saying a lot. I don't think it's was even that much. Was it that much better than the Viper's game? Was it that much better than the Houston game? Hard to say. I know in the Houston game they got the benefactor of having three fumbles from Houston and then also in the first game against the Vipers Vegas just gifted them two pick sixes. So of course they, again, that's the problem here. All their points are coming from their defense and from short fields. It's not coming from these long sustained drives that it seems like every other offense at some point, even Orlando's had drives that I've at least been impressed with. But with Arlington, they just cannot get anything sustained at all. And it's really concerning. If you're going to think that, if you think you're going to get away with just playing great defense and special teams in this league, forget it. You need to have outstanding quarterback play. You need to have skill position players that play out of their minds. And I feel bad for Orlando cause I think they had some untimely drops. The Lance Leor dropped yesterday was killer, absolutely killer. They looked like they were going to go down the field at kick afield goal and win and because of one guy getting injured for Arlington, they had enough time to review the play and it backfired on them. That's a bummer for Orlando. That just heartbreaking for them. But at least they have skill position players that are doing something and at certain points I don't feel that way with Arlington at all. They just have had nothing going for them on offense. Yeah, I guess this is as good of a time as any, to kind of stop down on this, that the officiating, the rules, mark drum Heller, he was on Yahoo Sports on the show on Friday's show. We really dove into that, that Mark had a problem with the officiating. This is a problem in the N F L, we're supposed to solve this. He didn't. That was really the first I had really heard about it. Then I'm watching the games this weekend. I see a lot of tweets about it in the group chat, I saw a lot of comments from you guys. Like you said, because of the injury Dean was able to go through, there was a couple other missed calls and then we saw AJ McCarran and we'll get to that game, but complaining about the officiating and the missed calls, I guess I didn't realize it was that bad and that what seems like it is really bad. Is this a major concern? I think it means there needs to be a lot of smoothing over as far as the review process goes. Now how those reviews came about is maybe what is contested here. There wasn't a case where the replay booth was able to stop the play in time, in real time. If say someone got a catch and they were debating about how close it was and then they had to run down there and see if it was a catch, you saw the same thing in Houston. Now Houston, there was a catch by John Tre Kirkland that was debatable and they were able to stop it in time. There was no injury that stopped that. It was able to be stopped in time by the replay booth because they caught it. There are times that these things are not caught, but as we'll get into in the St. Louis game, there were certain things that happened that Beck that Coach Beckton, obviously Agent Vicar were very upset about it because the days they were not caught in real time or they were things that a lot of times, as you were pointing out on your podcast or that was being pointed out in your podcast last week, there are times where Dean Binos looking at the angles and going, I don't see anything or I can't really see this, so we're just going to have to move on. What I think it is structurally, I think there's not enough angles because I'm watching this TV broadcast and I'm not seeing enough zoom ins. There's no pylon cam I'm seeing, there's not seeing enough angles in some of these shots that would normally be used for this kind of jurisdiction. You would be able to make these determinations and that's something I've noticed. Now, I'm not sure if that means there's less cameras if they're just choosing not to use them. But that seems to me like a structural thing, which it's in fairness to then to Dean Bino, it's hard to do that specific kind of job if you don't have all the information you need at hand. So it's in fairness to him, that's tough. But I think it's also just the process of, okay, why wasn't this stopped or why wasn't this reviewed or why wasn't this thing not pointed out when it was so blatantly obvious to the Audi audience, which again, we'll get into in the St. Louis game, but it, it was pretty inconsistent in a lot of facets. I understand. Well, and it was even the debate where it was one, it was near the end of the game and Stoops wanted to throw the challenge flag because I think they've been told this week, okay, you need to challenge her. They, they're having conversations with the officials and with Dean and everybody and Dean saying, well, we're reviewing things in the last few minutes of the game, so if we're going ahead with it, know that it was the right call. You're like, okay, well so when am I supposed to use this challenge now? Or when do you want me to use it? Because you're telling me I had this challenge, but then you're telling me that, okay, we're reviewing all these plays for the final three minutes or whatever and we review all the scoring plays and turnovers. You're asking your coaches first year head coaches or Bob Stoops or whoever, you have to officiate your own game and then also call and run the it's you're putting this on a lot. I know Greg Parks had an issue with this when they announced the challenge rule to begin with at beginning of the season. You're putting a lot on these coaches' shoulders and now if we don't even have the proper camera angles or whatever to show at, very challenging. Well, it really ties the coach's hands behind their backs, especially when they challenge something early on and then they realize later on, well maybe that wasn't something that I should have had to challenge for in the first place and now there's this controversial penalty that I want to be able to go back on and say, Hey, wait a minute. No, that wasn't right. And again, the fact that it, it's not being incumbent on these coaches to do this. I still think that the sky judged system in the AAF was still one of the most effective systems. I really like that a lot, especially in terms of when flags were thrown or not thrown. That's something that I always was a fan of. That's not being done here so much but I do think it's something that needs to be observed going forward because it did. I don't know if it ultimately affected the outcome of some games, but it certainly altered the flow of some of these games for sure. Especially two of the games on Sunday, the Orlando game and the St. Louis game. Anything else with Orlando here, Orlando Renegades, any other thoughts on Stoops and crew or Buck Buckley still kind of struggle? Must there anything else on this? We can go to the St. Louis camp. Again. I think Orlando can't seem to get out of their own way. And again, I don't think it's Pax and Lynch's fault. I think he's actually doing fine. He makes good enough decisions with his arms and legs that I don't think it's on him. I really think it's still the offensive line, the fact that they just can't get any other running back going and it's penalties and unfortunate drops at the wrong time. But I do think there's just, there's something in the water in Orlando and it's a bit of a poisoning of the, well right now it's not working. I mean, look at that. He's four, he was stacked four times. Again, it's just tough. It's tough to operate as a quarterback when your rhythm, your internal clock is just absolutely destroyed. By the second quarter It's going to be hard. Oh and three now Guardians going back to Orlando and we have this prize Danny Garcia franchise and everything. It's hard. Can be world attendance. That's hard. It's hard to have a new market. It's hard to have a team struggle with that and you know would certainly hope that, not that you want any team to not be good, but you would a more established team in that way to do that. So we'll go here to the St. Louis DC game. This was hot. See, I think these games, and I don't know if it's just who I'm following online, but these games definitely seem to go the most viral, which I think is a great thing for the league because these have also been really good games. We got the beer snake and Pat Crowd and Mark's tweeting the audience. We have <laugh>, Evan Willmore finding neat friends online. Then they're tweeting that they're at the game. There's just a lot of things going on. This was a good game. It came down to the Wire. We can talk about the scuffle and all of that, but what did you make of the game itself? The game was great. The first quarter was just out of the gate. Great, because DC gets that 14 point lead immediately. Jordan Tomos finally joined, passes down field. He looks the best. He's looked all the season. The pick sticks by Michael Joseph. That guy's having incredible season. He's got three picks, he's got two pick sixes. He's been outstanding. You've got finally, what was really interesting about this game is that Derek King wasn't able to do much on the ground. St. Louis sniffed out immediately. They realized what DC was trying to do with him and they said, Nope, that's not happening. Now they still got 136 rushing yards because I think a Abraham Smith and Raquel Armstead are pretty good themselves. But yeah, I mean the game was back and forth. A lot of great big plays in the special teams, big returns. I mean, look, St Louis man, they're feisty. They do not go away. That team will just make plays left and Hakeem Butler looks great again. AJ McCarran hung in there. He made some really tough throws. Again, defensively. I just thought there was so much going on. Daven Bellamy, I mean there you got to stand out from the U S F L who got two more sacks. He's been really good on this team. DC just as an operation has looked pretty good overall. I like their mantra. I like that they just don't seem to panic anytime they're down or is tied at halftime, they just find a way to really control the game going out of the second half and they were down by three in the third quarter, but then they just were able to sustain these drives and be able to grind out, grind out the clock and get themselves in a position to not have to <laugh> have to deal with all the Battle Hawks fans taunting them going into to next week. But this has been really good for dc. They just have a lot going for them on the defensive line. They get great turnovers. I mean they are able to make opportunistic plays on defense and I like that. I'm glad that Jor Jordan, Tom finally started to come out and play well. He needed that. Especially he had this big throw down field that he had immediately that he kind of needed for his own confidence I think because it was starting to look a little iffy the first two weeks. No. Yeah, G huge and I think that was the longest play they had had up to the season at that point. The cold pick six was absolutely insane. I'm sitting, it's like pre-game. They go, Hey, you know, had this one last week. Well they're just going to give us an opportunity, man. It was like two plays. I mean it was crazy running down, same end zone, all the weird were saying you couldn't write that better. So proud. It was moments that stand out that's going to go on there, go viral, whatever else. Really exciting. And Greg Williams defense Sam here watching it. Who's the top backfield in the league right now? I mean DC is looking really good. Yeah, DC might be the top mean. I don't think they have maybe the best running backs, but I think overall as a unit they're pretty tough to defend. If you manage to get king rolling, it's really tough to know where they're going and if they're doing any option style play R p o with tou or King, it's really tough to know what angle they're coming at. So I'd say yeah, this is probably the best backfield and the best running attack in the X Ffl. But again, I think if they're able to continue having Jordan Tommo have a threat with his receivers, downfield, you're going to open up so much more for this team and it's going to be really tough to try game plan for that weekend and week out. I saw your Daniel says EC finally has a team to cheer for. They fed up with the commander's ownership. I don't know if you heard that. I saw Cliff this morning about Chance about not kind Word. I am a Commander's fan, not kind, not words to our owner, Daniel Snyder. Did you see any of those clips fool around? I have not, but that's funny you say that it's, it wasn't that the case three years ago as well too and they weren't even the commanders at that point. They were the football team. So it was a different era for this Washington franchise. But I mean that's fair. It's been really rough SLE for the WA that Washington franchise in multiple aspects. So for them to have this kind of fun, this fun aspect go to in games in DC I love just the fact that you're seeing people. There's a guy wearing literally a hat with a beer and a snake wrapped around it. I mean they're really getting into this. You have people painting their chest. There's just all this, the defender's thing is so funny. It's this kind of medieval apparel that people wear to the games like that. I mean those people are, they're nuts, they're crazy. But it adds to the camaraderie in the atmosphere. I also want to say I think the game looked really good on tv. Not only just because of the crowd but also the red and the green field, just like pot. It looked so nice. That to me was a big aspect of it. The weather was beautiful, it just looked nice on tv. I think that was really the standout for thing for me and probably why people were a little more tuned in. We have a comment here, and this is interesting. Mike and I had put this before. Mike says lot of good xFi coverage this Sweden, lots of non xFi reporters tweeting about the xFi on Saturday, Sunday and I have to watch, it was sent to me, the Rock being on SVP last night. I don't know if it is ESPN reporters having a wider breadth of Twitter presence. I don't know what it is. I see tremendously more non X F L people tweeting about this than I ever saw the U US F L. And I don't know if that was because the U S F L, it was like, okay, we're Fox, okay, this is like we don't need anybody. We're Fox. We can promote this. But I see everyone tweet, I mean I see Pat McAfee tweeting about the X Ffl. I mean I see everybody tweeting about it. We'll see what the ratings look like this week. Those should be out tomorrow. But does it seem to you or am I just in the vacuum with my Twitter feed? No, I, I've noticed that too. There are people I, I remember getting a text two weeks ago from the guy who I've pastored a billion times about what I do for a living and all this spring football stuff and he showed me a text of his dad being like, yeah, I'm all in on this. I'm choosing the Brahmas. Like I've never heard his father talk about any spring league of any sort ever. And he's a huge N F L fan. I remember people outside of the periphery getting involved. To me that was really interesting last night that no one talked about, at least not on my end. That I think is really, this is something that I want all leagues to start taking notice of during the Houston game. You saw something during the sideline interviews, you see, did you see the YouTuber got in destroying when he got in there? Yep. So he has a microphone and he's interviewing Darius Slay who is down there supporting his guy, John Dre Kirkland and talking him up and saying, he's a great player. I love this guy. He's great and you have this synergic effect between, okay, well you have football players obviously who football and want to support their guys, but then you also have these other people, the YouTube stars that are going to bring in that younger audience. Is this not something that like C F L fans have been talking about forever, about doing, about getting these kinds of people involved and saying we need to hit the younger audience crowd. We got to make sure that we have this younger demographic. That's it. To me, that is the quintessential point of getting those kinds of people involved in your product and saying, Hey, this is something that's cool to do. This is something that I'm involved with. This is something that I want other people to pay attention to. That to me was a really standout moment to me as far as an outer media appearance thing where somebody who I would never think would be involved with this kinds of little community that we're in is being involved in. That's a huge deal and I think the X F L honestly in both iterations I think have had that more in some respects. It's just been able to get these other outside voices involved in giving an opinion on it. That's a huge deal. It really is. Andy, as a YouTuber that covers all of these alternate football leagues I may or may not have an opinion on this. No, I mean obviously destroying is a far, far bigger celebrity, far bigger. I mean <laugh> a million to 0.01%. Hey, C F L, follow the mark back on Twitter. That would be a cool place to start. That'd be a cool place to start. We only doubled your C F L Gray Cup pre-show with our views, but that's fine. That's fine. That's fine. No, I like to see that and I liked seeing the M F L guys there. You was staying with, like I said, with McAfee and stuff like seeing these people. Spoiler alert, when Pat McAfee was talking about the U S F L back last year, never positive. It was never positive. And I know it's kind of joking and the refs holding the ball. We'll talk through that game here coming up, but it was meant, I thought it was meant to be good. We had Derek Carr tweeting after the St. Louis dc, the scuffle, all these players had to rejected. She'd have to fight the rock. That should be their penalty. Did the scuffle, anything else from that? I want to make sure we get to the last game and take any calls before we go. Anything else from the scuffle, the game, anything else? Well, I was going to say earlier, look, I just feel bad for Coach Beck because I think it all started when he had to use that challenge on the fumble. That was clearly a fumble by DC and he lost his challenge for the rest of the game and he couldn't challenge two other penalties that were really, or one that was called and one that wasn't called the return on one of the kickoff returns or I believe it was a pun return where they didn't get it because there was a block in the back and the clearly wasn't and it got called on St. Louis couldn't challenge that. The Jordan Tom play in the third quarter where he is in the grasp of the DC player and he is throwing the ball in the dirt and there's no one around there. It should be intentional grounding, it's not called. And then they get to run a fourth and two, they convert it and they go down and kick a fuel goal. Like that to me was kind of where it all started, where they are. He already, I'm sure was already starting to get really upset at the replay crew AJ McCarran talked about in his pre post-game press conference. Just more accountability from the replay staff and then I think it'll just pour over because DC at the end is like, haha, we've got this win. And I'm not surprised that it got shippy. I was almost expecting it too, just based on how the emotions in that game were going. The crowd atmosphere St. Louis fans thinking they're getting screwed by the calls. It all culminated in just some big tornado at the end. But I think overall it's two things. One, I'm glad that they're so invested. I'm glad everyone's so passionate about this, but I do agree that there needs to be, be some addressing of how that went down with the replaying and not trying to be overly apologetic about, oh sorry we missed this call. Shrug your shoulders. That can't happen. I understand why AJ's upset. I like that. Yeah. Was it Brian Hill? Right? I think it was doing the people's level on that Was great. That was awesome too. Yeah, <laugh> Max tweeted at me, but I was watching the kiss of rock, I think retweeted into it. He goes over it, whoever it was like takes the ball to go continue celebrating. It's like, no, let him leave him beat if, let the running back, finish their celebration. Let's let Brian Hill lead it and then you can go spike the ball or go do whatever you want. But I didn't think it was funny. He goes and picks the ball. Brian's trying to push him out of the way to go do it. I didn't think that was very, very humorous. Hey, that's a really easy way to go viral is to replicate the celebration of your owner. Our last game here I did post the lake, if anyone wants to call in, I do want to give that option after we get done with this. We'll be off here in an hour. We got about 17 minutes left big. This was needed. I have my Seattle Sea Dragons hat on. I was texting with my season ticket holders cracking. They're hot right now and I thought we were texting. Thank God the Kraken are hot. Can't handle two losing franchises. Ben Ucci to Josh Gordon in just a fire Saturday night moment, went viral for all the right reasons. Really exciting. What did you make of this game? Absolute barn burger. And I cannot believe they put up that many points in that wind. I mean they were playing in a tornado. It was 30 mile per hour winds. They somehow managed to, even the fuel goals they were able to squeak in there were remarkable. Really. They were able to get that trajectory of that ball going. I know it was different going both ways on the field, but man look, Ben Dehi needed this game. My opinion. I think he was getting close to potentially giving weight to Steven Montez, at least for a moment because it was not going well. The turnovers were a problem the first two weeks and things were just not jelly on offense. He played out of his mind <laugh> on Saturday. He made some insane throws. Great. Just overall, I mean they had what, 515 yards of offense here. I mean this is insane, or at least they did before the Neils down. But they were able to have this production from all their great players. Morgan Ellison looked awesome. I hope he is okay. He got a little bit nicked up there at the end, but he looked great. Josh Gordon was unbelievable. You had Jaco Pearson just burning people left and right. It was just amazing. It was a really great performance overall despite the field, despite the weather conditions. Again, it, it's almost like Mother Nature tried to make this another slug fest and they just, both teams were like, Nope, they're not having it this time. It was really, it was just defiant. It was a defiant performance from both sides. And really to see the Sea Dragons being down eight, they keep going for three, which I have my qualms with, but they keep going for three no matter what. June Jones just will not let that train die. And yet they just are able to oversleep continuously, overcome all these obstacles and just were finally able to get a win. It was and you could see it afterwards, they were, I mean Ben was having an out-of-body experience by the end. He was out of his mind. Van was, did you say the mayor? Van? Ben? Not Van. Oh, Ben. Oh, I'm Sure. I'm sure Van was too. Van. I'm sure Van. Van is a little hat. He was really lobbying hard to get everyone down there, but he <laugh> No, Ben was outstanding and I just loved hearing him just freak out when he threw the touchdown pass to Josh Gordon on fourth two. Well was I was going to say that because, and I see we have Jared, we have callers standing by here. If anyone wants to get in, we'll bring up Jared here in a minute. Ben could have really come into this league. I'm too cool for school, right Ben? And he's got his apparel line and that was with the Cowboys and da da da. Like seeing him squeak with enjoyment running down the field and then seeing the post game, locker room, press conference of them just absolutely freaking out. I thought was absolutely fantastic. I had I had something else I wanted to pull up too because the Sea Dragons tweeted now this is going to be terrible podcasting talk through the post-game locker room celebration. I'm going to pull this up, Andy. Yeah, no, I mean look, the emotion, it was visible I and for a team that you're like, well, they're only one and two. Yeah, but I mean one, that's their first win. And two, after all the frustration they went through the, for last two weeks, especially on offense. I think the offense needed just, they needed that game. They needed to be able to get the run and shoot going, just get anything, like anything going, especially in the second half. And look, Vegas, Vegas played well too. They were putting up points left and right. Hulu's really good at I at points. Jeff Bette was a problem. I think he should have had over a hundred yards. He was just burning the DBS for the seed dragons. They should have probably, I'm sure they feel like they should have won too, honestly. But this was two very desperate at oh and two that needed to have this victory and if they were going to have any shot to fight in the north, which we're already seeing is starting to shape up with DC and St. Louis looking really good. One of these teams needed to figure it out. And yeah, just to see the celebration. I mean that danu, she's just having the time of life in this photo. Well, I, yeah, no, see, C Dragons cannot go into Seattle next week. Oh three, I mean it. It's not happening. I did think, and I don't know, Hailey listens to the show. I'm not saying that we incepted this, but our title this week, Les, are you not Entertained X F L? And here we go. Were you not entertained last night? So I don't know. I know Hailey listens to the show. Maybe we incepted part of that in there. Last question then we'll bring on Jared, the power of the Ucci Gordon. I think Pat was already writing about it. They could break the all-time stats for spring leagues and the combination what do you make of them as a combo? I mean, it could be better than WA Walker and Cam PJ Walker and Cam Phillips. It really could. But again, whose offense was that? June Jones. I mean June Jones' system is going to make receivers and quarterbacks look amazing. That's just the fact of the matter. But I mean everybody in the stat line, I mean they just are able to utilize such a unique skillset set here. I mean look, say Seattle's talent on offense, that was not a question even the first two weeks. It was not a question. It was just a matter of can they stop turning the ball over it Inopportune times? Are they able to run the ball with any semblance of authority, which they did. They finally used Morgan E, he looks great. They needed that. They needed to have him to be able to also keep that pressure off of Ben and not just having hit it be all about him. By the way, 29 for 37 is insane. I mean, he was so accurate. Again, in that wind, I cannot believe some of the passes he threw in those conditions. Like he was throwing bullets down the field to me that that's why it was almost more shocking, not just the fact, the way they won, but just the fact that Ucci was so accurate in those conditions. That to me was surprising. I was scared. I was scared and we had the rain and the wind last week and someone was talking, okay, we're going to have the desert storms and kind of all that stuff coming into Vegas. We got three more games to get through in Vegas and then hopefully never again here. Like I said, we're going to be taking calls here on our Monday morning talk show here with Andy and I. We have Jared longtime friend Jared coming on. Jared if anyone else wants to call in here before we get out the hour or two. Jared, what are the people saying on the streets? What was the X F L week three? Well, I actually had to work, so I have the, I've been watching the replays with the ESPN plus because that was my biggest question is after the live stream is over, is it, can we watch 'em afterwards? And luckily it's a big yes and it's right after, so I, I've watched most of the games. I got one more game left to watch the Renegades, which I see there was not many points. That was kind of weird how they were a nine point favorite, but they only put up 10 points. A little bit strange. So Jared, as a guardians fan, how are you coping with the season? It's sucking and this was their chance to win a game if you're only, you know, got to win those games, if they're only putting up 10 points. There's so many other better teams right now. I got to go to, I got a ticket for the Renegades versus Orlando game last week in the season, so I'm, I'm 160 miles from Orlando so I can't go to every single game. But yeah, I'm rooting for 'em because they're the local team, but I've kind of had a keen eye to the Brahmas who I got to see and I love their wide receivers. They're not, they're tall, they're lengthy. I like Ke Kellen Barage, he's a good running back. There's some other players in the league that I like too with Seattle that eliason the running back. He was amazing. He was bulldozing people. As long as he is not getting hurt, he's a wrecker. And what did you guys think of when Ucci threw it to Josh Gordon? Josh Gordon was backpedaling for a little while and then I think he thought he was closer to the end zone or What. Yeah, I was kind of, that to me speaks of spring league players not being able to tackle. Andy, what did you make of that? I think a little bit too, but I think he also just knew the DBS were not going to get him down at that point and he was just kind of clearly in the space, I'm going to do my thing, but he seemed to be under the impression that he was about to go into the end zone. I agree with you. It is. It did seem a bit odd that he was kind of back lining. He goes, oh, I got 15 yards. So I got to round around And he still got out of the way and was able to get to the end zone and then another before I go what do you guys think of Jack Cohen throwing it to the ground so many times he might need to stop doing that because I thought one was considered a fumble. Possibly. Yeah. Andy, let's get your thoughts on that and then we'll get Jared out of here. Yeah, I think he just had no answers. I think his rhythm was shot. That defensive line front for Houston just completely destroyed any senden semblance of rhythm he was going to get. But I do agree he almost fumbled it a couple of times. I think it's just a bad matchup. I think cones actually played better than I expected overall, but he just had no chance last night he was never going to be able to see it over those defensive linemen. They were coming after him all the game. Yeah, I was thinking intentional grounding's been kind of a thing that could be more prevalent or they could be calling. Well they did in the St. Louis game. That's why they were so mad because Tom clearly threw a intentional grounding. That was the textbook definition and they didn't make that marking afterwards when they got the fourth and two Beck's like I want to know who was in the area. That's all I want to know. I want to know what receivers were there. He's right there. No, it might say that on the little box score, but that was not the case real time. All right, well thank you guys. I'm going to leave the show. Thank you. Thanks, Bye. Thanks Jared, appreciate it. Jared's longtime longtime guardians fan there. If anyone else wants to call in here before we get out, we'll touch through any final notes here before we go. I did like the Josh Gordon and I posted the link there. I starred it here. Post it one more time. If anyone else wants to call the Josh Gordon when he went into the end zone and that's the end that has just the wall and he's sitting there and you're like, Josh, there's no one. There's no one there, no one. I don't know what you think it looks like on tv, but it is. You are looking at the wall. I didn't think that was funny. The walls have eyes maybe. I don't know. Yeah, It looks like Darryl says it looked like a walk-off touchdown type of celebration by Gordon. Yeah. Alright, well, so let's go through and we ranked Houston and then DC We'll go through the final ones before we get out of here. And let's preview. Let's do a little bit of Friday preview. Who do you got for the remainder? Two for the top four of the team. All right, so my top four overall, I'd have to say as it stands, like I said, easily, I think Houston is your most complete team. I think they have the most going for 'em offensively and defensively. Number two, no surprise, it's going to be DC Defenders. I mean they're three and o, I just think that they're, and they're starting to play better. I think they're going to figure it out. Number three. Okay. Now look, I know St. Louis obviously is number three. I think they need to show me that they can just play more than just outside of the fourth quarter and a more consistent basis. I think they actually had a pretty good game against dc. They had a really good game plan that just didn't go their way. But I, once they get home, I mean they're going to look like monsters. I think they're going to be number three for sure for me then I know last week going into last week, a lot of people thought that DC was the lesser impressive team. I actually had it the other way around and I think that proved itself yesterday. Number four. You know what? I really, really actually don't want to put Arlington number four because their offense really scares me. I don't want to put them there. I want to put something that someone like San Antonio at number four, but it's hard. I don't know. It's hard. It's hard. It's hard because it's like, well, they have one less win. I know that, but it it's if you're telling me like long-term prospects who I believe in more, I'm going to put it in my stock in San Antonio. So I put them there. Arlington. Sure, I mean I'll put Arlington in number five. So I'm going to put San Antonio in number four. I'm putting Arlington number five. Sorry, but just I don't care about the winds right now. I don't care about how you look right now. That's how it goes. So then you put Sea Dragons at seven? No, I put them all, I put them at six. I put them at six, but I think they've played, they've put together some good quarters. They just haven't had the wins. I would put them at six at the moment, but I think they have a good chance to move up and that's kind of where I'm at with, And then Viper seven and then guardian number eight with the ball guys, put your rankings too in the chat before we get out of here. Yeah, I almost wanted put Vipers, I almost wanted to put the Vipers above Arlington. Yeah, I think long-term Pro, I don't know, Vipers just cannot get lucky. Cannot get lucky. Even this week, I mean I felt that game was done. I mean I really did the fourth and two and whatever it was to 45 or whatever, and Che Gordon. I don't know. I think it really could have gone the either way. Like I said, I'm glad that the dragons don't have to go in the lumen. Oh, and three the key too. And just looking at these matchups here coming up something to remember, and we deal with this all the time in the C F L, when you only have four games a weekend really challenging to bury in, all four of those games get put under a microscope. So the fact that we had three or four quality games this weekend, all of them close. Even the not good game, the Guardians Renegade n F, they can put eight games on the Sunday, 10:00 AM slot, let's hide. All these are on under a magnifying glass. I thought they all delivered this week. Come up this week. Roughneck at Guardians. The Brahm is at Sea Dragons renegades at St. Louis, and then we got the Vipers at DC this time. Which of the four is your pick? And guys, what do you think in the chat before we go? All right, so going forward, I mean, have to think it's going to be a slaughter fest with Houston and Orlando. That's not going to be even close that that's just walking into a pit of death there for Orlando. So even at home, I don't think that's going to go well. That's a tough matchup on a Saturday night for that Orlando franchise. San Antonio Seattle is very interesting. Now you got a Seattle facing a team with the identical record for the second straight week. So you got to both one and two teams. I mean apparently there's going to be some changes on San Antonio's side. H head coach, Heins Ward was alluding to that last night in the press conference afterwards. Evan, Evan Smore, our reporter, our Houston reporter was alluding to that. So I think that's going to be interesting to see what changes. I like Seattle at home. I think they're finally starting to figure things, some things out on offense. I think they're going to be okay. I think San Antonio, it's going to be tough. I think they'll figure it out on the back end of their schedule. But right now I think it's not looking good for them on Saturday night. I think that's a tough matchup for them there. Going into the battle dome, I mean look, Arlington's just basically getting sacrificed on the altar here. This is a no win situation for any of these teams. If Houston was going this in the St. Louis, I had probably picked St. Louis honestly, because I think they're just going to be so emotional in that dome. And I think this team is going to play really well behind this home crowd mean. But Arlington has just absolutely no shot. I'm sorry. Whatever spread it is, I don't care. St. Louis is going to blast them out of the building. And then with DC look, this Vegas team, real shame, their offensive skillset really, it really their offense. Brett Hunley played a lot better than what I saw with Louise Perez, obviously in week two and lots of parts of week one, but just schematically, it is interesting that they are playing them so close to the week two matchup. So they didn't have a lot of time to get better since that matchup, I think this is still not a very good matchup for them. And honestly, going into DC that's home field advantage. I can't see myself picking the vis, I really want to pick them for one of these games, but it's tough. It's tough sledding. They don't have a home field advantage and they, it's a bad matchup for them. They don't have the consistency at other parts of their team to can't. Also another team that really is hard, a hard time running the ball. Hung's legs if it help them out a lot, but they still are having a hard time running the ball. I think DC's going to close them out at home. So unfortunately, you're probably looking at, oh, in four Vegas. Yeah, I think Game of the weekend St. Louis, what? What does the dome look like? Many do. We got people hanging off the rafters, what do we have going on? And then I do very much believe at this point that any game at DC is must watch at this point. I think they have done a tremendous job with that and that to me, I get excited when I see at dc that excites me as a fan and someone that likes to watch these teams. I would watch anyone play the Defenders at that point. I think that they're that good at home. And then I don't know, lumen Field's going to be tough. Like I said Kraken play at the same time we're playing against the stars. It's a big game. It's just hard. It's hard. And then Houston the Guardians, and that's going to be your slow start to the weekend. Maybe we'll get people tune into that point. Anything else before we go? I appreciate it. This was fun. Kept it an hour today. Andy, anything else from you? Well, I was going to say are we calling Houston Orlando? Is that what we call a soft opening? Is that that what we call in the business? Yeah. Yeah. Soft opening. Let's sweat your appetite a little bit. I don't know. I think the Sunday games look a little bit better than the Saturday games at this point, just because I am really scared of that Seattle crowd Saturday night. I'll have to look at the ticket sales this week, but we know we can't even really trust those maps super amount. We'll see, that's going to be hard. Well, they're not coming off a snowstorm this time. That's the other thing. It was ungodly cold the last time, which you were in a different part of the world, so it didn't matter. But at that point I'm not a concern to you, but I think Seattle draws better obviously just because of weather conditions permeating. But also like you said, it's tough with these new markets, with these things going on. I mean, look at the Vipers I'm sure with all the different options they have in Vegas right now. I mean UFC was on, I forgot that fight. The Jones fight was going on that same, almost around the same time. I mean I know it was after the football game, but people were focused on that and being part of that whole event. So that, yeah, competition's important, especially in sports. So you got to know what's going on and scheduling around it. This is something that Danny and the rocker just going to have to deal with and Jerry's going to have to deal with going forward. E, e every time of year. It's the best time of year they're playing until it's not the best time of year. Exactly. I got comments again this weekend from people I Reid, what do you think is living up to the hype? Is it not? I've been told this is by design. We want to slow and build and we don't want to peak and then plummet. I mean that's easy. Like yeah, they're going to say that, right? I mean they're not going to say anything. The games have been exciting, said that from the beginning. I think the X F L on the field is going to be great. It's everything else that concerns me. And guess what? <laugh> not concerned right now, but it is living up to what we have said. You have said other people have said on the show from the beginning football's going to be good. Everything else I worry about. Any other thoughts? I know you got to get to work here. I'm just hoping that we get to see more consistent offense. I think the offense was great this past weekend. I hope we see more of that. And I think you're really going to start to see the contenders kind of separate themselves, at least by win margins. It's G it's starting to happen right now, but yeah, mean fast week was the best weekend of football and I hope we get more of it this next weekend. All right guys, thanks so much. Like subscribe. Like I said, I appreciate Andy coming on these Monday morning call in talk show, whatever. We had someone else try to call in and then they dropped off. But yeah, if you ever want to call in I think Thursday show this week, figuring out guests. But yeah, I got to go work Friday morning. So unless you want a, want a 4:30 AM episode drop Friday, I think we'll do Thursday, probably Thursday morning. But I'll tweet out, follow along, like it subscribe, follow Andy on the Twitter, he does his kind of key takeaways right of the weekend articles. And then follow Mike Mitchell because I want to see the TV ratings tomorrow as well. So Michael will be posting about that app by Mike Mitchell on there. Thank everybody. Again, I'll play the outro music here. Where did that go? And we'll see you next time.

Episode 134 - XFL 2023: Are You Not Entertained?

Coming up this week on The Markcast. Well, as we approach XFL 2023, week three, watch as gameplay slowly improves TV ratings. Week two could be better, could compete worse depending on who you ask. I have a question for you. In the words of Maximus Desus Radius, are you not entertained? Are you not entertained? Are you not entertained? Is this not why you are here? But seriously, I do want to know, are we having fun? Are we enjoying this version of the x Ffl is just better or worse than we thought. Lots of things to discuss asking a wide variety of people going to get different answers depending on who we talk to. First and foremost, we ask Tom Lugen Bill, historic Historic x Ffl 2001 winning coach with the LA Extreme broadcast X F L 2020 and now is back in the saddle again. Tom, are you having fun? I'm Having a blast with this. I think it is. It's a tremendous amount of fun. It's always been fun. It was fun in 2000 2001. It was fantastic prior to the pandemic and now it's just this fun now and really interested to see, cause I think over the next two to three to four weeks you'll really start to see kind of who made the right decisions in terms of personnel. You got to stay healthy, obviously you got small rosters. Well the quarterbacks will really start to emerge the teams that, and everybody right now is struggling in the offensive line, but that will start to clean itself up and that's the stuff I'm looking forward to over the next two to three Weeks. And then we deep dive preview all of the X F L matchups this week with Mark Drum Heller over at Yahoo Sports. Mark's tracking all the bets. You over unders Mark, are you having fun? Are we bear steam bears? Too much vacation, too much football at this point or are we good <laugh> Now I'm good. I mean listen, I, I'll take all the football I can get so it doesn't bother me none. And like I said, I think the league has done a good job of promoting it and it's just the first couple weeks, like I said, typically it there's going to be some continuity issues. I think we're seeing that with the offenses and stuff. But I think the product will get better each year. And that was one of the things that in 2020 that we missed out on after five weeks it got shut out down. So we didn't see kind of the end product at the end of the year like we did in the U S F L in the spring. And then someone I can tell you who is very much not having fun is friend of the show Chris Matthews. Chris is our war zone correspondent who is at Cashman Field last week. Chris, are you having fun watching the exe field this season? That was the mentality. I mean it was rain, it was pouring, let's go, let's go have some fun because this game is not fun. So let's go have some fun and watch something else and cover something else. And that was, we used to how many people left at cash at Cashman Field And even when we're sitting there we're thinking, wow, this is just too bad. I mean they paint the grass, it looks crappy still. And then not just X Ffl talk on the podcast back to our C F O roots as well. Farhan Lo longtime friend hasn't been on since the breakup, had the big report last week. Boka, Bethel Thompson heading to the New Orleans Breakers. You Brian Scott now is heading north to the Argonauts. What is happening? We are talking with Farhan, getting all of this spring football, alternative football, all the talent wars, transitions, everything like that. So right now it doesn't affect what you're seeing today because the players that have been in the CFL and have earned starter's money, those guys are generally in their late twenties. So the N F NFL is in the rear view mirror for them so they know what a good league this is and how much money they can make here. So they don't want to go to the U S F L in the X ffl. In most cases, the guys that are going into those leagues are younger and the N NFL dream is still there. So they go and they think we can play for a shorter period of time make whatever money, stay active and then be available if there's an opportunity in the N F L, right? And then say it ain't. So we are building Bridges New beginnings here on the mark Cast new friend and I think he said partner of the mark cast Cody Fuo, your starting quarterback for the Montreal AZ Viva less AZ Cody coming on the show. Do we get off the block or are we no longer blocked? Cody, are we having fun? Like I said early on in the interview, you guys do a lot of great things for the league and bring a lot of awareness, a lot of eyeballs to this league. And so to be an advocate of that and to be an ally to you guys as well I think we're have having a great working relationship definitely starts today. Start it out so you guys aren't blocked anymore and I'm excited to see everything down the stretch and hopefully we can get on this. I can get on your guys' show again and we can continue to talk. Paul big time show back in the studio this week. Hope you enjoy it. Hey guys, welcome to the Mark read here. Thank you all so much. It's been a crazy last couple weeks. Last time I was here we were talking to espn, Kevin Seifert previewing X F L week one at previewing the kickoff, everything else have another ESPN broadcaster on today we have Tom Logan. Bill. I really appreciate everyone coming on the show. All of our guests, everything else you guys watching Patience, we had the live shows, live was gone and all of that other stuff, but now we are back here in the mothership in the Maras headquarters. Should be fun. Big time show for you guys today. Lots of guests I'm really excited about. First and foremost, Tom Lugen built coming on of ESPN and the X F L broadcast team. Tom historic name in the lores of X F L. Tom was with the LA Extreme back in 2001. Won the million dollar trophy game with the X F L back then Tom with the broadcast team back in 2020. And now here we are again in 2023. Tom, lots of thoughts on the X F L. You have quality of gameplay talking DC defenders. Tom was at the cash and field game last week, going to be talking defenders again as St. Louis goes into Audi field this weekend. Really appreciate Tom coming on the show. And then full four game breakdown, everything you need to know the betting odds, everything with Yahoo Sports, mark drum Heller coming on, been trying to get Mark on for a long time talking to X F L. Really appreciate his expertise. So super, super appreciative of Mark coming on and then I had to reach out, back out. Chris Matthews, the K L A s down there in Las Vegas, sports director there. Chris was on the field in the muckety muck there in Cashman Field last week. I had to get Chris's thoughts. Chris remember was a little hesitant about the X F L in Vegas and didn't really know what was going to work out with that. Wanted to get Chris's follow up thoughts today after this week after Chris was part of just a really memorable more or less memorable than Lemon game. I'm not really sure but the Cashman field game the Dragons are going in there this weekend. So we'll see how that all works out. And then like I said, lots of C F L stuff. Really appreciate Farhan coming on today spending a lot of time with Farhan. He's a busy guy covering all of the C F L and all the movement stuff he does. And just thought it was a really cool conversation though. Farhan had the story about McLeod going to the Breakers and now like I said, we see friend of this show, Brian Scott here heading up to the Argonauts and we're getting movement and so is this the start of things to come? Is this the beginning of the end? What is happening there? Really appreciate that. And then truly a day I never thought would come, although I did have a good inkling when Cody Fajardo famously, it wasn't really like a feud but just like Cody, we got blocked by Cody one day on Twitter. I think just in the barrage of stuff and then it's really kind of morphed into whatever this has been the last two and a half years of just kind of jokes and stuff. When Cody got signed to the OZ here a couple weeks ago, I thought well this is my end because I have zero relation with the Saskatchewan Rough riders have tried a couple times, but we do have a very good relationship with the Montreal Awes team over there and everybody and I thought this is my reached out, got Cody Fuo on the mark cast. I promise if you are a C F L fan, you do not want to miss this. It's like 20, 22 minutes Cody passionate guy, ton of thoughts, energy sat down was all in. That's all we can ask for. And I think we have a new friend of the podcast. I'll talk more at the end of the show but I think we have a new friend of the podcast with Cody. So hope you guys enjoy the day. Five guests should be a good show again next week. Reaching out to some other people. I think Mike Mitchell said he's wants to go all in next week on X ffl, so that could be fun. And then I have a big time C F L guest. If you see my shirt, it's a BC Alliance playoff shirt. Might be a spoiler for who I'm taping that probably as you listen to this today, I'll be taping that. So could be a good interview again next week. I'll check back in at the end of the show. Thanks so much. And I almost forgot, check back in at the end of the show and we will be announcing the winners of our Brian Scott signed football and the spring league jerseys that we have yo know now heading to the C F L, this thing has gone, it's like stalks buy low, sell high, ride the wave. Brian now top of the world heading up to the C F L, going to the Toronto Argonauts that was reported and then officially announced this week from the team. So check back in, we'll be given away the Brian Scott Ball, maybe someone north of the border wants this. Now maybe this is a valuable asset there for your Canadian football mami memorabilia. But check back in at the end we'll be giving this away and everything else. Thanks. Well it's a good day when I can bust out my LA extreme. Oh one x f l jersey here talking. Oh I do, I do some bad work here behind the scenes guy. Tom Logan, bill here. How are you doing sir? I'm good. So I'm going to match you. I'm match you here. How about this? Oh look at that. That's hot. Yeah. What do you think? Huh? I like that looking good sign. Old School. Old school man I love that jersey. I was joking with somebody the other day. They're like, do you still have stuff? I'm like, oh yeah, I've got the million dollar game hat, I've got the million dollar game shirt got a championship ring. I still wear a lot of the sweats that we have and I still wear 'em to this day, man. I would wear that championship ring every day all the time. I would never take that out. That would be right next to my wedding rink. I haven't worn it yet. I haven't worn it for a game. We were two weeks in and my producer was like, do you want to do anything with that? I'm like, do what with it? He goes, I don't know. I'm like, I don't know either. We'll figure it out. Well yes you have my, I think that's a cool, a good humble brag. I think that's fine. I think you can bust that out at some point. So we're here today Tom talking, we're week three previewing kind of X F L football here. Tom was with a DC of diapers last week and now this week it's going to be St. Louis. I think this is kind of the most anticipated matchup and we can get into that St. Louis that the battle of the Undefeateds against dc. But how is life going for you right now? Welfare check X Ffl 3.0, you're back again. Again. <laugh> going good man. It's a lot of fun. Mean for me it's a lot of juggling because I still have my recruiting duties at the high school level and I've got to travel for those at times for camps and combines and studying tape of high school kids and at the same time getting my work in and prepping for X ffl games. The good news is unlike when we broadcast college football games and depending on what week it is, we could have any one of 25 teams, you know, start to get to know the teams pretty well when you watch the tape with the limited amount. And then for our crew, for whatever reason, we've had DC for the first three weeks of the season and I've really kind of gotten to know them. And as you me mentioned, saw Vegas week one, Seattle week one or Vegas week two. Seattle week one, going to see St. Louis this week. Listen, I'm having a blast with this. I think it is. It's a tremendous amount of fun. It's always been fun. It was fun in 2000 2001. It was fantastic prior to the pandemic and now it's just this fun. Now I'm really interested to see, cause I think over the next two to three to four weeks you'll really start to see who made the right decisions in terms of personnel. You got to stay healthy, obviously you got small rosters, but the quarterbacks will really start to emerge the teams that, and everybody right now is struggling in the offensive line, but that will start to clean itself up and that's the stuff I'm looking forward to over the next two to three weeks. It's crazy and I was been excited to talk to you ever since the broadcast crews were announced and I thought let's wait, let's get some games under our belt here. Because obviously you could do a whole segment just on stories from the past and everything. But how crazy is it to think to be back again in 2020 and then with everything but now to be back again and just have this to be such a cool kind of keynote or book note of your life as part of everything you've been a part of? Yeah, I mean it's unique. I've had some really cool runs. I was a part of the coaching staff at N F L Europe, the Kurt Warner was on. I've coached in the Arena football league, I've worked in the N F L as a scout. I've had a pretty eclectic career and then moved out of coaching and scouting and into broadcasting. And I never would've thought, first of all, I'd never had any plans to enter into broadcasting that kind of happened by accident. But to think that the X ffl would've come back 20 years later or 19 years later and 2020 and then now again, and to be honest with you man, I really, really felt for the league in 2020 because it was rolling along and it was good football, the rules were fantastic, it was going to work. All of the broadcast and the presentation problems that we had in 2001 were corrected. All right? And so the football and the rules only enhanced that we were starting to, I remember the last game that I did in week five was at Houston and that was the first weekend that they opened the upper deck on both sides of the stadium because there was demand for it and it just started to get its groove and then boom, the pandemic hit. And so I'm really glad that DJ and our chairwoman, Danny Garcia brought this thing back to life because I think they could see it worked, it was working and it can work and it's a great viable option in the spring. And we cover all the leagues on our show and we do U S F L and C F L and stuff and there's been a lot of, with the Hub and Birmingham for the U S F L and X F L going into markets and I thought the DC game for example, week one with the lemon and everything and the fans that demonstrated the need to have passionate people that have bought in that are there, even if it's not we're at capacity yet, we're building towards it. But you have people there that are invested in the product that are really excited. There's no question. And especially in DC at Audi Field because it's the perfect venue for a league like this, it's about 22,000 fans. I think it will be close to capacity on Sunday and our game at 1:00 PM on fx really good turnout for a night game in week one. And again, their fans care, they're passionate about it. St. Louis at their home games in 2020 and I think now in 2023 going to be very, very strong. Seattle was up against a very high, very highly ranked N H L game that was right across the street last Thursday. I think that hurt their capacity to some degree. San Antonio seems to be excited about it. So listen, I think as with everything, if you put a winning product on the field, people will pay attention. They'll want to come, they'll want to be a part of something. What's made DC's fans unique is they look at it like an experience. They're there. <laugh> not too dissimilar to what the X F L was in 2001 where it's like a rock concert with a football game going on and that's how those fans view it and that's how they conduct themselves, which makes the environment so good. What I liked about it this well is you know, have the controversy, it's not the XFL salt really all this lemon stuff, but the game itself was good, right? Yeah. It wasn't like it was this crap game and then hey, we're doing the wave and we're kind of like doing, I've been to wrestling events where it's crap and we're kind of, you're entertaining yourself. No, this is a good game and we're part of this experience and it's all, it's a positive, right? Yeah. The thing that was cool about it is it just happened to be circumstance, but when the pick six occurred in week one for DC that was in the end zone where the beer snake was. So you already had everybody all upset cause they dismantled the beer snake. So now the fans are all bad out of shape and then something good happened for their team and when that happened, everything changed in that game. So it just goes to show you how momentum and energy and atmosphere can make an impact on a team. My so I, I'm Seattle and like you said we are I do think X F L is there. A lot was made with 2020 and the attendance. I do think it's hard right now. The Kraken are really hot. I mean we were just watching the blues game last night and taking the Bruins here, the five and the blues in against that game last Thursday. But a good market is Seattle better than they should be right now with oh and two with the staff that everyone has over there? Yes. Their issue for two weeks in a row have been self-inflicted wounds, turning the ball over, making bad decisions and poor plays at the wrong time during the game and then when they have the other teams capitalized on it. I think that's the thing that has really hurt them because you can make an argument that's one of if not the most experienced coaching staffs in the entire league but it just goes to show you coaches don't have any eligibility left. So once you get on the field and you've coached through the week, the players are going to have to make plays. But you know what, we've seen this with just about every team across the league, even from the two and oh teens. I mean let's not kid ourselves. St. Louis hasn't lightened the world on fire for the first three quarters of the first two weeks now they've really made their hay in the fourth quarter. Orlando's really struggled with mistakes and turnovers in poor quarterback play. Seattle's turnovers have just absolutely killed them. And so really the teams that have minimized mistakes early in the season when it's hard to do because this is the time of the year in a league like this where you are really exposed up front in the offensive line. Everybody is across the board five weeks to camp what preseason games and you're taking the group of players, the one position group that needs the most cohesion and time to gel and you're throwing 'em out there and they're at a huge disadvantage, which in my opinion is why DC's approach in all of this was really, really smart. And that was they're going to run a college offense and they're going to have a mobile designated runner at quarterback and they're going to force defenses to have to defend quarterback run, which in professional football those guys aren't accustomed to doing. And then it takes pressure off your offensive line. If you watched the Vegas DC game last week for the first half of that game when the weather was good and Derek King hadn't come into the game yet, Vegas was teeing off on defense, man, they were playing with confidence, they were pinning their ears back, they were making negative plays, they forced that turnover on the two yard line that led to the Vegas touchdown and then all of a sudden the game plan offensively changed when Derrick King came in the final two quarters of that game, Vegas was lost on defense. They were hesitant, they were wondering if they were right, they were guessing and it put them in a real conflict of assignment. And right now in the league, DC's the only team that can do that to any other team because of how they structured the quarterback position. It just seems like just to find finish on Seattle, it just seems like they're really allergic to running the ball that Jean Jones really we're putting Ucci and I love Ucci and I think he was another story could have been like the AJ McCarran kind of rebuilding and I'm here, I mean it's only two weeks and DC's weird. I mean I'm already seeing for MU's head and let's go with Dear King or let's go with Dungy or whatever is the TEU excelled in 2020, didn't play great in the US F L now is back and I mean they're fine serviceable as a two has a two-pronged attack there, but it doesn't seem like ti Mus light in the world on fire. No he's not. He's been very streaky in terms of accuracy. He's missed open players at throws that you should make in professional football. He's just got to become more consistent. But you can't put 'em on the bench because you need both of 'em at least until a defense shut down quarterback run and force Derek King to throw the ball and move the ball through the air, which DC hasn't had to do with D King yet. So you do need both of them. There does need to be a one-two punch. There obviously is a concerted effort in DC to run the football with Abram Smith and with Raquel as well. They've got two running backs that are really good plus Dear King plus Jordan to amu. They just got to get more consistency in the passing game from Jordan and if they do the then they're going to become really, really dangerous. And I listen, I think June Jones knows that there's opportunities to run the football but the running shoots never been about running the football and so that's just kind of who they are In the nicest way possible. What was the experience like at Cashman Field last week? <laugh> really unique. It was interesting and I give Vegas fans credit because the thing only holds 9,000 fans and I'm not exaggerating when I say there was just under 7,000 there prior to the weather coming into play, then it obviously became sparse, but a lot of the fans stayed and just moved under the overhang in what would've been the corner behind home plate of the baseball configuration. It's a difficult venue to broadcast in. It's a difficult surface because it had just been laid down and then you add weather on top of it. We saw what that did to the kicking game with both kickers, but by and large most of the down players were able to keep their footing and the surface didn't become as big of a deal as I think a lot of people were thinking that it might it's just tough when you don't have any type of seating or structure on one end zone and the opposite sideline it's, it's a fan structure or fan experience, which I would say probably is an ideal. But the fans were into it, I'll give 'em that. It was cold, it was windy, it was super rainy. Our booth was leaking like crazy and so it's part of it man, and that's where they're at right now and it's unfortunate but that's a team that's owning too that's kind of taken the same route as Seattle wounds picked sixes, turnovers just, you can't get out of your own win. It's hard to win football games when you do that. Yeah, I mean it really seems like if it wasn't for that fumble by DC they're near going the other way. They vipers wouldn't have had really any offense at all the whole game. No, they were really struggling to get any continuity in any rhythm and in long term Brett Huntley is probably their best solution, but he is only been there for a couple of weeks and I think they can do some of the quarterback run stuff with him that DC's doing if they choose to employ that. If they could have a very similar approach to DC's if they wanted to use Louise Perez and Brett Hunley in similar fashion to Jordan and Dear King and probably have a lot of success with it Was surprising me, DC and we have Greg Williams kind of this vaunted defense and I think that's living up to it. How do you think that Vipers with Woodson and everyone else over there, it felt like they're also kind of doing a good job on that regard on the other side of the ball For Vegas? Yeah, they were until quarterback run came into play and then everything changed for 'em. It was really hard for them to, they were guessing they had guys that were hesitant because they weren't sure of their keys in the backfield action. You don't know if you're giving it or if you're keeping it. No. Again, same problems that they are created at the college level. DC's the one team that can look like and run a college offense in professional football in this league. The thing with Greg Williams and DC on defense they do so many things posts snap that are going to look vastly different than what they look like they're lining up in pre-snap that it's creating a lot of problems for opposing quarterbacks. It's forcing them in the bad decisions. It's confusing them. We've seen it for two weeks in a row. It'll be interesting to see if we see it versus AJ McCarran who's far more experienced. And the St. Louis offense, by the way, is of the offenses in the league that I've seen, it's the most ultrapro style multiple under center shotguns, shifts, motions tie check with me is at the line of scrimmage, a lot of football principles in their offense and that hasn't necessarily been the case with the two offenses that DC and Greg Williams have faced yet. So going to be interesting to see that chess match as well. In terms of AJ McCarran, is that by and large the best story thus far out of the season and just his story about playing for his kids and all that? To be honest with you, it's not too dissimilar to Tommy Maddox and his story In 2001 when I had him in Los Angeles, Tommy Maddox was the first round draft choice got taken by the Denver Broncos. They've got John Elway never really gets a chance to be the guy ends up in New York and then ends up out of the league and he wanted to play football so bad that he ended up going and playing in the Arena football league. And some of the conversations he and I had leading up to the draft that year were, why are you doing this? You're independently wealthy, you did a really good job with your first round money and that was back in the nineties, so we're not talking about light altering money, but he really didn't need to play football. And he was like, I love it. I want a chance to prove that I wasn't a bust and I'd love for my family and my kids to see me play. So I love that, I appreciate that. I think that's what this league is all about and it's about opportunity about more. There's going to come a time where AJ McLaren's kids are going to be in high school or college and they're going to be scrolling through their phone or they're going to be looking on the internet and they're going to see a picture with them as little kids with their dad after a game and their dad's in a football uniform. That doesn't happen for most people and it's going to mean something and I think that's pretty cool. Is St. Louis undefeated? I think both St. Louis and DC maybe are the standings make them look a little bit better than they are. We talked DC facing certain St. Louis. Are they just getting lucky at the end? Is Beck doing things? Is AJ excelling? How do you put them, the success on their side? Well they were more consistent offensively earlier in the game this past week than they had been in week one. I mean if you remember in week one versus San Antonio, they just couldn't even get a sniff, couldn't move the football effectively. Then their running back got hurt. Who's a really good player, hoping to see him back. But I'll say this, I think that they are, we always hear coaches say, you got to finish right? Don't look at the scoreboard, just keep playing. Go out there execute. Don't worry about what the opponent's doing. They are a picture perfect form of doing just that. They just hang around like a dirty penny man and then all of a sudden if there's an opportunity to make a play, they've been able to make some of those plays, which I think is really cool. And it just goes to show that some of the rules now in the X F L keep you in the game when you think you're out of the game, a fourth and 15 if you want to go for it, the ability to go for three instead of one after a touchdown changes your entire outlook. You kind of have this mindset in the back of your head that well no matter what happens, even if it looks like we're down double digits, we're really not down double digits. We could be down one score. So we'll see. I would say the rules are in favor if you're a coach, I'm like maybe Trell, Buckley. That doesn't take advantage if you take advantage of the rules that you have at your disposal. I think maybe you can, it is a closer game than maybe it could be. Yeah, I think the one thing that we haven't seen we haven't seen the challenge come into play yet, at least in the games that I've had and I'm not too sure with the others. We haven't seen a challenge come in where a coach said, Hey listen, you guys screwed up that call and we want you to challenge it and then have it be reversed and have it helped the team that had gotten hurt based on the call and now they get helped based on the call it's coming. I think we're going to continue to see that. The challenge with the challenge is that you have to have enough eyes on the sideliner in the press box to see a review of that thing quickly, to be able to tell the Cote coach challenges, we're going to get this back, I promise you we're going to get this back. But it's not always easy from a timing perspective to get that. So you got to be ultra dialed in when those moments come to be able to be and be ready to pull the trigger. Yeah, I think there was one in Seattle I think that they wanted last week that they wanted to challenge or one of the spots or something. I've been traveling here after the kickoff game, so I've been trying to watch a lot of this in post more of them, but it does, that's kind of the last one, like you said, that we've seen the conversion and we've seen the come from behind and do all that stuff. Like with St. Louis against the problems week one. So, Oh, let me add one thing too to that. In week one, if you remember DC Derrick King had a 45 yard run and it completely swung the momentum and they called DC for a holding call that was atrocious. It was terrible. And I called it out on air this last week leading up to the Vegas game when we had Coach Barlow. And I asked him, I said, I mean as bad of a call as that was, I said, why didn't you challenge it? And he actually said to me, he goes, you're right, I probably should have because it would've gotten them the 45 yard run, put them in I think plus territory at the 15 and momentum was swinging big time. But I think sometimes you get so caught up in it and again, you got to have so many people in your corner that are watching for these things to alert you. Cause they can't just be on you as the head coach, you're going to need help. But that was an opportunity I thought that was lost for a challenge. In terms of, just before I let you go here, in terms of the broadcasting, we know in the X F L and the ultra access and being able to hear everything how do you enjoy that as a broadcaster and be being able to we're included in that world together? Yeah, I do and I have a tremendous amount of respect for the folks that are on the field because I was on the field in 2020 in my field analyst role that I serve in college football as well. And now being in the booth with it it's not easy. You're running around, you're chasing, you're trying to get to that guy that just intercepted the ball. You're trying to get to that coach that just called a fourth and three conversion and it did backfired on 'em and you got to hustle and you're going to have to ask some tough questions and the access is fantastic. And then the follow up is where you've really got to be good in my opinion. To me, this whole thing is about laying out and listening and then when you hear something and you can educate the viewer further what you've heard, then you jump in. But the goal is to let the audio steer the broadcast whether that's a coach, whether that's a player, whether that's the call going in from the sideline. And to me, our job is to chime in when there are moments when there are times I really like to, when I hear a call offensively or defensively, be able to give the viewer an idea of what's coming, alright, this is what you just heard, this is what we can expect to see, so on and so forth. But I love it. I think it makes you a more disciplined broadcaster because we don't have these elements in college football or in the nfl. You're calling the game from the booth and now instead you're not, you're reacting and following the bouncing ball, which I think is a little bit different and unique but also again, makes you more disciplined. Well, it's the same. And I watched a lot of, we were talking before the Kraken broadcast, you do, you have a lot of pontificating. They be like, well, I wonder what they're saying. I wonder what's going on there. I wonder whether we don't have to wonder here. And you're locked in and even in the Vegas thing when the comms were down and hey, they're not working and we're going to go, we're taking them down and we're going back. It was messy but at least you knew what was going on. You had the firm grasp of it as a viewer. And a lot of that is on us. We have to do the job of telling you, hey, if you're not hearing it, this is why. And the rule in the league, if you're down on one sideline, you've got to take 'em away on the other sideline. But for a league of access when you have comms problems, it kind of really creates a problem for the broadcast because that's really what we're relying on. And I think the other challenge too that we've run into a little bit is only one of the quarterbacks is Mike, which is going to be your starting quarterback. So if the other quarterback plays when he's in the game, you're not going to have audio from him. So when Derrick King comes into the game, he's not Mike. When Brett Huntley came into the game, he's not Mike. So it kind of limits some of the access you're going to have. So then you kind of fall back on the coaches more so the players because the way it works for, so the fans know in order for the mic and the audio to go into the player's helmet from the coach, when they press that button, that also simultaneously sends it over the air live. So we don't get to turn that on and off. The coach has to press the button in order for us to get it. So we're relying upon that a little bit as well. But if you don't press the button and his players aren't going to get it either. So he's got to be disciplined in that regard. Well yeah, and that's always good constructive feedback. That's something maybe we can implement or work on or get getting another helmet there said that. But that is actually, that is an interesting point I didn't think about, so I appreciate that insight. Yeah, yeah, no problem man. Well anything else before I let you go? I appreciate you taking time. You got your coaches calls and everything later this week getting ready for the begin this weekend. Yeah, I'm just excited about it. I think we've got the best contest in the league and the best venue this weekend. I think in the next two to three weeks we'll really start to see teams separate and it will be based on quarterback play, how an offensive lion gels and whether or not you stay healthy. I mean that's the whole goal in all this. So you get those three things going in your favor, you're going to have a pretty good football team. Well Tom, I appreciate your time. Like I said that we'll be looking forward to hearing you on the broadcast and maybe we can get you on here in the future later in the season, but I really appreciate your time today. You bet, man. Thanks for having me. Well I had to bring on, I've been wanting to bring back on Mark here for a long time. Busy man over at Yahoo Sports. We tried to get him on, I think with the XFL draft and then the pre and everything. But I think he's the only man that ever made a super cut of his appearance on the show and posted it so I could share it. I was so appreciative. Mark drum Heller with Yahoo Sports, how are you Doing great, man. Doing great. Listen, it's always football season, so excited about the X F L and what we got going on and only two weeks in, so we learned a little bit, but it's going to be really fun to see it kind of kicking the high gear over the next couple weeks. Is it I, I'm still working on the theme as we record this part of the show. Is this are we bear steam bears too much vacation, too much football at this point or are we good? No, I'm good. I mean listen, I, I'll take all the football I can get so it doesn't bother me none. And like I said, I think the league has done a good job of promoting it and it's just the first couple weeks, like I said, typically it there's going to be some continuity issues. I think we're seeing that with the offenses and stuff, but I think the product will get better each year and that was one of the things that in 2020 that we missed out on after five weeks it got shut out down. So we didn't see the end product at the end of the year like we did in the U S F L in the spring. Yeah, it's interesting the ratings came out and that was, I mean it's kind of old news now, but it's hard to compare because we never know what do they want. And it was the same debate we had with the U S F L back and I wanted to get your thoughts kind of comparing, but they get 600,000 on ESPN two, but when that's doubling what ESPN two normally gets, I don't know. I mean that to me feels good, but I don't know what they're expecting. Yeah, it's tough to tell. I mean again, the streaming numbers aren't baked in or whatnot and it's a little different. U S F L has FOX backing them, you know what I mean? So they're probably going to get a little more leniency and they probably have a better understanding of how they need to promote it or whatnot. But I thought one of the things that did jump out at me in week one was is I felt like just the online buzz was much better. I felt like people were talking about the league, they were excited about some of the ex-players in there that were either players or coaches, rod Woodson and Hines Ward and those guys and it, listen, the on to field product will get better as the season goes on. And I think the coaches as well, we talked about the X coaches, I think that's been a big factor so far. The ex-players kind of hopping in there and getting an opportunity. So those things will get better as the season goes on. But I like that the buzz was there, people were kind of talking about it. So I just hope it kind of continues as we get into March because of course we got March man is coming, we got a lot going on in sports so they're going to have to hold their own. Yeah, and it was the same joke I made with the US F L back in the spring, whatever time of year is the best time until it's like, man, the competition's really hard. April was the best time until it was that damn Stanley Cup playoffs and now we have be it goes. My question for you, so you were back on U US F L talking that season, you were doing your sports betting stuff we lamented that U S F L not reaching out, working, helping you and doing all that stuff here. It was either pre-season or week one X F L retweeting your stuff with Yahoo Sports talking about that. And I thought stark difference, I know it's week two, so Buzz is always going to be more earlier in this season, but are you sensing more buzz X F L with your work versus U S F L the same or different? I think it's better with the X ffl and some of that just comes from the broadcasting partners. Anytime ESPN's involved, I think people are going to have it in their face more and they're going to kind of understand it more. And the other part of it too, Reid, is I think it's important is when the X ffl came out in 2020 and when these spring leagues pop up, we hear the same story. We hear, oh, nobody wants this, this'll never work, it never worked before, yada, yada yada. But now that it's not going anywhere, right, they're going to keep trying, whether it's U S F L, whether it's X ffl, it's going to be there. And I think people as the years go on and it, it's back now after last spring, so now they're kind of getting a little bit more comfortable trusting that it's going to be there maybe long term. So they're kind of more willing to invest in it. And I think that's part of it too is when it first pops up you're kind of like, hey, this is going to be gone in two weeks. A lot of people were saying that about the U S F L, they made it through the season. Of course they had their challenges with the hub and not having home crowds and all that wasn't a perfect product but it's going to be back again for year two. And I think as that continues, I think people will just be more to the leagues in general in supporting them. Where before it was almost like taboo because they didn't think it would last us, Well it's almost like X ffl 2020 kind of bega here U US F L and FOX being interested in this. But now U S F L'S success through season one now is going back in like you said, giving more confidence in both U US F L, and I would have to think if you were okay with U S F L confidence level that combined with, we've talked to ad nauseum, Danny and the Rock and everyone else has to work in that favor as well. Yeah, I think so. I mean think that it and having two leagues throughout the course of the spring, we'll see how that works out this year. It listen how the individual leagues are going to, how sustainable they'll be. We'll have to see. But that's kind of the exciting part about it. One of the main things with the X Ffl, the last time it was around is we did see rapid development with the players and with the teams and catching continuity. And I think we saw that a little bit in the U S F L, but in the X ffl scoring was up to 25 points per game that final week. It was week five, you saw offenses like Houston Tampa Bay and who was the other? It was Houston, Tampa Bay and LA and those teams back in 2020, they were hitting 400 yards, 500 yards per game. By week five. The offenses were really prolific averaging over five yards per play. We haven't seen that level of offense at this year's version of the US of the X ffl, but it's still early. So that's kind of what we have to look forward to is we get through these next couple weeks, you're going to see these teams really start to gel. You're going to see the coaches start to figure out the rules right into conversions and when to be aggressive and when not. I think that's been a big part of scoring being down and I think all of it's just going to lead to a better product. So I think when we talk about the X Ffl this year and the sustainability, it's going to have to get through March. It's going to have to get through March Madness, but I'll be interested to see what it product looks like at the end of the year, what the buzz is during the playoffs and ultimately the championship. And I think that's going to be the telltale sign. So you over at Yahoo Sports do a lot of sports betting analysis, all that we're previewing here and that as well as just the games here, general kind of week three preview what do you make of the slate? We have the weird Thursday game now we're getting, we got Saturday Triple Heather Sunday, it feels like I was so mad. I said I sat and I go, I'm going to be able to watch football all day Sunday. I'm very excited. I cannot wait. 10:00 AM just like whatever. And then I forgot I got asked to do this at Wedding Show out in Iser. Oh no. So I have to go out and do a wedding show from 11 to three and then maybe I'll get back and I'll have it up on my phone. But are you thoughts on the weekend slate as a whole and then we can dive into the games here? Yeah, I mean listen, I think each week as we look at these match, we start to peel back the onion on each team because now you have a little bit more of a basis of level of competition like the opponent they played. And you're getting situations where teams have played the same team before. So you look at St. Louis and DC, both those teams played Seattle. So you can kind of use that as a comparison those different things. Same thing with Orlando. Orlando and Arlington both played Houston. So it gives you kind of a barometer as far as level of competition. But I think it's going to be fun matchups this week. I think Seattle is one of the most polarizing teams so far because on paper they're great but they turn a ball over crazy and they give away every game. So they've definitely been, from a stat perspective, probably the best team in the league, but they can't figure out how to win because they keep turning a ball over. And that's really been the key with a lot of these teams and six of the first eight games, there's been at least one team that's turned a ball over three times. So when you have that kind of turnover variance and that kind of stuff that it just really makes it difficult to figure out, hey, is this team really solid or are they just giving away the games? One of my biggest takeaways going into week one, I mean going into week two was would the teams that turned a ball over a lot be able to clean it up? And we didn't see that with Seattle. They continued to turn the bowl over crazy. We didn't see it with Orlando, obviously they have a ton of problems. So I think all those things would be kind of interesting is how the teams improve from a week to week basis. But turnovers has just been huge. It's funny, yeah, because even this week they're tweeting that like Dr. C Dragons, my team leading the league and passing yards and Ucci point, it was like, yeah, but then he turns the ball over a thousand times and we can't win the game. Yeah, I mean it's Dragon's definitely better on paper than <laugh>. The Stanleys right now. And it's not even just like, it's not, it's fumbles, it's special teams fumbles, not just the quarterbacks, it's everybody. And that's, I really think that a lot of that has contributed to the lower scoring that we're seeing. Teams only averaged, I think it was 17 points per game this week down from 20, the first week obviously week one we had a ton of defensive touchdowns. So that played into it. But I think the fact that if you look at the rules and how they're implemented in favor of scoring, you have the kickoffs, the special teams, good field position because of the kickoffs, they should be able to get good field position. And then you have the conversion rates, the conversions have to touchdown. You have coaches have the option to go in for one, two, and three. And we've seen Seattle very aggressive going for three teams that have gone for three have hit 'em at a 50% clip this year, three for six, Seattle's two for four. But you look at the highest scoring team, Houston who scored seven touchdowns and they go for one every time and they never get it Oh for six going for one. They're like one for one and I think going for two. But so the higher scoring teams aren't getting any points. They're getting six every time. So that's going to bring down scoring in general. So when you look at just the special teams mistakes that we've seen on kickoffs and punt returns, combine that with the fact that we're getting six points every time we score a touchdown. League wide teams are only averaging 0.7 points after a touchdown, not even one point. So they're not getting seven every time they get in the end zone. And I think all that kind of contributes to the lower scoring. I think as the coaches figure that out, things will definitely improve. It's hard it, it's a double-edged sword with that because the US ffl, you know, could kick the one and then go for two or go for three ultimately. I don't know if that's a better decision. But then you have them and then they never go for two or three because they just kick the point. So if you make, so there is no option and you have to run a play a hard balance there of the post touchdown, whatever you want to do. Yeah, I'm less kicking the better, to be honest with you, <laugh>, especially in these leagues, that was the big issue with the U S F L is every time they went to kick field goal was a circus. You had no idea it was going to happen. You didn't know if it was getting blocked, field was going to hook it, you know, had no clue. So there aren't enough good kickers in the N F L and now you're getting into these leagues. Now we got two spring leagues, these guys can't hit anything. The kicking this year though has been good in the U S F L in general, I feel like. But to me I, I'd rather see a play. I'd rather see a play from the one yard line, but I'd also rather see we're going to need these the good offense is to be aggressive. And I think that that's, that's what sells in the N F L aggressive offenses, Kansas City and that sort of stuff. So we need the coaches to get a little more comfortable with their players. Hopefully that happens as the year progresses. One more question that I want to do, some kind of team matchups here. We talked Sure. U S F L and their lack of injury reports, lack of reporting. We'd get 'em at three in the morning on Friday, whatever here X ffl, we kind of email them out to, luckily I'm thank you. I email 'em and I tweet 'em out. They're like, we kind of send out the depth charts and I know they're busy. I know they're doing a thousand things, but I tried. I'm like, am I supposed to share this? Were we supposed to do that? How are you feeling about the dissemination of information from the X ffl? Yeah, it's better than the u s Ffl. Be worsts take it. It's not the the N F L, but it's not going to be the N F L. So it's fine. And I think the biggest challenge is people who want that information at typically times they want it for sports betting purposes or DFS purposes. So especially the DFS crowd, very important and they want certainty. But in this type of league, when you have a coach coaching a team that he's never seen putting together an offense that they'd never seen before. There's going to be a ton of just, we see it with half the teams are using two quarterbacks now. There's not going to be any certainty. So if you want a hundred percent certainty, you're not going to get it by these injury reports. But it's good to know if somebody's hurt and they might not go, that might change the way, you know, handicapped the game. But I think it's been better obviously. Hopefully it'll continue to improve. One of the other things I think needs to improve is the command center with the officiating. I don't know how you feel about that, but I think that has been probably the biggest black eye on the league. I feel like they sell, if you're going to sell Blandino in this command center, being able to make these decisions or buzz down and get the call when it's wrong. I haven't seen any of that. Every time there's been a controversial call or a close call all of a sudden see anything, I don't know what's going on. And then it's, and I feel like we've watched plays happen. I think this weekend was, I want to say it was in the Houston game, there was a pass interference call and he's up there saying he can't do anything because they're not challenging it. And it's like, I don't understand. I don't think anyone really understands what his role is, what he's doing, but it just seems like whenever there's a big play, they don't have the right camera angle. And I think that that's, if you're going to promote that as something that makes your league different, you have to operate it correctly. I'm a sucker Dean was on the show a sucker for a good personality because I thought Mike Perrera like yeah, I thought he was right. The worst in that role because he's, when obviously this is not, and we are okay Mike, we got it, Dean at least is gar math enough to sell it? Of course. You know what I mean? Yep. Hundred percent. No, and we're doing the penalty or we're doing the challenge. We can do that and we don't know if we can challenge or we don't have 87 people up in our media box that are like, Hey Bill Bellick course, throw the flag throw. We don't have that, you know, have six seconds and Rob Woodson's like what? I guess I can't even hear my comments right now. I don't. I think that's a good point. Yeah. I just think it's, to me it's in order for these leagues to succeed and I think you see that with the conversions and the kickoffs. I think the kickoffs X F L kickoff is probably the best thing about the league because it's different than the N F L and it's good. So you need those two things. You need it to be different and you need it to be good. And I think that the way, the biggest complaint about the N F L is the officiating. They don't have full-time officials. The officials are changing the outcome of games every week and it's just kind of a mess with the officiating. So I think if they can get that right, it could be a huge tip in their cap. A huge something that they could really market. But you can't have 'em in the command center saying, well I can't see anything. That's why you're there. I dunno. Got to be able to, they got to get the right angles and I just thought that they need to do a better job with that. And I don't know, maybe they don't need to put 'em on the spot on the camera all the time. Maybe that's the answer. But it just seems really inefficient and inconsistent, which is just kind of like, oh, okay, if we're going to have the same result that we have in the N F NFL from an officiating standpoint, then why market this Is, and I know it's, it's all access. So you see all the warts, you really do see when, of course you see, but it is sometimes when they go to D and he's like, right, are we going to break? Are we back? I'm It's watching your mom with Windows XP trying to figure no, okay, no mini dre click start. But it's great. But I guess they just have to be open to that. If you're going to open it up to everybody to see everything, we are going to see everything. And sometimes it does feel like get off TV right now, go the Break. Yeah, and like I said it, I would rather have the access than not. Yes. So I think they're on the right path, but I just think the execution of it is not good. And that was kind of when he's in the booth and he's saying he can't see anything, then that's kind of a problem. You know what I mean? So I think that kind of stuff they need to do better at but don't get there. Don't approve with that. Just the teams and the players don't approve on the field. It it's, but there was a lot made this week online about the Vegas situation and shut up if you don't want to watch it, don't watch it or quit complaining. I'm like, now one thing in this world has ever been improved by being like, yeah, it's fine. You can say something like, I can watch and construc. Same with the US F L, just sitting around and being like, well if you don't like it, don't watch it. Well then it's never going to get better. You got to never Going to get better. But yeah, I mean the Vegas, I don't know the situation with that. I guess they had trouble getting a venue and then they got the attachment field at the last minute and whatnot. But again, if you got fans out there supporting it, I think that's great. That's all they really need. It's not going to be the best venue year one. They can build on that from year two or make the venue better. But I thought anytime you have that type of weather in a game like that it, it's just going to be a tough game. What I mean, and I think that kind of contributed to the reduction in scoring that we saw in week two. When you have 25% of your games in a trench downpour, it's going to make it difficult to put points on the board. Yeah. Well if you ever are interested, we have about 17 hours of Cashman Field Chronicles on the mark if you ever want to go check that out. We have, when Kevin Costner was going to come in and make a field of dreams and Vegas, we had a whole thing. We had a whole thing. But speaking of the field of dreams here coming up we have Sea Dragons at Vegas kickoff Saturday both oh and two. I think any of these teams fall to, oh, one of 'em is going to be oh and three and that's going be a scary position here. FX and ESPN plus. What do you make of, we talked a little bit of the struggles turnover with the Sea Dragons, but what do you make of this game? Yeah, I think that the turnover issues aren't going to go away unless they make a change of quarterback. So I think that Vegas has a chance to keep this one close. I think anytime that you're in a game and especially in a league like this where you have running clock, everything kind of moves fast, the game's kind of a little bit more condensed. There's not a ton of scoring and you can get turnovers going to be in the driver's seat. I think the fact that the field is going to be dry Huntley's got a weak under his belt. So I think Vegas's offense could look better. But one of the things that I think is important that I noticed today, I played a little bit under 38 and a half for the betting crowd under there out there because I did see that it looks like we are going to have a lot of wind, could be 15 mile per hour winds gusts up to 30 miles per hour, which makes it difficult to throw the football. So when I look at this game, I see two teams. I got one that is really kind of can't run the football in Vegas and then I got another one that refuses to run it in Seattle and they're going to be playing in what could be 30 mile per hour wind gusts. So it could be a rough day for both offenses. Again, making turnovers even more important but I think this is a big test for Seattle because obviously they're one of the most talented teams in the X ffl and if they are going to turn things around, they need to start. Now this is a game Vegas, this is not one of the best teams in the X F L. This is a very winnable game for them. And if they go to oh and three, it's going to be tough to dig themselves back because it's only 10 weeks. I was in the same episode I was talking with Chris Matthews, who's like one of the sports directors down there in Vegas. I think he was saying too that because it's the baseball field, but they positioned the football field in it and they wanted it with the Vegas skyline behind you or whatever. So it's the other way, it's horizontal when it should be vertical or whatever. So the winds is even worse is I think in the wind where Oh really? Okay. I think that's what he was trying to say, that it's The way it's constructed, It's positioned in such a way so that they could do the TV angles and everything, but I think it compounds that issue that maybe would already be an issue. Wow. So that'll be interesting. It's something to keep an eye on because again, if Vegas are struggling to throw the ball, Vegas has some mobility with Hunt if they have Huntley in there instead of Perez. And I think that offense is interesting when they get out the wind and they can play in some ideal conditions. In week four I'll be interested because they moved the ball pretty well in the first half against Arlington should have had 21 points in the first half. They had that goofy offensive pass interference call which was nonsense at the end, but I thought they moved the ball well in the first half of that game, but in that rainstorm they couldn't do anything. So the wind could be a major factor in this one. So we might not know much about Vegas's offense until week four. Does Vegas have the worst home field of damage in football history? Well what I think that a lot of these are the same. If you look at the game with Orlando that's a whole different conversation that team, but they didn't have a huge crowd. I don't think they have a good home. I think the domes and DC is really the best ones. You're going to see St. Louis, San Antonio and DC and I was talking about this with a colleague, even the fact that Lumen Field is incredibly loud, but the fact that it's actually in a pro stadium hurts it. It's better to be in a smaller compact stadium where you can get that noise go and it makes it a more of a rowdy environment to where if you're have it in a football stadium and you got to close down the top level and it's just not the same, No lemon field is, that's a massive, when you got 8,000 people whatever in there, that is a massive hole. So here go talking lemon gates of the world beer snakes of the world we have here going back to field, which I think is the best except for St. Louis kind of the best atmosphere just in terms you really get that soccer field, all that the battle will be undefeated here. St. Louis going into dc. Yeah, so this is a very interesting one because I think that DC's a teen that's been kind of a little bit overrated from the beginning. And to be honest, I wasn't sold on St. Louis because of their offensive line issues. Six sacks throughout the first two games. We seen 'em clean it up a little bit against the tough Seattle defense but I think that a lot of people just expect this DC team to be able to run the football in this matchup because they did it so well in the rain against Vegas, but they didn't run the ball well Week won against Seattle. And again, they have the most weakest passing attack in the entire X F L. I think TIU is like 40% completion percentage, 45%. So they really don't have any type of passing offense. And I think when you're one dimensional, it's a little easier for a defense to attack you and shut you down when you know don't have a threat in throwing the football. So they've done a good job so far. Greg Williams against that C St. Louis offensive line could be a problem. But to me like, hey, listen man, how do you bet, again, if this is going to be a close game, how do you bet against AJ McCarran at this point? He's just shown me ability to get the job done in the fourth quarter week after week. Again, wasn't big on this St. Louis team. I think they're soft on the offensive line. I think that could eventually be their downfall. But I think in this type of matchup, when you look at these two teams, when they played Seattle DC led up 331 yards, most yards out of any defense in week one of the x Ffl and St. Louis did a much better job on Seattle's offense and again, moved the ball much better on Seattle's defense than DC did. So I think St. Louis is live here to get the win on the road. It's funny, I wouldn't know if you'd be surprised to know that St. Louis, very diehard fans, very diehard fans online and for years it was like, are they coming back? Are they coming back? Are they coming freaking out and that Then they're back and oh my God, DA And that're never home <laugh> for a, they're never home. And that's the thing. But the amount of messages I got at halftime of that Brahmas game week when I'm like, oh, this team, like this team this, I'm like now, now, yeah, now they're two and oh, it's a wonky two. Oh. But I think AJ McCarran, like you said, I mean he's the Cinderella story of if the PJ Walker, whatever was the story of 2020, this is the AJ McCarran show right now with coach screaming on the sidelines. I like it. Yeah, I think so too. And I think that they're a team, and again, I talked about this last week not realizing that they were going to be on the road again, but if they win this game and they come at us three and oh they're almost a shoe-in for the playoffs because yeah, I mean they're going to have five home games in their last seven games so that, and it's going to be an advantage for them playing in St. Louis. Again, I think San Antonio has an advantage. I think DC does and I think it's going to make a big difference. So it's a pretty big game for them if they can get this win on the road. And I just think DC a little bit overrated. I think a lot of people saw what they did on the ground against Vegas and I think some of that was is Vegas pretty stout against the run in week one? I think some of that just had to do with the weather and the fact that Vegas really couldn't get anything going on offense. We'll get the last two here. We'll get you out of here pro. Thanks for your time. We have when I've been told, I ask everyone, you who is the worst team in the all football history of the Mallers in the U S F L or Orlando? I'm still told it's the Mallers by a country mile, but Orlando not looking good. No, it's just like Buckley gives me Kirby Wilson vibes, man, you saw him on the sidelines and it's very reminiscent. He's yelling at the players. The one guy, I don't know who it was, I was like, oh, I want to go back in the field. I'm not coming off the field. He was trying to show coach. He's in it, he count, they can count on him. Buckley start yelling at him, this is my team, you'll do what I tell you. We need new guys, we need new guys. We need, yeah, New. We're going to bring some players. He's just threatening everybody kept harping on the offense. Listen, the deep defense was terrible, but the defense is not good. They let up 63 points in two weeks. It is a league where nobody's scoring and they're letting up 30 each week. So I just think that it is a tough situation for Orlando. But Arlington is a team that I was very down on and I thought they'd be one of the worst teams of the league coming into the season. And I feel like we're starting to see that with them, even though they kind of hung against Houston. Houston turned the ball over a thousand times in that game and Arlington's just a team that has no offense. So Bob Stoops tries to run the ball. They get two yards of pop on the ground. Split is not a viable quarterback in this league. So I don't know, I'm not saying Orlando could win this game because I don't think they can, but I think it could be a little bit closer than people think. But I don't know, man, I'm really worried about Orlando. I think that it's very possible that Buckley has lost this team already after two weeks. They have 13 penalties that that's not the players when there's have all these turn, they get sacked a thousand times, they have a thousand penalties, a thousand turnovers. It can't just be the players. There's a big gap I feel like between them and the rest of the league. And I don't know, man, it'll be interesting to see because they make plays on offense, but just with sacks and dumb penalties. We saw it against this weekend. A guy jumps off sides at a critical third down the late hit, just a really undisciplined football in Orlando. So they're a team now. I don't think they're going to win this game now. I think they're getting nine and a half points in the betting market. I think they might be able to keep it close. I don't know if I'd want to lay nine and a half with Arlington or whatnot, but I think Orlando is surely going to be the worst team in the league. Yeah, I called Kirby Wilson was the mad king of the US F l I haven't quite figured out what is the analogy here with Buckley. My other question for you is what do you make of like you said Drew PLI not good. We bring in Kyle Slowder, right? US, F L, whatever. I had kind of emailed this week me media like, Hey, could we talk to Slowder? Like what's going on? I was told not right now. So something's going on there. I don't know if we're getting the quarterback changed. I mean it doesn't seem like this team can win with Drew Plitt continuously. But here's the thing, and I think this from following the U S F L, Kyle Slitter is not very good and he was like they U S F L had to market something so they were like, hey, this guy's throwing for a lot of yards. So they marketed that, but he was throwing a ton of interceptions. I felt like, and I don't know, maybe you agree with me, but I felt like New Orleans and the U S F L had by far the best skilled position players on offense had any team in the league and he could not get it done with that team. I mean that offense was brutal. A ton of turnovers. I was not pressed with SLR in the US F L at all. So I don't think that now you're going to put 'em here with stoops who wants to run the ball 30 times for two yards and carry in an offense that really doesn't have Playmakers outside of the tight end and doesn't have a running game and doesn't have the greatest offensive line. I don't think he's going to succeed here. I don't know, maybe I'm being harsh, but I think his situation in New Orleans was much better and he struggled in the U S F L coming here into this offense. I don't know man. Oh he was one of the big ones. Do you think Stoops is going to regret leaving his home and wife? He said, my wife wants me out of the house, I got to go coach. And now's going to be like, this is a failed experiment. I need to go back home. I don't know. I think that in a sense, I think that they're a little bit overrated because of his name and they think, oh Bob Stoops is just going to come in here. But the real value of a guy of Bob Stoops is not year one in any league. It's the fact that if he's able to get some kind of continuity and work with these guys continuously year after year, if he keeps the coaching staff some continuity there, he can have success, but you're only as good as the cards that you're dealt. And when I looked at this roster before the season started, I'm like, I, I've been watching these leagues all the time. I don't know none of these guys. They had the kids Smallwood from LA back in 2020 but I'm, they got the tight end. But this isn't the chiefs, it's not Travis Kelsey. You're not going to run your whole offense through your tight end. You're going to need more. And I just don't think that they're a very good offensive team. Defense makes plays, the defense is pretty good, but I think they're one of the worst offenses in the league and I don't know if looter's going to be a differentiator. <laugh> Last one here we got the other more exciting. I would say BrahMos coming off a big win against Houston, the happiest person in the world for just a moment. Watching Brandon Silvers with the post game winning press conference on primetime ESPN two or whatever the Sunday night game was. What do you make of this final matchup of the weekend? Yeah, I think this one could be fun. I like Houston here, but again, there was some concerning things. We saw the turnovers, we saw, hey, everyone wanted to find out what Houston was made of when they weren't playing Orlando. And I think they did playing Arlington, but again, Arlington not really a threat offensively. So they're going to get a little bit of difference here because I like what Jaime Elizondo has been doing with the offense. They got some weapons at wide receiver, they had some trouble in the red zone in week one against St. Louis and they had some trouble running the ball last week. So if they can't run the ball this week that way Phillip's defense is going to be all over Jack Cohn. Jack Coon, not a guy with a lot of mobility. So that that's something you have to think about. So I think that's going to be the real difference maker. Can they run the ball against Houston? I'm not so sure. And Cohn could be kind of like a sitting duck now. Does Elizondo scheme up some quick passing plays, do the quick game of Cone to kind of offset that pass rush? Very possible. But I think we know what we have in Houston. I mean they're going to score a ton of points. They're probably going to be one of the most prolific offenses in the league. They got a great defense. I think they're going to be there at the end. I don't know if they're the best team because like I said, they're going to have to protect the ball a little bit better. And Silvers looks like he's a little bit all over the place. They a little bit up and down last week, but I think they're one of the better teams. San Antonio, you know what to see look good last week. But again it's Orlando couldn't get in the end zone the week before against St. Louis. So I don't know it. It's going to tell us a lot about both teams here. I think we could be in for a little bit of a close match though. Well yeah, I mean it's the thing Houston Roughneck continuing on, it's like they never left and they're just rolling back on again. New Players, everything's changed. Helmets are different but they keep on winning and I think a lot of it has to do with Wade Phillips in general. Just having him there, being able to run the defense and then what do they do to go out on offense to get AJ Smith to run the offense June Jones disciple. So we know that offense translates well in this type of league where you don't have a quarterback having to make a million reads, it's quick, boom, boom, boom. I think that helps, right? So early on they look pretty good, but you know what to see, like I said, the turnovers were a little bit concerning and I think if they do that against San Antonio here, they'll keep San Antonio in the game because I think San Antonio's going to try and beat them with short passes and just keep the clock moving. Slow things down, keep the ball out of their offenses hands. Well Mark, I appreciate it. People can check out Yahoo Sports, get all of your Sports Betty and all your other insights, everything over there. I appreciate it. But I like seeing people like you and others covering this outside of just the six people I talked to on the regular. So it's nice. Yeah, absolutely man. It's a lot of fun and like I said, we will learn more about these teams as the season goes on. This is far from the finished product. It'll get much better as it goes, but it's good to see it, have the buzz, have some momentum behind it and it'll be interesting. We got robbed of the ending of the 2020 season, but we'll get it this year with 2023. Awesome. Mark Drum, Heller, Yahoo Sports, really appreciate your time. Awesome, thanks Reid. Well I took the time, I did put on my Hate me Las Vegas outlaws Jersey today and I don't know if he would hate the Vegas my first DC Defenders game last weekend, but I kind of did. We have Chris Matthews here k l a s out in Vegas. How are you doing sir? I'm doing great, how are you doing? Hey, that was the most popular guy in the league by the way. He hate me Rod. That was a lot of gigantic contrast to what we saw on Saturday, that old x ffl team here in Las Vegas. Well, so I wanted to get you onto that. I wanted someone that was boots on the ground. I feel like this is Peter King or whoever, the old Peter Engel, the old e s ESPN reporter like yo Chris, you were on the ground out there. How was everything? You were at the game. I watched the game in highlights flying home from Mexico and then I did sit and watch the game once we got back from vacation. What was it like for you? Yeah, you're me, you are to be commended that you were absolutely sat through that game. Well the weather was crappy first of all in the second half as you watched, they're on tv but I feel bad for the X F L for the Rock. Dwayne Johnson and Danny for just, I mean they wanted to be in Las Vegas really, really badly. They said from the beginning that Las Vegas was supposed to be one of their premier markets. They had to be in Las Vegas and Las Vegas is what it is, but it's not the same city that it was back when he hate me and Rob Smart and the old X F L and the place was packed and Vince McMahon out there yelling, this is the X ffl, it's just a totally different city now they announced a crowd of just over 6,000. I'm guessing there were probably more like 4,000 there. Like I said, the weather any good, it was windy at the beginning and then at halftime it started to rain. It just got worse. They're playing at a baseball park. We mentioned that last time that that's where they were going to play. Well they just had trouble from the beginning. They didn't put, because they were so late in getting the location secured, they didn't have a chance to receive the grass. So I mean they painted what you saw there on the TV screen the green was all paint. I went out there about I think it was four days before the game just to talk to the owner or the guy who leases Cashman Field, who owns the FC Lights, Brett Lash Brook. And he kind of took me around and took me over and we saw the field and the lines through the middle that some vehicle went through there and they were just putting up the outfield banners but it was very, very brown. So what you saw on TV wasn't anything like what it was in real life. I mean it was just a mess. And they had to scramble to put it together. They had to scramble to get Cashman field ready. There was bird droppings all over Cashman Field because it'd just been empty for so many months since the FC Lights concluded their season. So I mean you feel bad for those guys because they want to have Vegas, they want to be successful. You got Rod Woodson, a former Raider now the Raider's here. So you got that tie in and Hall of Famer and I mean you really do feel bad because it was a crappy location. It really is. I mean there's no other way to put it. It's a bad location. People don't want to go down there on the north side of town. Brett Ashbrook suppers was with soccer. They're going to suffer here with the X ffl in terms of attendance numbers and what you saw, the product was just unwatchable in that first half. It was terrible. I mean this Viper team, they want to get something going. I mean Rod wants to get the team running and so forth. They've had the lead in both games at the half but the second half they were just terrible. It was a tough watch. I'll just say that. A tough watch. Yeah, I think with the attendance, I think we get a little bit of it. And they do this in the C F L where maybe that was season tickets sold and tickets sold was maybe 6,000. I don't think there was any way, there were 6,000 people there in the attendance. We do a lot of C F L stuff and I was talking with one of our C F L reporters, Dave Naer who he just kind of a historian of football across North America and I asked him contextually, where does this venue fit in? And he said, well Reid, obviously there's been venues where accommodations aren't great or the seeds aren't good or we don't have, but combine that with how unsafe the plane surface was. He goes, I don't think I've ever seen anything in 50 years. It was that everything together. Oh yeah. I mean it was terrible. You saw the kickers fall down, sliding, slipping. Like I say it, they didn't give it enough time. Now maybe next year if the X ffl is back next year they'll have enough time to get the field ready, make it look nice, put maybe some permanent stands. I mean I was actually worried for the broadcast group over on that north side of the field. The field is east and west because they wanted to have the cameras looking south toward Las Vegas understandably so you want to have the cameras looking and you see Las Vegas in the background. So I mean that's a smart move. But I was actually worried because the winds came up, the rain came up and you couldn't see it because you're on tv. Well actually they did show it a few times. The broadcast tower I the Wind, I was actually worried. I thought man that's not very safe up there. And obviously nothing happened of course, but it, it's just put together quickly and rushed and it, it's just not a good luck for the X F L Does something like this and obviously and you're there with the other media people and with your one station and you guys all talk and we have people from outside coming in. Does this sour now, I mean do they get a mulligan because it was so terrible weather, we're going to be there next weekend as well Or is it like this was so bad that we've written this off. I'm going to be surprised when Seattle comes in here on Saturday just to see what the crowd is. Is it going to be the 4,000 look that we had last week or will there be less people because they saw the product, they don't care about the product. There's there, there's really no reason now mean you got the Raiders here now it's just kind of surprised the, I mean the X Ffl probably should have gone to Salt Lake City or somewhere like that where they can actually build a fan base. There isn't football there, professional football there where they can actually maybe do something. And here I think it's going to be a real tough sell. Especially now with all the sports going on. When you got the Raiders, you got U N L V hoping to improve. You got all that U N L V sports plus you got Formula One that we're talking about now what are we talking about? We're talking about FFC this, I mean this weekend's crazy here. Lemme tell you what's going on in Las Vegas in addition to the X F L, you've got big league weekends. So the Oakland A's are playing the Reds here Saturday, Sunday. Which is big for us because now we're going to talk to the A, they're brass about hey what do you think of Las Vegas? Are you going to actually come here? You going to build a stadium? So that's big for us. We got UFC 2 85, John Jones making his big return after years away. So that's going to draw some attention. The rebels are playing you got NASCARs here over the weekend. You got the big Penns oil 400 on Sunday, Xfinity Race on Saturday and then you got the X ffl. So it's going to be a real tough sell. I'll be really interested to see how many fans do show up on Saturday afternoon to see the Vipers play. It'll be interesting to see. Well it's one of those and so I guess I'll answer this and then I have a ratings note to talk to you about. It is one of those things. I remember years ago there was a wrestling company, I think it was T N A at the time and they wanted to be in San Antonio in the Alamo Dome. The Alamodome is this big cavernous, they only were drawn like six 8,000 and they did and they had it all corned off. They played in the Alamo Dome, right? But it was 10% of the capacity would ever looked weird like X F L is in Vegas. But if they're often they're showing the downtown strip, we know the field is nowhere near there. They're off here in this random as baseball park attended by four or 6,000 feet. I is that worth in your estimation to be in Vegas with all that? See I say no anymore. That's why I feel bad for the owners and the ownership group and really for even the coaches here and all that are involved in this because it's just, I just think Vegas is a different city now. I think they could have done better in another city. Although Vegas is Vegas. So you say wow, we got to get into Vegas because it is Vegas and so many people would like to get here. So many teams would like to with soon be the N B A. I mean if you got time I could tell you about what they're talking about with the N B A with LeBron and all that wants to own a team here. But having said that, I just don't think it was a wise move. Vegas has moved past the X ffl I think now. And there's this, because there's so much competition here. There's so many things going on. The X ffl is now fifth on the totem pole where back when they were wearing the jersey that you have on, it was the big deal. That was the first professional team sport to roll into Las Vegas. And so fans were excited, they were thrilled. It was at its Sambo stadium, which is least a, has a semblance of a stadium a football field there. And it was fun. They had Vince McMahon with his innovations and that was cool. The cheerleaders were like 20 year old strippers off the strip down there. It was a different feel. It was just Vegas because that was the first thing Vegas had as a professional team. Totally different than what it is now. It almost seems, I hate to say it almost seems kind of rinky-dink right now in Las Vegas. Just the whole setup. You're a Cashman field, you got the broadcast booth over there on some Scaffolding. Scaffolding and they're open to the weather and it just doesn't look good. It really doesn't mean Vegas has moved past the X F L. I believe I could be wrong, maybe next week they show up at 6,000 and they start winning some games and people, that's another thing about Las Vegas. I've been here 26 years, boy, more than any other city I've been around. And if you don't win, the fans are so fickle here because it's built on that kind of mentality. Winners, losers, the big resorts and you got to win here. And it's just, if they don't win, they're done. No, they won't. Won't be back next year. Yeah. Is it worth, and I know they went back and forth with the Bishop Gorman to be, and I think there were issues with the facilities and showers and we weren't, but at least that was a football field, a high quality football field. I mean they, they've paid up. It's not a lot. Do we cut bait here after this year? Right. I mean I don't think we can do anything for the last four home games. I think they'll be done with home games by week seven or eight hopefully. So. I mean at least we can run through 'em and get out of here. But would you cut bait on Vegas after this year? If they could. I would be really surprised if they're back next year. The Gorman thing was interesting. Okay, would you have paid to tear up that Gorman field and put your own logo in there? Because they have the big G out there on their field. It's artificial turf. So would you have to pay to change that up? You mentioned the lockers. This is a high school Gorman Wesley. It was Gorman or Cashman. Well they had to bring lockers and had to bring some facilities into Cashman to make that work. What they probably should have done if they're really committed is maybe, I don't know what was it, a couple hundred thousand dollars and lay down a whole new turf out there at Cashman. But see the location is bad. I tell Brett that he owns the lights and I even told him, I said, Brett's is the bad location. If you had the wherewithal to build a soccer stadium somewhere else in Henderson or anywhere else, if you had the money, would you do it in a heartbeat like that? He would. So that location is such a bad location and for the exit bill to roll in, they're thinking, hey, we got this product. Fans will come down, they just won't, not a location. And the demographics are different downtown in that location than they would be somewhere else. So no, I will be really surprised if they're back next year unless something changes drastically. And then last question from me. I don't want to hammer this home, but I think it's important to get someone that was there 605,000 on FX and e, ESPN Deportes reported by Mike Mitchell today. Does that surprise you? Radians higher or lower than you would think? You say it was 6,000, 600,000 between FX Network, which the game was on and then ESPN deportes. Wow. I'm actually surprised it was that big, to be honest with you. I'm actually surprised. I mean, yeah, yeah. I'm surprised at that number that there were that many people watching that game because like I say, it was a hard watch. It was a tough watch. Someone who sat there and watched that game in the first half when you're thinking, wow, first of all the quality wasn't by the TV production wasn't all that bad. I mean it is what it is, but just the football was just a tough watch. So considering all that and that you say they had almost what, over a half a million? I'm kind of surprised at that number actually. I probably say, lemme say this, I'm going to guess a lot of those eyeballs were because hey, let's see what Vegas has. See that's the magic of Vegas. If someone says, Hey, there's something going on in Vegas, oh I'm going to tune in and see now I might have been crappy, they tune away. But Vegas has that draw like, oh hey, oh it's Vegas. Let's just see what's happening in Vegas. Last question for me. What were the sideline conversations like between you? It, it's pour and rain and I'm sure you're in and out and doing everything else, but you guys are sitting there. What the hell are we doing here? We got to get out here. Well that's funny you bring that up because at the same time, well I guess it was actually an hour and a half later, the Golden Knights were getting ready to play and some guys at the Cashman field, Hey you know what, we're going to roll out of here and get over to cash or get over to a T-Mobile arena and see what the Knight are doing. That was the mentality. I mean it was rain, it was pouring. Let's go have some fun because this game is not fun. So let's go have some fun and watch something else and cover something else. And that was, we used to have many people left at cash at Cashman Field. And even when we're sitting there we're thinking, wow, this is just too bad. I mean they paint the grass, it looks crappy still. It's a east west and you got these scaffolding over on the far sideline for these broadcasters and the team comes out and they got a couple little viper banners and little bit of smoke and they come running out. It's just not, when you see the Raiders, obviously they got tons of money. When you see what the Golden Knights do, even the ACEs, the Las Vegas ACEs, the W N B A, they don't have a lot of money either, but what you see what they do and then you kind of sign with the vi. It's just like it was second class, third class I felt, I feel bad for the X Ffl being here. Cause I think they could do something a lot better somewhere else. Well Chris, I appreciate your time today. I welcome. I look forward to welcoming Vegas Gold Knights up here for the T-Mobile Winter Classic here. It will be in Seattle here in the new year. So we're still waiting to get our season tickets for that event, but I think it'll be fun. Hopefully you guys don't kill us. I know you're leading the Pacific right now, But those cracking are playing well. They're just, they're hanging in there. I mean this west, this Pacific is going to be awesome coming down while there're 22, 20 games left of the regular season. I'm really excited for the final 20 games of the season because that West and that Pacific is so tight. How's it all going to shake out? What's going to happen? Are the Golden Knights going to be Pacific Division Champs Western Conference? Champs does. Do the LA Kings jump up there, do the Kraken get hot and win some games? I mean it only takes probably what a 3, 4, 5 game winning streak and boom, you're in first place. It's exciting. Chris Matthews, appreciate it. Appreciate you doing the Lord's work out there. Surviving in the Vegas. The Vegas. It was crazy because we did the X Ffl kickoff and then I met my family down in port of virus in Mexico. They were go because my wife's a teacher and it was like mid winter break. I'm sitting there, it's 82, it's 20 for the Seattle game right at Lumen Field and it was whatever it was, rain in the windy in Vegas. I like, what the hell is going on here? I'm so glad I'm out of here. It was cra they won't play in the rain again this year in Las Vegas. I see at the Vipers. Fuck. I mean here. That's why I don't want to sound all negative cause I actually do wish 'em luck because I'm a sports fan. I love to go watch the sports and see this new team and you hope they succeed. I mean might've been come off really negative. I do feel bad they're here to be honest with you though. But still I want 'em to succeed. They just probably won't, but I do want 'em to succeed. Oh Chris, we appreciate your time today. Good luck with everything. Well I'm excited. The last time I saw this gentleman, we were in the casino in Regina. Yeah. Preview in the gray cup and now we are talking as C F L, the U S F L and xl, everything else. How are you doing at Farhan Lo? I'm good. Yeah, I remember that time. I remember listening to music from way back in the eighties. It was prevalent in that casino so it was a different experience but it you go to Regina, I'm sure I was clean shaven and in a suit then as opposed to my Lindon football t-shirt and three days worth of growth here. So you'll take me as you get me buddy. That's good. Well I appreciate, well we did the exe L kickoff last week and then I was literally walking the beach and pour the vita with Dorothy and I see Mucca Thompson to the U S F L. We've had a couple XL signings. I want to talk about this. Well first off, I mean that shook me. We messaged, you said you had conversations with him, did not surprise you as much talk through the McCloud, Bethel Thompson of it all. Yeah, McCloud's a different guy right in that for him he's really a football purist. He just wants to play the game and he wants to be able to play it in a way that's convenient given his family situation. And that was the priority. Certainly had he want to come back to the C F L Toronto and I'm sure other teams would've been really interested in him, but Toronto would've made him their starter. They would've paid him what starting quarterbacks make in this league and everything would've been fine. And obviously he's gotten comfortable playing in this league and has had more success as we've gone here. And for them to win the Great Cup was a big deal for him. But it was really, really important to him. He made that clear to me when we spoke in December that my daughter means so much to me. She's young with my wife's schedule. I want to be there, I want to be a part of that. I don't want to just take off and go, this is the guy that won the Great Cup and the next day it was on a plane back to Atlanta. He wasn't wanting to stick around for three more days and wait for the victory parade in the celebration. So there's some people that will look down at some of the spring leagues, well he played in the spring league before during Covid. So he's not necessarily something that he feels he's above. So for him he just wants to be able to play and if he can do it in the way that's most convenient, he's not going to make it about money because he certainly would've been paid a lot more had he stuck in the C F L In terms of, and you've seen the level in X F L, they siphon a few hear from the U USS F L before the season and some of them are seeing success or not, but him 34 coming into the US F L especially the Breakers. But just in terms of quarterback, to me that feels like a big signing. Like hey, we have whatever the reasoning behind it, we're able to attract a big name to our league And that's fair. And when you look at the big takeaway I had from watching these spring leagues in the last few years when they've been operating is the quarterback play was really, really, really poor. And there'd be one or two outliers. And then when you can get a guy like McLeod, Bethel Thompson, he knows how to play the game and he's been in N F L camps and practice rosters and all of that and has a real sense of certainly four down football there and has had some success playing up here. He knows how to not just navigate an offense and go through his reads, but how to be the quarterback and how to manage situations and how to manage offenses and coaches and be a professional and be a leader in all of those types of things. There's nothing in the X F L or U S F L that's going to phase that guy In terms of name value and player recognition. We had Darnell Sankey here go to the X F L as well as Colin Kelly I believe as a offensive tackle. A couple others biggest name to go thus far from the C F L down south in that way. Yeah, McCloud for sure and Darnell San, he's been one of the leading tacklers in the league for the last couple of years and he kind of rolled the dice a little bit and he was offered a contract in Saskatchewan, didn't want to take it necessarily and then didn't really find the market for elsewhere. And generally there really isn't a big market in this league like dbs, people in the N nfl I guess running back's the most disposable position and there's some of that here in the C F L as well. But then it's like DBS and linebackers where the money gets invested is quarterbacks and now receivers and both sides of the line of scrimmage at line and D line and there's not going to be money going around in the other positions. That's just the way it is in this league. So I think it takes, every year there's some linebacker that expects to get more and doesn't get it and in san's case I just don't think he was going to be willing to settle for what was going to be a low 100 thousands deal. I think Saskatchewan did offer a more than, but I don't think anybody else was going to even get to one 20. So yes, it's less money to go down and play in the league that he's in now, but it's a much shorter season and then it dovetails with the N F L and I think at this stage it's probably a long shot for sanky, but we find this all the time that there are players that get cut in the C F L every year. They wind up making their way onto an N F L roster when guys get hurt and availability matters. So if you're in the right place at the right time as far as the N F L is concerned and a team needs somebody to be the 50th guy in the roster and go down and cover kicks and you happen to be that guy, you can make a pretty reasonable living doing that for a few weeks. Now where we're at in this place and time, end of February here, 2023 and US L gearing up, they've completed season one X F L in the midst having these two other leagues and talent with everybody, how do you view the landscape where we were a year ago where this was a lot of hypotheticals? Well I think that it's kind of where we were, right? It it's still hypothetical right Reid, because for me it's not real till we get to year three. So right now is it going to have an effect on the C F L? It will for sure because you're going to get a certain number of players that say this is the football I know, see and understand and I can play it in America, which I know see and understand because most Americans have no idea that Canada exists. So it'll affect it from that standpoint. But we'll see what it looks like a few years down the road and see which of these two leagues is going to come out sustainable. And as far as the leagues themselves, not that different than what I saw a couple of years ago. So I want to see which of these leagues survives because I do think one will and I want to see what the quality of play in that league looks like in year three. The one thing I always love about these leagues, I just love the innovation from being able to get a microphone right inside the huddle when a play is being called listen to an offensive coordinator as a player is being called. Maybe that's because I'm a I 30 plus year coach and I'm a bit of a geek to listen to this kind of verbiage. So I like it. But whether it's rules innovation, television innovation, I think all of that is a positive. And if the C F L or the N F NFL can get a view of some of these things and watch it being test drived in the X ffl now and in a couple of months in the S F L, I think that's just good for football. So will it have a negative effect on the C F L? Sure, but on the overall sport and on the overall ecosystem, I'm not seeing that. I think it's a good thing. Yeah, well I think competition breeds you got to bargain between, and like you said, McCloud Thompson having another option, there's always going to be these choice scenarios. And I was telling people, I'm like, they're not paying mcleods what he was going to get paid. The US F L didn't just decide. Now here after two years of being really stringent with player contracts, yeah we're going to pay McLeod $300,000 to come in here. I just don't see that happen. But it at least gives people another option there. Yeah, that's a good thing. And I think for the C F O, there's just so many football players. So right now doesn't what you're seeing today, because the players that have been in the CFL and have earned starters money, those guys are generally in their late twenties. So the N F NFL is in the rear view mirror for them. So they know what a good league this is and how much money they can make here. So they don't want to go to the S F L and the X ffl. In most cases, the guys that are going into those leagues are younger and the N F NFL dream is still there. So they go and they think we can play for a shorter period of time make whatever money stay active and then be available if there's an opportunity in the N F L. So now what it does affect the C F L with is it affects the entry point, right? Because now you're not going to get as many people at your tryout camps and as many people that are readily available to sign immediately that are going to come to training camp as rookies. And that might affect you three years down the road. But as far as football players are concerned, I think it's a really good thing. To be honest, I think that one of the challenging things is I think from a Canadian standpoint and look for the C F L, it's good that these guys can't just go to the U F L and the X F L, they're going to stay in Canada in most cases. But I'm sure that if it was easy for a Canadian college player to go play in one of these two leagues, they'd take a long hard look at it, but they can't because they need a work visa and there's a cost associated to getting one of those visas. I know I've been through it. So what happens is her GK, I think is just signed with a U S F L or an X ffl team, and he's a dual citizen that already had his visa in place, so he's a rarity, whereas he's Canadian. So most people that are up here that have that option can't go down and explore it because those leagues aren't going to spend the money and time and resources to get a visa for a Canadian player. They've got to do that on their own, and it just doesn't make a lot of sense for most of 'em to do that. I think he saw that with Liam Dobson. I think he signed a deal with one of the teams there in the U S F L, and they weren't able to get 'em a visa, so he wanted to coming back so that, that's at least to see if I can keep those players. But as far as players are concerned, to have more options I think is a great thing. I think what the league also up here needs to be concerned about is the brain drain of coaching talent that potentially now has an option. And if they decide they want to get their visas figured out and do all of that, you might lose some pretty good coaches. And that's as big of a concern as well in my mind. Yeah, no, we just had Coach Elizondo on here. Time isn't nebulous right now, I think two weeks ago here previewing, but I mean, he's got to go J working with Hines Ward here for I would say the premier franchise of this new X F L named after the rocks. I mean, he's going from head coach up there and he certainly had his qualms with his time in Edmonton as well. But just that type of person that just has that option now and spend some time with Coach Truman and in the, I think it was Tampa that he was in before and now to have this option, I think it's a good thing people come up here and it's a good league and it's a good lifestyle. Coaching in the US is hard now. You get paid for it, but it's hard. When I coached and I was younger and I thought my dream job would've been to be a division one head coach or to be a division one offensive coordinator, those guys, when they recruit, my goodness, now they got to re-recruit all these guys to keep them in because of the portal and the N I L and in the N F L, you know, go right from the season into combine season and draft prep season and all these things like it's a neverending cycle in rat racing and you absolutely get compensated well, but certainly coaching up here can afford you a better lifestyle, right? Because you get more time and certainly the U S F L and the X F L can afford you a pretty good lifestyle as well, just in terms of time and being able to spend time with your family. Last question from McLeod. Do you realistically see him getting back into the nfl? I is it, I mean, I know that was part, I mean, is that thir 34? Yeah, it's hard, right? So Josh Johnson is the example, right? And doing what he did with San Francisco and is what has he been through 14 different American football stops and eventually wound up start or playing in a playoff game for San Francisco, which is crazy and that really is needle in the haystack stuff. But 64 quarterbacks started games in the N F L last year. So McLeod was contacted by some teams and there were three teams that were interested in bringing him in. None of them are going to offer him any guarantees, but a couple of them did say, look, be ready. And so if he gets through this with the team he's going to play for in the U S F L and all of a sudden he's available, he could get a call and quite frankly, he could get a call to come back to the C F L too. Somebody gets hurt and whatever market, and all of a sudden he's out there. Don't be shocked if in September he gets a call and decides to come back up here for a period of time. So I think all those things are on the table. I think it's a real long shot that he winds up in the N F L, but you know what, it's his long shot and it's up to him to take, and I'm not here to pass judgment when he's a good guy and I hope it works out for him the way he wants it to work out In terms of, and I do have some C F L stuff because it's crazy world right now we're living here. Before we go in terms of, we were talking before when I was going to have you come on, you said, yo, you don't want to talk too much. I have not been watching a lot of this current, see, to me that says more than anything, right, than you're not. And that's fine. You have a many different things you cover. Where are the ex exit? It's Not a shot. Yeah, Yeah, I know. Please understand that when I say that, I don't view it as beneath me. No, it's not a shot. No, I think these are great. And if my family's all out of the house and I got nothing to do for 15 minutes, I'll flick it on and I'm find a way to, I'll be entertained. But yeah, just as you said, lots going on in my world, so I got to pick and choose. But I mean just that's my point is it speaks to where that is in the pecking order and we've seen a viewership, not explosive in attendance, everything else. Has the XL even permeated anything that's going on in your world right now here we're approaching week three. Nope. I mean, I watched I think 10 minutes of the fourth quarter of that Seattle St. Louis game. And I knew it was on because I'd seen some stuff on social, but I couldn't find it. And because I don't have ESPN plus, so I didn't have the web version and then I had to search through all these channels to find out. I think it was either you or Mike Mitchell told me that it was on fx and then I found FX and turned it on. So I think distribution matters and as the PAC 12 is going through their television negotiations, keep in mind distribution matters as much if not more so than actual dollars. So it's always a fine line for leagues to walk and make sure that they can get both sides of that met. But no, I mean other than the fact that a couple of the players that I would be covering during C F L free Agency considered spring options, like you mentioned McLeod and Sanky, a couple of others, it really hasn't affected my world at all. But if I get a chance, I will watch because me, I love football, so I'll go watch a high school spring practice down the corner if it's convenient. Can we talk, so some CFL stuff here, another one that kind of shook me and then I've been having conversations Dan Evans to America's CFL team, the VBC Alliance. I thought Vernon is the starter here and we've lost Nathan Rourke and everything else. How did that, talk me through that because I'm very perplexed. I think he wanted to come to BC from the get-go and there was a lot of speculation about going to Toronto and going to some other places. And I think those did have some interest, but I think that he took a real shining to Jordan mc offensive coordinator and saw what he did with the offense that Nathan Rourke was running and felt that he could benefit from being involved in that. Right? And Vernon is the starter. He's going to be the starter the salaries are as such. And I think the Evans to BC option was there for the Lions about a month ago, and they weren't interested at that time. I think the asking price was high, both in terms of what Hamilton would've wanted, but also in terms of what Dane would've wanted in terms of a contract restructure. And then as time went the asking price on both ends came down and BC said, you know what? We could bring him into our quarterback room if Dane, he is a positive guy, he's not going to be toxic or cancerous if he's the backup or anything like that. That's just not how he is. Coach's kid loves the game, wants to play. And I think a lot of quarterbacks go through this up here where the one thing with the c f we don't do well right now is we don't properly develop quarterbacks. So you look at Levi Mitchell, when Bo came in out of eastern Washington, I think the stamps knew that by year three this is going to be our starter. And they created a pathway for him to get that opportunity, including what they did with the other jobs and everybody else you have to, someone's got to get hurt, right? You've just got to perform really well in the preseason and someone's got to get hurt and we'll see if it works out for you. And then when it does work out for those guys, Nick Arbuckle being one, when Bo got hurt, Dane Evans being another, sometimes the step isn't always linear and sometimes the next step doesn't work out. Vernon Adams had a number of stops before he hit in Montreal with Kaari and then all of a sudden things changed in that situation and he had to take a bit of a step back. So I think for even a guy like Anthony Calvio who set all those records, he came into Vegas when Vegas was in the C F L and had to take a step back before he got the right opportunity in Montreal where he eventually became a hall of famer. So I think Dane realizes that maybe I need to do that and kind of rebuild where I'm at in my career and get into the right situation and hopefully for Vernon things go well. And if it doesn't, there he is an experienced backup, he'll get another opportunity. And whether you're Nick Arbuckle and you're now doing that in behind Jeremiah Oli, sometimes you need to go through that for a little bit. And I think that's where Dan is right now. Yeah, it spoke to me, there wasn't a super hot market right now for Dana. It was a conditional drafting, right? Well, yeah, I mean it was more a case of I think Toronto wanted him, but Hamilton wasn't willing to let him go to Toronto easily. So they made the arrangement for him to come to bc. And I think there's an unwritten understanding that BC's not going to turn around and flip him to the east tomorrow. I mean, who knows what happens in another year, but I'd be surprised if you saw Dan Evans playing for an Eastern team in 2023. So yeah, it just kind of happened that way. I wouldn't say that there was no market, but things do get limited. I mean, when you have a nine team league and you're playing musical chairs, there's only so many spots. So once Cody Fu Jaro took the opportunity in Montreal when Trevor Harris shook loose there and then he wound up in Saskatche and it really came down to do you compete with Chad Kelly in Toronto or what's the best backup spot, right? So BC offered him a good spot there. Contract wise, it's the same as what Dom Davis is making, so the club can afford to keep all three of them on the roster if needed. In terms of sway Kelly, I think it says he is called, would you take Chad in Toronto with all those pieces right now or everything that Hamilton's had to do to get Beau Levi? Ooh, good question. I think there's good pieces on both teams. I mean, Hamilton did a good job rebuilding. I think that was the commitment they made to Beau that we're going to put some pieces around you. So they did that with a offensive tackle coming off a career year in Joel Figueroa and an ascending running back in James Butler and they added one to the receiving corps. And when you look at defensively getting some other pieces back there and being able to upgrade, they certainly were the roster that was most turned over and probably needed that. So I think Boze in a good spot there, but Toronto was able to have some continuity and that mattered off a great Cub championship season. And they were also able to add some good pieces as well on both sides of the ball just picking up Jordan Williams from BC to go play linebacker and a Darius Pickett. And there's a couple guys there that I think are going to be really good ads. So I think that every year we go into this Reid and we say the East is going to catch up, this is the year the east is going to catch up to the west. And then we go through the first two months and it's just a disaster. And the West has won every cross-divisional game. But I absolutely think that Hamilton and Toronto can play with any team in the west this year. I think Otta is going to be better assuming the quarterback situation is health healthy with Jeremiah, they'll be better and we'll see where Montreal is, right? They got to get that figured out just because of the timing of what happened with ownership around free agency and losing Trevor Harris and losing Geno Lewis and a couple of pieces there. So we'll see. I can't tell you today that they'll be better, but I don't think they'll be a bad football team, but the east will be better for sure. Yeah, that was my last question was what is going on? Montreal is kind of my team of the East and their media people are really good with me and we've had people, I'm like it just seems like kind of a dumpster fire there right now. It's not as bad as you think and I'll say that. So it was headed that way towards dumpster fire territory and certainly it cost them Trevor Harris, but I don't think the ettes were going to pay Geno Lewis 320,000 a year anyway as the market heated up and got to that point. And that's what Edmonton got 'em for. I don't know that Montreal gets to that number. And to be honest, I'm not, as much as I love Geno Lewis as a player, I just don't think those are sustainable numbers for non quarterbacks in this league. That's just my opinion, not a shot at the player at all. So they might have lost that player anyway, but Danny Occi did a pretty good job of rising from the ashes and getting enough good pieces around, keeping enough pieces, convincing them they needed to be there. I don't think there was a massive, massive drain of key players. Trevor Harris is a big one. Gino again put the context around that properly and now they're in a period of exclusive negotiation where they're going to get sold pretty quick. I wasn't surprised when the league took it over. I was the kind of one guy early on, I think during Superbowl week to report that the league was in negotiations with other buyers. And I said on radio at that time that I don't know if we're going to be able to get an A to B transaction from Stern and the estate to a new owner. It might need the league to broker it and hang onto it for a small period of time and that's what they're doing and it'll be in a better place because from everything I understand, the new owners are well financed, are willing to put money in on the front end, which previous groups haven't necessarily done or been willing to do and they're local. So I think it's going to be a good situation in Montreal. And you think that's coming sooner than later? Yeah, I would be surprised if it didn't happen this month, to be quite honest. I think we're nearing the end of that process. So <laugh> not today, in March you're saying? Sorry, what's the date today? The 28th. So yeah, in March. March I would imagine it's a case of weeks, not months. Okay, that's good. And then last thing here where are we getting our American C Ffl TV deal? Where? I mean what is going with That? Well, I don't know. I don't know. And I divide things up. So he's got that okay on his to-do list, but certainly ESPN's going to be a part of it just because of ts N's relationship with espn. streaming is going to be a part of it and we'll see where they all end. But my understanding is there actually is going to be a little bit in the way of dollars coming back to the league. It's not simply a distribution deal, so another step forward. Awesome. Well Farhan, I appreciate it coming on here and that yeah, blew up last week. I thought, what the hell was going on here? But it was good. I appreciate you. Where Were you? Because I texted you say where's, why can't I watch this game? We were in part of Myta and it was hard enough for me to get on an hour to stream my shows. Dorothy was very Dorothy. I mean Dorothy's The best. She's the only reason I came on and she's probably the one who said answer him. Yeah, tell him where the game is. No, I came back from dinner, I'm like, oh, far on this. Looking for the game Well was truthfully, I was actually disappointed that the crowd wasn't great because Seattle and St. Louis were the two places in the last go around where crowds were pretty good and the atmosphere was good. I know my son plays a flight seven on seven football for F S P and we got a thing where they were offering the kids tickets to go to the game and I think Tracy Ford even got a suite for some of the guys to go as well. But I just watching a few minutes that I did, I was disappointed just because when Seattle played the last time a couple years ago, the crowds were pretty good. We weren't there, but I was told it was very cold, so I was told it was very fair, It was very cold. There was a cold snap. So in fairness unseasonably cold. Even for February here in the northwest, I did get like, because I posted, oh, I'm cheering here because we had our balcony cheering the dragons. I got all these people, how are you not even at the game. I go, I got to stay married here. I got to stay married. Do you want me to, do you want me to come back From Mexico? No, you should have had your vacation a week earlier On. I know I got to, Dorothy would've understood it. Dorothy would've Underst. She's a champ. <laugh> Farhan, I appreciate your time. Thank you so much again. All right buddy. Anytime. Well Bonger good morning. We have Cody Fri rather. Now Cody, I say this with all sincerity and honesty. I don't think there's a single active C F L player our listeners want to hear more from than you. So I really appreciate you coming on the show today. Absolutely. Well that's cool to hear. You guys are doing some great things and bringing a lot of viewership to the C F L and so I appreciate things like that because it's a great league that needs to be expressed how great it is through all media outlets. Well, it's good. So how is life for you right now? It's been a little chaotic. You, you know, said you have your baby sleeping now. How is Cody's life right now? Great. I feel good going in after signing my contract with Montreal feel a lot better than where I was going into free agency. All right. There was a lot of uncertainty, especially around my name and possibilities of being a backup, being a starter. There was just a lot of questions. So I'm extremely happy to be a QB one again and got a big chip on my shoulder and I'm excited about the season taking a trip out east and a little bit different. So where I started in the C F L was out east and it's a great little 14 battle till the end and so I'm excited about that. Yeah. How frustrating is that you're trying to play, do what you need to do, you have all this squawking and all these talking heads everywhere. How difficult is it to stay focused? I think the hard part is sometimes there's a narrative put out there and you want to do whatever you can to change that narrative or just be like, Hey, that's not real sometimes. And it's unfortunate. I think nowadays it's more about how fast you can get the information out, not really how accurate it is. And it sucks as an athlete because sometimes the information's accurate, sometimes it's not. And you're just sitting there and if you comment on it as an athlete everyone looks at you and says, oh you can't do that, you can't do that. So sometimes you just got to let things roll off the chest and move on. And so throughout the entire off season it was a little bit difficult. But I'm extremely excited where I'm at and what Coach Moss and Danny Mack have done with this Montreal team, especially having their hands tied behind their backs for majority of the free agency I think they've put together a very competitive roster on paper and that's all we can say right now until we go out there and actually practice and perform in games. But I'm extremely excited to be a part of this organization. Well that's the thing. We came into this and covering we're newbies to covering this whole C F L world and it's amazing to me how prevalent your name in a good way is just across the league is one of the main guys and there's just always a lot of attention around you. It, it's crazy to me as someone that seems as affable and likable and hardworking, there's just always seems to be someone saying something about you. I've just never understood that. Yeah, I'm a big believer in, I think a lot of people know that about me. If Jesus Christ got crucified, it only makes sense for people are entitled to their own opinions. And that's something I think that's so great about where we live is our freedom of speech. And so there's nothing wrong with it and sometimes maybe strikes a chord here or there, but everyone's entitled to their own opinions. So for me just to be pissed about every little thing, it just would affect my day to day-to-day too much. So I know early on in my rough rider career I cared a lot about everybody and pleasing everybody. And I found that that was just energy-wise, it was draining. It was draining just to keep everybody and I was focused more on the people who didn't like me and I was willing to do anything I could to make people like me as opposed to the really solid foundation of the core people who just care about me as a person. Not so much a football player but as a person. So please 'em all. And I found that out the hard way cause I truly tried. But moving forward, there's a lot of people that have backed me my entire career and now being a rough rider quarterback, it comes with a lot of positivities, but it comes with some negativities just under scrutiny. There's a microscope under you as the rough rider quarterback and that's a professional football should be about though. And that's what they can offer that some teams, it gives you that true professional feel where you're an A one celebrity when you play quarterback for the Saskatchewan Rough Riders and you truly feel that way and it makes you, honestly, it makes you feel like that professional quarterback and you get a glimpse of that N F L lifestyle where you can't go to the grocery store, you can't go out. Those guys make millions and millions and millions of dollars. So they have people do their groceries for them or they have people run their errands for them. So I can't get away from that. But yeah, it's definitely a huge learning curve. I learned a lot. I don't know anything else other than the R being the rough rider, starting quarterback. I've been a backup in this league and other places. So I'm excited to compare the two and go to Montreal and be their starting quarterback and kind of see the difference because all I know is being a starting quarterback for the rough riders. Talk about, you said about support system you've had and obviously your family and moving your family across the country and just the challenges that go along with that because I mean, I think people, and this goes across football and sports in general. Oh they're train or this is going on. I mean this is a whole lifestyle change for you and uprooting and everything. What is that like? Yeah, absolutely. That's a great question. Honestly, it's difficult, especially when you have a little one like myself and a lot of guys in the league have kids and some families go up to Canada with them, some stay home. My wife has a job here, so she works here. She'll come up to a handful of games and be up for two or three days. But we try not to go longer than six weeks apart from each other. So we'll find a time within those six weeks given three by weeks and some home games here and there, we're able to make it work. But since my wife and I have started really dating we had a couple years in college, but once I got out of college, it's been all long distance and you learn a lot about your partner, you learn a lot about your relationship doing long distance and it could be difficult at times. And so free agency comes around and you know, think it's all football based, but a lot of it has to do with your family as well. Like you talked about moving your family, moving my family out east, that's that's big for us. And one thing that was difficult about playing in Saskatchewan was flying into the Regina airport, especially from where we're at in Reno, Nevada, two small airports. It would take my wife about four flights, 14 hour trip to get there. And so that's just a really exhausting on her. And now having a little one, it'd be exhausting on him. So for us, going to Montreal and being in a little bit of a bigger airport she can get there in two flights minimum or maximum minimum. So some of 'em are direct flights, some of 'em, she goes San Francisco right to it. So it, it's something you got to think about when you get into free agency. Obviously understanding the situation of being able to play football was number one on my list. I wanted to not have to hold a clipboard for six, seven weeks and then get my opportunity because I got this chip on my shoulder the way that the season ended last year and I wanted to hit the ground running. I know what the covid year did to me after 2019. I came off a great season and taking that whole year off, it just felt like I had to restart. And so being able to step right back into that QB one role and use the last two years as momentum and that experience as momentum for me, I, I'm really excited about that. Not having to go and be a backup and compete and then start back over again. Whether that's week one, week six, week nine, you never know in the cfl. Yeah, it seems like competition just drives you. It is so deep in your bones and obviously you have your love for your family and everything, but it just seems like sometimes in the CFL you get don't, okay, we're kind are you drive to be, you're an alpha right athlete and you're an alpha personality in terms of wanting to lead this team. It's exciting to see you, like you said, kind of back in that same position now on the east. Yeah, absolutely. That's what you want. You want the opportunity to write your wrongs and last year I didn't play my best and I'll be the first to tell ev everybody that and looking at the stats I was in competitive in some areas, in some areas I need to be better at not turning the ball over as much. Scoring when we're in the red zone, I felt like I didn't take as many chances as I wish I would have and we ended up settling for fuel goals. So some things that I've learned about myself on the tape, but there's no one to point a finger at about last year other than myself. You miss the playoffs and I take a lot of that heat for missing the playoffs because you are the quarterback, you are the highest paid player on the team, you should be able to pull your team to a playoff a year. And so I was unable to do that last year. And so a fresh start in Montreal back with Coach Moss and we know each other really well, we got a great working relationship, a great relationship off the field we care a lot about each other. And so really excited just about a fresh start. And a lot of people say to get where you want to go, sometimes you got to make that change that you're afraid to do. Sometimes when you don't make that change, you're kind of settle and you're about in that status quo, but you make that change. It could be better or could be worse, but if you really want to get to that better spot you got to make a change. And I was almost forced out so it was almost a forced change for me. But a change is a good thing for me in my opinion and for my family. And just a fresh start, I talked about, Well like you said, for whether it's your decision, anyone, sometimes it's just either relationship sour now you can go and be with coach over there. Are you excited? I saw the video you learning to speak French and all that really embracing, which is funny but I think it's so just who you are as you dive head in a hundred percent right, you are fully committed to this. What's it been kind of transitioning now? Yeah, I appreciate that. Thanks for the kind words. I don't know how long I get to play this wonderful sport football, especially professionally. So to be able to dive in a hundred percent that's what I give. And those same goes to my play on the field and I talk about all the time when people tell me I should slide more. I don't know when my last play's going to be. And so if I slid and didn't get the first down and we punted and then I don't get to ever play a football game again because an injury or something happens, I would regret that. So I play every down, it's my last because I'm very fortunate enough to be going into my ninth year in the C F L or professional football and that's a long time, but I hope there's many more years after this. But to tell you the truth, I just want to dive full in, embrace the fans. I've always been excited about Montreal and going to Montreal and playing there. And so to be a part of that and to run out of the cage for the first time I think it's going to be an exciting time. And like I've said over and over this, a lot of people are pegging it as a rebuild year and it's absolutely not that. I think we have the team to make a deep run into the playoffs and to shock some teams. And honestly I hope that teams take us for granted or take it easy on us early on so we can turn some heads. We're building a lot of optimism around the team with a new ownership, hopefully a new head coach new franchise. So I think that optimism comes with winning football games. You win football games early, you'll start seeing the fans fill up the stadium and make it hard on opposing teams. And so playing at Mosaic, I realized what a huge asset a great crowd can be and they created a lot of procedure penalties, offside penalties, delay games they create a lot. And so that gives your team a huge bonus. So I would love to do anything we can to pack our stadium to make it just as hard on opposing teams to come in and play for us. Now something we've noticed, and Montreal kind of is my team of the east. I have BC Lions, that's my West Coast team. I call them America's C F L team, but maybe Montreal could be French America, whatever the air horns, this could end this interview right now. Are you Montreal air Horn or gone in Montreal Air Horn? I actually, I like it. It's got that soccer feel to it. In soccer you have that. My wife's a college soccer player, so watching the World Cup you hear the same stuff. And so that's one of the biggest stages as well. And knowing as an athlete that's gone against it and how much it can affect you I want them to bring the air horns out as much as possible. Now that I'm a part of it, obviously not when we're on offense but when the other team's on offense because it's one of those things that it can just throw you off and if it throws you off for one play, that's all we need that advantage for one play because in a course of a game you run about 60 to 65 plays, but usually it comes down to five, three to five plays. And if you could throw somebody off for that one play, that swings in our advantage. By all means, bring as many air horns as you can. I know that there's a lot of fans out there and a lot of players that dislike it. But being a part of it now I'm embracing it and I'm calling for more air horns. Good. I got a couple more here. I'll let you go. I promise I appreciate your time. You talked about not viewing Montreal as a rebuild year, you're really excited, obviously we're still going through signings and preg, all that kind of stuff. Who are you excited to see and what excites you about the team on the field that thus far that exists? Yeah, Greg Ellington's probably one of the persons I'm most excited about because we've been in the league together for a while now, but we've never crossed paths on the same team. We've always been competitors, we've always been rivals. So to be able to be on the same roster, that's exciting for me. And he's done a lot of great things in this league and when he's healthy, he's one of the best receivers in this league. So really excited about that. Excited about our two stud Canadian receivers can and Phil Pott. Those guys I've heard nothing but great things about them and their speed and then Reggie Reggie's coming off an injury, but from what I've heard from other players around the league, he could be a top three wide receiver in this league given the opportunity. So I think receiver wise I'm spoiled and I'm excited to hit the ground running with those guys. But to tell you the truth, our three-headed monster, running back running backs in our backfield is going to be the difference in a lot of football games. Being able to establish a run will allow us to throw the ball over the top, get some more man coverage backs, been playing at a top level for year after year after year and excited for him to be healthy. And then obviously the other two studs that Fletch and those guys are just change of pace backs can be dynamic out of the backfield, can catch the ball out of the backfield guys who have stepped into significant roles and have played really well. So it's hard because there's one football and I just named a lot of talented football players and if I could I cut it into seven different parts and give everyone a piece, I would love to. But I think that's going to make us so dynamic is we got a lot of selfless players that are willing to do whatever it takes to win football games and if their numbers called, they're going to be willing and ready to be that guy. And so at any point in the season, any one of those guys can take over a game. And I think that's exciting is as a defense, you can't just focus in on one guy because we have 5, 6, 7 guys that can take over a game and it might be one guy one week and it might be another guy the next week. But those guys, after talking with them and feeling them out, if they feel like if they're not getting the ball, it's not like, Hey come on Cody, throw me the ball. Oh all right, it's turn today or it's stand back's turn today and we just want to win football games. And I think when you have that mentality, you win a lot more football games than you lose. And a lot of games come down to the end and when you have selfless play, I think you can win a lot of football games late. And that's what the C F L as you know in the X ffl has kind of proven it the last couple weeks is a lot of games are coming down to the wire and finishing the last four or five minutes and that's what makes football such an exciting game because you never know and you have to play all four quarters, you can't just play the first three. No the cool thing and we've interviewed a bunch of the Montreal players over the years and I think we had stand back on preseason last year, just something about the C F L and the players buying in and just like we're all in, we're committed once you said we cover all these different leagues once what the C F L offers and you can buy into that, what is it about the C F L that you love the most and that keeps you excited to come back here after year? Well personally it was the only league that gave me an opportunity and that is what helps me go all in. There's other leagues now, but the C F L was really the only one there when I got cut from Oakland Raiders had a handful of trouts in the N F L, never stuck anywhere. And the C F L was there for me and gave me an opportunity to play professional football and finally get to where I'm at where I'm actually playing games and starting and being a franchise guy. So I owe a lot to the C F L but to tell you truth about the football aspect of it, it's just how fast paced it is. Every American that follows me and that has watched C F L because they're following me has told me how much more exciting the game is than the N F NFL because of how quick it is. And every punt, there's a punt return and there's a lot of handful things the last three minutes of the game, they always want to talk about the last three minutes how teams can score multiple times with three minutes and you know, look at the N F L and at the two minute warning, if you have the lead you can take three knees and it's over. You can't do that in the C F L and I think that's what excites fans from turning it off. You could be down 10, 14 points with three minutes left and you're not turning the game off cause there's a possibility that that team can come back. And I've seen it, I've been a part of it. And so that's what excites me about the CFL game. The 22nd play clock is great in my opinion. It makes it difficult on quarterbacks and offense is operating, but I think it's great because there's not a lot of standing around and just huddling and talking in the huddle and getting out, seeing the defense and checking into the perfect play. There's a lot of times in the C F L where you run a play that is not good against that defense but there's nothing you can do about it. So I think it makes tougher on quarterbacks and I think that's why you see some of the quarterbacks throw a little bit more interceptions than you do in the N F L. It's because we can't get into the perfect play every single time in the N F L. And so sometimes the ball has to go up into double coverage or sometimes you have to force a ball here or there. So that's what makes it difficult. But as a quarterback, I know if I had an opportunity to play back in the United States with their rules, I'm such a better quarterback now because of the C F L game and the rules and I'm excited about McLeod, Bethel Thompson going to U S F L because we'll see how that translates. I think going from three downs to four downs, you have to find completions with three downs and McLeod giving him an extra down and he led the C F L in passing last year, he can do some incredible things in the U S F L and so I, I'm excited to see him do that. But yeah, the C F L game has so many great rules that I find it so fascinating. Yeah, I loved him in McLeod's post kind of him leaving the Argos really romanticized the league I thought in, I think it was on Instagram or posted wherever it was just talking about that and how much it's given him and you said the same thing, gave you a shot and has allowed you to live this life and see the world, see the country and raise your family and kind of support everything. It's a cool it's a cool thing to be able to have for players to have that. I think you're exactly right and I wouldn't get to see the beautiful parks Canada has offer without the C F L, right? There's no way I'm going to Niagara Falls, there's no way I'm going up to Whistler. There's no way I'm going to Montreal if it wasn't for football. And so being able to have my family and have those times together, being playing in Toronto and having my wife come up playing in bc, having my wife come up even Saskatchewan and having my wife come up and now Montreal and so having my son being a Canadian citizen, a dual passport that's going to open up a lot of doors for him. And so there's just a lot of perks to the C F O game and there's a lot of beautiful things about Canada that as an American would've never had this opportunity if it wasn't for the C cfl. And so you're right to romanticize the CFL is you have to pay your dues without a doubt you don't make that great of money as a rookie but that just makes you want to work harder. But now giving there's multiple leagues, it's going to be a little bit more competitive to sign guys. So maybe there's a little bit of increase in pay. I would say the hardest thing for Americans right now is just being paid in Canadian dollars. If you look at the number, it's very competitive. 70 thousands are minimum very competitive with other leagues, but when you transfer it over in US money, it drops significantly, right? You lose 25% just off the top and that's as the 10 year average at 0.75 on the exchange rate. So a lot of guys don't realize that until they get up there but you realize what I tell them is it's six months of work, right? Some leagues you have to be year round, it's six months of work, you can get a job in the off season and work six months. So to make that kind of money in six months is a privilege. And then also you just got to pay your dues because everybody's done it. Everyone's done their two years two, some have done three years on their rookie deal. And if you believe in yourself and you want to willing to bet on yourself, you can get to a good payday that can pay the bills and you can live comfortably. And so you know, just got to work hard and you got to be given that opportunity. And that's so hard about professional sports is there's so much talent but the opportunity you, I've seen so many guys go by the wayside because they never got their opportunity. They just sat on a roster and never really, the guy in front of 'em never went down, never got to play. And they're out of the league in two years and it's unfortunate. And so you really feel the blessings of an opportunity whether any way you can get it because they don't come too much. Well Cody, I really appreciate your time today. I appreciate the O outlet setting this up. Before we go, and I don't want to put you on the spot, but I have to utilize this opportunity a couple years, A couple years ago I think we tweeted something icky three down how the article out about you not using cuss words or something using Chicken McNuggets. I commented on something and we got caught in one of the infamous Cody Twitter bands and we are blocked. The has is blocked on Twitter. This has been part of our show now for the last couple years and we've had shenanigans on the show. So I wanted to apologize if there was ever a chance to maybe get back in your good grace this year. We're going to share this episode this week, but would really mean a lot if we could get back on the other side of that Cody Jaro Twitter band. Honestly, I unblocked you guys. You guys, if you haven't checked recently, you guys aren't blocked. Oh good, that's great. Oh yeah, absolutely. I don't know why, honestly, maybe you could tell me, but I guess I got a strong powerful blocking if you're blocked by me. People hate that. It's just sometimes, like I said, everyone's entitled to their own opinion just like I'm entitled to block whoever I want and I don't want to read what you have to say. I don't have to read what you have to say. But doing this interview with you guys and just understanding you and seeing what you guys have said about me over the years, there's been a lot more positive than there has been negative. And sometimes, like you said, sometimes you get caught up in this article and then I go on this, I don't want to see what this guy says, see what this guy. And so you're kind of casualty just by being associated with it. But you guys do, like I said early on in the interview, you guys do a lot of great things for the league and bring a lot of awareness, a lot of eyeballs to this league. And so to be an advocate of that and to be an ally to you guys as well I think we're have having a great working relationship definitely starts today. Start it out so you guys aren't blocked anymore and I'm excited to see everything down the stretch and hopefully we can get on this, I can get on your guys' show again and we can continue to talk Paul. Well Cody, it's a new beginning for you. It's a new beginning for us. It's a new beginning for everybody. Viva the ettes I I took French many years ago. It's that the plural feminine or I don't really know how that goes, but I really appreciate your time. I do think you are just a gem of a person and just with the league and everything and I know you deal with a lot of stuff so really appreciate it and the extended time today. So thank you so much for coming on. Absolutely. Thanks for having me on guys. It's good to be on and like I said, thanks for everything you guys do for the league and for all leagues really bring a lot of eyeballs to the smaller leagues that need it. Awesome man, thank you so much. I really appreciate it. Huge special thanks to all of our guests today coming on the show. Tom Lugabo getting ready for the weekends games and navigating coaching calls and kind of everything else he had to do to prepare for that. Really appreciate Tom taking the time to sit down, extend the talk with Tom means a lot. Mark drum Heller coming on late at night working through his personal schedule to come on I think like 35 minutes with Mark and then Chris Matthews as well, talking through reliving the Cashman field experience. Really appreciate that. And then like I said Farhan coming on the show always means a lot. Someone with the stature and notoriety and just how crazy busy Farhan is. And then all of the people over at the Montreal AZ for setting up that interview, Cody, for just being all in. Really appreciate that we get caught up in stuff and I used to be a lot more brash online and I've really tried to tone it down here in 2023, but Cody is one of the nicest people I've ever met. One of the most genuine people in the world and I have nothing but respect for him. Really appreciate that Cody had kind of done the research ahead of time coming onto the show. You kind of knew what he was getting into and I really just thought that that was a wonderful experience. Really hope you guys enjoy that. I'm really trying. I will say all the bridges now have been rebuilt. Save for three donation. Now, couple weeks ago I really did send a heartfelt genuine apology to Justin Dunk. Remember I kind of accosted him on the streets of vagina back during the breakup. So I have put positive energy out to that. But I think now Cody, were good. Ara, we've always been good. I mean I know that there was all the dual stuff, but I gave Ara a hug back up in vagina when I saw him. So I think in terms of C F L media, I think that's it. Let me know are there any other longstanding feuds. But I have reached out to Justin Dunk, did not hear back, but I wrote a lengthy heartfelt email to him. So if you're listening to this maybe Hey Justin, what's going on? I thought Reid reached out to you. I really sincere with that. But really appreciate everybody, all of that stuff. Now the real reason you guys are sticking around, if you're still here at the two and a half hour mark, however long this is at this point we are given away, lo and behold, the Bryan Scott Football. Now don't forget 3,500 subscribers. We are given away the championship game tickets to either the exit L or the U S F L. So stay subscribed. Lots more stuff coming, got the things, scrolling, all that kind of stuff. But two tickets to that. I also have everything booked for the Alamo trip. I know lots of people. Very excited to come to San Antonio for the XE L championship game. I want to, in a couple weeks here, I'm going to get a headcount because I'm going to call, see if we can kind of make an appointment there with the Alamo because we are leading the Alamo tour. Could be maybe, you know, don't care about the XE L championship game, but we're going through the Alamo read the mark cast. We're going to go through, I think John Vogel's going to be there. I know Anthony Miller, everybody else. So buy your tickets get your plane tickets, hotel. I'm partying on the Riverwalk. If there's enough people, I might even come in on Thursday if there's enough people that are going to be partying. So you let me know right now. I'm going to be there Friday this Sunday, but if you want to come hang out Thursday, I could always move my flight up. Big time giveaway. This has been a long time coming. I have like 25, 30 people put their names in here to that. And then we have a few less for the jerseys just because they were more specific size. So we'll give away the ball in a minute. For the generals jersey, send me an email, the mark podcast@gmail.com. That is the only way that you are going to be able to get into this semi read. I won the general's jersey. This goes for all of 'em. Put these all on random thing. Username, act my age, act my age. You are getting the Spring League general's jersey. I have it over there. You know what it looks like. General's Jersey go into act my age username, act my age. Three blues jerseys going out today. Going out. We have Denzel with two Ls, D E N Z E L l JC Stalin, S T R A U L I N and then Jared, 99 62. So those are the three. You got your three blues jerseys coming your way, you're going to get those. And now Gram prize. Gram prize. I was so excited to see this user's name. This is someone that's very passionate online. I see tweet a lot of stuff. I see supportive of the show always commenting. The people that are going to submit to this are always going to be the most passionate. But I like getting someone that I see really active on here. It means a lot because this is coming out of my pocket. I mailed this to Brian and I paid for Brian to send it back and I'm buying the football and all that stuff. Username, I think your name is Chris Aviation junkie. You're getting the ball. You're getting the ball if you listen to this. Now here's the thing, this is a exploding offer. Everybody that won prizes this week, if you do not send me an email, by the time I record next week, you forfeit your prize and we're going to give it to someone else. So those are the winners. Make sure you check back in on Monday. Andy Murray and I will be back as always with our Monday morning coffee drive time talk. What did we learn? X ffl 2023, week three. And then, like I said, I should have a big show next week as well. I think Mike Mitchell, and then my C F L guest. Everything else. Thank you guys so much. Please enjoy. Get us up to 35. We're like 900 away. We've crossed a hundred whatever plus since the last time we did the giveaway. So thank you guys all so much again. We'll see you next.

XFL 2023 Week 2: What Did We Learn?

Here we are. Welcome. Happy Monday morning, February 27th here. Happy XFL week two. We made it through back at Markcast headquarters here, but I kind of like the candidness here. We're having our coffee Monday morning. I've got my coffee here. Drive time radio. Andy, the professor's going to be joining us here in a minute. Andrew Murray, but really exciting. X F L week too. We made it I think for whatever reason I think we're going to have a lot more to talk about today than we did last week. Something tells me something. A lot of drama going on right now. We have Jenna checking in here, Southern California. Appreciate it. This episode did tremendously well last week with the audio. Listen, so we are kind of on the fence. Are we going to do it Andrew? Andy seems excited and it seems like people want to listen and watch. The professor and I break down X F L week two coming in hot off a Sunday night into Monday morning, all the games to break down. We did Battle Hawks Dragons on Friday. We had John Vogel on the show, but we can talk through that as well. Plus everything going on in the Cashman field. I don't know if you know the old song Cash Out. I'm cashing out. I might cash out on the Cashman field right now. How is my vacation? Very good. Flew in late Saturday night. I went to the cracking game last night. They lost five to one against the Toronto Maple Leafs. Voice is a little hoarse today, but it is what it is. King of the North. Perfect timing while I'm on the road. Great. Yeah, it seems like people like this. They like this. Checking in here on the Monday morning, kind of getting the hot takes and all that. Little bit of breaking news here if we want to. That was sent over to my desk this morning while we wait for Andrew to log in. I think he's having a camera issue. Bruno Long time Spring League favorite Bruno back with the Battle Hawks. Played with the he was with the where was he with Stall? He was with the US L and now he's back with the heading over to Arlington to be with DC pending the physical. Looks like Bruno is going to be back per Bruno on his Twitter here. Really excited for that. I think DC is down to about their third or fourth. Yeah, center there. So good for Bruno there. Checking in DC. Looking good this week. If we have any DC fans, I believe a big time Stakes this week DC versus the Battle Hawks. I think a Battle of the Unde Undefeated there in the north, but good for Bruno. Get some help for DC and the guys over there reels and Wheels says, well we were in New Orlando to see our bras. Get the W my wife finally met. Yes, Hines Ward. Catching up in the chat. Hines Ward with his ski mask. Sunglasses. Definitely a vibe. Definitely a vibe there. Lots of comments coming in, A lot of concern. Jenna is asking for a quarterback change for the Renegades who fell short last night. Gen the Houston Roughnecks still undefeated running it back now seven and oh in XFL 2020. Do we count that? Do we count? Are there, if we count Jim Haslett as coaching the undefeated roughnecks back in 2020 Now with the Seattle Sea Dragons, do we count the undefeated Houston Roughnecks back? We'll have to get Andrew Murray's thoughts on that? I will. One more comment here. I'll pull him in. Yeah, PIP said how Slather isn't playing is mind boggling. He can be ranked top four. All quarterbacks, most experts in football is, I know we got Bob Stoops. We talked to Bob back in Arizona welcoming in the Shannon Sharp to my Skip bailiffs. We have the professor Andrew Murphy. Andrew, how are you doing today? Well, unlike Shannon Sharp, I have to be in my seat at the right time, right? So I got to enter the studio. But listen I hope you were doing all right Reid. I know we've had a lot of back and forth this past weekend and I think we're going to have very interesting conversation today, but I'm doing quite well. I'm doing good. Well rested ready to do this. Yeah, I <laugh>. So for years I hated undisputed everyone and Skips trash and nobody likes any of that. I was a good morning football guy, watched a lot of good Morning football Cop ran and the crew over there when Kay left. I don't know, kind of thought the dynamic there changed. I turned on undisputed after the Cowboys lost in the playoffs this year and have not turned off. So if we could be even just 1% of the undisputed, which I love now we have Andrew Murray here, but I like this. I like this. I'm here. I told everyone I'm in a casual setting today. I like this to be a little different than the studio show. We're going to have that. Do you like being in the casual Mark House headquarters? I do actually. That's like I get to see a different part of your house every time I watch your show every six months. There's always a different angle. Well and at some point you're probably going to do it on your roof, I imagine. Yeah, I get do it. Yeah, we have a lot of, everyone is and I guess that'll be the first game. We'll break down here coming off and then we'll go back. We'll get to the Cashman field. I was going to say the title of the episode now because I called it the X F L weekend review and I really didn't even mean to step on Perry's toes and on our new friend Josh Levin or Lou Lou Louvin. Lewin. Yeah, And I did. I was just like the X F L, we like X L totally wasn't trying to step on it. So now it's going to be called like XL we two. What did we learn? That is the name of the show of the brandy. We can do U S F L. What did we learn? We can do C F L, but what did we learn? I will say I learned that Cashman field is not a acceptable place to host a professional football game. So maybe we could log off the episode earlier. Yeah, log off now while we're ahead. Okay, so I actually have my article coming up soon on expo news hub. My weekly takeaways L listen, I didn't get so much into the conditions of Cashman field so much because I think everyone spoken at Naum about that topic from across multiple platforms, different voices from different parts that consumed the X F L. But I mean I think it was a perfect storm and I mean that quite literally and figuratively. So it was the fact that obviously they did not have the venue ready until the last minute, until the 11th hour and trying to sell tickets. They didn't sell them as quickly as they did even at the other venues, which they still, as we mentioned last week, we're still a little bit behind anyways, so you coupled that with the fact that they couldn't get the venue ready in time until basically a month before. So you have Cashman field and then the fact that the weather was just horrendous. I don't know about you, but the entire West coast was just drenched either snowing or drenched this entire weekend and this past week really it was just up and down the coastline. So you had that even in Vegas. So the weather was obviously not great. The turf or the lack of turf, I don't know what you would call that. The fact that they had the spray print, the grass the fact that they had, I mean I've saw all kinds of different analogies being made. It's heard people say, oh it looks like a dog park yard. It looks like something that I just something ready turf that I just bought secondhand from somebody. It's some black market or something like people were just making shots at it left and and for good reason. It looks terrible on tv. It looks terrible as a product. It did not look good for a multitude of reasons. Now look, I don't know how much money was put into that. I don't know how much structuring was gone into that whole process and obviously like I said, the weather didn't help but there felt like felt something rogue about it. This whole operation did not feel just articulated in the way that it should have. And I know that people pulled out the quote of Rod Woods and the head coach of the biggest bikers saying I think a few months ago saying, Hey, we'll play anywhere. I don't care where we play. I'll play in a parking lot on a highway. And it's like in some ways I think we almost preferred that <laugh> compared to what the field conditions were on Saturday night. So yeah, just unfortunate and I think it was just a confluence of a bunch of different things all happening at the same time. Yeah, and I was thinking about this, so I was, yes, west coast hammered. It was 82 in Port Bay Earth. We were flying back. I was watching the game on Twitter and I guess we'll start here because we'll go, we'll get through this and then we'll do our pendants here and then we'll move on. I was watching it Twitter highlights, seeing what was going on, reading the group chat because I couldn't get obviously the stream up on the plane. I sat down, I did watch the game yesterday, watched the first half because I'm like, I got to see, I got to live through this. I was thinking about it. There's not many times when I have been, people hate me, would hate us. I haven't been wrong that many times. I was wrong that the U S F L would make a united by football and behind the scenes show I was wrong. I I was wrong that God. Now I'm totally lost my train of thought, but we have said for months that Vegas isn't going to work good, isn't going to look good. It's going to be a mistake. It's going to be a mistake. It wasn't just me. I know Mike Mitchell's been on this all that. It's just, it's frustrating to come down to see it. I had messages, I was talking with Dave Naer, famously Dave our big C F L insider. I consider Dave a historian of football in North America in the world, kind of that American football C F L football. I said, Dave, to put it in context, how bad is this stadium? Historically, Dave said, I cannot think of a field venue wise, seating wise maybe, but unsafe for the players to be on. I can't think of anywhere in the last 50 years that has been worse than Cashman Field was on Saturday night and it was just this confluence, like he said, the weather was bad and the graphics were wrong and they were calling the people the wrong names and they had the betting odds and they didn't have the right teams. It was everything. I don't know how we got through week one as clean as we did and I don't know, is it just such a rogue setup there? Like you said that we E S P, we just couldn't get all our ducks figured out. It felt very un e s espn, like how many mistakes there were on the broadcast. Yeah, I agree. And also just the tower they constructed just kind of putting the two broadcasters out on the island over there. It's just that was awesome. Not really in the way that I thought that it would be awesome in the se sense that, okay, well I guess this is happening now. As far as a debacle goes I don't understand how I wondered mean. This really felt all put together the last minute, which again, it was based on the timeline of events and constructing the whole eighteens eight different home setups. Of course it feels that way, but I did not expect that. That's the part that kind of surprises me. I almost wanted to say shocked, but I mean we kind of knew a little bit that this toll cashman field deal was going to be kind of a coin flip. Is this going to work? I don't know. Hopefully. I mean that people, I don't the seats, the seating's fine. I think the venue's fine actually. I think if you dressed it up a little bit it actually would look better and that's what surprises me is that it wasn't dressed, it wasn't dressed up better. There wasn't more preparation and planning of, okay, look, if this happens, this contingency plan of if you're xfl, you're talking to yourself, you're saying if we're not going to get Allegiant Stadium and if we're not going to get one of these higher end venues, if we're going to do cash and field, here's what needs to be done. If this wants to be done and done correctly and for optically, they'll look okay. I mean people are already kind of envisioning a little bit before the game happened, okay, it might look like this or they'll have this over here or something like that nature. I think people were willing to accept the fact that it was going to be on that field and yet it literally almost looked like they'd made these plans, I don't know, a week ago. That's what just kind of blows me away about the whole thing and that's something that I just wonder, well, they just not prepared for the fact that it was going to look like this. I mean again, look, the weather didn't help. I get that. I understand that, but there's just operationally, there are other things here to consider that just did not pan out at all and it was a mess. There's no other word for it. It was a mess. Yeah. Well we'll get off this because I don't want to be the complaint train here. My day, I did just tweet this. Yeah, I'm sitting there in the plane, I'm getting messages, I'm seeing Farhan, I'm seeing nailer, I'm seeing people here. I have defended, championed spring football U S F L X F L for the last three years here. I was on Jamie NIS show up in Saskatchewan last week talking about how great X F L week one was and trying to make sure that my quotes were getting included when it was being shared online because Jamie's more questionable about it and me trying to like, Hey, I try. This is good. We're not going to be upset by this. They did a good job and then I tweeted this out, 936 days from, it was like August 5th whenever it was Rock and Dan, everyone bought the league did tonight and I go it, it's disheartening sometimes 936 days led us to this and it was a misfield goal because the player slipped because the field was terrible. It looks like I don't want to be the complaint train. It is disheartening. I tried to champion all this stuff. I had one more quote here and then we'll move on. I want to talk about the field of play here. It's something about how it made it look like. It made it look like a field. It made the Arizona Cardinal Stadium look like a field of dreams for the Super Bowl and I said we had talked Kevin Costner we're bringing the field of dreams to Las Vegas. It was a field of nightmares on Saturday night. It was a field of nightmares on play on the field. What did you make of the defenders and the vipers watching the game unfold? I'm not surprised that the defenders were kind of able to put the wipers away and because their run game is so potent, they have multitude of options in the run game now. Jordan Tou just hasn't quite gotten it together yet. As far as the passing game goes now, their receivers have been, their receiving options have been kind of limited. They just haven't really managed to generate much in on the past game. But I'll tell you what man, the guy that I've really have just been enamored with is Dear King, he is lighting. He is so fast. I brought him up last week, I'm going to bring him up again because again, he was the key to the defenders really kind of breaking out in the second half. You finally saw the first overall pick. You had Abram Smith starting to really do some things on the ground. You had Armstead, you had a lot of guys kind of get in there and start to really play well as a unit and the whole running attack was just really something to wa behold, especially since a lot of other teams haven't really run it with that. So same level of proficiency. It was really cool to see some, one of the teams kind of figured that out already. As far as Vegas goes, I mean look, I think we've talked about Luis Perez, the Spring King, we've talked about his standing, his pedigree, all of that. But I can tell you right now I think Brett Hundley is going to be the full-time starter by week five. He looks like he has at least managed to generate something on offense. Now it wasn't always consistent and obviously there were a lot of logistical problems going on when they were trying to get anything done. I mean the only reason Vegas scored was because of a fumble at the one yard line by Tom and honestly if it wasn't for that, they might have been shut out at home. So I think Vegas has a lot to figure out offensively. I think it was, again, I think it was all the other things we just talked about that factored into that as well. They did not have the game plan prepared for that. DC very much is prepared to win ugly. It does not matter what kinds of conditions or elements are going on. It doesn't matter if their pass game's not working, they're ready to play this kind of game. If they're ready to muddy it up and make somebody have to work for the win or work for it on offense, then they are more than happy to do so. For me, I think it shows that DC is versatile versatile and they're able to do things that may not always go with what the opponent wants to do and I think that they are able to kind of adjust as they go along. The DC looks, think looks better in the standings than maybe they do on the field right now. I can't figure out with them and TEU getting just it's whatever far cry back from 2020 went to the US develop in terms of Huntley with the Vipers, I don't know if it's just lacking the timing. I saw they brought him in, they're like, oh, the third series we're going to bring him in. He was over throwing guys. It didn't seem like a lot of those deep balls were capable of being caught in bounds. I mean I thought they looked good and you saw the crowd, oh and then you're looking at the replay, you're like, oh, that wasn't even close to being in there and it's those lines and get right up there. The difference between the X Ffl and the N F NFL in terms of that. But yeah, I mean didn't think Huntley looked like he could throw the ball. It just didn't look like he could throw the ball to anyone that could catch it. The imbalance I think, if that makes any sense. Yeah, no, his timing is rhythm is off and that's that's going to take time to build that rapport. But I mean the The Vipers receiving go is legit. I think it's still really good and I think it's going to be very potent down the stretch of the season, but they've just got to stop turning the ball over. I mean Rod Woodson is just tearing his hair out. He's losing his mind over there on the sideline. Really to me he was the one really bright spot out outside of the DC run attack. Rod Woodson's antics of the sidelines, all the things that he was saying at him micd up is great. Honestly I want Vegas to be successful just so that he gets more spotlight and more limelight because I think he's actually just from a personality standpoint and understanding what needs to be done, I think he's really good as a head coach. I think him and I view him in Heinz Ward kind of in the same vein. I think they're guys that obviously N F L veterans, great players but also just have a knack for understanding other players and understanding what buds need to be pushed. So for Rod Woods's sake, I hope at least maybe Vegas can at least get one victory here at some point. I obviously we like the mics, we hearing everything. We like the on field. I will say when things are awry, it spotlight at and the com's not working and them talking and I'm like, okay, what's going on? And Mark Rosen coming over I think, or it was Doug Whaley. I wasn't think I saw someone just out the corner of my eye. The comms aren't working, we're going to have to shut it off for the other team and trying to explain and the players on the field not know it compounds that when you're watching it on TV of like, okay, wow, something's going on right now or maybe this is a broadcast. I almost knocked my coffee over here but you didn't know that because we're not spotlighting that. Yeah, okay. So Huntley was accurate and we receiver that also is the thing. We come in the X F L kickoff, we talk every time the XE l kickoff has the best kickoff and I think it is the best kickoff but first kick the wind takes it out first Punt win, the kicking game was not done any favors by the win there at Cashman Field. Well it reminded me a lot of the field that I saw when I was at the holiday bowl a couple months ago and that was played on a baseball field as well that was played at Facto Park and it was the same thing where it was like, oh man, second base, the second base area is not conducive to kicking or doing anything on there. They kept having to resaw it, the grounds crew kept trying to pat it down and do something with it. Kicking was a nightmare out there for both teams. I saw that multiple times. It felt kind of similar to that where it's just at some point where certain elements, not only just the elements but also just certain turf conditions are not going to hold up for certain activities and then with cleats and with kicking, that's something that is so specific that it's going to have to take a certain fortitude for it to cold up. But I mean I think that's just the kicking game. Yeah, just wasn't there really it it's unfortunate the kicking game in general has been pretty up and down throughout the league and I think that's something that's going to rectify itself. Whether someone's going to drop a kicker or somebody's going to just figure it out, we'll see. But it's been kind of hit and miss depending on the team and obviously there was no favors done. I think Saturday's a mulligan in my opinion for the kicking game. I think you take that, you throw the baby out with the bath water on that one, you don't really keep that in the record book and account that for the other team because it's just unfortunate for guys like Bailey Giffen, like they should not be kicking on a surface like that. Looking here at the stat line, we'll move on to the next game here, but looking at the are we have seen the last of Luis Perez here one the five poll a lot. I mean I saw him come in a little bit Huntley there. Have we moved on? Is it now week three now we go full-time with Huntley as a starter? Well I think Huntley goes full-time, but let me tell you, I've watched present enough times, the guy's a zombie. He comes back some ways somehow, someway he always comes back. This happened again in the a f when he got benched by the Birmingham iron at one point because he was starting to be a little inconsistent and starting to make some mistakes. And then next thing I know he comes over to San Diego, he ends up playing in that game significant time and he throws three touchdowns and he ends up winning that game. So it's like you think he's gone, he's never gone. So he's always around. It's just a matter of when does he come off the bench or when do they start utilizing him again? And we'll see with Hunley obviously he has to come along as a pastor. I think they've starting to get to know what they have on offense and what their options are. I do think that at some point you're going to see, I mean I don't think Perez has gone, I think he's going to be factoring into the offense, but as far as the starter, would it surprise me if Hunley maybe starts next week? I'm not sure. I'm not if that's enough time, but I think it's going to be soon. As I mentioned by about week five, you're going to see that happen. Last question, play field or the play on the field now have one more about the venue, then we'll move on. In an alternative world where Brian Scott doesn't play his way out scheme his way out, just whatever happened with, we will never know if Brian Scott is on this roster. Is the team better or worse than it is now? It's hard to say. I mean if he wasn't able to make his way through camp then I don't know. But that's the thing. I wonder if there's just, maybe it was a performance based thing, it will, the other we'll never know. That's something that's always hard to judge with some of these teams. Everyone wants to say like, oh, they like, oh this qb, they didn't know what they were doing. Okay, maybe they're not good evaluators of talent but I don't know that for sure. And so what I've liked to have seen him at least try to use this set of skilled position players he has around him, absolutely. I would've loved to see him throw it to Jeff Beda or Marta Brian or Matthew Sexton or Drano Allison. I would've loved to see in that, but he obviously didn't make the rosters so I can't definitively say for sure, yes, he would've been better. The team would've been better if he was playing. So it's hard for me to really answer that question. I think some people will feel more strongly opinionated about that than me, but again, he got leto by the team. So LA and we debated this and I'm am curious people in the chat about this, so we had a debate yesterday when I was watching the game. Vegas looks like hot garbage, it's going to look like garbage the whole time. They had supposedly 6,000 people there. Looked like a sparse 6,000 people if Vegas looks this way, we saw Houston last night. They had I think 11,000 Mike Mitchell put out there. We're not setting the world on fire with attendance. San Antonio looks good. St. Louis that we reported on the show on Friday. They're opening up the upper dome, kind of doing all that stuff. Is St. Louis, San Antonio if Seattle gets its work in there, is that enough to offset is having three or four awesome markets worth and then some of 'em are going to look like Dooo this first year where, and we'll see what the U S F L looks like this year. One market looks good in the u l and seven Lord I do. So it's a lot of money to get those other three or four venues looking decent. I've gone back and forth with whether the San Antonio reporters livid of the lack of marketing in San Antonio basically saying it's just pure chance that people know this is happening and showing up. They're not even doing the work necessary to get the fans in there. What do you think, Andy and I rambled a long time there. I mean I think this has been an ongoing concern from certain people and maybe you and I particularly just that there isn't been as much input from the marketing standpoint now that goes across the board for multiple leaks, <laugh>, right. I think, I don't think this is just an X F L thing. I think this is a thing for a lot of other teams and for a lot of other properties, U S F L and C F L included, so I'm going to pick those out too. But the marketing and the X F L, I think what's surprising about it is that you have someone like Danny Garcia and the Rock who understand and also Jerry Cardinal who understand the potency of marketing and the fact that it's not being weaponized to its full D degree I think is maybe what's sort of frustrating a little bit for a lot of these entities and the fact that it's not being pushed out more consistently and maybe more ardently. I guess it's just not really being done the same way that it should be as what is maybe be expected to have all that work to put into this league to have it ready for this point and the fact that it's not being published or advertised the way that it should have been. I'm a little surprised. I mean the one that kind of surprised me yesterday was Orlando only being about 12,000. I thought that was going to be a bigger draw. I really did and I it looked like it was going to be and then half one half of the stadiums doesn't have any tickets being sold for it and the lower bowl, I don't really get what was going on there. That's that surprised me. Yeah, it just hasn't been as exponent. It hasn't been as consistent as we expected. If you're going to, and this is the thing and u USS F L and hey, it's a TV product, it's a different thing. If you're going to be in the market, you have to consider may I consider it? She expect well, okay. Was that said this week or was that said six months ago? I think, like I said, last week being in Arlington, we were at the hotel across and I'm looking out and Dorothy's walking around and I'm like, when we were in DC for the kickoff in 2020, mark was at the bar and the Chalk Choctaw guys were at the bar. We were at the bar. I mean we couldn't even get in there. There were so many people. I'm like, this is going on. We were at the Seattle, the Sea Dragons tickets selection event a couple weeks ago before and we had our tickets but just to go kind of take photos and then we had drinks at one of the bars right across from the stadium and the waitress comes over, she goes, it's like, what is going on with this? When is this happening? We're trying to figure out if we need to staff extra people. I'm like, how is this not known here two weeks before kickoff that this is happening here, this lumen field. I mean this is supposedly one of the hot markets moving on. We'll get here. We still have comments coming in and we'll chat about that with Vegas, all that. Mike Mitchell, always Michael Mike always prefaces his article sometimes like, Hey, read you. I got that really hard on the Argos that's coming. Mike Mitchell impression got that really hard. I'm like the Argos this week. People aren't going to be happy. And I read this article and I think Mike's always very critical but fair, right? Okay, we give the Argos quarterbacks C minus this week, whatever the words that Mike Mitchell wrote today on Ex New seven about the Orlando guardians basically being put together by clowns would not quite that word, but with Larry Lee and everybody over there just not is the Orlando guardians, are they the worst team in recent spring football history? I'm going to echo the words that John Vocal said on your show last week and still say the Mallers. I'm sorry, but They're bad. They're that bad. They're that Bad. Yes. The Mallers were that bad because they didn't have talent nor that they had competency. I'm sorry they were that bad. The Pittsburgh Mallers were not good in multiple facets. This Orlando team has talent. The problem is they just don't have the coaching to go with it. And I'm not saying that I want to be out on Terrell Buckley, by the way. I don't want to be throwing him under the bus or throwing out most of these guys. I think there are good coaches on the staff. There's just no cohesion between any of these guys. There's like, there's a disconnect between the talent that was put on the field. What was that organized by the front office and what's being done by the coaching staff. There's just a whole disconnect. You can hear it from all them just by the way that they interact with each other, the way that they talk everything. It's just kind of an amalgamation of just random pieces. But I don't know. The Mallers never felt like that. The Mallers just felt like doomed from the start. It never felt. I know people went about, oh they have Madre Laundre in London and they have this and I like Josh love and I get that, but I just never saw it in my opinion. I never saw at the talent level even there from that standpoint. But the Orlando, it's frustrating cause I think they have good receivers. I think they have some good skill players. I don't think Bax and Lynch has been bad, honestly. I actually like some of the throws he's made. I think some of the consistency there is not really his fault. Again, that offensive line is untenable. You can't throw behind that offensive line. I said yesterday in the group chat, I'm like, could Patrick Mahomes throw behind this? I don't think so. This is not acceptable. This is not a good offensive line. So for me, I think they are obviously in this league, they're the lowest form, but it's not their fault in my opinion. I don't know if the audio will share on this, but when they had the quarterback telling everyone, can you hear this? I actually can't hear the audio, but I know exactly what was said because I watched that clip 10 times. Yeah, hit the quarterback. Telling them to tell them to <laugh> shut the, that's really all you need to know about the guardians in the nutshell right there. See, yeah. Max saying is their fault for drafting a terrible O line? I don't know. And I saw Franco Huis came in. I mean did he do much do to impress or we are stuck. Paxton Lynch just looks really tired out there. I don't blame 'em and I don't blame a lot of the people who look tired out in that operation. It drives me nuts. It drives me absolutely nuts and I think the fact that you just have all these, again, all these pieces, all these amalgamated pieces that don't really work together is what kind of has doomed the operation from the beginning. But again, I think that they can get some things that Cody Vladimir looks really good. I like him a lot. I like Cody LaMer. Again, I like a lot of their skill position players on offense. I'm not really a fan of maybe quitting. I still like Deandre Francois, but he's obviously also kind of fed up here too. He's made his opinions known in this instance as well, but I can't say mean, it feels a little bit like the Tampa Bay Vipers. That's what it feels like to me and I know it's not, it's just like, well it's a Florida team, it's the same colors, but it really does. It feels like, okay, well they have some good skilled position players. They have no idea who their quarterback really is at this moment and it just feels like the operation is kind of being thrown together with duct tape and it doesn't feel like it's actually being, there's no consistency to their product, but there's clearly talent on the roster. That's, that to me is what frustrates me. I don't think they're as bad as maybe Mike <laugh> may making it out to me. I get it. I think it's just more that it doesn't work together. I think that's the biggest problem is all just doesn't cohesively work together. Cohen for the Braas looks good more I think what I was watching along and then I try to sit down at the end of the night and read through all this stuff in the group chat about what the heck was going on and live through the day more. We have battle hawks as well, but cone there with the Bravos more consistent quarterback played. Do you think with them, do you think that's helping them? I mean even though obviously the problem was lost last week, but they were waiting until the last second, last week won this week. Are Bravos looking like a more complete team and especially with the quarterback? I think they certainly are and definitely on offense. Look, Jack Cohen did exactly what he needed to. He was very decisive. He was very quick coming out of the pocket. They did some rollouts with him, did a lot of great things with him. I'm really happy with how that worked out overall. Yeah, you're at the call center for At&t, a popular man. I, I'll tell you what, I'm in a popular individual right now. I'm just going to ignore it. But as I was saying earlier I think that you have some great things going on for them. Their offense, they're receiving core is great. I love that all the receivers, most of the receivers are like six three and above. They're all trees. I wrote about that in my takeaways as well. You had a lot of great things going on there. I love seeing Jalen Tover get re-involved there. Obviously Jaime Elizondo is very familiar with him. You have Elise Mack who the teammate obviously with Jack Cohen and the former Notre Dame Irish player. He just looked really good on in the red zone, great red zone Target Dion, yell Yeller, you had him catching a touchdown you had and also Roberson, that guy, that guy is fast, like four three speed. He is light and quick. TJ Vasher is getting in there as well. You had just a nice compliment of receivers and in San Antonio, that was one of my takeaways in the draft too. I really liked the receivers that they drafted during that whole process. They haven't gotten the run game going so much. Jacque Fitzpatrick has been having a little bit of a rough time there. Kailin, bj, you, I think again, John Vogel did a great job of breaking down his skillset last weekend and honestly I do remember him as a charger and he was kind of had some of the similar issues of trying to really pick the hole that he needs to go to or having the proper vision in certain spots. But I mean he is talented as a runner. I think they'll get the run game going and I think they want to get the run game going, but I like their offense a lot. They've, the last five quarters, they put up 39 points, so after only kicking two field goals in the first three quarters, they've really started to figure it out on offense. You had a question here Jacob wants, is Orlando going Oh and 10 I I've seen similar sentiments kind of in Mike's article. Everything else today, I'm going to still say two and eight. I think they're going to find a way to sneak up and get somebody and it's going to happen. Look, football is a funny game. It happens sometimes people just let their guard down, turn over, happens. The weather gets in the way something happens. So you're going to find a way to win a game. It's really hard to go winless in the at in the NFL in college, in high school. I mean, well I know in high school sometimes the talent disparity can be a little bit bigger but obviously it's hard to just lose all of your games in a season at this point I think these guys have too much pride. I think that something's going to happen where they're going to win a game or two. I really do believe that, but they are going to be the bottom of the league. I'm trying to find on here, and I think it must be on their Instagram, it's not on their Twitter that the gentleman with the temporary guardian tattoo on his chest and had the most interesting smile <laugh> one of the Orlando Guardian fans there in the back. I'm going to see if I can pull any, I Know you're Talking about, I'll see if I can flip any other thoughts on the Guardian staff on the Braas staff. I just like the attitude and the mantra that they all have. Hys Ward just looks like he's having a great time out there. His smile is infectious, but also I think he's very dedicated to having a really tight operation there. Again, great to see Jaime a Elizondo get kind of another brush of life here. Obviously being able to call plays and be able to do his thing as a play caller. I think their opening drive was fantastic. I loved, loved every play that he called on that first drive their ability to really come out of the second half adjustments to touchdowns quickly in the third quarter. Just a really smooth operation. I think just last week was just, could have been soul crushing, losing the way that they did against St. Louis was just so soul crushing in that home game, especially in front of all those fans. But as an operation, I like them a lot. Their defense has been really great. Their lineback and core mean Joey Porter being able to coach up their linebackers has been great. I really just like the way that they get to the ball. They may not be the toughest defensive unit, you know have teams. The Braas obviously you have the defenders, you have some pretty good units out there. Vipers have been great too, but I think they still play pretty well and if they just get some turnovers for their offense, I think they'll be fine. So yeah, I like San Antonio and I think they're going to be making some noise. They're go them going to Houston This next week is going to be really interesting. I can't wait for that matchup. Yeah, so we'll talk about that here. I'm going to share last and then if we wanted to do any Dragon stuff at the end, we kind of talked through all that stuff with John on Friday. Forgot as well here. Under Armour officially if you did not <laugh> know from seeing every single person ever involved in the X F L L wearing Under Armour stuff officially announced today. They're like the official partner and the founding partner, kind of all that stuff. Still waiting on our X exe L jerseys. Where did we get a week seven with U S F L over under? Did we get our X F L jerseys before we got our US f L jerseys? I was really kind of surprised to hear the fact that this announcement was made so late in the game and the fact that the US F L jerseys came, I mean I think they're going to come in earlier than they were the XE L jerseys. Right. What time were the USS f l jerseys last year? I Can't remember. I think it was week six or seven if someone remembers in the chat. I got mine. I mean I got my stars one and I was critical. They weren't ready for kickoff X ffl, like I said, a little bit better. This is Homer Reed but you know, can I can wear my Seattle Dragons, whatever, you know, still look cool that way. In terms of this game, Houston Roughneck five and oh last year, not under the head coaching to the LI of Jim Haslet and now two and oh here with Wade Phillips. Are the Houston Roughneck, are they the best team in recent off football history? I mean their fans literally don't know what Losing's like, so I would have to say, so I know the Birmingham stallions might try to make a claim to that, but Houston, I mean this is a different Houston team but almost feels similar to the team that they had three years ago. Now I know PJ Walker's not back there and he's not, Brandon Silvers is not the dynamic athlete that he is, but the offense just feels so smooth and so multiple in so many ways. It's hard to really consider the fact that you can't find one way to stop them. You know, might be able to hand off the ball to someone like Max Borge or you throw it out to him in the backfield. John Tree Kirkland, that guy looks really good. Deontay Burnett now Burnett fumbled the ball in the first half. It wasn't great but it, I still like his skillset a lot. Cedric Bird, you have a lot of guys, a lot of options on this Houston team. Their offense is very potent and again, their defense is so lethal. I think that's really a great component for them. They generated a lot of turnovers in the last iteration of the X F L, but with Wades it's just constant pressure coming on. They are just able to be quarterbacks senseless and I think that is a huge asset for them as a whole team. Team build. I think actually they might be a little more balanced than the 2020 team. I think the 2020 team just was such a fireball and offense that it was hard to keep up with them, but I think this team is a little bit better balanced than that one just from across the board in both units. I agree with that. I think PJ Walker, right, setting the world on fire that way. You had a couple of just really high dynamic and I just don't think anyone could catch up. I think they came in hot. People we're still trying to figure out her week two, week three roughnecks watching Brandon Silvers because we heard the Kraken game came home. I lost watched the last quarter on D V R of the rest of the Roughnecks Renegades game. <laugh> watching Brandon Silvers have a game winning interview. I turned to Dorothy, I said, that is my quarterback. Where was this man? But I think the key is Wade is smart enough. We have Cole McDonald here and we can use Silvers for what he is good at. We can use Cole for what he is good at. We can dual quarterback this thing all the way to San Antonio for the championship game. Really exciting and I'm really happy for Brandon. I think he is resigned, right? Knows this is my place now. I can have fun with this. I'm not going back to going to the N F L doing. I just think it's great. It's got to be the time of his life right now for Brandon Silvers. I mean this is the best system he's been in and honestly it's something that he can flourish in. This is something AJ Smith is a master craftsman. I think he's going to, he's have a head coaching job at some point. I don't know what level, but he's going to have a head coaching job. He's so smart and he is so well orchestrated in getting all these plays out. I love the audio they had of him when he threw the touchdown to, I believe it was Cedric Bird and he was, the play clock was running down and I just remember what he was saying was, G T F O G T F O get out, we got to get the ball now. He had urgency to him but he knew because he knew he had the look that he wanted in order to throw that touchdown. He just sees things so well and even when he makes a play call that doesn't work because the other team, the defensive coordinator was able to adjust what they were doing. Jay Hayes was doing, I think Jay Hayes did all he could yesterday. He really tried. I mean he was trying as closing down as much as he could and he got three turnovers out of it. But this Houston operation for Brandon Silvers, it's great. Obviously he's able to just have a lot of pressure taken off of him as a quarterback. He has so many options around him and he can utilize them as much as he can. He even has a quarterback behind him that he can basically almost use as a de facto running back. Yeah, really exciting. I think it's good. And you know have this Wade Phillips has been there on the block forever and then we have AJ Smith coming in. I like everything going on with Houston right now. They have the best uniforms in the X F L by a long shot. I want to get one of those along with the dragons. Just really exciting and it is just crazy that here we are in February, 2023 thought, who would've thought back in April, 2020 that we would be sitting here February now talking about the roughneck still the best team in the x l really is remarkable. Time is a flat circle and that was also my takeaway from all these things like this. Just everything feels very similar to 2020 even though a lot of has changed This. I don't know. I will say, and I was mentioning a listener, Seth was texting me this weekend. We were watching the games definitely a down week compared to week one. I put up, and I can look at my poll here, I put up asking what do we think rate the X F L? What do you looking this week to last week grade this week compared to last week? Yeah there was no c plus option on your poll. So that I was like, right, I was, I'm right in between B B minus C plus. I think the thing for me is that the first game, the St. Louis Seattle game was great. That Thursday night game, it felt like, I think the fact that it was kind of, and I know standalone game, they're all standalone games, but it was its own day on Thursday. It was kind of a unique setting and it was kind of cool to have that whole thing with it. I really enjoyed that game a lot. That was really interesting. Obviously you get docked for the Vegas the show I guess you could call it on Saturday night that whole shebang and then on Sunday, look, I all know the Guardians, they're almost kind of a pencil in Get Right Game for a lot of teams. That's just kind of how it is right now. And San Antonio was going to look guard regardless. And then for Houston, it's good to see that they were able to perform the level that they were, but I think things kind of went as expected. I guess that's what I'm saying. Besides the Seattle St. Louis game was obviously nuts, but everything else kind of went as expected at Chalk. the Home atmospheres weren't as to me, weren't as crazy as some of the ones in week one. I do think you're starting to see maybe some of the venues at least that are starting to click early. Obviously San Antonio even with Arlington as, even though there wasn't a lot of people, it was still very energetic. DC obviously is crazy. They're on fire and we're not even going to get St. Louis until week four. So we're not even there yet with them. Just can't even imagine what that's going to be like. But you're kind of starting to see some of, I guess the disparities between some of the different venues and what kind of crowd energy is in each game. And it wasn't as hyped up as week one, but I wonder if that's just an effect of it being the second go around for some of these teams that Houston is interesting, the fact that they have so many home games early on. I wonder what the energy's going to be like for them next week too, because that'll be a third week in a row for the home crowd. Yeah, it that's a massive stadium. Massive stadium. I mean I know back in 2020 that worked well and we had the training camp, but it's really big and especially now when you got San Antonio and you got Arlington really big, this makes sense to me here. I put gray, the X F L week two A, B, C, and F, you know, got to go by Twitter polls 44% giving it a B 29%, giving it a C feels right, 14% with an A. I do not think it was a week. I thought the difference with the Vegas stuff this week and that we had the Lemon Gate and everything last week Lemon Gate happened. It was a good game. It was a good game it was exciting and that added to whatever, having a do-do game and then a do-do attendance and a do-do stadium that it just compounded to make it worse. I will disagree with Ann because have, if you were in the Cashman field, your opinion on the field conditions I'm at, I think we can watch the game. I think you can know, I talk to people that were there. I, I've talked to plenty of people that were there and I think that I just don't deceive, I watched the Super Bowl, I watched Travis Kelsey slip his ass into the end zone as well. I watched a kicker miss some kick because he slipped and fell. I feel like smart people that were there can speak on that. I understand wanting to give the league passes in some regard, but that is part of it that I don't think it's okay to call spade to spade here with Cashman field. I'm sorry van, but my backyard looked better than that field. I, and I don't need to step out on that to know the difference. So I don't, not going to go ahead and agree with that point. But look, I think the fact that just again, it was, that is going to pull down the entire opinion of the entire week. Now, to be fair, I don't think that needs to be the only thing that has to be highlighted in the entire spectrum. I think out of all the games, the fact that that's, if that's going to be your low point of the season, then you take that. I think that's the thing. I think you take that with a grain of salt now it's not great, but I think if that's the lowest point of the season for you as an operation, maybe you can deal with that and that's something that you have to consider going forward. But it's not the only thing that happened obviously this whole weekend. I know people are going to focus and laser in on that. I think it's the same thing with good moments. You can't just laser in and focus on one game and one moment. You have to consider all the factors and all the things that happened across the spectrum. The game was duty for 18 different reasons. It wasn't just the turf. I mean the game was bad, the graphics were wrong, the comms didn't work, the kicking was bad, the receivers couldn't catch, the wind was bad, the facilities looked bad. There wasn't a lot of people there. It was raining. The cameras couldn't work. There was many, many, many reasons I understand that we're working through and it was crazy in Vegas Storm. I understand all of that. There was 1800 different reasons. Not all of them were the X FFLs fault, but that some of them were the X FFLs fault and some of them have been predicted from this podcast, another podcast for months now. Oh Ima we did, I didn't want to say this as well. Yeah, the painting the grass. I live in a neighborhood. It is just funny to me because I do water all the time in the summer. I take great pride in our land here. I have neighbors that paint their grass green too. So what's good to see that my neighbors are no better, worse than the XFL field crews with paying the dead grass. Oh, maybe they should have hired them for the ground screw. Yeah, good. Going to hire me for the ground screw. So we have about 10 minutes left here. We're going to look forward to week three. We'll pop that up. Just a reminder we regular show back again on Friday Andy, and I think this is a good spot Mondays if Andy can do it. I know Evan wants to be involved at some point. I think Evan's flying back, but I like this standing sometime Monday instant reactions coming off of all of that Fridays show. Really good. I'm going to have Mark Drum Heller on with Yahoo Sports. We're going to be talking all of the X F L sports betting and they're kind of previewing all that stuff. Also how Farhan Lo coming back on the show talking Vaka Bethel Thompson going to the U S F L and Darnell Sankey here with the X F L kind of that whole thing. I'm sure we'll talk some X F L, but I don't think we're going to get Xs and those with Farhan on that, but that should be good. Send out some player interview requests as well for the week. Now that I'm kind of back home, so should have a regular Friday show and then I really am enjoying this Monday morning. Kind of recap here, Andy, do you this Monday instant reaction that we have. Oh, I love it. Honestly, this is what I've, I envisioned doing when I came back to writing about the X ffl and trying to think about what was going to happen during the season and when it finally came here. This is exactly, I have so many more opinions now. Once the cleats heat hit turf, that's when I really start to get going. That's when I start to have my opinion. So absolutely this is exactly the kind of thing that I want do every Monday. Yeah, this is exciting. Now I'm back, like I said, trying to watch the games and V vpn, everything through Mexico. I do have a good understanding of all the games and watched enough of them, but I am excited now to sit in the comfort of Mark headquarters and do all of that. So this weekend we have one game Saturday and Dragons at fighters going back to Cashman and then we have the triple header Sunday. This whoever loses between the Sea Dragons and the Vipers not looking good in the standings. Am I wrong? Yeah, they're in real trouble if this happens. And I think the only reason is because it's such a short season. This isn't an 18 game schedule or 17 game schedule. So if you lose this many games early on, it's really hard to recover from that. It's hard to dig out of that hole. So this is really, I hate to use the term must win because I think it's cliche and obviously every game is kind of a must win. You ask any coach that, but I mean in terms of trying to stay in survival mode for the playoffs, like yes, you have to win this game if you lose and you go oh and three, that's going to require Herculean effort down the stretch to try and get back into it. So I think this is a huge game. Obviously we just went on nauseum about the whole Vegas operation. Well front and center, it's here again. So the X ffl has five days to try and figure out what happened, what could be fixed, and what can be adjusted in this game because obviously there's a lot of things operationally that needs to be addressed and if that's going to happen, this is what's going to help them try to maybe try to restore the image of Cashman Fields. Just before I forget here, and Max sent this over we did not have this, just speaking of the Dragons, we did not have this when we recorded on Friday, the FX game numbers 524,000 viewers on fx. It was what was it, six Eastern, nine or six Pacific, nine Eastern thoughts on the X F L on that cable, that scary cable FX getting half 1,000,500 24,000 viewers for the Dragons, which was a good game. I mean I was still in Mexico watching it. My season ticket holders are there, but half a million people watching the game on cable, That's decent. I mean it's a good number. I mean there were some numbers last year with the US F L on Friday nights where it was like 200,000. So I mean 500,000 for a Thursday night game that people aren't even really aware of. And I'm being on fx, which is not typically obviously seen as a football channel. I mean that's pretty good. I think you want to see more towards the upper echelon, like the 700, 800,000 viewership, but I think 500,000 is fine. It's just a matter as that number are going to increase going forward. I believe there's only one more Thursday night game on the schedule if I'm not mistaken. So there's not going to be a lot of other opportunities for this exact circumstance to happen again. It felt good to me. I mean considering we had people I think it was one of the sports betting sites like Cbs B S Sport, one of the Yahoo or one of 'em had the game like being on Fox, right? Because fx, whatever. I think Randy Crackower over in St. Louis was saying the game was going to be on e, ESPN or FS one. There was some confusion of even where the game was going to be. So it does so good. Yeah, king of the north. I have to set numerous app notifications to keep up. But yeah, it is tricky sometimes I wish we could get more consistency. It's one of those things we kind of had to live through with the U US F L as well coming up to. Yeah, Maxus says coming up it's better than better than 300,000 whatever it was for the U S F L. So FX one or yeah, FX one and kind of FX are going to be the consumer comps in terms of the alt football on cable. Triple Heather Sunday biggest game to me. Well, I mean these are all, I don't know, two or three of these are exciting. St. Louis at DC we have the guardians at the Renegades and then we have the Braas at the Roughneck. That is another Texas kind of throwdown there. Which of these three games excites you the most From an offensive standpoint? I'd have to say San Antonio and Houston. I think that's, there's a lot of firepower and a lot of great offensive skill players in both of those games. As far as who's going to be able to run their style of offense I would have to assume it's Houston because I think their defense is going to do a lot of damage against San Antonio because that <laugh> Jack Cohen's going to be running for his life because Wade Phillips is going to come after him again. But we'll see if San Antonio can try to finally obste establish some semblance of a run game and try to get that going on in this game. Because I don't think they can just rely on Jack Cohen to kind of throw them into a win like he did against Orlando. That game to me is probably the most intriguing as far as offensive game planning goes. But obviously d DC and St. Louis, you have a rematch of week five from 2020 where St. Louis came in, they were hot, they were three and two, they looked really good. DC was kind of on a slide and then that was the game where Mr. Cardell Jones got benched and Tyree Jackson came in and suddenly it just all went to hell for St. Louis. They couldn't do anything on offense. They fell apart. DC stood strong at home. I mean that's the other thing. That's the other streak we didn't talk about. DC is four oh at home as a franchise. They have not lost it home. The beer snake has slayed many of its opponents and it presumably will be a strong factor again on <laugh> on Saturday or excuse me, Sunday. And then I think that's going to be a really fun matchup as well. But I'd say Houston San Antonio's the one I look forward to the most. Yeah it is exciting to me. We had a, oh yeah, good matchups. This is when it gets a little more real. It's really hard for me. Kind of week. Week one's exciting, week two with our, now we have some identities with all of this, right? Like I said, Seattle and Vegas. I mean you're like, you go oh three here in the 10 week season you're out. I think this Battle Hawks defenders game is going to be really hot. I think we're going to see if DC is really who, like I said before, I think the standings make DC look better than maybe they are right now. And I think they really need to kind of prove that this Hines Ward, Wade Phillips <laugh> game match here Sunday night eight Eastern. That's to, that's really exciting. Sunday night football to me, triple Heather here lost in the middle. We got to see a Bob Stoops can kind of get things going against the guardians, but it should be really exciting. Jacob Houston's going to take the W it. Do we expect anything from the guardians here against the renegades or like Mike said in his article, is this a get right for the get for the renegades? I don't see why that theme changes. I mean look, hu Houston and Arlington was a tough matchup for both of those teams on Sunday in Arlington just didn't have the offensive fire power. But look, I think their defense is going to just torture whoever it is on offense for Orlando. They're going to get turnovers, they're going to get sacks, they're going to do whatever they want on defense offensively. I mean I know everyone and their moms trying to call for Drew PLI to benched. But here's my question. If Kyle Slowder Slowder hasn't started yet, I wonder does the coaching staff maybe know something that we don't I, I'm sorry, but two, until all the people who have been in my inventions have been saying, we got to get rid of, get rid of play, we got to get rid of play, we got to put loader in I then he should be in there then. If he should, then why isn't he in there yet? That's my question where Kyle Slowder has not started and has not taken any snaps. I mean everybody else, every other team has put in a quarterback at some point has gotten some semblance of playtime at snaps and yet this coaching staff hasn't put him in. If you're going to question the coaching staff, fine, but I would think that they've evaluated properly enough to think maybe this isn't quite what we're looking for on offense. Maybe want to get through a little bit more time this, it doesn't seem as obvious as people are making it out to be. And trust me, I've been through teams with quarterback controversies and wondering why isn't this guy in? And then what's proven wrong later on? So just saying maybe the slaughter mania might need to slow down a little bit for now. So let's hold off on that one. But look, Arlington's going to do fine on defense regardless because Orlando's in shambles. I just think that Bob Sobes wants to prove, I think Bob s Sobes, his anti-us follow. It's like, you know what? We're going to prove a point. We're going to make this Kyle Slowder ride the bench all year. I don't care. I'm Bob Stoops. My wife doesn't even want me in the house anymore. She said, you got to go back to coaching. I'm sick of you being at home. Well then why does the up slaughterer on the roster then <laugh>? Because he wants to make him ride the bench. He goes, I'm going to prove I don't even want him on my field. Okay, well that's a bizarre motivation, but sure why not. But look, whatever motivation works for Arlington, it doesn't really matter. I think they're going to be fine on Saturday or Sunday afternoon. Yeah, no, we're talking, yeah, San Antonio hasn't put in their backups, but I mean Jack Cohen's playing good. Why would I, and I don't need to experiment with all three quarterbacks if I have a quarterback. And I think Reid Z's actually done a really good job of just kind of providing support and really talking through things on offense. I've seen his interactions on the sideline have been great with Cohen and other players as well. He seems to really been taking it in stride. I think the coaching staff likes him, but I think they just know what they have with Jack Cohen right now and it's working. It's been working and they've got enough. And look, wasn't the biggest fan of the cone of the cone start when he came into the season, but he's proved himself so far and he is. He's doing exactly what the office of staff has asked him to do. So maybe we'll see sonnet at some point. Well this has been fun. I think we peaked at 70 viewers today. Not bad for a Monday morning here coming on and pick up more. I'll put it on the audio stream as well if you want to listen to it today, tomorrow, whatever coming up this week like I said, big episode Friday, Farhan Lo coming on, we're going to mark drum Heller over at Yahoo Sports. And then I have also Andy for <laugh>, a multitude of reasons. I've been in a couple C F L quarterback interview requests this week that are going to really excite you and I think some of the other people, so maybe friends of the show and then some may be not friends of the show, but we are having some quarterback hopefully coming on the show soon. Does that excite you some C F O quarterback talk with Reid? That's great actually. I love that and especially because I'm actually putting up an article, well, I'm writing an article right now about projected starters in the C F L, so for quarterback position, so that's great timing. Well sprinkle some Jesus powder on me and the wish me some luck this week. We'll see if that works out. Guys, if you're not subscribed, please do. And we get 3,500 subscribers given way championship tickets to either the X F L or the US F L championship. I think I hit a hundred Morrison Sinces the kickoff. So getting towards that, I think these are really good. These streams Andy and I were talking about. Give the subscribers, give me interaction. Then we'll have the normal show on Friday. I think that's it, Andy. Anything else before we get out of here? Hope you're having fun back in the cold and hope you don't have to get your snow shovel out again anytime soon. Yeah, snow started following while we were recording this. I don't think the dynamic range on this laptop is good enough to be able to see the snow outside, but I did start snowing here but I'm here. I'm locked in. I got nowhere to go. So I appreciate everyone checking it out today and I'm going to play the outro music here and we'll see you next time. Thanks.

Episode 133 - XFL 2023: The Results Are In!

Well we are back here again today that working in the holiday here as Shane is asking me, how's your working holiday going? Reid, we are live here. Had comments on the YouTube channel this morning? He was expecting an episode today. Been promoting it all week guys. We're here live. We've got John Vogel here. I appreciate it. Beautiful Part of our John is back into this office. John Vogel, how are you doing today? Great Reid, and thanks again for having me and let's talk some football. Let's get into some of this. It's been fun this past week. It has been crazy. Yes. Tell that to my wife and family here trying to drag me out of the hotel room to go to the beach as I've been frantically retweeting X L injury reports and all of that. We have the U S F L college player writes draft, lots of stuff to get into today with John. We try to do an hour here and not use too much of John's time. Not have my wife want to divorce me by the end of this trip here. Lots of stuff. Recapping EXE L C Dragons dramatic loss last night to the Battle Hawks at home. My friends and Michael and Paul were there. I saw photos from our season tickets our seats weren't able to attend that. Lots of stuff to talk to you today John. I guess first breaking reaction, what did you make of second loss in the run that the oh and two Seattle C Dragons? Yeah, so watching it live last night it's amazing how good that roster is and how one piece of a roster can just bring in an entire team down. I think that piece is, it's the inconsistency of quarterback Ben Ucci and I think we all kind of expected that coming in. Now Randy Mueller, he's the general manager there, did a fantastic job putting this roster together. It's just, I've talked about, I've been doing these scouting notes articles series over on N F L draft bullets where I talk about players that the N NFL's looking at from each game. Basically the standouts and why the N NFL would be looking at them. And I had the ideas to collect them over the season, over the season and basically have the list of players that the N F NFL is going to take from this league. So when you look, I think they've lost both of those games and in both of those articles, and I talk about five players in each article, three of them in both articles have been the Sea Dragons because they are so good but they cannot get the consistent play quarterback Ucci drops he, he's had fumbles now and back to back weeks. He's got the interceptions that he throws. They had an additional fumble I think, I forget who fumbled the ball. I think it was, it was probably Ellison, Morgan Ellison, but just damning turnovers for the C Dragons. Well that's the thing, and I'll pull up here. We have, and actually really like this here on the X F L go to xfl.com. We're kind of the box score afterward. I like this being able to track this throughout the game as well. I was watching, I was able to watch the last quarter here through my p n through ESPN plus, through whatever the heck I had to do here to get on the thing with ucci. I think we see like AJ McCarran, right? Someone maybe rise up and excel in this. I love ucci, he was on the show preseason. But does this prove maybe what teams knew about him or thought about him before? Does that prove that those concerns right here, seeing back to back, like you said really unforced errors at some points with him and the game last week and not the most depressing one yard play in Seattle football history, but certainly up there with the fumble with the DC defenders And I don't know if it proves it yet, but I think that, you know, expect this kind of quarterback play across the league because the X ffl from a quarterback standpoint is basically taking the crumbs from the N F L, but this is the crumbs that fall off the dessert feast and are under the table and that's what you're picking up. And the reason that is, we already don't have enough good enough quarterback play in the N F L. And so when you factor that in to picking up these guys that really, they don't have the mental side figured out for foot before the N F L, you're coming down here, you're hoping that the step back helps them For some guys it does. Now I think that if he continues to do this, yes it will prove that the way that the N F L views him is, which is a borderline QB three, maybe he's on a roster, maybe he's not. Is indeed correct. Now if he turns around and he comes and has an V MVP season, they go eight no in the next eight games, that's a whole different story. But at this point, the way that I'm looking at it going, yeah, I think that we're seeing exactly why Dallas didn't re-sign him. I think we're seeing why he's in this league right now. He's, he's got to find a way to step it up over the next few weeks. Yeah, it's hard. Like you said, Randy Mueller and them put this together. We have June Jones I've seen keeping track of the our X F L riders group chat that we have and June's had some questionable play calling and then some of the mm-hmm <affirmative> and not necessarily running the ball as much. And is ucci suited for the offensive style that June Jones wants to run? Do you think he is or are we trying to force that in there that maybe Ucci quite the caliber that June needs to run that offense? I think that there's a little bit of Ben there where do want, I mean he can fit the offense but Ben doesn't really have an offense that fits him perfectly. There is no real perfect fit. Haven't designed an offense that Ben would fit really well. Cause that's why I'm sitting here thinking when as you say that is, I mean what else can you do with him? That's kind of the question. So if you're running the run and shoot, which they're trying to do that should work that in theory, that should be great. Now his mobility helps him. We saw that this past week where last night where he really made some great plays with his feet and keeping the play alive, extending it, getting down the field. And I like some of the decision making but it's just got to be consistent. So I think the, you're also seeing a little bit of, he hasn't played a lot of professional football When he was playing at James Madison, that was still an FCS level school. Their level of competition wasn't great. They were very dominant team. So I think that there's a little bit of, he still hasn't seen a whole lot and I think he's trying to, he's still learning. He's still figuring out defenses, reading them pre-snap, seeing motion post snap and knowing where he has to go with it and hopefully when he gets a better idea of the offense and it's more comfortable with it, he's only been working with it for six weeks now he'll be a lot better. One thing I want to talk about, we'll get into the wider, the attendance and the radis kind of all that stuff. C Dragons technically my team Ryan. Okay. We have Jim Haslet coming in, defensive mine. You we're going to leave the offense to June Jones. I watched AJ mc Keran run untouched 30 yards that felt like down the field last night, that final drive. So are both, if Haslett's not going to worry about the offense, I would at least like the defense to be tightened up. It just seems like they're following short on both sides of the ball right now. Well the defense I think was more of a, you're coming off a short week, you got, you're going to take Monday off after Sunday night game and then you have two days to practice. So I think that was a part of it, the travel as well because you're flying back to Seattle if you're flying back across the country, you're just in DC for the first game. So I think that that was a little bit, the prep wasn't exactly where they wanted it to. I think you're going to see the defense get tightened up next week when they play. They got a long week. It's basically a bi-week which there aren't many of them in this league this year. So that's a blessing for them. I know that it stinks to lose a game back to back on basically final drive type stuff and a blow leads the way that you have. But I think the defense will be tightened up next week. The confusion was you're trying to install a game plan in two days. Something here notable Max has sent to me here and I had seen kind of something float around this morning, even now X F L retweeting this out and we can certainly talk attendance on the other side with the sea dragons here. But due to overwhelming fan demand, the Battle Hawk season ticket memberships are now available in the 300 level at the dome. So we had seen that for weeks and people, why aren't they selling tickets up there? We got to walk before crawl before we can walk here. News on that. I think tremendous, if the ball hawks continue kind of their Winnie waves here, I think that's going to be huge rockus crowd there on the other side. Not a great attendance last night for the CLC Dragons. Like I said, my season ticket holders were there, US four, the 50 yard line, I think it was a little over 10,000. Mike Mitchell reported. Mm-hmm Really cold in Seattle. It was like 26 degrees on Seasonably cold for Seattle this time of year. What did you make of that and the attendance? I would say woes last night, I don't know if they expected more like 1214. What did you make of the 10,000 attendance? Yeah, I think that there's two points to that and the first point is I'm not worried about it right now and the reason that I'm not worried about it is because again it was really cold. It's hard to get people out there on a cold night to do anything. I think that the fact that you got over 10,000 people to go to show up in subfreezing temperatures in Seattle right off the coast and Seattle's got some wind too man, that's a wind chill factor coming off of the ocean there. But I think that the fact that you got 10,000 people for a alternative professional football game is great. Honestly, I think that that's outstanding considering that it's on a Thursday night. So a lot of people aren't going to be out considering that it's very cold. And again, it's not the N F L. So I think you can expect Seattle when they have a normal week and normal game setting, they're going to play with in front of 20, 25,000 people and that's going to be perfect for them. Now the other point to that is if this type of trend does continue, which I don't think it will, we've seen in the first five games combined now I think we've hit over a hundred thousand people been there cause I think it was like 86 last week that attended those four games Was like games it real close 24 12. 12, yeah, I mean yeah, about a hundred thousand I would say we're Getting close. So that's a good starting base for the first five games all played in a different locations. So when the other thing I am concerned about is when you watch the game on the broadcasts on the ESPN FX broadcasts, they are outstanding broadcasts and there is a certain level that they bring that you are not getting in the stadium experience. And what I kind of do wonder is if fans are going to end up preferring the TV experience over going to the game because you can go out to the grocery store and you can buy you some snacks and buy you some mix and you're going to do it about five times cheaper, then you're going to do it by going to the game and then you go to the game, you can't hear these officials talking, you can't hear the coaches micd up, you don't hear the quarterbacks micd up. There's so many great things that they bring to the television broadcast that I hope it doesn't hinder the in stadium experience and the in stadium attendance. Yeah, I think it's right and it's a little, it's about 70,000 so far because it was 1212, I think it was 14 in DC 24 and then 10 last night. Whoever can do a cut of the mouth for that, I'm not trying to give any big deals right now. It is, it's tough that way. The x ffl it is so built on. That's actually a great point built on this TV viewing audience, which if we can get into the ratings and all that, yeah, they might prefer that to tickets are affordable. We saw the U US F L posters, season tickets here for the 2023 season calling it the best deal in the CF in professional football I think that they called it. But in terms of the first five games thus far, a lot's been made for a lot of different things. Do you have the attendance, the ratings, what was your biggest takeaway here for the first five games that we've seen In ratings or in Just biggest thing that shocked you? Because I've seen the sky is falling. I've seen, okay, well this is a good floor. We just need to build from there. If this is the ceiling, this is very scary for season one if we're going to get higher here and build just your thoughts on everything thus far. Oh, I think it's going to build now. Now you're going to have a couple weeks there where it's going to dip. Okay. I think the N NFL sees this every year as well. Any professional league, doesn't matter what sport it is, you're in the early to mid-season you're going to dip because after you get through the excitement of the first week or so, the first couple weeks you dip. Actually this is great. I'm glad that you pulled this up. So as we talk, talk about the inaugural game. So the inaugural game isn't great on the ratings as compared to a lot of these other things and that's fine. I I don't think you're too worried about that. And the reason that I'm not worried about it is because this is a new product. This is something that you're rolling out this, yeah, you've built this for two years. You've been building all this stuff and putting all this money and investing in the players and all this kind of this thing, but you still need to build it up. Now is this crazy, the U S F L last year? No. Did the U S F L pop out of nowhere and everybody kind of took it by surprise? Yes. Is FOX and N B C a larger broadcast reach than a B C? Yes it is. Okay. So I think that it's going to grow over the year. I think that by the time we get to the championship game toward the end of the year, it's going to be right there in the, there's probably going to be two to 3 million viewers and there might be more. That might be a very modest estimate, but you're going to see a dip in the next few weeks. And then when you start to get past mid-season and you get to playoff games that kind of matter basically before pre playoff games that are basically playoff games, people will be tuning in for those people will tune in for the playoffs. I mean the U S F L made the biggest jump in their playoffs last year. They dipped dipped, they kept going down, down, down, down until they hit the playoffs and then they went right back up. And so yeah, people are going to get into it, man. I think that people that are going, oh the sky's falling and this is a problem and hey look at the big picture. There's a lot of really good stuff here. They're introducing a lot of stuff. They have to get people more familiar with it. They're going to get people familiar with it, they're going to tune in It. It's a weird spot here. And we see all the U S F L people come out and the X F L and I still, for whatever reason U S F L last year was the perfect and good for them and they jumped the gun and X F L said we want to wait. It was the perfect time of it had been just long enough and people were hungry for it. We saw their draft crazy numbers last year. Crazy impressions. The kickoff, I don't know if running the ten second ads on Fox for the Daytona, the 500 if, I don't know if that's swaying. There was such a hunger last year for this where now it's X ffl. Okay, it's kind of coming back. Okay, what is this? People are still learning. Oh yeah, that went away. Oh yeah, that's still around what's going on? I don't think they did a great job. I've said for the last six months on this show, I think the football is going to be exceptional, which it has been. I people and I want to get your thoughts on that. The level of play. I never said I had concerns with the football. I said I had concerns with the marketing, the promotion, the messaging, everything else with that. And now I don't want to, I'm not the expert that called it. I think a lot of people were saying that, but I think this bears out now. The football is exciting people. We see the N NFL insiders and everyone tweeting about it and we see a lot of college football accounts tweeting about it, but it, it's trying to get that next level and I don't think they permeated that thus far. Even with the Rock and Danny and everybody else And they were betting on the rock, they're betting on his image really pulling a lot of the what's the word I'm looking for? A lot of the him being the draw, his involvement being the draw to this. I think that was the first bet. Now I think also there is a certain level of the X F L that's more worried about football than anything else. And I think that's good for the league. There's a lot of these leagues that they worried about all the other stuff, the marketing and this and that, making sure that the numbers were good. U S F L did this really, and I mean they did a great job of the marketing last year. U USS L also has the benefit this year of being able to advertise during the Super Bowl. And I think they did that last year as well because I think n NBC had the Super Bowl last year, so N b NBC had it, they had the TV deal, Fox had it this year. Now they get to advertise during the Super Bowl. That's 117 million viewers that are tuning in. Everybody who's watches footballs watching a Super Bowl. So I think that's an advantage they had as well. Now I think you have a good point about the marketing in the sense that people were hungry for it last year but the way that the X F L is playing the long game right now, I think that's been pretty clear and that's why they're focused on football more so than the marketing. And from the football side, what I'm hearing is that they're doing a good job. Yeah, I would love to know to be a fly on the wall there. We were at the Birmingham kickoff last year and packed. I don't care how they got people in that stands giving away tickets or letting the family, I don't care how they did it looked great, sounded great. I want to know what was the rocks feeling coming out to Choctaw? We are blocking off the seats because the sight land, I get that. But coming out to 12,000 and doing the rah rah and contrast that to him with Vince and everything back in oh one and that packed crowd just curious what their internal, like how do we feel right now? Because I have to imagine that they we're expecting more people and more energy even though the people that were there were energetic. But I have to imagine they were expecting a little bit more. Yeah, I think they probably were. But it's still been a great start. I think haven't been disappointed with anything that they've done. Nothing in the broadcasts I've been going that doesn't belong there. The football, oh, that was the whole point in the question you asked me before and I didn't really even get into that. How is the football football's great? Yeah, okay. This is a lot of the coaches that I've spoken with and I've talked to, they're telling me pretty much the same thing. This is the highest level of competition we've had in one of these leagues ever. And these are some guys that have been, they did the A aaf, they did the U S F L, they did the X F L, the spring leagues, all that. So the fact that they're saying that, and I mean you can see it on the field too. The product on the field is very good. The what's the rule changes? The rule changes are great too. So the kickoff has been awesome. I really like the kickoff and the way that sets up the safety features to all that is great. The officials being able to communicate live on the broadcast and you hear all of that, that's been great. The hearing, the play calls coming in, I was sitting there with my dad watching it last night and we'd hear a play call come in, I'd say, okay, well that's based on this terminology that's going to be this, this and this and this. And then it happens and he's mind blown. He's like, how did you know that? I said, because he said Ohio, that's a, I'm going to run a go over the top and then my inside receiver's going to run it out under it. So that's an Ohio concept. So when I hear Ohio, I know that that's what that is. But all of that's been great. And the fields product of the field's been awesome. So Team, I mean we've talked about the Hawks, we've talked Sea Dragons, I think C Dragons have underperformed obviously just based on expectations. Any other team that you've been pleasantly surprised by that you've seen? Well I, we'll preview the matchups here, but just generally like, oh, it's really great to see Hines Ward or whatever in the Brahmas kind of do whatever. Evan will, wills, he pointed this out last year that I think it was last year when we were doing a broadcast talking, oh Houston, that's a really good great team, blah, blah, blah. And he was saying that, and I was kind of hearing him, but I was calling also thinking he's covering Houston, he's a Houston kid. So I was not really taking, no offense Evan I wasn't really taking him too seriously. And then as I'm putting stuff together to scout that game and I'm looking at the roster, I'm going, wait, this is sneaky good. This is a really sneaky good roster. And I thought I was very, I think said it that day. I said, it's going to be a question of how bad Orlando is going to be. When we did the week one preview and I think we got our answer in Orlando's pretty bad, but Houston, Houston was a lot better than I anticipated. They were clicking on all cylinders on offense. They looked really good. So until Silvers threw a couple interceptions there in the second half. But they look like they could be really good. I really like Houston. I like Houston. I love brand silvers. That's, that's my original exe L 2020 quarterback. I just worry he's just keeping Cole McDonald's seat warm there. I don't know. Is he really, is he still going to be here, Eva? We'll get the Jeff charts here I'm sure coming up today. But is he even going to see the field again once Cole McDonald gets up to speed? He, he's holding the seat. But the other thing too is how long is it going to take Cole to be ready? Because Cole's had to fix a lot about his game. His release was really bad. I mean that's why he didn't stick around the N F L. He had a wonky extended really weird release that was just not it was not compacted, didn't do 'em any favors. So he's kind of been working through a lot of his mechanics and a lot of that that's going on too. So how quickly can you be ready off of that? That's the question. We had a questionnaire there. Well, I don't know if, I don't know whether it'll end us, but the real question I wanted to ask you is worst team, the guardians or the Mallers Mallers Really? Oh absolutely. The Mallers were so bad. They were so bad. But was it bad because of their roster? Was it bad because of their coaching and it Was both? It was. It was a combination. I if you remember that whole thing started with what's his face, Deion Smith, as soon as Deion Smith got kicked off the team and they put that on the broadcast for their live, not their live, but their reality TV show, whatever they were doing. As soon as I saw that I was like, that is, no, that's done. Because that was, you thought this was, I think I said this on here last year when this happened. I was like, you thought this was a good idea. You thought it was a good idea to show this and be like, oh look at us, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And Madre London mean he was great in Europe, but he's great in Europe because he's been playing football all his life. He played in the Big 10, he played in the S E C Tennessee alum. Actually proud repping before he went to Michigan State is he lacks speed. And that's kind of the problem is he lacks speed. He doesn't get up to top speed very quickly and his contact balance is okay, but when he goes to Europe, the competition level in Europe is not anything, even the U S F L here, I mean it is another level of, it's going to Europe, it's almost play in high school. I'm not trying to crap talk Europe right now. I'm just saying that's the reality. You go, that's why they only let four N F L players not N F L four American players on E L F teams. Because the very first game I turned on, there was a third string Clemson corner playing for Warsaw and this was the opening game of the LF season 2021. He had two interceptions in the first quarter. He ended up with three and he he, yeah, he killed it. I mean he was awesome. He was on another level and he couldn't sniff the field at Clemson. Of question here, Jason, I don't think you can judge this based on TV raids. ESPN plus stream is a lot of people's preferred method of consuming the X ffl, which isn't counted in the tv. I understand that. It's the same thing we talked with the US F L last year. It's the same at the end of the day, we have to some things to contextualize here and move around. I understand streaming and I understand core cutting. C F L talks about this all the time as well. We have to have some sort of tangible thing there. Yeah, getting a lot of Madre. Yeah, Madre. He never is good in the USS Ffl as he was in the Lf. Yeah, he was dominant at the lf. He was averaging, I want to say it was over 200 yards rushing a game. He was insane over there. John, did you watch Player 54 episode two? I did not. Yep, I haven't yet either. Max. We were, I was <laugh>. I was was Sorry. Sorry man. <laugh> fuel by sab. I Love the profile picture. Absolutely love that show by the way, man. High Castle. Great show. Well yeah, and just something, so people did have a question about this. So where we're talking about TV ratings, the A b ABC airing of the player 54, the one last week before the kickoff had 669,000 viewers, which I think is really good because I don't know what all the ratings were for the United by Football US F L one last year. That's basically the same show but different, right? And I think it was week two or three, the episode never got uploaded to the Fox, whatever. And I'm sitting there trying to watch it on Wednesday and I go, the fact that we're not talking that this episode hasn't been uploaded yet concerns me about how many people are actually watching it. Yeah. Let's see here. We have people down on the mallers. Jenna's upset about that. We're going to preview week two here, right? X F L. The rest of the games while we're on the topic of the U S F L, John, did you know track a little bit of the U S F L college player writes draft this week. I saw a lot of it come down. We did our live show with Andy that morning kind of talking X xfl. It's weird. It feels very much like a C F L negotiations list where if this player ever comes up to Canada, we get their rights. I got clarification that basically it's it the rights last forever ride until the player comes in. The team has to make an offer. What did you make of the US L College playwrights draft? So the C Ffl runs a necklace and it's 40 players deep. So yeah, they can hold the rights on the necklace as long as they want, but they can only hold 40 at a time. And so I'm wondering if there's some's going to be some sort of rule like that with the U S F L and it might be 10 because that's how big this draft was. It was 10 players. Maybe they'll extend it EV if they get beyond this year. That's a big, and I'm not trying to come on here and crap down on the U S F L either, Reid, that's not my intention. That's just reality looking at the situation now. So I thought that's why to me it was disappointing. I was expecting them to come out and really try to draft players that were going to help them this year at some point. And I think a lot of guys thought that too because what did they say? Oh, we got 3000 players in the draft pool, da da, da, and they're, it turned into a marketing ploy is what it turned into. Oh, well we drafted Lindsay Scott Jr with the second overall pick. And you've got all the Fox guys, I think RJ Young shout out to him. He's really good at what he does, but he's over the it's, it was pointless, absolutely pointless analysis going, oh he's going to be awesome in the U S F L. Lindsay Scott Jr. Is never going to sniff the U S F L and that's because he's going to be in a training camp. He's going to be in the N F L for the next three or four. He might be in there for five, six years because he is a great athlete. He gets outside of the pocket, he can throw in the move. He's not leaving the N F L. So when I saw RJ Young talking about a bunch of different people and Oh, look at this, this is going to be great. Look at this, this is awesome, blah blah blah. These guys are not playing in this league. Not, and that was disappointing to me. It was big marketing ploy. Now Michigan, on the other hand, I thought Michigan was one of the teams that drafted in this with the intention of actually signing people that they draft. And Michigan is also one of the most depleted rosters right now in the U S F L. They got raked over basically by the X F L and then even the N F NFL a little bit with some of the players that they had. So they're rebuilt. They're building a new roster together basically. And so they took with the first overall pick, they took Jared Horst Horst has a chance to play in the US F L I think he might be in a camp, I don't know, he has a chance. Tanner Morgan, that's a guy that could play in the U S F L next year. I don't know if he's going to have that much N F L interest. You go through all of their picks. They felt like, I mean there's a couple here and there. Deshaun White and Levi Bell are probably Wrights picks, but Gunner Oaks, that's a guy. He'll be playing with them next year. Andrew Farmer very well may be playing with them next year, mean he's having a really good week at the H B C U combine right now. Jim oco four out of Benedictine, shout out. I almost went to Benedictine <laugh> Long. That's a long story he's playing. He's going to play with them next year, you know what I'm saying? So they were one of the teams that I felt were drafting people. I think Memphis kind of toward the end drafted some people that they'll be able to use as well. But everybody else was drafting pretty much strictly rights. And it was a marketing ploy to say, oh, we drafted somebody. It, yeah, it felt to me that way. And that's why it was really hard for me to get really high on it this week. It felt like the xfl they had their kickoff. We did our draft last year. This was a really good, easy way to generate, like you said, a lot of publicity. I think it's great for the players if they end up going in there and when people sign and we can talk about all that stuff, but it's really hard for me to get up on someone that might never even see the field there. But yet we're promoting this, I don't know, I don't want to say it felt disingenuous, but it felt like you said more of a marketing pointment than anything else. Yeah, no, that's, that's what I kind of felt. Cause I was excited first I was talking to a few people who were like, Hey Corey, Curtis is a guy that could potentially go in this draft as a quarterback. He could play in the U S F L next year and there's a lot of interest with them and stuff. And then it just kind of became clear that they weren't drafting anybody to play. They were drafting really for just rights. They're going to go back after this draft and they're going to sign the people that they want. And that was the other thing too, is there was not a lot of transparency. For example, the New Jersey generals lost their first round pick and the entire first half of the draft were moved to the final pick of the round. And the only explanation that we got was that they violated the off season rules roster, roster management rules. So the only thing that I can think that they potentially did was they tried to sign a guy out of college and I kind of feel like this draft was thrown together because nobody knew about it. I texted a few people, as soon as I started hearing rumors about it, I said, what's going on with this draft? They're like, I don't know. People in the league didn't even know that this thing was going on. So I think that they probably tried to sign a guy straight out of college and they got penalized for it. The other interesting thing, I want to talk about the U S F L and I saw Farhan kind of break the story and I shared that and then I had Sarah Sarah SA had me on, she works for the parlay. I did a knee-jerk reaction here coming from this, but Macau, Bethel Thompson, which to me is the biggest story of the week, I think, and I know we're talking X Ffl ratings and C Dragon's attendance and all that. This to me is a really big deal because McLeod's situation is different. He's not money motivated. His partner works in Atlanta, they have their family there. He can be in Birmingham, do the hub thing with New Orleans. He's definitely not getting paid close to the 450,000 Canadian, I think he was signed for last year with the Argos, but Gray Cup winning Champion last year jumps over whatever the circumstances are behind it. This looks good for the U S F L. Hey, we got this guy that came in here, don't pay attention to necessarily how we got him. What do you make of this and how do you think he's going to fare in the US F L? He's going to be great. I mean he's a great C F L quarterback, right? And there were rumors I think we were talking about right before we started. There were rumors that he was going to make this jump. And I was hearing about this a little bit, just whispers at the tropical bowl when I went down there and talking with a lot of the guys. I know a lot of the dudes in Toronto and that's scouting department now as well. They love him and they wanted what was best for him. And I think that was, they kind of knew that this was coming. So it wasn't a blind side to the C F L. They knew what was going on. But yeah, no, he's a great quarterback for these little alternate leagues and he's a guy that even if he got a chance, he could be playing in the N F L maybe as a backup which we've had Pat on here a few times and he's talked about the quarterback purge is coming in the N F L and he put me onto this past year, and I agree with him a thousand percent and we're seeing it a little bit now too, was people are taking coaching jobs that were third string quarterbacks last year and nine Super Bowl rings are gone from retirement and you know, look across the board and there's a lot, there's a lot of openings that are going to be opening. So I think that his jump, whether if it is really for, I think it really is for his family and he wants to be there because obviously it's not the money, but this might be also a jump that helps 'em get into the N F L. Chris here has, he says Reid's dad is quarterbacking the breakers. If mcCal Thompson is my father, I take that as a compliment. mcCal Thompson is a beautiful human being and also a really charming individual as well. So I take that, I like this. We saw the X F L and the moves here the last couple weeks with some of the CFL guys jumping down. So the renegades seeing this. I like being Mr. Reid, US F l hitter, but I like seeing these leagues be in competition. This is what we've talked about for three years now on the podcast. And this is why this matters and why we post X ffl stuff and the C F L group or why we post U US F L and the X F L, all of these matter. And it's really exciting to me. Like I said, whatever circumstances led to this, but yo, this could just be the start. Do you see McLeod at 34? I see him really starting without question here, at least week one for the Breakers. Do you think he comes into the quarterback room, which is already pretty busy and gets a shot? Yeah, yeah, I think so. I think that's another reason why they wanted him. Do they sign him without, do you really bring him in if you don't want him to play, does he really take what we were talking a $400,000 pay cut to come down if he's not going to play? I don't think so. I want to know what McLeod's getting paid because it's not 450 and that was Canadians that's like, you know what, 360 or whatever. I mean I don't, plus the Canadian taxes and all that it, it's way more him being close. I thought he wrote a really good post too on Instagram talking about thanking the C F L and the time he spent there and it being this amazing creature and helping grow him as a person. I mean I thought, yeah, McLeod is someone that really romanticizes football and kind of striving for excellence. I'm glad I was there. I got to see him be in the Great Cup here in November. We were at the game. Great game. And Chad Kelly as well. I think it's going to be sway Kelly season here for the Argos here coming up. Do you like Chad Kelly there taking potentially a quarterback number one for the Argos? Yeah, I like Chad when he came out of the draft, when he went, he came out of Ole Miss. he was a good quarterback down there and the problem that the reason he didn't stick around the NFL was because he couldn't stay out of trouble there for a few years. He really struggled with that and I think that there was a lot of personal growth. The C F L really helped him with that. And I think that love, yeah, he's going to ready to go man. He's a good quarterback. He understands. He's got a nice skillset and I think he's matured at the point now where he's good. Yeah. Max says here about 330 US D for McLeod. Any other thoughts? I want to preview here the rest of the week. Matchups here for the X L. Anything else with the U US F L Player rights, McLeod? Anything else U S F L before we look forward towards that? No, I think we're ready to go X F L. Let's do it. All right. So we've got this here flipping over. So obviously the week number one here, battle Hawks at Dragons, we all know that how that goes out here at DC Defenders at Vipers, we're going to get to see Cashman field and all of its glory. What do you make of Louis Perez tale of two halves last week and what do you think the vipers are going to do here coming in? Oh man, Reid, I'm trying so hard to not say something and I know you're thinking the exact same thing I'm thinking so I guess we'll not say it. We'll not say it, but John and I, John and I got some interesting text messages during the XML kickoff. I'll leave it at that. John and I were on a very interesting XML text thread. Okay, so DC I think that the thing that popped out last week was as soon as they started running the dual quarterback situation with Tiu TEU and Derek King, they looked really good. King is a really great change up. And so what they're kind of trying to do is a lot of what CFL teams do, which is you have a more quarterback who's better at throwing and you have a quarterback that can run and you use the quarterback that can run on certain packages. Everybody in the C F L does it. So I like their chances against Vegas just because of the inconsistency Vegas had last week when Lou was on, he was really good. And then when he was not, it was really bad. There was no in between. So the DC defense cashed in on turnovers last week off of Ben. I think that you look at that un, unless Vegas is doing something different this week with their practice, which I'm sure they are, but I don't know if there's anything you could really do to stop press with turning the ball over D DC's going to cash in on turnovers very quickly, so yeah, I'm going to go, I'm going DC Let me get spreads on those because I don't know what they are right now off the top of my head. Well we can pull 'em up. Yeah, I don't And I want to get your thoughts too, just on last week I thought Seattle looked really good coming out against DC and they just seemed like the defense finally shut him down and got, I mean it really felt like this Greg Williams were kind of everything and the defense we've been promised coming in and we had the lemon gate and all that stuff. It was the wild, I mean that to me was the wildest spring football game in recent memory kind of trying to watch that and follow along online. I mean it wasn't just all of that. It was also, you got to remember they had the <laugh>, the lemons got thrown on the field. That was funny. No, so Vegas is favored by three and a half and I really like dc. I like DC as the underdogs straight up now Seattle was favored by four and a half last night. I think some sports books had 'em at four. I got 'em at four and a half. I thought that they were going to win. They didn't what I do, I like the speed that DC has. They have the ability to run a lot of speed and then they have the power to come back in with it too. Yeah, and that's a great point about Brett Huntley. So I think the reason that Huntley hasn't started is because he's two weeks behind. He came in two or three weeks into training camp and so for him to learn an offense, he's coming off of the Ravens offense where I think that's where he was last year was the third string court. Was it Ravens or was it Cardinals? Wasn't the Ravens right? That was Tyler Huntley, right? Yes, it's Tyler Huntley. Okay, so it might've been the Cardinals that he just came off of. Oh, but the point is that he's coming off an offense and went straight into he's a few weeks behind, that's why he's not starting yet. I see a lot of people asking about that. I think it was, we saw the tweets come out him, one of the highest, if not highest paid in the X ffl takes time. Is he the spark that they need there? I mean I thought Louise and Bette looked great there that week won against Arlington and like I said, just the wheels fell off. They just couldn't get anything going that second half until the end and they had the touchdown and the mis completion and all of that. Well the funny thing too is he's technically the highest paid, but it's like he has to start, has to get paid that know. So he hasn't started it yet, so he's not there yet. Wait, so I got to say it both Ravens have both Huntley and Huntley. Okay, sorry, sorry. Sure, sure, sure, sure. The other thing, oh yeah, where the lemons come from for the field. I think Mark Perry tweeted out or posted that they were from the, when they couldn't do the beer snakes anymore, they get bourbon there. They had bourbon with lemon and that's where they were throwing the lemons because I thought, yeah, where the hell do you get half of a lemon here throwing out in the field? Yeah, no, that's what I was trying to figure out too was I don't know where, but that makes sense. That's funny Barbour. So anything else? So you defenders vipers on that. We'll get rid of that defense looking good. You think they continue the dual quarterback? I agree with that, with the C F L is really effective at doing that. We've seen the Argos do that and we've seen the blue bombers do that, right with Pru Comp and all that. Anything else from that game? We can move on to the guardians. I guess the last point is, yeah, Greg's defense still looks really good. Are they a boom bust defense? Yes he's very aggressive. So if you could beat the aggression with a good throw you capitalize. And I think that's the key right here is Pres doesn't have the arm, he doesn't have the arm to beat you with a good throw typically. So yeah, go. I'm taking DC straight up. It's plus one 40 on draft. I don't know FanDuel, if you want to get on it right now Has Louise Excel exceeded expectations, met expectations, or disappointed expectations? It is a little bit of everything, right? I mean there's not a straight, what's the word I'm looking for? There's not a straight answer to that because I mean that first half way exceeded expectations. No, that second half up until the last two minutes way failed. It was bad. And then that last two minutes exceeded expectations because I mean you just watched him play terribly that second half and all of a sudden he comes out two minutes to play and drives the field a lot like AJ McCarran did last week. Which okay, actually let me throw it back to this real fast. Sorry. AJ McCarran Reid, yep. Is the Kirk Cousins of the xfl. Well I need context on that. Okay, so last year Vikings won 11 games by what? One score, right? And Kirk Cousins comes alive when you don't pressure him when he is standing in the pocket, he can make every throw. And you saw that from aj. It was like San Antonio. Week one ran out of steam, he started throwing dimes everywhere. That last drive Seattle could not pressure him. He was throwing dimes. He's the Kirk Cousins of the X F L. I like that. He's Going to win a ton of one score games. They're going to go into the playoffs and they're not going to make the championship. The Battle Hawks. Yes. Well me and I called him the team of Destiny with for the s b I saw No, no, no. La Last question on the defense. We'll get the other two. Seeing TEU come back, he really did not play as well last year as people were expecting in the US fellow See me better. What did you make of that and him transitioning you back now and it really seemed like he was lost the whole season last year, just really making bad decisions. We're talking Perez. No talking Jordan Tamu. Oh, TIU. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. No, it's the system. It's the system. So Todd Haley, I love him. I like listening to him on Sirius Radio. Not a great coach. Never has been. And I hate to say it, I like him, I like listening to him, but he's just not a great coach. You even look at the years he got fired from Pittsburgh because couldn't get it. Put an offense together with Ben Roethlisberger and that offense. So He, he's been floating around that a reason that's, that's been obvious. That's why he wasn't in the N F L. He had some really good quarterbacks that played for him at different times of his career. He's just not a great coach. And so Tiu is a good Spring league quarterback when you put him in the right system. If you look at what they're doing in DC right now, it's a lot of the same stuff that he did at St. Louis in 2020. And that's because that's where he is comfortable throwing the ball. You know, can get 'em outside the pocket a little bit. You can roll 'em, you can throw these little the smash concepts. A lot of outside routes, running half field. That's what they do. A lot of it was the coaching. It was the coaching, it was the scheme. The scheme didn't fit 'em last year at Tampa Bay. So <laugh> Chris was asking if I was drinking the Ru Coke. Not yet. It's not time in the day for that yet. Let me get back over here to the schedule. I get that and then we're going to go. So promise at Guardians, I am a little terrified to see what the guardians look like just in the stadium there. If people thought were underwhelmed by the Seattle attendants last night, I don't know what it's going to be with the Guardians. Cause I don't think people are expecting much and I still think it could be worse that Brahmas looked good until they didn't hear last week against the Battle hawks. When do you make a Braas guardians Brahmas? Take 'em three and a half right now. Do it take, I mean that's good. Orlando is just, Mike Mitchell on the preview show last week said a lot of good things about them. I like Margarita too. So good choice there. I like the thing, you know, talked about the certain position groups that they have that are really good. They have too many holes everywhere else. That's the problem. So yes, exactly. Perez cannot throw 'em out. That's the problem because you, to throw it out, you have to throw the velocity, you have to throw it all the way. You've got to be able to drive that ball. Perez does not drive the ball. He floats it. And so that's his issue with his outs. He's, he's got to be a timing guy. But yeah, no, I think that and bj, yeah, he looked decent at times. The problem with B Bella is his field vision. He doesn't see the field very well which I think that's key to being running back position. You got to be able to see what you're looking at. But there's times that you see him and he could cut back and make a play by making that defender miss. And instead he just kind of, I think down there by the sideline, the first quarter he kind of threw his head and it was his awkward, I'm going to run over you, but then I'm not going to run over you. So it was weird. He's a weird runner like that. In terms of the Braas, I think I saw Jack Cohen was limited in practice. I think I tweeted out it was <laugh>, part of my barrage yesterday of drinking by the pool and tweeting out. But thoughts on the Brahma's quarterback play here headed into the guardians and do you think they'll tear them up the same way that Houston did? Yeah, I think so. Jack Cohen is not a bad quarterback. Not, and I know that I liked him when he was coming out of Notre Dame. I thought that there was some decent stuff to work with there. So I think that he made some good decisions. He made some bad decisions too, but he made a lot of good decisions and he was smart with the ball last week and his protection faded on him there at the end of the game, which is why he got sacked and lost the game on that they were out of timeouts. But I like comb. I think that yeah, no, he is definitely limited right now in terms of his arm strength. He's not going to push the ball very far. He's another one of these timing guys. I think he's a better, he's got a stronger arm than Perez has, but I think that he's got the opportunity to dice this defense up. Yeah, I think so. Just while we have kind of peaked, viewership right here, right now, just what we have everyone on, they just want to remind you guys subscribe when we hit 3,500 subscribers, which are moving past. We're going to give away the Brian Scott Ball and all that when I get back in town next week. But when we hit 3502 tickets to either the X F L championship game or the U S F L championship game of your choice. So make sure you subscribe and I said I won't Jordan Love parent you. I won't buy you the last seat at Arrowhead Stadium. We'll give you a good seats for the championship game, but make sure you subscribe on there. Last note on the Braas and then we'll do the last game. We'll get out of here. Hines Ward, what have you made of him right first time head coach coming in. I love tracking the Anthony Beck head coach right now, which is pure a jubilation coming in, but tracking these first time and obviously we have other ones as well, but what have you made of H'S Ward? First time we're seeing him do all this. It was dominant. It was dominant. 58 minutes. It was the last two that the defense fell apart. The defense got tired so there's a conditioning deal. But no, I think H's doing a great job, man. I think that, I talked with some Steelers guys that they were working for the Steelers when Hz played there and they all thought that he was going to do great. So wasn't not worried about that at all. I think that it was a really good 58 minutes and the offense obviously could have been a little bit better, but it was a good performance. It was dominant on the defensive side, which is good. They had some good stuff on the offense and yeah, he's solid man. He's, he's going to be a good head coach. I think that they're going to be contending for the championship. And then they announced obviously the AO dome. I talked about this on the show on Tuesday. We already have everything booked. XIV L championship game. I will be giving personalized tours of the Alamo the morning before the championship game. So like says cry, follow a lot. We'll be doing all that as well. I know Anthony Miller is signed up for that with xFi new up and I know, wait, wait, Wait. You're doing a personal tour of the Alamo? I will. Well I want to lead a group through the Alamo. We will do it at 10:00 AM or whatever. That'll be our little meetup before we do the live shows. If you want to come to the Alamo, I will take you through it. We'll fire off the guns, we'll watch the reenactment. We'll do everything. It's really fun. Fantastic. Haven't been to the Alamo yet. I think that's the first time I'm hearing about this. Reid. I'm kind of offended almost a little bit like, Oh, John's in VF wants the US F L tickets. That's fine. You can take the US F L championship. Yes, if you are in San Antonio for the X F L game we will take people through the Alamo. It's going to be a lot. Antonio's one of my favorite cities in the entire world, so yeah, I'm not spent time in San Antonio, so I need to, Well, yeah, if you've ever watched PeeWee's big adventure, you'll know Jenna has it here. Yes. There is no basement at the Alamo, which Peewee Hermann famously found out in PeeWee's big adventure. So he traveled like his bike got stolen and some psychic told him that it was in the basement of the Alamo. And so he went all the way to San Antonio, only to discover that there was no basement at the Alamo. I love that. That's great. Ken enjoys your show Great fast. Yeah, we're going to do the last game here. We're go. We're going to get out because my Dorothy's already sitting down by the poolside here and I don't want to, like I said, really appreciate John making my life easy this week. We could do one super knowledgeable guest the whole time, so I appreciate that last game. And I did see just today the trademark get extended for the Texas Throwdown by the X F L. I got the trademark notification that they still are extending that out to figure out what to do with it. But we have the Battle of Texas, the Texas Throwdown Renegades at Houston. I think this is to me the most exciting of the three games this weekend. Maybe I'm wrong about that. What do you make? No, no, you're right. And I think they saved it last intentionally. I mean I understand that when the schedules kind of came out, there was a little bit of Yes. They didn't know who was going to really be good and who was really going to be bad. Cause you really don't know until they take the field. But I think that Houston wins this and I think Houston is favored. Let me double check that. I'm pretty sure they are. Yeah, Houston's favored by four and a half. Yeah, I would imagine. Yeah, I would take four and a half. And the reason that you take four and a half right there with Houston is because they were dominant last week. Arlington was not. Arlington had to come back, they had to win the game. Arlington also benefited from what, two pick six Es. Right. So they have offensive concerns as well. And I think the Drew Pli, he made some good decisions. He made a lot of bad decisions. So until they kind of get their quarterback situation figured out there, they're going to have some issues. Houston is clicking on all cylinders. I think that Houston, yeah, Arlington's defense absolutely saved them last week. That's the problem. Good question about the over there, man. I got to look at it and see what the over is. Give me a second. Yeah, John got pull it up there. Nine and a half. I might barely haven't barely Take it Over. I'm taking, I don't know if I touch that. Probably leave that alone and it's just because that's too close. Okay. Not a lot of these games have gone over 40 points. The one last night did not. Okay. The reason that I'm not certain that you take the over here is because I think Houston could score 25 points. I don't think that's the problem. I don't know if Arlington scores 15. That's my question. Yeah, I I don't think I want to touch that. Yeah, it was still some quarterback issues there as well, kind of on both teams and getting that all figured out. Yeah. Deion Smith looks good at running back because he finally got his pizza. Man, I, yeah, A lot was made of that. I was trying to get Deion on. It was just too busy kind of preseason I was working with. We were the roughneck people or the running against people about that. Trying to get him on though, because I wouldn't like to really ask Deion Smith, how's the pizza? No, I think that he's going to be forever known as that now, which kind of stinks. But no. Yeah, you look at that, that's the key right there. That's where Pittsburgh, that was Pittsburgh's first mistake because they let Deion Smith go because he won deep eat pizza. So last question here. So Jenna says Pizza Valley, max says, did you see Renegade teasing that they might start? Well that would be that be an upgrade. What do you think? No, <laugh> not an upgrade. You're in this, you're in this. I talked about it when we first got on and it's the fact that you're taking crumbs of quarter of a quarterbacks basically. That's the problem. So is Slowder really that much of an upgrade from pli? I mean, slowder have a great arm. Either Plitt have a great arm, they can both push it about 30, 40 yards tops. I think that the reason PLI got the start is because he's supposed to be a little bit more mobile. And I watched him at Ball State too. I evaluated him last year coming out and I liked him not as Developmental three, which he was in Cincinnati this past year. But yeah, he's just one of these guys that needs experience, right? You got to be able to see the field, make the reads, all that different stuff. I don't, that offense scored six points last week. I want to say it was six points. They didn't even hit conversions, did they? No. No. So six, they scored six points last week. That is concerning. I'm worried about that. So I've been checking here, I'm trying to see with hoping that we get the ratings out for the game last night, but I don't know if we're going to get those in time. We didn't get 'em on Tuesday in time to talk about it on the show. Don't think we'll get the X F L ratings for the game last night today, but have been keeping track of that. If anything comes out we'll be that. John, anything else before we let you go? Really appreciate it. We've had good banter in the chat and we're peaking viewership again here, so I really appreciate that. Max said they scored the one point conversion. Thank you. Anything else? Oh, okay. That's right. Yeah, they got a one. Okay, so seven points. Congrats. You know what I'm saying? I'm worried about that. That's bad. Here we go. Anything else before we let you go, John? Any other comments? Anything else? Man thanks again for having me. Always enjoyed doing this. I've been doing a lot of these live streams lately and I think you've, I have to thank you for that because now I got more people on YouTube and live streams and all that stuff to ask me to come on and it's always fun especially with the live chats and stuff and you've got a great group of people that watch your stuff and watch the show. So it's always a blast to come on and it's always worth the time to come do. So My favorite interaction with John, we were getting ready for, I think it was the X F L draft and I sent John a DM and I said, John, I, I'm looking for people to come on my show here to talk the XIV L draft. And he goes oh, so do you want some recommendations? I'm like, no, no, no, dummy, I want to talk to you on the show. Well, yeah. So he is like, yeah, I'm looking because that's the way I saw it. I was like, don't know if we'd ever really talked before that. Right? And you, you'd messaged me and it was kind of, well, I guess it was kind of out of the blue for me, right? Because I get a lot of dms. I got players dm, me and agents, DM e, they wanted all this stuff. And then you got the fans that the people that follow my stuff, that they'll ask me a lot of questions too and whatever. So I have a lot of dms and so I see it and I just read, Hey, I'm looking for people to come on the show. Well blah. And it was just left at that. And so I was like, I don't want to impose, is he asking me to come on or is he asking me for people? I don't know. Well, we appreciate it. John's in the thing. John's in our community now. We appreciate that guys, leave your game. You're most looking forward to here before we get off. And John, thank you so much. Like I said, hit 3,500 subscribers. We will give away the championship tickets, have their X F L U S F L personalized tour for the Alamo. I think I plugged anything you want to plug before we go, John? Yeah, you can follow me on Twitter at draft and I think that I've got a link tree right there. So anything else that you want to look into that I do. The links right there. So there's all my stuff's in one spot. John is super knowledgeable. Guys, thank you all so much. We'll be back. I love these live streams just because it's so much less work for me, but that we will be back to trying to do some more interviews and stuff next week just because we'll get some player interviews and coach interviews and all that stuff. Working back X F L media people have been phenomenal, phenomenal. So I want to continue leaning on them. So to answer the question right there, Jared just said it, there will be at least be one person at the Orlando game. <laugh>. Congratulations, Jared. I know I'm throwing shade. I'm sorry. Yeah, yeah, I'm not sorry. Jared is a diehards guardian fan. I appreciate that. All right guys, thank you so much. We'll play the outro music here, we'll see you next week and check out all the other stuff online. Thanks again.

XFL 2023 Week 1: What Did We Learn?

Well here we are live here today. Happy Tuesday morning, 10:00 AM central time here in Port de Vita. No days off here on the Mark House, no days off. Got done covering the Ex Ffl Champ. kickoff weekend. Now we are on vacation. Met my family down here in Port de Vata and we are having, Andy will be joining us in a minute, but I'd like to start the stream on time if we can. So we are here live the professor Andrew Murray and I will be reacting to X F L week one, talking to X F L week two previewing, that kind of all the reactions. What did we learn? I just found out X F L TV ratings will be delayed until tomorrow because of the President's Day holiday. Was hoping we would have those today as well to chew through, but I think we'll have plenty to talk about. Leave some comments here. Lots of people tuning in right now. Let me know thoughts for the weekend. Really curious. Andy's thoughts watching on tv. I was in Arlington, Dorothy and I for the kickoff game. I had thoughts. I thought it was a good lively crowd. I would've liked to see more people there. I think the people that were there seemed very engaged. I don't know if you would rather have 12,000 hardcore engaged crowd or we get 15, 16,000. We get a little walkups and paper tickets. You have to let me know that we have comments here. Jenna, checking in. Good morning from Southern California. Thank you Jenna. As always. Jenna is off to a hot start here. We had joked that Jenna would not know would have terrible luck with her. X ffl teams with the Renegade last time and then Jenna obviously listen watching us, the Red Blacks and the Buffalo Saber do okay, but Arlington came back. Thrilling victory there. We were right on that corner of the end zone for the big takeaway and they go back and do all that. We have Chris here. Yeah, but how about those battle hawks come back? So a lot of that people now learning I guess for the first time, these wonderful X F L rules, the comeback and all of that and we're simply are flipping the field fan control, football style. We're doing the fourth and 15, all of that. Max is checking in. Hey yo, very good. So let me know the comments. Did your teams win? I thought on Sunday night I was watching from the bar, I tweeted, I thought the Seattle C Dragons looked like the best XL team for about the first quarter. I thought Ben de Nucci was doing his best ever Patrick Mahomes impression, flipping the ball to Josh Gordon and I saw that tweet. My sentiments got recycled by a lot of people on there. I thought deci looks really good. I thought our defense looks really good and then it just wasn't enough and deci had the two interceptions, the pick six and all of that but thrilling there. We'll talk about Lemon Gate and all of that today as well. I thought tracking all of that on Twitter was very fun. We're trying to watch the game at the bar and my wife Dorothy we're on vacation and what's going on, but really fun X L weekend. I'm be curious, Andy thoughts if he gives me a thumbs up. I think he's going to be ready to hop on here in a minute, Chris, switching to a new team, the battle hawks. Well now you have to remember to capitalize it correctly. It's all battle hawks now. We don't have the capital H anymore. Joining me now we have the professor Andrew Murray. We are talking, what did we learn today, Andrew first off, what do you think of What have we got going on here behind me? This is real. This is real life. Are you sure it's not a green screen? Because it really does look like one. I promise you. I promise you it's not a green screen. Here we are live in Portland Bay. Andy, how are you doing today? How has been the sentiments that you've heard from, obviously we're talking with the same people, your people on Twitter, your family and friends. What did they make of Exe L kickoff weekend? Well, I think the general sentiment has been pretty good overall. I've had a lot of good feedback from not only my family members, I've had a couple friends text me throughout the weekend and actually have either their significant others or also their other family members text them and tell them that they got engaged with the X ffl this past weekend. So from an initial launch point, that's pretty good and from the feedback that I've heard is that the level of competition and the play style is actually pretty good overall. Actually it was fairly enticing as far as the rules, as far as how the games were played the level of competition between the teams and considering that there was no chemistry between most of these players beforehand or these coaches or any of these staffs until this week, given the limited amount of training camp and also there not being any pre-season games, that's pretty impressive to make that kind of impression on people who unlike us are not in the folds constantly on this sorts of product. Those are the kinds of people that Danny and the rocking Jerry Carnell are trying to reel into this league and I think they did a fairly good job on it based on initial reactions. Yeah, it's hard. We live through this and we have to remember, we're so tuned in getting these casual people for the first time. I was surprised. Yeah, first off, no real gasps. Nothing really bad happened outside of their control. The US fella had the whole rain delay thing last year that really hurt the product and then we were already starting to see some of the attendance slip. Like I said, I think Arlington could have been better, should have been better. We had the season schedule kind of put out there late. I thought that there were no big snap foods, even the whole lemon gate thing for the defenders, I thought the gameplay was good enough that it didn't. It added to it. I was texting one of the X F L people yesterday and they were saying, Hey, hot takes from the weekend. I thought the best thing about that was the game itself was compelling and then that added to it, but it wasn't like it was this crappy game. We're watching three and we can talk about this San Antonio game, but it wasn't like it was a bad game and then this was taking away from it. We're doing the wave in the stance ww e South. I thought that they added to that and it felt really hot watching the clips I was at the bar we're watching on my phone and then going home and seeing some of the crowd shots of people throwing the beer and throwing the lemons and even Mark was sharing the new sub. You hear him screaming. I thought that that felt very raucous and you never got that ever in a U S F L game until maybe the playoff weekend and then the championship weekend in Canton. I thought except for obviously the kickoff weekend, but I thought you had a lot of casuals for that. Do you agree or disagree that the Lemon Gate added to that and didn't detract? No, it absolutely did. I've seen events not of that specific value, but I've seen things like that go on in college football all the time. I still remember a couple years ago at the Tennessee fans had Lane Kippen was on Ole Miss and he came in and he won the game against Tennessee and people started tossing mustard bottles on the field. So I mean I've seen all kinds of projectiles hit the turf and for it to be lemons was honestly kind of creative. I think Mark Perry talked about how people apparently get the lemons by buying bourbon at the stadium. So instead of buying beer, they started buying the bourbons and started chucking the lemons that way. I don't know if we're going to see another lemon in field ever again after this, but yeah, I mean look, it did add to the ambiance because it was just sort of a whole narrative of like, oh, we have this thing that we were going to do for three years and now they've taken it away from us. What's our response? And honestly, the defender started playing better as soon as that happened. They went on a 14 oh run to close out the game and they won it all afterwards they got a pick six. Derrick King looked fast, he got out there, he was making some great plays for them. They played better as a team because the energy in the stadium just reignited after that whole incident. So yeah, it absolutely did. It not only added to the game, it added to the atmosphere and it added to the intrigue of that sort of stage. It was kind of theater in a way. Yeah, I had to tell. Yeah, max, yeah, I learned all about the Tennessee Mustard Ball. I'm glad Mark had that insights. Yeah, because I'm sitting, I'm like, why the hell are they throwing lemons into the, I'm a vodka soda drinker primarily, but I've never had a full lemon to be able to just throw out on the, trying to explain it to Dorothy and what's going on in the beer snake. I said, all these people have talked about for three years, we're bringing back the beer snake, we're bringing back the beer snake we're bringing, it's like battle hawks and cock caught and all of that. We have the Defender's Beer Snake Twitter account now and we're talking, it's in Sea Dragons. Their accounts talking to the people would not shut up about the beer snake for three years and then they'd go out and I'm just like, oh my God, dude, nobody thought that. But I mean think that will live in lore for a long time. I mean now this is part of the X F L spring history of War. Now I would love to have been in that game. I think that tremendously it is certainly a much more memorable kickoff weekend game than the DC Seattle game in 2020, which was fun because I was there, but it certainly wasn't memorable to see Brandon Silvers really not perform well. Yeah, Lele Gate forever characterizes that game and I agree with you. It is probably it. I think from a gameplay standpoint, it may not be the most memorable moment. I think that see that ending of the St. Louis and San Antonio game was really caught fire with a lot of people, A lot of media members I noticed were really focusing on that one. But as far as dramatics, yeah, that Lemon Gate story is, it's one of the most memorable I could think of in spring football history, not just in X F L, but any game. I just, such a bizarre event. I mean that's something that would happen at a higher level like the N F NFL with Cleveland Brown fans tossing beer bottles at the rafts or something of that nature where just people started getting out of control. That's something you would see at a higher level of the sport, not necessarily at spring football. So yeah, it's just another chapter and a really interesting one. Does my audio sound significantly better now? I don't think I was selected into the right microphone. Yeah, I think it sounds cleaner. Okay, well there you go. It was slosh over there. There's not a lot of background noise out here right now, but glad to see we're doing that. I want to rank and we'll get through all the details and the Brahmas Ball Hawks one I'm watching at the bar. Dorothy and I are at brunch down there in Deep Elum and I said, I'm going to turn this. We we're going to go, I can't have Dorothy sit here and watch this whole thing. So Uber to the next bar, I get a text from Max and he's like, you literally. And I caught up on it. I mean I watched all the highlights, but it's like you literally missed the greatest moment ever in history spring football. I'm like, I'm so glad. I'm so glad. I wish that game would've started off a little bit more exciting. That was definitely the slowest start of the four. Do you think enough people stuck around? You said that it had a lot of traction, you know, saw it like Kuni, everyone kind of tweeting about you think it had enough longevity that even though it was a poor start to the game that people found out about it afterward? Yeah, absolutely. I mean people were starting to retweet the rules and everything afterwards. I know, like I said again, a lot of media members started to pick out, hey, this is something that you can actually get away with at this league and I think that's going to stick in people's minds going forward. As far as an entertainment product, I mean I think the XF L did an outstanding job as far as showing people, okay, here's something you can engage with and here's why you stick around until the end. Because that's really the biggest thing for a lot of people is why should I care and also why should I stay around for the entire time? I got a lot of comments saying they enjoyed the fact that the games were between two hours and 30 minutes and 2040 minutes. They weren't too long and that's the thing that some of the halfs felt fast. They felt really fast and my kind of internal clock as a football fan had to kind of adjust to that. I'm so used to the three hour plus slogs a little bit and not always slogs. If it's entertaining, it's entertaining, but I'm more used to that and also college football where games can be three and a half hours. I definitely noticed a lot of people were commenting on that. So as far as level engagement, yes, I think it actually stood out even if people weren't around for the entire game where kind of tuned out afterwards because it was 15 to three. I do think people caught up on it later and again, that's just kind of a thing that the league can hang its hat on going throughout the rest of the season. Well the thing I liked about it is we hear this all the time in the X ffl, it's a 18 points, it's still a two score game. Like U S F L did that a lot too. Obviously adopting in the rules and all that. I did have to, I enjoyed the rock, I think had retweeted somebody and said they're, oh this is tremendous and I think if the Rock was talking about the kickoff, but we're talking about the rules nonetheless and the rock was tweeting out and I was like, let's, can we please give Sam Schwartzstein and company credit here? Can we please continue to do that? The rules you like now for the most part came from Sam and CO back into 2020, but the US F L, they were talking about that too in the nine points you can get nine and go for three and do it. It was nice in the first weekend to see that and it really matter and to do the fourth and 15 and have that convert and have that matter. A lot of these rules that we've talked about in an ether here for the last few years and never really getting to see by the whole season back in 2020 for the X F L, it was nice to see all of this kind of packaged together. You could show somebody the last quarter of that game and go, what makes the X F L different? You could go here this six, nine minutes. That is what makes the X F L stand apart from the other leagues and I don't think it's too gimmicky. I saw some C F L homers online ballsy and everybody else talking about, oh dude I turned this off. It's too gi. I'm like, I don't think being able to go for three points is a rule-breaking game-changing scenario in that you are not going to be able to watch anymore when you watch the CFL that has the wiggle on the rouge. I think we need to be realistic here In that case. Then the three point comeback the three minute comeback period is gimmicky too then guys, if that's the case. But look, I think that the three point conversion is not gimmicky in any way sense or form. In fact, every single time I watch another game from another league, now every time I think that there's a nine point deficit, I think I could really use that three point play right now. That would be really, really key. And look, here's the point, you still have to convert it. The fact that the battle hawks were able to drive down the field score touchdown, get a three point conversion in the first place to make it even a three point game and then to go for the fourth and 15 conversion on their own 25 and get that and then drive down again and get a touchdown, that's still something that's really almost insurmountable. They still had to execute that whole thing. They didn't just, oh well they got away with some really quirky rule that allowed 'em to get into this game and that's not fair. No, they got it and San Antonio would say as much that they let them back into the game and they shouldn't have. So I think that definitely comes down to play style and execution as well. But no you're, go back on what you were saying about some of the rules as far as the U S F L. The thing is that even though they had those things in place, I never felt like any of the coaches wanted to risk taking two or taking three. They always wanted to catch the P A t and that's the thing, the absence of the P A T is really the biggest thing here is that there's really, there's not a huge amount of benefit to go for a one point conversion. A lot of coaches just look at the analytics and say, well we might as well go for two In this case, I think there's been a couple coaches who have said on a number of occasions that if you go for two, four times you make two of them, then you've made your points. There's not really that huge of a risk as far as pulling it out over time. And we saw that a lot. We saw, I mean Seattle went for a three point conversion on the first touchdown. They said we're going for it all right now. They didn't. I love the aggressiveness, they didn't make it but I love that a level of aggressiveness and I don't think you saw that in the U S F L because I one, in my opinion because of some of the coaching styles and some of the old a little bit more, I would say conservative ways of going about their offensive execution and then as opposed to the X ffl where it's like they're kind of almost forced to take risks and I like that. I like that. It's like it benefits you for taking risks. That's the biggest thing here We have XFL circle checking in. Hello I have a comment here from Jared real quick just while it's on my top of my mind and we'll talk more of these. Jared said surprise, the XL referenced the number of former US F L players. I think X L'S mentality towards us F l is very different than us F L'S mentality towards the X F L and people in the chat. No, I had one of the most fascinating conversations of my life this weekend involved in covering the X F L at the press room. I don't want to get in trouble or do anything, but those of you that know that I famously it not stormed in but I kind of snuck into Brian Woods's suite back at the Birmingham kickoff back at U US F L 2022. This conversation rivaled that of Reid. I was buzzed because I wasn't covering the Birmingham game read buzzed in Birmingham, rocking into Brian Woods's suite and then the conversation I had Saturday at the XO l kickoff. It is a really fun world we live in and just people know what is going on all the time and if you don't think the X ffl people or SF people are tuned into the things that are happening on the interwebs. They absolutely are and I'll leave it at that. But it was very fascinating. Yeah, they kind of treat it, they're next door neighbors and they never talk to each other, but you kind of know you still look over the fence once in a while. I'm like, what are you doing? That's that. That's still, that's how I would equate it really. That's if that's like they're, they're going to play it as fine but no, they absolutely are paying attention to and you have to, if you're going to be competitive in this market, you have to pay attention. I I still think these leagues also pay attention to what the C F L does. They can say they don't but they have to because the C F L also is in competing for these exact same players and rules too. I think there's a lot of similarities in that aspect as well and I do think there is definitely a lot of influence from the X ffl C Ffl talks on the X FFLs league league as far as how they're trying to operate and trying to, I think for both of them trying to be, keep this a long term prospect. I do think that has a lot to do with it. I mean just seeing genius sports work with the XFL of a sudden is like, oh yeah, that was something CFL did last year but I'm sure they gave now. Now you could argue if they gave 'em that idea in the first place, but there's a lot more lot of overlay here with both in all these leagues and I think they obviously are paying attention to, you can't just live in a vacuum And I know the genius sports deal with this XIV L is very different than the deal with the C F L and they've invested in the C F L and they own a portion of that league whatever. But I did see a lot of, they took our jobs when the X L put it out this week, one of our friends, Ryan, that's a Calgary stamp feeder fan, he's like, Hey, that's our league saving power move right there. You leave it away, you leave it away. This well we have everyone here and I was going to take it at the top. I I'm hoping to make this a regular occurrence weekly right now. We'll see if Andy wants to do it. I know Evan was involved. This is a weird week just because I'm out town. We're going to be doing the live show Friday, similar time talk with John Vogel about that, but it's just too hard for me this week to record and then download and edit and upload. So the live show, but I like this live and Monday would ideally be the best day to do it. I was traveling yesterday but this Monday check-in of like hey what do we think? So we'll look into that. But if Andy wants to do it, if you guys like it, let me know and subscribe. Get to 3,500 subscribers. We're going to be given away that the two tickets to the X FFL or the U S F L championship game. Andy, if you won, would you take two tickets to the X Ffl game or the US F L championship game which I guess is going to be in San Antonio I guess breaking news right for the X F L? Why are you putting me on the spot like this? This is going to look Neither way. It's good winner. I mean look, I would enjoy going to the US championship game if I knew where it is. First of all, I need to know the location because LA and look, last year I was like I was busy at the same time that it was going on during that weekend, during the July 4th weekend. It wasn't really amicable for me to go to the game unfortunately and getting to Cannon was not going to happen. So we'll see what happens this year. I've always wanted to go to San Antonio anyways, so I would actually like to check out the X Ffl championship game just based on the fact that I've never been to San Antonio. But also, and I think this is the big deal for them in factoring in their decision they're playing in a dome which means they don't have to worry about weather in case something, if there's a thunder lightning storm or if it's too hot or something of that nature, they can not have to worry about that. I see with the U S F L, it's still that July, if it's going to be that early July date, it might be really, really hot and that's something that I have to consider as well. But I think it depends on where they play. I mean maybe they play in Detroit then, okay, no problem then they, they've solved the issue but I want to know where they play at first. I guess I would like to go to both, but for right now I think I have to go lean X Ffl cause I want to go to San Antonio. I've always wanted to check out the Alamo dom. I will tell you right now and then we're going to get back to game talk. I have a question here for the games. I have my flights booked. Dorothy will not be joining. We have a good friend's birthday party that weekend. I have my flights booked to San Antonio. I have my hotel booked to SVEs Hotel in town. We stay there when we go to San Antonio and then I will, the game is Saturday night so we'll do a live show Saturday, we'll figure it out sometime in the evening. I am doing an Alamo read guided tour like 10:00 AM whatever. We'll figure it out there on that Saturday before. So if you want to come to San Antonio, we're going to go to the Alamo, we're going to do a live show and then we're going to go to the X exit L I in. I'll try to do the US F L two. That's fine. I love San Antonio. It has nothing to do with the X F Ffl. San Antonio is one of the most enjoyable towns in the world. You have open carry alcohol when you're on the Riverwalk just like you do in Vegas. You can walk around with your beer sit out in the Riverwalk. We could go do a boat tour. I mean there's lots of stuff to do. They have a Dick's last resort there really like San Antonio. So if you want to come you can join. I think Andy's right saying you're on the fence but you'll come. Andy and I Alamo tour on that day, so I can't wait for the river walk. I've never seen it before in person. I've always wanted to. It's awesome. Yeah, we don't know. I mean we're assuming Canton, we're assuming Canton for the US Bowl championship. I don't think that's officially announced it. We have a question here about oh yes and talking. So we've talked a little bit the Battle Hawks and the Braas and we've talked DC how bad were the guardians and were they as bad as we kind of thought they were going to be? Yes and no. I think the shame of it all is that their offensive playmakers are actually pretty good. I really like the skill sets they have on offense and I think they actually have a potential to do a lot with their receiving corps. I love seeing that Andrew Jamil scored a touchdown that was great for the Fcf fans. And look, I know a lot of people are doggy on Packs and Lynch. I don't think it was his fault. In fact, I don't think it was either of the quarterback's fault. I mean obviously Quintin Doman, he didn't do much either when he came in, but that offensive line was atrocious. They got totally tail whipped in that entire game. They looked awful and they got absolutely trucked by Wade Phillips's defense. Trent Harris had four stacks by himself. He absolutely destroyed the entire offensive line. And then also you had Sean Davis who had five tackles for loss and a pick. He was all over the place. The quarterback for the Houston tics, I mean they just all completely overwhelmed them and they had no time to do anything. They couldn't run the ball, they couldn't establish anything. Their offensive line that is priority number one this week. They got to find a way to work around that, which is really hard to do when you have a bad offensive line. You are trying to pull out all the stops to do anything to get any sort of production. So I'd say in that respect it is very disappointing. Their defense, I mean I have to see 'em against another opponent. The roughnecks I think are just a really smooth operation. I love their play style, their play design by AJ Smith. Obviously calling it the Mike League offense, it's very, it was just very smooth on Sunday or on Saturday night. And so I don't know for Orlando, I do think the offensive line is that bad. They got to fix that, but I do think there are other components of the team that are going to help them play better if they are able to account for some of those problems. But as far as the debut goes, yeah, Wolf <laugh> could have been a lot better. Yeah, I'm fighting the sun here, it's coming up over my shoulders so we'll see. I don't want to be dripping sweat here during the show so might have to adjust a little bit. We're here live I'll just give a little tour here real quick. This is our patio here. We have a nice little hot tub over there looking out over the thing, so it's nice but we'll see. It might be getting a little little swell through here. We might have to record with John Boel earlier in the morning for the Roughnecks Guardians game. Do you credit it more to Wade Phillips being a very seasoned coach, right, to say the least throughout Buckley first time, all the, is the difference there. Was it the players they assembled? I know Mike Mitchell has not been super high and Larry Lee and the job that he's done, is the DPP there? Where is the disconnect? I do think part of it is the personnel. I do think some of it is not assembling the correct talent for this exact roster. And I do think some of it is obviously fitting to the scheme. I do think that the fact that Wade Phillips could go ahead and play whatever variation of the three four for example, and you can just do whatever he wants, that's a testament to how Houston assembled their talent. And I do think that Orlando was not able to accomplish that feat in the off season. Now look with Terrell Buckley, I mean yeah, the timeout situation, he didn't really handle well at the end of near the end of the game. He also just didn't seem to have a lot of answers to what was going on as far as obviously his quarterbacks just getting absolutely beaned. I don't know if I would've taken Lynch out personally, I really don't think it was his fault. I think that was kind of the wrong move and if it's, and him trying out different quarterbacks, I mean it's different from Seattle. When Seattle put in Steven Montez, I kind of understood it. I still would've liked to seen Ben Nuk stay in there because I thought he was hot at the time. But with this case, I just felt like it was kind of just trying something just to try. It felt the same way as the Pittsburgh Mallers last year, and I know everyone's going to draw that comparison a million times, but it really was, it felt like, well, let's just put another quarterback in there and see what happens. I really don't think that's the problem here. I just think it's the fact that the offensive line play is poor. They didn't have much of a strategy for when they were down big and they just never seemed to acclimate in any way, shape or form. They got turnovers on defense. I mean that's the thing. They were able to get some chances for Brandon Silvers throwing a couple picks, but they just had no cohesion offensively. So I do think it's roster building and I do think it's accountability on not being able to adjust to what was happening in the second half. I got a question here about we'll move back, we, we'll kind of go back here to the Arlington game in a minute to finish up Guardians Silvers, I think when he got signed and people and okay, we don't know and he knows AJ Smith and they've run that before and he's a Spring League guy and all that. I thought silvers looked good. I know I was texting I think with you and I said, yo, it looked like Cole McDonald's coming in. We're doing a little bit. Are we pulling, are we done with silvers now? Are we moving on? Is, are we just giving Cole more time to figure out the system and the scheme? What do you make of the quarterback dilemma there? Well, they kept pulling in Cole McDonald for conversion attempts. They kept putting him into run down on the two pointers and just see if he could do anything with his legs. Obviously he managed to score later in the game when the game was already out of hand. Basically he was able to score a touchdown so good for him. I don't know if there's much of a controversy there, but I think for most people in the room, at least for our media group, I think a lot of people are under the impression that he is going to eventually replace Brandon Silvers. But we'll see. I mean, look, silvers Silver's, did his job mean he utilized his offensive skill players? I mean he was able to get it to all of his guys. The guy who really stood out for me in Houston was John Tree Kirkland. That guy was awesome on Saturday. He was just making plays left and Max Borge was awesome. He was just able to have his entire skillset utilized properly by the offense running and receiving. I think he has the playmakers around him. Again, I said this on Saturday in our preview show, if Silver is able to utilize those weapons correctly, he'll stay in the games and he'll be able to lead this offense. But I think if he turns the ball over like he did in the second half, there might be a bit of a shorter leash and if something goes really wrong where they just get off offset slow start in a game, would I bes be surprised to see McDonald? Absolutely not. I think they're just trying to find a way to kind of work him in because obviously he's got a bit of a different skillset. He obviously has a tremendous arm too, but I think they're just trying to figure out can you be as reliable as silvers? I get why he started the first game, but we'll see going forward We got a lot of that and when they had the de Saron come out, tarts and whatever come out this week with Louis Perez and all of that. And I have a question about that as well. Obviously Brett Huntley did not get the start, came into camp late, all of that. Luis Perez came out, looked really good. Obviously end of the game scenario there. What did you make of Luis's play in the Vipers Arlington game? I'm going to remove my camera for a minute, I'm going to do a big shift here and I'll be right back. I feel like it was emblematic of what Perez's career has been up to this point. It's been times where he's looked really consistent and has looked in control and other times where he's throwing interceptions and the game's getting out of hand, that just seems to happen in Perez a lot. And imagine it doesn't matter which league he's in, it's always there's kind of this ebb and flow of some games. He looks really good and then other games he's completely out of it. And the other thing happened with also this case, the two halves, the tail of the two halves, the first half he looked great. He was hitting all of his receivers in Stride. The Vipers receiving Corps was looking really good. Jeff Ette was awesome. He was hitting Mar Davis, Bryant Geronimo Alison. And yet somehow it just kind of got out of hand in the second half where he just wasn't making the right reads or he just wasn't seeing the field correctly and he started throwing, I mean he threw two pick six s. That's your difference there. Big time difference in the game. So I don't know, what did you see from Perez? Because it just seemed like he was off in the second half. Something was wrong. Yeah, I watched the first half of the game from the press box which was a unique experience. It's never a as fun and I think for the Dragons games that we're able to, obviously missing the one this week. Being in Mexico, I like being down on the field. I like being down in the stands, kind of seeing that. Dorothy and I walked around and did all of that. We were tweeting that, what was it, BR or Louis Perez and Jeff ett looked like Brandy Monster and Tom Brady or whatever. I mean it was tremendous. And yeah, I don't know, did they figure him out? Bob Stoops and the Hayes brothers and figured out the defense and adjusting him the second half I was getting text messages from someone that was involved in the Vipers quarterback situation and thought Perez wasn't looking good. I joined seeing Perez come back at the end there and I really didn't think, God, if they convert this, we're going to get another. Still an exciting finish wanted to have that conversion, but I thought he played really good. I think for what's asked of him and coming in, you're getting with Louise Perez, I think the ceiling is lower but the floor is certainly higher. I think I don't know if Huntley starts this week, but I certainly think by week three, I mean you don't bring in someone like that and pay the money that they did and not how Brett Hartley play. And I also think Coach Woodson just does not have the patience for that. I think he understands that these wins are valuable, especially within a 10 week season. You cannot really afford to mess around too long and if you're going to continue turning over the ball like this, you're not going to have much of a leash. I don't think that's something that's going to be allowed in this league. So for me, I think for Perez, maybe again, does he need to be in a timeshare situation? He's been in the past, he was in New Jersey even when he was in the Afaf, I remember he got pulled a couple of times. They said, no, you're not playing well enough. And then he would come back again and he would sometimes come off the bench and you would be great. So I think it's valuable to have him around as a commodity. You need to have someone like that who's steady, but at the same time he's going to possibly turn the ball over. I mean the coverages that changed for the Renegades were outstanding. They obviously confused him in the second half and it really worked for their benefit. And I think the renegades are the team to beat in a lot of ways, in my opinion. As far as the roster goes, they have a lot of components to them that work and I think they're going to be in every game they play, as long as their offense doesn't go off the rails. We didn't, obviously Drew Plate did not really light up the world on Saturday night or Saturday day, excuse me, and they just didn't really do much on offense, but their whole team as a roster is able to get the job done and keep that in mind too. How did the X F L kickoff and we'll talk, we can talk attendance here a little bit. It was about 12,000 for the three and then obviously the Battle Hawks had a lot more than that. I can pull up the stats. I think Kevin Seifer tweeted them out. How did the Renegades game look on tv? I did not realize we were blocking off the first 20 rows. I guess it was the sight lines. I was talking to security there. Like I said at the top before you came on, I thought that the fans that were there were very invested and really knew what was going on and we know the players and we have our merch and we have a lot of old merch and I saw a lot of new merch, I saw a lot of new hats and new people had towels they had made and all that stuff. They were given away the rally towels, but people had capes and everything. We saw the motorcycles and all of that. What did you make of the kickoff? Did that look good enough? And I do want to find that tweet with the attendance numbers. Yeah mean at first I thought it looked a little sparse to be honest because I did. I thought some of the areas I was expecting to be filled in weren't, especially when looking at a Ticketmaster. I'm curious what happened with that too because I think there's, there seemed to be a bit of a disparity between some of the viewership on as far as looking at a map on Ticketmaster versus seeing it on the field and maybe, maybe that's just the limitations of having a digital viewing of what seats are sold and who's actually going to be there. But I do think that for noise purposes it was pretty good. I thought that it sounded loud on tv. That sounded like every time there was a play being made that people were engaged. I mean obviously people were engaged enough to start booing by the end of the first half because their offense wasn't doing enough. So obviously they cared. And I do think that there was enough investment as far as who was there, it sounded like on tv, and I think that was the case for most of the games. The people who were actually at the games were pretty invested with what was going on. I think that's the biggest key for the league. But yeah, I was a little surprised to see some, just some of the big patches and some of the crowd. I thought there would just be a little bit more filled in, especially for opening weekend. But again, we all know the ticket sales were kind of late and they didn't really get to the game that as soon as we had wanted them to Mark here in the marks mark, you got us to tune on the show at the beginning. I said the very first thing of the show, I said, TV ratings will be coming out tomorrow. President's Day delayed. All that hoping they would be today was kind of thinking, Hey, it'd be great if they came on and whoever could text them to me, but we we'll get those tomorrow we'll be tweeting that out <laugh> with, if we're going to do the thing, the seats there, we're not going to sell the first 20 rows. Can we call the US F l? Can we get some of your tarps? Can we bring the tarps in? Can we do something more visually like, oh, okay, I understand. If they knew they weren't going to sell those tickets, they know they're using that stadium. They're in that stadium all the time. They're the other well, I guess, okay, so now I'm talking this out loud. The rugby team plays there. So then okay, then we got to take the tarps down. We got to put the tarps back up. So maybe that's why I just thought there was something visually, let's explain what's going on here because it just looked weird. I didn't realize I was up in the press box and I looked down and I was like, wow, that's really weird. It's really weird. We don't have anyone in the first 20 rows Was not really expecting that as far as the visual component of the game. But yeah, maybe logistically, like you said, they couldn't really get those down in time for their next events. So I guess for them it's going to be a work in progress to see what happens going forward as far as how they're going to sell those tickets. I mean everyone will start looking a week two already and seeing how, or week three and seeing how that works out. But again, it's going to be interesting with next week because now you're going to have your first matchup of Texas teams with Arlington going to Houston. So how is that going to fill out? How are those fans going to travel? Are they going to be able to get those people in there and are they going to be able to have that more filled out? Which also, if I may real quick just say that's probably also what's a good move good part about the move for San Antonio being the X F L championship game because now you get almost guaranteed you get a Texas team in there. Because look, three out of the four in the south division are Texas teams and based on what we've been seeing for the Orlando, I don't think that's going to happen either. So you're at least going to get some sort of Texas crowd in that stadium near the end of the seasons, and so you're going to actually be able to draw a decent amount of people. I heard a lot about how apparently in the past someone was saying that, oh, the renegades numbers were kind of low because a lot of people from San Antonio from another market would come in and go to these games instead. But now they have their own teams, so they're not going to come to Renegades games maybe. I don't know how much that really factored in, but I can at least see that. So being able to share those fans in these Texas matchups are also going to be pretty crucial for the league. Yeah, we have some comments here I'll go through. We just to run down the numbers just officially the ones, because I kind of whatever Arlington, 12 0 4 7, Houston had 12,700 San Antonio obviously the highest with 24,200 and then DC with 12,400 average the average was about 15,379. Week one average was 17,455. He puts on here, and this is from Kevin Seifer who was on the show last week where we did the preview for the kickoff weekend. The top two attendance for 2020 were obviously St. Louis and Seattle. I am very concerned for that Thursday Seattle game. I saw they were tweeting out again yesterday. Haley and the team over there. Okay, let's get the ticket sales up for all of that. It's tough. It's tough on the Thursday there in Seattle it's supposed to be like 20 degrees. It's supposed to be really, really cold. We are <laugh>. Not my problem this week, but it is supposed to be very, very cold there. Let me get rid of this. I want to do a couple comments about the Arlington crowd and then we'll run through the others and then we'll get out of here. I think an hour is good. I think we do this hour recap here. They say PIP says San Antonio, St. Louis will drink the average up. They're not happy with 12,000 forton in Houston. Have to think they're looking for more like that. Yeah, El lucid poet, someone said blocking the seats had to do with the stadium and inside. That's what the security guard told me. I mean that kind of makes sense. Yeah, they said they should have tarped it off. Max points out, he doesn't even know if the rugby team uses those seats outside of the grandstand that I was talking with one of the security guards as well about how the rugby sets up in there. So maybe that is something they can do. Maybe that is something. And then weather, it was of the three days we were in Dallas, it was the coldest day that day. It was like 72. It was like 68 the next day and then 72 the next day that we were there. So not the best for that. Any other comments on any of that? Harrison checking in. Thought it was really fun, sloppy, still fun to watch, which is about the best case scenario. My takeaway is on the field is that 2023 is closer to the U S F L than 2022. I assume that means in a bad way. I assume that X F L 2020 was better. How do you read that, Andy? I think that the play style on 2023, at least for the opening week, was pretty darn good. And honestly, I think it was better than the opening weekend for 2020. And I'm not just saying that because it's like, well, of course three years later, but you never know because especially with it being new players and it being a new chemistry between all the teams and the coaches, I think honestly I think it couldn't have gone better in a lot of ways. The only team that seemed kind of out of place was Orlando, but other than that, everybody else, every game was close. I mean every game you had a four point game, a three point game and a two point game. And I do think the competition was pretty good. I mean, some of the offense, look, the offenses were a bit out of sync. That's going to happen. You're not going to have receivers in the right place where the quarterbacks want them. The offensive lines are going to have time to gel. You're going to need time to build that part of it. But as far as everything else, I thought it was pretty good. Honestly, the play style was pretty good as far as drawing attendance numbers. I mean weather is going to be a factor early on. I think even though it's spring football, we're still in winter, obviously it's still technically winter and we are going to have to wait maybe another month before we start seeing maybe some consistently better weather in some of these places like DC or Seattle or maybe Texas I think will warm up. But there's going to be a bit of fluctuation as far as having better weather across the board for people to actually feel like they want to go out there and actually want to enjoy themselves. I think that the X F L and the USS F L have opposite problems, whereas the USS f l starts in a pretty good time, but then it gets really hot towards the end. Whereas the uss, the X L's probably too cold at the beginning and then it starts getting better as the season goes on. So they're both kind of working with that. But that's just, that's the changing of the seasons. That's the reality. And people obviously, I know you'll argue well fall, everyone goes to games in the snow in the N F nfl. I'm like, well, yeah, but there's a pageantry to that, right? There's an ambiance, that whole thing. And that's also the end of the season. That's different. You're going to go to those games because they're, they matter and especially if it's a playoff game. So I think that's a difference too. Whereas when you're starting off the cold, it's a little hard to sell that to some people. It is really the ideal Spring football it, it's the tale's oldest time, which has some better timeline really. When the US fell announced everything, I thought this is great. And you get away from all the March madness and everything and then the players can go in. Obviously we know about that. And then going to camp this way with the X F L, you pick up the week after Super Bowl, people are hot, they're ready to go but then it, it's really cold. <laugh> really wet that you need March, april, may. That is the timeline we need when we have the U US F X ffl here coming up in 2026 or whatever, that'll be March, april, may. That will be the key timeline. Yeah, Pip's talking merch in the stadiums. I saw that. I tweeted that. I never saw Birmingham merch for sale when I was there. I guess I thought it was good. I saw the Brahmas line was huge in San Antonio. I think teams underestimate how many people are going to be willing to buy the merch in the stadiums, right? Oh, we've had this online for months, but people want to go buy it there. It's the same with wrestling that way. What did you make of that? The Brahmas merch line that I saw that was literally traverse the whole bottom floor there. I saw, I mean, it's merch that I would like to get my hands on too. I'm still waiting on the jerseys and I'm still waiting on some of the other merch as well. But it looks, and from what I've heard, it also's gotten better quality as far as production goes. They've gotten, they've kind of smoothed out some of the snags and the production line. But I do think that it, it's a shame that some of the items are not on sale yet. But I do think that the enthusiasm is there and I think, but fans always want to have merch. B, they want to have be patriotic. They want to show their colors, they want to be able to be part of the team and not just wear generic clothing. And it's great to see some of these old jerseys with Houston, with Dallas, and see some of the old paraphernalia, but you got to be able to update it for other people, especially with all the Jersey changes and look more like the team that's on the field. Of course. And I don't understand the whole thing about, there were some people that are saying that, yeah, of course there was merch available for sale and the U S F L, well, it wasn't week one, but we were there and I was there for all the games that first weekend, and I did not see any merch whatsoever. So that was already, to me, that was sort of a detriment to not have any sort of merch on sale. The only ones who were really doing it was the royal retro guys. That was the only ones that were really pulling their weight <laugh> for that. But as far as the X F L goes, I mean, yeah, there's still things that could be out there in a more timely fashion, but it is good to see that they've already started to address that in the beginning stages. The U S F L X F L, whatever you want to call it. Tribalism all time high this weekend, all time high. I could not believe it. And I contribute, mean we all contribute to it. People don't like me. Whatever. I will be first off, I mean, I want to say it's not a competition. I mean it is a competition ride. I mean, we have two competing spring leagues here, but we get the attendance for the X F L. Well, that's not as good. Okay, well the U S F L was given the away tickets. Okay, well that it just goes back and forth that way. I'll be really curious to see. U S F L week two, they're doing the draft today. I mean season two, I think U S F L season one, everything last year really benefited from this void Spring football that didn't exist. Spring League got a little bit of that and then U USS F L exploded out and I don't even know if X F L now, if the USS f L didn't exist, I don't know if this would be the same. It was just such a hot time last year where people had waited just the right amount of time and anything that was on and whenever he credit the X ffl for be getting the US F l, but they really benefited from that and I'll be curious to see how the X ffl ratings you when they come out tomorrow. What U US F L? It was just a weird storm last year, but there's a lot going on right now in terms of tribalism. What do you make of that? I think that definitely affects the outcomes as far as viewership in some ways because now I think you have people who are starting to draw the lines in the sand and are starting to stake their claim to which league they're going to watch, which again, we didn't have this problem in the past. There was, well the CFL's around perpetually and that's pretty much it and you would have a spring league that would come in occasionally drawing some of those viewership numbers and then disappear again. Well now you've got three of these going on and two of them are going to be two of them. All three of them are going to be overlapping at different times. The X L and the US fell are going to overlap a little bit. The C F L and the US fell are going to overlap a little bit. So the fact that you're going to have all this sort of just going back and forth of people who are going to be posturing over each other for all three leagues, I don't know. I find it to be unnecessary because at the end of the day, football's football and whoever's doing it in their own way, great. If you have ideas that you can pull from another league to make your league better, awesome, cool. I think it's just going to be very heated for the next few months. It started getting off that this past weekend. It's going to be like this all year long and I think this is not going to go away anytime soon because people want to be right and people want to have their stake, their claim and people want to have their thing that they're really right about and that they think is better than the other thing, just how they are. It's really toxic. It's really toxic. I keep reminding people and I try to do the same thing. I try to remember you do not work for either of these leagues. It's the same thing. I see the same thing with w e and a E W and people fighting there and Coke and Pepsi back in the nineties or whatever. I absolutely understand and you have your preferences and you have what you like but unless you are employed by Fox Sports or by the Red Capital and the <inaudible> like they don't care. We're fighting and it's not like they don't care. It doesn't affect them at all. You just remember that and just be kind to everybody here. Let's see here. 11 the blue skies. Oh, we got Dorothy's checking in from the pool somewhere. We got Dorothy checking in here what we got going on goddamn about 10 minutes here. We're going to get out of here Andy, the title of the episode this week and I want to rank the games before we get out of here, but the title of the episode this week, what did we learn from week one of the X F L? What did you learn from week one of the X F L? So I have a takeaways article that I was working on last night. It should be up soon on XFL news hub but I took away a few things. First of all from the first game from the Vegas and Arlington game as far as the gameplay goes, I think the being the vipers of receiving corps is legit. I really like the receiving corps a lot. I think they had some outstanding play not only from Jeff Bette who looks great. I'm so happy that he's finally healthy. Yeah, Hado Allison making some big plays. You had obviously Marus Brian in there, everyone was looking forward to him. Matthew Sexton was great as a fourth down receiver. He is a great possession receiver. He was just moving the chains for the Vipers. I think they're going to be really good on that end. That was kind of not a surprise, but I was pleasantly I was pleased to see that they were able to continue performing so well throughout that game. Then you had obviously the guardians offensive line troubles. We've talked about that. That's a big takeaway from that game and the fact that they need to fix that soon. People are already saying that San Antonio going to Orlando this weekend is a get right game. That's not good in week two. They'll already be saying that about an opponent. So that that's another one I took away from obviously the rules. I mean the comeback rules are awesome. That's a huge way to keep people engaged. St Louis, San Antonio was great at the end and I think that's going to keep people engaged throughout the game because you never know when it can just change on a dime and it can be able to turn over And then obviously my last point about the last game, DC Defender crowd is insane and they are as rowdy as ever. They were waiting this whole time and they were not going to be denied their snake and when they were denied their snake they were very upset. Yeah, it to me, and I'm not the biggest soccer fan, I've been the soccer game really and obviously Audi Fields and all that, but I mean felt like just rabid, rabid Rabi. Even the people I was there at the Renegades game we're rocking out and they're drinking and they're yelling and cheering. We were kind of over. It's such a weird stadium there. I guess it would've been some of the outfield seats we were sitting or it would've been at end of the first baseline looking out, but people are really excited. The thing that I learned, there's not as many fans right now as there were obviously in 2020 there has obviously been attrition across the board, Brahmas built up there, numbers are down that way. The people that are there are excited. We have to build that back up again. But for me the commentary, and I know there were some issues, the people saying the announcers didn't know this is week one, we don't know all these players, I don't know all these players and I do this every week. We'll get to that. I thought the on field, the rules, the excitement I got felt like 2020 to me and for whatever reason and it could be read the hater, but I never got that same feeling outside of U S F L week one, the kickoff. Maybe this will dissipate as well with the X ffl we get to week three and whatever. As long as they continue to build, I feel confident right now they're in a good spot. I mean think that speaks to house fans really matter. I'm sorry, they just matter. It makes a huge difference in how you consume the product When you see people there and you see a considerable amount of people who are not only there but they are engaged in the product. That's a huge thing and I don't think that we saw that enough obviously last year in the U S F L because there weren't people there. Now they have a chance to change that This upcoming spring they have four hubs, so maybe more people show up and maybe that finally changes and if that is the case, great, awesome. Then we can talk about that again. But that is such a huge testament to having a successful league is having fans who actually care because you don't stick around this long and you don't come back this way if people don't care, period. That's just how it is. You can start up, you know, can have a nice fancy startup, you can try to sell people all you want. If they don't care, they're not going to show up. So that is definitely a good point you put in. I think the other takeaway I take away this weekend besides the fans I think as far as the level of play, the one thing I will say is the quarterbacks maybe not in sync yet. You had some quarterbacks who had a good first half and then not a good first half. Brandon Silvers being that way, Luis Perez being that way. Ben DeNucci in a lot of ways that happened to him too. Everyone kind of had their moments but they didn't really have an entire game that they performed. Well. AJ McCarran, I mean he didn't play well most of that game and then the last two minutes he was spectacular. Same with I think in the case with Jordan Tom and I think he was okay in the first half and then they kind of went towards Derrick King who by the way, Derrick King looks fast. That guy is a lightning. I cannot wait to see more of him. He was awesome on Sunday. But yeah, I think some of the quarterback play is going to be the iron out. I know a lot of people will point to that is well where's the quarterback play? Where's the quarterback play? I get that. I think that's just something that's going to need time to kind of simmer and marinate as teams try to figure themselves out on offense. That's probably not going to be solved for a couple of weeks and I think that's just a matter of not playing enough together. Can't have a comment here. I hope Dorothy's okay with you doing this on vacation It it's an hour at the pool. We're at brunch. We're doing that stuff. We're getting there. Yeah. Dorothy, Dorothy, very patient feel more than Dorothy coming with me all the way to Arlington on the way to the Mexico vacation. I had a comment here at BF 2021, read the book Football for a buck and tell me the US F L history isn't cooler. I interviewed the author of the show on this podcast and I could tell you Jeff Roman is not a fan of us L 2022 or US L 2023, so I can certainly do all that. Before we go, last comments rank the games one to four, what do you think? I'll give mine. All right, so I would say in terms of games overall, I think the overall best game of the weekend, I know people will debate this, but I think the best game overall on the weekend probably was I'm going to go with Seattle, DC I actually think Seattle DC was pretty good. I think the offensive playmaking from Seattle was awesome. I think the design was great for them in the first half. DC storming back was great. The crowd atmosphere was insane and I think that a lot of the different playmakers we saw out there were great and you had a great finish obviously with Seattle fumbling on the one yard line and not being able to take it in and not being able to go for the winning score. I think that was the best game too. Okay, controversial. I'm actually going to put Arlington and Vegas too because I actually think the ability for the renegades to kind of come back was also important. I think that overall game flow wise, I felt like that game went a little bit faster. And the reason I'm putting it too is because I'm putting San Antonio and St. Louis three, I know that finish was fantastic but most of that game was kind of a slog. There was not a lot going on offense. There was a lot of inconsistencies and I don't think it really utilized that home crowd as well as it should have. I mean that was the biggest crowd of the weekend and I just felt like it wasn't as engaging. I'm not saying that's fault of the fans, I'm just saying the product of that probably was a little bit underwhelming for me and I felt that it could have been a little bit better. I mean yes, the last few minutes were great, but I think the time leading up to that was a bit of a slog. And then obviously number four, it being that Orlando and Houston game, poor Orlando and look, I thought Orlando had a chance to score more points and they just didn't had so many problems on offensive line and Houston just kind of ran them over. But most of that second happened, it was kind of like, yeah, okay, this what's going to happen. The results with basically the check was in the mail already by about the third quarter. Yeah, I agree. Max says Andy Murray hates defense. Okay, I don't hate defense, I just want to see a little more consistency on the quarterbacks and the offense, but I don't mind defensive. I love some of the defensive players. I love the fact that there was so, actually I kind of like that a lot of the dvs had their moment. There was some really big interceptions. I mean, my God, we had how many? We had three pick six Es this weekend. That's a lot for four games. That's a lot. I mean we had some big turnovers and turnovers are great also as well and Sacks are great. I just think that there could have been a little bit better flow from some of the St. Louis team and from the San Antonio team as far as their offense. I think that they're still figuring it out. That's good. Take some time. Yeah, good defense and bad offense or sometimes interchangeable there a little bit. Jenna put her rankings, put your rankings in here before we go. We got just a minute left. I'll give my rankings and then I'll plug everything and we'll get out of here. I think absolutely number one Seattle DC I think with the bullet, I think the lemon Gate, everything. I saw one of the Seattle sports writers tweet out, certainly not the worst one yard and one yard possession in Seattle sports history. Yes. Did not enjoy that. No, but what I like about that though is I felt like, and this was one of the points I wanted to make, the X F L, I saw people not normally tweeting about the X ffl tweeting about the X F L and that is a good thing. We need to continue that here into week two and week three. But getting that out, getting the other tweeting that out, doing the X F L show and the player 54, but getting people that don't normally I see the same 18 whatever people tweet all the time about this. So it's really nice to do that. DC Seattle number one, everything involved in that. I love seeing all the videos and the people celebrating Ucci, everything else with that plus it's, that's my team, so that's good. Definitely I would put Arlington above there at number two as well. I thought the gameplay start to finish was better. Obviously you have the pageantry of the kickoff and all of that stuff. And then I would agree, I would put San Antonio and St. Louis at number three and then Houston and the <laugh> and Orlando at number four. I wish that first half of the Battle Hawks Braas game would've just had just a little bit more and I think I'd be curious to see how many more people would've stuck. I don't know. We obviously don't know the ratings yet, that'll come out tomorrow, but was there a dip there and people, we have maintained more if there was just a little bit more offense there in the first half. Yeah, well also I think St. Louis just had mean they just were not moving the chains at all. They were just getting stonewalled on offense and they were just not converting any attempts. San Antonio, the problem with them is they actually had a lot of yards, but they just were not doing anything When they got it. They missed a fuel goal at the end of the first half. They just couldn't really kind of mesh some of their points. They obviously wanted to run the ball a lot. They actually did a pretty decent job of it, but it just wasn't really translating into much production on the other end. So I thought that's kind of why it felt like, all right, we're about a bit of a stalemate here. Who's going to break first? Which again can be good, but it, I'd rather see just a little bit more production on the side of the offensive side for both teams. But again, the fourth quarter is great because San Antonio gets out to that big lead and you're like, all right, well they're going to run with it, away with it. And then St. Louis comes back in. So the fourth quarter again made up for a lot of that, but I think that's just kind of again, ironing out a lot of the kinks, which St. Louis has a chance to in two days now when they go to Seattle. So they got a really quick turnaround to try and figure that out. Yeah, it'll be good. So looking forward here I got to talk with Vogel because John Vogel and I were going to do a show. Do we do a Thursday morning before the game or do we do a Friday morning normal? Maybe we'll do the Friday morning. React to the Sea Dragons game the normal time anyway there. But I think this will be a weekly occurrence. Like I said, it subscribe, get to 3,500. We're going to be giving away the X F L or the US F L championship tickets. I appreciate Andy coming on this week if he wants to come. Andy is always welcome Roger die with the XE L kickoff as well. But I like this Monday morning or Tuesday this week. Appreciate you guys working through all the camera issues as I shift out of it gets very hot here as we get there, so I appreciate that today. But internet held up, you can see in here. I think it's all going to be okay. The dc the whatever, the snake dragon cup, whatever DC says, good job. So I think we'll do that. Andy, anything else you want to plug before we get out of here? Yeah, like I said, I just have an article coming up on Exel News Hub very soon about takeaways from this past weekend. It should be up very soon and it's going to be kind of a weekly occurrence for me. I'm going to try and get those up as much as I can. Hopefully potentially Mondays I had to put it up today just because there was holiday action going on yesterday. But I'm going to try and get that up in a weekly occurrence too and that that'll play into hopefully our weekly broadcast. So read thank you as always. Yeah, and guys if you see my stuff, you see Andy stuff, Evan, any of the news sub guys, newsrooms covering stuff board, you see Greg Kirks like, share this content. Not, I'm not just saying this and be like, share this. Get it out there. You have a lot of people that are really carrying the load, talking all that because what's going to happen is X D L gets on espn, you know we're getting all the ESPN talent the first weekend. We got to keep this up, we got to keep it going. Obviously they're going to be showing highlights and stuff, but keep the energy and momentum going. I really appreciate it. Like it subscribe. I think that's it. We got everything else out of here. I, I'm going to play the outro music like it subscribe. We have the new, do you like the new intro music that we're back to? We don't done with the old theme song. The read almost got sued over I Well that's a shame because I actually, yeah, in my opinion I liked the original one, but I get it. I understand it little. It gave me a little more hype going into a broadcast. But if that's thems the breaks with copyright. I think it really played into it when we were doing the Doomsday Clock episodes. <laugh>, it's the expo Vice hands through the hourglass. But anyway yeah, a lot of money was paid to remedy that situation here. So anyway, we'll see you guys next time. Yeah, Friday live show. Friday I'll tweet out, post out the stuff. Thanks again.

Episode 132 - LIVE From the XFL 2023 Kickoff!!!

Well, it's a big day when I take the time to re-upload the intro. We have the correct intro. Welcome to the show, the Mark Cast Live. If I get this right from beautiful Arlington here at Chatta Stadium, Andy Murray is joining me today. We're going to have a lot of other guests coming on. I told Mike Misel this is Aric and a lifetime moment. Here we have the EXE L kickoff. Andy, how are you doing? I'm great Reid and my gosh, we're finally here. We finally made it, man. It's, it's here. I'm happy that you got down to Arlington. I'm afraid I was not able to join you in the south this time around, but either way you're fighting a good fight as always. And this is it, man. We're finally here. This is it. We're going to have lots of stuff. Schedule talk today. We've got lots of guests lots of excitement. Jared checking in. Dorothy's going to be calling in later. Dorothy, can't wait. We got Max here. Let's go. Make sure you guys like and subscribe. We have our beautiful suite here at the it's the Texas Live here, live by Lowe's, whatever her in Arlington, Texas. Andy, do you think I did okay with the background we got here today Considering the lighting? Yeah, you did a fantastic job. You got the beautiful stadium right back there. I just kind of like the almost like pastel colors you got going on behind you is really good. I did see it was a lot nicer the day before though. It was like clear skies and now today it's a little more cloud coverage. How's the weather looking down there? It's beautiful. It's 47 degrees right now. Absolutely beautiful. Not a drop of precipitation. Yeah, we got three hours here to kick off. We're going to be taking you guys live here. 11 central local time here to one o'clock and then the X ffl, they're going to be replaying that player 54 on a b abc. So we'll get you in here and we're going to get out because then I got to go put on my big boy clothes and then I'm going to go we're going to be at the stadium here checking it out for everybody here. We have Max checking in. We finally made it broken fantasy drafts, you and I and all. Yeah, sounds like there was some fantasy issues last night. Jeff. Checking in game day. EXL circle. Let's go on. Mark looks really good in the background. Jared's happy. We're going to talk through all of the games today. Do you think that this is the most exciting game we have to kick off with the Vipers coming here to Arlington? It makes sense, right? Arlington would be in the kickoff. Do we like that as a matchup? Andy? It is one of the most intriguing, I think just based on the fact of who the coaching staffs are, you have two different dichotomies. You have the most established, in my opinion, the most established coaching staff at Bob sts and also Jonathan Hayes on the Arlington side and then conversely on the other side with Vegas, it's kind of like this new young hot product. You got Rod Woodson, his first ever hot head coaching job. Obviously they were one of the last teams to get themselves established in the league as far as their venue and everything. So they're them kind of coming out of the scene. Obviously they're one of the new teams in the league, so I think it's a great matchup in just terms of intrigue in the different stories between both of those teams. One that we have some history with and some we do not have any at all. So yeah, I think as far as an opening matchup, it's great. I do think that some of the other matchups, like for example St. Louis and San Antonio I really like, but we'll get into that more later. Yeah, it's kind of weird here. I think originally the original thought would be it was the U S F L X F L bowl where you'd have Bryan Sky here with the VIS coming in, cast letter. Different story now, right? We have Louise Perez, a friend of the podcast and Louise came on a couple weeks ago. Love having Louise. What do you make of him getting this spotlight here? I mean I called him the Spring League Forest Gump and I meant that in all sincerity of this man has been a part of the A AAF and the X F L 2020 and he was with the US fellow and I was back with this and he was with the Rams, all that. What do you make of Luis Perez getting this kickoff date? Yeah, that was an all time highlight hearing you call him the springtime Force Gump to him on the interview. I laughed out loud in my kitchen when I heard that on the podcast the other. But in regards to him, look, time is a flat circle man. We were here a year ago and he was starting for the New Jersey Generals in Birmingham. I've seen him, as I mentioned before, I saw him in person play against the San Diego fleet with the Birmingham iron. Gosh, now four years ago. I mean it, it's like Time Memorial. He's always around here. He is always finding a way to stay in these leagues and stay consistent but I mean obviously it shows his not only his work ethic but also just his ability to adapt to all these situations. He's so malleable and I have to give him all the credit in the world for going through all these different leagues and all these different changes and all these different coaches and all these different schemes and just managing to just keep himself so steady and all that. So it's really a testament to him. It's incredible. So everyone checking out, we got a lot of people hopping on here. Andy's going to be riding with me the whole day. We have lots of special guests calling in. Dorothy's going to be calling in, she's going to do it in outside the stadium report here later on. One thing to keep in mind that we did cross our 2,500 subscriber giveaway last week, so we're mailing out speaking to Brian Scott. We're going to be mailing that out to a lucky winner. I have a lot of Spring League merchandise we're giving away as well, but the big giveaway now, 3,500 subscribers, were already 2,500 in change. You get to 3,500 by the end of the X ffl season, I think we can do it. You get either two tickets to the X Ffl championship game or two tickets to the U S F L championship game if you would want that as well. I'm going to buy you tickets. I said on the podcast last week, we're not going to join Love Mom you and put you in the back of the stadium. I'll get you decent tickets here for the championship game, but make sure you subscribe. Ton of work. Andy riding with me all day, everybody else and it seems like people are excited. We got a lot of comments coming in. Andy, are you feeling palpable? I know we're in our chat. You guys have your news chat so I mean it doesn't feel real. It's three years here. I don't know if it feels really up, It really doesn't. I just thought we'd be in this perpetual time loop of continuing to talk about it and nothing actually really happening. It's felt that way with my fellow writers, with you, with some of my friends and for this finally just culminate after three years after all the things that have happened, you could write a book on what happened in the last three years with no football being played since the last game that kicked off and for finally to get to this moment, it still doesn't and it's weird considering that there was so much anticipation so much starting and stopping along the way and I don't know it, I'm still trying to articulate how I'll feel during the kickoff. I have no idea what my emotion's going to be. The last time I watched the X F L, to be honest, I was still kind of, how do I say it? I was still being sold the idea of spring football, I was still not quite there as everyone else was at that time. I'd gone to the AAF and seen what happened there, but I was convinced by it after the X F L had had its run in 2020 and I don't know, I'm curious to see how my emotional response is once the game finally kicks off. Yeah, I don't know and if people don't know you're hopping on that. I was not even really the biggest football fan. I lived in live Seattle. Dorothy and I covered the Seahawks and they went to the Super Bowl and I was at the Fox station and did a lot of that, but I famously <laugh> know who Richard Sherman was. I had to go interview him. That was kind of an interesting, but the X F L got me into where now I would consider myself a diehard N F L fan and it was funny to me. It's always been interesting to me that it worked the other way that it was being able to watch games outside of my market teams that I didn't necessarily follow was really exciting and it was the X F L and having those four games a weekend and eight teams and I can track that, that's kind of a tangible thing now. Now we're insane. We have the C F L and the US F L and everything else, but we are like you Andy, that you said X F L 2020 sold you on it and X ffl 2020 really sold me on football as a concept that I want to watch all year round. Yeah, no, I mean that's something that honestly I, I'd always wanted when I was younger when I was a teenager because once the n l season ended and the pro Bowl kind of rolled through, I just thought, all right, now what do I do? And I remember one of the things I used to do to fill my time besides watching N F L network and nauseum to the point where my parents were probably concerned in terms of not spending enough time on my studies was I remember watching N F L Europe when that was still around. I remember watching that. That didn't last forever obviously and just kind of thinking, okay, is there a way to be able to keep playing football in these different months and be able to keep it in my life? And that's when I realized that was the sport. I loved dearly more than any other but still when I started to see the idea of the Spring league, I still wasn't, I was just wasn't sure if there was a concept that I could really gel with or if there's something that needed to be there more that needed to be there. But yeah, I think it's honestly fortified my knowledge of football in a lot of ways. It's really color colored in a lot of niches, a lot of things about whether it be coaching or whether it's be scheme or whether it's just following players and really getting into some of the nitty gritty that I still can always learn more and I always think I learned more just by being around these leagues. We got a question here Jason once, how are ticket sales looking last I checked and they were good. So at the Texas Live here I've paid and maybe Andy you could pull it up and look, I paid for the premium internet here so obviously we can make sure the stream goes for whatever reason the hotel wifi has locked us out of Ticketmaster. They think that I'm a bot or whatever and I've tried looking at it on my phone as well. Well worth having the stream today but last I checked Renegades looked really good. Obviously the Brahmas game I think is close to if not a sellout. I know Houston was lacking a little bit but it seems like they picked up Steve as well. Andy, any concern from you for any of the tickets? Yeah, I'm a little surprised that the Houston fans were not taking so quickly back to their roughnecks and I thought that was a little odd considering that that was the only undefeated team in the last iteration. There was so much fanfare around that team and look, maybe some of it has to do with perhaps their U S F L neighbors that have now entered the fray. Now I know they're not technically there physically playing games yet, but they are in the cultural zeitgeist as far as existing, so I don't know if that's part of it, but I did, I was a little surprised that didn't take as well. Orlando, we'll see if they come along eventually if we're going to obviously the San Antonio, the Alamo dom looks awesome. That looks incredible. I really wanted to get down there for that game this weekend. I couldn't make it quite happen. I wanted to, I was going to go from Arlington to San Antonio. That was my original plan before things changed still I'm wondering about, I'm just, yeah, I'm really wondering if Houston's going to be able to kind of pull it away, but everyone else seems to be doing okay so far and then obviously we'll get into more of these numbers next week once we start going to the other venues. Yeah, what did you make of the, and I didn't really take any offense to it, but the Houston, was it the Houston mayor and the mayor's office welcoming the roughnecks home? I thought that was great. I think they called it Coach Wade Phillips Day or whatever. I mean it seems fine to me. I know I saw some people in the US F L and hey the gamblers were there and all that. This is a big step. I mean I asked Danny Garcia when we stood at that very stadium back in July and I said, what it makes you feel like you can succeed here where the US fell? She said, well, we're playing the games in the stadium, we're going to be there. That's the difference. We're going to build that camaraderie that way. We're going to put the time in and do these events and it looks like it paid off. Max here is saying, I'm pretty sure Houston taken so long because not everyone near as much local engagement in this Houston compared to the other returning markets. Yeah, I mean they had all the training camps and all that stuff. They're back in 2020. I think that helped with that knowing the championship game was going to be there. I don't know mean Arlington obviously feels like the new Houston with everything based out of here, but I'm not super concerned. Are you concerned? No, I think it'll just take a moment to almost try to lights back on and then essentially people walking past the business and being like, oh, they're back in business. Cool. And then going back into the building, it might again, as you alluded to a couple of times, even with people in your area in Seattle, not everyone is kind of keenly aware that the dragons are back. Some people are still getting used to the idea of it's still being a thing. I mean granted again that we only, this league only existed for five weeks. It wasn't as much time as it was to make impact on a lot of people. It didn't make an impact on everyone even in their own community. So it it's going to take some time for people to realize that things are back and operating again. It's interesting, I actually had a gentleman at the hotel this morning because we went down and grabbed breakfast and he said, oh that's a dragons jersey <laugh> in 2020. And he was, there's the college baseball World Series I think is here. I don't quote me on that, but it's like I see a lot of Arkansas baseball fans here and I think Texas Longhorns, I don't know a lot of baseball talk here at the Ranger stadium, but he was not here for the X F L and he said, oh, I know that Jersey. So it's still there, but it is, it's trying to turn back on. I am very concerned. I am concerned for the Thursday game here in Seattle. I don't know, I, we have things going on at Lumen Field and people are eating on the field with nice dinners, but we'll see how that works as well. San Antonio looking close to 30,000 tomorrow. Wow, that would be I think if we get the lower bowl packed here for the first couple weeks and it looks good on tv, I think that's going to go a long way. Yeah, no, I think so. I think that's really the biggest goal, just kind of filling out a lower bowl section you don't have, look, we'll worry about filling the talk later. That's a distant goal I think for some of these teams. I know St. Louis goes on and on and on about filling the battle dome, but that's something that's one step at a time I think. But for San Antonio, that's great. I mean that's around the number that they had for commanders games back in 2019. They did a great job filling in the stadium that way and I think that's another good sign for them. And I mean that's too really, and not only is it San Antonio fans, but I mean it's the battle hawks. I mean that's a really raucous fan base. Honestly that's a great matchup for them because you'll probably have some Battle hawk bands that'll travel and go into that game as well. So I think that could be a really great atmosphere that might be, in my opinion, if it wasn't for Arlington, that would be the other game that I would have on first because I think that is such a cool setting. It's such a cool matchup in this weekend, this opening slate. What are, so what are we looking forward to today? So we talked a little bit about Louise Perez coming on there. What are you making, and we're going to have Anthony calling in here. We can talk renegades as well, but what are you looking for from the Bob Stoop side of the field? I'm looking for him to have a little bit more of a smoother operation than he did in 2020. Obviously he put a lot of stock in the Landry Jones that season and Landry just unfortunately could not stay healthy during that season. There was a lot of inconsistency at the quarterback position. Now it's funny because we are kind of up in the air is who's going to really be playing most of the snaps under center for this team for most of the season. The depth chart obviously lists the one that we got our hands on list, drew PLI or Kyle Slowder, which is not something I usually see from the quarterback position. I don't see a big or any position in that matter. I don't see that being used in any case. So I think for this case I think it's going to be important for them to establish the run. I think they're going to be allowing their run game to speak more for itself. I see them playing kind of utilizing their entire roster, which I think you've talked to Anthony Miller, one of the other writers. He's obviously gone on about the depth in this on the team as far as special teams defense offense, I think they're going to try really hard to keep it consistent and just kind of not try to do too much today. Vegas. We'll see, I mean know Luis Perez is not a gunslinger. He is not a guy you really take shots with, but I am really curious to see how aggressive they are today and trying to make a statement in this first game. I can see Rod Woods trying some really unconventional stuff just to kind of announce like, Hey, I'm here on the scene, I'm ready to do this thing. I'm a head coach. I could see that as well. Well we have a couple call-ins here Vince, we have all football scout's coming along. Was going to hop on. Vince can talk all different things and then we have Anthony here, Anthony Miller who might be I'm going to be competing with him for best rest here at the ex. Okay, coming up here in a little bit we have Vince, why don't you introduce yourself and then we'll have Anthony say hi as well. Hey everybody, my name's Vince. I run an alternate football scouting report or alternate football scout now. I dropped the scouting report part on Twitter and Instagram. Basically been covering all these other leagues for the past three years since the X ffl shut down and very happy to be back here at kickoff again three years later. It's kind of crazy. And then we have Anthony here. Anthony did, we did our deep dive renegades really did well on the YouTube traffic between you and Coach Heime. We have like 11,000 views on that video, which was not too shabby at all. We have Anthony Miller covering the renegades today. I figured it is easier for you to call in than come up here and crash the suite. How are you doing Anthony? I am good. I'm currently sitting in the parking lot outside of Choctaw Stadium, so I'm just excited to get back to covering this team for the first time in three years. Do you think that the Bob Stoops and them, do you think they're going to be coming back with a lot of fire? What have you made you did a really good job on the interview we had a couple weeks ago. What do you make of the team that they've assembled and what do you make of Drew PLI or Kyle Slowder? So I like what Bob Soups has done. I think he's built a better team this time around and I think it's more about having scheme fits. I think back in 2020 he was trying to run the air rate offense with how Mummy and I don't think he had the right pieces in place to really run that offense, especially with Landry Jones. I think this time around having John Hayes and Chuck Long running that offense being a more balanced attack while running the spread offense, I think it's kind of fits their a lot better, especially having Keith Ford and Dion Smith carrying the load at the running back position. I think those were great moves. I think there's two great running backs that are going to really carry this rushing attack. In terms of the quarterbacks, I mean it definitely seems like Drew PLIs going to be the guy and honestly I'm okay with that. I think it's a surprising move just because Bob Soups is more known for going with a veteran quarterback, so that's why I thought maybe Kyle Slowder had the edge but Drew PLIs got a lot of upside. I mean he smaller quarterback than Kyle Slowder is but has great mobility, played really well in prey to put the Cincinnati Bengals so I think he has, I kind of think that John Hayes and Chuck Longie drew Pli as a younger Jordan TEU and maybe want to develop him to get onto his level. So I'm really interested to see how Drew puts going to play today. He's got a lot of upside but I have a feeling he probably has a little bit of a short leash as if it goes wrong then they're probably going to go with Kyle and throw him in there. Vince, what do you make of this? We talked before you guys hopped on a little bit, Brian Scott, now it's Luis Perez. I know you're excited to see Luis and I think we all are excited to see him get another shot. What do you make of this matchup here? I mean it's not going to lie, I haven't dug too deep into all the other rosters and everything, but more or less, I mean I'm hoping that we get a just balanced games across the board good quality football out of everybody and overall a enjoyable competition. At the end of the day, these leagues need a quality product on the field more than anything and the last thing we want to see is somebody go out there lay an egg. So hoping that that's really what we're seeing. I'm excited to see is Luis. Do Luis Perez get the nod for Ver Vegas? He did, yeah and we had a lot of questions about that. We had a lot of questions where we brought and Brett Huntley and there was reports that he was the highest paid quarterback in the league and I think it was like 200,000, which compared to X F L 2020 money with Landry Jones was getting 750,000 or whatever that was back in 2020. So certainly not the same level more, but I just don't think he's made it into camp far enough yet. Andy, am I missing anything on that? Just not enough time for him to gel and you presume here week two, three, whenever we see Brett Huntley get the start, Huntley is plenty talented but I think it's just timing wise and I think that might happen with some additions here as the season goes along, especially the quarterback position, there just needs to be time to acclimate to what's going on in the culture, in the locker room, in the playbook, all of that. And I think Luis, again, as I mentioned at the top of the show, he's so steady, he's able to be so malleable and continue to be through all these different situations and yeah, he's played with other quarterbacks, I mean him and Deandra Johnson were playing handoff basically every time they were on the edge of the field for New Jersey, they're like, here you take it. No, you take it. And so that's, if Luis can be amicable in that situation, then I think him being able to start is great but at some point, I don't know if we see Brett Huntley in this game, that would be really interesting but I could see him more coming in week two, week three if necessary. Anthony, what do you make of how they've done here so far? Marketing here in Arlington and building, been getting the fan support mean we haven't been exhaustively walking around here the last two days, but it hasn't been super palpable but I know the tickets are sold, so what do you make of how they've done? So I think they've done a really good job in terms of having the open practice and then I know they just had an event at a mall about a week ago, so they've been able to have a lot of community events and they've done a really good job of it. I think they visited one of the children's hospitals yesterday, so they're getting out there in the community in terms of media coverage and stuff like that. Honestly it hasn't been that great out here in Arlington and I think it's just because this is the second time they've gone through this first time around, there wasn't as much coverage on it either, so they really have to do a lot of work in terms of fan engagement events, which I will say Arlington the Renegades have done a really good job of and they're getting a good amount of people coming out to them so they're going to have to organically build that way because I'm not really seeing it as much on the media side. Vince, what do you make of this? And they say at the end of the player 54, the rock hat and I don't know if you guys had a chance, really cool and just seeing the rock and I liked the cussing and it seemed a little bit more real the rock. James has a question here, the rock bean at, he said they're going to be at every home game this weekend, obviously putting the miles on the private jet. What do you make of that and the commitment they're showing from Danny and the rock and leadership? I mean I think that's excellent. That's the face of the league right there. He should be at every single game and it's looking like every single game's going to have really, really strong showings. So you know, want to have a really good first impression when you have packed stadiums across the league in week one and if he's showing face everywhere, I think that just is a better chance of it kind of sticking with everybody. Someone brings the family out and it's like, oh the rock's here and the local team won and they look really good. That turns a week one fan into a full season fan, which is crucial in this next two days here. Andy, have we gotten what was promised now with the rock and promotion and everything? I mean is people waited and I know we were kind of waiting for the right time. Have we gotten what we were promised here? Have they done enough? Oh well I don't see black Adam too being advertised next weekend so I think he won't be getting that in the way of his schedule. But this definitely speaks to the whole thing about them having three teams in Texas. All three teams are playing in Texas this weekend so he can amicably travel around to each game and then obviously fly out to the DC game on Sunday night, which he has time to do as well. But I, I think some of the promotion leading up to it, the expo player 54 documentary that aired earlier this week, seeing him and kind of get more into the nitty gritty of his lifestyle and where he came from and how he got here and what sort of mentality he had the whole time along with Danny Garcia. I think we've seen more of that. I think it's good to see that it's finally coming out. We were waiting for a lot of that but I do think as far as lead up goes, it's been solid. I think he's done a solid job, but my curiosity now is alright, how do you continue to do that throughout the season and also after the season ends, what happens then I want to see what kind of engagement he does once all this sort of rolls through as a full-time guy We have here. I wanted to pull up we got Anthony here, we'll come back on again and it's going to be, if you guys got to Andy's riding with me all day, Vince, whatever people, if you got to hop out, we'll hop out. I want to get, we've had a couple questions here about odds, who's winning as I describe my screen here we have the Vipers three point favorite today, right on that. Am I looking at that right? And do you guys, do you think that that's fair here over under 36 and a half? I don't think anybody can honestly give an accurate answer of it. It's all brand new teams with brand new coaching staffs. Even if there's some familiarity with some people. All in all, this is still everybody's first live game as these teams so we can all speculate on how good a team is going to be, how bad a team is going to be like I couldn't honestly tell you who I think's got the edge in anywhere right now because no, none of these teams have played football together yet at least a live game. I know they've played a couple of scrimmages but I didn't see those. I don't know if anybody did. So yeah, I think we'll see <laugh>. Andy, what do you make of that and have we given enough, we done extra weeks at training camp. That was one of our criticisms. We were down at the U S F L on the eeo. It had two and a half weeks I think a training camp kind of first go around last time. Are we expecting better product on the field today, having that extended time? Well considering some of it got cut short because of a snowstorm. Well that is a bit of a handicap they're dealing with, but I do think that there has been a decent amount of time allocated to the players and the coaches tried to gel here. I mean it's still going to take time. Ultimately it's going to take a few weeks before anyone really starts to gel and chemistry starts to be there. Now those who have the game plans right out of the gate, we saw last year with the generals and the stallions, they seemed to know who exactly they were immediately yet all the other teams were not really able to get that footing immediately and some of them, it took some time to sort of figure that out as the season went along. Obviously cause of injuries or because of playing time, but it's going to take time for all these teams to gel. Even if they had, I don't know, months of lead up, I still think it would've taken time just based on them never having played together. I mean that's the thing the that's so consistent in a product like the N NFL for example, is there are at least some players who are held over from previous regimes or coaches that are held over from the season before and they know each other. They have some sort of chemistry you might add here, pieces here and there, but for the most part the foundation is there whereas with this, I mean it's all new people, it's all brand new people, you have no idea how it's going to look week one and quite frankly you don't know how it's going to look in week 10 and you don't know what it's going to look like in the cha. It's going to all have to gel and take time to gel. So regardless of how much time they had leading up to it, I don't know if that really mattered in the grand scheme of things because it's all brand new people working together. We have another person ready to join us here. The media darling making the frowns here. We'll see you. There we go. Let the audios spin. We have Pat Rapino here new. How are you doing Pat? I'm a little tired but welcome from my nap just to do this today. Really excited. We're getting a little bit of background noise. I'm not sure if you're hitting your desk speaker. Careful. How about now? Can you guys get me now? Yeah, let's see here. I can hear something going on in the background then. Do you have headphones you can plug in In my car. Let me take out my mic and just go off the, Okay, let's get Pat back in here. This is when we got a live episode today. It's going to be fun with all that. Yeah. Jared, we got you here. We got you. I do this stuff for a living besides the Arlington game today, right? Obviously we have Orlando coming into Houston. Are we as down? There's been lots of comments everything Andy, how are we feeling about the guardians here? I watched the player 54 gave Trell. Buckley kind of gave him a good like, oh this is, but I've kind of scared now. I don't know how good they're going to be. I mean look, we have no idea. I mean I don't think it's going to be a Pittsburgh Mallers operation. I think some people have already started drawing that comparisons. I don't think it's going to be that level, but I do think there's a lot more question marks as far as who's going to be playing quarterback. Obviously Paxton Lynch Lynch is getting the nod there, but does Deandre Francois sneak in there? There's a lot of FC F people on that team. Obviously that's a big deal for a lot of people like Andrew Neil for example, and I don't know the defense, I assume it'll be okay. A lot of people are predicting a lot of low scores from the guardians. People are, as far as if we're talking about betting numbers, a lot of people are pretty much slamming the under on that game this weekend. But I don't know, again, I think I'd like to see what Terrell Buckley's got. Let's see what he could scheme up. But as far as talent goes, maybe it's not as proficient as some of these other teams. Maybe there's just not as many Playmakers or people that other others are fans of. I think it's going to take, we'll see, I think it's going to take a till tomorrow to really see what the operation's like. Let me get Vince's thoughts on Paxton Lynch and then we'll try Pat in here. He did fine us f l coming in here and the guardians needed something. I mean I don't know if it was Paxton Lynch or whatever or maybe we could have transferred Brian Scott before all that went down, but what do you make of Paxton coming in here to the Guardians late season ad or late camp ad? Yeah, I mean it's always interesting when a QB comes in with significantly less time with the team and somehow still gets the starting job. So that can be indicative of what the QB play was really like before he got there. But at the same time it could have also very much just been like, oh, it's Paxton Lynch. It's a big name guy. Let's just go with him. Let's bring him in, let's go with him. So there's a good chance that he comes out and he actually does all right. I mean he played pretty well and a handful of games in the US F l he was better than Shea Patterson was to start out the season there. He was with Michigan towards the end of the season, correct? Yeah, So I mean think it's possible that he comes in and actually plays pretty well. I mean he was projected to be a really good professional athlete at one point. It didn't pan out for him in the nfl. He bounced around. I think he had some C F L stints as well. I don't know if he ever got to really play, but really we'll see. But I wouldn't be surprised if after a couple of weeks they go in another direction because they bring them in, they give them the start after having less time and maybe they're like, you know what? Maybe one of these guys that we have here has better chemistry with the people here. We got to give them a chance. Orlando seemed to have built their team around a lot of fan controlled players. To me it felt like he really wanted Deandre Francois because my understanding he was the first QB selected by them and then Francois obviously wanted the guys he's been playing with the past couple of years, Andridge meal, handful of other fan controlled receivers and I think they have one of the running backs from there too. He wanted the Playmakers that he was comfortable around him. So I think that Francois will end up playing some point this year and I think if it doesn't work with Paxton Lynch, I think he's going to have the chemistry with the Playmakers there, so should probably get the knot at some point, but we'll see how that works out. If you watched him in the spring league in 2021 when he went back outdoors, it was a very, very, very different result than how it was when he was playing in fan control. All right, let's bring it Pat here again. We're good. This one more shot here, pat. Well unmute you here and we'll get that. You got to choose to unmute there Pat and we'll get this one more time. This is good. There we go. Pat, how are you doing sir? I'm doing well. Round two. Round two on this. I think I said it this morning. I feel more excited about today than Christmas morning. Yeah. Pat, what is the vibe for you? And you've been in the group chats since stuff usla, we talking with Andy it just feels like it's been such a journey. We've all been on here and we've obviously been gotten to know each other here over the time, but to finally be here today and be two and a half hours from kickoff on, what do you make it? I mean it kind of feels like all that arm crossing and all that over zealous, I was player number 54, doesn't matter anymore, right? I've been kind of critical of that kind of term of marketing for the league, but now that we got players and coaches as we've had since the middle of last year, it's all kind of real now. I think with the U S F L, we, Colin Cowherd said it in November and then all of a sudden we had a league in February and you're just like, yeah, why would this not be real, at least for one season? This has just had such a dramatic buildup since they bought the team, or excuse me, they bought the league for 15 mil that it's finally here and I think they've done a pretty good job of it. It's remarkable to meet during the player 54 I think it was when Russ, Brandon was talking with everyone and we were at Texas Live, I had a couple shiners there yesterday and kind of felt like I was viewing this moment of history where all this went down, but Russ Brandon, right president talking, we had eight employees or 10 employees last year. We have 812 whatever employees this year at the same time. Remarkable to me the league building that that's been going on and to think about all these men, women here and in Seattle and in St. Louis and all of that. Vince comparing, and I don't want to be critical of the U S F L all the time, but it does feel like secondhand work sometimes, right? Okay, we're going to do the NFL on Fox seven hours a day and then we'll do the U S F L one hour a day on social. What do you make of just 800 plus people here now working for the X ffl buying in and being here and everything else to go with it? Yeah, I mean I think the U S F L provided a great opportunity and still does, but I think ultimately I think X ffl has just done way more groundwork for building a fan base building fan bases within the cities that their teams are in. I mean I live in New Jersey, born and raised in New Jersey. I haven't seen a single bit of advertising for the generals anywhere at all at any point since the launch of the U S F L. And we were a playoff team, we won the northern division, you know what I mean? And I didn't see a single flag banner advertisement, like no local advertising nothing. Whereas X ffl, their social media accounts are actively, I mean they're trash talking each other <laugh> at this point a little bit but they're just engaging with fans. They're all over the place. Whereas even U s FFLs social media presence just isn't really as strong. I feel like the X ffl has really put a lot more of an emphasis on building their fan base because I think their financial plan is more around actually having a strong fan base. The U S F L really has been built around the fact that Fox owns the league and they just need the viewership. So as long as they have the right marketing or advertising deals going at the time and just putting games on in prime time in the off season, they're getting some of the viewership marks they need to hit. They're not really that concerned with packing the stands. You saw that, especially at the end of the season in Birmingham. Even for Birmingham games, the attendance wasn't amazing. It was still strong, but it wasn't like what it was week one. Whereas the xfl, I mean you're looking at St. Louis doesn't even have their first home game until week four or week five maybe. I think their first four home games are on the road and they're already almost sold out in the first ring of the dome. And you that if the battle hawks are one of the top teams, they're probably going to have that second ring opened up by the time they even get to their first home game and they'll be looking to actually have that large presence of fans in place. Whereas U S F L just isn't really that interested in that. It seems you've got Pittsburgh and New Jersey playing in Canton, Ohio. How many people are, I'm not going to be driving out to Canton every weekend to see the generals play and I don't think anybody in New Jersey will and maybe once or twice, but that's it. Pat, what do you make of this? And we were talking yesterday U S F L announcing, right? They're doing their college draft next week. It feels kind of like the C F L negotiation list. We're like, okay, we can draft this player's rights if they choose to come to the league. These people aren't not training camp rosters. I know that you've been covering it and going back and forth through the league and yo, it feels like they're trying to step up here a little bit. Hey, we have some news we're working on this. What do you make of this at U S F L college draft on Tuesday morning? I guess Mean I'm very curious to see who's eligible, you know what I mean? Is the kid from Townsend eligible? Is Bryce Young technically eligible? I feel one of the biggest factors of success with the U S F L is this gentleman in Memphis. I forget his name, but I feel like he's kind of got a lot of star power behind him and was a big reason why they came back to Memphis. So I'd like to see his splash with him and I think that could really catapult the league. I've been very vocal in saying when we talk about the longevity of both these leagues is I think both leagues are a minimum of three years and then every time you add an owner it adds another year to the longevity of it. So I think that's the next step. I mean, I'm not in love with the college draft, but it's something and it puts the league in a positive direction and as long as both these leagues go into every day, I think we're going to be good to go in the long term. Andy, over under, we're podcasting Tuesday morning here. I think we're going to do an X F L recap show of Tuesday morning. Are you excited for the college shaft? I mean, it's certainly a different aspect of how to collect player talent, but I don't know how well it's going to go. It's basically the C F L negotiation list. It's just basically trying to add names and trying to put in certain rights holds on certain people. So I don't know if it's really going to work in that manner. We'll see how well it works, but I look, I'm always good for looking at prospects and looking at different potential landing spots for players, but I don't know how well it's going to really operate in terms of being able to convince people to say, Hey, this is a really viable option for you. Whereas with the gold standard, which is people trying to get into the NFL and people trying to get into other methods. So I don't know if that's going to really work out, but you know what, it's worth a shot. I think it's worth a shot and see if it actually does end up holding water and if it's going to work out for this league. Yeah. I'm curious, are these players, it says every player eligible, do we have to have conversations with them ahead of the time or do we just, like I said, the C F L can put Tom Brady on their, I mean not anymore, but you know, put whoever on your negotiations list and that means you ever choose to go up to Canada and play. Okay. They get first dibs on that. It just feels we're not adding to the camp. Most of the rosters are full already. How long does that last? Are they then, are there rights assigned for the next four years? It feels very weird. Pat, have you gotten any more insight from that from people you've talked to in the league? And I would be surprised if you have, I'm just curious if you have Very limited I've talked to a couple players who claim they're eligible and we kind of went back and forth a little bit like that and I was like, okay, did you get a letter or something like that or email? And they're like, well no, but they said I was good to go. And then do you guys remember last year when Curtis Collins, he was a linebacker from fan control football, he tweeted, I am eligible or I'm declaring for the US F L draft and about 30 other dudes started doing it and we all start sliding into everyone's dms like, oh, so you got a letter or something like that. And I'm kind of getting a little bit of that vibe. I mean, if I'm the U S F O, I swing straight for the fences and I pick up Stetson Bennett who, if the team needs someone <laugh>. I don't think I've talked to a couple people about him and I don't think he really cares about playing football. I think he's good. He's going to go sell insurance or something like that or deliver mail, whatever he's going to do. But I think having a big game that could be as close as you can get it to the Doug Flute, Herschel Walker, Steve Young type situation. I remember the thing last year that were draft eligible and I think that was still when Brian Woods was r i p. Poor went out for not real death, but poor went out for Brian Woods here with the US of l I texted Brian, I'm like, Hey what's like, what's going on? All these players said, yeah, that's not, that's not accurate. I was like, okay. I good to know. And I liked having someone kind of in the league there that I could text and get reliable information back like that. I don't want to poo boo too much on the US of L today Vince, the four matchups this weekend, which one are you most looking forward to? If we want to spin it into a positive direction right now I'm excited to see San Antonio, honestly I'm more or less, I'm just excited to see the Alamo Dome just packed to the brim with people. But I mean yeah. And what San Antonio has? AJ Smith is the offensive coordinator. I want to say AJ's with Roughneck? Yeah. Oh, he's with the roughnecks. Okay. So then I'm excited to see the roughnecks cause I like AJ Smith a lot. I remember when he was the wide receivers coach and just watching he kind of his career go up from the Spring league and everything. He's someone I'm really excited to see his offensive system back in action. I know they got Cole McDonald is one of the QBs there. Is he their starter? Not yet. Brandon Silvers is supposed to start, but there's supposedly a quick hook coming for our silvers if things don't go well. So a lot of people, including me, who actually went ahead and drafted Cole McDonald in my fancy draft are anticipating that will happen at some point. Jack Cohen he's over with the Braas. Yeah. Andy, what did we make of an, he followed me on Twitter yesterday. He claims, I literally, I'm sitting there on the plane, I get the notification like Brandon Silver follows you on Twitter. And I just remember back to when Paul and I show two years ago was the guy on the Bachelor of the Lord's kind of like Brandon Silver And I dunno, any of you guys remember that? And it was Jason, Nick, it was a fake name, right? If this is old school, mark Castor at this point, and I tried for weeks to get Brandon Silvers on because I think he was with the Spring League at that point and that now whether he plays or plays well or not, I'm going to be hitting up Britney over with the roughneck to getting the Brandon Silvers request on there. But Andy, what did you make of him being named QB one and like you said, with probably a really short hook. I think again, it's just sort of going steady with the veteran presence. That's what a lot of these teams are doing. That's why Louis Perez is probably getting the nod today. It's why I thought Kyle Slowder was going to get the nod today, but he is not. It's true play. But I mean it's consistency. It's basically, look, he has an opportunity to do some great things in this offense. AJ Smith. I think it's going to do a great job utilizing all the skill and talent that they have in that offense. I'm really excited to see guys like Bryce and Alene and Max Borge. I'm really, really excited to see their running backs in this scheme for silvers. I mean, he's going to have the support he needs to be successful. So it's up to him but I understand why he gets the start because Perez, he's just been in all these different leagues. He's been in all these different systems with all these different coaches. He's been very malleable in being able to be in all these different places. So I do think that's why he's getting the start. But in terms of the ceiling for these guys, I think Cole, McDonald's clearly has the higher ceiling and maybe the highest ceiling of any quarterback in the league. People are really, really high on him. I've been interested in him ever since he was playing in Hawaii. I've always liked his skillset. A lot of, even when he was coming out, there were a lot of scouts that were taking note of him going into the draft. It just didn't work out one way or another. But I can tell there's something there with that. So we'll see. But for silvers, I'm not surprised that he's getting the start as far as being steady handed, but let's see how the offense runs tonight. Well, I want to real quick. I want to say I think in 2021 Silvers was with the conquerors in the Conquerors As well. So he does have a lot of experience in this offensive system as well. And I don't know if they grabbed any of the wide receivers from there either. I know a lot of those Spring League guys are still in the mix between these leagues now. And I think Cole McDonald was with the Conquerors very briefly as well too at one point. So I think they both, yeah, in 2020 he came in for the last game or something like that, but I don't think he was with AJ Smith like AJ Smith. So that's where this big connection comes in my opinion, and I know Reid, you had AJ on there, is the continuation of the AJ Smith to Brandon Silver's connection, and that's what I'm excited about. I personally do think Cole McDonald is better than Brandon Silvers, but I do think there is bettering clout that should be taken into account because I personally feel it's a lot easier to go from Brandon Silvers to Cole McDonald, not Cole McDonald to Brandon Silvers. Yeah. Yeah. I'll go keep going though. Sorry. I just want to say Andy I really like you bringing up that Max Borge kid because he's been kind of a fringe guy. So now it's like, okay, why? Let's see, you're not in the NFL or why you should be in the nfl. So the fact that this guy is going to get out there and actually play football going to, and this is my favorite thing about these all football leagues, is there's no Ryan Griffin quarterback anymore because these guys are going to transition to the X F L or the U S F L play some games. Okay, you're not going to hang out and throw three pass attempts in 12 years in the N NFL anymore. Chich like we got someone else ready to go. Yeah, no, I'm excited for Borge. I saw him play in the air raid offense with Mike Legion Washington and he absolutely ripped it up. He was a nuisance to deal with as an organ duck fan. I hated playing against him. He's really versatile. I cannot wait to see him get into the system and really show off his talent, his skillset. But you're right, I mean, that's the thing about, I think the, that's the other thing to keep in mind for everybody here. With all these quarterbacks and the running backs and receivers and all these positions, the margin for air and the margin for differences between these players talent-wise is not that big and there's going to be opportunities for a lot of these guys. So even if you don't see X or Z player out there this weekend, it doesn't mean they're not going to play at some point during the season. It could play very much, play a second half of the next week. So that's that. Keep that in mind is that all of these guys at some point are going to get in there and show their stuff. Yeah, I don't think the depth charts that we tweeted a bunch of 'em out or I think we finally got all a depth charts this week and put 'em out released from the teams. Yeah, it's not going to be what it is the whole time Cole McDonald got the spotlight at the player 54 and why did we go to Hawaii and do this showcase? Okay, we found Cole McDonald kind of thing. But we have a question here I'm going to toss to, oh I did want to say as well, yeah, I think Silvers, same with the coaches. Silvers has done this a bunch. Same with Mike Riley and the US F L or whatever. We've been through this a couple times. We kind of know what we're doing. Here's a question for Mr Downtown. We'll go to Vince first. Should the X F L focus on having high quality football or highlighting young talent to be the face of their league? Both. I think that is exactly what this league needs to establish themselves. Those are literally the two pillars of what this league is needs to be built on. If you don't have good quality football, nobody is going to care about what you do. And ultimately fans don't want to. I mean, at least for myself, I don't want to keep seeing the same seven, eight guys just trotted out that have never really panned out over and over again. I don't want to see another Johnny Manzel revival in a league like this. Some of the quarterbacks that are getting the nod are kind of guys like that, but ultimately if they're not the answer, they get taken off the field and then someone else comes in. So there may be some veteran QBs that start the season out that we're going to end up ultimately getting switched out on. So at the end of the day though, you need both. You really do need both with a league like this. Toss to Pat and then we'll get Andy thoughts. I mean, look at some of these U S F L guys that we, we've, we've seen succeed, right? Scooby Wright is kind of, or Scooby Wright would be a retread. DeMarcus Gates, Mike Aber, Abernathy. So I'm, I'm big. I don't really care about the young talent. I don't really care. I care about good football because I mean Kavante almost 25 and what do you do four or five leagues before he got to the Cowboys? So that's a guy you just, I know he had off the field issues, but that's a guy, if you looked on paper you'd be like, and just at the surface level as a casual fan, you'd be like, I don't really care about this dude. He played for the Elf and the fcf and the I ffl and this and that. It's like, so I mean quality football is the reason why the U S F L, one of the reasons why the U S F L is coming back because there's that other stuff. But it was good football once it got up to speed. So if the X ffl is just putting out good stories and whatnot, yeah that's cool. But you're not legitimizing yourself as an actual league, whether it be for development or the standalone. So I don't care how old these players are, I think the older they are, the better the story is. I think it's a good mix. I think I just don't want to, don't want to overpay for people. That's what I want, right? Yeah. I'm happy with the guy that hasn't never got the shot and that I've been overlooked and all that. I just don't want to overpay. I don't think we learned, I think we learned XL 2020 like the Cardell Jones and Landry Jones and all that. Not worth the money. Andy your thoughts on this because your face lit up when I put this question on the screen. So <laugh> because I love the question. Well actually as Vince should be familiar with as a Guardians fan, I don't know how many Matt McGloin stories we really want to tread through this season. Even early on. I mean look, it makes for great interviews but I don't know how many times we want that to happen throughout this season. I think you need both. And specifically I think you need to know that you can establish new names and I give you case in point, well two of them actually in 2020 with the X F L look, the Houston Roughnecks drafted Connor Cook number two overall thought that was going to be their guy. It ended up being PJ Walker. Nobody forgets PJ Walker because PJ Walker was outstanding and everyone fruits from every single time he gets into a game with the Carolina Panthers last season in the C F L. Look, we didn't know how North Nathan work was going to do. Michael Carter retired. We are not sure if Nathan War's going to do anything. And he Absolutely, I knew he was going to be great. I knew He was sure, yes, you knew you were a fortune teller, fantastic. Maybe you should go into that business if this doesn't work out for you to be a psychic. But he absolutely ripped it up and now every single Canadian fan is C F L fan is lamenting that he left the league. Cause now he's going south of the NFL with the Jacksonville, Jaguar. So I think the answer to that question is you need both. But I specifically think that you need to not be afraid to establish new names. Old names are great and having people in the system that are familiar with the product and be able to latch onto those is great. Like Marta Bryant, like Michael Abernathy, like DeMarcus Gates, those kinds of guys, Jordan, Tom and Tom. You need guys like that. But you also need to be able to establish new stars too. I think you should be able to establish that talent and make that known to the audience so they have something else. They have something new to latch onto to, they have multiple options to consider. We just gotten a lot of comments here. Yeah, home. Yeah, home team's. Given that rally towels, I did see that. Don't wrapping here at one and then we're going to boogie across the street so I don't, we'll try to get our hands on those rally towels. Just kind of welfare a check here. So 1155 at noon. I have a couple more people joining. Pat. Vince, you're happy to hang out. Go. We know whatever you need to do. We're going to have a couple more surprise guests and then we have more people joining at 1230 and 1245. Dorothy is going to be calling in as well here from the stadium down there in a little bit. She's walking around. So lots more stuff. Fun, fun stuff to have here. Lots of comments. The Matt McGloin of the world people calling the Matt Mcg goat. I think it's just because it's here. Here's a good question Rick Scott, we toss to Pat first. This is the C F L issue with the Nathan Wark. You get a good guy in the X Ffl or the u s Ffl, then they don't stick around anymore. But I mean how do you balance that between league building and truly wanting to give these players a shot? I mean, how many college football programs are there? How many N F L programs are there? There's someone on an N F NFL roster right now in my opinion, that could come in and replace, let's say TEU 20, touchdowns three picks, 3000 yards. There's someone out there that could replace. So I think don't think you care as much because there you got to balance it between, okay, there's a college guy who does he want to be a fourth round pick Instead of going to the N NFL and kind of Kyle tracking it a little bit, come to us and light it up immediately versus the, Hey man, I've been a backup for three years. I've Ben Ucci type situation. Let me go to the xfl, let me go light it up and let me show people that I'm good to go. So I think there's a balance and there's constantly going to be a flux of people ready to play quarterback, running back, whatever the position is that's going to make this league look good. And I think the league needs to do, and I didn't see this as much because I think we were in a transition type period, is when PJ walked her through that 60 yard touchdown against the Falcons. That should have been all over the X ffl Twitter pitch. Anytime Kavante Turpin moved 30 inches that way, the US F l did a good job of doing that. Or if a player was active that week, we heard all about it and whatnot. I think I understand it was a time of transition, but I would've loved to see Parms touchdown on there. Taylor Hynek doing stuff like anyone who had a minute, just a little bit of success from 2020, make a tweet about it because then all of a sudden you put hashtag jets and some dude from New York who wasn't going to watch it is now like, yo, this guy. So that's how they attack though Specifically with that accent. You said there was going to be, you said there was going to be a flux of talent. I almost thought our stream was going to get canceled there for a minute. I missed. Oh man there. That's good. Vince, before you hop out as well here we'll get this for everybody. Stand out head coach of the X F L, right? We're excited to see Stoops return, Haslet spin. We've had mixed varieties of people being more excited, less excited, who head coach for you and we'll go around the horn here. I'm excited to see Hines Ward as the head coach, honestly and Rob Woodson. I know that it's a little uncon. I don't know if how much coaching the two of them have been doing. I know it was not at all the names I was expecting, but to see a couple of Hall of Famers that I grew up watching play. Very interesting to see how they pan out as coaches because I mean if this turns into the two of them becoming big time N F NFL coaches and it'd be awesome to watch their entire coaching career unfold as well. We'll get Andy thoughts and I want to hear why it is or isn't. Coach Beck from Pat here. I got to go with Coach Beck. Man. I hear my Andy who the head coach you're excited to see. I am actually excited to see Heins board as well and I think because he's spent some time as a wide receivers coach, I know he's done it at lower levels. But I do think that there's something to be said about the culture that he comes from the Steelers culture. I just, I've always liked his mentality. I always liked him as a player. I was a really big fan of him when he was playing and I think he's going to be able to bring some of that grittiness down to San Antonio. I think he's a great fit for that scheme. Rod Woodson, I think he's just oozes enthusiasm. I think he's really, really into what he wants to do there and be part of the Vegas community. I'm really excited for him, just for him to get the shot. Honestly, that's really the biggest thing for him. But be Beck is definitely in consideration, but for me if it was a tear list, I think it would probably go Ward. And then what's it with Vince? I'm really excited to see those two. We'll toss to Pat. And then we have another guest joining here in a second. Pat are you spent time talking with Beck and obviously covering the Battle Hawks for New Hub? I think you're probably the most tuned in with that team, but obviously we know all that thoughts on B. Is he going to really excel here? I thought he came across really good in the Player 54 documentary this week. Yeah, I mean I have to choose Beck because hopefully follows me back on Twitter. So as much free shilling I can do towards him. But I like the thing that I like about Beck Most is actually not his football coaching ability. It's kind of the group of men he's brought into the room and that there's a Missouri or a St. Louis tie. And when you're going to be in charge of St. Louis that has been scorned by the cronies and the Rams so much. I think just being aware of that and being decent towards the fans about that who have been longing for football, who we can argue who's number one as far as the top fan base. But this is the top three fan base and I don't think anyone would argue with me in the XFL and alt football in general. So I've been really impressed by that. And I really like his bringing in Donnie Abraham, a guy he played with and an AAF guy and Bruce Kowski as his coordinators as well. He's been very vocal about his mc floor mc LeFlore McVey scheme. He'll be running. So that's something I like. We have another guest joining here. We have Eric, er Eric was with us with the U S F L draft. Well Eric, why don't you introduce yourself and how are you doing today? I'm good, yeah. I'm Eric Eer. I work for Sum Sports. I was previously at PF f. I'm really excited. I didn't realize this until I typed it out today. This is the fifth straight spring that we have some sort of football and I think that this is lining up to be probably the best one. Yeah, Eric, how are you? We talk and you come on the show and you're in all these, the more football and the <inaudible>, all that for us in alt football in the X F L here. Should we be excited? How are you feeling? I view you a little bit more of an outsider looking in. Yeah, yeah, exactly. There are people who are getting a chance in this league. You guys just talked about Bruce. Bruce was my colleague at PF F. He graded our quarterbacks and he was a high school offense head coach I think. And then he is finally getting a chance to work with Anthony Beck in St. Louis getting a chance to call plays at the professional level for the first time. It's stuff like that obviously hooks you. It's the guys who have flamed out of the NFL like AJ McCarran and Paxton Lynch and you versus the guys who are, I would say alt league lifers like Louis Breez and Jordan Tamu and even Brandon Silvers who was on the previous X version of the X Ffl. I I've always liked these leagues. I've always felt like we get new life into the N F NFL every once in a while. Obviously he had Kivan Turpin who was an AllPro in the N NFL this year as a return man. We'll see. We had 65 starting quarterbacks in the NFL this year and a lot of 'em struggled and I think developmental leagues are great for that. So I like these developmental leagues in many ways for a lot of different reasons. Pat's going to hop off here. Pat, anything else you want to say before we let you go? Get out of here. I mean I like what Eric's saying, I was very proactive in following the backup quarterbacks. It was the most we saw in since the eighties. It was more than the covid years as well. I think Eric, not to be that nerd, but it was 68 and they almost got to 50 wins. So you put the ball in 113 or 120 something times in the hands of your backup quarterback in the NFL this year. So with that being said, Reid, I need to go back to bed. That what time I got off of work and time zones and everything like that. All good. Appreciate you having me on guys. Thank you. Thanks Pat, we appreciate it. We'll get Eric's thoughts on this because we've all been talking for a while game today. Vipers coming in, taking on the Reneg Renegade, right? Thoughts on the matchup, thoughts on the coaching, thoughts on the players? Anything you want to share about the weekend slate here? The first two game? Yeah, it's sort of weird. Is there a reason that, did Drew Plitt just beat out Kyle Slowder or is Kyle Slowder injured? That was one that surprised me as far as who's going to be the starting quarterback for Arlington. They had brought in Sal Canella at a tight end who really, yeah, I didn't think Slowder was as good in the U S F L as his accolades. He had more interceptions and touchdowns. He was injured a lot of the time, but I felt like that offense wasn't nearly as good as the hype for New Orleans in the U S F L. But then he comes here and I actually really liked PLI at Ball State. I thought he was a pretty solid player for a group of five quarterback. I think it looks like when we look at the point spread in this game, it looks like Arlington is favored by three and a half or so. That thing opened right around two and a half. So you have seen a decent amount of money. Actually both these games today, Houston and Arlington, the two home teams were short of a field goal, short of a field goal favorite. And you've seen money come in on both. Houston's already out to minus four, which I kind of agree with. So yeah, there was just a couple questions I had about that one because I was expecting to see Slowder. But it looks like we're going to see clip. I have a question for Eric. Vince, anything else from you? I know you're going to hop off here and we have another couple guests popping on here to fill out anything from you before you get out. No, I mean just really excited for this weekend. I'm really excited to see, I mean more or less I've just been following the Ticketmaster map looking to see how the sales are doing and it's, I mean Arlington looks basically, there's maybe 50 seats left you can get. And even though Houston looks like there's still a handful left, it's still, look, they got a, have at least 18,000 coming out to the first game it it's looking like. And I'm hoping that these strong week one attendances just kind of maintain across, I think the X Ffl did a great job of picking their markets, keeping the strong markets from 2020 and then taking the Aifs two strongest markets from 2019 and adding Vegas was a curve ball, but they're playing in such a small stadium, they should be able to sell it out every single week. So I'm looking forward to this season. I'm glad that we're finally back. All right Vince, it's been a long time. We appreciate it sir. Have a good one. Yeah, thanks for having me talk soon. Eric is someone with fantasy and all of that. We've been having the depth charts sent out this week and I know it's like kickoff weekend and we're busy, whatever. But trying to disseminate this information out to people. I'm trying to tweet it but everyone's coming be like, where are these posted? Where can we get these? How can the X F L do a better job of getting people to bet, getting people to do fantasy on the league? Well I think that has to be it. They have to be better at their information. I mean the reason that the injury reports exist for the NFL is people that realize this, but the reason the NFL injury reports exist is because of gambling and because they want to a place where all that information is kept in a timely matter. Obviously data is a big issue. I know that Genius Sports recently announced their deal with the X ffl and I and that was a problem in previous seasons. I know my former employer, pff, they finished second in the bidding for the data for the X ffl in 2020 and the provider then did such a poor job in the first four weeks of the season that PF F got it in week five and of course the league ended because of Covid in the middle of that season. So I would just say, and again this is big. Even when you look back at the old arena league football, which I know is coming back in the next year, they really leaned into DFS and gambling at the end and I thought it was a little bit too late. But for these leagues to really have the momentum, they really do have to lean into the gambling a little and fantasy. And because of that they need to be more forthcoming with their information. It can't just be the person who's got all the time in the world to go phish through every single report that can get all the information for these leagues. For example, I just talked about Slowder, I don't even know I PLIs starting from what it looks like in all these charts I'm looking at online. But he very well, it very well might be a situation where he doesn't and it's because of there's no way in the N F NFL that a quarterback would start on and on day of game none of us knew that he was going to start. That's just not the case. And I think the xav L has to live up to that as well. Yeah, I think when they said that out, it was the first one, I think it was the Guardians and they said Paxton Lynch or Deandre Francois or they had a couple of ORs. I said, what is this, the C ffl, what do we have going on here? And then Andy was talking with the Michael Riley of it. Andy, anything to add to that? Again, I get we're pressed for time but this is something that people that would not even watch the X ffl anyway. Okay, I want to be tuned in here. I thought the U S F L did a horrendous job with this last year. You have to be more transparent in that regard. I know there has to be an element of surprise and maybe you can do that in terms of scheming, but in terms of having the depth charts ready, I mean look, I was very much making that strategy last night when I was trying to draft players. So I went ahead, I jumped the gun and I drafted Cole McDonald's. Well Cole McDonald's is not starting tonight for the Houston Roughnecks, that's going to be Brandon Silvers. So my alternative strategy was, okay, well I will then seek out a bunch of different offensive playmakers wide receivers, tight ends running backs and if Drew Plitt or Kyle Soder are still on the board later on, I'll take one of those two. Now I took Drew Plitt presumably thinking that he was going to be starting tonight, but again, or today and as we just talked about, well there's a giant ore next to those two names. So it still may even backfire in my face if I think that he's going to start today and holding McDonald's for later on presuming that he's going to start later. So again, it's just a lot of it is for me it's a strategy but for a lot of people that's just too much uncertainty for them in terms of getting involved in fantasy aspects, in terms of really knowing what's going on and for betters, I mean that's all the information they need. So yeah, that's something that has to be, we'll see if that gets ironed out, if that's more transparent down the road. Cause I think the C F L, I know they had that controversy with Michael Connor and Nathan Ro, but I think they cleaned that up afterwards because there was so much stir around that. Or maybe, I'm not sure if Randy and Brosy came down and knocked on the door of the BC lines and said, Hey, knock it off. Yeah. Eric, do they do alt leagues like the US F L and the ex fell? Do they make it too challenging to want to do the fantasy and do the sports betting with them? Probably. I know that I think that there's just a bigger barrier to entry and I think people need to, with gaming, people need to at least know that there's a chance and if you don't even know the players and it's going to be hard to know the players anyway. A lot of people, I was this way before I got into football professionally. Like a lot of people are just N F L fans. So when we look at things like Ben Ucci, when we look at Jack Cohen, you might be a huge Notre Dame fan and that's why you give a crap about Jack Cohen or back in the, you were the Birmingham Iron you care cared about Trent Richardson. But if you're not really a fan of both college and this might not be a place for you unless the information is easily accessible. And so for me, I think you really do have to make it that way because people will gamble, people will bet on sports, people will throw a few shackles on these games but when it comes to dfs, I know in the U S F L, they really had a hard time filling the contests because who's going to know the eighth ball carrier in that weekends game or something like that. That's just kind of tough. So I think that they do need to be more open and part of that I think is also just because when you have N F nfl, you have F NFL comms people, you have N F NFL situations where all the head coach's job is hard enough. We saw in the US F L last year, Kirby Wilson was a disaster. Jeff Fisher was who he was. I'm these staffs all the way on down, they're just alt league staffs, right? So it's probably up to the leagues to make rules so that these folks will follow them because they're not going to do it, I think on their own free will. It's interesting you said last year U S F L had a hard time filling the whatever the quota is or whatever because this is outside of my wheelhouse, but I enjoy you guys because you have the knowledge of the players too. But have you noticed, does XF L have good interest in that? Does it feel like a hot thing right now coming in? It has to be, right? I mean I think this is where the U US F L probably made a little. So I think the U S F L made a good gamble by being in April to July league in that their players were in good enough shape to be in N F L training camps in August. That was the good thing that they did. I felt like that was an incredibly smart thing for them to do from that perspective. It got a lot of people, Maurice Alexander with the Lions, obviously Turpin you had Greg Odom was playing for the Browns probably would've made the team had he not gotten hurt. You had quarterbacks too. The issue though is that from a sports betting and fantasy perspective, this is the perfect time to start an alt league because everybody comes off of the Super Bowl with all the money in their accounts. Everybody's sort of still kind of in that mindset. And if you're somebody like me who doesn't really like, I don't mind the nba, I don't mind A E N H L, I don't mind those things, but I'm not betting on them. I don't feel like I know that much enough about them to bet. So you know, might be able to entice people to enjoy the league because they still have money in their accounts to bet and if you wait two months like the U S F L did last year, that kind of dries up a little bit. So I think interestingly these two leagues are working in tandem from the gaming perspective because you have people who are still interested in football who will bet on the X ffl play DFS on the X ffl and then they'll hopefully still have money in their accounts and stuff like that and they'll still be kind of in the swing of things when they start playing what eight games a weekend starting in April. I think it's just a really good concise thing to bet on. Like I said, I don't do the fantasy and the N F NFL and I've been invited to that and I know Andy and them did the fantasy last night. I did the C F L, whatever it was, it's just more tangible. I can't get my head around trying to bet on all these games. No, I can do four games a week or whatever. I think it's more, and I think it's a good use it as an introductory to get people into other stuff like hey, the stakes aren't this high Eric does that and then we'll get Andy. Does that make sense? Almost use the X ffl as an introductory platform to do that. Yeah, and especially in these leagues, I think in these leagues you get and you really stretches your brain out a little bit. So I know when the AAF started in the spring of 2019, all the totals were like 51 and the first week, if you just blindly bet under you went three, I mean I think every single week of the afaf except for one, if you blindly bet, bet under on every single game you went three and one every single weekend, but those totals kept declining and then you have to sharpen up and then now and Afaf was basically the same exact rules as the NFL except for there were no extra points and no kickoffs. But now you have the end of half kind of situations where the clock stops and you think an under is a lock because in the first quarter and second quarter until the two minute warning, everything keeps the clock moving. So these totals are like 36 and a half in this first game, 35 and a half in the second game, but then at the end of half they really do help these quarterbacks out by stopping the clock at almost every turn. And so it makes you think about strategy a little bit different as a better right? Do I bet under, if I'm betting live or something like that, do I bet over because maybe the books don't have the right simulations in place so you can get a really good price on once it enters two minutes because those two minutes are going to be longer than they are in the N F L. It's, it's a really good introduction and not even to mention the one point conversion, the two point conversion and the three point conversion all of those probabilities in the mix as well. What's a one score game now is actually different than a normal We'll toss at the Andy here and then we have another guest coming on and Eric, I guess it's up to you if you want to hop off and go do other important stuff. I appreciate you coming on today Andy, any thoughts on that? We'll toss to Eric and then we'll get Matt on here. Tons actually, but to sort of bounce off just a couple of points that Eric has made. Yeah, it's interesting. I've been monitoring the overruns and spreads throughout the week on all the games and unlike the aaf, all of these overruns are quite low for today's game. For example, the over under books I've been looking at is 37 then the rough next game is 35, the Hawks game is 36 and a half and then the DC defenders game is 35 and a half. So they're really, really low totals and I think the impact that they're all kind of uniform just shows that there's not a lot of certainty in terms of where the teams are in terms of scoring proficiency, how they utilize their players the level play going to be on the first weekend, that's all sort of unknown. I've talked to people who have talked, who've expressed to me how uncertain they are about point spreads because of all the different point conversion attempts in this day and age of analytics. Who knows how aggressive people are going to be in terms of going for two, going for three as you mentioned before it, it's so interesting now when I watch an N F L game, it's a nine point spread and I'm thinking in the X ffl, this is a one score game and that's why people debated with the chiefs last week when they went up by seven and some people said, hey, maybe they should go for two because then they're up by nine and it's a two score game. Well they ultimately didn't, they went for one and then the Eagles came back down the field and tied in and got on the two point version. So those are all mitigating factors and they're kind of new elements for people to consider Now when it comes to betting as Eric mentioned and it's really, I think there's just kind of a lot of feeling out. I'm not sure how aggressive people are going to be the first week, but I think there's just a lot of unknown kind of going into that this first week. Last thoughts for Eric and then we'll bring math on. Eric, we appreciate your time today. Yeah, of course. This is fun. I love, I love football a lot and I think it's cool that we get to watch in the spring and I hope last year we get both leagues to finish the season because it really was fun. I mean you think about how great the championship game in the U S F L was with Birmingham versus Philadelphia, how many times that score flipped in the fourth quarter and I think football is such a great game and we deserve to have it in the spring, so I really appreciate you guys having me on and I really hope you guys enjoy the games and may Mayor bets hit <laugh>. There we go. Take care everybody. Thank you so much. We appreciate it. We're going to get rid of Eric. We're going to bring on Matt Lyons here covering the R CLC Dragons here. Andy's cohort over at the XE l New South. Matt, why don't you introduce yourself, say hi, I'm going to go, I fill my water and be back, so why don't Matt say hi and then let's talk about what we're excited for today. I'll be right Back. Sounds good. Hey guys, I'm Matt Lyons writer for X Ffl news hub covering the Seattle Dragons Sea Dragons now and I mean, holy crap, we've been waiting three years for this day or this weekend and it still doesn't really feel real. I'm like, I don't know if it'll feel to let we actually get the kickoff in a little while, but man, just can't believe we're here. <laugh> How things been going on the show so far. Andy, I tuned in a couple minutes ago. It's been good. We've had a good number of guests I have to say. I know you're very battle tested not only for how long we've waited for this league, but also the fact that you had to go through four different rounds of fantasy football drafting last night. So thank you for bearing with that All. Yeah, no, thank you for setting it up. I feel like part of that was my fault for messing up the league so many times. I had the first pick like three times and it just kept going randomly. But no, I'm glad we got that. The fantasy should be fun. I think it ended up really well and I like the people we have in that league. Yeah, well we'll see if the Drew Pli gamble ends up off today, if he and does end up actually starting and going in there for the Renegades and then see if the Cole mc, as I've mentioned on the show earlier today Nicole McDonald's project, seeing if that pays off as well. So there's a lot going on here, but how's preparation been for you as far as today and also for the Sea Dragons obviously who are going to be playing tomorrow? It's been great. Today is nice because I just kind of get to enjoy the games as a fan, so that's nice. If it wasn't 10 15, 10 20 in the morning, I might break out the Terena, but no, not yet. No, I'm super looking forward to the games. I think we got some great matchups. I think the Renegades and Vipers is going to be a fun game to kick off the weekend. And then in terms of getting ready for the Sea Dragons and stuff I might be a little biased, but I'm thinking that might be one of the better matchups of the weekend. I think we've, those are two of the more talented teams in the league and to close out the opening weekend, I think that's a great way to do it. Yeah, I want to get talks on the C Dragons here. If you look behind me you can see we got quite a line building around, so we're at the corner of, I think it's the first base, so that would be center field, right that door there. You can see quite the line building out there. Why I saw Mike, I think tweeted or the new sub, I can't remember if it was Mark tweeted, everyone did their picks, saw you riders, whatever's today. Why are people so high on the Sea Dragons? I mean it's good for me, I'm excited, but Andy, am I missing something? Well, I guess I'm missing something too, but if I'm in my reevaluation of the team, I understand obviously the June Jones element of it. Obviously with all of the offense and all of the potential playmaking on that team, I think there's good, it's a good quarterback room. I think there's a good abilities to really utilize some of the skill position players on there. Even guys that I know from college, Jalen Red I know is one of the receivers. He was kind of like a receiver running back hybrid. I know he's lower on the dev chart, but he's a guy that I really like as well. But I think that's the biggest thing. I think it's their ability to potentially I guess the word I would use is to put up buckets if I'm going to use it an N B A term because I think they have a chance to really be able to score a lot of points and score nai, but I think that's really the only game tomorrow with defenders in the Sea Dragons where a lot of people I noticed are taking the over which by the way I would say Eric earlier, the overrun is really low on a lot of these games, but for that game a lot of people seem to think that there's going to be a lot of points in that game. So I think that's part of it. If you can score I mean obviously if you could score you can win, but if you could score a lot, that's a huge thing that kind of gives you an edge over a lot of these teams. That was the case with June Jones and the roughnecks back in 2020. They were just able to outscore you. It didn't matter how their defense played, as long as they got a turnover too and they gave the ball back to their offense they most likely were going to have the upper hand. Matt, you have a admirer here. Ryan Chauncey, who's that? Redhead's. Cute. Maybe Matt has one <laugh> Comment. Oh, that's my buddy Ryan. What's up Chauncey? You're Going to make mad even more red. Yeah. Is it the June fire power, is it the ucci of it? Is him being more of a nun? I mean I would be curious. I think Vegas had the drag as number two. They had the battle hawks really high, which is weird to me because we've seen more with their quarterback room and ride Willis and stuff leaving. It just, it's weird to me that people are so high on the dragons, but I think we deserve that after going one and four back in 2020. Yeah, I think it's kind of a combination of a couple things. You have an experienced coaching staff who's been in leagues like this before and June Jones as you mentioned is the offensive coordinator for the Sea Dragons and he was the head coach of the Houston Roughnecks in 2020 who went undefeated through five weeks. And the defense or the director of player personnel is Randy Mueller, who was also the director of player personnel with June Jones in Houston. So they already have some synergy going there. And then Randy Mueller was, what was it in the early two thousands, he won exec N F L Executive of the Year, so it's not like he's foreign to football. Head coach Jim Haslett was N F L Coach of the Year for the Saints in early two thousands and he runs a pretty good defense from defense from what I've heard. And then you just have a bunch of experienced N F NFL players and on top of that really talented young players who don't have a ton of N F L experience. As you mentioned, Ben Ucci played a bit for the Cowboys and behind him, Steven Montez who personally I think might be the more physically gifted athlete, but mentally he had some stuff to work on from film I I've seen ucci is definitely the more polished guy but then the big name Josh Gordon, which a lot of people are not too high on just because how things have gone with him in the past. But people seem to forget the issue with Josh Gordon was never his talent. It was the fact that he really liked weed. And so I mean from all accounts, from what I've seen in camp, from what I've heard from people in camp and stuff, it seems like he's still got something left in the tank. I'm excited to see what he's got. The team definitely has been showing him off, which I mean would be to be expected with him being one of the more high profile players in the whole league. Other people I like are Jaco Pearson, who's another N F L former N F NFL wide receiver tight end Charlie, I'm going to butcher this last name. Tom p Tomo pio, something like that. Another good receiver. And then the line is just pretty solid across the board, which is not super common in leagues like this. Offensive lines usually the hardest thing to come by and I mean I'm sure they're not going to be perfect, but in terms of measuring them up with a lot of the other teams in the league, they seem to be, I think they'll be able to hold their own have this last week signed one of the top or I don't know if he was top, but a C F veteran offensive linemen, which will definitely help. A lot of people don't think too highly of the C F L in America, but as someone who's covered them for a year, I didn't this last year, but I would personally say out of all of the alternative leagues, the C F L probably has the best talent out of all of them. So the fact that we're getting players from the CFL in these leagues is awesome. Then on the defensive side of the ball anchoring your defense, you got Jordan Evans, Jordan Evans and Trey Walker who are two guys also with N F NFL experience and then got some defensive backs with N F NFL experience and defensive li, everybody's got f NFL experience on the defense honestly. So yeah, I think it's a great squad. Well, I'm just excited here and we're going to bring on our next guest. I'm just excited to see Undefeated head undefeated head coach Jim Haslet, bring his Houston roughnecks to six and oh at the beginning of this season. If you my Jim Ross voice, by God, by God, that's Mike Mitchell's music. That's Mike Mitchell's music. Mike the goat Exe l insider here. Exe L kickoff day. How the heck are you doing today? I'm doing very well, Reid. Thanks for having me on. I've been checking out your show while I can with all this crazy family business like I going on in the background. So Andy Matt, good to see you guys and this is very exciting. First and foremost, the first thing I'd like to say is you have to send out a level of gratitude towards Red Bird Capital Partners, Jerry Card, Dwayne Johnson and Danny Garcia for taking this risk. So none of this possible today without them actually taking this risk because make no mistake, this is risk. All these leagues are, I don't think people realize how hard it is to run a pro sports league. I don't think, no I don't think people realize how expensive it is. So that that's not to say that this group, this new ownership hasn't been without its faults. I've certainly been critical along the way. There are a couple things that are probably sticking in my cross still at this very moment, but the fact that they've put their resources and money and time to make this a reality is awesome. We're talking about they have over 800 employees, over 400 players are going to get an opportunity to play pro football on A B C E S P N, tremendous exposure. All the coaches, the football personnel, people benefit from this league as well as the media, right? All of us, the football writers who cover, I cover four different leagues who cover these leagues and this is big burgeoning media, established media these leagues, we know one of our colleagues there Jay Nokes is part of the X Ffl now he's living his dream. So it extends beyond the dreams that are being realized today. Extend beyond just the players, the coaches, football personnel and all that. You got people in the medium who are actually getting an opportunity to live out their dreams, something they wanted their whole lives and without. Danny Garcia, Jerry Carnell, the big bucks there, red Bird Capital, Dwayne the Rock, Johnson. None of this is possible. So it it's really awesome to see. It's going to be exciting. It's surreal. It doesn't feel real. I had a dream the other night the never a good thing when you have a dream that involves social media. But I had a dream that I went on social media and I heard, and I read that the week one of the X ffl was canceled. And so it's been like one of those, and it's seemed kind of real. I guess maybe it's a history with trauma for going back three years ago, week five that came up in my dream. But the fact that we're here, we, we've gone through a long road to get here and we've been very patient and we're excited about it. We're all football fans. So this is just tremendous today. All the dreams that are being realized today. It's a beautiful day for football. So we're filling in here, we're going to bring on, and Greg, I see you here as well. My screen is too. We have so many guests lined up to come on the show. I couldn't even see all the guests here. We have Evan Smore coming on Evan with exit l, news hub. Evan, how are you doing? And then we're going to bring in one more and then we have a special call-in guest, but let's give Evan just a quick chance to say hello. Yeah, I'm doing great. Reid just got to Houston, settled in, got in my hotel room. So going to hang out here for a couple hours. Watch the Vegas Arlington game and then down to the stadium to take care of business. Yeah Evan's going to be covering the Houston Roughneck down there today. Exciting game. I think the sleeper hit. I think let's, let's help Guardian's. Roughneck is the bye in the way. The favorite of the weekend. And then speaking of the guardians, here we have with a gra Xe L boy. We have Greg Parks here. Greg, how are you doing? I'm doing great, Reid. Thanks for having me on Here. Happy Exe l kickoff day. How are you feeling? Little tense, a little nervous. I think I we're all very excited but very nervous because we know how important today is in terms of trying to get the most eyeballs on the product to sort of springboard this league into the success that I think we all believe it deserves. And so we all wanted to get off on the right foot. No hitches in the giddy up anywhere today. Hopefully some exciting games. And then we're on to week two and beyond. So we're going to, we'll get everyone a chance to talk here. I don't think you'll besmirched me for going to my wife here for a quick minute. We have a special live in. Let's see if this works. Dorothy's down in the stadium here. We're going to see, you can do a comedy. What Dorothy, how are things looking down at Chalk top? Hi. Yeah, can you hear me? We can. How are you doing? Oh, <laugh> good. It's good. It's busy. Yeah. Well, not too many people. I saw a couple renegades people walking around, but yeah, it's good. It's a little windy, but it's good. How's the tap? Are you cold out there? I'm a little chilly right now, but I got to get my coat on here then I think I'll be good. So yeah, it's been good. I was walking around, I got a mimosa, I guess they're doing some big <laugh>, doing some big charity bingo things. So all these women are wearing Kentucky Derby hats and yeah, it's busy. How are you getting lots of compliments on your sea dragon stu or on your Not sea now I'm doing it the other way. On your dragons jersey? Yeah. One guy was wondering what that was, so I was trying to explain it to him. He was like, oh yeah, that's that. But then he told us to go check out the Jerry Jones what's he called it? Jerry Jones Kingdom or something. Oh yeah. We walk by Cowboy Stadium already. So yeah. Andy, do you have any questions for Dorothy? We'll just keep running here for a second. Yeah, so you mentioned it's windy. How windy is it? Is it like a little breeze or is it kind of something that would alter like a field goal? It's pretty windy. Okay. It's pretty windy. It's also not hurricane force winds. No, not hurricanes, not hurricane. This is enough for my hair to get stuck in my lip gloss. How fun that is. What do you make of the area? We've been at Texas Live, lots of stuff to eat and drink at, know where the podcast live from, but lots of places to eat and drink around there. What do you make of the area of around chalk top? Yeah, I think it'd be really awesome, especially in the spring and summer they got all these outdoor areas and you could pretty much just hop around and I think they have live music too during the summer. Yeah. And then it was cool. I went into Dallas last night the deep el and I looked up that bar we went to, I guess it was owned by the Reed Brothers back in 1895. It was an old meat packing. It was an old meat packing place. So yeah, I hear drums down there. People play music. Yeah, there's like some marching band type people here, so yeah, it's pretty cool. Well, exciting. Well, we have a live in-person report. Dorothy, thank you so much. I appreciate it. We'll see you up here and we're going to head to the stadium soon. Okay, see ya. Good luck. Let's go to Evan and then Greg. Evan, thoughts on today, three years come in, I think you said last night getting emotional, talking about all this. What do you make of everything? Yeah, man. Well, it's one of those things where, and I think we can all agree, we didn't know it was going to be back three years ago. Covid shut down the league and that was the second time that the league had been around. There was in 2001 that only lasted a year obviously. And then 2020 got cut short and after that it kind of looked bleak. And even when I joined all of you guys at XFL New Hub, I was saying in the middle of 2021 when I started writing there was a lot of talks at the time, but not a lot of movement at the time. They were focused on a partnership with the CFL as opposed to putting a rushed hard product together which I think ultimately was the right decision. They took their time and it seems to be well worth the weight. Again, we'll find out today. But yeah, it's a lot of feelings. It really hit me this morning. I barely got any sleep so I'm definitely going to sleep well tonight after the game. But yeah, I think it'll hit me even more once I'm down at the stadium on the field, looking around, talking to people. Just really, really excited for this Greg. I think you're can always do a good job of contextualizing everything. Where are we at today in your life? The X F L? The first time around a 2001, I was a huge wrestling fan and so I was also a huge football fan, so it was natural to me to be attracted to Vince McMahon creating this football league that was going to be crazier wilder more extreme than the N F L. And so you watched it and I enjoyed it, but a lot of people didn't, unfortunately. And so I was still in high school at the time. I was someone who always enjoyed writing and so that's kind of where I got my foot in the door. There was an email back in the day before blogs and everything like that you would do email newsletters and I got hooked up covering the league for some email just randomly. It's an email newsletter that went out to a bunch of people and I had a couple columns in that. So even back in 2001 I was still interested in the writing aspect of it and covering it. And then 2020 comes around and I got to thank Mike Mitchell for getting me in at X Ffl board and getting me in contact with Mark Nelson. And I've been writing about the X ffl now pretty consistently since I think 2019 ish. And then to see it, it was hard in 2001 to see it disappear, although you could understand why the ratings went down. It was a product nobody really wanted to be associated with. And then 2020 they did everything and it still didn't survive. And this time it was something completely out of their control that took it down. So that was frustrating on a whole different level. And now here we are in 2023 where you're just crossing your fingers this time and then hoping that everything aligns up the right way. Having been burned twice by this league. The entire buildup, you're looking to pick holes in what the ownership is doing. And Lord knows we've done that here on this podcast. We've done it in written form, we've done it on social media. We've questioned and questioned the decision making but ultimately here we are, it's game day. Let's see if all those decisions and the weight was worth it, Mike, is the weight going to be worth it? I think so. It absolutely is. Technically, I heard Greg on your show a little while back. He said I think he said this is the longest running iteration of the X Ffl. So thereabouts when you think about it, technically the ex's 23 years old now they're about, if you consider from inception to this point. Yeah. It's just fascinating to me that we've reached this point and for someone like myself and Greg, we go back to the Earl very early internet days and message boards and shout out to x Ffl board, Mark Nelson, all those guys everybody who's working there. Greg is a tremendous writer, does a tremendous job covering this league. He's got a teacher background, so I love the fact that he does his homework. Not shocking. So anyhow. But yeah, this is fun for all of us and it's great for the league and I'm glad, I'm glad it's made it to this point get no guarantees that it's going to last. So hopefully it does this go around. I think the concept is a strong one. I think it should survive. I think the football landscape needs it and so there's definitely certain things maybe about the X ffl that I could nitpick. Dorothy was talking about seeing a few people out there with jerseys and I guess they're the 2020 versions, so there are a couple of missteps along the way here. You would think the jerseys would be for sale at this point. You'd want to monetize that. And then there are a couple of other things like in terms of fantasy and gambling that maybe the league didn't hit upon the promotional wise. You know, can argue bare bones, budget over understaffed, overworked staff, that kind of thing. But there's some missteps along the way here that they haven't really capitalized on. But I think the concept is so strong that it can override any of these hiccups that you see from a new football league because even though this is the third iteration this is really a new ownership, a new group name may be still be the same, but they got to prove themselves. I think I spoke with someone a little bit earlier today that was been a part of the Afaf, the X Ffl in 2020 and the U S F L and he thinks now this is his opinion that this is the best talent he's ever had in any of these leagues and he's currently with one of the teams right now. And so that's pretty impressive in and of itself. And so going to be in the pudding, we're going to see some issues early on because these teams got their preseason games wiped out because of the crazy Texas weather that would've helped a little bit. I know they've been together for a while, five weeks or whatever it is now. And so the play will improve as the season goes along because these teams don't have established identities yet. So we're going to have to, I remember XL in 2020, right? If you look back on it, only two quarterbacks survived by the time we got to week five. It's Jordan and I, PJ Walker of course. And so the rest of the guys that start in week one, I know some of that had to do with injury. I know some of that had to do with performance, but the Matt McGloin, Aaron Murrays, the big week one starters, the, I know a couple of those guys, Phillip Nelson Charles Koff, all these guys, they didn't really branded Silvers who rides again this time with the Roughnecks. By the time we got to week five, a lot of these guys were taking a seat to Daniels and there's other quarterbacks, Luis Perez, who lives on forever. He's eternal in Spring Pro football. So there's so many cool storylines and fun aspects about this opening week and the fact that it's a reality is really awesome. We're going to toss to Matt. Matt's going to hop out. We have one more guest joining us here before we ride you here to one o'clock and then we'll get ready for the player 54 re airing and I got to get ready for the stadium here. Matt, any other final thoughts from you? Not a ton from me. Just thanks for having me on and hope everybody enjoys the game. It's been a long time coming, so definitely make sure we take it in. It's going to be good. Yeah, Matt's covering the Sea Dragons over. They got the big game tomorrow. I wish. I like having the poetry of the Defenders Dragon's game kind of bookend the weekend as it did back in 2020. So Matt, thank you so much. We'll get you off here and then we're going to bring on our last guest who will be joining me next Friday as well for the show as I record, we're going to Mexico next week, so Andy will be with me on Tuesday. We're going to do a special week one recap, and then John's going to be with me on Friday. We'll figure out timing with that. John Vogel, how are you doing sir? Great guys, and thanks for having me again. I'm excited. I just got all my bets put in about 20 minutes ago, so I'm ready to rock and roll on FanDuel. Having fun. Get ready, let's go. Well, so who are you taking today? We have Vipers and Renegades and then obviously Guardians at Roughnecks battle Hawks. I'm excited for that tomorrow with the Brahmas and then the Sea Dragons and with the Defenders. Yeah, I'm going to go, I'm honestly going to go with over on the first between the Vipers and Arlington. I think that the over was set at 35 and a half. That sounded like something I liked as a potential. Yeah, I think you've got it. This that is okay. DraftKings? Yeah, so I was going off of FanDuel, I believe it was at 35 and a half. I believe both games are 35, 36 and a half that range. And then I'm going to go with under on Orlando because I just don't know what the Orlando offense is going to show and I think that that's probably going to be a 20 to six type game. So I like the under there, but I like Vegas and Arlington both putting up 20 today being a relatively close game and I'm going to go with Arlington getting the win here by three and a half. So I like that spread. And then I think I pretty much just tipped, I think Houston's going to win the second game by three and well beyond three and a half. I'd be willing to take double digits there honestly. Evan, what do you make of that? Then we'll get Greg and Mike thought thoughts on the game or do you feel confident in the Silver Tree brand the silver is going tonight or Yeah, tonight. Yeah, I mean I touched on it in my preview that I did recently a couple days ago. I think this is sort of a game where you want to test out a lot because next week Arlington comes to town and they have one of the stronger rosters in the league, I believe. So I think this game we should win either way, but I wouldn't feel a ton of pressure if people don't perform well. I guess my point is this shouldn't be maybe the expectation if the game ends up being, I think I put in the article two like a low scoring slug fest because on FanDuel the over under for points was the lowest of week one projected totals. Even if it ends up turning out like that, I think Houston still has an advantage. And again, they maybe don't have the strongest roster in the league, but this is a real test I think of how the coaching staff is coming back, AJ setting up the offense. You've got Wade Phillips kind of establishing himself as one of the premier coaches in this league and a Houston legend also. So there's a lot on the line but not a lot on the line for this one at the same time. It's an interesting matchup. Greg, thoughts on that? You 35 here over under 35, 36 more in there AJ Smith tonight we had 'em on the show. High offense, are you surprised with any of that or who are you looking for the upset today? Yeah, I'm not really surprised. I think we've seen that defenses tend to have the advantage early on in the season, especially when it's just everything is new, all the teams are new, the offenses are new and things like that. So not surprised at over under there. Certainly you look at the potential of the offense in Houston and I think one of the interesting things is Mike brought up the point that in 2020 there was so much quarterback turnover between weeks one through five, whether it was injury or performance. And I wouldn't be surprised to see that happen again this year simply because so many teams are very deep at quarterback. I mean you look at the Houston team, they're starting Brandon Silvers, which I think surprised a lot of people. They've got Cole McDonald as their backup who I think a lot of people thought was going to start. And then you have other teams like Arlington with Drew Plitt starting over, Kyle Slowder who so well in the U S F L last year. And there are a couple teams that have a pretty good one-two punch at Quarterback Vegas with Luis Perez and Brett Hunley. So it wouldn't surprise me if that happened again here within the first few weeks. Mike, thoughts on that and then we'll toss to Andy and then get Evan involved. Orlando game is interesting to me because on paper it looks like it's going to be the blowout this week. And I could be completely wrong, A lot of experts have been down on the Guardians, but I like the receiving core. I think Charleston ramble's going to be a star. Are you going to see him in the N F L I? There's some aspects of that team that intrigued me, but when you look at it on paper, Wade Phillips, the experience he has here with Brian Stewart, that defense at home, AJ Smith you you'd figure that game would be like a 26 to 10, 26 to nine, we might get some odd scores because of conversions and all that. And the Vipers Renegades game is fascinating too from an experience standpoint. I think the Vipers kind of lean towards the Joey Klink scales guy was part of a front office that drafted Nick Mangold, Drell Reve, et cetera, et cetera. He was with the Jets from 94 to 2012. He's got a lot of experience in his space and they got to experience a quarterback with Lee and Perez and they have a little bit of a slant towards N F NFL veteran types, obviously Martavia Bryant, Jeff Bette, rod Smith, they got a lot of different Beasley. There's a lot of different guys who have N F L experience there. So I think that's a tough matchup for Arlington even though I think the renegades are the favorites in the league because of that coaching staff, the front office, the combination of the assistants they have, they're probably the best coaching staff overall in the league. So with Tim Lewis, everybody else there. So I think the Saturday games are fascinating and the odds makers have him as low scoring I can understand based on the history of these leagues. And so we'll see which offenses are ready to go out the gate and I think it's going to be fun to watch from, you know, don't get a second chance to make a first impression. So you're going to have people out there who are casuals that maybe crap on a bad turnover or some bad play and all that. Those of us who followed these leagues full well know that it takes time for what you have is essentially eight expansion teams playing together for the first time. So it's looking for forward to seeing how the product shakes out on the field and how these teams match up. Evan thing you're most excited to see from either the early game or the late game today? I mean it's difficult because I think the more intriguing matchup that's more unpredictable is Arlington and Vegas because those are two of the more, again, unique rosters in the entire league. So I'm really excited. I mean we're only a bit over an hour away from kickoff, which is insane so I'm really interested to see that. But then considering I'm going to actually be on the sideline and in the press box, the roughneck game I'm really just interested to see I guess the flow. And I mean that in sort of all aspects of the game and not just for Houston but also Orlando because it's been a very long time since, I mean, well it's been three years since the X F L played and for some of these guys it's been a long time since they've played a proper game and as Mike touched on, this is essentially eight expansion teams playing for the first time. There's a lot of unpredictability. This is really the first, I guess gasp that we get because we didn't have a pre-season or things like that that were supposed to happen in Arlington. So yeah, again, this seems to me again, it's a very important day. The opening day is always I think the most exciting. But at the same time, like I said earlier, it's also kind of a trial run. You want see how people react to it. Again, sort of establishing a flow a system. So I think that's what I'm really looking forward to the most because I do believe that the dynamic will be different from the N F nfl. Andy, are we concerned, I'll get John slots, Andy, that they didn't do the practice games, the espn, the trials, the Texas, the Great Texas Ice Storm of 2023 kind of threw a wrench in that. Yeah, I mean it would've been nice to have an overview of what exactly we're going to expect. And also just in terms of I guess getting more reps for the players too, just being able to see them get more cohesion which is now ultimately probably going to be more ironed out a few weeks into the season as opposed to before the season. But I think I mentioned that earlier in the show. I think that ultimately was going to be the case anyways because as Greg mentioned, there's, it's all new people, it's all new faces, it's all new chemistry for all these players, all these coaches, all the staffs, everything. No holdover from the previous season there is in the N F L or any other sports league at the C F L and all those. So there's obviously that kind of level of cohesion that's going to take time to build regardless. But I think that it's going to be really interesting. The offenses I'm really looking forward to seeing are probably the roughneck tonight just to seeing how AJ Smith gets that scheme going the Sea Dragons tomorrow in DC and seeing how they kind of come out of the game with June Jones. And I guess the other one I'm curious about is maybe San Antonio just seeing how the Jack Co experiment works. I listen, I am not the biggest proponent of Mr. Cohen. I've, I've watched enough Wisconsin quarterbacks in my life and I can tell you aside from Russell Wilson, they're all the same to me, but <laugh> seen one, you've seen 'em all. But we'll see if he comes out and he comes out and he plays very well, then obviously that's great for them. And in a Rocket stadium, obviously the San Antonio <inaudible> is going to be basically full for their capacity. They're going to have like 30,000 people. But yeah, just offensive cohesion as some of you have mentioned. Again, it's going to be something that a lot of people first time viewers are going to stick to and say, okay, these teams, it looks like these teams know what they're doing. This is like anyone knows what they're doing. That's going to be the first impression for everybody. John, you were with me, we did the XL draft and the supplemental draft and the quarterbacks and all that. We've gone through the cuts, everything. Who squads you're most excited to see and kind of the pieces involved in that? No, I mean Andy nailed it with DC because we've talked a lot about DC and the speed that they have and then adding a guy like Abram Smith who's really not speed but power. So you have a good blend of elements there and I think that's going to be a fun team to watch tomorrow. You mentioned again San Antonio. Again, that's another team that I'm really interested in. And Jack Comb, just to kind of point at it a little bit, he played his last year at Notre Dame and I liked what a lot of the stuff that he did at Notre Dame, I had a decent draft grade on him coming out from the NFL standpoint, I was really surprised he didn't latch onto a roster. So I, I'm interested to see how he looks. Honestly, I think that if you're playing at Notre Dame playing the competition that they do, this might be a step down for Cone a little bit just because you're playing against usc, you're playing against Clemson and you're these teams that are just stacked with NFL players across the board. And I don't, I'm wondering if that helps cone out in sense of the game is slowed down a little bit for him. So that's the other thing too is how fast is this tempo going to be in this league? How fast is the game going to be for everyone else? We've got guys, Seattle's going to be fun. Randy's done a great job putting that roster together. So I guess those are the three I'm most excited to see. And then today I think it's just more of a, I'm wondering how bad Orlando, like you mentioned Mike, Mike did a good job. Mike did a really good job talking about the receivers and the strengths of that team. But you can have great receivers, you have to have a quarterback to get 'em the ball. What I'm saying, and that's kind of the big question mark with Orlando at this point, is that quarterback enough? I mean they're going to rotate all three is what it looks like according to the depth chart. I would expect them to rotate all three and just try them out and see what happens. But how bad is Orlando going to be? I think that's kind of my question with them. We'll toss to Greg here. We had a question earlier head coach, you're most looking forward to seeing this year by proxy of that. You can talk about the squads as well. So which coach are you mostly excited to see what they do this year and the squad they have? Well I think just seeing how the four most inexperienced coaches gel with the four veteran coaches, it was a pretty even split in the hiring process of getting the veterans who've been there, who've done that and then getting brand new head coaches, first time head coaches at all any level and bringing them in. So I think it's more of just seeing how the process works for those coaches and which one of those four real new head coaches stands out amongst the rest in terms of clock management in terms of decision to use timeouts in terms of all the stuff that we Monday morning quarterback every week in the NFL about head coaches decisions, decisions to go for it on fourth down decisions to go for field goals. Now we add in the decision of what tiered extra point to go for. So there's even more of a decision making process to be criticized for these X Ffl coaches. So how are the Terrell Buckley's going to handle that? How are the Anthony Becks going to handle that? Guys who've never really been in that position before, to be a head coach and have to deal with everything you deal with on game day from first quarter to fourth quarter. I think that's more so than any one specific coach. That's really what I'm looking at. And then how the veteran coaches adapt to the X ffl rules. They're veteran coaches, but this is a whole new environment for them just as it is for the four new head coaches. So in that way it sort of puts them all on even footing in terms of just the new rules and getting acclimated to that. So it's going to be fun to see it from that perspective and how the head coaches perform when you split them into those two groups. We'll talk us to Evan here, Mike, and then we'll get out. We have people player 54 starting here at one Spoiler if you missed the first couple of minutes they talk about Danny and the Rock and then we get into the player stuff here. But we'll give Evan and Mike, we'll get everyone one shot. We'll get out of here. Evan coach, you're in with the roughnecks and obviously we're excited for Wade Phillips and aj, everybody there. Is that your coach you're most excited to see? And what about the squad you're excited to see? Yeah, I definitely would say Wade and I don't know, some people might say, oh well Wade's been coaching forever. Why wouldn't you pick one of the guys that's doing it for the first time like an Anthony Beck or a Hines Ward. But I think for Wade, and I was telling people this for this is very meaningful for him in the sense he gets to come back to Houston and be the head coach of a professional franchise. His entire kind of family tree extends around the Houston area and he's spoken about that before. So I think it's a really exciting opportunity for him. And I know he'll do a great job. I just wonder if this is kind of the last dance for him. Cause he's 75 years old, he's not getting any younger and that's not a slight against him. Obviously he's one of the most talented defensive coaches of all time and has more football knowledge than any of us on this stream will ever have. But I think I'm interested to see how he incorporates that amount of NFL experience when he is working with guys who maybe don't have an NFL pedigree because he's coached I think something like 30 defensive bowlers and five defensive player of the years back when he was working with JJ Watt. But now you're looking at guys who, again, well we just talked about player 54 guys that weren't really able to make an N F NFL roster for one reason or another. So it's kind of a different dynamic and I'm interested to see with what level of intensity he approaches that with. Yeah, yeah. I said wait, yeah, wait, I did see that him throwing the shade at the US F L I'm like, I wouldn't want to go coach there or whatever it was. My thoughts from you'll tos Andy, we'll get out of here. Appreciate everyone's comments today. Yeah, we're talking about the coaches. The guy I'm most fascinated with is Reggie Barlow. I think that might be the most exciting game of the weekend. The defenders in the Dragons. I think that those two might be two the better teams in the league. Barlow fascinates me because you do have Wade Phillips who has a winning record in the NFL's, a head coach, his defensive coordinator resume goes without saying. Then you've got Bob Soup's winning record at Oklahoma and then of course Jim has it. N F NFL Coach of the Year coached for a long time has won. And even Alt leagues was undefeated for a season there before they lost the championship. But anyway the thing I like about Barlow, who's got a winning record albeit on the FCS level, but he was voted coach of the year there. And I think John touched on it briefly. I believe the majority of the X ffl players have N F L experience. I think it's like 80% of them. So a lot of them are college all stars. So these are players also over two dozen players more. I think we were on N F NFL rosters this year. I think two dozen were on NFL practice squads this year. So you got a lot of talent within this league, but Barlow is someone who didn't have the benefit of five star recruits and all that and made it work at his level. So he's going into position in the XFL where he's getting an opportunity to coach talent that's better than the college level because I don't care what NFL team you take, I don't care what pro team you align, you match 'em up against any college team. They'd kill 'em. That old argument of the worst the best college team can beat the worst N F L team, not true Alabama as great as they are, Georgia, as great as they are, small percentage of their players from their championship teams make it into the N F L. You get maybe 8, 12, 15. So you're not going to get, they have 70, 80, 90 players. All those five star recruits, four star recruits, all that. They don't make it into the nfl, believe it or not. It's just the way it goes. Only 1.6% of all college football players make the National Football League. So I think Reggie Barlow is positioned to be able to coach these players. I like his hires. I like the roster to Yvonne Hutchins is put together. I like the fact that he has Greg Williams with him. Say what you want about him, but he's got a lot of experience as defensive coordinator. I think that Sunday night matchup his aggressive style of defense against June Jones offense should be fun. So there are a lot of interesting elements to the league and I like the variety with the coaches where you have a lot of new guys who are going up against these experienced hands that I just mentioned. So should be fun. Let's get Andy final thoughts from you and then we'll get out. Andy's going to be joining me Tuesday. Got to, we were going to do a post-game tomorrow when the game's done so late. I'm flying to Mexico for vacation on Monday, so hopefully Tuesday morning there Beachside. Andy and I will be recapping X L week one and then John Vogel will be joining me. I think we're going to do a live show Friday as opposed to the normal I, it'll be around the normal time. I think we'll just do a live show because I can't edit and upload from Mexico. But really appreciate Mike and Evan, Greg and John Andy the whole time. Everyone else that came on, we got back heavy at the end, but I think that's okay. Hopefully you guys all give me the patience for working through all this today. But Andy, final thoughts from you and it just means a lot to everyone taking the time to hop on today. Yeah, listen first of all, I just wanted to say thank you to all of you for putting in all of the work that you have these last few years when the lights were off for this league the lights were still on for all of us. And I think that is a huge, huge understatement honestly, because the work that's been done by all of you guys, the media, the scouts and anybody who is involved and really passionate about this as much as I am and believe me, I'm sort of newer to the game compared to a lot of you, I'm still getting my feet wet in this field. And to get to see it just kind of culminate to this point and kind of keep it going after all the ups and downs, the roller coasters that we've been through in the last few years, especially through all of that, I just have to tip my cap to all of you guys. You've been doing such great work for individual teams for different leagues the Alts football spectrum in general. This is fantastic. And I don't, I really don't believe we're here without a lot of your work. I truly believe that. And that goes for everybody. Reid, you've done a tremendous job of bringing all of us here together. It's just we're the Brady Bunch right now in this little six panel <laugh> collection here. But you've brought in so many other people into this spectrum have introduced me to so many different elements of this as well. So thank you for putting this on and for all the work. And that all being said I can't wait for today and for this weekend and for the rest of the season. So this is fantastic. Thank you so much. It's good here. Max says, thanks for dealing listener Max. Everyone though, thanks for dealing with my chirping. I know I can be pushy, but I love getting the public hard to find the information out to everyone. I hope and send you all well yes and El Lucid poet says, thinking of Josh Davis. I wow, got a little think that. That's a good I think that's a really good way to, wow, that kind of hit me there. I think that's a really good way to end this. Make sure you guys subscribe. We're going to be giving away two tickets to either the X F L championship game or the US F L championship game. Hopefully we hit the 3,500 mark by the end of the X L season here so we can start planning for that. I really appreciate you guys all today. I'm going to play, I updated the outro music, so we'll play that and then thank you guys all so much. And I know you didn't all get to talk as much, just the knowledge you all have. So thank you guys very much. Thank You. Thank you, Reid. Thank. Thank You.

BONUS Episode - The XFL Is Coming!

Coming up this week on the mark cast. Well, whether you've been waiting three years five years even 20 years, maybe just a week, just like Ned Stark and Game of Thrones, I'm here to tell you the X ffl is coming And winter is coming. Special bonus episode coming to you today ahead of our live kickoff pregame show on Saturday. Previewing everything X F L 2023 season one. First we have longtime friend of the podcast. I think this is his third appearance, Kevin Seaford over at ESPN ESPN's own previewing everything you need to know about the X ffl before this weekend. I Think that they're probably more or less where they hoped and expected to be. I think maybe I'm too cynical. I start the season with kind of lower expectations for what the quality of play will be, what the quality of the interaction on social media and social media content. It's it same as in 2020. Same as with the U S F L. It took and it will take time to get this right if they're going to get it right and it's tough on them because first impressions are so important just in human interaction. And then courtesy of the San Antonio, thank you very much. We have Coach Elizondo coming on offensive coordinator over there. We have the quarterbacks selected for the Braas, getting all the inside details from Coach Elizondo, scheming offense, everything else to expect from the bras. That's what our job is as coaches, is to put these players in position to utilize their skillsets the best. And one of the things that Jack is great at is he's in a really good locator of the ball, right? He's got really good accuracy. Some of the throws he's made in camp so far have been phenomenal. So I think you try not to focus on a player's weaknesses, right? You try to focus on a player's strengths and then just say how can we capitalize on his strengths and also not put him in a position where he's going to get exposed with his weaknesses. Big Time week here coming up. We are almost there. Like subscribe season. Hey guys, welcome to the Mark Reid here. Really going to keep this short today special bonus episode Thursday evening Friday whenever you're watching to this. If you're watching this on Friday, we are probably on route down to Arlington, Texas for our kickoff show. But wanted to give you a special bonus episode this week ahead of our kickoff pregame show this weekend. So like and subscribe, make sure you're tuned in. Turn on all the notifications and bells and all of that. We'll be going live 11:00 AM central through 1:00 PM Central right before, I think we have the player 54 whatever game our show is going to be playing before the XE L kickoff at Saturday at 2:00 PM Central over at Chatta Stadium. So we'll be live 11 to one already posted the whole guest list online. We're going to have the Mike missiles of the world. We're going to have John Vogel, Rick Cella, we're going to have all the new sub riders, Evan and Matt Lyons. Anthony is going to be on there. We're going to have Vince Alt Football scout now. Now I'm going to pull up the list cause I don't one that forget anybody. The professor Andrew Murray's going to be riding with me. We're going to have Eric eager on. We're going to have Greg Parks joining us and we're going to have Pat Rapino going to be a lot of fun. So make sure you are subscribed. 11:00 AM Central this weekend, Saturday before the kickoff and then your boy is going to be covering the game over at Chatta Stadium. Very excited for that. Like I said at the top big show today, Kevin Seifer always appreciate his time coming on 40 minutes with Kevin. Really appreciate that extended runtime with him. Kevin, just interviewing Russ Brand and everybody else, what are we looking forward to here for the X Ffl kickoff? Everything from Kevin, really appreciate that. Then we are going to have Coach Eli Elizondo coming on a former CFL head coach back in the X Ffl now, really have enjoyed following his path here and what he is bringing to Hines Ward, everyone else in San Antonio. And then like I said, Steven Montez Seattle C Dragons, one of the quarterbacks there. Really appreciate that we have on Ben Ucci a few weeks ago. If you guys don't remember that, that is on the podcast feed. Hey guys, future read update here. It's late in the day here on Thursday. Been working throughout the day throughout this week to get Steven Montes on. Have them scheduled today. Steven's been in and out of meetings and it's just not going to work. By the time we got to get the episode posted tonight, we'll work with the C Dragons team here in the future to get him on. I appreciate their patience and flexibility and everything else. Still going to have Kevin Seaford on and Coach Eli Elizondo. We'll get Steven on in the future. Hope you enjoy the episode and we'll see you next time. Thanks. That's going to do it for me today. But before I forget, we have officially crossed 2,500 subscribers. So thank you guys all so much. Long time coming getting here. Didn't even need the XIV l kickoffs to do it. We crossed it beforehand. Thank you guys all so much. So that means we are going to be doing our big giveaway. I will tell you everything at the end of the show. So if you want to be part of the 2,500 subscriber giveaway, check in at the end of the show and I'm going to announce our next giveaway as well. So stay tuned, enjoy the interviews. We'll see you at the end. Well we talk to you I think a year ago then we had you on again and now it is mirror days away from the eczema a kickoff. Kevin Seifer. Did you ever think we'd get to this moment? I thought we probably would. It certainly had to get through the N F L season first and that seemed like that took a very long time. But the whole beauty of the X right there waiting for you as soon as the N F L season is over. Do you think people upset with the end of the Super Bowl would like to know that that holding penalty could be challenged in the X F L? I think they would on the surface if they found out how that's actually going to work. I don't know. It's still layering another level of judgment on top of the judgment that was already happening. But I'm glad the XFL is doing this. I'm glad Dean Blandino is the one who is going to be heading it because if anybody can draw that line of where what should be reversed and what it would be him. But I think people will find a way to be frustrated by that as well. Yeah, no matter what, always a way be frustrated. How has your off season been so far? You covered the Vikings and everything else for espn. How is your life outside of the X F L bubble? Yeah, it's quite down. The Vikings had a wild season. They won 13 regular season games set a record for the most fourth quarter comebacks and including coming back from 33. Nothing to the cult. So there was plenty to write about, plenty of deadline stress to be had but when a team wins 13 games and in the first year of a head coach the one thing that guarantees is a pretty quiet offseason so far so good. We'll see what Lays a wait for us here in the free agency period and once that starts in the draft. But so far it's been pretty quiet. Yeah, it it'll be good. I think we're still, I'm a commander's fan. I think we're still waiting for the Eric behind me hire here. I think that's where our hopes and dreams lie right now. Yeah, and I sounds like there's his job for the taking If he wants it, I, it'll probably come down to him and I, you're a commander's fan. I grew up in Richmond so I follow that franchise for a long time. I don't know if that's the best offensive coordinator job in the N F L right now but if that's the one that he chooses to take then all the best of luck to him. So how are you feeling welfare check now for X Ffl. I mean this'll air Thursday, we're getting into the kickoff here this weekend. We'll be in Arlington doing the live show there. How are you feeling with quality wise of the league? How it stands? Yeah, I think it's pretty much where I thought it would be. There's kind of a mad scramble even though they had same as in 2020, they had the two or almost three year run up to it. But that time goes by fast and a lot of the things that really have to be done can't be done any quicker than if you had had a one year run up, which forming teams having practice is getting ready to actually play football. That is going to be a time crunch no matter how much leeway you had up to it. So I think that they're probably more or less where they hoped and expected to be. I think maybe I'm too cynical. I start the season with lower expectations for what the quality of play will be, what the quality of the interaction on social media and social media content. It's it same as in 2020, same as with the U S F L. It took and it will take time to get this right if they're going to get it right. And it's tough on them because first impressions are so important just in human interaction. And so I remember in 2020 there were never more eyes on them than in that first weekend. And that's a lot of pressure to have put a good product and an exciting product and one that people are going to want to come back to see out there the very first week. And so as much as X F L fans probably don't want to hear this, I think they would be well served to lower their expectations for what they see this weekend and look for signs that can be built upon as opposed to thinking this will be the finished product. Well yeah, and I mean I've been trying to talk to my wife Dorothy about that too because we're going down and okay, what the hell is happening here? And I'm like, it's never, same with the US of L last year. It's never as big as it is. The goal is then you grow over the next five, 10 years but you're never going to get that surge of viewership of just no every man and woman that you get that first weekend. And I know that was think back to 2020, that's why they took as much time as they could to get as much as they could set before they actually set foot on the field. And these guys have filed that same path probably for some different reasons. But it's just unreasonable to think that they'll have all their I dotted and all their Ts crossed by then. We just saw today the progressive main sponsor. I mean maybe we're going to be getting game flows coming back. We feel good we're getting some of these main sponsors everything back as well this time around. Yeah, yeah. I think the football is so ubiquitous in America that I think there are plenty of corporations that want to be associated with it, especially if it's going to be broadcast nationally on ESPN N and abc. and I'm sorry if you hear it dog barking in the background. It's quite a we're pre, let me just tell you, we're very well protected here in the here at X Ffl media headquarters. But I think they'll be okay corporate sponsor wise. But I also think that fortunately won't affect the viewer, the viewer experience, the fan experience that'll just affect the pockets of the owners. So in terms of week one matchups here we got the big Vipers and Arlington, we're getting some of the depth charts out. Who are you looking at in terms of teams, players, individual people that you think might be people that to look out for week one? And I've tried, and maybe this is a error on my part, I've tried not to overthink that and get too deep in the weeds. And so generally speaking, if I'm going to be trying to guess who is going to come out of the gates playing better than some of the other teams, I would look to the teams that have experienced coaches and quarterbacks because no matter what level of football you're playing, whether it's N F L X, ffl, C F L U S F L high School, those are the two most important people on the field. And so I look at a team like Arlington with Stoops and Kyle Slaughterer and say they have the potential, there's obviously a lot more players around them and coaches around 'em that have to do their jobs as well, but they have the potential to come out playing pretty well on a relevant scale to start. Another team is Seattle with Jim Haslet and Ben Ucci if he ends up being the quarterback there in Houston with Wade Phillips and Brandon Silvers. And so there's some clues that you can probably pick out to say these teams are more likely to be playing better early on and maybe put themselves in position from a standings standpoint to be in those playoffs. But so much is dependent on how teams are healthy and what sort of weird things that happen during the course of games and which ones can overcome 'em. Which ones have a better idea of how to manipulate the rules in their favor which ones have the best game management. But if you just judge it on those two most important things from 30,000 feet of any football team, kind of how I lean. Yeah. And with Renegade, as I'm looking here I think the Orlando has it too. We're getting these jump charts out. It feels a little C F L where it's like we have this quarterback or this quarterback in the C F L I think it was two years ago we had the big mi, was it going to be Michael Riley or Nathan Wark? We don't really know. It feels, and I don't know if that's game trickery or if that's just like we really don't know. We're still kind of working through it, but it is kind of interesting. More of the latter is my guests and a couple things there. One it's very possible that there's not much difference between some of the quarterbacks on these teams in terms of we think in terms of the N F L where have you're going to have Aaron Rodgers and Jordan Love and there would never be a question about who you would start, but I don't know that there, the quarterbacks and the way they were distributed, if there's a huge difference between quarterback one A and one B, and so it's possible teams will use two. There's no rule in the end in football that says you can't use two quarterbacks. It's never really worked and it's not, it's generally frowned upon and you usually do it if one of 'em has a very specific set of skills, but you never know mean how different coaches, there's a lot of first time head coaches in the X F L and may or may not feel obligated to follow convention. And so that's a possibility as well. And also to recruit some of these quarterbacks, I don't know that they necessarily had to make a contractual promise, but generally speaking, especially in a competitive situation with the U S F L, you need to give people an idea that they're going to have a chance to play or that they will play or maybe they pass on your offer and look somewhere else. And so that is also a possibility that hey, if there's not a huge difference, let's get as many different quarterbacks on the field as we can. Well a couple things. Yeah, I think I would like to know what they told some of these quarterbacks. Cause it was like Brian Scott upset that he was going to be QB two or three Ryan Willis leaving. But also we've been talking about this in our group chat, keep in mind, just because it's the week one starter, that does not mean that it is the season starter here. No. And I saw a lot of the people, oh why is Louise Perez starting over? Brett Huntley? It's like, well cause Hunt didn't come in until they Just got There. Yeah. So I mean this is not set in stone for the duration of the X ffl. No. And you know can look at the U S F L last year or the X ffl in 2020 and just see how the quarterbacks D in differentiated from the end of the season compared to the beginning. And in some cases I think back to 2020 and the Landry Jones of the world, he got hurt. But there were some other, I think quarterbacks that just were being counted on Matt McGloin. I think silver and it, it just didn't work out. And so there was no reason to keep going through a 10 game season with the same guy when there's not going well. And so that's true at any level, but when the quarterback talent pool was probably more horizontal than it is in the N F L it's certainly easier to go to the next guy. In terms of E S P N, we've gotten a bunch of stuff and there was the media call, I think it was the day after that Valentine's Day, I was going to be a little tired, reasonably little tired after being out with the wife. But we have the player 54 we're chasing the X F L dream. It had kind of been leaking on the TV listings. And then they finally announced that they announced today the X F L Today show that's going to be hosted with Jason Fitz who actually just followed me back on Twitter. So that's excited. We might have to get him on the show, but thoughts on now we're seeing the ESPN marketing machine here And I think this is, and I know there's probably some frustration that there wasn't a lot of knowledge of this earlier. I don't have a locked in explanation for why. I don't know that it's necessarily because they were just scrambling. There's a thought that with the season starting the week after the Super Bowl, any promotion you do in the month of January is going to get swallowed up in N F L playoff talk anyway. And so you're seeing a lot of things being rolled out last this week at the last minute that feels last minute. But it might also be sort of a strategy, I think more likely a strategy of getting things front of mind to people and having substantive things to talk about in the days leading up to the opener. And so I kind of feel like just from a larger sense that this is kind of what they envision themselves as. I think the 2020 X F L was pure football. They were marketing to pure football fans and the idea that there's hardcore football fans who really go into mourning after the Super Bowl and want more football and this iteration has followed the calendar for sure. And we will try to capitalize on that perceived momentum of before people start looking elsewhere for their football fix or sports fix. But I also think that they're kind of a content company where football is going to be the primary content delivered. And so just a little bit of a different perspective in terms of what they will emphasize and what they're about when you see the docuseries that they announced. And there's going to be, and I don't know a lot about the X F L today, I'm guessing it'll be sort of modeled after the N F N F L live and those sort of things where you talk about the goings on of a given week, but I also imagine it'll be more entertainment oriented than maybe we would've seen in 2020 because the owners are from the entertainment industry, at least two of the three. And the other is Red Bird, obviously an sports investor. And so I think we'll see more of that. I think that's kind of what they envision. Not that they haven't come out and said it, but just based on their actions, that's what we see being a priority for them. And I don't necessarily think that means that football's not important to them because just on TV or just movies, the content has to be good, content is king or the whole delivery service is moot. And so I just think that's, that sure seems to be sort of the way they envision this thing moving forward as a business. Well it's important and to have the xFi L today show the player 54, that's kind of like the US F L United by football. It feels like a little bit here. We have our hard knocks, but they hired this Josh Lewin as well right? Am I saying that right? Lewin. Lewin, yep, yep. Yeah so he's like the staff writer. He's doing a podcast. We're doing this X F L today show. I think it's very important for the league to exist outside of Saturday and Sunday with the X U S F L. Last year it was like come Sunday night. Yeah, you did not hear about the U S F L at all again until Friday afternoon. Okay. We're getting whatever challenges of that because like you said you know cover the N F L that never ends and not that the X F L is ever going to be as all encompassing, but you need to have it exist outside of just the games And they have to build it somewhere. And so you have to build the foundation. And so I have no idea what the numbers of those shows will look like when it's all said and done, but you have to start building awareness and seek out people where they are I think is I'm sure something that they're trying to do. And the X F L I think the idea of an XFL fans is that they're very online and so as you know better than anybody, there's a robust group of people who generate a lot of the information and content that's known publicly about the X F L and it's just through online sleuthing and discussion and that sort of thing. And so a lot of those shows and a lot of that content I think is to recognize that that's where a lot of the bass X F L fans are. They have to build it out beyond that, but you have to connect with those bass people to get that information. Have you read any of the new staff writers, the Abel articles yet? A little bit. I saw a little bit of Josh's stuff. I actually went many, many years ago in the late nineties I covered the Orioles baseball Orioles and I think he was the host of the pregame show on what was called Home Team Sports then it's now kind of Comcast or whatever. So I knew him then. He is a very enthusiastic announcer. I didn't know he wrote but he is writing some stuff now. But again, that's, they're looking, that's the profile, the type of, I think information and content that they want out there. Somebody from whose background is, I think he went on to announce N F L Games and Charger or maybe the Padres and some other things. And so somebody who comes at it from that perspective I don't think that they necessarily want hard a hardcore reporter or because they can release the information that they want released. But Josh, I think Josh, I remember him being a very hard worker, very friendly guy and I think he'll be engaging online with people who want to engage if that is set up. But I didn't get to have any huge takeaways from what he wrote, I guess. No, there's been lot to talk. I mean I'm someone, I do a two and a half hour podcast every week, but some length to some of these articles and I mean I host some Mark, there's interesting, they're interesting articles. We had some factual errors. I just we're coming in, this is a world here, this is a world and this is what's going on. So interesting there thought they were going to do all the ESPN tests and then we had the ice storm, the great Texas ice storm. Any concern of announcers not being up to not having gone through these prra practices things or any of the broadcasts or anything? Or do you think espn we know how to handle business? I think they do and a lot of those guys have done games together or done games for ESPN on the college football side. And so I think there's some experience there that and just in terms of doing games and that would, I'm sure the challenge for them will just be familiarizing themselves with this set of players. But if you've been doing college football for a while, you probably recognize a lot of the guys that are out there more than somebody who is covering the N NFL for example. And that's where most of these announcers backgrounds are. And I'm not saying this cause I work for espn, I don't anticipate that being the least of anyone's concerns that the production will be anything other than what it needs to be. Well yeah, I mean it's bringing them, I was between Fox and the espn. I think it's going to look good there in terms of, and haven't had you on since we've had the TV announcements and the schedule and all that. Thoughts on the breakdown, we got ESPN plus all the games are going to be on that. We have a bunch of ones on fx. People are kind of concerned about that pretty heavy after and the first half of the season and then they kind of ramp up towards the playoffs on ESPN and abc. Yeah, and I think I assume that was by design to an certain extent that because I remember talking to people in the industry and outside the industry in 2020 that yes, the ratings did slip every week after the first week but they were just getting ready to hit in that second half of the season. A bunch of, not cable, it was Fox or a b ABC or the big e s ESPN N. And so the idea of building up momentum towards the playoffs and frankly giving these teams a chance to get there on field acts together. Not behind the scenes per se, but maybe behind in front of a few less eyes might not be the worst thing either. So I don't know exactly what the strategy was there, but I think it makes sense to, there's no sport that I can think of. No league in America at least that where the first half of the season is more interesting than the second half. And so if you need to budget things out and you need to put things in different places I'd want to maximize eyes on the second half of the season. And I think that's probably what they've done In terms of ticket sales and we've been checking that and we're not opening all the seats, but it seems like it's looking good. Houston was kind of sluggish. They seem to be picking up dc San Antonio looks awesome thoughts on local ticket sales at least for this kickoff weekend. The interesting is, and this was in 2020 as well, so you look at San Antonio and St. Louis, my understanding is it's going well there too is the team, the cities that are big cities but don't have N F L franchises which they won't like this phrasing, but it kind of makes them aaa football cities basically would be anticipated to do very well. St. Louis was awesome in 2020 in terms of just the fan engagement. The fan interest. And because they had lost the Rams and there were still a ton of football fans there. San Antonio has, first of all it's Texas, so football in Texas is a different story entirely, but San Antonio's a big city. Austin's not that far away and San Antonio has at least been used as for leverage for many N F L teams to get to potentially get new stadiums. And so that has been something as well. And so it is interesting, I think they probably averaged around 18,000 per game total in the league in 2020. But there was a big variety like St. Louis was almost at 30 and New York and LA were way down there. New York and LA are gone now, which is very interesting. The two biggest markets in the country had the worst attendance that are out and that's probably not an accident. It's probably a good idea because there was a lot to compete with in New York in LA and then some of the, from a football perspective beyond anything else. And I remember talking to one of the executives from the St. Louis team in 2020 and Kurt and he was saying the idea of really locking down AAA type big market, but AAA from a football perspective cities makes a ton of sense and that's one place where the X ffl is ahead of the U S F L for sure in terms of creating market and local brand interest and connections. Yeah, I saw a lot that C there, the Houston mayor and the city of Houston is welcoming the roughneck home for whatever this weekend and I saw a lot of U S F L gambler fans. Well they're not the only one team there. No they're not. But I never really knew exactly how to think about the U S F L having local markets but not playing there and they're moving towards that. I get it, I totally understand economically what their thought process was, but it did lead them to have a lot of pretty empty games last year and this year, what is it? Four, I think that they have regional markets so they're moving in that direction. But if you're in Houston and you're a modern day Houston gambler fan, you are a hardcore football person because there's not really a connection there otherwise. Yeah, I have podcasts about the US L for a year and a half. Still don't know <laugh> still dunno what to make about in terms of Vegas. We have our stadium, they announced this week it's 10,000 a game for up to nine games a year. It's a two year lease, puts two full regular seasons at the cost of just one game in St. Louis. So we're kind of getting our bang for our buck there. What do you make of Cashman? The field of dreams. I had a whole Kevin Costner bit about it a few weeks ago. It certainly doesn't fit the profile of the rest of the stadiums that they're in around in the other markets. So mean they can't really sugarcoat that it was obviously not their first choice and obviously they tried very hard to get in somewhere else and could not I think it's a 10,000 seats or so. I think it's 10,000 capacity And whether they get to that or know, but just to me, and there's a lot Vegas clearly that Mark franchise is a little bit behind everything else in a lot of ways but it just speaks to how important all sports leagues think it is to be there somehow some way, even if you're playing in a minor league soccer stadium and paying a lot of money to be there. There's just so many ancillary reasons from an economic standpoint that everybody seems to think that that's so crucial. And so it's clearly been harder than they probably anticipated and harder than the other markets, but they are there and I think that was their primary goal In terms of merch stuff right now with a startup league, not a lot of great options. We're still waiting on Under Armour stuff. I was given a hat that's not even for sale yet. We do not have jerseys, which I think is a major issue going into kickoff weekend. Obviously people can wear stuff from 2020 but merch and merch sales for a new league, should we be more concerned about this or is it not a big deal? I mean I thought it was interesting and I talked to Russ Brandon is it president of the league last week and said, what's, there's a lot of things that you guys are going to sort of pick up and do the same way from 2020. What's the biggest thing people will notice that's different? And the first thing he said is uniforms and that branding and the uniforms of, I think it's new team names in a few cases, but they will physically look different. And so that's a big deal and they think it's a big deal. Under Armour is the manufacturer and so they're not necessarily in the N F L space for sure. And so they have the opportunity to break in, there're at a high level on the football side and so having people wear jerseys around towns, if the local connection matters as much as they say it does and it's going to, you'd want that and you'd want to be sent given away a bunch and having people modeling them, having players wear 'em when they come in to visit as they have been during training camp. And so I don't think it's going to mean that they have to cut back their spending, that their revenues are going to drop and they're going to have to cut back spending. It's not going to hurt them economically. But I mean that's the first thing he said in terms of what going to, are people going to notice first? And so to me that tells you that that's an important thing to them. Well the other thing, and I don't know, I doubt you have insight knowledge on this, but an interesting fact is at least three of the teams have taken their media day photos in practice squad jerseys, which some people are like, Hey, are we going to have these in time? I, I know we have supply chain things still and Under Armor and everything. What do you make of that here? That it feels very close And that could have been as simple as somebody scheduled photo day without knowing that the uniforms hadn't gotten there yet. I don't know the answer to that but I guess it would be on the top 10 list of things I'd be shocked about in sports if all eight teams didn't have their jerseys ready, excuse me for this game. I think if there was any concern about that, I, I'd imagine a call from Dwayne Johnson might speed that along A couple more here, I'll let you go. I appreciate your time today. We're getting Ross charts out, Ross kind of all that stuff. Injury reports it's basically, and I, I've been posting them online and we get a lot of where are these and it's like the media people are sending them out, we're not posting them, we're making them available. It, I doesn't feel like it's public knowledge, but it is public knowledge. What do you make of that and trying to, we still are trying to engage fantasy people and sports betting people and all the people that kind of need to know that information and do what they do. So I guess I wasn't totally blown away. They were sent to us either yesterday or two days ago. I think the depth charts and I guess I wasn't blown away that they weren't ready until now because you know, see that in the N F L level, its like that they hate coaches hate giving up that information. Not necessarily from a competitive standpoint, although it could be, but mostly because they're hosting a competition here to see who's going to start and who's going to play and what the order's going to be. And they're not ready to declare a winner yet. And some coaches to say that there's never a winner, they were always in competition. But I also think that when you're starting in a first year, that's the kind of information, you know, can't necessarily count on there being x ffl beat writers at every, especially with training camp being in Texas, even if the St. Louis post dispatch hires a beat writer to cover the battle hawks every day, whether they're going to be down in or allowed into practice, I don't know. And so that is information that you'd want to send out and I, you know, alerted me to it and I guess the Seattle X F Twitter account was kind of going back and forth with some fans over the death chart issue and I went back and found that thread and I was shocked at that exchange to be completely honest. I think at one point they said, well you could always just watch the game. I mean come on this, you're trying to get people to watch the game by providing whatever information you can about the team. And I don't know if that just reflected what one person doing Twitter for that team thought or if that's their company policy that we're not going to focus on the things that are important to most football fans. We're just going to tell a story about a game that's and seemed unnecessarily confrontational and dismissive. You should never dismiss fans whether you're a reporter or you're a podcaster or you're an N F L team or anyone like those. I mean as long as it's within reason FAN is telling you have to run the ball 500 times in a row, then you can dismiss them. But if they're making anything close to reasonable questions, asking reasonable questions and suggestions, do not dismiss them. Might want to explain why you don't have it yet and just say that you're not focusing on who the starting quarterback is is not a good answer because that is, your coach is definitely focusing on that. The players are focusing on that. The broadcast will focus on that. So I was surprised to see that. I hope that's just maybe a little bit of a misguided back and forth on social media and not representative of what the attitude towards discussing the football part of this league and be the attitude towards fans because that would be a mistake. Well it's interesting to me, and both the US F L and the XE L I think are guilty of this. If I, I've just said I don't always know if they know their place in, I think some people in the XE L we are a top six sport whatever or where that's where, and we did the whole thing last week and the People's Bill of Rights and what do we want from these leagues? And I said, I think it right now you're a little more C F L. We need to engage, we need to tap in, do local fan building, we're doing the Houston thing. And part of that is this fantasy and sports betting and the number of people that I interviewed last year that didn't give two craps about the U S F L but watched it every week because they could bet on it, do fantasy on it. Anything you can add to this show? Let me get Kevin, let me get yeah coach tell us on the one here, let me get as many things as I can because maybe there's 10% of it that gravitates towards you. I would lean into that. I think they still have not announced as we're record this their fantasy betting data partner. It's only two days till kickoff. And I published a story this morning just sort of that here's what you need to know about the X ffl and it occurred to me after I filed it that I didn't mention fantasy or gambling. And that has, I mean that's ubiquitous in all sports now and so I'm sure it'll be an element of it what they're waiting for on it. I'm not sure. I think I saw that there's some thought from Vegas that they kind of want to see what a few of the games before they start establishing odds and picking winners and that sort of thing. But from a fantasy perspective you could start right away. And so it is surprising that hasn't come out yet because that's something while you want to, we talked earlier about wanting to not have things swallowed up by the NFL and Super Bowl coverage. That's something that takes a little bit of a time to set up if you're going to play X F L fantasy or you're even going to think about betting on X ffl games. Three questions for, I'll get you out of here, I promise. Yeah, make of we have it in here as pot shots but like U S F L is, they have their big commercial and this is not a Hollywood league during the Super Bowl they had, and I was very upset about that. I had a couple beers but I wrote a tweet about, they talked about real football is coming back in eight weeks and you're like, I mean all these leagues play and we cover all this stuff. What do you and the X F L really has not engaged at all in any of this. What do you make of the sparring? Even going back to last year when I talked to Daryl Johnson about the U S F L, when the US L was starting to getting ready to kick off and asked him about the X ffl competition and he was pretty frontal about saying, we're owned by Fox Sports, sports are on tv, I don't see anybody being able to do this better than us. And he said, even if remember he said something, even if their quality of play is the same as us, which I don't think it could possibly be, there's no way they can broadcast. And they did a good job broadcasting, I'm not sure that they moved the industry ahead by a thousand yards or anything like that, but they did a good job. But then X ffl signed with E S P and Disney and so I think that's a pretty formidable thing there. And I did ask Russ, Brandon, not so much trying to get him to take a pot shot, but just kind of say what's your sense of the fact that there's now, I mean we're taking a step back, this is the first week. This mean 20 consecutive weekends of pro football non N F L pro football on nationally, broadcasted weekends on television and then the N F L will pick up and then so we're in going into an unprecedented amount of football that's going to be available to people. And I'm sure this has been a point of discussion for you for a long time, but are we sure that there's enough room for this? Why is the X ffl in your mind in a better spot? And he basically said, I haven't spent any time thinking about the U S F L, which I know is just fundamentally not the case because any business will take into account what the landscape looks like. But he was not interested in engaging on any level. Were not, when I asked them last year about what Darryl Johnson said and if they wanted to respond they declined. And so it seems like they've kind of taken the approach, they're sort of the big dog and you don't bite down and I don't know that there becomes this mindset, you know, don't have to acknowledge somebody that doesn't impact you but as soon as you acknowledge 'em then they do. And so that seems to be the approach they're taking. It would be fun for us to have the back and forth content and I actually the first go around, I missed the reference to Hollywood and then I went back and watched it and then there's a guy sitting in a director's chair and I assumed that was a shot at the Rock, which is fine, but I Will be very interested to see if there's enough attention and interest in having that much football in the N F NFL off season. But I don't necessarily think the XFL is making a mistake by not engaging and I don't think the S F L's been frontal, they've just been a little bit more acknowledging that say, while saying that you can wait eight weeks for football, sort of ignores the fact that the XFL is going to be there but then also doing the director thing. So I don't think either way is a necessarily the wrong approach, but they've taken very different approaches. You got to mute mute the Twitter, Twitter trolls, that's what you got to do. You got to mute that. I will say even deeper than that, the uniform in that commercial looks eerily similar to the San Antonio Obama's uniform, which is interesting. Which is obviously the rock's names and that was very intentional. Yeah, I'll say yeah Russ Brandon is literally one of my favorite people. I got to interact with them at the Arizona Players Showcase and then at the hub in Arlington when they have that big announcement and I think he is spectacular. I really like him and I like him with I'm from the N F nfl, we're not Going to deal. Yeah, it very much was an N F NFL type response and when you're in the N F L, there's there's not many things in the culture that are in a higher frame than the N F nfl and so it was a very much an N F response or non-response. Last two here, in terms of national marketing, if you're follow the Rock on Instagram, we see a lot, we follow whatever we were talking before, everyone on social media, but we got a couple ESPN ads. There hasn't been a lot of national this is happening this weekend. No. And I don't know if it's because it's assumed that people know that or if it's a little bit of a soft opening in that regard. And then as we talked about at the beginning, that the most of the majority of national games will be in that second half of the season. So that could all be part of it. I've noticed that as well. And it could be as simple as was the fact that Super Bowl was on Fox gave the US F L a chance to have a little bit more voice and then we realized the X F L hasn't. But I have noticed that. But I do think in the local markets they've been working extremely hard and that's why the ticket sales are going the way they are and they have ticket, have local offices and all these cities right now that are really going at it, I think to try to sell tickets. And as far as the TV ratings go, I guess we'll see what happens there. But I have noticed that I don't possible it's a little bit of a viewed as a soft launch, but it's also possible that there's different avenues, social media being the biggest one of promoting now and you don't have to buy an ad during the Super Bowl per se to let people know you're playing football this weekend. Yeah, we had bets if Fox was going to give up 7 million for a 32nd out of their own revenue. Cause yeah, it's not going to cost them anything, but it does cost them after that. Last question and we even have a quote here from your article today have you gotten an idea of from ownership of what success looks like this season on and off the field and we have a quote from Russ brand and talking about how they wanted to demonstrate it's a long term run well beyond the second season. What does success look like for the owners? I think that proof of concept that can, the things that they wanted to do, which is have well played football and use it to create online content television content in new ways that draws new eyes can work and that the numbers went in the right direction and that things were better and more polished at the end of the season. That they were at the beginning previous to this U S F L XFL 2020, the only sign of success is if they would get through the entire season and get onto a second one. While we can't guarantee that we just saw Vince McMahon throw away 200 million to not come back for a second season all indications are that the way they have built this is that that's not a, in doubt whether they would come back for a second season or not, at least not at this point. And so to me, what I took from what he said was that they want to, a successful season would be that what they've envisioned as far as the field and in content delivery that there's a market for that and that they can tweak what they do this year in following years and make it better. Well Kevin, I appreciate it extended today, excited here. We'll be live, like I said this dumb little podcast credentials for the X F L kickoff if you Awesome. Didn't believe that. So where are you going To be? Well, so we, well we'll be there for the game in the press box. Yeah. But we will be live across the, there I am renting the suite at the hotel across the street to be able to do a live show because there's nowhere, nowhere that would allow us like Texas Live and everything. Yeah. We don't allow anybody. But yeah, we'll be live and then we'll be at the game and I'm very excited. I yeah, I promise not to embarrass anybody. I'll be in there. We're on my best behavior. Okay, good to hear. Awesome. Kevin Siever espn, thank you so much for your time. Thanks for having me. Well it is always fun when the intersections of all of our worlds C F l, exe L, everything else comes together. We have Coach Eli Elizondo here with the now offensive coordinator for the San Antonio Promise. How are you doing sir? Doing great man. Thanks for having me on. Excited to be here. It's good. Busy week of kickoff. First off, I'd welfare a check on you. How are we doing? Well, it's the end of camp, which means that you're a little bit lower on the sleep totem pole but we're doing great. We're excited. Our guys are excited. After three, four weeks of camp, you're ready to go into battle and so we're excited. It's game week. You get the excitement, the chill in your bones and it's around the corner here now. Yeah, I couldn't imagine from an outsider, and we've lived through this a long time, but having been at camp now and gone through all this, I couldn't imagine the excitement both the players and the staff have across the board. It's get tired of practicing against each other. First of all, you get tired of watching the same guys and at the end of the day we coach this game and we play this game for the games. And unlike baseball or basketball where there's so many games, football has such few opportunities. So each game means so much more just in the one win loss column. So I think that's the exciting part. But I think, you know, practice, you're running your plays, you're trying not to scheme the defense and they're trying not to scheme you. But now it's time to put it all together and put a game plan together. And then the exciting part really Reid is watching these guys compete, right? You've seen 'em go through camp. I'm really excited for our guys. I'm really excited to watch them on Sunday and it's the first time we played together as a team in a game with everything is real. And so I'm excited for 'em that they're going to go out and go out and do great and it'll be fun to watch. Comparing Exe L 2020 now being back, what's the process been like? Yeah, I got to tell you, it's been really good. I thought 2.0, XL 2.0 was really well done. It's been even better here. Kudos to the management the higher ups, the execs, they've got a great vision, they've got a great plan. I just feel like it's a little bit more well put together for some longevity. And the excitement has been great. Obviously having DJ the Rock involved Danny Garcia, they've been great but I think it feels a little different this time. It doesn't feel like a flirtation. We're just kind of testing it out. It feels like, okay, we've been down this road, we've learned from the mistakes and now we're hitting those potholes so to speak. There'll be some challenges as there always is, but I think everybody is that much wiser for having gone through what we went through. So I think everybody's excited. And I know those guys just speaking on their behalf, they, they've been putting this thing together much longer than the coaches have, so I know they're excited for Saturday and Sunday. Coming back here, obviously a lot of the Tampa people here, but now with Hines Ward, how did all that combination come together in San Antonio for you? Yeah, first of all, Hines has been great. He's given me a lot of flexibility and really impressed for somebody that's competed and been successful at the highest level. He's always trying to learn, always trying, asking for what do you think of this? Or how did you do that? Or why did we coach it this way? And so his humility's been awesome. I think he's a natural leader of men as evident from his playing career. And I think he's been really, really good with the players. And when I went through it the first time you're a head coach, it's hard, hard to make cuts. It's hard to, you know, go to bed every night saying, are we doing the right things? Did I say it the right way? And so I think he's working through all of that, just like any first time head coach. But he's been great having Josh Nece wanted our quarterbacks coach, Pete Urian, who was our tight ends coach and who I've worked with before has just created really good chemistry. Jimmy Johnson on offense has been fantastic. And then our tight end special teams coach Scott Boone, I've known for over 20 years. So we have a nice process on offense and it's just great to not go through the feeling out period with a brand new staff. And so that part has been good. And we have a great group of guys on offense I'm really excited about. Yeah. How would you view the offense right now? Because obviously either we could kick off. The hard part in this version of the X ffl was we didn't go through any many camps. We didn't go through OTAs really. The first time we got together, we were going out for the first practice and we said, we've never thrown a flag route to this tight end. We've never thrown a checkdown to this running back. And so you're getting into a team period and you're literally going, how's this all going? To look credit to those guys. They took the meetings that we had in the off season on Zoom and they came in ready and prepared. And just the growth of that has been phenomenal. But I think over the last couple weeks, guys playing with each other, guys getting that feel for body language, that chemistry of communicating up front has been really, really good. But for us it was a little bit different because whereas you normally come in with your full playbook ready to go, and for us we kind of got to get to know these guys and what their strengths are and what they can do, how we want to manufacture and guide the offense in that direction. And that was different. That was a different experience for all of us because again, normally you have your set, Hey, I'm ready to go. I got my installs all the way through the 20 practices and we got scripts done and this one was kind of like, okay, well let's see what they look like on day one and let's add this on day three. But kudos to the players. They've been awesome in picking this stuff up. And just a really good group of guys Today, and this was good timing. We announced quarterback here, Jack Cohen QB one we've had the captains, everything announced. I'm glad that we could do this in that order. Not the other way around, but the interviews what led to the decision for him and obviously between you and Hi Coach Ward and everybody else, I think we have three really phenomenal quarterbacks that quarterback room's one of the better rooms I've been around and Puma Pass has such a high ceiling, spent as much time in the N F L, but his, he's got so much ability and he changes the game. And then the competition between Reid and Jack was so close. And I truly feel like we have two championship caliber quarterbacks and P was going to add a third element to that, but I think that it was really, this was the difference. It really was, man, we have to make a decision. And Jack was just a little bit more consistent at playing at a high level. But I mean both those guys competed and performed at a high level and it's going to be fun to watch. And I know it's hard on Reid but he's been tremendous in his approach and his understanding. And like I said, I think we got two really good ones. Were there things that you had to do differently offensively to cater to Jack's mobility, lack of mobility than you would've had to with a different quarterback? Yeah, I think that's always, that's what our job is as coach is to put these players in position to utilize their skill sets the best. And one of the things that Jack is great at is he's in a really good locator of the ball. He's got really good accuracy. Some of the throws he's made in camp so far have been phenomenal. So I think you try not to focus on a player's weaknesses. You try to focus on a player's strengths and then just say, how can we capitalize on his strengths and also not put him in a position where he's going to get exposed with his weaknesses than people think. I'll tell you that. But part of playing that quarterback position is look, if you're a guy that is out and can get out and extend plays with your feet a lot, Patrick Mahomes there's magic in that. But there's also magic in working the tight little spaces in the pocket and finding the soft spots. And that's what Jack is really good at. And more so look, if you're a quarterback that's not as mobile, you better know exactly where everything is. And that's one of the things that he's great at is just knowing where every route distribution is and where guys are and being able to hit his checkdown on time and listened to his feet and get the ball out and not put himself in a compromising position. Back in Tampa here, back a million years ago, it feels like 2020 it seemed like the offense improved once you were able to do the play calling, kind of simplifying the play, calling for the pace of play, make it easier for your players. Could we expect to see more of that this time? Or how is that going to work in terms of getting the plays called out? We're going to run triple option belly dive football, so that's what we're telling everybody. Yeah, look, I think there are evolutions right in our own coaching trees and our own development. So without giving too much away I think our job is really on a week by week basis to say one, which players are up and how do we maximize our skills? But two, what do we need to do to neutralize the defense? And that is going to change week to week. And that's one of the things that in our system, I'm a big believer in and we're big believers in, if we have to be an empty and throw it 50 times because that's what we have to do that week, that's what we have to do. If we have to line up and double tight and we're going to hand the ball off and do that 50 times and because that's best in terms of our game plan, that's what we focus on. And I'm a big believer in that because I don't believe in defining ourselves into a particular system. Hey, we're up tempo. Yes. Are we in the huddle and grind the clock? Yes. Are we double tight and play action? Yes. Are we empty? And yes, and I think those things are hard to do. It's easier said than done, but at the same time, that's what has made this system that we run so successful over time and that's what we'll continue to hope to do. How do you like the player coach communications and being able to utilize it and people to be able to hear that? What do you make of that One? I think it's great for the game. I do think from a skill position perspective, for a receiver to be able to hear me a tight end, to be able to hear me or running back to be able to hear me, it gives them more time to focus on the defense, right, okay, I heard the call now I can see what's happening. As opposed to breaking the huddle, going out to your alignment, getting lined up or getting the signal from the sideline, that processing time is huge. That being said, I'm not big on talk. I give them the call and I let them do their job. And I just think to myself, man, if I'm trying to do my job and somebody is in my ear the entire time, that would frustrate the heck out of me. So I give 'em the call and if there's anything I need to chime in, I chime in quickly, but I let them focus, let them play because if I have to tell 'em anything at that point, then I haven't done my job in the previous six days. So In terms of the 1, 2, 3 points, and I think back in Tampa, you guys were able to run it a lot more from the one. Are you sticking with that? Do you plan on doing more passing, going for two or three? Yeah, it's interesting. We're having a discussion on the analytics behind that and it's obviously risk reward. If you get four touchdowns and you get three extra points from the two or four extra points from the two, then best case scenario you have to hit a hundred percent to generate four points. If you go for two from the five all four times and you're 50% success rate, you're at the exact same place. So I think that's going to depend every week. It's possibly going to change every week based on how we feel about the red zone defense that we're playing against, how good they are down there. Do we feel like we have a good package in there? So I think that's going to change week to week. But I can tell you this, I know every team's working on crazy from the five yard line, so We watched you tough season up in the C F L with the Elks and still tough. There's still a lot of things and we're learning. What did you learn being able to be in there as a head coach that you're able to bring back down here to the states again? Yeah, it's a great question. I think it was a tough situation coming in for me. I came in late, came in under a covid year inherited a roster, inherited a staff, and so there were some challenges internally. I think that there was some conflicts in there within the organization that affected everybody's ability to do their job well. That being said, I've always said, Hey, I'm responsible for the football side of it. We didn't win enough games. What I've learned from it, and I took this from Josh McDaniels, when he got let go as head coach, one of the things that he did was he opened up an Excel sheet and just started typing lessons learned. And so I tried to follow that same approach. It takes a little bit of time to get over the disappointment, especially when you don't feel like you were given an opportunity to set the culture, which takes time to build. But the lessons that you learned from that, the hardest challenge, and I think Hines mentioned this to me, is he was going through it and I was like, man, there's no doubt about it. Y one I think it takes y, you don't realize as a coach how much time y you're away from football and you're handling what the meals are and what about this equipment and this challenge and the communications director. And so your football time is shrunk because you're worrying about everything, the bus schedules, the transportation. When are we getting back? How are we parking? What's the hotel set up? What's the meeting room? Okay. And you compound that Reid, by having it done in a covid year, that was a real challenge. How are we going to prevent ourselves from really derailing the season? And so you learn a lot about yourself. For me it was trying to be the same guy every day in the building, win or lose, send the message related to football, make sure that those guys know that we love, we care about 'em, we're family. And at the same time establish a standard. This is good enough, this is not good enough and we failed. And so there's a lot of internal looking, but I think at the end of the day, for me personally, it was a great growth opportunity. I hope I'm blessed enough to get another opportunity to sit in that chair. I'll be wiser for it, I'll be better for it. There's a number of things we'll do different, but at the same time, you know also look back and say, look, there were some things that I had no control over. And so you can't beat yourself up for those things. You have to say these were decisions that were non-football decisions and you control what you can control. But thankful for the opportunity, Brock and I are still real close. We'll always be close but unfortunately didn't go the way we wanted. And that's part of life and that's part of what we teach our players. It's how you respond, how you get ready for the next adventure. And that's what this one is. And I couldn't be more excited to be here. Last question for me, I appreciate it and people don't know the last time died in between, this wasn't coach's fault, but we're doing this. I appreciate the extra time we saw. And even when I talked with Danny and DJ down when they did the Arlington hub announcement, talking about really embracing the Hispanic Latino speaking, we're in Texas, we want to involve all these different cultures. We saw you when you were announced to a Spanish speaking kind of introduction to fans. Are you looking forward to growing that, utilizing that and building on that fan base as well, using your abilities? I was born in Mexico. I spent the first five years of my life there. And when I naturalized became a US citizen, I went to kindergarten. I didn't know a word of English. So for me it was a process of learning and adapting. And at some point along the way, my given name is Haime, but nobody could say that it's spelled the same way. And everybody says, okay, it's Jamie. And so I just adapted and said, yo, you can call me whatever you want. And then as a head coach, I've been called a lot worse things. But coming back here has been refreshing. I remember my first conversation with Hines. I told him, people know me as Jamie, but he goes, well, that's what your mother called you. That's what I'm calling you. And that's been kind of refreshing to be honest with you because you forget that as a coach you get a chance to impact so many people that are not in the building. And if I can influence players from whatever country, whether it's my home country in Mexico or here in the States that come from the Hispanic community, that's a blessing in itself and something that I would love to continue to know and continue to grow. This game has truly become international at all levels. And so football is really, really growing. And if I can be an ambassador to the people where I come from or anybody else, then I will gladly embrace that role. Well, I really appreciate your time. I think it's great, good faith and like I said for people our listeners follow everyone from all the leagues and it's great to have you now back in the X Ffl able to track all that. And I think the Brahmas are looking strong here coming in and ticket sales and everything. I think it's going to be good. Yeah, there's only one thing, man. You got to change that dragons flag back there to what Brahmas wants. So we'll get you taken care of. That's all. Yeah, I got a lot of old rock merchandise I need to find that has a very similar bra on there. I need to go pull out of my closet back when I was in high school. It was great seeing you, man. Thanks for having me on. Thank you so much. All right, take care. Huge special thanks to Kevin Seifer, ESPN's own coming on extended interview today with Kevin. Really appreciate that. Really appreciate the San Antonio Bras team providing coach Eli Elizondo. I've been trying to get that for a while. Really appreciate the patience with that kickoff week. There's a lot of stuff going on, so it means a lot. All the teams, all the media people have been great to work with. So thank you guys all so much for that. Before I go, this is how you can enter the win, the 2,500 subscriber giveaway, and then we're going to be announcing our next giveaway here, which has been scrolling on the screen the whole time. But we will officially announce that if you want. The coveted still got coveted. Brian Scott signed spring league football. That is prize number one. That is the grand prize here play. This is the Veterans Day. Spring league football could be a collector's item someday. We don't know where Brian's going to end up here, what's going on. But if you want to win that. And then I have four authentic game worn spring league jerseys. These are all size large. It's a tight large. So I probably in my normal life, wear a medium or a large I'm like a double xl. These are very tight. Might be more of a frameable item. Jenna, you might be able to rock it off here. But we have four of these. These are all size large. It's not Brian Scott's. We have number 15 Spring League general's Jersey. And then we have three Blues. We have a number 16, we have a number two, and then we have a number 23 on there. So if you want any of these, they're all really good condition, all size large. And then like I said, the football, this is how you're going to win. Comment on the video this week and you say comment, football generals Jersey, blues jersey, and you can enter to win all three. You can enter to win just one, but enter the ones that you want size large football. Say read, I want the football, I want the generals, Jersey Blues, whatever. When I get back in town, I'm going to be out town next week got remote interviews, all that stuff scheduled. But when I get back in town, we'll do the giveaway. But this is how you're going to enter the win, the 2,500 subscriber giveaway. You have to comment on this video. That's the only way you can win. And then I'll draft and you we'll do a raffle and do all that stuff. The next giveaway, our goal, 3,500 subscribers by the end of the X ffl season. That's a thousand subscribers, but I think we can do it if in the win we cross 3,500 subscribers, you get two tickets to the championship game of either the X F L or the U US F L we I, because you equal opportunity here. So we'll get to that point. But like and subscribe, share this video with your friends, please subscribe, labor love here, watch the video, share 'em. Really appreciate that. But that's going to be our next giveaway. Two championship ticket game championship game tickets to either the X Ffl championship game wherever that's going to be this year, flights and all that. Not included but two tickets or you get two tickets to the U S F L game and I'll get good. Well, I'll get you good. You're not going to be back row here. We're not going to do, who is that? Jordan loves Mom and Arrowhead. <laugh> Arrowhead and the back row. Not going to do that. We'll give you that. But get in on the 2,500, get this stuff out of my office please. And then we'll do that two tickets when we hit 3,500 subscribers. Crazy week, traveling tomorrow. Should be fun. A lot of work. Appreciate everyone's support. We'll see you in Arlington next time we talk and it will be X ffl. The next time we talk, it will be XFL kickoff game day. So we'll see you soon. Thanks.

Episode 131 - Who Survived the XFL Roster Cuts?

Well, it's always a good excuse to put on my Chinese knockoff, Houston roughneck, PJ Walker, Jersey back for 2020 AJ Smith. How are you doing, sir? Doing pretty good. You know, I'd say we're doing good. We've been snowed in for like four days, but you know, we're just making it work. It's been good. It's been a good excuse for me to catch up on some of these interviews, cuz I've been emailing team reps. I'm like, Hey, you know, there's not a lot stuck inside that. How, how. How's how is everything going? How, how is were week three here now? How's everything, you know, besides the weather. You know, our team was it's, everything's going, going to plan you start hitting that. Phase of camp where you're not thinking, and it's more about getting reps and playing faster. And you're no longer teaching. You're just. Repping. And so we've accomplished that phase and now it's just gotta get to this snow to melt so we can go wrap some more before we play in 18 days. Now I do have to ask you. I am a, you know, Seattle sea dragons, I guess now fan what is it? Dragons fan. You're the first Houston rev. Next first we've talked to, I do have to ask how is my boy Brandon silvers doing it feels weird returning to the XL without him being on our team. Yeah, no, Brandon, he's doing great. You know, I, I personally got the coaching before where he. You know, he, he did a good job for us. I think he threw like non-touch downs and equivalent of six quarters. And, you know, it's doing a great job and came in a lot of our quarterbacks, you know, they're familiar with what we do in the system, but yeah, he's doing, he's doing good. Yeah. That'll always be my quarterback. That'll always be, we have bed news, cheer, whoever that Brandon. So Silver's back. How would you say the teams are. The teams doing offensively so far now that you were kind of, I know we were supposed to do like joint practices and ESPN tests and stuff, but besides all that, this will air next week. How is the team offensively doing. Defensively, you know, it's, like, you just kind of said, it reminds me of an old coach. Episode of Dober told coach. She goes, man. You know, I thought we're doing, you know, we're really good. And he is like, yeah, just cuz we're always playing ourselves daughter and you know, Until you can go play somebody, but you know, from what we've seen, it's the same thing for us offensively things are just coming together. We're playing fast. Defense gets after us at times. And you know, it's been a good, good battle between the offenses and defense so far and camp. I'm sure. You've been asked this a thousand times. How's it feel to be back and just be in this, this version? What does that feel like different from last time? I mean, obviously you're in a much more high ho high profile position, but overall. Yeah, man. It it's. It's. Special. I mean, it's like not just special, it's really special. And I don't get off about this to my team or anything, or go on because, you know, it's, it's about our team and stuff, but you know, to when 2020 I was living my dream, like to be with June who I'd been with for tenure years. Different places installed offense five or six different times. And to be in. The spring with the history of the run shoot off it's in spring leagues and the be in Houston. By all these things combined. And it's the XFL. Like living my dream and. You know, for that to get taken away. And especially there was some stuff going on in, in the background too, for me, as far as the 20, 21 season. You know, you just never thought it would come back and for it to come back. And then now it is the way it is. Like you said, a little bit different situation. I'm not with those coaches, but now I'm with Wade Phillips. It's again, building another type of deal that you can't recreate this in any type of other level, cuz this is the only level. And it's just, I can't can't really. Explain how special it is. Well, I know, and they, I've obviously all of us in our circle know you and your work, and, you know, we're tremendously excited to see you get this opportunity. So it is cool now to. You know, all that, whatever and chaos and that we've come back and now hopefully it's bigger and better than ever. It is exciting. It's been many, many, many weeks of doing this kind of waiting to come back, but I think it's gonna be a long time coming. Yeah, no, it's, it's, it's, it's been good. And, you know, Everything house telling us to somebody today, we're kind of having a similar conversation and one thing that's been great for me. Is, you know, a similar opportunity could have happened in 2021. If COVID didn't exist. And that always kind of, you know, it's, it's white on your shoulders, like man, but you know, since that time isn't matter what level it was all about opportunity. From now, till then, since COVID shut us down March 15th. I've coordinated in about 48 games. So it's kind of all full circle meant for reason, I feel way better. Having that under my belt to come back and get it right. And get it going. And 3.0. How are, is the quarterback race developing right now? I know it's, like I said, we're getting into the PR the real scrimmages and stuff, but how, how is the, the three guys going. They're all doing outstanding. We could win with all three of them. You know, it's still a race. But all of them come in and, you know, they've shown why we, we drafted them. We believe in all three of 'em. They all three at times go. Wow. You know, all of 'em have armed talent. You know what we do throwing the football past to set up the run. It's it's been days where, you know, one day one looks like it's his and the next day he takes off is kind of a circle of who's. Just performing, but you know, that's just, you know, Attributing to their skill sets. But as far as leadership and intangibles, all of 'em are leaders. All of 'em are going out, doing a little things and, and getting us as a team coming together. And no there it's, it's gonna be interesting. What happens here and who's gonna take QB one and 18 days. We still have a few more practices to determine. Determined out. Yeah. We saw with Hals offense back in 2020, it struggled when we, we didn't have the proper arm strength, you know, going when Landry, whatever went down. How do you feel about the depth of the room and being able to run your offense? Yeah. It's we, again, like we could win a fall three it's that's that's how good we feel about our quarterback room. And until, you know, there's there's history. Of them all winning either with me or with other coaches I've been in. You know, the spread run and shoot systems that are, you know, identical to what we did and what we do in 2020. So, you know, they, they got the experience to go in and, and do what we do. How much progress were you able to see through the work that Jordan Palmer did with the quarterbacks headed into camp? You know, you, you would have to ask the quarterbacks that specifically. You know, I think it's always important to have a, a coach like that. Working with those guys to me, I kind of see 'em as, as caddies. In a way that new Asia quarterbacks, every quarterback needs a caddy. That's different from the quarterback coach and the meeting room that maybe he's seeing something mechanically that can help him out. Meanwhile, the, you know, us for schematic and we're seeing all this other stuff. So. You'd have to get with them and ask them, you know, their progress. But I thought I was a real. Important deal that they got with them. And had that critique of the position. And a different set of eyes to show, Hey, maybe, you know, in your cinematic sequence, you need to do this with your hip and your eyes need to be here. And that's what Jordan brings to the table. We saw. And I think even through that QB X video, a lot of the technology brought into that. And obviously with your background and everything with the VAR as well, Were you impressed with the, the technology that's been able to be implemented? And if you had a chance to kind of include any of that with all the weather and everything, you know, I'll be able to get outside to do practices as much. yeah, Brittany's laughing over here. That's well, I was just telling her. Talking about first with Palmerville, you know, to break away data. That's just the machine that just confirms validity with your eyes. Like we, we knew that. X Y and Z with the release and this philosophy of it. And then when they give you the data, it's like, yeah, that's what I'll see. And. You know, very rarely is it opposite of what you see and what it is. It's like, oh man, let's maybe we're, we're kidding ourselves here. So the breakaway data we were able to get from the Palmer stuff when they were there just was spot on to a, we, what we thought. And then yeah, it's been cool. So the, the bar system, it's a virtual reality system. I created. Seven eight years ago. That being said there's seven or eight years worth of film for the quarterbacks. So, you know, when you first got here, they took every rep PJ Walker did in practice in 20. And that's, that's how we started say, Hey, just the same offense, same thing we're doing, here's PJ doing it. And then, you know, it was when Ms. Solely did it in Canada and Manzel and all those guys we've had over the past seven years. So, you know, if it snowing the last three or four days, you we've kind of. Came down to the lobby. We made our own space called it the new Cubi office. And. They they've watched, you know, we've had 12 or 14 practices. They've put themselves virtually through that. Many times as much time as they needed. And then they can go back and watch concept specific. So yeah, we're probably the only team that's getting all 22 routes. virtually. You know, that's incredible. I bet you could sell tickets for that to a lot of spring football fans and they would assign them to go through that same process. I think that's pretty cool. Yeah, come, come run the go concept. you know, and this, our number one pass play. That'll be cool. I got a couple before you here, I'll let you go. I promise. How do you feel about the coach to player communications and people being able to hear all that and obviously being brought back this year. Yeah, I was, I was the number one advocate for it. The first time. And I was big on it when they, you know, what was my thoughts on it? I said, well, is it extremely big for us? And I think in 2020, we're really the only team that used it. Right. If you watch, there were still teams huddling. And just doing it, even though everybody could hear the call. Then, you know, you take it a step further with us and, you know, That was so important to me in 2020. I, I didn't care what it, I said, Hey, I'm gonna be head of technology on the sideline. Cause I gotta make sure June can do this. And he'd be there and it'd be a play. And. And we'd get the play called and now we don't have to huddle and in June would see cam Phillips over on the corner and be like, Hey, I'm seeing. Inside leverage. So remember on your nine here settlement, I go outside be looking for the back shoulder 15 to 17, like. Just it it's different for us. Or we could just check the route completely. And so that communication, I think is so key to a new age of football. That's gonna be the standard in the future. We just happen to be the first to do it. Jen, speaking of him, speaking of June, he said he is gonna go for three. Every time has weighed. Have you been pushed away to let you do that as well? Well, he started going for three every time, because I'm the one who broke that down. For them. So it was about week three. And we looked at statistics across the board. And it didn't matter if you went for one tour or 3 30, 3, and a third percent were getting completed and that's all teams, all conversions. So we just said, Hey, why don't we go for three every time? And, you know, we told that. To the league office, like right before the game, before the Dallas game. And then we converted the first one. They're just like, what the heck? And so, you know, It'll be interesting. There's some game theory behind it now, too, as far as being able to be up to scores, as opposed to one score, whether it's one, two or three based off, if they got their extra point or not, you know, analytics will play a lot into that. But yeah, we're, we're not afraid to go for three. I'd go for four. If we can. Back us up to three 20. Speaking of the rules, thoughts on the fourth and 15 conversion play the onsite conversion play. Yeah, I think that that's, you know, That's cool. It's it's been in on some other deals and. I, I don't know what the percentages are. I know they're extremely low. Like as far as the converted onsite kicks in the NFL. So I think even fourth and 15, that goes from maybe a 1% to percent in the NFL of a onsite kick to. 10 To 20%. So the fact that you could raise. Raise that and. I think that plays a little, you know, it's, it's all over the place too being on side kick. So I'm, I'm a fan of it cuz it puts the offense back out there, puts it in our quarterback's hands. And the last question for me, how, in terms of the offense and Wade and everything, how much freedom is he giving you here on the offense? Is it full keys? Are you able to drive the Ferrari? Whether we got. No, we we'll, we'll draw the Ferrari. We're not gonna come out in the Houston beer or anything. You know, he, he wants us to get out there and do what we do. And, you know, that's past the setup to unspread it out. Be wide open. And, you know, do what we've done to be successful. In these spring leagues we've been at and. So, yeah, he's, he's all for it. Well, I'm excited. I appreciate it. Making good use of the weather here and everything, Well, we talked at the Detroit hub a couple weeks ago. Now we have ENT on here from the Canton repository. We're talking all things SFL and cantons, you know, Tom Benson hall, fame, all the rest. Ed, how are you doing, sir? I'm doing really good. How are you? Lovely day here in Ohio, a little overcast, but it's pretty unseasonably warm, I think in the fifties getting close to 60. Well, that's good. So, you know, last year we tracked and us L season one and the kickoff, although the way up to through. You know, playoffs, and then obviously we have the championship game in Canton. This year, you know, trying to get these hubs, couldn't get anywhere for Pittsburgh or New Jersey. So we end up we're we're using the Canton, which I thought made sense all along using that as one of the hubs. We're familiar with that space. What overall thoughts from you first off about the Canton hosting? Two of the teams of four here for season two of the us of L. Yeah. I was really pleased with that. Just quick little background. I'm 52 years old. So I go back to the original us F L when I was in middle school and I was a big fan of that. Remember watching Steve Youngs and. Doug flu of the world. So. When the us fellow was first announced, play the playoff games and the championship last season. I thought that was great. And then the fact that they're increasing the presence, I think that's a good thing. I think it makes sense. And for one, apparently things went well on enough with the USFL on the hall of fame village at Tom Benson stadium. To not only give it another try, but to increase the presence here. And I think it's natural. As all the football fans know. The birthplace of professional football is considered Canton. The, the cradle. And that led to what's the NFL today, and then the pro football hall of fame, you know, which honors the greatest players. In the history in NFL is in Canton, in fact, right next to Tom Benson stadium there. So I think it's a. Really really good fit. Well, to me, it always made sense. I know we don't have a Canton team. We're calling that, you know, greater Pittsburgh, whatever with the Mallers, but. You know, to me, as opposed to trying to attract people to go to like protective stadium in Birmingham or, you know, Legion field when they were using that last year, like, We have foot traffic can all the time we have foot traffic at the hall of fame all the time. You can advertise, Hey, you know, it's like Vegas, right? Hey, while you're here. Is that, is that how that works there? I mean, talk about just the number of people going through the hall of fame stadium there, or the hall of fame. Exhibit at the hall of fame stadium and kind of how that looks and feels for people go in there. Yeah. The one thing I will say is that. As far as I know, the tennis figures, the preferable hall of fame have always been kind of a closely. Guarded secret and something that you don't release. And it certainly shouldn't be because they are, are low, but maybe they don't wanna track from 10 years ago, 20 years ago to today. But obviously it's the. Not only the premier two subtraction and can't and in stark county, Ohio. But certainly one in the region, you have the rock and roll hall of fame. In Cleveland, and then you have Cedar point up there by Sandusky, Ohio, but the pro football hall of fame, especially in the sports sense. Is as big as it gets and people come from all over for that. I know when I've been there for assignments, I've been there just for pleasure. You'll see license plates from all over the country when I've interviewed people. You know, that's a big deal. We make that sometimes part of a cross country trip, we make it just a singular mission to, to go there. So it brings in a lot of foot traffic. As you mentioned, not only local, but regionally and outside the state. And I think that's another thing that makes sense or we'll go together that. The Birmingham stadium, no disrespect to that. But from what I could tell from television, it seemed like, you know, more of a college level type of stadium. And of course Ford field. Where the Detroit team, where the Michigan Panthers will play. That's where the lions play. So that's NFL caliber, but this is kind of a miniature NFL stadium and has modern accommodations. It's had big concerts there. Like journey, Zach, Brown's gonna be there this summer. You've had Dave chappal. Comedian perform there this past summer. And then the hall of fame village also has. Like a kind of a recreation area for kids with zip lines, with a Ferris wheel, it's gonna have a Don Shula restaurant. It's gonna have a, a brewery there. It's gonna have a pizza place that build a bear Starbucks. So, not only do I think that people. If they come to the game, they could make a day. Out of it. And the pro football hall of fame will be made an extra inducement to go. But the hall of fame village. With in its growing, you have attractions that are under construction. A water parks being constructed football theme to hotel football theme. Those are like a year or two away from completion. But, but it's certainly something where there's shovels in the ground and it's gonna happen. So, yeah, I, I think that that Pete will be come. Because of the, the offerings there and the us L hopefully could tie in with that. Cause obviously we have the hall of fame game and things like that with the NFL. I mean, in terms of general usage of that stadium, Besides now us develop taking part. I mean, what, what is the general purpose of that alongside the hall of fame? That's why I never gotten there. Yeah. Now if I'm sketching any of the details, not being a sports writer. Being an entertainment writer, cover arts and music for the, for the newspaper. If I'm off on any of that, my apologies. But. Certainly both high school and local. College games are played there. You know, people who are familiar. With Ohio football, can't McKinley in the mass in tigers, McKinley bulldog. Bulldogs. Those are, you know, two very well known football programs that produced a lot of NFL players. In the rivalry is really rich in history. So Kent McKinley high school is right next to that stadium where the USFL games will be played. So you have games there, not only that regular season, but. You have the high school football playoffs. So the best high school teams. In the state, that's where they go to play their playoff games and at least the championship round. And the rotate, I think. Between Ohio state, where the Buckeyes play as they call it the horseshoe. And then the alternate, I don't know if that's like every other year, but it does come in the, the high school games are played there. In addition to that you have the black college classic. It's the black college football hall of fame. And you have the historically black colleges. And they'll have a game there every year. It's usually just, you know, From memory, it's kind of like a September, maybe August, September type of event. Besides that I mentioned some rock concerts still have at different times. And I think that the hall of fame village. Which doesn't own the stadium, but certainly uses it. And the ha fame village is separate from the pro football hall of fame, but you know, there they're working together. But I do know that they're always trying to bring in more events and trying to get different uses. So it's not like that stadium. Just, you know, sits I, the hall of fame game during the pro football and shrine, but not at all. What did you make? Obviously having the two weeks of playoffs there last year and then the championship, what did you make of the buzz? For, you know, the us F L there last year. Yeah. Now I could speak to that a little bit because I had done some reporting talking to both some local fans and especially some fans coming from outside there, including some media members and people would do some. Podcasts and shows like you do. But I wasn't there to attend them. I was actually on vacation. I was kind of bummed cuz I wanted to see, especially the championship. Hopefully I can make it there this year. But I'll, I'll be honest. It's a hard thing to gauge. And I, I. Didn't sense, like a tremendous. Buzz or excitement locally. Now, all of that kind of, from what I recall was announced kind of late in the, the game, you didn't have like the regular season games that you have this year. So I think, I sense there's gonna be more interest. In anticipation, having two teams that are based, there are two franchises building up to the playoffs, at least one playoff game, the north division, and then to the, the championship. But I think some people, it was kind of like a wait and see, and some people weren't sure about it, but certainly through social media. Talk with some people in the community. They thought it was cool that a professional football league was there. It was affordable. They could take their family. They had like a country music, performer trace Atkins there. And that was right in our, our backyard. So I, I think there's gonna be a little bit more anticipation this year and I miss be was two games one week. And then the chairman of the next week. I am, I, I, my, my dyslexia two in one would ever made. Have we had the, you know, the, the two games one week, the, the. Championship the next week. I was, yes. I was filming weddings that weekend had a lot of animosity that Reid didn't make it out for the championship game. I said, I got, I got four weddings this weekend, this 4th of July we weekend. So yeah, this year were there, you know, you do the press conference, everyone's there Fox, you know, Everyone, you know, all the big names. What did you make of the sense and buzz now this time around, you know, with the announcement now, moving forward. Yeah, I think there's, there's more and that's kind of, kind of what I based my previous comments on. Being more anticipation. Now, when I talked about last season, there wasn't maybe as much buzz. You know, there was a decent attendance. I couldn't give you figures, but I did, you know, watch the championship game on television. And there were certainly fans there as opposed to like the Birmingham games when I would turn those on television. And so many seats would be, be empty. Now we both know Birmingham was used by all the teams. So. That was a challenge to attract fans from the other, other markets. But I know that especially the people who are like in tourism, In marketing, the people with the visitors bureau. And stark county, local officials. People who wanna bring more business, not only the pro football hall of fame, but to the hotels and restaurants that there's some excitement there and they feel like there's definitely. An opportunity there with. More presence with what is it? You know, several games being played by the New Jersey generals in the Pittsburgh. Mallers this year. So I think there's a lot of, lot of optimism and the fact that the USFL. Made a commitment, not only to return. The PLA one of the playoff games in the championship. I almost, I almost said super bowl. My mistake, I guess, because that's the week we're in here. But yeah, I think the, the commitment of. A second season has some of the, the local officials feeling really good about things. As if you look on here, I have the schedule up, cuz we're doing the breakdown as well. You know, double Heather on April 23rd that's week two. We return week four and do a double header. And then we return. Returned week seven, do Saturday sentence. So that's four dates. Five week eight, both of week eight, so six. So it looks like seven, eight. Nine nine weekend dates will be used from the teams. Just thoughts on that spread out and, and basically. Influxing in nine additional events that, you know, didn't exist previously into the Utah hall of fame. Like you said, they're always trying to find new things, concerts, everything else to come in there. Yeah, I don't think there's gonna be any conflicts. Because the pro football hall of fame and shrine at festival. That's Canton super bowl. That's their big event. Since the hall of fame has existed. Since the sixties there is parades. There's the big concert. There's enshrinement, there's different dinners and things. It's like. Almost a week along worth of events that's in, in August. So early August, there's not gonna be any issues there. And I think that was one of the things that the hall of fame village folks. Who partner with the us of L. On this, like is the fact that they're gonna have, you know, permanent tend. Tendon tenants there for a while. They're gonna have. The, the stadium book now, as far as. The public and attendance and so forth. I wanna be curious to see how that goes. You know, I hope it's not like embarrassing where it's just a sprinkling of folks. Certainly not expecting to sell out for sporting events for football. I think that holds about 23,000 or so roughly somewhere in that vicinity and. What I'm hoping for in eager to, to see. And I'm curious about are the promotions. In the marketing and I'm hoping that the us F L will do like, just off the top of my head, like Darrell Johnston, since he's involved with the us F L like a bobblehead day for him, or maybe even like Kavante Turpin or in know some, some player who's in the league or something like that. Have a t-shirt day have a dollar hot dog day, have some halftime entertainment. And fireworks day or night, something along those lines. So I, I hope they try to be creative. I know they're, you know, economically. You know, as far as finances go, we're not talking about major league baseball NBA or the NFL here, but I would really like that. And one thing that's unfortunate is that even though they use the same logo, I believe of the original USFL in, I love the retro, HES and jerseys for some of the teams, the. Generals, the Panthers it's too bad. There's not like a formal. Relationship between the new and old USFL, because I think. I doubt they'd be able to get Jim Kelly. Or is someone like that to. Steve young to come to a game and do the coin toss, but even Kevin Mac, who was outstanding player for the brown who played in the us fell or Gerald, you know, ice cube, McNeil, you know, have like a Kevin Mac bobblehead day, have a Gerald McNeil day, you know, I think the marketing opportunities would be great, you know, a throwback jerseys, but I don't mean to digress too much. And apparently that's something that's not in the. The offering because of the legal issues. Well, yeah, I was just gonna say, if you want a deep dive, you know, if you have any time on your hands, we have many hours of deep dive with trademark Mo and all we, we track the whole thing last summer, fascinating, or I guess it was. You know, whatever before the kickoff, you know, so what was that winter spring of, of last year? Fascinating. Listen there, but I mean, they're. They're acknowledging and now it is kind of murky that way. And, and I, I think we're working more towards that and showing those highlights and stuff. I think we saw the new commercial that came out. In terms of, I think a lot's been made. Okay. There's no Canton team. Right. We got the Pittsburgh team, we got the Jersey team. But in terms of general, People like, oh yes. We're gonna have people in Canton that are following whatever, but you're getting a good swath of. Everyday America, right. Going through the hall of fame. So does it matter as much? Like there's not a Canton team cuz there's just so many more people there. You have the opportunity, like, Hey, you like football cup. Like what do you make of that? Trying to attract people, you know, a general audience to the game games. Sure. And, and I see it two ways, you know, one thing that stands out to any. Canton area, acne area, any Cleveland area sports fan is a fact that a Pittsburgh team is gonna be. Playing its games and can, and can, is, is Brown's country. Now, granted there are a decent number of Steelers fans around partly because the younger generation has grown up with the Browns being so terrible, but it certainly, it certainly Browns country. And you're talking a, like an hour drive, roughly, maybe. Me, even a little less than that to get to Browns game. Brown's game. So that's, that's a little humorous, but with that said, yeah, I don't think it's a. Issue that the team's coming from Pittsburgh. It's a close drive. So some Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania folks should be coming here. And I think again, the pro football hall of fame and. The nice attractions you have there at the stadium, you know, would be extra incentive. And I haven't seen ticket prices yet. I know last year they were very affordable for the playoffs. I know there's a $50 deposit. I think $25 per ticket. To to get season tickets, but I was poking around and I don't see what the prices are, but I'm guessing it's gonna be an affordable. Type of ticket for a family, obviously way less than the NFL and NBA and things like that. And then if you throw in the museum in the village, And the fact that it's such a nice stadium. And you have these little. Attractions on the property there. That. Yeah. Hopefully that'll work and get some people. Checking it out now, as far as the how fame goes. My understanding is there's no formal relationship between the pro football hall of fame. In the USFL now, you know, One issue there and correct me if I'm wrong since you're also well versed on the XFL, but there's some type of relationship between the XFL. Exile and the NFL exile is another spring football league. Gonna be a competitor with a USFL. So because of that, I'm, I'm sure. The pro football hall of fame, you know, won't be like, Have an, a partnership, but I would hope that, you know, maybe they could do like discounted tickets of the pro football hall fame museum. But even if they don't, I mean, when I say it's next door, It's next door. You could literally. Step out the, the front entrance, the pro football hall of fame. And I probably couldn't do it, but if you have maybe half the arm that Tom Brady does, you could throw a football from the entrance to the hall of fame, to Tom Benson's stadium and, and probably make it yeah. Actually is. Yeah, they are. They're working with, with the other NFL alumni alumni academy. Which is not exactly the NFL, the same way that, you know, we're working with the football hall, fame, all these leagues, I, I think are kind of trying to like, well, we're wor you know, we, we have these associations and it's like third party, whatever through, you know, trying to build up and I get why they do that. Well, last question for you to today. In terms of demos. We talked about this, and even if you go on the schedule here, FA you know, fan friendly and all that kind of stuff. The hall of fame. Are we getting more single guys going, checking it out? Are we getting families? Are we getting the mix? Like, what is the demo of. People going to the hall of fame museum there. Now this isn't scientific, but yeah, generally, yes. Yeah. I I've walked through there and I get there a few times a year. Usually for one assignment or another. And I would say it's, it's mixed naturally. It's gonna lean. Towards, you know, the, the male demographic, but I've been. Surprised when I'm there. A lot of families. And definitely, you know, parents and their kids. And then I see. Family trips, where you have uncles and aunts, you have grandparents, you know, with the grandkids and things. Like that. And I see some, some couples there and I see like some like grandmothers and some, you know, great haired couples who once told me, you know, we're doing like an RV trip, you know, across the country. I think he told me it was, it was a buck list trip and the hall of fame was on that, the bucket list now. As far as drawing people. And this was something I meant to, to say last time with my answer. I, I don't think you can have a better market for football. We. Know that Texas and Pennsylvania are two of the bigger football states in the country. Also, Florida. But Ohio certainly is one of them, a Northeast, Ohio. The allegiance to the high school football teams is huge. The fandom for the Ohio state. Buckeyes off the charts for the Browns it's it's off the charts. And you have the, the teams both big and small at the high school market. So. I think because of that, hopefully people will wanna come and see professional football knowing that, Hey, maybe they'll see a former Ohio state player there. He might even see a, a high school player who made it, the USFL, knowing that some of these guys might be in the F NFL someday. They that's been proven this season. I, I, I think people will be intrigued by that. And if you can. Combine that with affordability of it, with the museum being there. I, I guess they'd put it this way. You know, if, if this doesn't work , I don't know. What would, I mean, honestly, having a stadium in downtown Detroit Ford field, that's not really apples and apples with what I'm talking about. That's hard to compete with. But when you're talking about the USFL. L not being the NFL have a limited resources. I can't think of a better. Opportunity to make it work than here in Canton. I went and pulled my Philadelphia stars Jersey out of my closet here. We had Devon gray USFL with the stars. That's that's my team. That's the team of the mark year heading in to see how are are you doing, sir? I'm doing great, man. How you doing? I'm good. So we'll talk a little season one here. Talk a little season two, whether you at today. Beginning of the February here. What do you have to. Right now I'm just training for the season. I'm in Atlanta, Georgia. So I've been training here since I've been a part of the Falcon. So. Right now just grind mode. Right now. I train probably Monday. Through Saturday. And I train with my, with the best trainer. I know Lily, and then I usually run routes or do something in the afternoons, like. Lift after I'll go run the Hills after. So yeah, just. Pretty much preparing for the season right now, getting in shape and preparing my body the best I can. For people that don't, you know, Non football players here, listening. How challenging is it? You know, this alt football and you're, you know, you're trying to do workouts. You're trying to get ready and be in shape. And how challenging is that? I mean it's, I mean, we're, I'm in such a, a routine now. I wouldn't even consider it challenged now, but. Most challenging part is just staying. Consistent really lifetime where I don't wanna wake up or I don't wanna work out. I have a wife in a two year old. They want to, they wanna be around me. So just, just staying consistent. I would say the hard part, but I mean, the work is the work it's already drilled in me. So I've been, I've been doing that for years on years now. So work is, the work is just more about just staying consistent. Making sure I'm able to go in every day, even, even on those days, I don't feel like it. What was season like when, for season one don't if I said that, what was USFL season one, like for you, and what was your experience? I mean, it was really good. I was, I didn't come in with a lot of high, high. Expectations really, you know, I came from the NFL and I was like, I know it's a brand new league. So. But it actually ended up being really good. I know they made a lot of changes. From the beginning to the end wa was night and day. So they were definitely. All about the players. If we had an issue, they tried to do their best to fix it. So it was definitely. Definitely a great league. I love all the. Expansions, they made all the changes they made and in short amount of time, And most importantly, just all the opportunities that all the players got just to, just to be a part of the league and. Be on TV every weekend. So it was definitely. Definitely vague, very grateful and blessed for the opportunity. Coming from, you know, from the NFL and having that experience. And now we've obviously had the CBA and the union and trying to get you guys a little bit more in terms of taking care of what does that mean to you as a player, knowing that that work was done in the off season? I mean, it is really cool. I was, I was actually one of, I actually got an opportunity. I was one of the player reps to, to actually be in there with, with Fox and. And some of our other union reps and just being able to. Negotiate a deal to talk about some issues we had as players, but also understanding that it's a business and they gotta be able to, to run their business as well. So it was definitely, really cool. Just seeing that, seeing that part of the. The of the game. I've always been a player. So just seeing kind of like the on the back end and see everything going forward. And it was definitely, it was definitely a cool experience. In was that, do you feel like in terms of having your experience in the past, that that helped put you in that position to, to be a part of that? Or how were you selected to be a part of that? It was actually actually got voted somehow. I didn't, I didn't, I didn't know. We, I know we had a vote, but I didn't think I would get voted. So I was, I was informed that I got voted to be our player rep and, and I accepted it, which I was kind of hesitant at first. But then, you know, the lot of the. I figure I could bring in good value, cuz I've been a part of the NFL. And I played in the spring league. So I have a, a decent amount of experience and. And I know what it's like that a lot of the players, like a lot of, even my teammates, talk to me about a lot of things. So I know. A lot of guys was asking me questions and stuff already. So I figured I could, I could easily fill in that role and. Voice for what the players would like to the league. So it was definitely very cool. Yeah. Cuz you spent time right with the generals as well, right back in the spring lake. Yeah. Yep. I've I was in the spring league for about. Four or five games. And then I left early to go to the Ravens, but I definitely was part of spring league for a little bit. I got a pile here of when that all went down. I got a pile here. We're giving away. Soon of all the old, we got blues in general, since stuff. What we, one of the store storage unit like went. Default or whatever. And so I have like a big pile of 'em we're gonna be given the way student bet. Right. I look at it every day in my office here. A pile of you generals, blues. I don't think we have any alphas, but we have, I think it was like the, the 20, 21 of that in terms of, you know, the stars, obviously deep run. What was the season? Like for you from on the, on the field of play. I mean, it was really cool. Just, you know, we coming in, I knew a few guys, like I said, from the spring league, I had one of my former Falcons teammates on there and some of the guy that trained with, but coming in, not really. Knowing anybody as a team, having a short training camp, like training camp only three weeks and just. Just seeing where we were to start the season to where we ended the season. It was just, it was, it was crazy. It was like, oh, total transformation. How. How fast our chemistry formed. And it was just, it, it was really cool. It was a lot different than NFL where you spend a whole off season with, with, with your team. You spend OTAs, you spend basically. Five weeks of training camp and. Just to see where we were to start the season to where we finish was, was really cool experience. I'm gonna ask you a question, the other one that get you in trouble here, but feel free to answer that we watch United by football. Right? We have Brian Scott beginning, you know, obviously quarterback and it got hurt and case came in, you know, I'm, you know, I talk with Brian and we're friendly as well. We, they had the episode of the. United by football, where it was like he had the house meeting and he had everybody over there. And like how, how accurate depiction was that? And like, I, I just always curious as someone that was kinda like in that. Eh, going on, like, what was it like kind of those early couple weeks there with the stars. I mean, it was, it was cool. We actually forgot that the cameras were rolling. Anyway, we didn't even realize until after, but I mean, there was, I mean, it was, it wasn't anything bad. We were just having a, a, a discussion, you know, we were having some. Some, some chemistry issues between the quarterback receivers, which happens all the time. Like even when it comes to signals, like we might not see a signal he's throwing or we might not like the signal. So just. It was just like normal conversations that we had just to make sure we're all on the same page when it matters during the game. I equated it to like when you're on big brother, I don't know if you watched that show and you get in trouble and you have like a house media, like, okay, we need to get everybody here. Survivor. No, no, no, no. And it's all good. You know, and then, you know, case came in. Seeing the success he had seeing the, you know, him and getting signed on with, you know, the Rams practice score. What is it like, you know, in, and you're getting the opportunity, seeing these guys that you play with and trying to get these other opportunities and still grind. I mean, it's huge is, I mean, that's, that's really what the whole league is about to, to majority of the players. A lot of the guys just, just never got the opportunity to play at the next level. So this is their, their opportunity to just kind of get some eyes on them. So it's definitely. Seeing everybody get their opportunities, even like. Hard time and Kavante Turpin like a, a bunch of those guys. That's, that's getting their opportunities. That's. Sorry. I see the, just switch cameras on me. There we go. Just seeing a lot of those guys get there. Opportunity. That's, that's really what it's all about. So that's, that's very important. So I know a lot of the players and I'm sure a lot of coaches like to see that too. Cause it's a good, it's a good look on them as well. Looking forward to season two here, you know, coming back a thought process here and, you know, deciding to do another season with them and, and with the stars and everything else. I mean it's, I mean, I'm really excited. Like. Just to see how we finish the year. I think we pretty much, we have the majority of our team coming back. So. Just seeing how far we can take it. I know I'm, everybody was just getting accustomed to their roles and just seeing how we can expand on that and just, and just build something special. I mean, we have such a short season really, so it's, it's hard to, to build something good. And. Such a short amount of time, but I feel like we we're ahead of the game. We have pretty much a whole coaching staff coming back. The majority of the players are coming back and we, we all gel jails really good, and we finish the season strong. So I'm excited to see how we start off the season this time. Yeah. I'm always curious, like, you know, it is the spring football dilemma, like, like how do you build consistency there and mean you have guys obviously wanting to pursue other opportunities either and other. Leagues or the NFL, like mm-hmm I, is that something you guys talk about? Like, I just, I can't imagine how it challenging, like you come in, it's like this whirlwind you play for, you know, 10 weeks, whatever and training camp. And then yeah. We don't see each other for, you know, seven months and then come back. Like how challenging is that? I mean, that's pretty it's, it's, it's definitely difficult cuz you know, in the NFL you got off season, you have OTAs. You have training camp. And then now you're playing real games where that's us. We have basically three weeks of training camp and we write to the action. So. It's definitely different mentally. Like you gotta be able to be able to train all season long and be ready to you don't really have like a ramp up period before the game starts. You gotta. Basically be ready to play a game when we get there March 18th for training camp. So. Definitely it's a little different process, but I mean, it's just about being a pro and just being ready to. Be available, excited to play in Detroit here, right. With the hub and everything going on there, thoughts on that and being able to play it Fort field and everything else. Definitely. It's very cool. Just the whole league is expansion is, is, is very cool. I know having four, four hub cities is gonna be very fun and it is gonna be a nice experience. Having having to travel and everything, but. Definitely decided to play at four field, actually have family in Detroit. So definitely be cool to, to, to go up there, play in front of some fans then of course, play in, in Ford field, which is a great field to play at. I have to imagine, like you said, that, you know, You didn't come in with the highest of expectations, just not knowing everything that was going on now. Obviously having them completed the season, go to the season two. Delivery on promises of, okay. We wanna expand out in season two and three has to give you and a lot of the other guys, a lot more confidence right. In everything going on. Oh yeah. Yeah. I mean, yeah, that's cool. Like the, the league has been doing. A, a phenomenal job, this with the expansion going on with. The marketing, like keeping all the promises like. All the player, keeping the players happy. Like it's just. Is just a great, great job. They've. They've done beyond what, what we even expected really like from the treatment wise, they, they really improve life like from day one and now is just. Night and day. So there's, Lee's done a great job. It's very. Very player friendly league and I'm, I'm very happy with it. Well, I appreciate your time today. I'm looking forward to it. Anything else before we let you go, anything else you're working on or you wanna share? Not that I could think of, man. You know, we just ready to get started. Feel like it's been, I know it was, it's only been what, like seven months now, but it feels like it's been forever since we've finally here playing ball, but definitely grateful and excited for opportunity to be a up in Detroit and definitely be on the lookout for Philly to have a great year. Yeah, I'm excited now. I wish that Philly maybe could, it had a little bit of a rebrand, like the modelers had, you know, I don't know if I love the Ronald McDonald, but I haven't. I mean, I'm locked in. Do you like that? Do you like the black and yellow for the Canton or I, not the Canton, the Canton. Mallers the PI I like, I like the color concept. I Philly like. I feel like we could have some nice alternate jerseys with some, all yellow jerseys or something. But I mean, I mean, it is what it is now.

Episode 130 - The Alt-Football Fans' Bill of Rights

I know our listeners are excited. Good day, Reid. Good to meet you. Let me hit this. We tried to get you on the media day. And I think you were so popular that it ran late. So we, her and him was nice and hooked us up today. . Yeah, I heard this is sexy. We got it. Thanks. Okay. Perfect. Well, our listeners I know were thrilled for this is Brian early. Shoot this energy into my veins. Here. We have Chris Jones head coach, the epi doc. How are you doing, sir? Doing good man. Doing good. Just to about finish my work workout. Now, well, what, what is a Chris Jones workout? It's it's 7:00 AM Pacific here. What is a Chris Jones workout look like? Well, it's, it's not overly strenuous. I'm a little, I'm getting a little too old that all I do is, is walk about an hour every day. That's good. And we, where are you at right now? I'm down to California at the NFL PA game. We've got a couple, I think we've got three or four guys, maybe five guys on our negotiation list. On on these teams down here competing. And so it's good opportunity for you to come in and you can see 'em play. And decide whether to leave 'em on your negotiation list or take 'em off. What, what CFO off season here doesn't exist. Right? No, not for us. I mean, we, we got work to do and, and I like, and I love being hands on with it. You know, and that's the thing I love being. In a position to where we can go see. See, these guys compete in actual football drill. So we were gonna get you on the media day busy day. I think you had lots of calls. Why do you think you were so popular and what, what was media day and off season? Everything like for you? Well, I mean, it was a busy time. There's no doubt. I mean, And, you know, I, I was joking and, and the CFO got mad at me for, for joking with him about it being not necessarily my favorite day, you know, but you know, its just a. It's a busy time, beautiful place to have the meeting, by the way, we were up in Canada, NACA. I mean, it was cold, but boy, it was pretty. And, you know, and it's an opportunity to get out talk ball and. And got to see some of the guys in the league that you know, that you resonate with. And so it was a, it was a really good time. And like I say, it's a, it's a, this is an integral year for the CFO. You know, we've got two other leagues that we're competing with down here for players. And, you know, it's a, it's a busy, busy time. Well, and that was gonna be one of my questions. I mean, we can certainly start there. We host XFL, we'll be at the kickoff. I was at gray cup, you know, I mean, we cover all this stuff, but what, what are your thoughts here? XFL kicks off in the month. USFL here afterwards. I know that you were on with morally Scott talking about that. He's a friend of the. Show as well. What do you make of these leagues starting up? Well, I mean, you know, they they've been trying for years. And I think the, the thing that, that we've got to realize, there's a lot of money behind both of them. And, you know, and there's a lot of players. I mean, even if. Even if they do stay, which historically has not happened, they, you know, they've come and they've gone. Called me, but so even if they do, you know, stay in place, I mean, there's a lot of good players down here. You just have to work and dig just a little harder. Do you view now USFL entering year two, you, they pass union and they have their CBA. I mean, they increased wages year over year. Is that stuff that you pay attention to? Like, okay, we did get through a season now. We are trying to get into season two and, and makes it feel a little bit more of a threat. Well, I mean, you've got, you know, Jim pops the guy running the show down there, you know, I mean, and he knows our league very well. And you know, the sustainability of our league has been, you know, the fact that we've, that they've had, you know, good people in place and good people that go find players and, and people that know how to be physically. Responsible with those players. I mean, so, you know, know that you can't pay everybody, you know, and so that's kinda, what's given our league. I think the foothold to be around as long as we have. And quite frankly, I think that that's probably one of our biggest. Our biggest arguments right now is the fact that our league's been around for so long. You know, I mean, it's, it's got sustainability. The, the fans in Canada love our league. It's a, it's an outstanding league and very well respected, you know? That's that's the thing. I mean, you've got. Kinda your naysayers and, and the people that know. And, and there's a lot of people in the NFL. That know how good a game that we've got. In terms of this, you know, obviously you can pitch the sustainability. Re, you know, besides that, like, what do you, obviously, like you said, you're down here, scouting guys figuring out the negotiations list. Like how do you incentivize cuz you know, if, if entry level pay us the same. I might go play in Birmingham or Memphis versus, you know, no offense to beautiful Edmonton, but it just might be easier for my, you know, family and financial situation. Yeah. You know what I mean? I think that, you know, the thing I think we offer. These players and, and it's a little bit easier once they've gone through the NFL process and they. They see that, Hey, I'm on outside looking in. Is, you can come and earn a living here in this league, you know, so it's a, it's a league where you can come, you can make a name for yourself. You can become, you know, Won't say a name, cuz they'll probably find me for saying somebody's name, you know, but one of these big time players, you know, they, you know, a Taylor cornea or Ricky Ray, or, you know what I mean? They, once you become that type of guy, you can make a real living in our league. And I think the thing that our window. I think that that's what we have to get out to the masses is the fact that you come and you play you're, you're earning your straps on, on our side of the border. And then if you come and you play well, you still have that opportunity to go. Back down south to. You know, to go to the NFL, if you, if you want to, you know, so there's nothing that locks you in. Like it did say, you know, 50 years ago with the contracts. I we've had, you know, nailer obviously never went on in the past talking about. You know, the ramp up to try to get, especially like quarterbacks into the CFO, get you. Oh, it's like a three year process. And we got, you know, we've seen Cornelius here grow, and I wanna talk about him as well. I, you know, is that too hard? Is the CFO like, you know, try where we're trying to incentivize guys up there. And I know the pride of the CFO as you know, our game is the best and it's challenging that we have the wa we have all these different things, but is that, you know, when you're trying to get the, these new guys up, is it almost too. Two, I don't know, two challenging. No. I mean, it's, it is, it is challenging, you know, cuz first of all, every, every player here at this game. They they've grown up just like kids up in Canada. They've grown up wanting to play in the NFL. Versus the CFO, you know? So when you talk to these. 20 20 21 22 Year olds that that's not even really. In 99% of them's thought process. You know, whereas if they go through, once they go through and they figure out next year at this time, they're a little bit. They're on the flip side of the coin. They're, they're a lot more open to go. You know what? I better go get some film, you know? Cause let's face it. Of these kids that are here at this game, you probably have, I don't know, a hundred kids, right? So 50 on each side. If there's a hundred kids here, there's probably a handful that are gonna play in the NFL. And then there's a handful that are gonna play in the other leagues. The rest of 'em are gonna be, you know, using their degree or back at school, trying to finish their degree. So, I mean, And, and that's the reality of pro football. What did you make of the other comments I had, I wanted to get your thoughts about, and we talked with coach didn witty during the, you know, the media day stuff and, you know, coaching salary caps, all of that. Being able to not only get the best players in the league, but obviously getting the best staff thoughts on that, trying to. Increase and build on that, which, which salary cap, the player salary cap. Well, we can go both first off, first off coaching staff, you know, the, the, the coaching staff and the, the money you go in there. Yeah. Unfortunately, our staff we're working off of about a half million dollars less than, than the other teams, you know, we're. It's it's a, it's a struggle, you know, and I'm fortunate that I've got such a good. Loyal group of guys that kind of travel together when we go and we try to rebuild these teams. And, you know, they travel together, you know, I mean, we've been a lot, the big majority of these guys been together for a long time. And, and I told him, I said, once, you know, once we get the monies back into our budget, From from all the other staffs that have come and gone. We're still paying a whole bunch of coaches. And, and that's hard when essentially you have a, an organization that's on its knees and you're trying to get, get it back up off of its knees. And you're working with less money. To, to keep people, you know, in place. And, you know, to get quality folks, you have to, you have to pay 'em and, or eventually you'll lose. 'em. Would you like to see that be increased for you guys across the league? Have more options team by team? Yeah, I mean, certainly. I mean, and, and. You know, I mean, I know people say, oh, all you care about is your money. And, and that's about as far from the. Cases can be, you know, but it's tough to walk in when you know how hard your guys are working and your guys are working off, off of about a third of what, you know, or, you know, two thirds of what other people are working off of. So, I mean, you know, I think the, the more my, that. That, that you can. Put towards something that you can put towards a staff, the better staff that you can get. You know, I mean, we lost, we've lost a lot of really good quality coaches, you know, over the last, you know, five or six years with Scott Milanovich and. Mark Truman. And I mean, you can keep going, you know, the, the Marcus Bradys, I mean, all those people have left the CFO and so. You know, the more money that we have. To, to make that work and to get our staffs. I think the, the better quality guys we can keep. Yeah, we have, you know, Jamie Elizondo as well here taken, you know, one of the OCS here in the XFL coming up here in just a few months or weeks in terms of. You know, quarterbacks, attracting quarterbacks, being able to pay them separately. That was something that coach Dan witty. Talked about on our show, got a lot of traction of like, if we could have almost like a separate salary cap or percentage that wouldn't count against the, the full pie, what do you make of that? Yeah. You know what I mean? It's, it's something to certainly, you know, if you had a larger. Amount of money to go down south. Cuz there again. You you think about these ni deals that these kids are getting. Like there, these IL deals they're getting, they're making a hundred grand just about every kid out at the university, you know, Alabama or Tennessee, all these big schools, they're making a hundred grand before they leave school. And so, you know, 70,000 Canadian plus a little bit of housing, you know, is less money than what they made in college. So when you talk to the quarterback who certainly is gonna be making more than a hundred thousand, you know, like the, the, I don't know, the, the kid from Tennessee, the, from California, the quarterback, I think, gosh, I think he got some, another million, you know? I mean, so. How you ever gonna get a guy like that? If he, if he's not going to play an NFL, how are you gonna get that guy to make that cross the border? Unless you have a larger amount of num number of money to, to get that kid, you know, so, you know, and, and the key is to have. Good. Good quarterbacks. Good, good defensive lineman. Good. O you know, not just have a guy. But to have good quality players. And I, I have to agree with Ryan, you know, I mean, If you had a, a larger. Amount of money than you could go down. And, and try to get a guy like that. Cause. You know, what people don't realize too is when that kid's a college quarterback. He's the marquee guy. In XYZ city. He's got a, he's got a car to drive. He's got a, he's got, he can play free golf. He's got a job. As soon as he gets done. You know, talking on the radio when he goes back, he's not in the NFL. He can talk on the radio for X number of dollars. Like there's so many. Opportunities for these guys, but they still wanna play ball. So if you had a chunk of money or a larger amount of money to be able to, you know, certainly I think it would help us recruit them. Obviously, you know, and we'll talk a couple, I'll let you go here street and I appreciate your time. It's, you know, seeing someone like Nathan Rourke here, who I, you know, I followed the Elks, I got my hat on. I followed the lions, have him say, you know, this, the CF was a, a. Unforeseen detour. I think he said, and you know, always, always during the plane, the, I felt like, how do you, how do you react to that? How do you compete with that here with someone that set the world on fire last year? Yeah. Well, he's such a good player. I mean, he is, I mean, You know, halfway through the year, looking at his stats. You know, cuz when you think about, well I've coached against Ricky Ray, I've coached against, against Dave Dickinson. I've coached against. Anthony Cal I've coached like some of the best to ever play this game. And that kid could compete at every level. You know? I mean, he was tough. Like Mike Riley. Ball was out like Anthony Calvio. He had touch on the ball. Like he was such a, a dynamic. Young player, you know, I mean, he. And I'm sure, you know, I mean, you know, most kids. Up in, in Canada, they, they don't even know that football exists still about, you know, age nine. And then they . Then they, then they, you know, then they fall in love with football. They're hockey, you know, I mean, And, and that's just kinda the reality. And in the states, it's, it's more football. But, you know, but, but both sides of the border, football's a great game. We have to be physically responsible. I mean, I know the that there's probably somebody out there, you know, got, got a frown on talking about, cuz we've talked about paying everybody and they're like, where's the money come from? And they're exactly correct. You know, we've got to, to do the things necessary to continue to grow the game and. And push the game and try to make those, you know, dollars off the field in order to be able. To sustain the league and to pay, you know, better players. So there are a, it's gotta, there's gotta be work done on both sides of it. How did you view Taylor Cornel growth here this year? I know he got signed up and he was with the XFL before tracking him coming up there. And like I said that, oh, and I . I found out that, that I was correct, that the XFL was already in talks very deep with, with his. Representation had we not gone ahead and headed that off and tried to, you know, And the good thing is, is we save some money. In order to at the end of the year, be able to sign either a NFL guys dropping out or. You know, guys that played well. For us to try to keep them in our uniform. And, and I know for sure, straight from the horse's mouth that there was. People in the XFL that were, that were talking to these people. And so I think Taylor, I think he. Yeah, certainly he wasn't perfect. But you look at Mike, Mike Riley, you figure he was at, he was a backup at BC for years for like three years. Then he came to Edmonton and he didn't win. And finally, his fifth year. Ended up, you know, winning, you know, big with us that first year. And then he won the great up the, the next year. So. It takes some time to develop. You know, you look at Anthony calve, you know, he was down south and he was, I think Hamilton, then he, you know, he bounced over to, to. And finally found his foothold. In Montreal. So it takes a while for these quarterbacks, but then when they, they figure it out, then they, then they take off and they become themselves. You know, there's been others. If you look around our league now, That it's taken a while for 'em to, to develop. And, you know, there's not very many, you know, Ricky rays or Rourke that just come up and just first year they light it up, you know? So. But anyway, I, I like the development and the direction that Taylor's going and not just Taylor. I think our entire quarterback room. You know, Kyle ly got worked out to, you know, he worked out for somebody the other day and Trey Ford worked out for somebody the other day. So, you know, we've got some. We've got some, some guys that, that I feel like are talented. It's just a matter of them growing. Yeah. I mean, that's, that's the thing is I, you know, you said people are calling them, you know, when I post in groups and people go, well, what is this XFL crap have to do with? It's like, it's all connected. And especially now, if these leagues can compete for a little bit, like you said, we'll see, I mean, time will tell, but I got question trade fours, growth, and then I'll get one more. I'll let you go. I promise you, you know, obviously got her came in and obviously big story as well, Canadian kinda all that. What did you make of Trey and how he did and what do you hope to see from him here? Moving forward? Well, I mean, he's got a skill set. I went to that Buffalo. Workout. And I saw him run 4 41 with a 40 inch vertical. And, you know, he brought it almost 11 feet. I mean, so. That's a unique athlete cuz when I travel the country and I do these workouts and I'm trying out DBS and wide receivers and running backs from all over the country. You know, those are numbers that can compete. Anywhere Miami, Dallas anywhere. And so LA . So, you know, that's he a unique athlete and, and he can make, he's got arm talent. He can make most, all the throws. Now it's a matter of him. Getting the understanding of exactly where to go with the ball. And then if not find your check down and if you check Down's covered, then move around. And don't get hit. I mean, that's kind of, you know, the, what we've gotta, you know, learn and that way we keep ourself healthy. And, but he's, I think he's got a tremendously bright future. And I made this a quarterback, not a position change guy. He's got a few, he's got a future as a quarterback. Great looking forward here, you know, grade. 2022 Elks. And then whether are we looking for in the performance for 2023 here, obviously, still trying to get we'll have, after this airs, we'll have Victor on, I had a nice chat with Victor que as well. So we're talking kind of promoing all that, but grade Elks this year, and then what we look for to next year. Well, my, you know, you don't even. Have it can go without even being said for a grade. You know, I mean, it's only been. I've been to league 20 something years. And agains only been a couple of years where you don't have a winning season, you know, so not having a winning season. You know, you don't even have to grade that that's a, that's graded by itself. You can see it, but as far as, as far as what we're doing moving forward, I mean, our expectations are to win the breakup. And that's always been our, anything less than that's at disappointment. And, and nobody, you know, expects more out of ourself than, than us. Well, Chris, I really appreciate it here. This was people working forward to this. I really appreciate you taking the time. And we got kind of a tour of LA in the background as well. So this was fun. Yeah, really appreciate it. I'm in this park. It's a real beautiful park. I'm staying next door in a hotel here and I'm just finishing my walk and there's a. A golf public golf course here. I mean, it's a real beautiful place, you know, and, but it's cold. You see, I got my, I got my little. My little Canadian suit I got up in. I can't even remember where I got it up there. Calgary, you know, it's cold out here today. Well coach Jones. I really appreciate it. I hope we get you back on excited for the Alex this year and you know, people, you get a lot of, you get a lot of heat. So I, I think I hope the team performs and I hope you get them up to snuff, but you do. You're kind of a lightning rod have, you know, this, that I, you know what, I don't worry about that, you know, it's. Well, as a Seattle native here, it's good to see this familiar face from a blaster in the pasture. We have coach sharper on the show. How are you doing, sir? I'm doing good. I'm doing good. I'm here in Arlington, Texas. You know, everybody from the ahas down here. And we're trying to get things together as this weather cooperates. You know, I think. Yesterday, we had a little meeting with ESPN and some of the higher ups. We are able to see all the other teams and coaches. At Dallas live there and be able to reunite with a couple guys from the NFL. Couple guys from college and what have you. So it was a good little event yesterday. They had. So it was good. Yeah, I saw, I saw the rock doing the rock is the only man that can wear a card again, just as a t-shirt. I didn't see him out there doing, what was that like? And, and I have more questions here, people, you know, from the past, but what was it like getting everybody together, seeing that, obviously we had Jerry card now here and Danny and the rock and everybody else. What was that like? It was good. I mean, I, I know a lot of the head coaches, you know, that played NFL and they talked about how they were getting their staff together and how they were gonna do practice, but you haven't seen anybody. For about two or three months or so I've seen some of our head coaches like Barlow doing media. But as a, all the stats really haven't seen each other or know what's going on. We had a in-house of. Scrimmage slash practice against the Orlando team. So I was able to see T buck and some coaches. But to be in one spot and see all the head coaches and all the players. Including some players that I coached in college, you know, it, it was good to, to reunite and see those guys again. And hope they were doing well. It is. It's like summer camp, right? I mean, you get everybody here. It's, it's literally blast from walks of your past and everybody's past. I just have to imagine. And on the player side, seeing all you guys and, you know, year in your acting and just knowing. All the level of coaching staff that's there has to be incredible for everybody. Oh, man. It's tremendous. When you're talking about the. Level of coaching years on these staffs. It's unbelievable. I mean, Every coach and staff has at least 30 years of NFL coaching experience. And then you have guys. Sprinkled in there with the college experience. So it's a good mixing part of college. And. NFL knowledge. So I'm just enjoying the fact that I'm gonna be able to compete against those coaches and compete against those players. You know? So it's gonna be a good thing. You were in the NFL for a long time, obviously, you know, super bowl champion here. What, what are your thoughts on the hub setup and everything they have for you guys with all the facilities? I think it's a good thing. We talk about the hub and how they are setting up. They wanna make things as easily. Easy as possible for the actual. Players and coaches to be able to get practice done, get meetings done. And they think the most fair. Part of that is to be a place like Texas in Dallas area, where they spend a lot of money on high school football down here. So every facility has an indoor, every facility has turf. You have to work out facility. So this was a place where they could get 18 and share different. Stadiums that were. Comparable to each other. And I think if I was in DC right now, we'd be spending big time money on facilities. If you were in Seattle, you know, you'd be spending big time money. Traveling to get to those facilities, but in Texas, the highway system, so good. And the fact that they have so many great. High school stadiums and, and. Facilities here. It allows everybody to start off on an equal foot. And then the thing that, of the possibility of us going and. The actual real thing of playing in the cities. Playing in DC playing in Seattle. I think that brings the fan base full circle where they can actually see their team play in the home city. Curious, your thoughts on the travel. Obviously you played in Seattle and we, you know, have a tricky schedule up here in the Northwest. And what are your thoughts of, you know, even obviously, you know, going to DC and we were at Audi field, you know, back for the kickoff in 2020 thoughts on just the travel and how that's gonna go with the player. I think, well, I, I'm not, I'm on know for sure how they're gonna travel. I was hearing some things about maybe teams traveling together, but I'm not sure if that's gonna be the case. But it's gonna be just like NFL. Get there the day before the game. Being in a hotel, be able to play the game the next day and then get back outta town, back home to Texas. So we'll be in Texas for. Practice and what have you, but we'll just be there in the city for that day. And then that night of the game. So we've had some coaches go fly back to DC for interviews and some. Good PR things. So I'm sure they'll keep doing that throughout the season as well. Biggest challenge for you here. In know, obviously spring football always has a shortened timeframe getting everyone training camp. And we essentially, you know, now you as a, a pro you know, Pro coach, we challenges getting everybody up to snuff here ahead of the season. Yeah, it, it is definitely a big challenge. You talking about camp starting. In January only having like four or five weeks to get everybody ready. That's one thing that when we did our scouting process and they included all the coaches in the scouting process. And went through lifted God's film. You were able to pick and kind of decide on what guys you wanted. And for me as a special teams coordinator here and the linebacker coach. I wanted players that have either stepped foot on the NFL field. Or were actual. Rookie camp invites, NFL field. So they know certain schemes, certain things we trying to get done in a Greg Williams defense. So the learning curve is not as great. Then you talk about players that have already been scouted by the NFL. NFL thinks they're on a certain level. We don't have to reinvent the wheel as a, as a, as a scout slash coach. We can sit there and say, all right, these guys were good enough to get an invite to an NFL camp. So they're on a different level. Let's go ahead and, and look at these guys harder. See if they can actually fit the mold, what we need. So that's how I started with my get process with my linebackers and then looking at specialists. That I have, or guys that were kicked in camps of NFL. And what have you? I have, I think one or two linebackers, I think one linebacker, only one linebacker that did not play some type of NFL ball. So that's kind of how I did my thing. Thoughts on coach Williams and just how everything's been going on the defensive side. I know he's, you know, was an exciting name to be involved there in DC. Oh, definitely. You talking about coach Williams. He's one of the super bowl. And I mean, he did it in new Orleans. You know, he talks about when he was at Tennessee, how he compared with my Baltimore Ravens and how they actually had the best defense and what have you, but he's a great coach and he's a great motivator. He, he does some things that are are different, but the thing is he gets guys motivated, ready to go. And in his defense, you know, it's gonna definitely. Be topnotch and bring pressure and, and be sound. And that's what I love to learn from defensive coordinator. Who's been in there for so long. And he still has that fire. I think he has a better memory than I do, cuz he's always talking about different stories from past players. You know, and some is my favorite players of the other coach, you know? Sean Taylor, you know, and then those guys, so he always talks about, you know, his safety's definitely play a big part of his defense. But his, his defense as a whole is definitely fun to play in as a player and as a coach. In terms of you getting, you know, here at opportunity for professional coaching, have you talked with any of the other, you know, players that maybe you knew in the past or would like to transition into, you know, coaching and maybe using the X fellows a springboard? Yes. I've talked to plenty of players who. Probably coaching in college coaching in CFO and. C and, and the window that us F L XF L window is something different where you have a fall. Where you can actually be with your family. The fall where you can maybe see NFL games be around that, but then when your season starts in January, You have those four months where you gotta get ready and get going. So it gives you some chance to be around your family early on in the fall, and maybe kids going to school. Then you can go actually do some coaching for those four or five months, get things done. You know, it's not where you're in college. When I came from college at Georgetown, it was a. 10 11 Month of whirlwind. From scouting to recruiting, to coaching. What have you. So it was always something that you have to do. With the NFL and with exhale and professional football, you do have certain windows where you are doing a lot of work, but you do have a window where you can. Spend some time with your family. And I think that's a big thing with former players who've given their careers or given their. 10 Years of their life to NFL football. And then they played all their high school and college. To actually have time to give something back to your family. Is something they kind of balance and kind of try to figure out. But the ability to, to be able to do that in the spring and have their fault with their families big. Family's big. Well, cuz it goes both ways. I mean, we in a lot of fans and obviously you're looking at for the players and they're getting the second shot or a first shot or, you know, depending on what happened, you know, coaching in the same way. And do you, do you think that's a, a pathway that if you did want to get back to the NFL NFL at, as a co, like you, I know you're saying you can. Balance schedules and do it. But if you wanted to get back into that life here, you could get a first shot in, in the XFL or the USFL and kind of work from there. Yeah. When a lot of players. After they're done playing. They spent so much time crafting their sport and their bodies. And what have you so much time spent to be on that elite level? You can't imagine being a coach because you know, at the same amount of time, even more cause your coaches ain't a building longer than you. So some guys just can't fathom that. Starting off, but a transition of where you can actually get into coaching. And see how that camaraderie you, you have with other coaches and, and the actual locker room. It kinda will bring a lot of, a lot of guys back to coaching. I think that's the biggest thing. And they're scared of the fact that the time it takes, then, you know, how much time it took for you as a player. Coaches spend way more time in the actual building. So that kinda scares some guys off on when you try it. But all the guys that I know who've tried coaching in high school and what have you, all of it. And they will definitely. Will love any type of entry point. To a professional football on that coaching realm. How did you get to be with the defender specifically? Well, I've known coach Barlow for a long time. We, when I was coaching in Georgetown and coached down in high school in Louisiana. I would see him on the coaching circuits and also at the conference, you know, coaching. American football coaches association. And then when he took over at Virginia state, Which is in Virginia Petersburg, Virginia. I'm from Virginia Richmond, Virginia. And my father's a, a black college, all American out of Virginia state. So when he took over Virginia states, they had coach, I definitely followed him closer and talked to him more. Thought about different players coming out of Virginia state that were possibly NFL guys. And so it was just in communication with them a lot more. And then when it came up to where he was actually. Gonna take over the job. I talked to him about it and, and he said that. We could have a possibility of getting you on to this level. And I looked at XF fail and I looked at USF fail. I looked at AAF and I was wondering about, you know, The, the staying power, you know, so that was a big thing. And I think when I started talking to some of my friends, Who knew about the ownership? They gave me assurances that things were gonna go the right way. So that's why I went ahead and left my, the job at Georgetown to come work with coach Barlow. I, I understandable hesitations there. I mean, what did, what did friends, family, everybody say like, Hey, I'm joining, you know, this spring football thing, you know, it's not, it's not for anyone, everyone on the other side of the field. Yeah. You know, biggest thing is there's been so many different leads and this is a third extra fail. So they've heard about the spring leagues and then they've seen 'em come and go. So the staying power is what I'm looking forward to. That's why I'm working my butt off to put a good product on the field so that we can get to. Not just when this season, but when in seasons to come. So that's always a big thing. When you talk about trying to have that good pro on the field, what people will watch. And they respect what's going on on the football field. Yeah. You'll see my wonderful sign here. One of our Canadian affiliates twice failed league gave me back when I, but yeah, no, but, but it, you know, it's, we have to be aware of the history. If we wanna move into that couple more, our promise. Holy you go here in terms of doing the linebacker. Coach, and then also special teams. What led you to kind of have that dual role? Well, I'm always been a specialty as player when I was playing and I helped out on specialty at Georgetown. And this is a unique league when they talk about the kickoff kickoff it term. And I have, you know, understanding about punt pun return. So it kinda was kind of just fell into where I felt that I could help out and do special teams also. So it's more planning. It's more organizational stuff. We talking about guys that are hurt one day healthy the next, make sure they all lined up working on the scout team. What have you. So my installs, you know, every day, On our units, you know, I'm in front of the whole team, making sure they understand it and then being able to go on the field and get it stuff done is, is definitely a different level of preparation. But it's something that I, I enjoy. And then I'm glad I'm doing it. Thoughts specifically on the XFL, you know, obviously they have the unique kickoff in plenty roles. Is there any differences that you've had to adapt to, or what are your thoughts on the leagues rules? The leagues rules, they have a couple different rules. I'm I'm, I'm very intrigued about, you know, The cutting rule. You know, this go from yard. It goes from sideline to sideline 10 yards. So when I came to NFL, You could cut like that, you know, outside running plays and what have you. So that's something that I could prepare my players for that one to make sure that they stay healthy. And then the, I think the going for. The one, two or three points. That'll be interesting. I wanna see which teams will just go ahead and go for the maximum amount of points after they score a touchdown. And see what kind of plays they run. But those probably the two main things. I mean, the kicking part with the kickoff and kickoff return. It's pretty much status quo, guys. Gotta get off a block. And then you really can't kick it outta bounds or through the end zone. So you gotta try to get them to have the ability to return the ball. So the penalties for. Kicking outta the end zone or kicking outta bounds are severe where it goes to the 35 yard line or even the 45 yard line. In some instances. So that's something where our, our kickers are gonna have to kinda learn how to manipulate. With their leg and then our gunners. And then also. In an alpha outside perimeter guys will have to make sure that they get down the field and keep the ball in bounds as much as possible. You wanna super bowl with rod Woodson, coach Woodson here, back at with the Ravens excited. To face him. I think it's week two, you guys are set to face or anyone else you're kind of looking forward to seeing, you know, across the field. I know you have friends on the defenders. Definitely. Yes. Yeah. I talked to rod yesterday at the event and. It'll be fun to go against him and then his staff and, and couple guys. I think Seattle staff is definitely one that I'm looking forward to going against is so much knowledge on that staff. There definitely. Those probably the two main ones ride. And then. Seattle staff. I know that. Playing. At nighttime in DC is gonna be different. You know, a lot of cold weather that we're getting here in, in Dallas. We'll have in DC's first two, three games. So. My kickers and my specialists get through those games early on. I think we'll, we'll be we'll shine as a season goes, moves on to the warm of months, but I wanna make sure the guys handle the ball correctly. I don't want anybody fumble snaps and. The snapper doing something. I, I just that's, that's the main thing I worry about the messed up plays, you know, so make sure my guys get the ball off and no balls. Blocked from field goals. And what have you, that's the main thing I'm worried about. And if I can get that through the first three, four games where no hiccups, I'll be happy. Yeah, we'll, we'll be, we were in at Audi field for the kickoff back in 2020. I think we'll be in Arlington. I think trying to drag my wife from Arlington up to DC on the weekend. It's gonna be, it's gonna be it's called task, but I wanna get that to Audi. This, this season. I think you so much coach sharper coming on the show today. Really. Appreciated and excited. I think it'll be good. You looking forward to the season, you think you guys are gonna be ready to go. We will be ready to go. Definitely. We don't have any major injuries. Knock on wood. And then guys are ready and, and, and really doing well. Preparing and listening to what advice we have as coaches. So it's gonna be fun. I'm just, it's just almost shocking. It's almost two weeks away after I have a wait at home in DC for like three months, four months. And then now it's only like two weeks away. So it's kind of like, okay. It is just right around the corner. So I'm looking forward to it. Well, here we are back. We did the battle Hawks preview a few weeks ago. We have pat Rapino here, EXL new. So getting off a battle Hawks press call today with coach Beck. We'll get into that. We're gonna talk the quarterback care carousel here with the XFL and some FFL science, but first off. It congrats on the arena football league coming back. Did you, did you have that on your bingo card here? February 1st, 2023. I mean, is it the arena league? Are they bringing back to St. Louis stampede, then there's the United football league that. Looks, I don't know what's going on with that, because that has like 14 different teams and, you know, JD res is going to coach there and then. I may or may not have reached out to the league and been like, You have a St. Louis team. Like, I would like to go to a game. I will pay to go to a game and they're like, oh yeah, details are coming out. And I was like, okay, homie, but this isn't April's. April's catching up. February's a short month. Let me go. So. Is good. I mean, we, anyway, just before, while we hop on the record here. Yeah. Shaer just tweeting out and then I saw the arena football. He tweeted this little bit. That's exciting. I don't know if the mark cast will, will foray into that. I will say if you are a passionate arena football person, I will help cosponsor a segment. If you wanna do that on the show? I don't know. I think I would not have a Mrs. Mark cast. Dorothy sister, Dorothy here. If we. If we foray into arena football coverages as well. Yeah, I think, I think that might be with my travel schedule. If I'm in Extown. And I'm not busy. I will, I will support the brand. You know, but that's about it. It's good for players though. Like I, I just tweeted out, you know, Competing leagues. And we have the IFL now and the AFL, you know, competing leagues. Good for players. Good for coaches. Good. For all that. I just had my interview with coach sharper on here as well from the defenders. And he was talking about that as well, you know? Guys that are trying to get into coaching or, Hey, I can do this four or five months out of the year. I don't have to do the whole year-long grind to be in the NFL. You just got off a call with coach Beck. How is, you know, he seems to be. The most vocal online, at least if any of the coaches and kind of like, Hey, I'm doing my weekly update and it's always really windy and it's always really crazy. he's in like a wind vortex, but how is coach Beck? And how are the Hawks, which I think I saw draft Kings had them, the number one team here thus far in, in sports betting, like to, you know, the best team out there. I think what makes coach Beck so special? Is that he is a part of the media. He is doing a lot of stuff with the New York jets and whatnot. So he, he has no problem being a. And I don't want to this term to come off as negative a social media personality. Because he's gotta do it anyway. Also with his son playing in the game or playing college football at Iowa state. That kind of sparked his. What's the word pretty, pretty Homer, maybe. So, you know, had to support. That, but I mean, Beck's always really awesome. Our interview today was pretty cool. I personally got to ask about three questions. One of them concise bringing up AJ McCarran, obviously coming to the league and whatnot. And just how he's a, another coach. And we talked about the AAF as well. That'll probably be broadcasted pretty soon, whether it be. By the league or myself, I'm waiting on confirmation to see, which is coming first. But, I mean, it's, anytime this is second time I got to talk to him. I talked to him in November you one on one, which is probably one of the better experiences I've had working in media. And each time he's pretty. Pretty awesome to work with this time. He was a lot more open. I kind of pressed on some questions last time. And, you know, you had to keep a lot of things to the, to the chest 100% reasonable, but overall he's been an awesome guy to talk to, especially, and it seems like. Just to stroke my ego. He. Kind of remembered me. So it's pretty awesome that he, you know, he's a. Being very open with the media, cuz I think this is the only one and I don't know cuz I'm not getting all the emails that. So far that they've done this. This open zoom interview. And there was about 13 different guys, guys in gals there mostly local media as well. So. I felt like not to stroke my ego even more. I was the most football center guy. Which, you know what I'll I'll I'll wear that hat. I have no problem doing that. Well, I think, yeah. And you're still getting to that point now where, and I, this was back when, and we were just talking to USFL before we got on here, but. You know, when they were making all the rounds last year and we would have the Eric shanks of the world and Darrell, Johnsons, everything I'm like. And now with the XFL, like, I, I would love for any of these coaches then they are now. I mean, they are like to come on shows where you don't have to spend the first four questions. Like, so what do, like, what is the XFL like? Okay, well, you guys are kicking off. Like let's talk football. I'm really glad we're proud. Passed all this, like, okay. We're checking the trademarks and at the battle. Hawks are they coming back? Like we can talk football, we can talk, you know, I am not the exes, those guys that I bring on everyone to do that. Do you sense AJ is going to be the starting quarterback? What, what do you make of that? Cuz obviously we have other quarterbacks stuff to talk about today, but what did it set? I think AJ will definitely be week one. We didn't really talk too much about Ryan. He did praise Ryan and Nick Tano, their presumed QB three. But I think from what we've known, that AJ has been affected guy coming from. News hub insider Mike Mitchell. So. I mean, you don't bring your it's kinda like that Landry Jones effect with Bob stoops, you know, Granted Landry didn't do too well. He was dealing with injuries and everything like that. But AJ's a little bit younger, a little bit fresher, you know, he didn't play in 2022. He obviously tours ACL in 2021. But AJ was still a sought after backup when he left the league. And then last year I, maybe the injuries kind of scared people off. There was talk about his family, like wanting to spend more time with his family. Which he's had his kids down there. And, you know, and it, I think there's a story about his kids. Wanting to him to play in the XFL. And then when they did their media day, a couple weeks or. A fan, reach out to you, whatever you wanna call it. AJ was the one there. So, I mean, if you're gonna bring QB one out. It might as well bring, bring, bring your guy. And they brought AJ. So I know the C dragons have. Kind of been a little bit more tighter to the chest cuz Ben and Steven have done a lot of their. Their stuff together. If I'm not mistaken, right. I've I've really reached out to try to get house lit. And I know that obviously they're doing the, you know, he was at the town hall or the not the town hall, whatever the local event we had up here that we were at a couple weeks ago. And I know they just sent out, we're doing this select to seat event here for season tickets holders. I don't know if I'm supposed to like, share the exact time and all that. So I'm kind of. Waiting, but there, I do like to see that I know Houston did one, you know, the select to see. I've been really trying to get hazard on just like, can we get 12 minutes with the man? Like, I just feel like Seattle. You know, we live through the peak Carroll and like, we, I, I just feel like we have a different sense of kind of like what we want in our head coach here. I thought ZN was better back in 2020. It just doesn't feel like has like, and if the football's good than who really cares, but I, I would do wish has the, was a little bit more. Doing all that, just to check my homework. This was Seth sent this over to me, friend of the show, Seth, on his Mastodon account, the draft Kings released the team futures. Worst to best St. Louis number one, C dragons, number two, renegades number three. And then at the end, number eight is the guardians, which is expected. The roughnecks and then the DC defenders with Vegas at five, and then San Antonio at four. I mean. Is that the most unreasonable thing to hear? Definitely not, you know, maybe I'm coming a little bit biased, but my problem with all these rankings is let's get past week one. You know what I mean? Like if you told me in 2019 that Garrett Gilbert. Would be the guy in the AAF. I'd be like, maybe, I don't know. And then the, or the Apollos went like seven and one. You know, I thought the renegades were gonna be better. Everyone thought Connor cook was gonna be the starter for the, the rough next. And you're like, you know, he had a playoff game and this, he did. Okay. You know, what do you expect from a rookie type thing? And PJ Walker's the face of the league, you know, Cardell Jones coming out in with the defenders, greatest player ever. And then. Pretty pedestrian for the last three weeks of the season. Who's Jordan TEU, you know what I mean? Like. So could those all be right? And I have a giant egg on my face. Yeah. 100%. But at the same time, like, Did they account for PAX and Lynch being with the game team now, like I know everyone's got, 'em rated at like that two and eight, but now it's like, I don't know, PAX and lunches in NFL quarterback. I don't. He's at 64 65, but he's going against de Andre Fransua and. And Quinn and Normandy who haven't even tasted the show. So it's like, Does that add a winner to, so I don't know. Yeah. So speaking of that, so Paxton Lynch. Last we saw Paxton. He was up at the, was he with the rough riders up in the CFO? Am I remembering that right? Yeah. So he was their QB three. Yeah. And he was on their like one day, one game inactive list. And I don't know. I think there are some like discrepancy and I don't want to get too. Like I read one thing about the vaccination stuff. I, I then, then other stuff he, wasn't very good and it's like, I mean, correct me if I'm wrong, but I think they got down to three or four QBs during the season. In 2021. Yeah, I know that. I know this year they, they, they played three QBs. So. Well, the CFO is hard because you, and, you know, so PAX and Lynch announced Sunday signed to the guardians. Interesting enough. I Shane Mathys on last week, the guardians quarterbacks coach, and really kind press him like, Hey, what you guys do at the position here? And he's said, yeah, we're keeping our I out re even looking into the CFO. Obviously P in, you know, drafted here in the NFL back in the day, but. The CFL really prides itself on like, we make it really, really hard for Americans, but like really hard for quarterbacks. Like K Taylor Cornelius here, XML 2020. Just finally kind of getting his foot here in the exit or in the CFO with the Elks. And he's been up there now, this will be his third, third year kind of working towards that. So. You know, I don't fault packs in for going up there and not succeeding by the way. I mean, look at Johnny Menzel and all of that, but were you surprised to see, I, I guess not surprised to see guardians make a move cuz they needed to make a move, but were you surprised to see them go with PAX and li mean Paxton wanted to go go TOFL from last year. But I think he also needed to play football. So. Regardless of these football wars going on, Paxton put together some good games. His stats weren't as great as. Actually how he played, because if you even look in that week, one game, When they played the gamblers, there was like four drops that I counted. Off watching his week, one performance and his stat line doesn't show that I think one of the drops led to another interception. He's a week, 10 player of the week. In the last week of the USFL, granted, they were point the Mallers, but he's still performing. At a pretty high level and. For the alt football space, of course. And, you know, we can. Throw snot at the Mallers all we want, but I think they sent like the most guys to the NFL. And they've brought back some decent players as well. So. I mean, these guys are professional football players. They've all played at a division one level. Mo not all, but a lot of them have played a division one level. So. I mean, and then look at who the guardians have right now. Not the. Most attractive bunch of guys coming, coming in. So. Why not give packs and lunch a shot if he wants to play, like, go for it and forgive me. Yeah. So we obviously, and then he was with the, with the Panthers there and they had, what was it? Cuz she Paterson was taken first ride and then Paterson was like my, I get, I get my year flip flops of who was he order of all the, this stuff. Lynch seemed like. Wasn't remembered fondly, right? With the Panthers leg injury. Why was he allowed to sign with the guardians? Was he released after that? What was his cause he didn't get any picked up any. NFL practice squads. Right? I believe that was the coveted December 31st let's wait type situation. Yeah. He was only removed. From the Fox sports website, he, it was actually never announced that he was leaving. Per a couple, two, two guys I talked to connected to the Panthers. He's been wanting to go there. Since about mid middle of 20, 22 after the season, it was something he had his eyes set on. And I don't know. I don't. I don't know if it's the perfect spot for him going to the guardians, because I think everyone thinks they are the worst team. But something when we're evaluating these quarterbacks is. Okay. I don't really care how you're, especially for the NFL, but how are you throwing the out route? So if you're throwing a Chris out route, And the ball looks good and the ball placement's good. And your receiver ran a nine yard out instead of seven yard out and it gets picked off and brought to the house. Is that your fault? Like, it's kind of why, you know, a lot of people didn't like the Texas tech quarterbacks, cause yeah. They threw the ball 70 times a game, but they're just throwing bubbles and slants, you know, these. So coaches in the NFL, aren't dumb. They, they evaluate the throws. They evaluate how these guys are reading the field. If the guy is making the right read. They are going to get an opportunity. Opportunity at the next level, you said, I think maybe the Guardian's not the right position or the right. Maybe not the perfect spot for him, but I will talk here about another quarterback that wants to start, but you know, if Paxton wants to start, I think Orlando makes sense that way. Do you think PAX didn't still have. Whatever that people see in him and obviously having NFL experience. Is valuable in any of these leagues. And we'll talk about, you know, Brett Huntley as well, but I, you know, Is that, is it a worthwhile endeavor to like bring in packs in here? We got two weeks before training or before kickoff. Yeah. 100% recognition name recognition helps. Well, and I think he's a Florida guy. If I'm not mistaken. So now you have. Two factors. People who don't wanna live in Colorado, cuz it's cold. Move the Florida. Or, you know, the south. So now you're bringing in more. Butts in the seats type thing. So it, I mean, I hate to say this, but the guardians go, oh, and 10, but tax and Lynch is putting up 300 yards a game. People aren't really gonna care. NFL wise that what he did in the past are gonna be like, okay, this guy has something. Let's bring him in as that QB three and see what happens. So I, because when I, I thought people tweet, he went to Memphis. I thought people were tweeting about him being from Florida as well. I think he's from Florida, but yeah, he did go to Memphis. Okay. He played, you know, who was his? Oh, he played high school at, at trendy Christian and for the, okay. Yeah. Okay. He, his backup. Was the, the kid Jay Stewart, who Liz spiff during FCF. Fun. fun fact on that. So, so I don't, you know, it does seem funny to me that I've talked with lots of people, both in the new sub and like even last week with Kyle Nash on the show and talking, everyone seems pretty down on Florida, you know, on their Orlando guardians. It is this kind of funny that, you know, it's the Dan Garcia team rebrand bringing back. Moving the guardians down there, but any thoughts on that? I wanna talk to Brian, Scott of it all, but any other thoughts on the Paxton Lynch and. I, I don't see where I'll see where to fit. I mean, I don't see any, any other position for him. If he wants to have a guaranteed kind of week one, start. Yeah, and that, and that's the thing too, is. He, he can, he might not start week one, but he'll come in and week one, you know what I mean? If, if, if Fran wall or Normandy. Doesn't perform all these other teams. They kind of have the one, one, a, or one, a one B type situation. Where it does appear to me that like, okay, we'll Paxton start. Yeah. But now it's like week five or week six or something like that. Now it kind of, you know, It takes this game film and it condenses it. Cuz now it's like, yeah, he put together three good games, but. So did Cooper rush, you know what I mean? So I personally feel that with any of these. All football quarterbacks. All they need is eight good games. If they put together eight good games. They will at least have a workout and then whatever happens in the workout. And even if they don't get signed, By that team, they're gonna be on that short list for other workouts during the season. When they do practice squad, you know, cuts and signings and whatnot, or when. You know, ki God forbid a Kyla murdery situation comes in and then they're just like, Hey man, what are you doing this week? You wanna play football? Okay, cool. You know, and then. Taylor. Hi, the key Taylor. Hi, the keys of the world. yeah, that's I mean, Th four is the, is the perfect. Perfect. You know, thing, all it was is a connection with Ron Rivera in Carolina. He didn't even play in. Plan the XFL, no snaps, you know, was kind of jumped over by Nick's Nick Fitzgerald and. I mean now he's definitely, you know, An NFL quarterback and probably in the top 35. Why did Bax and Lynch and Brett Huntley here not come in until right now, are we not wanting to do the whole training camp? Cuz obviously the December 31st and all that? Like why not? Why car start now in not three weeks ago. I have no idea. Part of me wants to think they, they kind of were doing the sit and sit and wait type thing. You know, Brett was probably playing the game with the Ravens in the saints and all these other teams he's been with. And they're just like, Hey, I'm available. What are you doing? It's not outlandish to think. Maybe. Depending on what Aaron Rogers did that he would go back to green bay. If that person, you know, like all speculation, of course. But that practice squad contract is for Brett would be around $300,000. With, you know, packs and probably in that same range, a rookie gets that 2 0 7. And then there's always those game day activations, which add another 50 to 70 grand to their check. So. Great. They can come to the XFL or us F L they're definitely getting paid more between that 60 and 100 K for less weeks of work. But why put that stress on your body? When, you know, you could, you can go kick to the, the lions for a couple months and then, you know, Be on that team. Like Steven Montez picked up an extra 40 grand. And then came back to the dragons. Like everything was cool. You know, James Morgan did the same thing. For the USFL. So the other, yeah, the other quarterback we're talking here and thi this is, I mean, just talking timing here of just, and, you know, sometimes I'd rather be lucky than good there's, you know, lucky than smart. We had, you know, shame out talking Orlando guardians last week. And we figured that out, you know, Brian Scott friend of the show was gonna come on last week. Scheduled and it, like, I. The media people and like trick camps shifted and we're meeting different times. And we know this week they're dealing with inclement weather and all that. So they end up, we get Louis pres kind of the last minute because schedules just, they just didn't work out that they had meetings and stuff. And so they said, we're gonna get you Louis pres, cuz I said, I gotta have somebody. We've gone this all week. Like I gotta have somebody, we get Louis pres. He was great. I really enjoyed catching up with him. Wake up Monday morning. To lots of different reports, you know, some, you know, from Brian and some online and. What we know Brett Huntley. Signed, you know, with the Vipers, the league hasn't tweeted it out yet. You know, formerly right. He was with green bay. And then. Brian, presumably not with the Vipers anymore. If reports are to be believed that either is, is off the roster is asking mutual, you know, departure kind of all that stuff. Does that mean? Brian didn't wanna take a quarterback number two. Doesn't mean that Louis pres now, I guess also friend of this show is gonna be quarterback two. Brian didn't wanna be quarterback three. What did you make of? It was a really crazy Monday, all around. Yeah. I mean, there's. There's probably what BR Brian perceived happened. There's what the Vipers perceived happened. And then there's something in the truth. And. I mean, I hate, I hate to take this middle road right now because you know, I don't wanna speak on Brian's behalf. I don't wanna speak on the leagues behalf, but I mean, ultimately it came down to. In my opinion, Brian. Brian probably may have been sold a bit bill of goods or. Felt that the situation was not the best thing for his career. And he's doing what he thinks is the best thing for his career. You know, not, and don't forget Mr. Louis Perez, Mr. Alt football himself. So, you know, there's, it's a little bit, that room gets a little bit stuffy and. You know, we've Brett Hunley has played in NFL games before. So that might not be the best situation for him. So I'd like to see Brian come back to the stars. I think they only have one quarterback on their. Roster. I think he would've been the MVP or not the, maybe the MVP, but the all USFL. Quarterback hands down. With him and Bart Andrews working together. So I don't think it's a crazy assumption. That Brian could come back to the USFL. If the situation. You know, lines up what's best for his career. And I think that's what he needs to do personally. If he feels that this isn't the best move for his career. That's on him. Well, and yeah, cuz certainly now, you know, we're the guardians would've been maybe an opportunity to go to here. You know, certainly not right now with Paxton Lynch, I just. And like I said, you know, I think you put it great. There's, you know, there's. Yeah, there's two sides to the truth. You know, the actual truth kind is somewhere in the middle there. I think Twitter and a lot of the things were on now. It seems like absolutes and. Oh, this was going on or this, and I even saw you. People were like, what happened to the Brian interview last week and all that. I'm like, I just know what I'm told from the league. I'm told from the league, we can do it this day. We can't do it this day. Here we go. Like. A and so, you know, did, did they see this coming or not? Like, I don't know. I don't know when this decision was made. I just know that it, I still think it's odd that maybe they'll tweet it out tomorrow, whatever, but like, you know, Brett Huntley with the Vipers and starting there. Do you, do you like that move? Do you, do you like, did the Vipers need that bolster of the former NFL quarterback? I mean. I don't know, cuz I'm biased towards Perez. We know who Hunley is. And. Maybe we get a couple like Garrett, Gilbert, tight years from him, you know, a couple starts and a couple, you know, activations and whatnot, but. For Louis Perez, who's been a staple to. All football. Including Scott, cuz he's been with the spring league for years upon years. I would've liked to seen one or either one of those guys kind of just like we're all in. And granted you have to evaluate talent and whatnot. But I don't wanna see a Matt McGloin situation. Where cuz Matt McGloin and Landry Jones are two different like situations Landry was hurt and did put up serviceable numbers and was probably a good team guy. He's a Bob stoops guy. I mean, Matt McGloin is coming from. You know, he was recommended from Andy Reed for the league. I think he had a connection with Gilbride and everything like that. So I just don't wanna see that humbly kind of goes into like, yep. This is just a guy. We have type thing. Now, granted, I don't think humbly is gonna be. A bad teammate by any means. But I didn't think Matt McGowin would be, be like that either because you know, coming from Penn state and I consider that a pretty. High character school and. I believe he was there, James. Not James. Right bill O'Brien's first year. When they had all that stuff with the scandals and everything like that. So. I'd like to believe we just caught McCoy on a bad day type thing, but regard . But regardless, you know, if there's some parallels between that, I kind of feel bad for Louis Perez. In that he's possibly going through this again. Well, and it, you know, they was, it, Doug Whaley came out, you know, a couple, it was before the quarterback selection show. And like, we go on to build our own stars and all this and. It's that balance, right. And it's, I've watched wrestling for years. And is, is it easier to build. The indie guy up that we signed here in the WW, like, Hey, we could pay, you know, half a million dollars and bring in, you know, whoever from a w right? Like let's, let's pop s**t that way. It is just interesting to me. And I know the timing, like you said, people are playing waiting games with their teen, but like some of these guys have been in Texas now for a month. Right. And we're here and it's like, all here you go, like pack and Lynch is recorded back. And I'll be like, if I was Deandre, France, I'd be like, bro. Like I was a, in Vegas do doing this selection show and I've been doing media stuff and. I've been here and that like, and then this guy's flying in now. I mean, I get it and I get politics and all of that, but it is. It's that balance of building the guys that we want versus, Hey, well, we got two NFL quarterbacks here. Like let's get 'em on the show. You know, let's get 'em on the, on the, on the teams. Yeah, I mean, This is gonna come off. Come off as craft, but stinks to stink. You know what I mean? Like. It doesn't matter if you're the best quarterback in the room, it doesn't matter who they bring in. Right. So if. All this nonsense is going on. And Deandre Franco is able to. Power through it, regardless like PAX and Lynch, isn't getting the job cuz he's PAXs and Lynch. He's gonna get the job cuz he's better. Cause. In the end, regardless of the XFL goes on for 20 years or one year. All these coaches are tied to these players. And that's what people, and that's why I hate the tanking thing because. Even though this guy might be a scrub. On the field or this coach. Isn't that good? They still need to like perform because that's their next contract, their living contract, the contract. So if you can do it great, do it because the coach needs you to do it because he wants a job because he wants, you know, I don't think. I think there's certain player or coaches and players like, you know, Jeff Fisher. I think he's pretty content in life. He's going up to Montana, you know, fly fishing, all that stuff. I don't think he really cares about going to the NFL. If it happens maybe on like one of those interim, like yeah. I'll come in and help out, you know, for a couple weeks. Great. But I don't think. You know, a guy like Jeff Fisher cares about that. Well, You have Reggie Barlow, who's been coaching in the college ranks for years. He needs that to happen. Terrell Buckley, I believe he's been bouncing around, you know, High school. He needs this to work out. So I don't think. There's much bias towards like, okay man. Yeah. I know you've been here for a month, but if you won't go play in the NFL. I can tell you some stories about guys who made the 53 man roster and then got cut and then were unemployed for four months. So I just hope. Whatever the truth is with all this this week. And I surely hope this, like it's a small world and I, I don't see Brian going. You know, if Brian wants to start. I don't see anywhere right now in the XFL. I mean, give it a couple weeks and maybe something happens when the season kicks off and people get hurt or whatever. I don't know, you know, I don't see a natural, like, okay, well, we're just gonna go sign him to the defenders right now. I think there are a lot of USFL teams that would take him. I just hope whatever happened this week, that like, The world is not that big. And I hope that, you know, Not too many waves were made, if that makes sense of like. All these various stories and everything going on. I just hope that we are able to kind of protect. Cuz people we have, you know, what is it? Memories, you know, memories last forever and all this kind of stuff. So I hope, I hope that all works out, but I do wish the best for Brian. And I think you'll find somewhere. I, I think he'll play football here this year. I just, I don't know if it's the XFL or the USL. Yeah. I'm mean. I hate to say this, cuz these two cases are completely different, but. If you're, if you're good at football, no one cares. Like like, I think there's a guy in Cleveland who's playing in football right now. Who's. You know, had a questionable past. So I think there's a guy that is playing in Denver right now that I lives with for 10 years that's much, but that's questionable pass. That was just kind of an odd dude. And like, we all knew that at Seattle for years, it's like Russa Wilson, but Hey man, Sue super bowl, whatever, when you're winning. No one cares about you doing high needs. And making terrible TikTok. Tos the, that yeah, the, the Denver fight before we let you go, the original intent was to talk us of signings here, you know, re bolstering, you know, we, we are trying to do, you know, us all coverage here. We had Canton and all that. And the Detroit hub last week. Any big thoughts for you teams building here, getting guys back from the L now. The draft and all that. So I like what the Stallings are doing because they. Obviously big thing kept their quarterbacks. Majority of their running backs are coming. They signed a guy off the. Who's been on and off the. Dolphins practice squad. But if you look at their positions, They've been able to retain a decent amount of the guys coming back. So they obviously won the championship with this court. They've brought in a couple. NFL like caliber players to help out in the offensive line. And even though they lost like two or three offensive linemen into the. To the XFL. They had guys start last year in reserve roles. So they, you know, everyone that was an offensive lineman on the team started one game. And then they've brought in some guys with NFL experience who played in these games and. Don't take the preseason. For just, you know, you know, just. Nonsense games cuz they're still out there. They're still in camp. They're still working. Practice squat. If I was a guy, a left tackle on the Texans during JJ Watts years, even if I'm getting messed up by JJ wa I'm still going against JJ wat and there's gonna, and you're with Dwayne brown, who's gonna be like, Hey man, when he does the, this. Duck that, you know, and like that all adds up. We're not just having guys from division three schools or division two schools who went to a rookie mini camp where they're not really going as hard because it's just like, they're going hard as. Far as their effort, but I mean, like, I need to see how you can run. Can you bend, can you, how do you move your, okay. You can't do that. Okay, man, you can go to the other side of this. So go to the, the pool of make, hold, hold the, the practice dummy. So the stallions have done a really good job. The Panthers did a good job bringing in more offensive linemen. I really liked that Cole Kelly was signed to the showboats. That's a big, that's a big move right there. So, you know, he's definitely. An NFL caliber player, big dude. And he replaces Jordan TAMU as well. A lot more mobile people give him credit for. I think Memphis wants to go with Brady white, cuz he is a coach at the university of Memphis during the off season. But. I mean, if I think Kelly's gonna be the number one guy, and that's a dude that could easily jump to the NFL. There you go. So yeah, you feel like. They, you know, even with that, we had the big, you know, war of attrition here, and everyone said that, you know, there's still there's enough talent here for both of these leagues. So far you think even offensive line, which is always kind of been a concern. I mean, if I'm at us, us F L GM, and you could see the XFL guys doing this as well. Is that the us fellows in advantage in this sense of the XFL is. Solidifying their rosters. In November, the supplemental draft, the NFL, season's still going on. Now you take a guy who was with the practice squad all year and now he's released. And he's like, man, I don't wanna sign a futures contract. Might as well go to the USFL because the XFL, you know, is kind of short up. And even though I'm better than these guys in the XFL, I can go to the USFL, play my games. There's there's analytical data. Now that proves that us F L players can translate to the NFL. It's happened. They had 11 guys playing games. They ended the season with like six or seven or five or six or seven. Guys on active rosters. They sent 57 guys on contracts. In that times they had 28 people. On an NFL payroll. There's data, especially if you're a kicker upon their long snapper, cuz like the wear and tear is way less. Now we can talk about the season, like for an offensive lineman. Yes. That wear and tear is. Is a lot because now you're going from July to drinking from the fire hose. In in August. But in the end, if you're good and you're healthy. You're gonna, you're gonna get an opportunity. If a team likes you. They're getting Scouts are gonna be watching this as well. Pat did your, has your XFL fanboy mouth? Are you, are you, are you sick of having to talk about the USFL for as long as you just have. Oh, no, I'll, I'll talk to us Phil. All day. I mean, my DMS that's a bad rap. Pat gets a bad rap. Yeah. Yeah. My DMS might, you know, Say I don't talk about the USFL that much, but I mean, if you're coming at me from an anonymous. Profile. I mean that says more about you than me and it's. Just to give a little tidbit of. My life, you know, my personal life. It's. It's not hard to figure out where the anonymous profiles come from. So. Take that for what it's worth. Well, pat, this was good today. Good spot here. We'll figure out we have you a bunch of big shows here coming up with the kickoff and all that stuff, but I appreciate it. We're gonna do USFL. And then this quarterback, I thought that was good in the back. So triple threat here today, pat rap, really doing the Lord's work. I, I appreciate it. I'm trying. I'm trying, I'm trying, I'm trying, you know, so, you know, and for as much as an XFL fanboy that I am, I will be at. Several USFL games. That. So, I don't know. I don't know if they'll take my money, you know, to go to a game because. You know, I'm of the different church. Obviously, but you know, I'm really excited to see the Panthers really excited to see. The showboats and I'm really excited to see the stallions and whoever they're playing when I'm there. So, I mean, More leagues, more football, more things to talk about.

Episode 129 - XFL vs. USFL Wars: The USFL Strikes Back!

Well, we're getting there. So, you know, this worked out we're about a year here. I was looking on three down this morning and I think it was January 25th. The article came out, you know, you officially be named, what is the last year been like for you in terms of taking back over and being up there? I guess, you know, we would've of course. Preferred to have the season end up, end up different with our performance on the field. Like, if you were to ask me at this time last year, Do I think we would lose. All of our home games again, I'd be like, no, wait, this is just like, no, no way. But that's what happened, you know? And that's the crazy thing about live sports. Two teams get on there. Both teams wanna win. Both teams are doing what they can. So I think that that was. You know, I wish we had ended up better for the year. I think there was a lot of other improvements that we did. Off the field that were really great accomplishments for us as an organization. That we had to just start getting better at again. And that was really reconnecting with our fans and our loyal fans. Post COVID. As some of that had, had, had eroded. And those community ties. And I think we made some really great inroads in, in those areas. What are you most proud of that you helped accomplish this year? I think that. I'd say that there's two things on there on the, on the. On the football side of things. Building this new machinery and working with coach. Coach Jones and the rest of the coaches giving him the support of what he needs to reinvent our team, which is really what we did last year. We know we had more transactions than any other team and just, it, it was like, It's not working. Let's break this apart and try and bring it back together. So that was. That year and going through all of those changes, which is massive. For the organization. I think we only had like, Five or six returning veterans, you know, of our entire roster. So it pretty well is an entirely new team. I'd say off the field. Are organization really embraced innovation and a whole bunch of new challenges. And that's what we needed to do. So last year was a little bit about, okay, let's try this and innovate here and, and. And work at some different at different things. And like we, some, some worked well, some did not. So this year it's about. Taking the stuff that we did really well last year, doubling down on that and continuing to grow that. And. That side of the business. You I've talked before on here. I think the, the biggest strength and weakness to the CFO sometimes is the fan base where like, They're so loyal, they love, and this is our league and everything, but then it is really hard to come in and implement change when it's like, I've been doing this the way I did it for 25 years or however long. Did, did you feel like you got a lot of pushback or how did you manage that with the fans up there and trying to do these new things? I think that, I mean, our fan base in general. Across the league I'd say can be conservative. But I, I. My sense was that. There was an openness to innovation. From the fan base from our staff, from the organizers, from the league, like everyone. To in 2022. Was kind of like, okay, what should we try different? Like, let's explore it. I'm not saying that we'll do it. I'm not saying that's gonna work, but let's take a look at it. And that definitely made. Everything that we were looking at. Easier to, to implement. Favorite thing that you, that you've tried. Bless you. Sorry. That's okay. You know, I we're tracking and you know, I'm seeing like singles nights and like really just out of the box stuff, which I think is great. Like you said, know it, it at least try it. And if it doesn't work a favorite things that you. That you, you know, that you tried or things that were outside the box of, you're glad that at least you gave a shot. Well, most recently we launched this guaranteed win ticket. Yes. Which was, you know, People were, were. Saying. You know, whispering around our record and our performance on the field. And I said, look, It's a fact like we wa we wanted to do better, but it's a fact, so let's embrace it. Let's see what we can do. And let's try and keep on trying to bring new fans through the door. And so that's what we did with this guaranteed ticket launches, like buy your ticket. Come to the first game, season opener. And then. You have that seat until we win a game. You know, and the media were really supportive of it. The fan base was supportive of, of, of it. And that really is the battle that we're doing right now. I'm not expecting that things to change. In one season, it's it. This is a process that's gonna take us three seasons, you know, two to three seasons to, to get it right. But the, what, the battles that we're trying to win. Are that every game we're bringing in. New fans into the league and we're understanding what these fans want. How can we entertain them because. Not every fan wants to be entertained. By buying a season to get, you know, a ticket, right. For, for, for 10 games for the entire season, there there's different paths to bringing in our fan base. Do you feel like, and I know we talked about this last year and you know, a lot of the new voices and you and the Mar Doman and things, and, you know, I know Gary, Stern's trying to do stuff like, do you feel well supported on the league level by like, Hey, we're, we're open to these things and you do what you need to do. Absolutely. I think the league. With, with our partnership with genius sports and the creation of. This new business entity called CFO ventures. Which is takes all of our, our. Combined commercial assets across the league. These are all really. Big bold steps that we've taken and not to, to dive into a history lesson or anything, but. To implement all of those things that we did in this last year. Which is a change from the way things have been operating for decades. Really is, is a massive change. So. That you have to give that time to settle in. It didn't come out perfectly, but nobody. Expected it to, so now these changes are in and it's really about, okay, how are we. Maximizing what we have making the most money as we can as, as a league. But to your question, Absolutely. The, the league has been very supportive. You know, Randy is commissioner is very accessible. We just had an entire week of meetings. This last week and it was an excellent, excellent discussion. Yeah, I would've, they actually, I believe they're not allowed me to partake in a lot of those remote things as well. I would've had you on, but I knew we have this all set up, but I thought, Hey, even. Even just a little thing like that, like, Hey, let's entertain this American podcast for, by setting up some people like, you know, I mean, that just speaks to like, Hey, you know, they don't need to do that. Right. That's totally outside of the realm of things they need to do there. Well, that's good. Well that's because your important media, that's why I know I know. In terms of EO genius sports, just to reflect on that, you know, kind of anyone you talk to, you hear. Different things and whether, what does it mean to you and the partnership with genius that CFO's doing? How do you view that? Well, I think that it is not a hypothesis. To say that this world of sports is going to change significantly with sport betting. That's already. What is there? That's a clear fact. So now it's a question of how do we adapt to it? And implement it to our best advantage. You know, and the challenge in Canada. Is gaming is controlled by each province. So each province. Is, you know, at its own pace of how they want to implement this. Now it is clear that it will be implemented in some degree across the country. And so we've gotta, you know, it's a bit of like, You're building a bridge from opposite ends. And you're just trying to make sure that they, that they meet up in the right space with, so you've got government regulators, and then you've got, you know, the sport fan and then you've got what we are building. And you're trying to, to make that mesh genius sport are some of the best people in the industry when it comes. To understanding that side of the business of data and, and, and sports and where the future of sports is going. So we've got great partnerships, a great partnership in place with them. Each of the teams has a game plan, you know, based on government regulations of, of how we're able to maximize this opportunity. And then the league is layering on top of that, their national plan. So I think. There is a lot of room to draw there, but. This this year, 23 is about. Taking the foundation that we're at and kinda layering on top of that, this is a process gonna happen. In layers, how challenging is it with the CFL and where you have the nine different, you know, it's all these competing and you know, some private and some public, and then you go, Randy, fixed in the mixer and board of governors saw this stuff like to get any, anything implemented or done. How challenges that from like an outside perspective of someone, you know, Casual fan. It's a big challenge cuz there's three types of ownership in the league, corporate private, and then community owned like ourselves. And so each one moves that it's slightly different pace. Has different tools to work with and their toolbox for their, for their organization's success. And also different strategic priorities. So, you know, for us, our mandate. Is to make our community better. And, and how do we grow our community as a community at one team? So that's always our mindset. Of yes, of course the business fundamentals of. Sustainability profitability and all those kind of things are important. But it is not profit for the sake of profit. Let's say if we were a corporate or entity, you know, where it is really what initiatives are we doing that fall in line with our values? As a community-owned team. We spend a lot of resources. Supporting local charities. And, and, and active in the community. And that's a priority for us. So it is a challenge. With, with the different types of ownerships, but. From the year that I've been here, I think I've already seen this progression. Of a let's try and put our league hat on when we get together and what is best for the growth of the league. So I'm seeing a lot more of that through, you know, as we each month passes by. You know, I felt like came in, you know, when you came in like big head of steam, all these ideas, everything, do you still feel that same? Like. We're hitting, we're going, like, how do you maintain kind of that energy level and that motivation, if you still feel that way here, you're in. Oh, absolutely. I think it's, it's taken also taken me a while to understand, you know, What we realistically can do within a season, right? And understand the pace that we can push ourselves at. So that was a big learning lesson. For for me, but I think that we now have this. Game plan for 2023. That was better because I've, this will be my first sort of full cycle where I've had a chance. To develop the budget and identify our priorities and, and steer the resources into the right space. So I'm looking forward to that. In terms of, you know, coach Jones, everything happening that way, you know, on the field, just, you know, from where, where you sit and kind of overview, Greg, Greg coach Jones. I mean, you feel like he did a, how do you feel like he did this year? I think coach Jones and the, and the football operations team that. He's assembled is outstanding world class. And it really. At the center of his philosophy. Beyond doing what we can to win. Is really, he looks after our players. And, and that's important. Because I'm an athlete centered leader as well. I, I understand. The challenges a professional athlete has to go through and I empathize with that. And coach ultimately what he looks at as a player is not just the performance on the field, but is this a good human that's contributing to our city, to the community, to the world? And he likes to bring good humans together and you can see that on his coaching staff. That's why. You know, they're, they're people that come, come to work. Out of the passion of, of working together and being on this path to win. It, it. This Christmas break was. I'd say very challenging for us with the death of Christian Salisbury. You know, like it was just. He was in the wrong place at the wrong time. And you know, at least they, they, they caught the guy, but his funeral. Was just this weekend and. I, I, I won't. I won't. Be shy about it. It, it was. Really, really a very. Challenging thing to talk to his mother. You know, and, and with an athlete that with, with so much promise and was really. A big part of our locker room culture. So it, it made this Christmas break quite somber. No, I, and just, you know, it's been a few weeks now. I mean, horrific and that's someone that we all in the alt football community, I mean, we tracked him through, you know, fro football. Like I remember when his mother was DMing me, like my son is getting CFFL tryouts and things. Right. Trying, because she's always trying to like, You know, you know, pimp isn't where always trying to promote, like, my mother would do the same thing for me. Like, Hey, you should like, look at my son and da da, da, but just how invested she was in that. Trama I just can't imagine how difficult that situation has to be forever. Everybody up to there. Yeah. Yeah. Well, and. I think we. Have worked hard to put sort of the right. Support in place for his teammates. And we'll, we'll do an appropriate. Memorial celebration or something. Along those lines in the season, we haven't quite figured out. Exactly what we want to do yet, but we'll do something there. Well, yeah, like I said, Horrible and, you know, transitioning, you know, off of that, but I I'm glad at least to get just at least a little bit of closure right now. I mean, like you said, that that never really goes away, but at least to be able to have that for the team and the organization up there. Right. That's right. That's right. In terms of coach Jones, do you think he gets. Unfair expectations. I, you, I see a lot of, like, we needed to be better off at this point in time. I mean, do you think he comes in and is that just because of the success he's had before? How do you, how do you view that in the, in the burden he gets played on by fans? I think the burden is fair. That's the fact of, of our business that we're in. If you want. To be the head coach. If you want to be president and CEO, this is the burden of responsibility. And it is to carry this sort of torch of hope for fans, right. And that that's I think, part and parcel with, with the role he gets it, he understands it and he wants to win. But he also knows. This is a process that is gonna take time. And that's what we're working to, but he also re realizes that. We're a performance driven organization and we have to deliver results. Across the board and that's important. So I think that. You're given. Some leeway in your first year as a coach. And first year as a president where you're like, okay, Let's change what we can, let's figure things out. Some things are gonna be wrong and some things are gonna be right. And, you know, there was also things that. As coach, she inherited our, our quarterbacks as an example. And it's not like when you invest so much in certain players, you can't just get rid of them on your first day. You have to pay a little bit of respect to the decision makers before that and go, okay. Let me try and understand what you're trying to do here, cuz we were we're there's some sunk costs where we're already invested. Can we make something out of it? So those first, you know, Four weeks, four or five weeks or a little bit of that as well. And I'm really. Excited about our ability to hit the ground running. For the season, there was a quote that he had with, I have it here on, well, on 1260 that coach Jones had talking about the. Just the, the salary cap for coaching. Right. And being able to bring in, or we have money tied up and it just seems to be a lot of talk right now in the CFO, as in, as a whole, right. Like we need to be able to have more money to spend, to bring in quality coaches or retain coaches. What's your thought on that? I don't know if you can ever work for an organization where you have enough money. right. That's. Okay. Every, everybody wants more money to do whatever it is that they want to do. And there's all. Legitimate business reasons to, to ask for more money. But the fact is that that's not the situation that the league is in. We're not in a position where we can outspend every other league or competitor out there. In terms of just pure dollar spend. That's just not what we are. That's a fact. So if you cannot. Outspend your competition to win. Then you have to find other ways to win. What are the value that you bring to society to the world that makes your organization unique and strong? So those are some of the things that we have to figure out as a league, but it's also what we were, we're really hard on as a, a team. I think players wanna play with coach Jones. One because they're gonna learn. Two, they know that they're gonna be under a great leader. And, and three, they'll be in an organization that looks after their players and, and takes care of them. So I think those are other factors too, that play into an athlete's journey. And the talent that we acquire both on and off the field. I asked this to all the people last week during the CFO meeting days, how do you view the, the level of coaching right now in the CFO? I think we have a lot of talent. There is. Maybe by design a little, you know, a lot of. People moving internally. Because they've got experience in the uniqueness of our game. And our. What, and you know, the style of play that we have up here. I think. This topic of recruitment. And talent was a very big theme. This, this last week with all of us, we recognize. We have some issues, not, you know, that we need to improve on. And this is actually. Not a thing that's unique. To our league, every industry and every business is facing this sort of recruitment crunch. As people have come out of the pandemic. Reevaluating their priorities work from home. Office, all this work life balance, these kind of things. Are all putting different types of pressures on organizations on recruitment and our business is no different. In terms of, you know, competition. And obviously we cover all the different leagues. I also had here with, you know, coach Jones, talk with morally Scott about, you know, we have the XFL now starting up USFL here, season two, USFL just ratified their CBA rights. Now they're all unionized and they have that collected. Bargaining for, I think it's at least three years competitive starting wages, right. To be able to stay and play in Birmingham or whatever. Like how do you view. And I know that like the general CFO answer, like, well, we've been around a hundred years and they have it. And I understand that, but how do you view new leagues now being able to pay staff to stay in America, be able to pay talent, you know, on the field wise to stay in America? I think it's a big chunk challenge. Definitely is a big challenge and I don't. Look at that. Response in the same way or that as in, oh, we, we we're the old man on the block. We're grandfathered. We have history. I mean like okay, sure. That gives that's part of it. How I actually like to build our plan is I assume. My competitors will be faster. Agile more resources smarter. And I assume that those two leagues are gonna win. That they're going to succeed at what they're doing. Cuz they have people that are way smarter than me working on their business. That is what I assume I don't count on their failure. Whatever the probability, like it might be people with some people say, oh, There's two leagues. There both are not gonna survive. One of them's gonna go down. Okay. That might be the case, but that's not where I build my plans. I assume. And everything that I do, everyone is smarter than me and has more. Access to information and resources than I've got. That means I've gotta stay up longer. It means I have to work harder. It means I have to innovate faster in ways that other people are not thinking. That's the mind space that we, we try to get our organization. Into, and I think that that's how you build success in the long term. Do you find that you are alone? Like. Do more people think like you or do more people in the Seattle think like, oh, we don't need to worry about that. No, I wouldn't say people in the league say. No, we don't need to worry about that. I don't think that there's a. Barrier head in the sand mentality. We definitely all recognize the challenge. And then, but I think where we're at is. Everybody's perception of the threat. The level of the threat is different. And the level of action that we want to take to it is, is different. That is a challenge to get the entire league aligned. But. There are, you know, like I said, this last week. We were really Frank about some of the weaknesses that we've got and the challenges that it face us as a, as a league in how we wanna address this. And that's the first part of it, you know, recognizing, okay. We have a recruitment problem. Okay. How do we do deal with the challenge of talent of coaches and players? Et cetera, etcetera. And, and putting. Our solutions all on the table to see what works. I got just here. I'll get you outta here or here, PA. I promise here. I appreciate your time. The, the big topic for us in our listenership, obviously being based in America and, you know, we get Canadian listeners in American, but this, you know, us TV deal with the CFL and trying to broaden that way. And you know, if it's on ESPN plus or what, what that, how important, or how do you view trying. To get more exposure for the CFL in America on whatever platform it is here with this. Year with this rumor deal that you know, and Brosy is talking about. Yeah, I, the, I mean, the, the deal has been, has been in the works and the league has been. Working hard at it. I would say I'm fortunate. I am fortunate in that, you know, I have. Done media deals. All around the world. dozens of times over. At, at millions of dollars of deal structures, you know, and have, and everything from monopolies to competitive depart competitive industries. In different countries. And. I think the challenge. That we have as a league in America. Is that is such a sophisticated market of a fan base. Where. Every every month, every week there are new. Properties that are coming up, that actually are very strong and, and, and valuable. Whether it was ultimate Frisbee years ago or today pickle ball. You know, like new things that are coming on to the landscape that you've gotta figure out how they fit into the competitive environment. I think the deal for us to get. Expand the, the reach of the league. To make new fans. Bring in new eyeballs is really important. Finding the right partner that wants to. Invest in us to expand that reach is also really critical. So if we get wins on those two things on reach and, and, and more fans. That's a huge win already for the league. Last thing with you most looking forward to this year? I mean, biggest goal or biggest thing you're excited about. A home game win. I wanna start there. Yeah, just. One step at a time. I, I wanna open up the season with a win. And then focus on the next win right after them. Well, I really appreciate your time today and that, you know, the Elk's office setting this up and everything else, it means a lot. And you taking as much time as you do. I really appreciate, and I know our listeners do as well. So thank you. It's always my pleasure and good to see you rocking that CFO hat. Thank you. Yeah, I got, I have a, I have a Edmonton flag hidden back here too. They were, you know, we, I, I waver now with the BC Alliance, but yeah, no, Dave Campbell I've said was Dave Campbell was the first CFL media person that ever said I will come on your show. So I will always have us special place in my heart for David in the Edmonton Oak. So that's good. Yeah, well, BC, I mean that Nathan Rourke. Sure. Moved as far away as he possibly could. you know, but I'm, I'm happy for him. It's a, it's a great, great new step in his chapter. Do you think? I, I pose the same question I did to Anne bros last week. I mean, the, the biggest star in the CFO now signing with an NFL team, is that a good thing for the league? To double edge sword. You know, we understand that for many of our players, that is what they wanna do. And, you know, our, our, our contracts give a little bit of a window of an opportunity for our players to do that. So we, we recognize that I think that. And one hand it was not unexpected. From everybody. Right. So it's not like it caught everybody by surprise. I think what it brings to light is. One is we have a lot of talent in Canada. That are can compete with the best in the world. And so. That that makes me exciting about excited about our level of, of game. We of course wanna keep the talent as long as we can. That makes sense. But on the flip side of it, how can you not be excited? For somebody that is young and is embracing a whole new opportunity and a chance to provide for his family and fulfill his dream. And, and you haven't been. Having been a part of that journey. Is is an exciting thing. Yeah, it's just hard. I mean, we all read the state yesterday. We're always like, you know, I appreciate my time, the CFO, it was a detour. I always wanted to play in the NFL. It's like, it just, I it's hard as someone that like watches the game. I'm like, I love Nathan and everything, and he's been on the show and everything, but it's just, it is hard to be like, okay. I mean, that is the truth. So I, Well, I just went and through on my spring league, Jousters Jersey here, we have spring league legend now, exit Phil Vegas fiber Squareback Louis press. How are you doing, sir? Doing well, how are you? I'm good. I was thinking about this today. You really are like the spring football forest Gump. Has anyone ever called you that? No, not for as gum. That's the first for sure. but you know, it's, it's remarkable here that the career you've had, the places you've gone, the steps along the way. I mean, when you sit here now where, you know, January. 2023. Like how, how does it feel? Where are you at? Yeah. You know, I'm just very fortunate, man. That's, that's, I'm blessed and fortunate. You know, all these leagues are just been popping up since I came outta college. Right. You know, if I would've came out five years before that, you know, who knows what I'd be doing, but I'm just thankful for, you know, every opportunity every coach gave in me and all these leagues and just look forward to taking advantage of it again. We're sitting here now. Vegas Vipers, middle of training camp. How's the week going? How's everything we're down in Arlington. What's it like? It's going well, you know, all these spring leagues are, are pretty much similar where, you know, you gotta get guys caught up fast, right? I think the best office is gonna be the one that gets everybody on the same page as soon as possible. And that's what you know, I'm trying to do every single day. We're not meeting with guys trying to get 'em on the same page. You know, telling 'em, you know, certain looks on defense, what I wanna do and, and, you know, and so forth. But yeah, no, I think the biggest thing is just get on the same page. Now that everyone's there. Right? Only thing. How is the hub situation? You obviously, you did the, you know, the Birmingham situation last year. What is this hub like? And what do you make of, of just kinda everything that your guys' disposal right now? You it's nice set. You know, we're really nice hotel. All the players are here. Our meeting spot is, you know, literally one minute away to take a bus to it. Whenever we meet. And no, it's good. It's great. I mean, it's all you can ask for. You got a place to stay and you're here for football, right? So I'm not really about all the GLRS and stuff. Right. I'm here to, you know, gimme a bed and, and gimme my playbook. That's all I need. Are you kind of you sitting now, do you feel like you're often deployment again? I, I, you know, offering another one here. Yes exactly. It's but I've been doing the last six years. How, how hard is it that just, I, I couldn't imagine the emotional and physical stress and everything I, to, to keep doing this, you know, year after year, week after, what is it like and how do you kind of psych yourself up? I mean, I love the game. I, I, I love it. This is, this is what I feel like I was born to do. And again too, you know, I'm so close to the end goal, right? The end goal is obviously to, you know, make an active roster and make a living in the NFL and. When super bowls ultimately has the goal, but. You know when you're so close, man, you just can't stop. You can't stop. And I'm so close. You know, I was back in the NFL this year with the Rams and, you know, didn't get a fair shot there, you know? So I'm just, I'm just waiting for another opportunity, you know, and again, all these leads that just keep popping up, you know, how can I not be a part of it? Compare, you know, were XL. Actually about 3.0 now, compared to your time at EXL 2.0, what is just in terms of like, you know, ownership and management and league execs and the kind, everything else. Yeah, I, I would say it's pretty similar. You know, it was kind of the same setup. We, we had a hotel, we have all our meeting spaces, you know, we get the meals. And all that, I would say it's pretty similar. The structure here. I really like how coach woods runs, you know, Kind of the whole structure of it. Our practice schedule, our meeting schedule. Everything is just. Professional. It's very professional and you know, just again, All that other stuff is all secondary. I'm here to play ball. Like I said, all I need is a. A bed and my playbook and I'll be all set. What? Yeah. What's coach, what is coach Woodson? Like? I, I mean, he's one of the guys, you know, more ambassador. I mean, I cover, I got the C dragon, Jim, Haslet a little less that, you know, refrained out there. What, what do you like if him and, and have, how, how do, does he kind help run you guys? Yeah, no, he's awesome. I mean, you throw a bowler super bowl champion. I mean, I wanna pick his brain as a quarterback. You know, him being the defensive back. He was. I'm asking questions all the time, trying to be a sponge on him, you know, what are you thinking here? What tendencies do I, you know, am I giving away right now? You know, gimme some pointers, you know, and we're constantly, you know, just dialogue back and forth, just ultimately to get better, you know? And I think we have, I think 278 years of coaching experience on our staff. So, I mean, if you only imagine how much football and how many players they coach, so all I wanna do is be a sponge around these guys. What do you like about doing Taylor and the, the offense you guys are working on? I love the offense. Really, really like the system really like the scheme. Has a little bit of everything, right. I don't think we're gonna be one dimensional at all. Can't say too much, but I was all, all I'm gonna say is it's gonna be fun. And I really like the offense. In terms of, you know, we had the, the quarterback video last week, you know, the QB action, Jordan Palmer and everything kind of the work around you guys off the field. What has that been like? And have you been enjoying that experience? Yeah. So I've actually had two encounters with Jordan. I came onto the scene a little late. Later than normal, but yeah, no, Jordan's been awesome. You know, I've been talking to him and Mike White, you know, we've been talking, you know, just talking fundamentals, talking coverages, talking how to study, you know, again, those guys that have been around, I just wanna listen, be all ears and just try to take in as much information I can from those guys. And they both been a real big hell help. Ha, has there been things that maybe between you and talking with other quarterbacks that Jordan's been, you know, helpful with in terms of like, whether it's, you know, reading different things or, you know, processing things. I think the biggest thing right now that, that Jordan's preaching is just like being able to use our body efficiently. Right? Like no wasted movements, being able to use the ground to grade force. You know, being able to rotate, you know, we're rotational athletes. And I think that's one of the biggest things that I think maybe I, I was lacking before, you know, that's, I never really thought about, you know, projecting from the ground, you know, all sprinters, right. The sprinters were faster, the ones that can put their foot up and down and push from the ground, how hard they can push. It's kind of similar, you know, obviously not to that extent, but it's pretty similar playing quarterback when you're, you know, moving in the pocket, you can't take too many wasted movements when you're stepping outta the pocket, you gotta create force in the ground to get out, you know, and all these different things. Like, like I said, though, they've been great. Do you feel like over your years and all the different coaching you've been able to work with? You've. Been able to kind of Osmo that in and take some of that as you go along the way. No doubt. No doubt. Yeah, no, I I've been so lucky to have great coaching. And again, it's like, it's like tools, right? You know, sometimes you use some, sometimes you don't, but you like to listen to all the information that's given to you. And again, I've been very fortunate to have great coaches in my career and. I'm excited just to have another one in, in Dwayne Taylor and, and coach Woodson. Now, obviously right now, it's your best experience you've ever had. Right. But if besides XL for three point, they're like high is along the way, you know, what, what have been some, you know, some key moments you've enjoyed over the last, you know, many years. Man, it's hard to pinpoint one, right? Playing ball. I just enjoy playing football, you know, and each team is so unique. I've been a part of each, you know, each individual locker room is different, but. Again, I I've enjoyed every single one. I can't pinpoint one, but. I'm just very excited about our group we have now and excited what is to be, you know, we're getting there. We're not there yet, but we're getting there and we're I think 23 days away. So. Hopefully we'll get there by then. What is it like for people that aren't, you know, accustomed to it? This spring league? This, you know, quick ramp up, right where it's, you know, we got four or five weeks here. We got everything, get everything ready to go. How hard is that to come in and, and do that. Obviously you've been through that system, you know, before, and, and kind of experience that, but how, how challenging is that to come together as a team? Yeah, it's definitely, it's definit a challenging it's different, you know, Like, like you said, I'm used to it. I've done it the last six years. But the biggest thing, like my job is to get other guys caught up. Right. It's how fast can they learn if I learn the whole system, but everybody around me doesn't that, that doesn't be no good. Right. So I have to go out there and just meet with these guys and, you know, try to ingrain certain things. And, and again, along the way, I've kind of figured out way to do it, to kind of speed up the, the process. And again, I think our guys are on the right track. Do you view yourself a as, as someone that can impart that knowledge on people just having gone through this so many different, you know, tweaks and iterations of this. Yeah. I mean, I have the experience, right. I, I wouldn't say the knowledge, you know, I just have the experience and I kind of know. Kind of know what, what to do at, at this point, you know, I've had my ups and downs and every single spring league and I kind of, I'm starting to see a pattern, right? The more you experience, you start seeing patterns and you start figuring out what works and what doesn't. What, what do you feel like that you could personally grow from it and learn from this experience this time around? Where, where do you think you need the most growth? I think, you know, what the biggest thing is. I wanna go out there and show people that, that I'm a complete quarterback, right. That I can do it all. That I'm not just a, a stand in the pocket guy that can just throw the football and accurate. Right. I wanna, I wanna show 'em that I can make plays off platform. I can run for a couple furs downs game. You know, I might be able to run the ball on a quarterback run here and there. I wanna just. Show everybody that I'm a complete quarterback in. And I think in this scheme, well, hopefully I'll be able to show it. When you found out, you know, you were coming, come back for this, you know, this version, right. You know, I would say you bigger, more Bombas than even 2.0. And you know, between the red bird and obviously Danny DJ, everybody else with that, like excitement. What was that like that you knowing, like you were gonna be a part of this version of this. Yeah, no, it's exciting. It's really exciting. You know? I had the decision to make, you know, whether I was gonna go back to the USFL or here and. Also, my heart was here in the XFL, you know, from the first time it came around. It went really well for me and just oral structure of it. I just fell in love with it, you know, and the timetable of it as well, you know, kind of how. For a quarterback, you know, it's kind of tough coming in right before training camp and then learning a system and then being able to compete, you know, here you have some time to go through OTAs after the season and go through it and learn a playbook. So you can actually compete, especially as a quarterback, you have to know what you're doing before you actually compete terms of the, you know, some of the, the players we're curious. See kind of jump over. Right. You know, we had you and Kyle slowder a bunch of, you know, non, non quarterback position thought process two come to the XFL. Was it just the timeline? Was it the ownership? Was it management? What was it? It was a little bit of everything, you know, timeline, coach Woodson, being able to, you know, see it from a defensive head coach perspective, DT R O C you know, we, we we've talked and you know, his system was really great. I, I really like his system, but like I said, it was just a little bit of everything that kind of meshed together. In terms of, I, I saw the one article that you had talking about the time, like getting it in. Do you feel like getting out of the us fellows late as you did that hindered being able to kind of latch on there, especially with the Rams this time around. Personally a little bit. I wouldn't say too much just cause I already ran that system. So because I was with the Rams in 2018. So it's pretty much a similar offense, just a little bit more innovative and, you know, they added some stuff. So I kind of knew the system, but. Again, I got fortunate that I was with the Rams. If I would've went to another team, I'm sure it would've hindered me a little bit more. But do you, do you prefer that the February, April timeline or the, or the April? The June just term, cuz we've we've had, we had coach Heinbach on last week with the Renegade, just trying to kind of compare and contrast both leagues, you know, setting up the opportunities for the players after the sea season. Yeah, I would say, yeah, the timeline here is better. What are you looking for as you here? We got a couple more weeks. I'll let you go here in the minute. I swear. Getting up to kick off. What are you looking to most here? Your like coming in the future? Yeah. G Gasol on the same page, G guys on the same page, learn the offense. Trust the system DT system is awesome. So guys just buying in. And just, you know, executing at a high level, knowing your assignments and, and just executing. And again, my job as a quarterback not only is to perform, but to get those guys ready as well. Who are some of the guys you've enjoyed working with the most so far? Man. We got a lot of guys. We have a lot of guys Martavious, Matt sext and. You know, Jeff badda, you know, CQ, I can go on and on rod at running back, our tight end group is amazing. Broad Smith J love, you know, I can keep going. The tour down the to, I mean, I can keep going. I can name everybody right. But no, I'm just, I'm excited about all these guys because all these guys are hungry, man. They're hungry for the opportunity to go out there and just compete and show the world what they can do. And this is what it's about. At ti yeah. The being able to kinda see these guys, you've got springy guys, and you've got you AAF guys, or, you know, us like being able to see all of these people together now, what is that like in these familiar faces? Yeah. You know, all these league I played, you know, against a lot of these guys, I played a lot against a lot of all these defensive coordinators, you know, some defensive coordinators where my head coaches before it's just a constant cycle of guys. Right. So again, I, I play with some as guys already before, so we have some ready to there, but yeah, no, it's just fun. It's fun. To go out there and meet new people. And just, again, our goal is to win a championship. And my job as a quarterback is to get everybody together and buy in so we can get it done. The spring league jester's. Uniform is widely considered one of the best in, you know, alternative football. Do, do you enjoy wearing, wearing the purple? Why, what were your thoughts of, of the jester's branding? I liked it. I took pride in wearing the purple. And shoot. It was, you know, we fell short in the championship game, but. Didn't go our way, but no, I really enjoyed it. I really enjoyed wearing the purple. What was, what was the mega bowl? Like? What was the mega bowl like against the lineman? It was good. It was good. I mean, I'm sure you, you, I dunno if you saw the game or whatnot, but it's, it's just a different, it was a different setup. You know how the league was ran was true. Developmental. I only played the first after every game. You know, it was just a little bit different, different setup. do you think you were the one, the mega ball. If you had played the whole game? I mean, I don't want negative to all that, but I mean, I remember that was like a thing at the time. I remember it was like the hot takes. It was like, mean this was the world we were in back then, but it was like a piecing together the mega bowl play by play. Well, you know, I think if Perez would've played the whole game, he probably would've won. I'm not gonna get into that, but it was fun. It was, it was fun playing the spring league. Well, you know, I'm excited for you excited for this a long time coming, you know, seeing you, you know, with all, all the way back in the day, Okay, everything's good. All right. And it says that we're live it's just for the transcription. So don't worry about it. Well, I am excited today. Hopping. Now I always say I can just hop on the moment. So this here we have shame Matthews quarterbacks, coach for the Orlando guardians. How are you doing, sir? I'm doing well. How are you? We're good. I appreciate it. We're in the midst of training camp here, you're in your hotel, it looks like you're in the Bayou in Georgia. We, I guess, three kind of here or two were in pads and everything. How's how's everything going for you guys down in Arlington? Good days, bad days. I mean, it's a work in progress trying to, to. And employers on your team and what they can and cannot do. And. And go from there. Hey, how, how foreign are used to this concept? I mean, it's such a quick timeline here coming in. I have to imagine it's kind of a ramping up process for players and staff and everybody, right. Yeah, there's no question. It's it's it's similar. I've mentioned that it's, it's, it's a unique situation and I'm sure every team's going through it. I mean, you draft guys. You've seen tape on 'em. But you really don't know if they fit into your system until you actually get 'em. In meeting rooms and on the practice field. So. It's not like the NFL where you have a set system you're drafting to, or college football, you run a certain type of system and you're looking to recruit those type of players. You know, it's just kind of, you kind of gotta figure out what you have and then kinda. Figure out what you have to, you can run on offense or defense. With the XFL, a lot of pre-pro, you know, we're doing all these showcases, we're scouring the planet, trying to get everybody. What do you make of the talent level that kind of entered into training camp here a couple weeks ago? Yeah. You know, the quarterback acquisition is a little bit different. It was kind of, people were designated to the team. So there wasn't a whole lot of. Evaluation in that, but you know, it was a draft in all the other position groups and. There's some good players. And then you know that you used to see it in the NFL camps. There's a lot of good players that get cut. So as a coaching staff and an organization, you gotta figure out. You know, who's gonna make your 50 man roster. Ain't a lot of people and you gotta figure out how many. You're gonna keep at this position group. How many at that one? And once you start crunching the numbers, it's pretty tough. This week we saw Mitch kid get released amongst a couple others on the, you know, the guardians roster. There. Are you guys rolling with two quarterbacks now? Is that the plan or, or what happened with that? I mean, that's, you know, Mitch is a good little player. Very smart. I think he'll be a coach one day. I really liked him a lot. Smart, smart, smart kid. Yeah, right now we have two. There's always that. Possibility of signing someone else you just never know because that's what the personnel people. In the front office that's their job is to, to, to look at, you know, where they're Canadian. Kids NFL guides have been on practice squads that didn't sign back. I mean, it it's, it's a. Transitioning period on a daily basis. So I, as the quarterback coach, I'm a coach who I got as hard as I can and see what we can do. In terms of the, we know Deandre Fransua, we followed a lot in our audience, knows him through fan control football and all that. In terms of the, the quarterback room you guys ha have right now, I would say people are maybe the most. Curious about kind of what's happening there. How do you feel about the talent level you guys have with between the two players right now? Well, as you say, we have Quin dormy and Deandre Fran law. Fransua, you know, I think they probably have the least amount of experience of any of the players in the league. So, and, and we don't have a set starter right now. It's a battle. It's it is, we're trying to put competition at every position. And we'll see how it all plays out. We still have a couple more weeks before we kick it off. And. We'll see who performs the best for those that maybe not be familiar with the two quarterbacks. What are you seeing? You said not a lot of experience coming in. What do you like that impresses you about both of them? Well, Deandre, you know, he played at Florida state at Howard. I think he is played in the fan control league, which I'm not familiar with at all. You know, he is got a good arm. He's a little, a, he's pretty athletic. Has some tools there. Quentin is a, a big kid, has a good arm. You know, he played at Tennessee played also at central Michigan. So, and I think he was in with the Titans and a training camp or the practice squad. So, you know, not a whole lot of. Professional experience, you know, some of the other teams have guys that were, you know, in practice squads or. Training camps of NFL teams played in the USFL or played in the old XFL. So it's, like I said, it's a work in progress. We're gonna do everything we can possibly do to put a good product on the field. Do you like that more as a quarterback coach having a little bit more raw talent you can work with or allow this guy's been through six different, you know, you kind of gotta break it. I think coach backed with the battle. Hawks was talking about that. Right? We had maybe some bad habits we have to break. Do you like having them more raw? Well, I wouldn't say they're raw. I mean, yeah, but they, they, they, they, you know, At this age, I mean, from a fundamental standpoint, hopefully you have your fundamentals down. I mean, it, it's hard to change. You know, we don't have a whole lot of time to work on fundamentals and changing. You know, footwork and throwing mechanics in that you just don't have time. Those things take months to. Convert to something else. So we just gotta see how guys process information when the bullets are flying. And that's the bottom line. You know, you can look pretty in shorts. Throwing 7 0 7, but that's not football. You gotta be able to make quick decisions, throw the ball accurately. Anticipate. To be a productive quarterback. We saw, and obviously we've been tracking Jordan Palmer with all this, and we saw the big video last week and the QB X thoughts on the incorporating Jordan into this and the development of him as kind of the QB development guy. Well, I think Jordan I've met him. I play with his brother Carson in Cincinnati. I, I think he's, he does a tremendous job at what he does. But the problem is, you know, with Jordan working with them for a day or two. That you can't change and learn that kind of stuff in, in a day, it takes months. So that, that that's, that's like a program that I think from a quarterback standpoint. When a seasoned ends, if they go work with a trainer on that kind of stuff for six months. Then you'll benefit from it, but it's good to have him involved and we'll see if it pays dividends. Anything that you would say is right now substantial growth or anything that you've seen, that the people are be being able to apply now. I'll be honest. I don't know what Jordan did at the, at these camps. , you know, like I told you. There's three things I look for in a quarterback. One is decision making and processing information. The second is accuracy and anticipation. And a third is mental and physical toughness. That's what we're looking for. And that's what we're hoping to get out of our quarterbacks. Now that we've gotten to kind of joint practices and we're doing a lot more stuff on the field. How do you feel about the offensive, you know, quality of the guardians? I mean, we we've only had one control practice against another team. We've got some more coming up, but I thought we did some good things, obviously, you know, The Hey, he's not in the barn. We got a lot of work to do. I thought we ran the football really well. So, you know, you know, we'll see, we gotta a, again, it's, it's hard to evaluate because you still don't know who's gonna be on your football roster. We're trying to upgrade it on a daily basis and, and improve on the players that we have here. In terms of like play calling and the offense that way distribution between you and Robert Ford, this are, you have any input in that? Is he handling that? How does that work? Well, coach Ford, he's been coaching football for longer than most of us have been alive. He's he's outstanding. I love him. He's he's great to be around. I think our, our players love being around him. I'll be communicating with our quarterbacks during the game. But yeah, I'm a, I, I have a lot of ideas. I love the scheming portion of, of football. So, yeah, I mean, he's. He's he's listened to some of our ideas. Some have gotten put in some have not, but he's the guy in charge and. You know, that's why he's the OC. In terms of just, this is unique situation, right. And you guys are in Arlington in the hub and it's spring football and it's five weeks, like just overall thoughts. Like how, how do you feel? I mean, it has to be so different than anything else you've ever done. Yeah. It's very unique, you know, you gotta get on. A bus and drive 45 minutes to practice each day. That's just one way. We practice, I think farther than any other team, for some reason. But the facilities have been outstanding at these high schools in Texas. It's been a first class. The food's been outstanding. The hotels were staying at have been great. It's been a lot of fun and. You know, it's getting to that point now, like when I'm played in the NFL. Once you're at training camp for a week or so, it's time to move on and start playing games. But we still have a, almost a month away until we play, but we're anxious to get going. In terms of, and I'll let you go here soon. I appreciate your time in terms of just. Leadership everybody there. I was talking with Jonathan Heinbach last week. He said, you know, rush, Brandon's walking around, talking to people like, how do you feel about the leadership and, and management of the league right now? Oh, I, I think it's great. You know, with Danny Garcia and Dwayne Johnson. And, and the red capital group. I, I, I think they've put this thing. It's not easy to put a lead together and. And we know what's happened with spring league in the past, but. You know, the, the leadership group has been outstanding. I, I was with the Buffalo bills when Russ was running the bills. So it, it is been first class and I can't wait. Till we get going in the season, playing games. I think the, I think the fans will be excited. Last question. What do you, what do you want? What, what should the fans of the Orlando guardians, which is kind of Danny's team? I don't know if you know that right. That's kind of her team. Do we get, do we get special treatment since we're her team well, I, you know, I know, I mean, but you know, here and we, we might have some other announcement this week that we can know. We'll talk about. On the show when it airs, but what do, what do guardians fans, what are they gonna see from you guys when you hit the field? Well, you know, our head coast, rail Buckley, the, the hall of Famer from Florida state, my old high school teammate in Mississippi. You know, we're gonna play smart, fast and fearless football. And we want to try to be wide open offensively. Now we, we kind of have to figure out who we are. In the next couple of weeks, but we want to score a lot of points. I, I think this league with the rules, how they're set up it's it's, it's kind of favored to the offense. So. You know, we're, we're gonna play some football, have fun. We're not gonna be boring to watch. I can promise you that. In terms of the rules, anything that excites you more, the double four pass, anything else? . Yeah. I mean, it's hard to get used to it. I'll be honest with you. You know, there there's, the punt rules are kind of strange where if you pun a ball out of bounds inside the 35, it goes back to the 35. You can't pin 'em down. There's no more coughing corners. Then you got the, the one point, the three point and the. Wait, what is it? The, I don't even 3, 1, 2 and three. Yeah. From the, from the three or the two yard line, the five yard line and the 10 yard line. So. You know, you know, it, it, it's gonna, it's gonna be different for people. But it should be a lot of fun. We'll figure that today we have Alex Walker here. WFT down in Orlando. Either you ever have like a meeting at work and then you feel like it could have been an email. I kind of feels like this. What? Welcome to the show. How are you first off? I'm great. Everything's good. In sunny Orlando, it started to kick this thing off here in about couple weeks now. So it's this an exciting time and we'll see what happens with. XFL 3.0, right. Yeah. So. We were talking a little bit off camera that we have this press conference. It felt like. Something was coming. The USFL is also having press conferences this week, announcing their hubs. We've been tracking and it felt like. We were getting a championship game announcement, some playoff announcements. So what did you, cuz obviously you, I used to work in news 2 million years ago. Like, you know, you get the press briefing. Hey, we're coming out. We're doing this. What were you guys thinking about? Heading out? Yeah, we, we knew it was something that we needed to be there for. I mean, this is one of those things where we've been tracking the XFL and they announced the team we were there when they announced the head coach, you know, we, we were doing reports and, and whatnot. When this press conference came about. From our point of view, we just, we, we just assumed it was a, Hey, welcome to town. Mayor's gonna be there, Danny, Garcia's gonna come down show she's an Orlando resident, so she's around. And so I think it was more of, you know, this is what we are, this is what we're gonna be about. We want you guys to come. And we thought maybe there was gonna be some sort of like, oh, also while we're here, we'd like to announce blank. Whether it be playoffs or whether it be something with. With the games to, to drum up excitement for ticket sales. But now it was, it was pretty much just an introduction to town. The mayor was, there was pretty short, 15, 20 minutes. At 10:00 AM yesterday morning or on mu or on or on Monday morning. And it was one of those things where yeah, it's like probably could have been an email, but. I understand from their point of view, anytime they can get some city leaders together. With Danny Garcia, who everyone around here knows. And everyone, you know, around the country knows if you're, if you're plugged in with the XFL. And so I think it was just one of those, Hey. Month away, come out and support this new team. Welcome to town. Here's a game ball, coach de mayor. That was pretty much it. And I wanna talk about kind of just your Orlando reception to the, to the league here, but like, is, is Danny Garcia seeing around town? Is that like, oh, Danny's to the grocery store? I mean, is she like, is that at a level, like, I don't know what level celebrity Danny Garcia is at in local or Orlando. Oh, she shows FA I mean, I, I haven't been here long enough to know if she's like you see her at like, Public. She you're like, Danny, how are you doing? You know, I dunno about that yet. But people, people like her and obviously when, when she showed up yesterday before, like, all right, nice. You know, so when, when she was on that press release before very excited and. She said, you know, being from Orlando. And being a resident here. I can't remember how long she said she's lived here, but her daughter's here. And she said, you know, There, this was a no brainer site. Like we were, we've been planning and building. We're gonna bring a team to Orlando. We're trying to figure out the rest in, in a bit, but this was for sure. One of her main. Main goals was to bring at least one of the teams here to Orlando. Again. Whether your thoughts on Orlando or exit three point though, being in Orlando. Well, first of all, you know, I, I'm a big believer in as something isn't broke. You don't, you don't want to fix it. Right. So when, when, when the XFL was here, Back in the, you know, early two thousands when I first started and whatnot, this place. They had one of the best attendance numbers in the league. It camp, you know, it wasn't camping world stadium then, but they packed their stadium and they had a big following for the rage. If you remember, and it, it was a thing that people, when you don't have an NFL team in your city, And people love football. I mean, you got Florida, you got Florida state, you know, there's a big UCF following here. You got a lot of bucking ears fans, a lot of Jas fans, a lot of dolphins fans we're in this like weird. Central Florida epicenter of football, but we don't have that professional. Franchise. And so when you have an XFL team, Star a week after the super bowl, there's gonna be a following. Cuz people have that, that thirst for football and a crave for football. And this is a, this is a city in camping world stadium that they host some pretty big time football games. They had the cheese, the bowl, they had the citrus bowl and their house. LSU floors stayed is kicking off the year and except September. And so. People are used to watching high quality football. And so I think that there is gonna be a, a thirst and a, a pretty big following. Once this, this season kicks off here in a few weeks. Has there been, you know, you were saying you've had, you know, coach Buckley into this, the. Station whatever. And then interviews everything. Like, do you feel like there's a good appetite here? Have you been getting good reaction from the segments you guys are doing? We have. And, and that's the thing is it's, it's interesting because we can track, you know, we'll track hit on, on a articles and what whatnot that we're posting, whether be it be the magic. Or, or Orlando city soccer team and whatnot. And. The, our XL articles have been, have been jumping off of our, our charts and especially the press conference, even though nothing was really announced, people were just interested. Just to see what's going on. And, you know, I was talking to their ticket managers and they've been very, very happy so far with, with people that have been buying season tickets and getting tickets to that first game on February 26th, I believe, I think against. San Antonio. And so I think there is a thirst for it when we, it's pretty easy to tell sometimes in local news, if you're doing something and people don't care. You, you kind of can sense that and figure that out. But with the XFL, we're getting great reception of, Hey, we like the coverage, keep it coming. And then obviously they're, they're excited to be, you know, on camera showing face and talking about their teams. And so I think when the first game is here, that's Sunday at four o'clock in Orlando. Again, San Antonio, I think. It's gonna be a fantastic crowded, obviously. You know, if the team's awful, then it it's gonna impact the sales, I think. But if they're, if they're competitive, which I think they will be under Terrell Buckley, then I think people are gonna come out and watch the games. Yeah. Spoiler alert. Orlando is I think bottom eight here of a, in terms of like, I'm not always Theis. Those sky more, just kind of, I, I create the platform here, but I will tell you smart football people have told me Orlando might not be too good. So I just want just hedge your events on that. You said you talked with the ticket people. We've, you know, we go on Ticketmaster and we're kind of looking at ticket and, you know, camping world or only so selling the, the one kind of the lower section. If you're looking, you know, aerial view down, kinda like you would at WW house show, right? Like we wanted pack the one side. What, what was your conversation like with the ticketing people and what have you made of anything you've heard of ticket sales? Yeah. And that's the thing is when, when they were that we were looking at some old video. Before and of, of when they were, when the rage was here. And that's kind of the goal is there. They wanna fill that lower bowl and at least have that environment, you know, surrounding field level. You're not gonna sell 60,000 tickets to ANFL. You're just not, you know, Maybe if they host a championship game there and it has an incredible. Run of, you know, 10 weeks or whatever it is. Maybe they start pop, you know, popping a couple people up there, but I think they're just, they just, they just wanna make sure. It's not just a complete like, oh, like, no one's coming. And so they they've been, they've been, they've been excited with the, with the ticket sales and they've been, they've been in the community doing town halls at places like Topgolf and, and, and, you know, places around town to kind of stir up interest. But not, I think a lot what's funny is I don't, I'm seeing way more. Orlando rage gear around town than I am guardians gear because. People that were old fans. Have been very adamant to me, at least like, we're just gonna be a new fan and we're gonna get our gear and then we're just gonna pick up, like, we never left town. And so I think they're really catering towards. That former fan base too. And then while at the same time, people that are new to this area, which, you know, people moved to Orlando out of. A aggressive rate. I think there are also catering to a, to a younger fan base, the UCF college students, trying to get them to say, Hey, Come on over on a Saturday, Sunday, 20 minutes down the road and tailgate and have a great time and come to our games. And so they've been, they've been very good by getting out in the community and trying to stir up interest. One of the, I saw it as kind of a media scrum afterwards. I have a quote here. It's from my sports floor that I think it was part of that scrum afterward with the, in our Garcia, she says, focus on the long term success of the guardians where other leagues may have relied that early tickets sale, which is the accord to Garcia of the league is at 80%. To plan and media deal. She did mention XFL Disney. She believes they have the right investment. Partnerships who allow them to endure the burden of the league for three to five years. You just thoughts on that and like, you know, Year one matters the most, right? In these spring leagues. And you gotta come in and you gotta make her start like. How do you feel, you know, long term here, any of that thoughts on, on that quote? Sure. And then the last thing we had once the press conference was over, we had two separate media scrums. They had the, the TV cameras and they had the writers and the bloggers and whatnot. And the two then coach Buckley. And then Danny, would they flip flopped? And then last. Question we asked her was just, yeah. Straight up. Like what's the staying power here. That's the, that's what everyone's curious about. It's like, yeah, you're gonna, yeah. It's fun to enjoy a season, but what, what is being done differently this time to, to give everyone belief that there is staying power, that it's not gonna be a one year and even a two yearly league, like it's is there gonna be. Staying power. And she said, one of the things she did touch on, like that quote, you just mentioned is yet when you have a partnership with, with ABC and Disney and ESPN and FX, I believe is the other network, their games are gonna be on that's powerful. I mean, that's a place where people know to go and watch, and it's not like. You're, it's not like it's gonna be on some. You know, weird platform where people are like, how do I get the ESPN? Plus again? And so the fact that it's on a ma a primary network, and there's a. Especially down here in Orlando, there's a big tie with Disney. And so. They're excited about having that Disney partnership. And I don't know what that entails in terms of like, are they gonna be working with Disney to bring a bunch of people over to the games and have those kind of partnerships? Maybe, but, but Danny seems to think that with the capital backing and the investment backing, they have. Obviously with, with she, you know, she was calling Duane yet. She calls him DJ, but having, having. Dwayne there and her there and people, I mean, there's plenty of capital. And I think they have the right TV right steals. And so I, I, I we'll see, I mean, we'll see, but it seems like there's enough steam behind this thing. That they at least have a shot and that's all you can really ask for what these spring football leagues. Last year before I let you go. Cause I, we, we kind of, we pontificated lines up and then this works out, but I still always think it's interesting. We've done check-ins with the reporters, like in Vegas, everywhere else. In terms of obviously you guys. And like I said, I worked in local news doing that work of carrying. Segments doing things like that. Any other marketing that you've seen there? Outside of like the local interviews and stuff and social media, like, are we getting billboards? Are we getting any sort of like, Any signage anywhere? I I've seen it. I've seen some signage here and there. Like when I was driving over by international drive over by universal, I was seeing like, just some, like. Stuffing like yards, not, not like big billboards. There might be. I'm not aware of that at this point, but I know there has been an, an outreach effort into some of the local universities and, and talking to getting people over there and just letting people know this is happening. I mean, obviously. On our website and other. Websites people know that this is going on and you know, on our social media pages, you know, people are sharing ticket information and, and ticket links. But I haven't like been driving down I four and like it's like joint coach. There might be. I haven't seen it personally yet, but I mean, I think maybe that will be something that happens. Down the road and I will, I will add this quick note. I was, I was, I was talking with Terrell Buckley. Earlier, I think one of the most important things about. About the XFL. That's important is. And I, I think you would agree with this as well. Maybe tell me if I'm wrong here, but I think one of those important things about. This reboot is the teams they're gonna practice in Arlington, but the games are gonna be in the actual cities. When you have a spring football league where they're playing all the games in a Birmingham or something like that, where you're having. X team versus OTE in a place where no one even knows about the team. That's just not a successful. Platform to me, like, I don't think that's a great strategy. So to actually, it's, it'd be nice to have the teams just practicing here, but to have a fun, you know, it makes more financially financial sense to have 'em in Arlington ship. 'em out to the games and you actually have that investment with the community of like, Hey, We know every weekend our team's gonna be playing on it, our stadium, and you get that. Community draw up. So I think they're doing that part, right. I've at least having the cities be the hubs of the games and not like throwing them in some miscellaneous place, like Shreveport or something and having them play games. So. Something that will make us FFL people upset. Yeah. You. Cuz this year they're expanding. Right? Cuz it was all Birmingham last year and now they're playing the Memphis, do whatever. Well you, they announced Canton, Ohio, and they still don't even have a Canton team. I mean they have, they have Pittsburgh. So like yeah, you could, you could be in city still, not even have anybody in your actual team playing there, but yeah, no, I agree. I just, you know, We're like a month less. I mean, I keep saying we're a month. We are like about three weeks out. So it's three weeks is anyway, Alex, I appreciate WFT anything else before let you go just we're we're making, you know, chicken salad out whatever today, so it's good. Yeah, no, that's all I have. I just, you know, if you're, if you're watching this at some point and you and you are. In Florida. And you wanna be a guardians fan? The last thing I'll I'll say about the team is. You know whether or not they're gonna be good. Not good, not competitive. The one thing they've done, which I think is neat is they've at least tried to dot the roster. With Florida guys that played college football here that people know. A Deandre Fran wall, Florida state. They have Terrence plumber was a big star for UCF on the defensive side. So there are at least making an effort to say, Hey, if you don't know, if you don't really care about. The team necessarily, if you care about a player, Come out. And so we'll see, you know, the roster to me, I think it can be okay. I'm I don't look at the roster and say, man, Like that's top tier all stuff, but. Well, we'll see, we'll play the games and we'll watch it and we'll have fun. This is all about right. Well, I'm excited today. We have Kyle Nash, three point conversion podcasts amongst other things. I was looking on your Twitter, quite the prolific, you know, sports coverage here. How are you doing today, sir? I appreciate man. Listen, read I'm I'm pumped to be a board. This is my first official guesting. Covering the guardians too. So yeah, adding that to the repertoire, it it's gonna be funny. I, I love from a viewership standpoint that the XFL is gonna kick. Right after the super bowl to keep we football, junkies, you know, in line and keep us with our medicine. But while I'm in Arizona, To do all that. Like by day I'll be going to events. And then by night I'll be studying my playbook for XFL stuff. Like I used to back when I played Zumi pro ball. So, I mean, it's gonna be busy. But it's good. Busy Reid. I just hope my kids remember what I look like. Oh, that's good. That's good. I appreciate it. Well, you know, we had coverage here set today. We had Alex Walker. That's one of the sports directors down there in Orlando two. We had, we're gonna have wall to wall, all of this stuff, press conference, a little poo pooey. We'll talk about that. We'll talk about roster stuff, cuz we are kind of doing. We did the rough net, or we did the Renegade, we did the Vipers. We're kind of doing deep dives into all of this stuff. So first off you were there, I saw your video shared, you know, the media scrum with Danny Garcia and all of that. What did you make of the Orlando press conference? So I, I know a, and you mentioned it being a little blue poo. We talked about it. You kinda off. The, the pod here and, and how there was an element of disappointment, cuz you were expecting more announcement. For me. And maybe I maybe, maybe because I'm, I'm trying to, you know, spend so many plates at once. I thought they did, basically what I thought they were gonna do. Right. Because understand. Orlando's history here with this right. The Orlando raids with the initial 1.0, the Vince McMann XFL. Was among the more successful teams at the time. Right. Sorano was like, yeah. You know, so they were very excited about that. And it was probably the main reason why two things happened. You got reinventions with the arena football league, with the predators, which went incredibly sour. I don't want to tell you how, how sideways that meant. I, I have knowledge. Of some of the crazy that went on with that, we'll leave that at that. It, it, it got. I'll say quite questionable and then over and above that you have the AAF, which again, thoroughly embraced. Spurrier came out of retirement fun guy to talk to, by the way you had former UCF. USF players playing together. In, in peaceful and productive side by side action, which a lot of central Florida people would not have predicted necessarily. I say jokingly. And by the way, speaking of that shouts to former AAF left tackle, Aaron Evans, who painted that Mendi should of being my day. So he, you know, always a, like to show off as work when I can. Read, thank you for indulging me. So not only do they have those. Local stigmas in Orlando to battle. And, and he they've been hurt before Reed is what I'm saying. And then. They get snubbed for the Vipers to be in Tampa. Over and above the fact you're using. USF bull colors. In Orlando where UCF, rain, Supreme, and college stuff, you spat in their face. It's bad enough now. Sure. They have an Eland team, but they're still a trace of that slime green that the Orlando locals are gonna comment on. But that being said, they're, they're trying to let the public know that this is no one shot deal. You're going to get at least a full season. And to hear a, to hear Danny Gar Garcia. Talk about it. They're in for the long term, and this is the message they needed to hear the mayor buddy Dyer was there. They needed him, press it to kind of sign off of it, of it. I know from a national spa stand standpoint. It seems like it was a nothing burger, but I think that was more for the locals and for them to get involved. And listen objectively. It's nice that they're seeing doing some sort of local marketing like that. I, I would like to see more frankly, as somebody who wants to see this league succeed, you know, so yeah. What do you make of, and we'll do the, you know, we'll get into the roster and stuff here, but what do you, what do you make of that? Like are the, they are, you see in enough going on there and. In central Florida, they to have people even know. I mean, it's three weeks. They'll kickoff. I'll I'll put it, I'll put it nicely this way. Reid, like. For me, I'm assuming they're going to make a lot of their corrections cuz they're leaning. Into TV right now and making it a national product. Locally. Well, that's the reason why I say that that's the strategy. I'll put it nice. . You know, I mean, cuz even in cam world stadium, right? We're only selling like, you know, one, one half of the lower bullet, at least it seems like right now looking to be more like WW, you know, we have the cameras point in one direction. Right. We don't wanna show the empty IM I mean. I don't know how that's gonna play on TV. I mean, are you concerned that that we're gonna turn on the TV and it's gonna be like, what the hell is going on in Orlando? Oh, absolutely. But, but any startup league has that problem, right? I, I, I believe when you observe that with, well, I, I only even have to go to star league, like, let's go back and again, I hate to keep you. Know, calling out USF and the bulls, they aren't a starred up, but they played Raymond James. So even if they have a bigger crowd, It getting filled with green. Is not something that happens typically. And, and, you know, we'll get, I, I know there's a lot more physics. Like they've had a lot of fiscal stuff going on and they're trying to get their own stadium and that's been a challenge. That's not what I'm getting into, but it never looks great on camera to have that many empty seats. That's what the Apollos got. So right. Going over to the bounce house, not to mention, I mean, I can mention the tie-in. Where UCF needs the money. Anyway, cuz they're jumping to the big 12. Right. That could have been a good, how you say marriage? Maybe at least temporarily. You know, then, you know, you get a base and then go to camping world. I would've preferred to have seen that to kind of answer that question read, but for my money. Yeah. That's if, if it's a concern, it's a valid one. Absolutely. Do you, do you think they were smart? I mean, obviously Danny Garcia and hometown and wanting and, you know, wanting the team and she tried to buy the guardians back in 2020. That was apparently the story, bringing the team to Orlando, you know, in vain of the AAF and all of that. This is a good decision. Yeah. I'm mean. Again, with the success that the raids were the first time, the fact that she can be part of the. How you say marketing leg just by appearing. You know, I, I think a lot of that is a good move. I think Orlando is. It's the best venue you could have. That doesn't have all the new bells and whistles. Right. I, I mean, if, if you're gonna knock it Orlando, As a venue, the only problem really at this point is the stadium. Right? For context, camping world stadium, AKA the citrus pole is as I know it in my age group and my dad would've known as the Tangerine bowl. Be aging a bit, man. You know, and, and, and I know they did a renovation on it, I think after the UFL and the Tuskers. Oh yeah. I forgot to even bring up that catastrophe. Goodness gracious. There's so you see, there's so much pain here in Orlando, IM forgetting stuff. You see why they did that press now, you know, But I, I think with that in mind, like, If, if or Orlando. The XFL makes sense. Because as much as they, the Orlando want to host a super bowl for the NFL as a non NFL city, they don't have the facilities for it. And if they could actually get the. Local embrace of a football team. And that goes well enough. Then they might get money to upgrade the facilities. I'm going long term here with what the vision might be. I'll put it that way. So there's a lot. That's where all the Orlando tie-in comes in. You have to think that's all a part of it and let's not forget. The mouse empire, just a short bit of way too, right? They're in the sports game as well. You might remember. That's good. Yeah. That, I mean, could they have the quote and I had it pulled up earlier that it's you, it's a three to five year plan and Danny, we're not worried about ticket sales right now. It's like, Okay. I don't know. I mean, the, the, the general consensus of XFL. People that are skeptical of the league is, you know, they they're gonna run outta Steven money here before you get hit that through the five year mark that she's talking about. Well, certainly history dictates, right? Yeah. A again, you know, we're back to the AAF, we're back to the arena football league with that same concept. I, I think it's a little different in this instance. Because they have some of the TV. Accounted for right. They're airing games on ESPN. And they're doing it without making the mistakes in some of the past spring league we've seen, right? When do spring leagues that made it past year one, so to speak. Start the fall apart, buddy, when they battle the NFL direct. And I know they're not gonna make that mistake. I I'm going to go out on a limb and say if, if, if we're looking big picture, right. Like at the beginning of, I forget the Arnold Schwartz n****r movie, I think it was the sixth day where they had the Arizona road runners and somebody playing. There's a drop for you. And, and they were like, oh, this league's been around forever. And the quarterbacks are making millions. Let's pretend they make that point. I'm not gonna say they will. I get the skeptics. Who've argued that, but I don't see them making that mistake again until ownership, at least changes cuz of less learned. Right. So I, I, again, all the skepticism is, is, is valid. I've kind of avoid going down that road myself, because I just like covering football. You know, this is what I do. But yeah. And he's skepticism on that front warranted is certainly well founded in my mind too. History has shown us right. So from the guardians here as a whole on the field, like I said, the people I talk to the football people, you know, bottom eight of eight here, you know, in the south division, the Texas versus the world kind of the way we haven't set up here with the, with whatever you know's like a wrestl sleep. Freshly view. What, what are your general thoughts that the, and I know we're still gonna do cutdowns but the, the roster of the guardians have assembled thus far. So from looking at it, I think there's skepticism has some warrant, but by the same token, I have other questions too. Right. So for one. We talked about before we went live, you know, the quarterback situation. Not ideal, not great, Bob, you know, if you're looking at it just at face value. Also looking at, and, and I've gotten to meet. Head coach Terrell Buckley. Awesome guy to talk to excellent pedigree of an NFL player, you know, Def a super bowl winner. 14 Year vet, all that is great stuff, but we don't know. He's a question mark as a coach. So he's certainly not anybody who's been around long enough to be renowned as a quarterback whisperer. Any of that. But what I wonder is if some of the other coaches in the league. Are still stuck in the NFL of the past, right. Reed, like I've had conversations. Feed on the student of the BA game podcast that I host every week or other places I've been even with head coach Gus mal on I've had, I've asked the question of at UCF. You know, the mobile quarterback is the wave of the future. Or football, not just the NFL college for football. If some of these other coaches that aren't brand speaking new, like Terrell Buckley don't embrace that. They might get left in the dust, cuz at the end of the day, one has to think this is a recruitment league. And like college, they're gonna start to model with the NFL is looking for maybe even more so. You know, and, and also mobile quarterbacks happens to put butts and seats. That's what it inter introductory league is looking for. So, I guess what I'm saying is, is Terrell Buckley with being inexperienced as a head coach. Has its challenge. I get why people would be critical of that, but I would also a veteran coach. Coach's warn people of what I would call the Joe GIBS syndrome or, or, or any of that where the game might have passed some of these cats by, and they're still in old ways where defensive linemen, just in general. Especially talking to Orlando Guardian's offensive coordinator, right? Robert Ford. They're bigger and they're faster than they've ever been upfront. And so running the ball conventionally, having a stationary quarterback far more difficult. It's just with strange to me, it's the last week I might saw, they had the big quarterback special, right. XFL came out and though Jordan Palmer and he's a quarterback whisperer, and you know, the guys have been working with him and you know, all the pedigree that Jordan Palmer has. So in this same show, that's gonna air, you know, when this air is, I talk with Shane maths, right? Who's. The quarterbacks coach for, you know, Orlando. Right. And I ask him, I say, You know, what, what do you make of Jordan and all this stuff? He goes, I don't know what he has done with those players. Like, I don't know. And I, so to me, and you're talking like older coaches, you're like, it seems like a disconnect even there where you bring in someone, maybe a veteran, like Shane Matthews in there, we have, you know, the fan control football guys and maybe the, not the highest pro I just seems like there's something missing there, a pin to connect or whatever, where we have George Palmer working in and then the. Quarterbacks coach is like, why don't even know what that did or what they were doing there. Yeah. No, and that's a great point. I mean, I, and, and, and, and this isn't a knock on Palmer. I, I think this is a change. That's happened recently and happened, happened quickly. Listen. The, I know a lot of criticism is surrounding the Ravens right now and not extending, let's say Lamar Jackson. I know I'm going kind of off the reservation there, but the concept is. They were at least having the foresight to draft him when they did. And also lean into the change of the mobile mobile quarterback. Name me a top five quarterback that isn't at least. A little bit mobile in the NFL. And don't tell me Tom Brady anymore. Either he was in the playoffs with a losing team winning a garbage division. Okay. That's and that's the new wave. So. In Jordan Palmer's case, he might be able to teach you some fundamentals, how to read this or do that. But what does he know about teaching, throwing on the run? It wasn't his style. I'm not knocking him, you know, but I, I think there's there. There are things to be learned, but that's that disconnect? I think we're talking about right. So, I mean, Does that concern you here? I mean, we're sitting, we have, you know, these two quarterbacks, right? Quit dormy and then Deandre, Fran, while you said you knew, you know, Fran SW from Florida and all that, like mm-hmm, you know, I actually imagine he's like, are you guys like, are we bringing in anyone? Like, well, like we're obviously gonna keep our eyes out. Like, it doesn't feel like there's a, there's a very concern here of like, we need to address. This position? Well, I mean, when aren't you always addressing your, your quarterback for any, you know, group, I mean maybe. There might be a few colleges that won't right. You know, I, I, I'm pretty sure Stetson Ben's safe at Georgia, for example, you know, But we also live in a world where Joe burrow didn't land at Ohio state immediately either. Like, and, and, and so with Fran SW, I, I think if they go with him, Sure the animals will say, well, here's just an athlete playing quarterback. Okay. That's that's the day in the life, you know, as somebody who covers UCF regularly with the plaque and gold banner Ette, John Rice, Plumley to pick in a local example. Gets all the criticism criticism from fans, cuz he's not the best passer. But the game right now. Sometimes an athlete at quarterback depend according to some coaches and philosophies, right. Is better than. You know, having somebody who can't throw in stands still, right. You know, at least you have the lottery ticket of a mobile game. And I think that's what that type of quarterback that we've seen in France, for example, could bring. Do you think that also just because it is like the XFL here and it's all, you know, spring football, we're kind of, we got five weeks and we're getting everything going and, you know, we don't, you know, defense is gonna be ahead and we need to get the offense going, like, is that also play into that as well? Oh, absolutely. And listen, defense of cordinator Tony Carter for the. Guardians would tell you exactly the same. I think he just said that very same thing or reiterated, I should say. Yesterday, when I talked to him on the zoom call, you know, the defense is a little ahead. Coach Ford, the offensive coordinator said the same thing. At least twice by now, defense is a little ahead. That's the nature of the being. Bing cause generally speaking, and this is how coach Ford put it. The defense is trying to attack the ball. Whereas the of offense is still trying to learn all their little things. Right. And, and listen, the center Kamali Matthews can tell me all he wants about how chemistry is developing, but then it's also been like two weeks. So there's only so much chemistry. You can make this isn't, this isn't, you know, some sort of a science show where the beaker explodes when you put a drop in it. No, you gotta let this marinade a little bit. In terms of. I, you know, hitting the field here, running, I mean, is that a concern you have just in spring football in general, right? Where it does take, like we're trying to make a big splash. Takes 3, 4, 5 weeks. I mean, the USFL took. Many many weeks to kind of get to where people thought it was like acceptable football. Like how do you combat that? I mean, the XFL, trying to do the five weeks here, but it seems like the first two. We were like just instilling philosophies and breaking those habits. I think coach Beck said on one of his things. Yeah. Yeah. Well, and, and, and Terrell Buckley, coach buck said the very same thing himself. You know, going into that though to his credit. And this is what I found interesting. The 14 year vet, who's a coach. I asked him what was different about this camp. Versus ones he's been to. And, and the first thing he said was player safety. They care about the players. I'm like, whoa. That was kind of mind blowing to hear that, but you know, that first ramp up week when they were making sure guys were when football shape and ready to go. And the fact that they have the, the, the compound basically is what I'll call it. In Arlington there where all of it is, is very centralized. Was not only a good fiscal move. Sure. But I think you're getting certain other logistical advantages. To, to get stuff instilled into place quickly. I'll say this. For the AAF, the Alliance of American football that had the Apollos, they got a lot, they got lucky on a lot of fronts that a couple of teams. Did come out, looking tight quickly, right? The Apollos in here in Orlando was one of them, the San Antonio team who's. Nickname commanders commanders. Thank you. I'm trying to block that outta my head out of, you know, The Washington team, not calling themselves the red tails there in the NFL. So you can understand why my mental blocking, like anyways, But yeah, that's they, I don't know how they did it. Exactly. I wasn't locked in with that group as much as I am. Some of the others I cover, but it was a blessing. They got off the ground and got off and running quick. You got a good point there. Reid. In terms of some of the receivers and stuff like Andrew Jamil, you know, some of these names were, I think Fransua, it feels like they drafted guys that maybe Fransua knew or had familiarity with like, Anyone else standing out from you from the offensive sides here of the ball in, in Orlando. See here's what's tough is, is I'm not in Arlington. I'm not seeing practices and, and coach, coach Ford has been pretty tight lipped about naming names. I only know about Kamali Matthews, cuz he was introduced as the center and the zoom call. So that's really a, a be beyond that. Like they've been pretty tight. But all we've heard a lot about coach Buckley said he's most proud of the position groups being. Tied in and running back. And coach Ford has maintained that, that versatility of guys that can block. Move and catch. Are in both those cores. Now if I'm a guy who's reading the tea leaves, you've specifically. Told me that about the story you told coach Buckley, that you're gonna throw the ball deep. Eight times a game and you're telling me about tight ends or running backs. And I've heard about you and the offensive line battling the defensive front, and you've given me no language surrounding your quarterbacks or your receivers. I'm not trying to be conspiracy guy. But that is a message. Sometimes what isn't said, Reid is a message, but again, we know nothing. Until we see the product on the field and, and maybe Buckley is a coach. Buckley's playing some 4d chess. You can't rule it out, but. Also, you know, let's keep it simple here. So they may just be a team that's trying to punch you in the face and play good defense who knows. Last question for you today. And I'm in generally curious about this, cause I'm, I'm a wedding videographer and I do, you know, this is hobby fun, whatever, as someone that covers, you know, real sports as you do here. What do you make of how the XFL has thus far handled training camp, media availability. Information just from some of that actually does this. I think so for me, and I had a bit of an unfair advantage, cuz I haven't had an existing relationship. With the S I D and the, and the head of that department here with the guardian. So my view is a little skewed. So take that as you will. But the accessibility. Digitally and, and, and re be reaching out to, you know, being very accessible. Once, you know who to go to. Is certainly been at least locally from my point of view. The best part, right. I've already been in. Six zoom calls almost the seventh. And talked to two players. Being here in Florida when everything's going on in Texas. So I do have that much going for me. Right. And, and, and, you know, you've seen, if you've, if you've followed my Twitter at all at BS, OTG, Bing, you, you you'll see that come through there in my Instagram. And, and, and I have a, I have a lot of stuff. From that. So that shows how open they've been to the media to get involvement. Now is adoption at the right level yet. Eh, I, I, I I'm sure they want more. And then by the way, as another side note read, that's why that press conference that again, nationally, didn't get all the attention, but you better bet local TV was out and available for that. Where they haven't been as on the present on the zoom, who knows maybe that was a decision that, that, that was done to bring local TV into the play. I I'm, again, that's me skeptical or not. Sorry, not skeptical, but speculating rather. But. They've they've done that part of it, I think relatively well, if I was going to say anything about how they could improve that outreach. Like there's too many events involving personnel surrounding their draft and things like that, that I found out after the fact on, on social media. Like they, they needed to have done a little bit better job getting in front of it, but I would also, if I'm reading the teeth leaves as well. Part of that was, they were still ramping up their capacity and workforce to an extent. The real judgment read is going to be what they do in year two. Once they have their foundation in place and how they work to improve. Well, there you go. I appreciate what we have content last year, three point conversion, everything else that you know, Orlando, Florida, the football. Really appreciated that. Anything else before I let you go any plugs or anything before you take off? Oh yeah, definitely. Wanna point out. Oh, I didn't even mention Terrence plumber. Of course. Former UCF linebacker spoke with him yesterday. Got it out there today on the socials. And of course you'll see that, that part of the cup coverage on the black and gold Bannette who I. Cover UCF. Right. That's where that Maison drop came in. So definitely wanna throw that, shout those shouts, check that out. As well on the black Eagle, Bannert YouTube channel. Also the three point conversion YouTube channels where you find on my coaches' interviews there. And then me personally read the OTG on Twitter and Instagram and the student of the game. On Facebook, man. So. Yeah. Looking forward to that. I'll be in Arizona with a three point conversion in a seven B in sports in Arizona. So look for that in the next couple weeks as well, man. But still burning the cattle during the night. To stay up with the XFL in Orlando guardians action too. Well, yeah. I, but I mean, that's, I think that, you know, I think the league needs to, you know, realize sometimes like where they fall in that pecking order. Right. Where you. Yeah. A lot of the people I talked to you're covering the other things and then also the XFL, because it's a passion or because it's something that you care about.

Episode 128 - XFL v. USFL, Can YOU Handle the Truth?

We have Jonathan Himebauch here sitting at beautiful Choctaw stadium. End of a day on Friday. I will, this will air next week. I appreciate sir. How are you doing today? Reid life is good. The renegades are undefeated. We've yet to have a real practice yet. So hopefully things go well tomorrow we can keep this rolling. Well, this is good. I was looking at your impressive resume here, Wendy. I always know that I have a good guest when I go online. A you're already following me on Twitter, so that's good. We're already connected on that, but. Why you're crazy resume here and why you're such an important person to talk to you, you know, part of X, F L oh one as a, as a player. Have coached all in the CFO. I just had commissioner Brosy on the podcast today on the episode of the air, coached back in the AAF, coached in the XFL 2020 was with Birmingham and now has defected to the FL back for the U us FFL. What. Thoughts just first off here, we're sitting mid-January XFL 20, 23. How is everything feeling for you? You know, it's really exciting. As you said, I've. I've had a lot of stops on the. Alternative football. World landscape here. I think I'm one of two people. That have been involved with the XFL for the third time. I was actually a player in 2001. I won the. I was the center game on the million dollar game and, and Tom Lugen bill was our quarterbacks coach. And so he's a commentator with the ESPN. On 2.0, I was coaching in Tampa with mark Treman. And now here we go. 3.0, so it's pretty cool. To see where this has come from 2001. As we were sitting in training camp in Las Vegas. With the, he hate me and everything going on with the spectacle that. That it was in oh one to see now. After being in the AA. Being in the USFL being in 2.0. And, and now being in this. Three point. Oh, it's just, it it's run the right way. Just with guys like Bob stoops. Jonathan Hayes. Our staff is basically a who's who. With Tim Lewis. Jay Hayes, bill Sheridan. You know, Scott Spurrier. Chuck long. I mean, it is an incredible staff. And so every day as a coach, You just fired up how much football you're gonna learn. And then you look at the caliber of players. That are here in this league right now. It it's pretty exciting to see. A kind of pinch myself. It's kind of like an all star group. That defected from the USFL, cuz they wanna play a little bit early in the year. So it's pretty exciting right now. Yeah. It's a lot that we give. If heated right now, he did spring football, alternative landscape between that. We don't need to get too into that, but knowable, knowable differences, like you said, feeling. You know, you have all this high powered, whatever executives involved, everybody else, we were talking off camera before we started about some of your interactions today, but any notable differences going into this season compared to the USFL or 2020 XFL. Well, I think we've had a little bit more time. I was actually hired two days. Before the USFL draft skip hold hired me two days before the draft. So I was kinda drinking from a fire hose as we were getting ready to find our players last time, just the way that the calendar hit. And had an incredible experience. I mean, I, I love skip holds. You know, I, I was very grateful for the opportunity to coach in that league. You know, Darrell, Johnston and I are, are close friends. Jim pop. Who I won some great cup championships in the CFO with. Just have great feelings for those individuals and what they're doing in the USFL and very appreciative of it. But I think the thing that maybe has given the XFL a little bit more, I guess, of a leg up is that they kind of want, they watch the us, they. Watched last season, we've seen how players have developed and we've had the opportunity. To find some of the top players who maybe were in the USFL. They went to the NFL and now they're ready to come back and play and they're hungry to play. And they're gonna play earlier in the year. And so Reed, I think that's one of the things. That guys have a little bit of appeal. Is where the week after the super bowl, we're kicking this thing off February 18th. As opposed to two months later. And as we were getting into the, the end of the us F L season, it got a little tougher. It's getting a little warmer down in Birmingham in may. Geer looking to play back in the NFL. And when you don't get those opportunities till maybe. June July, August. You're kind of losing that opportunity to play. So I think just the calendar and the amount of time that we have has really set up. Really a, a better kickoff to the season. As far as I'm concerned with my interaction with the league. It's interesting cuz we, you know, a lot of us casual fans, you know, not players, right. We sit online and you have, you know, the pay scale ride and like the USFL who's paying more. You have the timeline and does the hub matter? Do people wanna play? Do you fans in the San everybody, you think that timeline that sell is what's kind of. Sets these two apart. I think that's one component. I think playing in, in the markets is a big deal also. And I understand where we've got every team down here ready to kick off training camp here in the DFW area. So I think just having a, a hub for training camp. And for training as a plus, just financially for the league and which is what we did. In in the USFL last year. Just by having everybody play in Birmingham. But I think it's, this is a little bit more fan friendly with having. Eight teams going to travel to play in the home markets like we did in 2020. I mean, I can remember when I was in Tampa. Our second game or actually our first game we played in New York. And then we turned around and then we went to Seattle. That was a little bit of a grind on us as a team. But we had to go silent count against Seattle. Because that place was rocket. I mean, it was a great environment, a great stadium. Same thing we expect to see in San Antonio and St. Louis and those dome settings. I, I was able to coach in San Antonio. With Mike Riley in the AAF and it was just an awesome environment. So I think those. Stadiums have been well planned, well thought out to, to have the games there. But I think the amount of time we have in training camp, I think we're gonna have five weeks before we kick this thing off that we're really gonna know what we have and we'll be able to work through it as opposed to. Just a shortened training camp and. I wanna say we're almost double. The amount of players that we have in camp. Tomorrow on our first practice. Then what we did in the USFL, when we started camp, I think I started with. Seven to eight offense alignment. And now I have. 14 Here. So it's. You're able to really give guys a legitimate competitive spot. In a training camp, as opposed to. Let's just get these guys to the first game. So I think some of those lessons as these leagues have grown. Are are gonna put a, a much better product on the field. And, and I think everybody saw. The product from the USFL. It was good football. And, and I think we hope to pick up the same and I think two leagues are, are more. Opportunities for guys and more coaching opportunities, more executives, more, more ball is, is good for everybody. Well, you speak of the dragons fiber scam. I was there. We were their front row. I remember that was one of the lone dragons wins we had back in 2020, but it was, that was good. Yeah. Well, I think it was still century lake at that point, but Luman field that out yeah. Was rocking at that. We, yeah, front row. Fifth, Caroline, how did you end up with, with Bob stoops this time? Cause obviously you were with mark Truman and, and Jamie Elizondo now who is with the Braas. How did, how did you end up with coach stoops? Well, I, I had met coach stoops years ago, actually, my, my, probably the biggest connection. Is our co offense coordinator, Chuck long. And. I was the offensive line coach for Chuck. When he was a head coach at San Diego state. This was 2006, seven and eight. We were down in San Diego together. We spent some time with, with his previous staff when he was at Oklahoma. And that's where I met coach stoops the first time. But really when, when 2.0 was going on, I had built a relationship with, with Chuck obviously, and then Jonathan Hayes, who's our other coordinator. And we've just stayed in touch. And when things started moving. There was an opportunity here. I think Chuck felt like he could. Go to bat for me and, and just being able to be around. The type of coaches that we have, like I said, I dropped some of the names earlier. It it's really a who's who, and, and. Every day it's, we're learning more as, as coaches. As we're learning scheme, as we're getting to know each other, but to work with a guy like Bob it's it's I couldn't ask for more and had a great experience with mark. In in Tampa. And I know that Jonathan Hayes did a great job in St. Louis. So it's kind of a. An education for me working with some of the best out there. Yeah. Cause bringing it in now kind of the best of St. Louis in with coach stoops here, you know, were you impressed with what they were able to do up with the battle Hawks back in 2020? We were actually getting ready to play them. So when COVID hit. We were game planning, prepping at Tampa. We had just. Finish. We just lost a close one to LA and I think it was one of the games. We were down to the end, we were going down to tie it. And I think that. Schwartzstein and, and Oliver log had figured we might be the first overtime game. In the XFL. And unfortunately we, we threw it to the wrong color Jersey and game over. So we came back and we were game plan and that was gonna be a great matchup. I think we led the league. In rushing down in Tampa. And I know they had the leading rusher. With, with the battle Hawks. So it was pretty cool. We were getting ready for that matchup, but obviously. The world turned upside down and when the NBA shut down, we had a feeling that, Hey, if the NBA stopped and playing games, I have a feeling we might be done for a minute. And then here we are fast forward. Three years later, it's it's great to be a part of this thing. How do you work with preparing the offensive line now with, you know, far more limited time restrain, obviously, like you said, you have longer than maybe you did with the USFL, you know, Last season, but how, how, how, what unique challenges does that have? Well, anytime you've got a new group. You have to, to just build your rapport, build your trust factor with those guys. One of the things that we had in 2.0, we actually were able to have. A mini camp, which was nice to be able to get to know your guys, get a feel for 'em. They knew the scheme. Here. This is really the first time we've had a couple zoom meetings here and there, but this is. It's it's been a fast and furious pace this past week. And we were able to draft a number of. X SFL players that I had coached. My, my first pick, our first pick in the, in the offensive line draft was Cameron hunt. Who was an all USFL player for us in Birmingham. Has a lot of versatility plays guard plays center. And was let go, was released by. The San or LA chargers. Excuse me. And so when he was free of his contract, I was all over grabbing guys that knew what the spring leagues were all about. We ended up getting a guy. Garrett McGinn Maya to a Hema. Teton Salis all guys that I felt were all caliber. All USFL caliber players. And when you can pull those guys over to. Taught this roster, you don't have to start from scratch. They kind of know what the schedule is. They know how to prepare and they're not just. Young rookies coming outta college. And we've got some young guys too, that. I think you're gonna really add to the group so excited. That we've got some spring league experience. But also the youth and, and it's neat to see all the guys that we would see walking around the hotels and Birmingham or games that you play against. And now you got guys like Kyle floater and. Sal Canella and, and Daveon Smith guys like that, that around the league that are resurfaced and, and all trying to put a great roster together. You guys also brought in some of the NFL alumni academy people. Did you have you. Had any talking with them about how they're working with working with their offensive linemen. So they're ready to go for you guys. Well, there was a connection. Steve Smith. Who's the offense coordinator for the generals in New Jersey. Has worked with the academy for a number of years. And so when we had the opportunity to scout and search out, some of those guys. Dave, Steve a call recommended a lot of these guys who had been working and, and great to be able to add to our roster. Like I said, to have more depth. In this training camp. Then even what we had in 2020, and also with what we had last year in, in the USFL. So it's good to be able to have more roster. Spots more availability. It keeps guys healthy. And, and they really get to show off not only what they can do for us, but to the other seven teams in the league. And. You, you know, that the NFL's keeping a close watch and they're gonna watch scrimmages and they're gonna watch these guys and same with the USFL. Who we end up cutting I'm sure will probably be available. To continue playing. Say in the USFL in terms of the IFL agreement. Do you think that having guys in the arena games does that translate well? Is that gonna be a good fit for you guys to bring an additional, you know, offensive linemen? I, I think the big thing, the more football, the better, and the relationships that we have with those guys across different leagues, whether it be, you know, I coach eight years in the Canadian football league. Just building those relationships with indoor ball with Canadian league. With the USFL, the more football, the better, and there's enough players out there. They just need the opportunity to showcase their ability. Thoughts, I'll let you go here. Steven thoughts on the, the hub set up and just how that works. Being able to have kind of all the strength, conditioning and everything there. You know, obviously you have Sean Hayes and Carrie Gordon working on things, is that help kind of prepare everybody. Yeah, I would say it's, it's great to have it under one. One umbrella here in the Dallas Fort worth area that our strength coaches. Are are sharing our individual strength coaches that are with us are actually training. Not only. The renegades, but also the roughnecks, cuz we share the facility here at caw. During training camp. So. They're able to keep a close watch. There's great communication between the staffs. From the top down. So I think it really helps just. Manage that and keep it all under one. One area and then we'll be able to go scrimmage. Those guys we'll see each other in organized practices. And I think the league's being really smart about getting things out, getting things moving. To, to put a great product on the field this spring. Last question for me. And I do wanna ask you about five and one before we go, five is one. Who, you know, you have a lot of familiar faces across all these different teams. Who are you looking for in most to facing, you know, across the field this season . Well, I mean, it's, there's probably somebody on every staff that I've coached with. I mean, between the Senate San Antonio team. Which Amy Elizondo, I'm looking forward to matching up against him and, and, and their staff. I mean, so that's, that's always gonna be fun to be able to see guys that you've, that you've won games with that, you know, you want them to have success except when you play them. So that would've be fun. You know, I've got guys on Vegas, Bob Wiley got a ton of respect for Bob and, and he and I have talked about ball a ton and. And it's just about giving these guys a great opportunity and, you know, trying to find the best offensive linemen out there and train 'em and get 'em ready to play. Cuz it's. You gotta use five as one five guys have to be able to play together to get a scheme done and be able to function out there. And so we're excited about putting this thing together. Yeah. Anything about your podcast? Anything five us one before I let you go. Hey, get on there guys. Five is one.com. It's a, it's more than just a podcast. We've got apparel. We've got three states that we're currently training offensive alignment in my home state of Colorado. We've got California where I'm from and then here in Texas, and then we've got some plans on the east coast. Really for middle school, high school, college pro guys. Trying to do it all under one under one umbrella. To be able to build offensive line training. There's plenty of seven on seven trainers and strength trainers, but to get. Kids and, and offensive lineman, technical training. I think is something that's missed and to develop the position is something that we've tried to do with five is one. So get on the website, get yourself some gear. Appreciate the shout out. And we're excited to see where this thing goes after the FFL season, continuing training guys and, and letting them chase their dreams. Well, I really appreciate it. Like I said, late on the Friday, I'll look at, go here. Looks fun there. All right, let's do this. Here we go. I, well, I can't think of a better way to start my morning here,ws/ bride and early. I don't even need coffee. We have might be mall clubs here. How are you doing, sir? Oh, better than I deserve. Thank you so much. And thanks for having me on. This is good. I told Lucas, I said, you know, we had you on last time we spoke, it was at a casino vagina there before. Great cup. I don't know if you remember that you a busy weekend. I was listening back to our interview. You said we, you would need a miracle to beat, win the pig blue bombers. Yes. And, and the other part of that was, I believe in miracles though. so, and, and as you see. That the game was just that, I mean, it, you know, when you have the two block. Kicks in it. Two block kicks in the last five minutes. Two block kicks in a game is crazy. Right. But they have two in the last five minutes of the game. I think he was even the last three minutes. Just just crazy, you know, and, and, you know, I can, I can say,ws/ as we, as we get to this pro point of preparation, Right that the Winnipeg blue bombers. Are still a better football team than the Toronto a lots, right.ws/ We, we were the better team that day. And so part of what we're working to is to actually become hopefully one day being able to say that, yes, we are the best team in the league. And, but we, the, the opponent we play. Is. Just dynamic and, and awesome. And, and we were, we were really happy to get past it. So that's interesting. So then how do you take that now of, Hey, what now? We've, we've reached the summit. Maybe we're not the best team. How do we internalize that and build forward? So, so that, that is the, what, what the pragmatic part is of, of. Continuing to move and get better day by day. One of my favorite books. Was the business Bible of the nineties and it was called good to great. And the first line of that book said, good is the enemy of great. And it went on to say that the reason we have so, so few great companies in north America is because we have so many good ones and good is the enemy of great and. Other words, we can be intoxicated by good. And, but if we don't keep moving forward and trying to, to work, we, we find that we fall off. Right. And, and, and that's something in Toronto. That we don't want to do. Our biggest thing is, is be playing consistent football. We won in 2017, but after that, We had a couple of very difficult seasons. You know, two seasons that didn't amount to 10 wins in total. And, and so consistent with that we, and, you know, for, for the product. In, in the Toronto, in the GTA area. It's very important that we are able to maintain that level of consistency. What was the reception, like I saw videos, parades and, you know, Enoch Muamba at hockey games and stuff. I mean, what was it like a becoming home as a great cup champs. It it, you know, It, it always exceeds your expectations. Right. The. Level of kindness. And generosity the, the faithfulness of so many fans and, and, and it just continues on. You know, so far past the, the, the date of, of, of that game. And it is, is one of those sustainable wins that people speak to, you know, people will come up, you know, today and, and. And and say, wow, the game was so, and, and, and that's, that's what you want. And, and really for us, that's what we need in the city of Toronto. In terms of kind of rebuilding now for next year. It's, you know, some question marks, right? We talked about McLeod on the show and the love that we have for him. You know, I, I think it's still kinda up in the air, what he's doing. Regardless. How are you guys kinda looking to fill that position? I know we have swag, Chad Kelly, and there as well as part of the equation. What are we looking at under center? So we, we would be very comfortable right. With either one of those guys. And, and Chad is under contract and, and. And, and we are kind of waiting to see he had an injury that took him out of that game and he's already had surgery on that. And so one of the things is physically, is he able right to, you know, to do all the things. And the feeling is yes. There's not going to be a problem there. Right. But then. He like another guy, Andrew Harris. Right. Has multiple opportunities and, you know, are, are thinking through, you know, you know, what, what, what is the best route from here and are there all the opportunities I have available to me today? Will they be still available a year from now or two years from now if I continue to play. And so tho those, you know, both of those guys are in super positions and we will try to exercise patients with them. But at the same time, we will continue to just try to build. The team that we have until we get an answer for, from those guys. Yeah. So regardless who happens with McCloud, right. You know, you said you have Chad, you know, S swag Kelly here under contract. Just curious your thoughts with him coming into the game late. You know, he came. Into the CFL with a lot of, you know, vibrato and the very excited and he's better than the NFL quarterbacks and all that. Like bringing that confidence, translating it to the field. What was that like? You know, to, to, to see him to see that happen. It it's it's. It's a beautiful thing, you know, Y yet it's, it's kind of a, you know, a story where you would. Love to have seen McLeod be able to. Get that first victory having been in there the whole, you know, the whole season and, and having been here for five years now. So, so, you know, you missed that side of it, but, but to see him be able to come in. And, and make the big play of the game, which was the scramble. I I thought was probably the biggest play of, of the game. And, and, and then be able to continue to move on to, to, to, to lead us to that win. That that's, you know, I mean, he, he, you know, he's a, he's a very confident guy. But that can do nothing, but help him moving forward. What was that locker room like following that game win. I mean, I have to imagine it was just outta control. Yeah, you know, Every time gets richer. Right. It's you know, And, you know, it, it, every, every time it seems so fresh and new. Like it's never happened before. And, and it's you euphoric out body ex experience the point perfectly good beverage all over one, another totally nonsensical. And, but, you know, as, as, as a part of that, there are all also those. Moments that happen, you know, little conversations that you have. With with, with guys. In that moment where, you know, they're kind of, you know, talking about, you know, the weight that may have been lifted off of their shoulders, or, you know, how, how, how good it is to, you know, I, you know, I've never won a championship before. And, and so. It, it, it it's one of those kind of indescribable things. It is very out of body in, in one ways and very personal in others as. There are those times where you have those more intimate moments where, where guys are, are, are sharing their heart. Speaking of someone, you know, finally kind of. Get to the top of the mountain. You know, we have brand new banks, right? Obviously you guys, you know, kinda won and done at least what was that like to be able to give him that and have him be a part of that team? Wow. You know, I, that, that young man I love, and, and I was a big fan before he came to us. And would often, you know, kind of, you know, even though he's, he's our arch rival, I would often go over to him after the game, you know, when he just beat us again and. And, you know, just, you know, tell them how much I admired him. And, and, you know, he, he's done a lot of work with young people in community as well, both in Canada and back home. And, and so just really have a lot of admiration for him. And his story and, and what he's gone through. And then to be able to see him get that championship victory. It, it was, it was awesome. Yeah. It just, yeah, one, one of those. One of those memories, one of those things that you'll never forget. You, it was following up, you know, all the, you know, parades, celebrations, everything. I think we talked to when you were on the show before kind of raising the Argos profile in Toronto ride and there, you know, there's all this, everything that goes along with that. But do, do you feel like having this next great cup. You know, having, adding another one on there, here. Recent, are we gonna be able to build on that in terms of getting more profile visibility for the team in the city? I think of, of. One of the, the things that will add to this. And, and, and we have to be careful. Not to make it about yesterday and more about today. Is that our 150th anniversary? Is this year. The arguments were founded in 1873, originally a rowing club. That played rugby the off season to stay in shape. And eventually, yeah, the great cup came. Came around several years later. In 1909. And it was given to the championship of the national rugby union. So we were still rugby players at that time. And, and so the great history that we have and, and being able to bring some of the great players. In history back this year. You know that combined with being able to, you know, to honor the guys with the championship banner. Having the hundred 50th anniversary, we have to make sure that that hundred 50th anniversary is, is about today. Not yesterday though. So we can't get caught into yesterday. It has to be about today and moving forward. It is sorry, that's the greatest strength and weakness. I think of the CFOs. You have this illustrious history in, in so much more than any of the other leagues that we cover on the show, but then right, you do people get a little hamstrung sometimes. Well, we don't want to much change or we don't want that. How do you balance that? Yo, I, I, I, I think you have to, you, you have to continue to push. Right. And, and challenge and, and those. There, there will be the ones who are, you know, more conservative. Who who wanna protect yesterday. And so they'll have their voice. And so that we'll, we'll always have that pushing against the balance, but we do have an, to have enough of us. That are, are, are moving forward and, and, and challenging the traditional. Mm-hmm , I'm gonna have coached in with you on here in a little bit. Talk about the confidence you have in him and the rest of the coaching staff. Everybody else moving forward. Oh, my goodness. You know? The, we talked about it, the day that we hired him about him. Be he's just been around the game for so long and he loves it. He, he actually got zipped up in the, in a, a ball bag. I think we talked about that before we got it zipped up in a ball bag. And luckily, you know, I I'm not, I don't remember the details of, of exactly what took place, but his dad was a coach and, and he's lived that. And, and, and so. His level of competence. Right is unspeakable, but what, what really is neat to see his humanity, right? The, the way. The team was able to connect with him. This year. And, and because, you know, tho those who have been around it knows that he he's just a guy that likes to have fun. And, and, but he's very serious when he's out on the field. I think this year, the players got a chance to see. Ryan did with the man. More. So this year than the year before, when we were dealing with a pandemic and a shortened season, And all the different challenges there. They really had a chance to see Ryan did witty the, the, not just the coach. But the person, the man and the guy who. Is, you know, one of the best teammates that you'll ever have. I'm keep my eye on the clock here before I let you go, you know, touchdown Atlantic coming up again. You guys get, you know, key point and that the excitement for that and anything else, you talked about the 150 or celebration, but you know, a lot of cool milestones this year, we're gonna be having for the Argos, right? There there is. And, and, and we need to make sure that we build on this and do a great job of integrating both the old and the new. How, how do you hold yourself that, that you're gonna help do that? Well, we we've already got a couple of things that I'm a part of in terms of the, the first game and, and navigating how we're going to be bringing young people. Into that initial game, that, that first game of the year and as well, you know, I think my, my biggest responsibility is to make sure that we're competitive as a football team. And so we, we're working hard to, towards that already. And, and. And so, yeah, we're, we're, we're excited about the year ahead. There they're are a lot of things. And so we, we need to make sure that those things don't become distractions for us, but additions. You're confident guy. I have to imagine as the reigning breakup champion that has to help going into the off season and team building. Right. Y, you know, that that absolutely helps. There's no doubt about it. But the thing that we have to be cognizant of it is, is it also hurts. Right, right. This is 2023. We were the champions in 2022. Right. We, we, we have to now move on. And play like champions. Prepare like champions. We need to do the little things that are necessary. In the off season before you arrive. Right because we could lose, right. Even before training camp starts. If we don't get the same level of commitment in the off season, in the different themes. So we. We will make sure that we communicate. Often with our guys and, and try to keep them motivated and encouraged so that we can be a more consistent team as we move forward. Well, I really appreciate your time today. Busy day. I'll I'll hit record here cuz I know we're on a, a time crunch. I appreciate it. Yeah, no problem. Well, I'm thrilled today at great cup winning head coach. What I did with you, how are you doing, sir? I'm doing good. Just enjoying, you know, getting back to Alberta and seeing the mountains and, you know, look forward to these league meetings. Yeah. We're talking, enjoying the, the off season beer growth. You said you haven't shaved since gray cup. Breakup Evan saved sense of breakup has been nice. You know, I haven't got a haircut yet either and probably need, need both, but just kind enjoying it, you know, just enjoy my time off. And I usually grow out of beard at each winter. So it's, it's been pretty. Neat for me to do it again, especially after win a great cup. Well, yeah, when you're the big man you hear in the league right now, I think you can kind of call the shots. Congrats on the win. We were there up in Saskatchewan, you know, frigid night for a Seattle folk, but it was fun. What was it like just the experiences of going, going through all that and, and kind of the crazy ending to the game and everything else. Well, I think just kind of how it ended, right. We felt like we had the game one for the most part with the sack, and then we get to face mask and then. You know, they battle back and we had the interception with Enoch before that drive and we felt like we were gonna finish it, you know, right there on their end. And. It, it just, it was neat to see that our players, you know, the, the way that it ended and the way that they handled the moment. You could see the, the growth throughout the 18 games and then the two playoff games. Yeah, just remarkable. And you know, we cover and we talk with a lot of writers that cover and you have this Winnipeg team, that's kind like they've been doing this and it's, they're building this franchise legacy, whatever it is here, Argos come in and kind of just like. Grab everyone by the shoulders on the sidelines. Like we gotta go for this. We gotta, we gotta make our stand here. Right. Yeah, I think, you know, playing against Winnipeg, they've been there, done that. They, they played a big moments. I, I thought it was a chance for our, our club to show some growth and, and show that, you know, they're available to, to make those same strides. And you, I feel like, you know, this year was a, a big year for, for us and, you know, we kind of looked back. On the year before that, you know, there was lost opportunities and, and we knew that going into it. And I think that lingered into the start of our season that, you know, we kind of knew that, and, you know, there was some, some frustration, you know, on the sidelines of different things and it was found them moved past that and grew together. And, you know, that's what championship teams. Do and, you know, I feel like, you know, some of those guys really matured as men and, and football players. For you kind of coming in, obviously the COVID year and then we come back and it's all messed up. And now finally having kind of the first. Full season on your tenure. How nice was that to be able to go through that start to finish. Yeah, it was great. You know, other than the strike to start off training camp. Yeah. You know, other, other than that, it was pretty fluid, you know, for us and. It, it was just, it was nice that just kind of get back to it. Right. Not wearing masks on the sidelines, not wearing masks in the meetings. Just let's just go back to playing football little bit normal, see what we're used to in our lives. And yeah, it was great season and you know, very rewarding. Wasn't easy, but you know, guys in our. Building found ways to stick together and looked to the process of it and, and knew it was gonna take a, you know, full team game, full 18 games. And then, you know, the, the three playoff games and, you know, luckily we only had to play in two of them. I know, we hear a lot of people poo-pooing and you know, Toronto, and they don't care about all this. I saw your guys' celebrations looks crazy, you know, on the see Enoch hockey games and everyone kind of pre the streets. What was it like living through all that after the celebration? Well, it was pretty neat. I think the city rallied behind us and really respected what we did for him. And, and how much we appreciate the city. And, you know, we wanna have a full stadium every week and you know, and that's not always gonna be the case and that's not the case in any. Organization, but, you know, we, we want them to feel good about us. And when we talk about the Argos go, oh, those, you know, those guys have really playing good football and doing good things in the community. And, you know, we, we try to do that. And that's what pinballs here to do is, you know, f**k find a way to, you know, get these guys involved in the community and. MLSC does a great job with it. You know, get us through Hawk game, get us through a basketball game. You know, I, I mean, I probably gotta make one phone call. They'll give you some tickets. I don't try to do it too off, but. Just the. The opportunity to go to rat's game in the least game is pretty unique. And I don't think a lot of cities, you know, offer that and we do, and, you know, They have the same owners we do. And so that's, that's the nice part about it. And you know, now let's keep winning and, and get some more seats. You know, filled in that stadium. I just talked to pinball here before I got out on with you. It had really kind words to say about you and just the growth that he feels like, you know, last year, like you were saying with the COVID protocols and everything. Just kind of, we're trying to get by right where this year he felt like the players were able to see you kind of grow as a man and as a leader among the team, you know, hearing that from someone, you know, obviously one of your, you know, coworker, whatever you, whatever the, the relationship is, but legend of the game life that, how does that feel? It feels great. And you know, me and pinball have had a great working relationship from the get, go on. You know, I think year one was kind of learn experience and I think. The way we ended the year before losing the Eastern final, really sat home with me. And I felt like we weren't disciplining it. It didn't sit right with me and, and, and lingered into the, the next season. And I probably wasn't that easy to work with. Probably took a different approach. And, you know, I felt like I lost the players a little bit with, with that approach. So, you know, I was about, I don't know, week six or week seven. I'm like, man, I, I can't, you know, I can't, I got, I gotta find a way to, to find him message to these guys in the, the different light. And we did that and we came. Together. And then we became a football club and working. Towards the same goal. And yeah, you learn as a young coach and you know, how, how to approach certain players at certain locker rooms and, you know, each organization's different, you know, I kind of brought my Calgary. Hat on. And you know, there's the expectations in this little bit different? Well, we're, we're a different club in Toronto and you know, I got handle our players a little bit differently and once I gave them the respect, it. You know that, Hey guys, it's kind of on you. I'm not gonna be a, a Butthead anymore. Let's let's get going. And this is what we need to do to win. And, you know, everybody kind of, you know, joined in on that thought and, and, and move forward and, you know, work their butts off to make sure that they're were working for their, their teammates as well. Here off season, you know, Saskatchewan's hiring people, we have all this mishmash and you know, there, there's always this talk of like level of coaching in the CFL and, you know, just a cab or good enough, whatever. When we were at great cup, what struck me from looking at Winnipeg and Toronto? Two phenomenally coached, right. Staff organizations from top to bottom. What do you make of the, the level of coaching in the CFO right now? Well, I, I think it says best. You know, I I've been in the league since 2005 and when I was a player, I wasn't very impressed with some of the coaches. That I was around and, you know, there's, there was some really good coaches that I was around, but as a whole, I didn't feel like, you know, there was some guys just like this guy, like how's this guy got a coaching job. And I think now you look at it as like now, you know, you're gonna lose coaches. You know, I mean, there's really good coaches across the board and, and I feel really good about my staff and in this coach's cap, thing's tough. And I can't reward guys for doing a good job and, and where we're at, which is unfortunate, but, you know, I think we gotta get away from that if we want keep good coaching in our country and in our league. And. You know, guys make sacrifices to move off from the states or move from. Let's say Montreal Saskatche along the coach there, or, you know, just example, but you know, guys move away from their families for six months and, you know, I think they should be paid, you know, a little bit better than what we're paying our coaches. And we have a good league and we already know we have great players, but now I feel like we have great. Organizations and great coaches to, to match that. Speaking of players, a couple guys on, on your team. And I know future is uncertain McLeod and, and everything else, but we've tracked him all the way through the, off the COVID year. And came down here, played the states in San Antonio. And that was kind of crazy. Like, what do you make of him is leader and, and is just as someone that finally kind of got his shot this year. Yeah, I think he, you know, he is been through a long journey, you know, always been cut multiple times. And I think, you know, reason why he's been cut in the NFL so many times was, you know, opportunity. Did he really get one, but you look at his skillset. I mean, the ball jumps outta his hand. And that was the one thing that, you know, really intrigued me about taking this job and, and working with him. I could. I could see it from, you know, from the sideline working for another club and, oh, his leadership's, you know, Infectious. He brings guys along and, and, you know, and all the stuff he did with, you know, dealt with last year, you know, his, you know, One year old daughter, his brother-in-law gets, you know, hurting car accident the day before one of our preseason games. And. His wife's, you know, taking the job in Atlanta for six months and they're going back and forth. It, it was tough. And you just look at his middle toughness and what he had. To overcome last year with all the circumstances and in play his best season. Pretty impressive. Well, that's the thing too. I mean, it's, it's hard enough if you're in, in the NFL or in the states and to be away from your family, be separate. I just don't think people appreciate that enough. And like almost how isolated that is. Right? Like I ha up in the Canada right now, we got the bi-week and stuff, but not able to kind of do the things that maybe I'd be able to. Do normally. Yeah. And, and they don't understand the circumstances with it. Right? Like now I'm getting my oldest son, you know, he's going into preschool and kindergarten and you know, let's, let's say at, you know, I don't plan on leaving, but if I had had to take a job well, I'm just sure. If I'd take a job some place, you know, we're still gonna have him in school and. Keep that house and then get a separate house. And it's, it's, it's, it's tough. And it's, it's part of the business, but. You know, very rewarding business and you, you gotta make sacrifices, but at the same time, you understand, you know what those have to be from time to time. Thoughts on Chad Kelly came into the CFO kind of shot out of a cannon here. Very excited. Very, you know, bombastic online thoughts of him coming into the great cup and just everything about sway, Kelly. Well, I mean, you know, the guy's got high expectations and he, he works his butt off and, you know, he is had a great career in the states. They had the college level. Didn't really get a chance to play too much the NFL and. Yeah. I mean, he came up and he played well force at times, did a great job with the short yardage. You know, we gotta see him make some worth roles, but we feel like we can win with Chad. We feel comfortable with Chad. I feel like he's matured as a, as a man. Still got some things where we got, we gotta see as far as development, as far as being a franchise quarterback, but. Let's say McCloud retires tomorrow. We feel good about Chad and we'll bring some competition. To compete with 'em at camp because. You don't just give, you know, franchise quarterback, jobs away. You gotta, they, they gotta be earned, but I, I feel like he can earn it. I feel like he can't be a franchise guy. You know, as obviously someone working with quarterbacks and Bo Levi, kinda everything else. We've talked before on this show that transitioned, obviously now we have the EXFO USFL here and players wanting to get shots there versus it really is a 2, 3, 4 year, you know, kind of process to kind of get up to speed in the CFO. We've seen Cornelius here with the Alex kind of potentially take the next step. Why is it. For you. And then that, that building process to get, to be a successful CFO quarterback. Why is that so challenging? Well, I think you gotta have some time, you know, I think when you throw a guy on the field so early. You know, you kind of ruin them and, and you gotta have a foundation, the, the mold younger quarterbacks, right. And make a quarterback friendly and, and have a, have a plan with that. So, I felt like, you know, some of the younger quarterbacks I've been with, you know, you keep a simple form and, and, and give 'em a chance to succeed and, you know, play good defense, good, special teams. And then. Eventually, you know, you give 'em more. Words more on their plate to, you know, win the football game. But. You know, I, I think it's a tough league. It's, you know, 12 guys, a lot of motion. It's different. It's in certain guys. Can handle it. Certain guys can, and you've gotta have a little athleticism to you to play in this league, you know? It's is different than the NFL. And I, and I think, you know, a lot of the, the quarterbacks used to make it to the CFO are now sticking down south. So, you know, the skill sets kind of changed as far as what they're looking for. They're kind of, you know, looking at the same things we are, but yeah. Yeah. We'll see. I, I, I, I still feel like we have good quarterbacks in our league and, you know, we gotta continue to find some more and yeah. And end of develop 'em and coach and properly to give 'em chance to win on game day. How do you think the league can? And that's more of a broad, very question. Sorry. How do you think the league can kind of more attract those players and quarterbacks up here with all the competition? I think financially we have to have a plan for that. You know, you know, maybe you take some of the quarterback salaries and, you know, kind of. Keep 'em separate from the rest of the, the club. And find ways to pay them a little bit more, to keep 'em from these other leagues and, and know that they have a bright future up there. And you, you know, maybe you have, 'em kind of. You know, fir first string quarterback can make this amount of money. You know, a second string quarterback, we gotta pay over a hundred grand and you know, a third string quarterback we're gonna pay 'em 85 to make. You know, 1 25. Cause I mean, guys, aren't gonna come up here for 65 grand there's new leagues. That used to be the case. Yeah. Cuz there was there wasn't another league guys wanted to play football, so they would come up and be at third stringer for 65 grand. But. I mean, even even a hundred grand, I think, you know, that that might be the, the minimum to pay your, your third string quarterback and let's let's investment. Let's let's see how it goes. Mindful of time here before I let you go. Just, you know, moving forward here, building ahead. Next steps for you guys. What are you looking forward to? Yeah, I'm looking forward to, you know, kind of seeing how free he's gonna go. I, I don't think we'll be, you know, as. I guess as aggressive as we've been in the last two years, I feel like we gotta be more aggressive aside in our guys and, you know, Let's find the right guys that are on our club that we wanna bring back and. You know, let let's go get two or three guys from, you know, other teams. We feel like that we could add and, and help us. And then we gotta go scout our butt off and go find, you know, six, seven rookies that come in and training camp and, and try to take some of these guys' jobs and, and go from there. So you gotta have comp competition to training camp. It's vital and. I'm looking forward to that this year, we, we can't just, you know, say, Hey, we won the great cup. We're gonna redo it again. And we gotta have competition and some guys gotta, you know, I just do this. I see the cracking signature there. Flag there next to you. Yeah. Yeah. Rick good. See season so far. So it's been far so good. Alright. Right. yeah. Malcolm on what we got, we've been blazing through Canada right now on the, on the road trip. So end of COVID. All right. Okay, take one. I was just told that this would probably be my favorite interview of the day. We have Craig Dickinson here with the rough riders. How are you doing, sir? I'm good. Thank you. Thanks for having me. I appreciate. So first off have you recovered from, we were in Regina. Winnipeg logo being painted on the end zone that had to be quite traumatic. Yeah. Boy, that was tough. Yeah, that's taken me a couple, couple weeks, but I think I'm over it. And ready to move on. Excited about 2023, for sure. Yeah. Is it, you know, with the season, like last year, is it easier just to kind of move on? How do you approach that? How do you compartmentalize that? Well, the nice thing, the nice thing about being a little older I'm in my fifties now is. You're, you know, you've kind of seen it and done it a little bit. Right. We've been through good seasons where you never want 'em to end. And we've been through tough seasons where. You know, they can't get over soon enough. And last year honestly was kind of a. A little bit of both. We started off really well. We were four and one at one point felt like we had a good team and a good. A good group of guys. And then the wheels just kind of fell off, you know? And they did did so kind of on a week to week basis. Unfortunately we. But, you know, we were able to think about that as a, as a football operations department, as a coaching staff, figure out what went wrong, how can we. How can we do better next year to try to address it so that if the same things happen, we got answers for it. And, and I feel like we did a good job, a real good. Deep dive into the season after the season was over. And I think we're ready to hit the ground running in 2023. Yeah. So, I mean, we're newer to covering the CFO, all that I know, you know, Saskatchewan runs the league, you know, when the, you know, premier kind of franchises rise in your fan base and everything else. So, you know, when I live through. A season like last year, you know, it certainly doesn't feel like the norm, right. No, we're, this is a proud organization and a proud franchise and, and. Whenever you're watching the playoffs going on without you being in it. It's a disappointment. So, you know, I'm ready to roll up my sleeves. I know the people that I work with, you know, the football ops people and, and. Management from the top, Craig Reynolds, all the way down. We're ready to. Really get to work this off season and figure out a way to make sure that we can have an improved season, make sure that we can get back into the end of the playoffs and really. Really push for a championship cuz that's, that's what we're, that's what our goal is. That's what we're all about is trying to win championships. And we feel like we are an organization that should be able to do that year and year out. Hey, I'm gonna have Jeremy Day on Lander as well. You do feel like, you know, where it's maybe not the most ideal, last, you know, last season you are able to, to roll that forward more. It almost gives you more momentum moving forward. I think so. And you learn from every everything, right? So you learn from good. You learn from bad and. Hopefully we can learn from things that didn't go the way we wanted 'em to and make, you know, Take the emotional element out of it, so to speak and just learn and make sure that we, you know, we structure our team and. We, we structure how we do things in such a way that we can weather those bumps, cuz every team's gonna have them. Every team has bumps read and, and. The better you can be at at just kind of. Riding through them like being in a big old monster truck, handling the good with the bad. You know, the better your chances are to be where you want to be at the end. So I, I think last year's. Nothing more than a learning experience, hopefully a bump in the road, and hopefully we can make changes and improve on it. So whether you looking forward to biggest, biggest things, I mean, I know people are always talking about the line, you quarterback things. I mean, where are you guys targeting here? Moving forward? Well, it's the, is the, I mean, that's the true, we gotta get better. Upfront. I think online probably is our priority. Gotta get, gotta get a lot better at our tackle positions, both our tackles. And then I think we gotta, we gotta solidify our interior three as well. I mean, We, we just weren't good enough upfront. And I think that led to a lot of the problems you saw across the board. Quarterback's gonna be at, you know, the, the Marky position in, on our field as well as any other league. And we're gonna have to do a good job of making sure our quarterbacks number one, comfortable in the system. We're gonna run. And number two feels like they, you know, have their best football ahead of 'em. So. Those are our two big, big, big challenges in this off season is, is online and quarterback and. We've already honestly been, been working on 'em for the past month. Yeah, obviously, you know, Mason, fine there bringing in. Are you gonna be bringing in a lot of people to compete for that position? Do you feel good with Mason? We're gonna, it's gonna. Excuse me, it's gonna be wide open quarterback. We, we feel like we're gonna, we're gonna bring in a good veteran quarterback, whether that means we resigned Cody, or we go find a free agent and resign them or, and sign 'em to a contract, we're gonna have a good veteran quarterback. That's gonna come in and we're gonna hopefully have. Good young talent to compete with a Mason being one of those young players. Jake Degal be in one of those players. We feel like we put the best. Three or four quarterbacks that we can find out on the field in training cam. Quite and let you know, let 'em play and let the, the cream rise to the top. That's what, we're what we're planning on doing. I apologize for asking, just cuz I'm sure you've had a thousand questions about this all season and obviously we've never. You know, Cody faja though to me is an outsider. It just seems like the most fascinating situation in the world. I've never seen somebody that seems so amenable, hardworking. You know, works hard, but yet there's just always stuff going on with, I mean, what is Cody like as a person? I mean, you've spent, you know, how many years there, I just, do you know what I'm saying from an outsider? I just, it always seems odd to me. Well, Cody is what you, what you describe it really outstanding person. Hard worker cares a lot about football. Good family, man. Just had a young, a young baby. Yeah. Him and his wife. And he's, he's a good dude. And, and, and he's a good football player. I think a lot of this stuff you see on the outside honestly, is a, is a product of Saskatchewan . I mean, the, the SCA Saskatchewan rough riders are a different organization in that, that the fan base is so passionate. And so connected to the team that I think you get sometimes. A lot of the good you get is all these outside. Opportunities. And then sometimes you get. Outside distractions because of it. So. I think go's a good football player. I don't think he's any different than anybody else in the quarterback position. And that he's got a, you know, a lot of weight on his shoulders, but at the same time, The quarterback gets probably more credit. They, they, than they deserve when you win and probably more blame. Than they deserve when you lose and Cody. Cody has seen both of those. Is it more challenging to be a quarterback in Saskatchewan than the other eight teams up in, in the CFO? I think so. I think you gotta have a little thicker skin and, and I just think. There's just more opportunities for distraction. Even though Saskatchewan's relatively small place. You, you're not gonna get in too much trouble off the field, but there's just a lot of, there's a lot of noise and. And we're gonna work hard as an organization to make sure that. Our players understand the noise is the noise and it's your choice, whether you wanna listen to it or not, but here's the way we're gonna do things. And. And we don't make our decisions based on what. What John Q public is saying that they have, we respect. And appreciate the input that the public has, but we're not based in our decisions based on that. Yeah, I, we were up at great cup. I will tell you candidly, very terrified to bring my wife from Seattle up to vagina in the middle of winter. Really had the lowest of expectations and really was floored by just the hospitality and everything else. I mean, that really was an awesome time, but yeah, going into it very, very worried about that. yeah, it's good. It's good place. And the CFO, I'm glad, I'm glad you're diving into the league. It's a wonderful league. I, I grew up. In Montana. I coached in the NCAA ranks, coached in the NFL and been in Canada now 15 years. And it's. It's really unique, special, and it's a great league. And I'm I'm. Thrilled to see more us folks like yourself coming up and, and taking an interest in the league. Cuz it's a good one. Absolutely. I, you know, speaking of just kind of the noise and, and, you know, bringing in, I wanna talk about the new offensive coordinator as well, but you know, do you feel like the rough rider still a desire. I play desirable place to play to coach at, is it still a desirable franchise there? Oh yeah. I still feel like, you know, we're gonna have a down here every once in a while just is what it is. Some, some, some years are better than others. We, we certainly don't want have a down here, but it's still like think still one of the marque. Marquee best places to coach the, the support is, is off the charts. Fans care. And because of that, sometimes you'll hear it. If, if you're not doing well, but I'll tell you what, I'll take fan engagement over apathy any day. And we definitely have fan engagement here. And for good, bad or indifferent, you're gonna hear from the granny at the grocery store when you drive in, because she's gonna know who you are and she's gonna have an opinion on the team. And. To me. I, I just think that's a great situation. Well, I think, I think once people, exactly, if, if they're quiet, then they don't care. It's definitely a factor of having passion that way I a changes, you know, bringing in new offensive coordinator, exciting for that. What kinds of things are real? We looking for forward to them, you know, Kelly's a guy ive known for a few years, but I haven't. Haven't given them the keys or given him a lot of responsibility necessarily, but I, I just think he's a, a, he's a really sharp guy, very emotionally intelligent. I think he relates well to people. And I feel like we're doing a pretty good job of building a good staff around him. So you're, you're gonna see a new look offense and what it's gonna look like. Exactly. I can't tell you, cuz they're still in the process of molding and shaping it. But I do think Kelly's gonna bring a lot of nice ideas to the table. I think. I think we got a good staff. We still got a few positions to fill, but I think we're gonna have a good solid staff and it's gonna be kind of a fresh start for all of us, which is exciting. What do you make of the level of coaching talent right now in the CFO, it's been a conversation and different job hirings and everything else. How, how do you make the level of that? And, you know, Is, is it still a desire league for quality players to wanna come coaching? I think it's still very high, you know, they you're gonna get challenges like, like you get at our play. We just lost our D-line coach. Young guy. Good young. I would say probably a young up and coming star in coaching. And it's just, we just can't pay 'em enough to keep 'em sometimes. And that's just the reality of it. But the business model that I think is, has been built for the CFL is based on, you know, Making sure that the costs are at least predictable. And, and the reality is the young coaches you're gonna lose a good young coach once in a while, just like. The NFL loses a good young coach once in a while, or just like an, an. Once in a while, you're gonna lose one because somebody else is gonna pay him more to do the same thing and, and it fits more of what they're looking for. But I think in general, To answer your question and the CFO is. Very desirable place to work. You get a coach really? The best athletes in the world, and they're different athletes in the NFL, but athletically they're phenomenal. They can do things that. Other guys just can't do. And they, and I think that. Fan engagement and the loyalty that each city and group has to their team. It just, it just leads for a lot of neat rivalries and really great experiences. So I think the CFO. Is arrow is pointing up and I think it's just gonna get better. Last question, what you, what should fans of the team be looking forward to here? Like you said, new look, offense, you know, bringing in quarterback seems like a lot of change. Right? Change is good. I mean, even for rough rider fans, it's good sometimes to do so. What should people expect looking forward? Yeah, a lot of change. So expect the unexpected would be, would be an. Answer. I expect a lot of new faces on the offensive line. Expect a little different offense in terms of what it's gonna look like. I think you're gonna see a little more emphasis. Running the football. Although I felt last year, we did a decent job running. And then I think just, just some new faces coaching. I think that's one of the things that's gonna be fun. For the, the casual fan to come to a practice and see different guys coaching. And I think. Chances for guys like Kelly Jeffrey and new new young coaches to really put their stamp on. On the team in, in and give it their own distinct flavors. So lots of changes, but hopefully a lot of good athletes we're looking to get really athletic at receiver. Physical upfront and. And I can't tell you who the quarterback's gonna be, but he's gonna be throwing the ball a up. Well, it'd be good people. You know, some of the, back in November, . I bet. Yeah. Well, all. Record here. And then I got Chris Jones was supposed to come on at some point, but I think I got skipped. So I gotta hit the Lucas after all this is done, but otherwise you're my last person of the day. So that's good. Sounds good. All right here. Well, we have Jeremy Day here with the rough riders just came back from beautiful Regina here, back at gray cup. How was. Obviously not in the gray cup, but kind of witnessing the Winnipeg takeover, everything else. How did you cope with all that? Very difficultly, to be honest, it was tough to tough to see, but. You know, that's the tough part of having a game. At home when you're, when you're not in it. It, you know, what people don't understand is what's so what's so difficult is that the amount of work that you're, that your own team puts into hosting a, a gray cup and the, and the amount of work even. Even when you go back and you think about how they have to bid for the, the gray cup in order to receive it. Our, our staff, we just did a, a heck of a job bidding for it. And we actually were supposed to have it in 2020. And it actually got pushed back because of COVID. Right. So. That's the tough part is, is your you're obviously disappointed your football team. Isn't in the game, but you, you know, how much work went into it? And then, and then, you know, then an opposing team comes in and they're, they're in your locker room during the game. That's, you know, that's, that's a tough one to swallow too. So. But I just, I, I thought that the, the presentation and, and the setup of the great cup, I thought it was awesome. I know it was all in one. One room and I'm a little bit biased, but that, that Ville was, was unbelievable. The size of that. That venue was, was monstrous. And I, I saw a lot of people having a lot of fun in that. Yeah, cuz we went to Hamilton and everyone said, well, that's not real. You gotta go with this. So now we went to reg. So at some point we'll attend a real. You know, I, I go, but yeah, there's always this like, well, it needs to be whatever, but no, it was fun. And we had a great time there and got to see the sites and sounds, it's a, it's a cool spot. I have very. Low expectations heading into vagina, but my wife and I had a lot of fun. Well, good, good. I'm glad you enjoyed it. You know, the writer season. Here, how would you grade ADA? ADA F the 2022 season. Oh a numerical. Anything, anytime you're, you're not at you. Don't put yourself to be in the playoffs and get an opportunity to be in the last game. I think it's a, it's a failure, to be honest with you. So. You know, I, I, I wouldn't be ever be a guy that would evaluate us. Any higher than if you didn't didn't accomplish that, obviously there's lots of. Things that happen there in a season. A lot of guys have some personal successes that you're happy for and there's areas that you did good. And there's areas that you did not so good. But obviously last year was, was not something that was our expectation, certainly as our expectation moving forward and. Something that you don't really ever want to experience again, you wanna have successful seasons and you wanna be having opportunity to be. In the playoffs and make a run at it because once you're in the playoffs, it's, it's anyone's game. Biggest successes you can take away from the season. Things you're proud about as an organization. I think that when you do it, you're, you're really looking at individual players, some certain players on your team. I think that. You know, some of the things that we neat to see seeing Keenan Chafer baker establishes itself as a, a top receiver in our, our league. Mario Alfred coming over in a trade and. From get, from getting traded to from one team to another and being the, the most outstanding special teams player is isn't an achievement. And. We went through a lot of adversity, a lot of ups and downs. It's. It's it's really tough when you start the year off. Strong, and then it kind of fades away. It's it's really that's. Those are difficult seasons. If you start off slow and then improve as the year goes, that's, that's a sign of improvement, but when you're going the other way, that really is, it takes a toll on it. So. Not something that you wanna do. Certainly certainly wanna improve on our season from last year. We're new to covering the CFO here. The last couple seasons, all I live in a world is, is, you know, Saskatchewan is, you know, CFO, Canada, CFO team, and kind of the place to be. Does that add extra pressure to you and being in a, a part of that in the knowing the, this is kind of the lifeblood of the CFFL up there. You know what I, I think, I think there's always pressure to, to be successful in your job. I think that. One of the things that's different is Saskatchewan is just, it's just more public. I think there's more people. Where it matters. Football matters in Saskatchewan. I say it all the time. And. People wanna know what's going on with the rough writers. They want the team to be good. They spend the money to come to the games. We got a great season ticket base. So their expectations are for us to do well. We, we don't have. Any excuses not to be successful. We got a great stadium and, and a great fan base. And so really, they just want something to be proud of and take pride in. And, and that's what you're trying to do. Ultimately. Give them a team that they can, they can feel proud about. And. That's what's difficult when you have a tough year when you're, when you're not being successful. And. You know, make the playoffs is at. Saskatchewan kind of ticks to. The beat of the rough rider season. Right? So you can see it on a weekly basis. If we win games, the, the mood of the city is different. And, and you certainly wanna win those games because it definitely puts people in a better move. Coming off of the season. And like you said, you didn't end maybe the way, you know, you wanted it to, how do you approach now rebuilding? I mean, there's a lot of, you know, and we'll go a couple different directions here, but a lot of areas that we need to work on as a team here in the off season, how do you even start kind of processing that? Yeah. Right, right in immediately. And honestly, you're, you're, you're kind of going through it during, during the season of, you know, what we feel like we're not playing that well at that a certain position or, or a certain group. And, and. You kind of know what you have to prove on and you, and you certainly are trying to improve that during the season. If you're able to. And, and there's times where you wonder, do we just need time to gel? Do you need time to improve? In an area. And sometimes that, that works out where the, the guys kind of. They figure it out and sometimes it doesn't. And then when the season dance, you you're really gathering a lot of information from, from coaches and players. And, and from your scouting staff of. Hey, here's the areas that we were deficient in. Here's some areas that we think were we're good at. And, and then you start developing. Kind of your plan for the off season of, of how to, how to make the team better. And then, and then a lot of that has to do with your free agency and going into the draft. I apologize for Craig for asking this too, cuz I'm sure that you know, the Cody FIJA though question, you know, a lot. You know, I live through this as an outsider. It's, it's an anomaly to me as someone that is so likable. And it seems like, you know, even keeled and family, man, and we love all this, but it's so like MARD and controversy all the time. Like, it's just a weird that dichotomy for me, where, you know, normally like in the NFL, you get these like bad boys that you get a lot of the press. What do you make of just the, the kind of, is it just because of Saskatchewan and that is the focal point is a quarterback. Like why does Cody get so much. He around him in that position. Yeah, that's just natural that Saskatchewan, it is a different place to, to play and different place to. To be the starting quarterback. There is a, there is a tremendous amount of pressure. You can't go anywhere without people giving you your opinion of it. And it's kind of always been that way. So it takes it, it takes a lot. Of adjusting and, and you got someone. Cody's such an open, honest, Honest person. Where's his heart on his sleeve. And there's a lot of people that. If you, if you have a tough game, they're not nice about it. And, and that's just the reality of it in Saskatchewan is. Is, they're gonna tell you how, how they feel, and that could be good or bad. And sometimes it makes it difficult. And when you take a lot of pride in what you do. And, and your values and your beliefs. It's hard. It's hard to take that. And, and it's, and it's been a long history of, of that in Saskatchewan. I can, I can say that you have to, you have to have half a certain. Mindset when you're playing Saskatchewan and I've I've. Known a lot of start and quarterbacks from my time. Here and. It takes it. It's a unique challenge of being a start and quarterback and, and Saskatchewan, for sure, because. You gotta, you got a lot of, a lot of coaches and a lot of GMs that, that, that live in the province. But again, I've said it a million times and I truly mean it is. That's what makes it special and that's what makes Saskatchewan special. It means a lot. And. You know what they say about what they say about SAS? It being a, a football town is, is, is definitely true. I would rather be in a city where, where everyone's paying attention to it than a city where we're not many people are paying attention to it's. So. It's it's the good and the bad. Shots fired against the Argos. No, I'm just kidding. You know, and I've I've I didn't mention any names. , you know, cuz I, and I I'm friends with a lot of the, you know, Saskatchewan media people and you know, they cover the team, right. You know, every day more than I would ever hope to even know about all this. And you know, you get, well, the quarterback, you can't succeed because the align isn't there or the line, isn't the quarterback. And now we bring in Mason, fine, all this kind of stuff. Like. Moving into the off season. Like how, how are we approaching this? What are your thoughts on cuz it really is kind of the most controversial situation I think of in terms of, of the nine teams right now. Yeah. You know, you know, I'm a big, big believer that in order to, to, to give yourself an opportunity to be successful, you have to be, you have to be good upfront on the offensive line. And I think that we. We definitely didn't didn't have a strong year up front. I think that early in the year, we, we, we did a nice job. Running the football early, which helped us in the past game. And. And as, as we start, the season started to go. I think that. Other teams started to stop the run and. You know, there's a, there's a bunch of variables that, that impacted how the season went and how the, the struggles began and, you know, Cody with, with getting a knee injury and. Having to wear a big brace and, and that slowing down some of his mobility, which is a big part of his game. Definitely had an impact, but you know, everyone has to share responsibility. I certainly do. Share share, share responsibility in that. And. Really it's a, a group it's a group effort to get it changed. Right. Everyone just has to really take it personal. And, and you know what? I was proud, proud about the guys not pointing fingers. As things got tough. I thought the guys. I thought we faced a lot of adversity, you know, we had about at COVID we had a. Another virus that came in during another game where we had. 20 Or 30 guys that were were, were, were pretty darn sick during the game. And, and then obviously, Some situations that that were, that were not super happy with, that went on during the year. But I thought that, that through all that I thought the guys did stick together. For the most part there's, it's always a challenge. You got a room full of, of, of grown men that, that. It's not easy. When, when things G get tough, everyone handles a different ways. And. But overall, I thought the guys handled it as, as good as possible. And really just wanna get back to a season where we're, we're avoid avoiding some of those situations and, and. Really just focused in, on football. Yeah. One of those individuals signed down here in the USFL will get to cover here in April. So I'll be very curious how kind, all that works out with one of the big, bad boys of the CFO here. Continuing on. Is Saskatchewan, it's still a desirable. Team franchise team, a team that people, you know, wanna coach for wanna play for, want to be a part of. Yeah, I truly believe so. I think that. You know, again, I'm, I'm certainly biased. But you talk to a lot of people. And I think what, what they grow to appreciate is just the environment that we have there. I think a lot of our players dream of, of playing in big stadiums in front of a lot of people. You know, they want the excitement after a touchdown scored. I think we do a heck of a job of, of our presentations of games and getting the fans involved with those things. And, but it, but it has to work hand in hand. You have to have a team that they're, they're proud about and. You know, certainly when you have a good year, it's certainly. You'll you'll be more talked about by someone in the other players about what a great place it is. And. If you struggle then. It becomes a little more challenging, but. You know, we're, we're gonna try to get back on the right track to, to where we were in the past. And. When, when football games and, and put herself in, in position in, in the end. Last question for me, just your. Your word to, you know, season ticket holders, passionate Saskatchewan fans. I know there was a lot of, you know, we got the schedule and all this we're getting there, but people are going to be excited coming back. What is your message to them here? Heading into 2023. Yeah, just the, the same message that Allie get, give 'em is just the, please continue to, to support our team. They, they they've been. Fantastic. And I understand that they're frustrated with last season and, and. Just want to give them our word that we're, we're working our butts off to try to improve the team, give 'em a team that they, they can be proud of. We certainly have the people in place that know the importance. Of of putting a team together that they can be proud of. Both on the field and off the field. And just to show that rider, that rider pride that they always have. And. Rider nations always been there. And I hope that they'll, they'll continue to do that and come out and support us. And we're gonna do the best we can to have a great team for 'em. Well busy week for you busy day for you. With knowing some of our turn terminology from being in our playbook, the COVID year. But at the same time, you hadn't been through a training camp. It took a little bit of time and Caleb still progressing as a quarterback. The reality is. In two straight years, he's been thrown in tough situations because of injuries where you like a guy to take some time to develop behind a guy. See how it all develops and not be thrust into things. So you saw some moments of. Great playing. You saw some moments of, of not so great playing and that's usually what you're gonna get with young quarterbacks. And. Nick brought an element of stability of professionalism, of leading a room. And, you know, the reality is we just didn't win enough games. Was an entirely on, on any side of the ball. I think. All three sides of our ball from offense to defensive special teams. Could take some parts of games during the year where they like to have 'em back and do something a little differently that could have meant the difference between winning and losing. Yeah, it's just so hard. And I mean, I've had this conversation with lots of people with, you know, all the talent now and trying to get guys into the CFO and the taking multiple years for them to kind of get up to speed, just be in a different game. It has to be difficult, right. Kinda as a, as a GM and as someone trying to kind of build a roster, right. Well, I, I think the first difficulty is. Guys that come in understanding that it is a new league and, and, you know, Be at high school football or college football. Or NFL your journey, usually doesn't start. As a starter, the Dalton shone. Are few and far between, and you have to buy your time of learning a game. Either as a backup or on the practice roster. You know, in high school, you play JV in college, you got redshirted and the NFL is peace squad. And. I think sometimes it takes a bit of a time adjustment to get the respect for the type of competitors there are in our league and to understand how our league. Works roster wise as well. So. You know, that's part of an evolution of a player coming into our league, but definitely I think there's some things that have been put in place in this new CBA that can help with some consistency in the rosters, which I think. Players will enjoy. Fans will enjoy. And as a GM building a team, I'll enjoy it too. Expand on that. What are some of the things? And I mean, we talked a lot about that preseason and leading into everything, but what, what were you happy to see the players get here for, was it a seven year? Seven year CBA here. Well, I definitely think it was a win, win, win. Be a league team and players for. For having some partial guarantees in the contract. So obviously from a player standpoint, it gives them some certainty. You know, our league is often harped on, on. Bonus roster, bonuses and cuts happening behind. Before them. And the same thing happens in the NFL. It just. It's just, you know, we're talked about in our league, cuz that's who covers our league about it happening. It happens at football. So to see those partial guarantees, which, you know, makes your decision making is a GM. More important to who those gives those out, cuz there's some severe. Restrictions. If you're suddenly paying out two or three partial guarantees with the size of our salary cap, so helps a player maybe commit to organization longer term. For the GM and head coach, it helps build a roster continuity that you're not. Constantly starting with, from scratch or trying to build a new team and bring new players together and create that environment in that room. And then from a, a fan. Standpoint the most supportive one is just the ability to relate to the players in your community. You know, to, to have guys here. Maybe for more and more bunches of years. So when they're buying jerseys, they're not constantly turning over to jerseys and they can relate to those guys. I just thought it was an excellent decision made by both sides to, to reach a compromise that worked for everyone. I loved that the behind the R series that you're, you know, the staff there, the leading into the season. And as I am not a football head, I talked to a lot of really smart people, right. That inform our audience. But as someone that is very much a casual, be able to kind of get behind the wall there. Did you in enjoy that? Being able to kind of. Educate the audience and let them in. And some of these really high pressure situations and signing people and trying to negotiate all that out. Yeah, I think sometimes you just forget it's there, which it's that's what it's supposed to be is natural. Right. We have a lot of trust in Josh on. Our our behind the R series. You know, work with him daily and just a ton of trust with him. And everything. So. It, it was sometimes you just forgot it was there and, you know, ultimately some good stuff comes out of it. I, I, I think. Every fan enjoys, maybe a blow up of an FBO or, or this or that, you know, we're all human. Right. We have emotions. My, one of my most competitive days of the season is always those first couple days of free agency or the draft night. That's where I can really. Make a mark on this team. The reality is I don't coach the team. I don't during the season, I don't make those decision. That's a head coach's job. So those are where I can really impact. So, you know, I feel one of, one of the strengths is. Of mine is bringing players together, recruiting them and seeing 'em a vision of what we believe. And. Viewership got a little bit of that behind the scenes. We tried to as much as possible not to do any editing. Cuz it, it, it was deserved to be. Seen what it is, and I know we'll have four or five episodes. Coming of sort of a behind the hour from the 2022 season. That you, you know, will have some good raw content, you know, not necessarily the best content. We wanna show, but we have to be real if we're gonna be honest with our fan base and. Show them what, what we're about. We can't just show the good time. We have to show the struggles and the pitfalls. And I think the biggest thing is it'll show the, the work effort and. The what goes into being a head or a, a coach or. A player or a management type at football. It's a, it's not all the game day and Jeff window jets and, and all that. There's a lot of hours, a lot of sacrifice and more importantly, a lot of care that goes into it that we don't take their job lightly. We put a lot of thought and processed into things and. That, that game day result. If it's a win, it's the greatest thing in the world. And if it's a loss. It's it's just CRI point for the next 24 hours that you don't, you just want to get to the next game to get over it. Yeah, I think it, it just humanizes a lot of you guys. I think fans just get so callous sometimes. Like, well, I don't, you know, whatever, and I think it really lets them into kind of your head and your space and what it actually feels like to be there. Yeah. Final thoughts from far. I let you go. I appreciate your time. We just had Bob D I'm talking, rebuilding, getting ready for the season. Things you're specifically looking to, to, to build on feel like you have a good core here headed into the off season and free agency. Yeah. You know, I, I think we wanna continue to be a fast physical football team. We wanna have players that compete at the highest level possible that. Wanna sacrifice individual accolades for the betterment of the team. And. Ultimately everyone has an ego in this game from me. To that coach, to players, we all want, we, we want some personal stuff out of it, but the best way to get. Personal recognition and personal growth is through putting a winning product together. And we wanna put a consistent product on a field. That's a. Great entertaining product for our, our Ottawa fans throughout the world. And that we can devote the time to you. I'll hit record here. My name's re I really appreciate you helping on here. Oh, my pleasure. Thank you very much for having me. This will be good here. I'll hit record. Well, I know that Gemma and a lot of our American fans, especially the auto REDX fans will be excited here. We have Bob dice coming on. How are you, sir? Oh, I'm great. How are you? We're good. I appreciate this league winter meetings here. Congrats on, you know, officially being named the, you know, third. Head coach of red blacks. How did it feel? Kind of having it all become official here? Oh, obviously it felt great. You know, Sean Burke went through a. Really intensive process once a season had ended. And, you know, obviously went through the interview process. And the, when I went to Ottawa for my final interview, it was. Felt very good to, to get name the third coach here in Ottawa. Lots of work here to do, you know, coming off of. It was a weird season. I felt like there was a lot of momentum going in and a lot of, you know, Ole and everything, and they just never felt like it got fully going. What was your take of the season? Well, you know, I, I think you're right. You know, obviously there was a. Few trials and tribulations, you know, peaks and valleys. You know, obviously when you lose a player of Jeremiah's quality, That's gonna impact you. CFO's such a quarterback driven league that when you lose a player of Jeremiah's ability, it's gonna. Hinder your success somewhat, but I, I will say this, you know, and why I'm so excited for the job is these players fought continually throughout the whole year through some adverse situations. And. You know, Sean Burke. I said, it's done a really good job. Like you said, the expectations were high at the beginning of the year because Sean had done such a great job in bringing in talent. And, and, and so that's why I'm excited is great talent base here. And as you saw last four games, the guys fought through right to the end. And, you know, we kind of, we talked about that being our foundation springing forward for this year. And so we're excited to get going in 2023. You find there's a lot of pieces there. You guys are able to work with. Yes, I do. You know, when, when you look at again, Jeremiah, everything's checking out and he's coming back strong. What this off season, and you look at the guys that I receiving core like Jalen, Alan and Justin Hardy. Nate Bahar. You know, really solid bass in there. Devonte Williams did some great things in the, in the backfield. And Jacob Ruby really came in and anchored our offensive line and taught those guys. What it was all about, and they did a great job. This year's playing well as a unit. So offensively, really feel good about what we have there. And some young guys like surreal. Played well as well. Defensively, same type of thing, you know, as you, you know, obviously Lorenzo has an opportunity to be a free agent, gonna try and lock him up before that happens. But you have players like himself and Avery Williams. And guys like money hunter and Patrick levels in our secondary. There's a lot of talented players here. And now it's just our job to, as coaches to get them playing as a cohesive unit and playing hard for 60 minutes. So Illa coming back, feeling better. You is that where the plan is in place? You're heading into 2023. Well, yeah, Jeremiah would come back. Yeah. He's he's our guy at quarterback and, you know, he's, he. He's such a great leader. You know, we talk about the on field play, taking the hit when he wasn't there. You know, really what happened as well, because he had a, a few. Side effects with the injury. And he wasn't around the facility. Jeremiah is such a strong leader that his, even his presence not being around really impacted the guys and, you know, with him being there. And we'll see where we go with the number two, you know, Nick's as an opportunity to, for free aid agency. And so. Could be him or some other guys.

Episode 127 - The XFL's Training (Camp) Day

Well, if you had been told during your tenure, you would appear on the, in an XFL podcast, not once, but twice. I'm sure that was the. Quite shocking. You, we have commissioner at Randy and bros here. How are you doing, sir? Yeah, I'm very well happy. New year. Happy new year busy day league meetings here. Last time you were on, I asked you welfare check. We were headed into the C season. I'll ask you the same question today. How are we feeling? Yeah, feeling good. Look, we had a remarkably successful 20, 22, you know, culminating in one of the great, great cup finishes of all time. So the. The product last year, we made some changes. We saw scoring up 17%. You know, our game flow was fantastic. First downs were up every everywhere we looked the game. Was was entertaining. So that's a really positive and bright spot heading into the 2023 season. Biggest thing you feel like the league needs to work on now here headed into the new season. You know, really it's, it's about executing on our business plan. That's it? And we're very focused on, on this transformation. Obviously we have the partnership with genius sports, this marketable fan strategy. It's you know, the product we've got that in a really good spot. We gotta think about the inclusion. Of content now as a second part of our, of our product strategy. Because our players have the most remarkable stories to tell and the more. The more our fans hear those stories. The more they meet and connect with these amazing young men. That the more attractive our game will be. And that'll just create this virtuous circle. Of of positive growth. So I'd say really the number one priority is executing on our business plan. Something. I was excited in our listeners. We were up in Saskatchewan, you know, during the state of the CFO and all that, talking about the new American TV deal coming at some point, thoughts on that, expanding now getting more viewership south of the board. You, yeah. You know, we are, we are very close to. Finalizing that arrangement and we'll hopefully have something to announce in the, not to distant future. You know, one of the things that we have noted for some time is, you know, how do we take advantage of this? Tremendous talent we have that comes to us from us colleges. And obviously that incredibly strong connection that us college teams have with their fan bases. We saw that last night. Not a classic college football finale, by the way. But. But you definitely saw the power of the college football ecosystem. How do we connect those fans with our great game and with those athletes, that's something we've been working on. And in all of our conversations with potential us broadcast partners. That has been at the epicenter of everything. And our relationship with genius sports and genius' ability to make that connection. Has been a real bright spot in the discussions we've had with potential broadcasters. Well, I'm trying to view, so, you know, if we're adding in American viewers, is that, are we expanding? The, the, you know, the, the pile of viewers at that point, are we trying to supplement maybe some of the, the Canadian viewers that have weaned off over years? How do you view adding American more American viewers to that pie? Yeah, I think it's, it's literally about just growing our fan base around the world. Look, we are, we've gotta strong fan base in Canada. We want to grow and build it. We've got a strong fan base in the us. We wanna grow and build on it. We've got fans. From around the world that are excited by our game. I, I think honestly, enough to sound too forward, but I think we have the, I think we have the most exciting brand of football in the world. Our kicking game is amazing. You know, as I said, our great cup this past year, the finality was as good as you'll see in pro sports. We have a lot to be proud of here and we need to get as many people excited about our game. As possible. So our strategy is really, is very simple. It's to grow our fan base in Canada and around the world. Yeah. Schedule came out. Obviously you talked the playoff, rescheduling that to Saturdays. I got a lot of feedback. This is the worst CFS schedule that's ever been existed. I don't, I'm sure the truth lies somewhere in between the, you know, some of these later games, Sunday games, the Saturday playoffs, how much of that was genius? And the potential American TV deal, a part of that. But it look, I think one thing that we have learned to do really well is to collaborate with our core partners. And, and there was a lot of involvement in that schedule from our teams and really was talking about what's gonna work well in their markets. You know, how do we make sure we give our local fans? The biggest opportunity possible to get to games and be part of our, of our amazing, you know, game ecosystem, the conversations with our, with our, our Canadian partner. TSN. How do we help them? And then there were conversations with our media rights part, potential media rights partners in the us about what we were thinking about. Collaboration has become a strength of our league. And I believe it is gonna be a strength going forward. Cause it's tough. You know, we got feedback and, oh, I've been a, you know, a rather ticket holder for 20 years. And I can't, I'm like, you have to look at this bigger piece, right. If we can attract, you know, 10 times as many people watching online verse or watch on TV versus, you know, how do you balance that, that, that in person, that the Canadian. Football league has been, you know, gate driven for so many years versus like we have to be able to be at a time when people will watch the games. Yeah, you have to balance those interests to, for the record, Reid, you know, lovely like brother, but I'll tell you, I disagree that this is a, a bad schedule. I it's a very good schedule and you're always, and look, I'm not saying that to be defensive, but you're always gonna have. People who, who would look at the schedule and everyone including me would, could see an improvement or two. But scheduling in pro sports is very complicated. And, you know, kind of enough said there, but I'm really proud of the work we've done to, to, as I say, to collaborate with our teams and our broadcast partners. You're right. Look, we are, we need to grow our ecosystem. We need to attract fans based on. Quality of our athletes and their. Amazing stories that they tell. That they can tell, and we need to see have as many eyeballs on our product as we possibly can. No, I totally agree with that. That's what I, you know, I, I think we're on the same bit, but you get some of these people drink. You gotta kinda look outside of, okay. I have my ticket here. I've been walking into, into the same. Gate entrance for the last 25 seasons or whatever, you know what I mean? Yeah, for sure. You know, look again, we've gonna, we've gonna transform the league. We wanna bring along our existing fans. Make sure they feel respected and supported. But we need to go and find that next generation of fans, you know, we are talking about, you know, Some of the techniques that are embedded in the genius ecosystem. How do we activate those to, to attract new fans to our league? How do we use the, the game wager opportunity to attract another, another type of fan that, you know, might put a 10 or $20 bet down on a game and. Get engagement that way. So there are just so many opportunities and so many different places. We're just, you know, it's quite simply read, we're excited about our future. But we got a lot of hard work in front of us and we're committed to getting that hard work done. We cover, obviously CFO and then XFL, USS FFL on here. USFL getting ready for their second season. They just passed their CBA last night, you know, their unionized and everything heading in. Raising wages headed into this year, Exel kicks off and like five weeks. How are you guys now that you have, you know, potentially we'll see, you know, I know history and everything, but. Two spring leagues offering competitive, starting pay versus players heading north. How do you guys kind of balance that out? Well, you know, look, one of the things that we have to offer is we've been around an awful long time. We're gonna play our 110th great cup this year. That's hard to compete with. We've got a very long and very story track record of seeing players, you know, come from this CFFL on NFL rosters. You know, right now we have young Nathan RO, this amazing phenom Canadian quarterback. Who's been doing a tour of NFL teams and, and showing what he's capable of. 25 Canadians played in the NFL last year. We've got a. Tremendous amount of talent. Look, I, I think everywhere we look, we've got something special here. We need to continue to focus on our own business plan. Look, we. Leagues are going to come and leagues are gonna go. We've been around an awful long time where the second biggest pro football league in the world. With a tremendous history and track record our job. Is to focus on building on that and growing that. And then, you know, frankly supporting the rest of the football ecosystems. Well, want the same thing. We want the game to grow, not just in north America, but around the world. And I think there's room for a lot of, there's a room for a lot of football in the world, cuz it is in my. Opinion. I think you may share this football is the greatest. Sport in the world and the funnest sport to watch. And, you know, we just need to continue to, you know, focus on that. I'll circle back to the XL thing. But speaking on Nathan work, if he does end up signing with, you know, the Broncos or the, you know, I've seen and far Hans been frantically reporting all this is that the success to the CFL. Have probably the biggest star that they've seen in, you know, and I love me. I'm a BC lions fan, but is that a success? He goes and plays back up here somewhere and holds a clipboard into the states. Well, look, I, I don't wanna see him holding a clipboard. I think he's too good to hold a clipboard for anybody quite honestly. And I'm just such a big fan of his. Again, in the end we wanna celebrate success. That's what this league has always been about. And that's what it always should be about. We want. Our athletes to, to achieve the greatest success they possibly can. And we've set up our league and our, and we've got a history that demonstrates our commitment to that principle. The fact of the matter is what I love to see him in a BC lions uniform this year. Sure. I would, but I'll be cheering for that. Player and that person. First and foremost, and then, you know, again, we shouldn't be surprised to see Canadian athletes having. Success around the world with sports, we just finished the world junior hockey tournament, you know, just watching our Canadian team win the Canadians in the, in the world cup of soccer, you know, performed well. Canadian athletes are very capable of performing on the world stage. And again, we shouldn't be surprised when they have success. Circling back real quick. And then I have another thing before we go the XL CFL or USFL thing. Chris Jones. And I'm gonna talk with him later had through morally Scott, talking with the Elks about. Already running into some like personnel issues and hiring people and getting people, you know, to come up to the CFO. Personnel wise, not player wise in, in terms of like the, the, the cap and, and being able to pay coaches and stuff, competitively, any thought process of having to work towards that in the future, if you do have competing leagues for those kind of talent. Yeah. We know we, we pay attention to it and we'll obviously keep a keen eye on making sure. That we understand on what those dynamics are. But again, right now we feel like we've got a very compelling product. We've got a very compelling league. We have, you know, a compelling infrastructure, but, you know, read your, your work is never done. There's always something to learn from what's happened, what will happen today or tomorrow that you have to take into account. And that's just the nature of the world and the world of sports and frankly, the world of business. So. You know, again, we won't we're, you know, we are not dismissive of new information as new information services. We'll talk about it and determine whether adjustments need to be made. But we got a lot of talent up here. We got a lot of amazing. Coaching talent in our league. You know, great general managers, great player, personal directors. We obviously wanna keep all of those people. In our league and happy. So again, we'll just pay attention to how things develop. And we'll make adjustments if and when necessary. Speaking of the CFO team, close to my heart, the Ettes, you know, Gary stern kind, everything going on, future updates on the, on the team there and potential sales rumors. A lot of things were kind of swirling at the end of the season. Yeah. Well, you know, I'm, I'm happy to, to report that I've been talking with the majority owner. And, you know, first of all, I think they are fully committed to a bright future for the allots that's point. Number one. Point number two is the two core principles that they shared in August of 22. One of course was they wanna win football games. And number two is they wanna entertain their fans. Those two principles. Are still in place. Look, they, they want to and are committed to the club, but they are also open to conversations with local individuals and groups who might want to be involved in the aloes. So, you know, look, I have to say I've been remarkably and impressed by the majority on and the way they handle. Are handling their business. I am talking to them on a regular basis, their thoughtful, considerate. And committed to the future of the allots. And, you know, we're gonna continue to talk to them. You know, one of the things that they are not about is they're not about fanfare. And they, you know, they don't wanna be in the media. So we talk privately and quietly, but boy, every time I have a chance to talk to their representatives, I have to say, I'm remarkably impressed. Last question for me. I appreciate your time at reports coming out. Dan Barnes here with the Toronto sun, talking about a, a touchdown. Pacific. Right. And then we have touchdown Atlantic coming again this year and the Argos and all that west coasters. Do we have something like that to look forward to here coming up? Well, you know, one of the things that, you know, came out of last year's touchdown Atlantic is the realization. Those of events are special and they just create such an amount of energy such. So much great energy for the league. And we started talking about the possibility of a game, you know, possibly. In on Vancouver island, our BC lines owner, Amar Doman of course, was born and raised in. Victoria's very proud of his roots in. On the island and is, and his family's history there. And we started talking about the possibility of, of a game there in the 20, 24 season. Those conversations are underway. I think it'd be a very exciting. We were at the Vanette cup this year. I had a chance to visit with miss year Tange who's of course. Very involved in the Ruge or, you know, they won the national championship this year. And we are talking about going there and talking about the possibility of a touchdown Quebec. Game now that's a great market. It's a great city. It's one of the great cities to visit and that kind of tourism. Angle is big. And then we, when we were at the Vanya cup, the city of London, the mayor. The athletic head of head of athletics at Western. University and tourism, London wanted to talk to us about the possibility of a touchdown London game. So, you know, look, this is a chance for us to grow our fan base. To build a, a deeper and richer fan base base around the country. So the touchdown series is an important part of our. Well, Matt, if the Sea dragons don't work out for us, I can tell you the crack in, I don't know if you're finally Pacific north, this hockey just walking off at three zero shutout of the Brewin tonight. Very, very excited. Exciting six row game, but that yes, we will have a team to root for. Nonetheless, how are you doing Matt lions? Lyons doing good. Haven't been too following the, the crack in too much, but it sounds like I might need to you might need to we're here. Matt's been covering the, I've still getting used to the sea dragons. The XFL dragons here. For I Madison cover it for new hub, having him come on here tonight, Matt, I, I don't know if you watched these saw franchise, but I'm kind of like jigsaw tonight. I wanna play a game. My. Amazon fresh order is being delivered anytime between seven and eight and it contains alcohol. So there's a non-zero factor that I might have to step off the podcast for two minutes to answer the door, but we'll play a game. It'll be fun. It'll be exciting for sure. . So Matt, first off we're, you know, we're here at training camp, you know, we're taking the field, doing walkthroughs, pilot practices, you know, whatever else, kind of this weekend. How has the first week of kind of the XFL. You know, off season preseason, whatever. How has it felt for you? It's felt good. It, it's nice to see all of the XFL social accounts like ramping up and getting. All sorts of different content of just everybody doing, like doing conditioning and all the, all their workouts and whatever. I believe they're gonna. Be in pads for the first time early next week. So haven't seen any of that yet, but. Yeah, I, I think it's great. They've been doing a great job. We've gotten a lot of great sea dragons content out there and. I hope we just keep seeing more of it. it's good. I feel like we're getting there. I, you know, I, to me, I would like to see the social people brought in a little bit. It feels like now we have directors. We're getting memes today. Like say Louis Battle halls. We tweeting about like what pop tart flavors, all the people. Were like, I like all this, you know, we're still getting the generic. Okay. The game tickets are for sale. SFL does that a lot, you know, social media kind of by committee there as we record now, single game tickets available for anybody but Vegas. And this point from what I've seen seems like things are flowing. Thoughts on just any of that. Have you heard any, any, you know, better sales, worse sales, any issues, anything are all, some smooth sailing. I really, haven't seen a whole lot about ticket sales in general, aside from what you shared about people that were buying season tickets a few days ago. And it does look like things have filled out a lot more than I personally expected around the whole league. Just awesome to see. It seemed like most of the lower. Sections were pretty full or at least half full. So if a, if they're already on to single game tickets, I'm excited to see what game days are like. Cause I, I think they're gonna be pretty packed houses for the most part. Yeah. At least at least week one. Yeah, I went on to get our cuz we're, I'll try to get, you know, credited for the kickoff game, but I always buy tickets just to make sure same with the CFO. I was surprised logging on to do the presale for the single game tickets. How sold out Arlington was at least for that first game. I was surprised. I'm like, okay, well, let me, you know, let me just get a decent ticket here. That's not an arm in the leg, but the first rose on Homeside, I mean, very, very packed. Seems like, you know, it's kind of a weird seating chart there with global life. I was just reading. I think battle Hawks is doing really well and up people want them to open, open up by the up upper bowl. I don't think, I think we need to. Walk before we can run here and kind of get that going, but it certainly seems. I was very hesitant and I'm, I still am where some of the markets Orlando, but so far, it seems like, you know, if we can get Seattle going, we get Arlington going and get St. Louis going. You just can't have empty seats in there. Yeah. And to your point, I think. It might have been you and me chatting about it a while back, we were kind of hesitant about. Returning fans from 2020, like how many people really would have been following it this whole time. And if they hadn't, if they, if, if like they heard about X F L's back randomly, how many of them would really go out and buy tickets? And it seems like there is like, like you said, significantly more than we both thought. So. Great sign . Yeah, I mean, and you know, to be fair here, you know, Exit L needs to, by doing the, you know, the modified hub and playing in and renting all the stadiums and doing all this stuff. Like they, you, you gotta have PACS, you know, SFL. And I know I made fun and people made fun, but. Audiences there, you know, if you're doing all this work, you have to have, you know, sold out near sold out, packed. At least to look good. And then you get that money back from ticket sales and, you know, you're selling concessions there, you're selling Mer you know, all these kind of things that go along with it. So. Good to see, you know, we'll have to track it. It's still early, but at least that's kind of the main story with that. A couple other notes here, and then we'll do roster and player stuff. Hailey C dragons doing a local fan event on Monday here in Seattle. Flying up deci Josh Gordon, and then the Jim Haslet up to it's somewhere near kinda lumen field. Thoughts on that, them coming like, Hey, we're in Arlington, but we can still come up. We can still try to do some of these local. I know St. Louis had a happy hour. I think that was announced last minute with coach Beck as well. This week. Thoughts about them still doing those? Yeah, I think it's great. Seattle is definitely still leading the charge and, and just like. Doing things in their local market. It's good to see St. Louis doing that too. I think Beck has actually. Been there a handful of times at this point, doing stuff. It'd be nice to see everybody else in the league. Start doing that a little more. But I, I just also assume now that camp's rolling, that's gonna be kind of limited. But. I guess counter to that, now that everybody's in the same spot, who knows? Maybe it will be easy to just be like, Hey, all right, let's take a Monday. Let's take a, a Saturday before the season and take these couple guys and fly out to the. The place. I think it's great. I think they need to keep doing more of that. And especially since they're not. Like residing here and doing training camps here. The more of that they can do the better cuz especially with players like Josh Gordon. Because that's like, you don't need to follow alt leagues to know who that is. Everybody knows who that is. So, yeah, I mean, there's probably gonna be people that don't even. They might not have ever heard of the dragons before, but they'll hear Josh. Gordon's gonna be doing a meet and greet on Monday and that might attract a couple more people. So. Yeah, I think it's great. I think it is absolutely awesome. I think Seattle's lucky in that way that you have two marketable people like that. Right. I don't know. You know, a Deandre Frans law or, you know, whoever, like, I, I think it just lucks out. Okay. We have a former. NFL here that, you know, presumably is going to be, and we can talk through the quarterback here, but you know, presumably DCI's gonna see, you know, playing time on the field. I can't imagine you, you have Josh Gordon. They're like, I just think that makes a nice pair that way, where like, Hey, we can have these guys. I know that Vipers are doing that with Bryan, Scott and Martin Bryant right down there. And. Doing some social videos. So yeah, I like that. We're kind of spotlighting pairs here. Like, let's get, let's get just a couple people that you know, that the casual fan might recognize with that. And then we've seen the rumor going around with Jim Haslet being rumored for the, the Falcons defensive coordinator position, right. With art, Arthur Smith over there. I haven't. Heard anything as, since, since the initial reports. You would have to imagine the XFL head coaches have like NFL clauses in their contract. Thoughts on that. If, if the C dragons were to lose Jim Haslet. I mean, it would kind of suck to lose your head coach. A couple weeks before the season starts, but. At the same time he, he. Has kind of, it seems like he's not been quite his hands on as everybody else on his staff. Like going back for the last handful of months. Like even when we were at the XFL showcase in Arizona. I believe Randy Mueller was there in his place. And then June Jones might have been with him too. I'm not, I don't remember for sure. And then when they were assigning the coaches. To different to the each cities or announcing the coaching assignments. Mueller was also sitting in his place there. And I mean, we have no idea what he was doing or why he wasn't there, so it could have been. Something like serious or, or whatever, but. You know, it's not the greatest look. It's not the greatest look to have all seven Fran or the other seven franchises being headed by their actual coaches. And then it's just like, oh yeah, your coach is. Not here today, but here's this guy that you're really never gonna see once the season starts. So, yeah. If he gets the job, then, then awesome. I, I like the point of these leagues is even for coaches to get another. Opportunity. So I think it'd be, if it'd be awesome, if he got that opportunity with the Falcons. And if that happened, I would assume June Jones would probably take over his head coach, cuz he worked with Randy Mueller. Leading the, the Houston. I wanna say gamblers roughnecks. In 2020. But yeah, I mean, if he stays, we'll definitely be happy about it. I'm, I'm pretty excited to see what he can do with the defensive schemes and whatnot. So, We'll see. Yeah, I remember back in 2020, I think it was the Bob stoops was rumored to go one of the college positions, right? Beginning of the season. You know, SFL, we've seen that the rumors this week, Kirby Wilson stepping down for personal reasons. Obviously Larry fedora left the breakers here in the off season. I don't like, you know, I share those stories, the Kirby Wilson and all this stuff. I don't think it's as like sky as falling, obviously it's not a good, like look to lose your coach in the absolute or the USFL. But like you said, there, they're bringing in these coaches. It's always gonna be, we need to have a high enough quality of coach. That like, they would still want to be somewhat desirable right. In the open vacant positions. And so, you know, when the breakers lost Larry, or even with the Mallers now losing Kirby, Wilson, I'm like. I don't think it's the end of the world. I think in Kirby Wilson's case people are almost HAPPI and that he's not, they're probably better off . Yeah. But, you know, but, but I, I wanna keep that same energy for both. I don't want to be like weeds be because I, like, I just shared this week, like, Hey, I think Kirby, Wilson looks like that's done there. Right? That it it's a hard balance. Same with. Players we're, you know, we're still, we're seeing guys know Stephen Montez here, quarterback just a few weeks ago, going back, you know, you're getting these guys that are on the fringe. You're always gonna be rumored to be in these positions. So I guess that's good. I agree. Jim Hasler has not felt being embodiment of like spring football thus far, but we had Jim arm. Before that I'm kinda kind of used to that. Cuz Jim Zorn kind of felt the same way too, like, oh yeah, I'm here, but I don't really know what this is. Well, and that being said, though, Haslet does seem super engaged at camp right now, like videos coming out of them and team meetings and stuff with the whole, whole room singing. And all that, that type of like, he does seem pretty engaged now that he's there. So hopefully that continues, cuz yeah. I mean, it'd be cool to see him. So now that we've got, you know, rosters here figured out, like I said, I think, you know, Steve Montez could be coming back. We don't know yet. We have deci Laki here. You know, there's kind of at least a third quarterback position there, obviously, you know, Josh Gordon coming in into the supplemental at thoughts, how the Cregans. Handled kind of the supplemental draft. You know, we did kind of our broad show last week, but not really deep dive on the dragons kind of thoughts, how they've rounded everything out. Well with the supplemental draft in particular, I think they did a great job of just. Bolstering the offensive line. They added a couple pieces to the defensive line. I believe too. But they weren't like as sexy of pieces. And then Josh Gordon, obviously that's the big, the big addition in the supplemental draft, which I'd assume he was just waiting to. Know that like, okay, I'm not gonna get signed to an NFL futures deal. So yeah, I'll go. Ball out in the XFL. Hopefully. But yeah, with. And you were asking about DiNucci. Just the quarterback physician there where, you know, if we have DCI right. Little work, he was there. He's a spring leaguer. Right. I think he spent time. He wasn't the one that Ryan Willis was the one that spent time with the bears and the little work he's gotten. Some looks. Yeah. Leroy's spent a bit of time with the Patriots and the giants. And then in between there, he was with the, the alphas for the spring league, the alphas, the very Orlando guardians. Yeah. So if, you know, presuming Monte goes back in there, do we still see DCI? You know, Number one with the bullet here, leading the quarterback room, probably. It would surprise me if like Monte would have to really. Like perform and camp, I think to beat out deci. Just cuz UCCI has the most experience in the NFL, like actually starting games. I think out of the three is just the most. Like raw, talented freak athlete of the three. He's also the tallest, I believe. Yeah. He's six five. The other two are deci six, two, and Loki's six, three. But that being said, Laky and Monte have also been in and out of the NFL. They just, I don't. I'm not sure about Leki, but Monte I know has not really seen playing time outside of the pre-season. So just that alone. I, I, I think Denuchi is a pretty solid lock for the starter. Josh Gordon 31. I had to look up. I knew it was on the, the other side of 30. I wasn't quite sure what, you know, how close to 30 you're high. Phil's attention grabbing you think Gordon still has enough in this tank to go here. I do. I think just with the level of TA, like. The, the reason he wasn't in the NFL for so long wasn't cuz he wasn't talented. Like that, even that 2013 season, he missed the first two games of the season. Due to being suspended for, for marijuana. And he still led the league in receiving that year. So I, I think he. Just from a pure physical talent standpoint, he still has a leg up on a lot of these other guys. He probably does he like he's it's obviously he's not what he was in 2013. But if nothing else, I think it's someone that a lot of these guys can learn something from, and he's been. In professional settings, even if he's been kicked out of them, a handful of times he's been in there and like the last handful of NFL stops, he had, he actually didn't get in trouble. They just didn't want to keep him around. So I I'm, I'm a excited to see what he can do, cuz I do think that Hess got a little bit. Left in the tank. This is an, so we have 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 3, 4, like 17 wide receivers right now on the roster here. Heavy, heavy. You know, What do you make of that? I mean, I know we're gonna be doing cutdowns here, but that to me is the most wide receivers I've seen sitting on a, on a roster here before cuts of, of any of these I've looked at well with June Jones schemes too. They don't really use tight ends much. So I know they drafted Josh Perkins, a tight end, but. I would assume he's gonna be used as a wide receiver. But the, the three guys that I'm sure there's gonna be other guys that like pop out once the season starts, but the three guys that just by looking at their track record, I think will, will make an impact for sure. Josh Gordon, obviously. Joshua Perkins. Who's played in 14 NFL games and was with Atlanta when they lost the super bowl of the bats. And then Blake Jackson. Who he was with the, the roughnecks in 2020. And in that season, he got like, he caught five receptions for 50 yards in a touchdown. So. Wasn't amazing, but like he did, he did make some plays in there. So I think that. It'd be safe to say with the same offensive coordinator and the same. Scheme. You're probably, he's probably gonna get some looks. But everybody else, it's a toss up there is. A lot of, a lot of different receivers that seem to have a lot of different skill sets. Jean Jones. Yeah. Coming. In now being able to focus only on the offensive coordinator, you know, presumably here, which in asset, but I mean, We're just looking for high power fast, right? I mean, whether we, what are we looking to see from that? And maybe people that aren't familiar and didn't, you know, follow the roughneck. Didn't do any of that stuff back in 2020. I mean, I know obviously June's coach in Hawaii and everything else, but like whether we expecting to see from the dragons, a lot of speed. And a lot of just downfield shots. I think it's gonna be like, Pound the ball running and then take your shots. So it should be a pretty fun offense. I. I would assume it would be something kind of similar to maybe like the 49ers, but. Not as fancy as like a Shanahan offense, but we'll, we'll see cuz you know, in the XFL people like to have fun. So I'm sure, sure. June Jones is gonna. Have some fun scheming up for all these, these guys. Well, he's already said, yeah, he's gonna go for three every time, which. Yeah. You know, I like it. I mean, the dragons were not a, a great team back in 2020, I don't think Z. And I know that Mike Riley and we, we didn't have the offensive coordinator. And then Jim Z took over a play call and kinda all that stuff. But when nice to see. Whether the temple, I would say franchises just in terms of like fan attendance in Seattle. You think they have enough here? A as a casual fan, if I'm trying to get invested in the dragons, you feel like you have enough. I think so. Yeah, I, I would definitely say so. In terms of, like you said, brought in the offensive line, filling that out. Any, any other surprises from the supplemental draft, anyone you, that you were surprised came in or it's kind of bolster the, the dragons. Not particularly someone they brought in, but I will, before we move off of wide receivers actually mention mentioned someone. They lost. So Rashard Davis. Who was actually drafted. First overall in the 2020 XFL draft. And, and didn't play in that league either. he was drafted to the sea dragons and then he decided to resign with the showboats formerly the bandits, but it is the same franchise. So. I know there have been a couple or, or a handful of players that even on this team that have come from the SFL, but. Rashard Davis and a couple other guys are some of the first ones to go the other way. Yeah, I think there was, I think Sam, Jess, I think he played out there was nine so far and someone will scream at me. I'm sure if I'm wrong with that or understanding the USFL in any way, but I we're sorry. Davis was interesting. Yeah. B drafted. That's gotta be a world record. Did we drafted twice by the XFL in never play single snap on the field? Yeah. We. I don't, I don't think that's that's caused for too much. Like I said, I mean, looking at this wide receiver room incredibly deep, and it could just be, he's sitting there too and counting the numbers and being like, Oh, absolutely. They're gonna, they're gonna need me more. Who is the, did it kill glass? Go to the showboats. Who is their quarterback there? Do we know who that is yet? ACHI glass went to the breakers, I believe. Okay. Cuz I'm pretty sure I did that right up. That was a little while back, but I wanna say he, he was, he went to the breakers. I don't know who the showboats quarterback is now. Cuz it was Tamo. But he's, he's gone. He's he is back in the XFL. So. I remember it was announced, but I don't remember who it was. Yeah, I cuz I'm looking here. This is I'm looking on just us news from here. Yeah. They still have Jordan listed. Brady Wyatt is the other one on there from Memphis. Mm-hmm TEU finally servicing, I guess we haven't had a news break on here since that just find, Hey him find showing up with the defenders, right? Yep. And I think. It's gonna be a tough quarterback room to crack, but. I mean iron sharpens iron. So if he can, if he can make it outta there as the top guy, then he's really talented. That's for sure. But all three of their quarterbacks, I believe. Are pretty different. I believe it's three. Have pretty different skill sets too. So that that'll be really interesting to see what happens over there. Well, yeah, because there's still don't Hey, they have the Eric King and then Eric Dungy in there, they haven't added the XFL com hasn't added to, I'm gonna do that yet, but interesting. You know, I I think back to was already full on St. Louis. Would it be cool to see that right? I mean, obviously just, just to do that. I, I he'll he'll compete. I don't know. I don't know what to expect anymore. I mean, TAMU was so hot back in 2020. Went to the, you know, he spent time right. With the chiefs and then the lions, I think, and then went to the, obviously the USFL and really struggled there. I could never really figure out. It just seems like he was so rattled and in his head. And I don't know if it was stage was too big. I mean, when did you make of his struggles in the USFL? It just seemed kind. He just seemed kind of shell shocked the whole time. Like he had the same, he the same center he had on the battle Hawks. So, you know, there'd be some communication stuff. That's that's the same. So I don't know if it just wasn't fitting the ski scheme or P just weren't. Weren't buying in around him cuz he had his moments. But it definitely wasn't. He definitely wasn't what he was in the XFL. I would assume that whatever the schemes are, he, he just fits the be. He just fit the battle. Hawk schemes better. Looking here, back on the, to finish up our conversation about the C dragons, right? So obviously June Jones. Interesting. When we talked with Haslet at the town hall. I guess that's what it was called. Like the local fam activation about you. He is like, I'm not even concerned about. Offense, I'm leaving at the June Jones, you know, Ron Z here, coming in this, the DC. Any thoughts on that? And the rest of the staff that has let's put together. I really like Z as the, as the defensive coordinator, he was with the Packers for a while, and he's got a lot of college experience. College coaching experience. But. Yeah. I just think, especially like, if you have a defensive head coach, like getting another. Well, seasoned defensive mind, isn't gonna hurt, hurt you. And it sounds like they're gonna be running and attacking three, four defense. So expect a lot of blitz. Blitzes and yeah, it, it should be fun to watch. I think usually when you have a lot of blitzes, it kind of forces a lot of errors. So I expect a lot of turnovers. Hopefully . That would be good. I mean, excited me here on, I like, you know, I like aggressive coaching. I, Sam and I talked in his interview here. I think it'll be after this about, you know, some of the schemes in the USFL and maybe some of the coaches and our, you know, do we feel like we had enough time to implement things and the time that we wanted the. Hopefully here, you know, five week training camp and we're really diving in really able to get everybody up to that and just, it would be good. It'd be good to see aggress Veness on both sides of the ball. I guess if, if has, can really run that defense and then have June Jones kind of take the offense and other thoughts, roster, anything else from the, from the drags, either on you. Know, on the field side or on the sidelines. I will, I won't get too into specific offensive linemen, but I will just say there are a, there is a lot of NFL experience. Across the, the sea dragons offensive line, including. One, one of the tackles who was like a fourth round draft pick and started for a handful of seasons for the Texans. But then a bunch of people from the breakers. In the SFL who had one of the better offensive lines in that league. So. I really think that the, the Dragon's offensive line is gonna be pretty solid across the board. And then we have some people on the defensive side, too, that a lot of NFL experience and some, some more breakers as well. Sharif Miller, a defense event outside linebacker. Who was a fourth round pick from, for the Eagles. In 2019 and he, he, he did pretty well with the breakers. I don't think he was like their featured defensive end. I'd have to look at his stats again. I, I believe that was Daven, Bellamy. But he, he had a good season out there and then. A bunch of NFL guys, Jordan Evans, who spent some time with the Bengals Emmanuel Smith, who was on one of the chief super bowl rosters. To our skipper who was with Pittsburgh for quite a while. Just a lot of NFL experience, same with. In the, in the defensive back room, Chris Jones. Who's been with lion's Cardinals, Vikings, Titans, Raiders, and. Kareem or who was with the Rams? 2021. I believe so lot, lot of NFL experience on the defensive side. You guys might be talking about this more in the other group chat as well, but like, Who is the chalk pick here for like strongest, you know, strongest one or two teams here going in, you know, and obviously we gotta get through cuts and everything else, but I mean, Who, who is people feeling confident about? You know, we, we really haven't discussed it too much among everybody. And I haven't gotten the chance to look into every team. Super deeply yet, but. If I had to just kind of guess based on looking at like the power position, like just the power players on each team. I would probably have to say. DC defenders are up there. The Braas are, are up there and then the sea dragons are up there. I think those are gonna be three of your better teams. And then I think the battle Hawks are right up there too, but. Those other three. I, I just, I just, I don't know. I got a feeling about 'em . It was, it seems destined and, and the way that divisions are set up, it seems destined at at least a Texas team is gonna make it to the championship game. Right. People seem really down on the Orlando guardians, like really, really down on that, which is odd. And so is, it seems like you're gonna have a Texas team in there and then the team of the north. I know that rumors came out this week. It could be at the Alamo dome. That makes sense. We reported last week that the. Chatta stadium is booked with like the rugby team on the day. That would be the championship game. And they said that they would not have. To ING events on the same day. So you either do it at the Alamo do or at TCU stadium, which is where it was gonna be back in 2020. I like that, that made sense. In 2020 cuz that's where they had all the training camps and everything. I think Aldo's cool. I mean the holds like 65,000, I mean it's a huge place. I've seen the world rumble there, like thoughts on the Alamo do potentially is the host site. Before I let you go here. I, I think that's a great site. Like San Antonio shows up too. So I think that's great. And it's. In Texas, between two of your other teams, basically. So you're gonna have peop it's probably gonna attract quite a few people from throughout the entire league. I'd imagine, regardless of what teams make it to the championship. Yeah. I mean, it would've kind of been cool to see it in Vegas. Had they been able to land the bigger stadium? But I do actually think that the Vegas. Smaller stadium, especially with how late they announced it might be beneficial because they're not selling tickets even yet for that. So it's gonna be tough to fill that one. I kind of got sidetracked. Sorry. no, that's perfect. It's all good. We're it's mere here. It's good. No, I, my Vegas reporter that, you know, Chris Matthews's coming up on the show. He doesn't even think they can get 8,000 sold on there. So, I mean, it's just a geez, just to stay on that. I will tell you if they do it in Santa Antonio, that is the most fun. City, Dorothy. And I went there for spring break a couple years ago. I might be partying there all week. So I'm, you might just say like, I'm gonna, I'll get a hotel on the Riverwalk. We can come party. If anyone wants to come down the way, whatever, but. We had the most fun, such a phenomenal time. So I do think that that is probably the best host. Citi, if you wanna, you know, we're, we're close to home, a Texas team's gonna be in there anyway. Hopefully the bra must don't but you wouldn't that be like first ever Exel championship game, home team, you know, home team, home field advantage on that. So that would be pretty nuts. They might have to change as venue yeah. Well, Matt, I appreciate it. Matt covering the C dragons for XL news hub and everything else. We'll get you back on. I know you're always busy with work, but I appreciate you taking the time tonight. Yeah, thanks for having me always appreciate coming on and. Hopefully everybody else is, is enjoying it too. yeah, that'll be good. Well, we're gonna try to swing by the event on Monday, we have a cracking game, so we'll try to swing by maybe handshake, I think the last time we had Sam on with Sam shady sports on YouTube, also continuing to grow over there, which is great to see. I think the last time we were on, we had like the leaked team cities, right. Or the leaked team. Teams, I think it was the league XFL cities. We had courtesy of Larry Lee and now we're back again and we have actual XFL training camp to talk about Sam, how are you doing? I'm doing great. Excited to be back. Yeah, I believe you're right about that last time. It was right after the citys were leaked. And we were talking about the showcases at the time. Yeah, so Sam is great because yeah, Sam had, at that point had kind of. Collected all the different players that were at the showcases some hi gems that maybe weren't getting the right publicity. Now we're doing a deep dive today, Vegas. Today's Vegas specifically. And then obviously anything else Dan wants to talk about in terms of XLT training camps, Sam, how are you doing first off? How does it feel to have like real life XLT training camp to talk about soon? Oh, I am so excited. So excited. It's been a long time coming. I was a huge fan of the 20, 20 XFL. I did not cover football at that point. So it's a little bit different this time around because now I'm covering or not covering it. But following every blast, Transaction, every coach hire all that stuff. So it, it. It's been a different experience this time around. So it's been a lot of fun. Yeah, and to me, just like I was the same way covered it, you know, just as a fan or didn't cover it, just watch it as a fan. Didn't know anything was going on. Getting the, the emails this week, you know, we have a media availability, we have directors or they're handling team communications. We have a schedule for training camp. If you're in Arlington, like. Really feels real. We never got that with the USFL. I don't know if we're gonna get that this time, but it always felt like the USFL. Okay. If you're in Birmingham, if you work for like NBC, we can get the weather guy out here, the cover stuff, but it never felt the, this to me. And it just from my. Whatever CFO stuff is. Well, it feels a little bit more like a real football league that we're doing here. Yeah. Yeah, I would agree. I mean, you know, with the way they've pulled out information. The way they've posted it. It seems. A lot better prepared and that's coming from somebody who considers himself more of a USFL fan than an fan. So, I mean, I personally think the XFL has done a great job with basically. The vast majority of what they've done this off season so far. Yeah, just like, and I was critical and I know, you know, listener max here, producer max, and, you know, we've been going back and forth for the last year and. God, we're hiring all these people and what the hell do we need? We got these social media, people for everything, whatever, like. Seeing the grid of like, these are the days that you can talk to the head coach. And these are the days we have player interviews and there's the I'm like, oh, I just, it, it really makes me feel like, cuz again, this is a hobby for us, right? It's a passion project. And like the easier you can make it for, you know, for professional, for whoever we are. I don't know what category we fall into with that, but like, It just, it, it makes my life smile. So I'm very happy to see that. In terms of you did a big writeup. You following the Viper supplemental draft, we've been, you know, talking Rob Woodson. I don't think we have to worry as much about the Cashman field stuff. I have one of the Vegas reporters coming on to talk about that this week. Oh, overall thoughts on the Viper staff. We've got Brian. Scott, you know, allocated to that, everything else. I, it kind of general thoughts and then we'll dive in. As far as the coaching staff goes, I personally think they've got one of the better staffs in the league. I'm a big fan of rod Woodson as a head coach, as we know, they got Chris Dishman as the defensive coordinator, which was a huge hire gen Walter linebackers, coach, and other great hire. And the, we recently got. Dwayne to Taylor as the offensive coordinator, which Mike's been talking about for a long time. Mike Mitchell ex FFL insider. But really, I think what stood out to everybody was the roster that they've built so far. I mean, a lot of names that. NFL fans are gonna recognize Vic Beasley, Martin Bryant. You know, whether you go through the roster. Or, you know, top to bottom, it's gonna be guys that you may have seen on the transaction wire getting cut or signed from team to team. But a lot of guys that you're gonna recognize for sure, for the casual fan, which I think is a big deal when you're trying to draw in a new fan base. Yeah. Good. Vegas was the unique one where a couple of the coaches were. Coming from college, you know, couldn't beat Mike, like you said, it kind of ruined him for a while. So I do. Can, can you fill us in, maybe if people haven't followed that in just the late kind of additions to the coaching staff in that way. Absolutely. So as Mike reported before Dwayne Taylor is the offensive coordinator. Now he was previously with Alabama, a and M with a keel glass who signed with the new Orleans breakers. As we all known. Now, that's why everybody was speculating. The keel glass could come to the FFL. Ultimately didn't happen, but long story short, Dwayne Taylor is a guy who has led some prolific offenses at the college level. He was an offensive coordinator, relieved with Alabama, a M for, I wanna say four seasons, five seasons for 28, 18 up to till present day. Before taking the Vegas Piper's job. And he's a guy who's run a two quarterback system in the past after ACHI glass reti or graduated. So that was something I had speculated on prior to the addition of Brian Scott. But I think Brian, Scott kind of puts an into that conversation. Is it keel glass? Is that the biggest. Off season signing for the us, a fellow at this point. That's a hard thing to say. I would think it's either achio glass or James Morgan. And as we all know, James Morgan was signed by the NFL. So it remains to be seen if he returns to the us of L you think there, if, if it weren't for. You know, friend of all of ours, Brian, Scott, you think a heel glass would be with a Vegas team. Most likely. Yes. Yeah. If they didn't have Brian Scott, as that. Established number one, quarterback, which I expect him to be. I personally think, yeah, you probably bring in glass to compete with Perez. And if one of those guys doesn't cement themselves, As the number one, you start Perez and then kind of mix in McClendon. I, I, you know, I try to take my personal opinion out of this. I'm friends with, you know, we're friends with people and we talk to people, but like Brian, Scott objectively, right. Looking through, you know, two. Seasons of the spring league we covered, you know, the second one. I, I, I think he gets, if you're just a USFL fan, you watched him with the stars. You're like, well, he like, he, he showed a little bit, he got hurt. Case cook led them case cook is the one that take, took him to the championship game. He's the one that, you know, got the NFL right with the Rams, all that. So is Brian getting, is he too praised? Is he not praise? Like where are, where are we following on Brian? This point, this, where is this stock too high or too low? I I'm glad you asked as you know, I'm a huge fan of, of Bryan Scott as a person, as a player, just all around as a good guy. But with that being said, I personally think he did not get enough praise. It was as if. The second case cook came in and looked competent. Everybody forgot. Brian Scott even existed as a USFL quarterback and it was like, wait a minute. This guy looked like the best quarterback in the league for the first three, two and a half games of the season. I say three, but that's not really fair to him. Cuz he got injured early in the third game. And had like over 580 yards passing, I believe five touchdowns and I believe two interceptions, two or three interceptions. So again, looking at like one of the best quarterbacks in the USFL. And now he's with the XFL where I believe that he could be potentially one of the better quarterbacks there facing a lot of former. NFL competition. If I'm, if I'm Brian and Scott's agent, and I don't know who that is or any of this stuff, but. Like when, when Brian retires from football, whenever that day is whether it's, you know, a year from now 10 years from now, whatever I, Brian needs to go on to like big brother survivor needs to go on to. One of those shows the United eye football that they have with Bryan, Scott. He was like, no noting, but kind of like getting into it with his teammates and. We're having the house meeting and we're inviting him to me. That was the greatest hour of TV that the, the us develop produce you off the field. I know we had Pizzagate and that was great too, but I loved like the Semial turn for an episode that we had at Brian Scott. So I would get Brian into the big brother house who here, or maybe, you know, maybe you do that. It doesn't work in with NFL OTAs, but like I said, eventually at some point when Brian's done with this football career, I think we need to see that. that's a very interesting take. I definitely was not prepared for that for sure. But I, I personally think, yeah, he'd be great on any one of those shows. I could see him doing a bunch of different things. He could definitely be like an announcer. You know, there's a number of things I could see Brian Scott doing after his career, but yeah, definitely some reality TV in his future for sure. So we talked about Dwayne Taylor coming on, Chris Dishman, the other, you know, defensive coordinator. Year high on that hire. So you think that's someone good to bring in? Yes. Yes. I, I, again, another guy that. Personally just strikes me as a coach that players wanna play it for, I mean, he is, he's a player's coach. He's a former player himself, you know, former defensive back in the NFL. So he can teach a lot of these defensive backs that are coming in, how to play the game. And on top of that, he's been the there, and he's done that. So he can. Relate to what these players are going through. He's been a guy that's gotten cut, he's gotten signed, you know, so he knows what it feels like. So I think that's important when you're relating to these players and telling him, Hey, look, this is what you gotta do to be successful. I know I did it. I was in the NFL. I was in the U us of L I led my team to this, you know, this stance and. Here I am now. So, you know, I'm trying to lead you guys to a championship victory in 2023. So this is what you need to do. And you're gonna either listen to me or I'll find one of. A number of other guys that will fill your spot. Talked to Bob, you know, you, you mentioned Jen on there and we've done, you know, I'm trying to think back, we've done deep dive some of the coaching stuff. I just wanted to make sure now that we're trying to get a picture of what this team's gonna look like. You're heading into training camp. Anyone else standing out for you that you think would just molding this team and the kind of what we're gonna see over? The next five weeks. Yeah, the very veteran staff overall, in terms of NFL experience on Bob Wiley, former Cleveland Browns offensive line coach. Ray Sherman, longtime wide receiver coach in the NFL. And then Chuck, Rehan another NFL name. So I mean, no matter where you look on this roster, In terms of coaching staff, a lot of these guys are highly experienced and I think that's gonna play into their favor in 2023. What do you think about the late home start for Vegas? Here trying to kind of balance out with maybe the, the lack of a rollout thus far. You know, locally in the fan base and, and trying to get tickets sold for all that stuff here, coming up. Financially, it's probably the best decision for them, but I would've liked to see them open the season against Arlington in Vegas. Because of the historical significance. So, you know, many years ago, Back in the, I believe it was 1964 at Cashman. They played a game. Against the Houston Oilers. So I thought it would be kind of cool to bring in, sorry, not the Arlington renegades, but the Houston run rough next. Had they brought in the rough next? It would've kind of been. Historically significant, but unfortunately we're not gonna see that in week one. Yeah, I think they they're patented out there where I think we, when we did the schedule deep dive, we're kind of burying some of the games on the FX until we get the. The, you know, the, the, I guess the, the fan base up there, curious to kind of see how that looks like when we have the single game tickets out for that. Don't have an update yet. I know that was a lot of confusion as well. Was. Hey. Okay. We're doing pre-sales now. And now we're doing the single game tickets. We'll be out by the time this episode airs everyone, but Vegas kind of curious to see what that looks like. In terms of, you know, the offense we're gonna see on the field, Rob Woodson, you know, we got Brian, Scott, what are you? Picturing, like kind of the identity of this team. Well, I think it's a gonna be very high flying. I think they're gonna spread teams out. They've got a lot of talent at wide receiver. So I mean, obviously we know about Mar Bryant, but they also brought in a, he black now former X UPL receiver played some time in the NFL's. Well, Jeff Bette, another. USFL guy, Isaiah Macklin, another pretty solid receiver. There isn't a lot of names on this list to like Cyrus holder, a guy that took in the supplemental draft that I like a lot as well. So I think they're gonna, like I said, spread teams out a lot. I know they have some solid backs and Deandre Tori, John Lovett, Matt Jones. So I mean, all these guys are really good running backs. So I, I, I really think this offense is going to be very dominat very quickly, quite honestly. Were you surprised that Bette made that jump from your, he seems like one of the more high profile, at least from my name, him jumping here from the us file, you know, non QB related. Yeah. I was surprised. In fact, I was surprised about a lot of the names that made the leap. I mean, I, I expected a lot of the guys. To a certain extent. I knew some of 'em were looking, you know, I had talked to a couple of 'em off camera, but. The amount of guys that ultimately made the leap, I thought was a little bit surprising. I in terms of the extended and I think you, I think we reported USFL as now going to four weeks of training camp. Ex fell here, you know, extending that out, trying to get that up to the spring football, yo too short, last season with the USFL, I thought that was a major hindrance. It was like, we don't wanna pay everybody an extra week. Like let's come back. In terms of quality I'm the field week one, you were Vegas is going to be in that opening game. I mean, whether we kind of expecting from that, you know, Bob stoops has kind of been through this before and we'll have the, the renegades up to, up to snuff. You know, that's a great question. And I love how you asked that. I, Bob stoops is obviously a veteran at this level, so he knows what he's been through. Knows what he's go going through. So that's gonna be a very interesting matchup in week one, obviously, rod, Woodson's the first time head coach. So there's a lot of questions to be answered there, but you know, he's got some veteran assistance to lean on. So I think that's gonna be a helpful. Aspect to this, you know, Chris Dishman went through this last season. So I, so I think he's gonna lean on his experience with that. Quite heavily. I thought one of the things that was more interesting that I had heard from coaches this past season. Was that they tried to dumb it down too much. That they thought they wouldn't be able to install enough. In three weeks. And ultimately by the end of the season, they realized that they could have installed so much more because a lot of these players, you know, again, their NFL level players, they've been there. They've done that. They've experienced multiple different playbooks. So a lot of the install was a lot easier than they expected. That's the interesting point, cuz, and I've talked with, you know, people often not to be too. You know, exit Valant USFL, but in terms of, yeah, like the play calling in the USFL season one, Do you attribute that to some of these older coaches, right. They're trying to like figure out, you know, bringing in Kirby, Wilson now who may not be with the us of L anymore as we record this, but. Was that you felt like that was symptomatic of the us F L season one was not, not trying to do enough on the field. To a certain extent. Yeah, I think it was a multiple multitude of things. You know, certain teams had more chemistry than others do to previous relationships, you know, for, among the players and the coaching staffs, which helped a lot. Some of these staff had never played at the spring legal spring level together. Before. So a lot of these players, they had no experience with their coaches. So I think certain teams we saw that affect them more than others. Like the stars for instance, had a, a pretty. Decent start to the season. And I believe that's due to the fact that a lot of those players had played together before. And then you look at Michigan who had a RA rather rough start to their season. Most of those coaches have never been at the spring football level before. And a lot of those players had never played together before. So a lot less chemistry to work with. And I think that showed up on the field. Yeah. I, I said that, I thought at the beginning of the season with, with Brian or anyone else on the stars that just. Mike Riley, having gone through that and, you know, during the Europe stuff and doing the, you know, the spring league and. You just it's it's like when you go, I'm not to keep talking reality TV, but like, People that play survivor. Once, if you go back, you're going to play it much better than the second time, because you kind of know how everything works. And I think, yeah, for example, like Bob stoops coming in, he'll be curious, you know, this isn't the bromus deep dive, but you know, like Hines ward here, like what does that look like? Here is Nott only a head code, but now we're in the spring league and we're trying to figure. Out. It's a little bit more of a startup. I mean, I'm sure you've heard stories and I have about like staff and kind of people trying to get everything up right now. It's a little bit star that mentality. If you're not used to that. Right. Absolutely. Absolutely. And that's the thing is like, you know, a lot of these guys have no previous experience in spring football leagues when they come to this and they're coming straight out a high level college football program, or they're coming outta NFL programs and it's a totally different world and it's kind of a culture shock. And we don't say that within any. Disrespect to the spring football world, but when you're working with literally billions of dollars, With NFL and or NCAA for that matter. And then you come into the spring football leagues, which are literally counting their millions total for the league. It's a totally different world. So, I mean, I think there's a, a large adaption period there. And I think the staffs that have leaned very heavily on the guys that have been here and done that before. Are gonna see early success. What much? Like the USFL in 2022. Have you been impressed now that we're in like, you know, I think path practices or whatever, you know, real practices are coming up, we're kind of doing some walkthroughs and stuff. Just the quality. Good or bad stuff you've seen coming out of training camp better, worse than you would expect. In terms of like video footage and like people posting stuff. Sorry. I, no, you're fine. I, I like it a lot. In fact, I think we're getting quite a bit of information. It seemed like the USFL was lacking a little bit in that department last season. It was like, we knew they were in training camp and we'd get occasional posts from a player here or there, but it seems like it's been a pretty steady flow. And I think that's, you know, attributed to the fact that each one of these teams has social media directors for themselves. So, you know, each team. Has somebody that's probably got boots on the ground to steal a Mark Perry phrase there. But it's, you know, they're. Able to have a lot better insight to each roster and each team, which I think is super important when you're building a fan base, you know, because if you're a Vegas fibers fan, you go look it up right now and you'll see. Videos of Brian Scott, Mar Brian and Vic Beasley, and you know, multiple pictures upon pictures, upon pictures. So, I mean, that's what we were hoping for, you know, is these. Rollouts of media friendly material for fans. It seems like with Brian, with Martinus, you know, I've seen, like you said, some of these videos. You know, they're selected a little, the faces right now, at least it's easy. You know, you kind of used to talking on camera and stuff. Do you like that? We're spring league. We need to get enough, like recognizable people. Like, are these big enough, are we doing enough to entice? Like if you're. If you're a casual viewer in Vegas or somewhere on the west coast, like, oh yeah, this is somewhere I'm gonna be excited about. Yeah. Yeah. So I think that's part of the reasoning, but I also think that when you look on the, the flip side of that, If you look at the people who they're filming these videos with a lot of these guys were probably present in, you know, Arlington when the draft had. Because a lot of these guys are bigger names and they probably knew they were getting selected. You know, Brian Scott, we knew was out in Arlington with, you know, training with Jordan Palmer for a while. And as well as, you know, guys like Mar Brian, I'm sure we're out there as well. You know, we never heard about him, but I I'm sure these bigger names were prepared to be in the XFL. So that's probably why we see them as well. A lot of these other guys are, you know, they're in other states, other cities that they still need to travel. Training camp. So that's something to factor in as well. In terms of EXL V S F L we saw, I think it was nine players today. Opt back to go to the us FFL, obviously, players jumping back and forth. What do you. Are do we attribute that to, you know, XL has too many roster. You know, people on the roster, I don't have a spot. Hey us develop is paying more. Now that looks great. Hey, maybe USFL is paying me to come back. If I'm someone like chain dribbling or whatever, like I wanna go back, like what, what do you attributing to this back and forth? Because it, it seems like anytime someone signs one or another online, it's like, oh my God, it's a, it's like the Monday night. Wars, you know, like, oh, okay. This is the yeah. Wolf packs. Music comes out like, oh, they're back with WCW now. I love that. I love that. Yeah. That's, that's basically exactly how I felt as well when it comes to this. I mean, it seems like each league is taken a jab. And again, if you ask the people in either league, they're not concerned with each other, supposedly, but it seems like each of announcement, there's an announcement from the, the other league and it just. The timing of stuff seems awfully coincidental if they're not concerned with each other. But with that being said, I think that, yeah, you know, the USFL has been able to get a couple guys away from the O, which I think a lot of us were not expecting, but what I'm coming to find out is a lot of these are like, You said they're based on the fact that the rosters are bigger in the XFL, you know, maybe a guy who was a starter in the USFL was drafted in the third or fourth round or fifth round, or they're the, the third string guy when they look at things and they don't want go through that battle in, they'd rather go back to the us FFL where they know they're gonna be a starter. I mean, you know, Just for instance, Reggie Corbin. I I'm, I'm sure that's what led into his decision. Same thing with Dexter Williams, who was, I think the fourth back drafted by Arlington when he decided to re-sign with Philly. So there's a lot of decisions to be made here. But with that, I think we've probably seen all the USFL players. Jump back to the XFL that we're gonna see at this point or vice versa. Sorry about that. Yeah, no, I mean, yeah, it gets to the point here where it's like, we're, you know, you're in camp. I, you know, in the math would work out if you're someone and you're like, okay, my starting all these games and the fellow, like gonna be sitting inactive. Okay. I can be on the USFL, the base. Salary is higher, you know, a lot of the XFL. Salary benefits are you have to play and you have to win and you can, you know, I can't even remember the, in the, I, we have the spreadsheet and that video's doing quite well. If you're interested like the full Andy and I did the full breakdown of like exactly how much you would make, but. If you're. The the base level does say, Hey, if, if, if I'm not sure where I'm gonna fit in. USFL, I can at least know I'm gonna hit this, you know, this base level and kind of ride that out for the season. Exactly. And I think that's one of the reasons why some players are picking the us F O it's kind of the same reason why some people pick commission jobs over salary. You know, I mean, I can make X amount if I do this, you know, well, I might want to go make that X amount versus. Well, I'm okay. Making my $5,300 every week. And knowing that I'm gonna make that every week. And I think that's a big reason why the us F L got away. From win bonuses, except for in the championship where it's a very, either large win bonus. And I think that was kind of, it played into their hand because now it looks like they're paying more. Than they are when in reality, this money was there last year. It was just there for the winning team only. Yeah. And you know, and there's a lot, I, you know, I've been maligned both ways and I was a big FFL hater back before and now I'm the big USFL Hatter. I, to me, I like the most, if I'm happy that us F L and XFL are both paying, because I want these CFL people to pay attention in. If you wanna know where we're res loyalties really lie, like. I don't like that where the CFO people are poo-pooing on, oh, these spring leagues. And how many times are they gonna fail? Like, so if USL wants to keep rowing along year 3, 4, 5, and be paying enough to, Hey, have these coaches and staff paying the 10 and I have to, you know, ask the commissioner about, you know, Hey, what do. You think about these spring leagues? You know, the commissioner of the CFO like that, to me, I'm happy regardless. I, you know, if, if you wanna know where, where USFL gets to win in my book, it is creating this competitive landscape in America. I don't care, whatever league you're in. It, it gives some respect to, in that regard or right. Absolutely. Absolutely. So I think a, that's a big thing that the CFO is gonna have to garner with over the next couple seasons. You know, if you FL makes it to season three, I'd be willing to bet that there's some sort of agreement to up the P pay over the next couple of years of well, you know, I mean, I have, haven't broken down the. CBA that closely, you would know a lot better than I would, but you know, either way, I think these leagues are gonna continue to grow and continue to pay more and more, and that's gonna be something that the CFO is gonna have to contend with. You know, the CFO lives and dies on their American talent. And if they start losing a lot of that American talent to these leagues, they're gonna have to take notice whether they like it or not. Yeah. If, you know, if you're, if you're either a USFL or ANFL and you, God, I, you know, we're fighting you, these words. Just imagine the whole can the whole country of cannabis, basically like neither of these mean like, not really. I mean, I know we have listeners both sides, but you know, it is getting very contentious and that's to me, if nothing else, us fellow and Fox is a least. Giving respect in this regard, which I think that these players and coaches and the, you know, the people that are trying to pull this together deserve anything else at this time has flown by. I'm looking Matthew Sexton here for the Vipers. That's exciting. Going back to the list here, anyone else standing out? Just before I let you go here, kind of doing our little training, current preview. I'm sure we'll get you back on here talking Vipers or anything else, but before I let you go to that, The main thing that really stuck out to me was I, I really like west Bowers. He's a solid pass rusher. That's somebody you wanna watch. As well as destiny hoe, I hope I pronounced that last name. Right. Former Eagles player. So I know him quite well, but he's a, a longtime NFL veteran. I think he spent a five years in NFL. So another guy that you know is gonna ring some bells for some fans out there and another guy that's probably gonna be a pretty solid player. And then the. XFL this season. Yeah. And I see I'm just scrolling down here. Juwan Dotson. Johnson as well here. I know that I think he's a big social media follower of all, you know, kind, everyone doing around that way. It's cool to see, like I said, nothing else, getting these guys a shot. I, I think it's going be exciting. We'll see how cutdowns go and all that stuff, but you know, I mean, you're Rob wood here, San assembled, a good, good crew. I think he. Comes across as a really good leader of men, you know, we've he was at the, I think the Arizona showcase when we talked with them. Any other final thoughts on the Viper staff? Anything else. Oh, we see. And we see Michael care. Carries those here, San Jose, he was famously in the Michigan punter that had to kick the field goal that, that lost the game for that. But glad to see him back in his preferred role as a, as a punter here. Absolutely. And Bailey Giffin is a pretty solid kicker as well. I've connected with him. Nice guy. I'll have a article coming out pretty soon about the ties. From Vegas to the areas around their, their state. So I think one thing that Vegas did really well is a lot of these guys are from Utah. They're from Colorado. They're from Arizona. They're from Texas. They're from U N L V. They're from, you know, the Vegas, Nighthawks of the IFL. So a lot of these guys are tied to areas around their market, which I think. Whether by accident or on purpose. Was a very intelligent move. And I think it's something that's gonna ultimately benefit fans because a lot of these guys are gonna be like, well, who would I wanna follow in the XFL? I don't have a team in my state. Oh, well this player that I watched at, you know, Utah plays for the biggest VI som gonna go follow the Viper. So I think that's something that, that definitely can't be. Overstated this off season as well. Yeah, I, I didn't really live through the AAF, but I know they kind of did that territorial draft stuff. And I always thought that seems like a good idea. Like if you're into, I, I don't am not a college. Like, I don't know any of that stuff at all. I went to Goza university. We didn't have college folk football, but I think the, that is good. If you were someone that die hard with that. Sam really appreciated it. Sam puts in tons of work, Sam s****y sports on YouTube and you have the website and you're always posting. And I see you in all the groups and stuff. You know, from NFL stuff to alt football staff really impressed with the quality of work that you know, you and you have other people writing stuff. And I mean, it's, it's, it's a huge thing. And I, I really, I appreciate your voice and work that you do, cuz you know, we've both know this is not Easy's so that it's not, and I gotta be honest, man. If, if it weren't for you, if it weren't for Mike Mitchell, Andy Paul Murray, pat, you know, Matt Lyons, all these guys from the news hub family. And you know, the guys that are in our little text group and stuff that have basically helped me learn. This whole world that I had no previous knowledge about have been instrumental. So thank you to all of you guys. I know I've told you off camera, but just let me take an opportunity to tell everybody in the world that like, I really, really appreciate everything you guys have done for me. We have Chris Matthews here. CVS down in Vegas. How are you doing, sir? I'm doing well. Thank you very much for inviting me on. Yeah. So I'm looking at your bio on the website. I am seeing a lot of FFL ads to buy tickets that went on sale today. So that is good. I think it's targeted for a Seattle demographic, but it least the ads are on the website. That's good. Yeah. You know what I think fans are, especially here in Las Vegas. I. When the XFL was here before with, he hate me and, and that group, and it was played out at Sam boy stadium, where U N L V played, you know, is this kind of a different feel? Obviously, you know, we didn't have the Raiders. We didn't have an indoor football league team at the time, but, but one of the big. Cities and markets in that first launch of the XFL with McMan when he came into Las Vegas. And at that that's at midfield, he yells, this is the XFL. I mean, Vegas really. They embrace the XFL back then. So I'll be interested to see now with the Raiders here. With the Nighthawks, the indoor football league team here, if the XFL and the Vipers, what kind of, what kind of crowd will show up? It's they're playing at Cashman field, which. To be quite honest, isn't the greatest of all places. I'm sure that's not that wasn't their first choice. And, but they kind of ran outta choice. It's almost like they put the cart before the horse because they said we're coming to Vegas. And then it's like, oh shoot, where are we gonna play? So they had a couple of spots that, that they really were trying to narrow it down to. And. Allegiant stadium didn't want him that would've been too cost for him. But anyway, I think they were really hoping on playing at the Las Vegas ballpark where the aviators play brand new facility. Great facilities. It's as nice as any major league baseball park. It's got EV all the amenities and everything out there. It just doesn't have the seating capacity of a major league park. But behind the scenes, it is really, really nice. I think they kind of banked on the fact that they would be able to play there, but the A's. And baseball said, no, we don't want you out here. So then they really started scrambling and it came down to Gorman high school, which is won a couple of, you know, it's a real nice facility, but it is a high school. It came down to Gorman high school, which seats probably about 5,000 max. And, and quite frankly, they didn't really want it either, but, or Cashman field. And they kind of worked back and forth and it ends up being at Cashman field, which is downtown where the Las Vegas slide FC place. So that's kind of the, the background to how that came about. Yeah. And I got some follow up questions here. I don't know if you've been following the, the VI manga the last couple weeks. I let's tell you probably, it's probably a good thing. The. Excep L is not currently involved in anything to do with Vince McMan, if you've tracked any of that. Yeah, backtrack here. First off you hear. Exel coming back to Vegas. Good idea. Bad idea. What do you think. I, I don't think it's a good idea. I, in my, in my. Opinion. They should go to a place like. Salt lake or Boise, if they really want a place out west that that could possibly be hungry for something like this. Now, Vegas is the cache market. We talked to. The commissioner, the owner actually Dwight the rock, Dwayne Johnson. And he said that right from the start. They wanted Vegas to be part of this thing. So I, I, I guess that's, you know, that's, that's what they wanted and that's what they got. But I just don't know if it's gonna be a good idea, to be honest with you and leading. Towards you feeling that way is what. I just think there's too much now, now, well, fans say, you know what? I'll go back to the foot. I'll go back to the football field together. He just got done paying a bunch of money for these Raiders. Tickets went to the games. Now am I gonna go back to Cashman field downtown where it's kind of. Tough to get in and out. It's not the most desirable place. So I want to bring my kids down there or watch some football price points are gonna be a big deal. I mean, that's, that's a big, big deal right off the bat. I don't know what the, the, the, the promotions are gonna be. If we can get a family in the, there for a decent pride. But just to, are they gonna want more football? Am I gonna want to go see the, the Nighthawks, the indoor football league team here? I just, I just. I'll, I'll be really interested, interested to see how many people they get on that February 25th home opener out there at Cashman. And that'll that might tell now I do know, I know the owner of the, the LA the FC lies and the, the guy who leases that land in that, that facility for the city. And he, he's kind of hoping the XFL. Has been telling him they're gonna get 8,000 a game now that if they got that, that'd be pretty big. I I'd be surprised that they got that, but that's kind of what they're hoping. Have you, because that, that is the concern with, you know, anything that's not Allegion, right. Everyone was talking Sam boy forever. That was off the market. But the capacity was always the big issue because you know, like here in Seattle, I mean, they were drawn 23,000, right back in, in 2020. So the presumption is. 8,000 Would be a low ceiling that they would like to be able to succeed. Have you heard any, like thoughts of adding capacity there? People have been looking at diagrams and be, oh, you can add benches over here. Any, any construction happening at Cashman? Not, not no construction right now, but I did talk to the old we had on just last week. On our, on our sports rep show on a Sunday. And he was talking about. There is talk if they need it to put some bleachers out in right field. Because they play soccer there now, so they could put a bunch of bleachers out in right field. And up the capacity if they really needed that, but I'm kind of thinking right now, they're gonna play it and see what happens with this first game. Now he's putting. All new grass out there. So he's spending $25,000. Of his own money to recede that whole thing and put turf out there and make it look really nice and green cuz right now it's all brown. So they're in the process of doing that, but I don't know, I'll be, I don't think they're gonna need those extra seats right away. We'll see if that, that demand and that need comes up a little bit later, but right now they don't need to, but they could. On that east side, the left the right field out, out there next to the. The pitch I heard the, the issues with Cashman was more like, kind of behind the scenes where like, like the locker rooms, weren't up to snuff and facilities to shower and things like that. Is that where Bishop Gorman. Okay. You have, the stigma were playing to the high school, but Hey. We can like shower here and have locker. Was that kind of the issue? That is the issue. There's like, there's not a lot of room out there for a football team. I'm gonna be really interested to see how all this works with the XFL. Cashman is an old facility. It hasn't been upgraded. You know, there's the plumbing. Leaks out there. They've had some issues with that. It's just, it's just an old, old facility that needs, that needs a major overhaul. If they wanna do something big out there, now they can make it work this year and they're gonna put temporary, you know, lockers out there and, and, and, and get by this seed. But if it's a long-term deal, They, they really gotta make some changes. Well, and I think it was because we had shared your story. It was right before they came up with the schedule last week where this does seem like it's a multi-year. Hey, we're gonna be here for a little while, right? Is that your understanding? Well, he's got a three year lease with him, so, and he, and he said he got paid up front. So Brett Burg was smart to say, okay, if you want to come out here, I need this, this and this. And oh, by the way, I wanna get my money first before, before anything happens, who knows how long this league's gonna last now of course, you know, you hope it lasts, but we'll see, but he's got a three year lease. So after the that, maybe they renegotiate do some different thing and. And make it work out there. It's just the location. It's kind of a shame too, because. It, it, it it's at one time it was really nice, right? Downtown, you can see the city lights, but that whole area around there just isn't the most ideal places, which, you know, anybody will admit that who lives in Las Vegas now, Brett Kat or Brett Burg, the owner of a, the lights won't say that, but, but he knows that. It's it's a challenge to get people to that area. If the product's good. If they like it, they have fun. Then people do make a way just like when the golden Knights came to Las Vegas for the first year everybody was complaining, how are we gonna get it's right on the strip. There's gonna be no part. It's gonna be a pain. We don't wanna go. Well, people. They find a way to get there. People will find a way to get to the XFL Viper games. If they really wanna go and they have fun, it's a good product and the price points are okay. So all that stuff's gonna factor into, I'm really curious to see what happens on February 25th. In terms of, and you might not know this, just curious, you know, like what does it cost. To lease time at that stadium for three years and pay it up front. I mean, yeah, I dunno. He would, although I did ask, he would divulge those, those numbers to me, but, but he got a good deal. They went back and forth cuz the XFL was kind of running at time. So. The, the Gorman people called me one week and said, Chris looks like we're done. We just gotta sign the papers. Don't release the information yet because we haven't quite signed it, but I promised you I'd call you when we had a, had a deal worked out. So they had the deal worked out over at Gorman. Well, the next thing I know, a week later, I called Bretton said, Hey, Brett, looks like it's gonna be Gorman. Wait a sec. They were just at my place. Yes. Yesterday and look like we're gonna work at it deal. So I think they went back and forth and decided you. Know what we can't play at a high school. The, the, the optics just aren't, aren't what it should be for the XFL. So then they went to Gorman. They'll spruce it up, make a look nice. Put some banners up there and. And, and it'll be okay. We'll see what happens. It's it's just the shame location. Couple last questions. So how. I, I believe it was you had reported. And I had seen, I think it was M**k acres. I think he's another reporter down there with the business journal in Vegas. Like the night before the schedule came out, they had finally kind of signed, like, do you know how late this all came together? It came probably around four o'clock, four o'clock that afternoon, maybe, maybe five, cuz I called them after the six o'clock no. So we just got the deal done, Chris and, and here's what it is. And this is what it's gonna part. This is, this is what I'm into it. This is what I gotta do. This is what they gotta do. I mean, they were pretty, they were sticklers too. They were saying we need new lights. No, you. Don't we play soccer here. So the owner of the FC lights was, was pretty shrewd and, and not just giving in to the, whatever the XFL wanted, cuz he knew they were kind of under the gun and needleless some pressure to find a place to play. So he worked out a good deal for himself as well. Last. So I, I worked at local news before my whole life here. So I've sat in, you know, production meetings. And I, you know, I was with the Fox station up here when the Seahawks went to the Superbowl and all that, it was very exciting. Like does the Vegas fights now that like Gorman? I mean, obviously this was kind of. Outside of a normal covering of football league, like. Vegas Vipers, any sort of pulse at all right now, in terms of like the newsroom, your producers saying like, Hey, we gotta get coverage on this or anything going on. No, not right now. We'll see what happens. I mean, Woodson's a nice draw though, as the coach with the Raiders connection. So at least they got that for which is, which is gonna be nice. I mean, if they called right now and said, Hey, we can, you know, bring by a coach, bring by a player, do whatever I'd say, sure. We'll put a him on. And, and we have a Sunday night show. We'd be willing to give a bunch of time to 'em. That way, but no, not there's no real buzz right now. Now there could be, that could change. And if they get on little winning streak and people get going, there's a few, maybe a few names on the roster that people might get excited about. And, and like I say, the coach, obviously having Woodson was a big, big deal. So that's, that's that's least a couple I steps heads start before. Before the season starts to get word out there, but I'm kind of, I'm interested to see now I know that that, you know, the, all the players and the teams all work out in Texas, then they go play their games, wherever their games, they go back to Texas and work. So there's not gonna be that hometown connection and bring the guy by on a Wednesday to, to talk to the, you know, We're not gonna be able to really get into the, the background stories of these players and what they're all about and, and how they like Vegas, cuz they're just gonna play in Vegas and leave. So unfortunately that's the case in the XFL that, that we won't have an opportunity to, to get to know those, those human interests stories, those interesting stories. Their their football backgrounds, because they're not gonna be here except for a game and then leave. So. Unfortunately, that's the case around the entire league, not just in Vegas, but that's one of the drawbacks and who, who knows what happens if, if they change that later on? I don't know, but right now there's not really a, not really that buzz that, that you would think with a. Professional franchise and a new football league role into the Las Vegas. Not like there was way back in the day with, he hate me in that first league, there was. There was a buzz. Now we didn't have the Raiders, what we have now in the nights. And it's totally changed. But there was a buzz back then, and maybe some of those fans, you know, catch on as cheaper. The Raider's games are expensive. No doubt. So maybe they can go to these games, have some fun, enjoy football. I mean, at the end of the day, that's what it's all about is football. So if they wanna go have some fun, watch some football. There you go. Go. Well, I appreciated any other last tidbits of the deal. Anything else? I just like to get, you know, Just the Vegas, you know, we're not there and kind of what all this, you know, transpires and your thoughts on it, but also the deal really interesting. Just the tidbits with the, you know, the timeline and the negotiations with the lease and all that. Any other tidbits or far let you go? I can't really think of anything. I know there, there, you know, the there're gonna put some new, new grass down. They're gonna get the goalpost. Lights. I mean, they're, they're gonna try to make it, you know, fan friendly and entertaining and at least. Hey, this is where your Vipers play. This is what they're gonna call home. And. So we'll see what happens. I mean, maybe we can get together reading in, in a, you know, Two months. And we'll talk again after the first game and kind of see how the atmosphere was on what was like. And as we talked to some people and see what the, the general feel is here, but for right now, It's kind of wait and see. As I last question, the lights pushing back their home opener to be able to facilitate that right. With the XL plane. Yep. Was that more like field conditions or was that more just timeline giving them to be able to set up space or what was about thought process? Yeah, it was just strictly timeline. They had, they. They had the XFL. So now we're gonna push our home date back to Cinco de Mayo in may. Just just basically giving way to the XFL. So you got this, this is yours. I'll push my soccer. Schedule back to accommodate all that you need here. So he is done all that he needs to do. So now, Hey, now the bikers needs to go out and win a couple of games and get going here on a little roll. Well, you got a good quarterback going there, Well, I'm excited here. We have Liam. Bluman here with the transfer portal. CFB, sir. How are you doing? We're talking all things X of all broadcasters today. How are you? Good. I'm doing really good. Thank you for having me hope. You're doing well. And yeah, excited to talk about XFL broadcasting, even though. I don't know much about the. That's okay. Yeah. We're, we're converting new fans. We'll get Liam on board here with the exit L but you know, the announced these people, it's a lot of college. Analysts. It's a lot of people involved in that. Getting your thoughts. Cuz we, when we put out the news yesterday, Or two days ago as this episode airs, you know, okay. Who are these people? What's going on? You claim that you watch more college football than anybody. So you are a good person to talk to about this. I feel. Yeah, I don't may, it might not even be a claim. It might just be the strike up. True. . Man. Oh, who you wanna hear about? Well, we'll start here. So first and foremost, we have some returnees from the 2020 season that called FFL 2020. We have Tom Hart, Greg McElroy, Cole. Ick Joey Galloway and then Tom Lugen bill. And Tom's interesting cuz he was actually a coach or he called the 2020 and then he was a quarterbacks coach back for the oh one LA extreme for the original XFL. Any of the returnee stand out to of those, I guess five that we, we labeled. Well, Cole, Cuba, like I think, I think he's like an elite. Guy for this role and everything. I think he does a. Stellar job with college football games. What you're gonna get from him. A lot of talk about. The trenches and the offensive line play honest Twitter accounts, gonna be littered with tweets and videos of just what's going down the trenches. And I think he does a very good job of. Analyzing the effort, whether you're like a casual. Like knower of the game or a diehard. I think he does a really good job of catering to all sorts of fans. And he is just fun. He's just straight up fun. There's a bunch of college. Football broadcasts where you'll see 'em housing. Down a donut hamburger. Whatever that is. He was. Enjoying that a bunch. Yeah. I don't know. He's just super fun. I like Cole a lot. Cole, Tom Lugen bill is someone that stands out to you. Just, he even tweeted yesterday. And this is like my third time go around here. Like I said, to be related his dad coach back in NL 2020 is what or 20 do you? Thousand one is well with the L street thoughts on Tom. Yeah, I think Tom's very good too. I know he brings a lot of knowledge to the recruiting game, which is not necessary for the XFL or in the, or anything, but he he's another bright mind that doesn't really good job at field analysis and a ING what's going on. Pureing the game. And. Just knowing how to bring that to the table and the broadcast and educate the fan. I think Loganville does. Like an excellent job. I think like a lot of the guys that they and girls that they hired are just fantastic at what they do. And I'm sure X FFL fans are gonna love them. Yeah. So overall thoughts, you feel like this is a strong class of, of guys and girls signed up. Yeah, like Tom Hart is. Very good commentator. Stormy by Tony. We had her on our podcast. I think she's an excellent. Excellent piece. I think, you know, in the whole broadcasting scheme of things, think she's a very underrated talent. I, I I'm sure that she'll just thrive in this role and like continue to showcase her skill set. She was really good with the goal Knight of few years ago when. When, yeah, she was like the first. On ice reporter, whatever, when the nights became a franchise. I think she'll be really good in the Excel file. Is there certain. Aspects to being a, a college broadcaster that. More strengths or weaknesses compared to the NFL broadcaster. Hmm, I guess it really just depends on the broadcast crew, right. Because some of 'em are gonna look to just. Be more serious. And everything, but. I think what makes college football broadcast so good is when it's not. There's so many games. And, and, and you're just not gonna be able to sell the audience on. I like Kentucky Vanderbilt one week. So it's about like, Tom hard and Cole Cubick and whatever, like coming up with ideas. To get the audience to stay. And that's just stuff that they do very well naturally. And it's just those. Fun things that they could do. That you know, cuz like our college football Saturday. The Twitter, the Twitter feeds are just filled with content from these games. It's not just the game. So it's the broadcast. Like I run the no context, college football account. I have more fun gang broadcast clips. Half the time that I do actually gang clips from games. So if you're able to just. How, I don't know, its if the XFL audience is. Like full of sicks enthusiasts. Like I think it might be. Then that's probably something where these broadcast. Crews should, should cater to. But you're saying too, it also helps where if you do have people, you, because I think with the XFL, you get too extremes, you get people that have followed and watch all these spring leagues. And I've been with the USFL and I watched, you know, CFO or do whatever. And I think you get a lot of casual people that like, okay, what the hell is, okay, I'm trying this on. I don't know any of. These players. So having, you know, college broadcasters had maybe followed a lot more of these players over the years. Do you think they're gonna be able to add context in that way? I'm sure they can. I'm sure there's a lot of like fun stories that they'll be able to tell. It, it really depends though, like who they were watching. I looked up their rosters myself last night. Like I saw jazz Ferguson who, who was a name that I liked in the pre-draft prosecutor years ago. I don't know how many of those commentary are gonna know a guy for Northwest state. Right. But may, I don't know. I I'm sure. I'm sure that there's a decent. Chunk of players in that league that they'll have fun stories to share from college. I'm just not sure if that's the correction that they're heading in. Back in 2020, it, it was more of a split where you had NFL broadcasters and college. At, you know, the, the NFL people, they would have to look up all these players. You think at least having some semblance of, of, okay. I can recall this person back from two, three years ago. Oh, they should be able to. Maybe a higher level of that recall. Oh, definitely. I'm still like, like I said, not that familiar with the XFL or anything, but like I'm looking at the rosters and just what, what team is this? The San Antonio bros, TJ VAs. ALZA M CALJ Dylan par. Those are the, just names that as right off the bat, I. Recognize immediately. I'm thinking back to their college days. I think that that should be super easy for these broadcasters. In terms of, you know, we hit some of the returnee, like I said, Tom, and. Greg everyone here, anyone standing out to you as a higher pick, the ESPN has the full slate here. There's basically gonna be four different teams. Four four individuals for each team, you know, with the broadcasters, you're gonna have a field analyst and a report. Anyone else standing out to you that way? I think Matt Berry does a very good job as well. I'm interested if he's gonna like. He does a lot of, he know he's very interested into the sports betting side of things. So I'm interested to see if he's gonna incorporate that. Into the mix. Let's see. John Schiffrin I think is also pretty good as is Taylor McGregor. I think she's excellent as well. Like it's a lot of quality pieces that they've got truly. I you think where. I gotta say the feedback we got casual fans. Okay. Who are these people? You. Regardless of whether or not, you know, them, you think at they're gonna be adding into the broadcast in terms of the skill level they're bringing. Yeah, I definitely do Tiffany. Blackman's another one that I think does a very good job. She's she has like more of the. Low key college football games that maybe not everyone's watching. I think the she'll do an excellent job with. The XFL and just. Again, it's just knowing your audience is just. So pivotal. And I think that most of the names on here. Recognize that, and they'll. They'll know, you know what to. What, I don't know what phrase I'm looking for, but. They'll they'll know where to cater to. Right. Think think that. In terms of, you know, the extra value us LD spring leagues. More of a developmental, right. We're getting these players up kind of they're working through the regs. You'll see that as well on the broadcast, right? Where some of these they're letting some of these people come in and get shots. Do you see people, you know, on these lineups, being able to kind of elevate themselves up to the next level here in terms of getting more higher profile, you know, they go back to college or whatever, maybe they want do end NFL stuff, or you see these people being able to springboard. Yeah, like I said earlier, storming by Tony. I think. Like she could be the end up being the star of the group. Maybe, I don't know, or like rising. Star essentially. I, I truly believe that she is an amazing. On feel, you know, Well, sidelined or Porter. She doesn't really good job asking very smart questions and has done that since her time with the goal nights. Then when she was doing college football. These last two years, she was working on like, One, the, not like she was on a really. Good crew like last year and then got kind of bumped down. For this season, which I was surprised by, and she is still did a fantastic job. So I'm sure, like, I truly believe that. That XFL fans will love her. Another one. I mean Tom Hart. I think he really does a very good job of calling games. I forget which bowl game he was calling, but I had a lot of fun listening to him. I, I wish I remembered which one. In terms of any less appealing, I guess I'm here on Longhorn, Twitter. I have a note. There's a lot of hate for a Lowell gal Galindo. Well, like you said, Tom Hart, Greg McElroy Cole seemed to be pretty well liked. Any of these broadcasters may be more of, you know, heel role or people aren't as high on. I can't speak to wo I don't know too much about him, but. Joey Galloway, I think could rub people the wrong. Way I just. Man, I don't wanna be like mean or anything, but just feels like a lot of the time. There's not much substance. To, to what he is, you know, saying, and there's not. Like I know just like a lot of wasted words and then just lack of actual analysis. Like it doesn't. For, I know a lot of, a few of my. Friends in the last few college football seasons will always be like, what is he talking about? Like, that's not. That's not true at all. Or where do you get this factor from? Like, Like what was going on. So, I I'm hesitant to like, I don't wanna be mean or anything. But Joey's not one of my favorites. Yeah. I don't know. And. He ha he doesn't give out the best picks when him and Matt Berry give out. College football vets. Joey struggled a lot, unfortunately. In terms of. Spring football as a whole. Are you mostly college focused? Do you watch any spring football? I mean when I was like, Well, I guess I could say younger. A few years ago, like, yeah, I was, I was pretty. Prey into it. And then after a few weeks, I was just like, What I just. Stanley cup playoffs are starring up. Let me lock in on that. But I don't know, like I'll try and watch. A few and I'll see if I stick around. Like a kind of Lou to earlier. What will bring me there is all the, the names I recognize from college football. And, and guys I was rooting for in the pre-draft process and just wanting to see them succeed and maybe. You know, a miracle sorts, get back on that journey to the NFL. So I'm, I, I am very excited to see. Those guys and, and see if they could carve the path back to at, so it's interesting cuz I've interviewed people on here and it's like, you know, we're so high. You know, we're follow these guys through the draft and we, you know, we're doing all these things and college football and it's like, once they go to the NFL or they don't make it, then it's like, okay, you're dead to me now. Like we don't, it's just, it's always interesting to me that. The draw that it has for some spring football fans and then others it's like, oh, I don't care anymore. Now they're not. It's like, but you follow these guys for the last, like three years. Like, what is, you know what I mean? What is, but you, you know, do you find that in circles that you talk to and the other people you work with. Hey, I think that that's just so. Like trash could just kind of throw away. That you were ruling for this player. Cause, cause look, if the player were to make it big and they got the opportunity, what what's that fan saying? That they were their number one, fans pouring them for however long and they were always with them. Like, why can't we keep the same energy? Like you should be rooting for like, Katie cannon right to who was a stud at Baylor to. Just revitalize his career and maybe he could turn into something and really get back to the NFL cheque who had a pretty strong, free draft process, but never found that NFL. Opportunity. He's someone that I was running for. I can't wait to see if him and jazz Ferguson two guys, I like. Are able just thrive in this league. Like we saw Taylor, Heineke make it out of nowhere and get to the NFL and ball out. It could be any one of these guys could be. That next Heineke essentially. And people should always be really friendly. They shouldn't stop because they're playing in the XFL. That's not right. There's so many talented players in this league and now everyone gets the opportunity that they deserve. Just looking here for these competitions, you think there's a good enough mix between, you know, getting. Voices older voices, male, female, you know, different ethnicities. I always like to see kind of a blend of, we have a lot of different opinions here and a lot of different voices. You think they get did a good enough job kind of filling out, you know, all sides of that. Yeah. I suppose that they did looking at it. It seemed like they definitely did. Yeah. There's a lot of really quality pieces that they've got. I'm excited to see how each broadcast crew meshes together. Do you like that? The exit fell does more of the sideline. Interview stuff. I mean, I know that's been taken up now, obviously since the ex have fell back in 2020, but getting more of those on field and we're getting the immediate reaction and all that a hundred percent, that was one of the first things that. I feel like. Attracted me to. Watching the XFL in the first place was, you know, like you flip on TV or whatever, and you're not literally locked in. And then you're seeing a. In game interview, like. On the sideline. Whilst the game is going on. Like that's sick. That's not something that you're ever gang to see. And that's like quality insight. That that you're getting. That nobody else is really giving you. Before I let you go, you know, you watch a lot of college. XFL spring football, they kind of use it, right? This is a testing ground. We can do a bunch of different stuff. Any other broadcast like ideas or, you know, things that you would like to see, try that maybe. Okay. We don't wanna do on the college level yet, or we wanna, you know, anything you would like to see them experiment with. Give me a few seconds to think of something here. Let's see. Ex, I think it would be okay. This just popped in my head. And would never happen in college football, especially not the NFL, maybe low tier low tier college football. But one this, this might sound really. Really idiotic. What if they just pick some random fan? They as Barbara seat they're in, they just pick out the ticket. And in that fan gets to go up and call a series. Just what, like in the fourth quarter of the games of blowout. I don't know that I don't know why that popped into my head, but that'd be kind of funny. Well, there you go, Liam. I appreciate it. I hope you'll at least try it out a couple weeks in the XL here with the new broadcast teams and everything else should be fun. February, anything else before I let you go. Nope. It's gonna be a long. College football off season. So I will definitely. Check out the X and file. Hopefully. Stick around, but yes, very. Very hyped to see how these broadcasters do. Cause again, there's a lot of very, very good ones that might not get that recognition like of so many.

XFL 2023 Full TV Schedule Released, XFL Vegas Vipers’ Stadium Revealed!! Live BREAKING Reactions!!!

Well, I told our listeners on Monday when we had our supplemental draft live stream. I said, I don't think you've heard the last of us this week. Max and I be getting up early every day this week. Ready for this? We have the XFL schedule here, Max making his long awaited you know, debut here on the show. How are you doing, sir? I'm doing great. Listen, when I sent that voicemail last week and I was like, the X ffl is back in this time, you can feel it's real. I didn't necessarily mean it like this, this soon, but you know what, why not just give it to me whenever I didn't expect it. Why not? Well, we are here breaking news live. We have the schedule just tweeted out here, the official X F L schedule kick off Saturday, February 18th, 3:00 PM Eastern Time. The Vipers are taking on the renegades on a B, C. That is exciting. This is the first time I've looked at this. I've actually just, I, I was busy tweeting. We have the Orlando guardians at the Roughneck on Saturday, and then we are going to have the, oh, I do not like this already. We'll have to talk about week two. But and then Sunday, February 19th, we have the Battle Hawks taking on the braas C Dragons taking on the DC Defenders, I assume at dc. Interesting stuff here. What do you think week one? So first off, it is really bad that the second game is on fx, potentially. I actually don't mind them throwing all these games on fx. Cause I think you knew when you saw FX on all these press releases that Disney wanted to bring FX back as a sports network, and that I understand. But having FX this early into the schedule would handicap the league exposure significantly. So I'm actually fine with it. Week two went on, but week one, you need to have that as much as exposure as possible. As many abc as many ESPN one games as possible. Well, so it's ESPN fx. So does that just mean fx? No. That, no, that's a simulcast, right? The 8 31, I, I'm assuming it's, or, but I don't know. Well, okay, see, later on here, we have like ESPN, N two, ESPN one, and then fx. So I imagine that's the simulcast guardians. I'll tell you this. Thursday week two, I, I'm outta town. I Viva Mexico. I'm gonna be on the beach in Port of Valarta. I was hoping to fly back on Saturday for the game. So we will miss our first Sea Dragons home game. Hate to tell the team over there at the Sea Dragons for that, but Saturday kickoff Vegas fibers at Arlington. That makes sense, right? Then we're gonna have that be the first game. I mean, I wish, I mean, I, I understand why Arlington is decided to be the first game, but I probably would've saved it for like the second or third one, just because you would want one of the more flashy markets to be your very first game. But Arlington should still have a much better showing than or Orlando, for example, as a home game. So least is that. Yeah. So I think that's where we'll be. I'll figure out a flight here. We'll, we'll get our way down to Arlington. And then there you go. Saturday doubleheader three and eight 30 Vegas fibers at Renegades and then Guardians at Roughnecks. We've talked about this. See the St. Louis Battle Hawks first home game is not gonna be, looks like week four. Yeah, week four will be the first Battle Hawks home game on March 12th. Sunday. Well, what can I say? Except for, I'm sorry, dirty. You had to take a take, take one for the team here. Okay, listen, at the very least, we won't, we'll get the same articles we got like last time where it's like, ooh, in week four, the X FFLs attendance is rising. Yeah, this is a, I'm just looking at this. This is a ton of FX games. Ton of FX games. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7. I mean, this is not a prestigious TV schedule. I do not think a b ABC twice the first week and then not again until week six. Yeah, it looks that way. But I mean, considering the level of promotion we've had up to this point, I'm actually not that surprised. I think going into this deal, we had to know that yes, that Disney was like, Hey, we we're doing this because we want to, we're gonna use you to make FX a sports network, like I said. And quite frankly, the important thing is to get as many people in week one as possible. And then from the later weeks on, it's really about can you maintain some sort of notable audience on cable? And also what is your audience on broadcast looking like when you get back on broadcast at week six? Cause I think what they're trying to do here is trying to say, Hey, we'll give you the exposure week one, and then it's on you to keep yourself up through there, and then we'll see where you sit at the end of the season. And if you deserve to be on More Network TV next year. Yeah, I don't, I mean, I just, I gotta be the, I'm not just the ex of l Homer here. I mean, know, I've, I've criticized uss f l Plenty for burying a lot of these games. You know, week two we're already on espn renegades at Roughnecks. Jenna is checking in in the chat. John Lewis is also mentioning Vegas officially announced Cashman Field as their home. I don't know if that's, we, we tweeted out this morning. The guys over at the c b s station there. I don't know if there's an official announcement right now. People can post and chat the link if we wanna pull that up. But we're just kind of doing the schedule here. We can talk through the Cashman field and all of that as well. The Cashman field will make its debut week two on fx. Be curious to see, are we burying the Vegas, Vegas is on FX in the week six. Vegas is on ESPN week seven, and Vegas is week 10. ESPN Week nine. Oh, wait, no, that's, that's a away game. It's a away game. We have a question here, Mr. Downtown. Why are they not including the stadium names on this schedule? Probably because they don't wanna draw attention to the fact that they're playing the Cashman film. That would be the, the indications I got. I know there's been a lot of like, sourcing and we're talking all this stuff, all week. Indications I got was they were just kind of rolling the Cashman thing out with this of like, let's not make a big deal about this. I think if it would've been like Allegion or something, obviously that would've had its own standalone announce it. But I think it's like, Hey, we're just gonna, we're not gonna make a big deal about this. Like X FFLs playing in Vegas. That's all you need to know at this point, right? Listen, could you imagine the Rock trying to spin Cashman Field <laugh>? What do you, I mean, we might as well. Right now, what do you think of Cashman 8,000? They're looking to get there And, you know, honestly, I'm actually the capacity of, it's not really an issue for me at this point cuz it's just so late in the process that it's gonna be a grind for them just to fill what is there at Cashman. But I think the fact they're playing there week two and later, hopefully the first week has enough hype behind it and it should that people will come out to see week two just cause it's the first home game and then that's their chance to impress. We know this here, the championship game does not have a location yet. Is that gonna be we're not gonna do a neutral stadium neutral site. I don't know. It's interesting. I'll find out. Maybe there's a, is there more details in the press release? Is this all you got? Oh, that's actually a good point here. Let me look here. For more assets. That's actually a good point. Let me see. Okay, so here's some key I wish they is this on the web website? Can you look on the X F l.com and see if it's on here that can pull this up. The press release says the X F L today and Asset 2020 partnership with Walt Disney. Key details, all 43 games in the combination will be on a b. ABC has seven games. ESPN and ESPN two have 22 games. FX has 15 games. All XE L games will be streamed on ESPN plus and Simcast in the hundred 42 countries around the world. So that's, that's good. Jen, that was asking if you could listen, you could pull up ESPN plus and maybe have it on your phone that way. Opening weekend kickoff Arlington Renegade, we talked about that. E S P will also tell by the X L playoffs, which will take place. The X L championship game is set for May 13th and streamed on ESPN Plus. It says on here, the Vegas Vipers will play their home game. 10,000 seat venue in downtown Las Vegas. Fans have access to parking concessions and tailgating areas before the game during the season. For more details, please visit x ffl.com/st. Louis season ticket or Las Vegas season. Tickets will go on on another day. Let me see if I could pull that up as well. So if we can share that now. You see it there. It says Cashman Field. Seth's asking and texting me, Seth, I will be coming to DC if Seth is listening, I'll be coming to DC at some point. Let's see. Do you wanna do comments? Let's see here. Sure, but hold on. You mentioned the single game tickets go on sale on the 12th, right? It says here, single game tickets for I this is for Cashman Field. We'll go live on another date. This is, I imagine this is in relation to Cashman specifically. Yeah. It also says in the next paragraph that single game tickets for all Other teams in Vegas will go on sale January 12th. So there's still, you still cannot go on and buy single game tickets for Las Vegas. Yes. And then there is a pre-sale for all games right now. Like a, like a signup deal. Well, I, I'm, yeah. So yeah, the Vegas fibers will put yes. So that is a good caveat. So if you are in Vegas anywhere else you can go on to get your single game tickets on January, what's the, what's the signup just being on the list? Priority access. It's, I'm pretty sure it's the same deal as the jerseys. Okay. We need the jerseys out too. I sure wish. I guess that's it on here. More digital assets. That seems to be the biggest takeaway from that. Okay, so now back to the schedule. We're Barry and Cashman, we don't wanna know about that. Any other takeaways week one on here? Listen, I'm just happy we have the two ABC games. Honestly, like when you consider how poorly the promotion has gone to open up things. And also, let's be real, when you look at the ratings that the U S F L got on network after week one, they're probably like, we don't need to be spending this much effort throwing X ffl on network television after week one. Because they can probably get two-thirds as many viewers as they're getting on network on cable and we can probably have much better margins. So I'm, I'm relatively satisfied with the schedule. Obviously we haven't even done a game by game. I don't know, let you and Andy do that later cuz that's way too much detail for us to do right now. But I'm as satisfied as it can't be. So if you look on here, so we have some interesting caveats. So week two, like I said, Thursday kicking off, I hate, I'm gone the Thursday, the, the Sea Dragons Battle Hawks and Sea Dragons Thursday on fx. That's rough. Week two already going, you know, just like, okay, it's not even, it's not even the weekend. We're going to the weekday, the fx, whatever. Then the Dragons have another home game on Thursday, March 16th, two Thursday home games to start off. Brutal, brutal. And then there's a Monday DC game on March 27th and the Friday. I mean these are just all over the place. Well, I guess whatever it takes to get on, honestly. And also like notice all these weekday games that are like in primetime, I think all of them are on fx. Yeah, FX is, is the, the large portion of these on here. I'd imagine that they were like, okay, let's make FX so like the new t and t or whatever we're gonna do weeknight, primetime sports games like t and t does. And you know, is there enough promotion now enough promotion time to be able to do that? Is there time? If the rock wants there to be sure we can, here's the rock can make it happen if he wants to, will he do it? I don't know. Will Disney do it? I dunno. <Laugh> and you know, and I think that's, I think that's something to point out here. You know, max diehard excellent. You know, max very wavering here the last couple weeks as well. You know, we're kind of getting frustrated on here. We're talking I have no idea. I mean, but you're coming on here. I think pretty rational thinking today of like, you know, I don't think this is this Homer ville here where we're trying to, I will say this is a, a scary schedule for me. I I do not like this. This is I see nothing but ESPN two and FX from, you know, week one up until week six. Lot of lot of bearing here. Yeah, well, well we got ESPN and week and week two, but yeah, you're right. Like I'm not the biggest fan of the, the, the slots either. Although keep in mind I wouldn't be surprised that BSP is like, oh, you're doing better than expected. We'll bump you a couple. We'll see. But also really honestly, I'm more, it's more important to me to see what the league can do with the networks they get put on than whether they get on high exposure every single week. And you have to consider that people have already had an impression of the X ffl and already know what the X ffl is, even if they are not necessarily fans. People will joke every NFL Sunday about how this guy should go to the X ffl and there's dozens upon dozens, if not hundreds, sometimes thousands of tweets about how this guy and that guy should go to the xfl. Cuz they all don't like that player. So people don't need to be told again or shown again necessarily what the X ffl is. You just need to convince them to watch it. Do they have, so they've, they've tweeted out I'm just looking on here, anything else? So they finally put the pressure release on the website. They still don't have the full schedule on here. I mean that's, they tweeted that out. They Have a tab, they have a tab on the site. If you look, there's a tab that says schedule. Oh, here we go. There we go. Look at that. That's, that's pretty now. Okay. I like this. Pretty, pretty, pretty. Okay. So in Vegas, renegades, this puts it in a little more context that way. Yeah, definitely not showing the, definitely not showing the venues. Good. Matchups week one. I mean, do you think market wise? Sure. I mean St St. Louis, San Antonio, shout out me <laugh>. That that looks, that was, that's gonna bring, it'd be an exciting clash. Also very smart to put that game on abc. And I'm curious to see whether the E S P N FX game combo is a simulcast or a flex. Because usually whenever I see those flashes it means a flex. So it means if, if something else runs late or It means that they have not actually decided whether to put on ESPN or FX and they're gonna decide to do it later. And, but no, that'll be fair. I don't know. Yeah, that's just my impression. So if it is that it's both, then I guess that's fine. If it's either and they throw it on FX cuz they're not impressed with the hype leading up to the launch, then putting it on FX is gonna be a real put a real hurdle in on the, the exposure week one. I am, I don't know, the more I look at this, I'm really terrified. I'm really terrified for some of these and, and comparisons back to 2020 where I think they just had a morph. But am I, do we, are we able to pull up, do we have the TV broadcast from 2020? That's something I should have facilitated ahead of time here, but I Mean we should pull it up on Wikipedia. Yeah. Okay. I just feel like there's gonna be a lot more comparisons to 2020 and like these are the ratings and you know, obviously context. I always think's important that way. But I do think that you're gonna get, you know, rightly or wrongly maligned on these, you know, poorer ratings when hey, we're we're going on FX every day week two here. Yeah. So the Thursday started off Saturday game defenders at Vipers nice that, like you said, that the Las Vegas lights postponing their their home game with enough time for the X F L to play and they get the turf back together on that. And then Sunday, the Brahmas on ESPN and the Renegades roughnecks on ESPN n too. Yeah. Any luck on the Wikipedia? Yeah, I've got it. Here I can, I can send it, but basically just the general benchmark of how it was, was they had like Post in the, post it in the private chat and I'll, I'll get it shared up on here if you don't Mind. Yeah. But I'm just letting you know, they, the general benchmark was there was like two network games a week and then two cable games. Sometimes there was one network and three cable games. Yeah. That, that vibes with what I'm thinking. But yeah, like this week two, it's just fx, espn, ESPN two. I mean, you know, like we're already kind of getting reg relegated here. It's scary. It's a little scary. Nothing can scare me at this point. Listen. So let's see on here where Outstandings regular schedule, where, And on the broadcasting and then you go down into your ship This is wonderful podcasting. Go down to broadcasting. Yeah. And then go down the viewership from there. There we go. All right. So yeah, so B, c there we go. B abc, ESPN viewership. The first all year, dude, the three year agreement CAR L 43 was scheduled to air 10. So they had, they would've 10 Saturday, 10 ABC games versus the, I can't imagine there's more than five. Yeah, it says on here the breakdown seven, seven ABC games. So three of that. So I, I mean I guess that's not, I guess that's not as crazy. But then you had to consider the Fox games too. Yeah, Fox had, ABC was scheduled at Air 10. Fox was at the Air seven, five being televised one Sunday game, which was televised two Thursday. Yeah, Fox, espn I'll tell you it really hurts at USS F L U. USS F L Fox really hurt. I I I thought that when they came back and announced this deal, you know, with just, just the A E A B C E S, espn, I thought that was was interesting. So They did what they had to do. And quite frankly, they, they were, cause I mean the only other option was CBS and that would've required putting games on CBS Sports Network and that's just league suicide. You can't do that. So Yeah. So James has a question. Which teams or which divisions divisions have not been officially announced? I think we're all imagining Seattle, Vegas what San Antonio and and hu Houston in that, From my understanding, if they wouldn't put divisions in the press release, then they're just gonna put top fourteens in the playoffs. And this is based on some mathematical rotating schedule and there is no divisions just Cause Geographically speaking, it does not actually make sense. Oh, here we go. Well, I'm, I'm totally lying. Here we go. The eight x L teams are Spliting, the two divisions X ffl North DC Defender, this was at buried in the press releases. DC Defenders C Dragons Battle Hawks Vipers in the X F L South renegades roughnecks Guardians and Ramos. There you go. North and south. Oh, that's, that's gonna really bother some people because the, the Battle Hawks fans all wanted the, the rematch with the, the renegades cuz they're calling 'em the rental hawks or whatever and now they only get it once. So they're not gonna be happy about that at All. Yeah, here we go. The alignment, there you go. Got it. On the website the, the alignment of our divisions creates instant rivalries and an added the level of excitement added brush Brandon fans at every Axel game will experience the energy and passion these players bring to the game. Will be an immersed in a stadium experience designed to bring them closer to the action on the field. Well definitely close at, at at Cashman. So there's that. I will also say this division alignment only works because of the hub because this would be a travel nightmare if these teens were all actually based in their markets. Explain on that Because like you have Vegas in the same division as DC or and whatnot, that's, that's just not tenable in the normal league. Yeah. There you go. The XL North in the X L South. I I think I like that. I like Seattle representing the XIV North division. I think that's good. U USL did that too, right? North-South with the, with the Yes, I do That. Yeah. But their alignment made more sense cuz all their teens were on the east, the eastern side of the country. So you, and also they weren't traveling so, and they still aren't really traveling now like cross country. Whereas obviously this doesn't matter for now, but like, if they kept this alignment and you had Vegas traveling to DC and DC traveling to Vegas in the same season, that's just not right. Well, but I mean they, they are traveling every week. I mean they're traveling back to Texas and the No, For now it's fine and the hub, it's great, but when they leave the hub, that's the problems I'm Saying. Well, but I mean, you're still, I mean you're still flying back to Texas. I mean, travel's gonna be tough on this. I mean I've seen lot Of, no, when they leave the hub for permanently, like when they get based in the markets, that's, it's gonna be a problem. So either they're to come up with a new alignment or maybe they'll have new teams by then who knows anything When we're a real football, when we're a real football league, we're A real football league now. Are we, yeah, I mean is this, is this enough? Are we a real football league now? <Laugh>? We're a real football league. Well are we professional? We'll find out I guess. Yeah, so see it says on here, just so any, I'm just looking at any other clarification on the, on the slash cuz we're curious about this Guardian's Roughneck game, ESPN fx N FX and the espn. So all the games will be on ESPN plus. So I guess that's good. Mike Mitchell and his Disney bundle will be happy. He can get all the, he can get all the X L games on ESPN plus <Laugh>. Yeah, I mean, and also, I mean, considering how last time the international broadcasts were all on, there's a weird service that no one actually uses anymore called ESPN Player. ESPN Plus is an update if is an upgrade if you like live in the UK or whatever and you wanna watch the X Ffl. Cause if you are a sports fan who really likes American sports, you probably have ESPN plus internationally. We have a question here from Tanner seems odd waiting so long for a home game for the Battle Hawks. Hope they don't sing. I I, from what I heard St. Louis, they gave 'em five or six dates and they said these are the dates you can do. I think there's events planned in there through the end of February, right Max? Am I remembering that correctly? What is the dilemma with the, with the, There was some convention or something going on the first couple weeks of the season, just like the last time that was like, okay, we can't have St. Louis available for at least the first couple weeks. That was what the local news in St. Louis reported. Maybe there was another thing going on week three. I'm not familiar specifically with what's going on as a dome, but quite frankly the league knows that people will show up no matter when in the season. St. Louis plays their games. And I guarantee you they, they get that in mind when scheduling St. Louis <Laugh>. It's hard though cuz I, I I thought it was week three. I thought they missed the first two. I thought they'd said that February was out there and they were gonna go in in March. So it is where it's week four, you know, Sunday, March 12th, I mean, we're almost a month into the, into the season before they get a home game like that. That is really rough. They better win. Cause if they're oh three, I mean, I think they'll still show up, but it might not be amicable when they show up. We put it that way. Any expectations Vipers at Renegades? Any, I mean, I know people wanted the dome for the kickoff. I mean, it makes sense. They're gonna do it. You know, in Arlington with the hub, same thing, you know, I mean U S F L, but like when we were there for the Birmingham kickoff, you know, you have everybody in the world there that game for the kickoff. So y you wanna have everybody, all your staff and everybody there to kinda see and what's going on. But I mean, Vipers at Renegades, I really would've thought they would've tried to get battle hawks in that kickoff game. Well I think they were like, oh, we can get the two biggest fan bases. Well the two biggest fan bases, or at least the two non N F L City fan bases with large fan, with a large amount of fans clashing against each other. And they were like, Ooh, let's do that. And then that way they can have like some sort of skid about like the Valleys two fans or whatever. And also I, I think they, they wanted to try to split out some of these bigger fan bases so that they didn't necessarily all come front loaded because there's gonna be hype around the first game no matter who plays in it. As long as it's not a Cashman. Cause that would've been a disaster. But yeah, Yeah. Mike, we have a bunch of questions here about the Thursday. I was just checking to see if there was any Thursday games later in the season. I can't, I I'm gonna need to figure out, is that a sounder schedule? Like why are we, why are we so opposed to playing in Lumen Field on on Saturdays and Sundays? I'm trying to figure that out if there's a reason why. Cuz it seems like it's a Seattle problem and then it's a DC problem there in March. But it seems like It could be a number of things. It could be. I'm sure the Sounders play a factor, but it wasn't an issue the first time around. So I'm imagining it's Sounders, but also really if we're being honest, the time zone. And on top of that they're thinking we don't want to, if we're gonna put a Pacific Time game. So it's, it's just a later night game. If we're gonna do that and we wanna put it on fx, the last thing you wanna show on FX is an empty Cashman field or even a half full Cashman field. Cause it's just, it would not look good on primetime tv. So they're like, okay, Seattle fans will show up. We're gonna throw them on fx. End of story. I hate that. I hate, I mean, I'm not gonna be here. I hate that that, that the kickoff game is it's rough. That's rough. That's rough. James gave us a super chat. Don't get too many of those. I'll cover Max's face for a second here. One thing that makes them so furious about fans of string football is they don't understand most of these franchises have to share space with concert events and other sports. That makes sense. I understand. But still, I, it just seems weird that, that Seattle is really being targeted here with that first game. I just that is rough. Yeah, I mean, I'll also say that some other tenants, which before may not have been as big, although still kind of big like the Seattle rain. Now the, the women's professional soccer team in Seattle is doing really well and they're, they're a hot ticket too, so they have much more priority than maybe they even had a couple years ago. So there's, there's a lot of competition at Lumen Field for dates, times, and seats and money. So I'm just looking on here. So the RV show is going on here. We're gonna, we're going, we're I'm gonna deep dive this right now while we're on here. Yeah. Keep in mind Andy Murray's gonna be out with me later for our normal Friday show. We'll record. There'll be a lot more focus discussion. This is kind of our breaking reaction right now. Andy's coming on. Pat RINOs coming on as well. So stick around you. We'll have our regular show tomorrow, Friday Max was kind enough to get up early for me today we're doing field to table in Lumen Field. Field to table is created with, oh, I, they've done this. It's like a dinner in there. Dine in the 50 yard line that is, that is taking away my <laugh> my right to the 18th. And then the RV show, the home show. These are all at the event center except for the, on the field show. The field table. That's at Luman Field. The restaurant, if you look there at the event Center. Yeah, the event center. So that mean it makes sense the first weekend. I don't get that follow up. I don't get the follow up weekend. And why we can't It. Wait, hold on. It's cause it's cause the Sounders are at home and like, we don't want you to tear up the field before we play. That's why Sounders are at home on the 26th. All right. So we're blaming the Sounders in Colorado Rapids. That is the issue here. It's, it has to be a factor. Although to be fair, I think this lumen field is actually, if it's turf then I can't use that as a factor. So, but I'd imagine it's not turf cuz they're playing soccer there and usually they're very anti turf. It's frustrating, frustrating comments in here with only seven. Chris says let's get rid of this for a second. With only seven network games. ABC is so safe to say the X F L is a cable league kind of feels that way. Yes. But no, I mean I think when Danny was talking about wanting to transcend being on TV just in general and just wanting to be a 365 blah blah blah, which should be fair, we haven't gone at 365. But think about it. They're there are, they got cameras everywhere. So I think we're gonna see the 365 aspect come on more as the actual season comes on. And then after the season when they show us everything that they recorded, because right now they're making it all right now cuz we can tell they they're hiring all these people. They got seven bucks showing up. They got everybody showing up. But in terms of its presence on tv, it's a cable and streaming league, they're, they're trying to hedge the combination of those two things so they can say, Hey, if you're a cord cutter, we got you here on ESPN plus. And if you're still on tv, you probably have FX or ESPN or ESPN two. Cuz ESPN two is in almost as many houses as ESPN or homes I should say. So it should be fine. It's not like going on FS two. Okay. Where like certain, certain cable providers just straight up don't give out FS two. Okay. Or it's not like being on Peacock where most people don't even want Peacock. Okay. Like it's better than that. So let's start I I did see, just speaking of hirings, they, they did post the, the game day ops coordinator, a seasonal for the Sea Dragons from December to May. That is a really good read, like part-time work schedule. I wonder what, I wonder what that job pays. What does the game, I wonder what the game day ops seasonal coordinated position does for the XML Sea Dragons. I'm guessing it's related to like, handling stuff on game day with like fans and moving stuff around and just all sorts of logistics stuff. I'd imagine They said here these guys I assume us. So <laugh> don't, Oh no, I do. I said it. It's, yeah, it's fine. I mean it's not, it's not, it's not broadcast. It's not broadcast. And I will tell you when the U S F L schedule comes out, you know, all these, all these homers of the, of these leagues and I, they're gonna be sitting there to go look, they're, you know, they've got 16 games on Fox or they've got whatever games on on N B nbc right When the X ffl is averaging almost as many viewers on ESPN or ESPN N two as they are on, on Fox and NBC don't at me when they're halfway through the season because they don't promote their league either. And unlike the U USS F L D X, FFL already has a carryover of real fans outside of Birmingham, Alabama. Do <laugh> Do you, do you ballpark, ballpark. Week one here, let's do this ballpark. Week one. Here we, oh, I gotta add this back on the week one. Radiance, ballpark that. What, what do you think, what do you think the kickoff Vipers Renegades A B C is gonna be? Probably somewhere in the range of 3 million. Like, just like the last couple weeks have been. Now I get why you're, you're shaking your head cuz you're like, ah, I don't like the promotion, this and that. I mean the US fell had no promotion, still got 3 million on their soundcast. So outside of the Super Bowl commercial, but like people already know about the X F L, we don't need to tell them about the XFL and the Super Bowl commercial. People know about it. You just gotta make sure to post about it, get people on the, on the ground about it. People will watch the opener. I am very certain with that Jenna's just happy there's no peacock channel games. Well they don't cuz that's b nbc I mean, what if this was on well, I mean, ABC doesn't have right, they don't have their own U Paramount plus or whatever. That's not, It's Disney plus basically if you think about it or Hulu. Really? Yeah. At least not, at least we don't have Hulu exclusive games on here. I don't know, I I I don't feel good about this. I will Say that I feel fine. I feel very fine about it. I don't feel amazing about it. I'm just like, okay, this is over with. Honestly, when I, before the schedule, I was like, I really don't care what the actual schedule is. I just want the league to be back. I don't really care. And what's really important is that the league makes a good impression in week one and that they have a strong carryover on cable and then they, they keep that cable audience going. They keep promoting off of cable. Two, they hopefully have a strong show on ESPN plus. And that's enough to keep a league going. And really that's what's, that's what's gonna get the league paid because in the long run there's no way the league was ever gonna survive on network television. So like, it was always eventually gonna be shifted to cable and streaming because that's where these leagues prove that they're worth being a sports property. The only league that is constantly on broadcast television is the N nfl. Oh, everyone should be fine about this. Only a hater wouldn't be fine. Okay, well now I'm the X F L hater so I just, I can't, I can't win. Remember remember that? Remember like, people see like all these U S F L stands. Don't remember there was the time I was the big X F L hater when I was like, the league's not kicking off this year and they're gonna delay. And now I was the big Reid hates the X F L and now I mean how the, how the turns table. But, but it is, it is weird Rock promoting on Instagram alone will be huge. I don't know. I did another deep dive max, I did another deep dive in the Rock with his with, I had a whole variety article yesterday about rock wanting terra bars at Black Adam Premieres and stuff. I know the Rock doesn't run everything, but it's still Yep, This is different because, well first off, if we're being honest with yourself, the promotion itself, people came out to see that movie. The problem was that it was a bad movie and people didn't wanna go see it once they knew it was a bad movie. So now to be fair, was there involvement from him on choosing who was the writers for that movie? Yes. So is it his fault? Partially that And did he produce a movie? Yes he did. So was it partially his fault that the movie was bad? Yes. But also does he know how to promote something to get people to show up? Yeah, he does. So John <laugh> John wins here. I want this put on my tombstone. Noted us. F l haters is now an X F L hater. Sad. Yeah. That that is. I put that, put that on my tombstone here. Alright, let's where, oh there we go. Back up on the schedule here. Like, like I said, Andy and I, we gotta do a little bit long on here. We're gonna get some more comments and stuff. Any other large takeaways from this? Anything else you wanna glean that I'm missing to talk through? I would not have Orlando on the first day of games cause Talk through, Cause Orlando might be the worst team in the X ffl and I don't think that's a hot take. So having your worst team play on the first day is always bad. Like I would've, I would've shifted Orlando to the very last game and I would've had also the DC environment always impresses on tv. So having DC on day one would've gone a long way towards impressing people. Although I do think the Houston environment's pretty great, honestly. So it it should still be fine. It just might be a blowout. Yeah, I agree with that. I don't know. I just don't, I don't love this The Vipers renegades. I just, that that doesn't, Hey listen, mark, you got Marta Bryant. Okay, they're gonna, they're gonna hedge on Marta if he makes the roster. Cuz you know, I think he's washed, maybe I'm wrong, but people who watched him at the Pirates said he was washed and he's, I don't know if he's not washed and he makes the roster or they just let him be on the roster anyway, they'll hype around Marus Bryant. They're gonna have an ABC game in Texas with Bob Stoops and there's enough cache there that people will watch it and maybe they'll even be more turnout than expected. Who knows? I think it's fine. It's not my favorite pick, but it works. We, we have a <laugh>, Danny's love for Orlando is not good. Yeah. Did Danny Flex the primetime Saturday Orlando game? Is this a Danny Garcia decision? <Laugh>? Nah. Disney was like, we don't know what your hype is. Like, we're gonna decide whether we want those honey, ESPN, n r fx and, and or maybe they'll do it both. Maybe, maybe they got nothing else to throw on either of those networks and just give us both. I don't know what that slash means. I'm assuming as someone who's dealt with college football and seeing our games thrown around on all sorts of different networks from ESPN to ESPN two to P N U to ESPN plus as someone who watches SM SMU that I have no idea. I I can't say for certain that they're gonna be on both and I'm expecting or Yeah, I agree with Chris here a lot. Interesting. They didn't come out with a more reliable week to week. I know that they're not that it Fox and N B C had that benefit with the U S F L. I still don't think they used that to its full extent. I would've like if, if we're on FS one or FS two, like b every week Saturday, three o'clock f you know, whatever the channel is, I think consistency is more important than, than the channel breakdown. What do you make of that? I think, although if you look at the schedule, I think the FX time slots are pretty consistent, honestly. <Laugh> FX nine F well you, you got the Thursday game in there, FX seven one. Yeah, that's actually interesting. So FX seven. Oh man. 10 10. It looks like, it looks like you have FX games to, to start the week and then you're gonna have a game of the week on ESPN two or espn. With some exceptions like later in the season, but like to the mid-season, that's what it looks like. Can we talk about them? So we have a 10:00 PM Eastern Sea Dragons Home game week. Like what is, why do they hate the Sea Dragons? Well, I mean that'd be seven o'clock your time. I understand that, but it's 10 o'clock eastern. Are there people gonna be watching XFL game till one in the morning? Pac 12? It's like PAC 12 after dark. I mean, we'll have to see, but hey listen, I think they were, you gotta think that they were like, Hey we can get you on on a better channel or whatever. Cause I believe I'm, I'm trying to read this where, yeah. And then what about this week five? So we have a Vegas home game. That's fine. 10 o'clock Sunday night they have a 10:00 PM Eastern, so that would be nine. San Antonio Braas game. We have a 9:00 PM game on the ESPN N two. Well yeah, sometimes that's the one. Sorry, I got mixed up with the week four Seattle game. That one's not on a better channel, but anytime you're on, isn't matter whether you're on one or two In terms of exposure, it's about the same. It's just about whether or not people wanna watch your stuff or not. Because, and also like, cuz like usually they'll automatically shift the bigger properties onto ESPN one. But like if you have enough hype behind it, ESPN two could still be ESPN one if you have enough hype. So ESPN two is like basically synonymous. I mean I think if you get ESPN one, you get ESPN two, right? I mean basically it's, They want to do a later night game to shift on the ESPN two and try to do that XF out through dark. Even if it's not on the West Coast, that's fine. The 10 o'clock game on fx, at least I they're going with a brand. Do I like it? I don't know what to think of that brand of having those prime time games on fx. But they're, they have a, they have a brand they wanna push and it's on them to see whether or not they can make X ffl and FX a thing. I will say, I told this to, to you and to Mike A. Long time ago, the XFL on FX is really catchy. So if they could make it work, it, it might be cool. We'll see, we'll see. We question here. Okay, so if we had to rank, so obviously A, B, C, would you put would you put espn, ESPN two and then FX in that order, right? I mean yeah, I think FX does. FX has like, I think it's on like 60 million homes. And then ESPN and ESPN two both have about 80 million homes. So yeah. Yeah, I'll tell you that, that Sunday 9:00 PM local game on ESPN two. That is, that is scary. And then any other scary cut, a couple noon kickoffs another 9:00 PM East. So I mean 6:00 PM local Seattle. I mean Seattle really has got the Shafter with all of this. I mean like seriously, and I don't care. I mean it doesn't, I'll go to the games or not, I'm not saying that cuz but you know, we have a se seven local game ESPN two on week eight, and then we have, I mean, it's just bad, right? Am I looking at that right? Nine week 10 Dragons, that's the last game of the season. Vipers at Dragons 9:00 PM season. It's not Ideal. No, it's not ideal. But they're, if they're gonna put a team in prime time, they have to make sure it's one that looks good. So even if it's not on a great channel, If if this season doesn't go as, you know, as, as God's intended here and the ratings fall off a cliff, and that could be the death of the X ffl there, Vegas Vipers at Dragons, I could be at the, the funeral march. You're headed into the playoffs. So I will say apparently as of 2018, FX actually had somewhere had had over 80 million homes. So it might actually be the case that FX has just as much reach in cable packages, which I wouldn't be surprised, but even still, if it had just as much reach as ESPN and ESPN two, ESPN and ESPN two are known as sports channels, whereas FX isn't. So there's still that advantage. I'll take it being as as many homes as we can get, honestly. And also the promotion power of Disney, if they get behind this, if the Rock gets behind this like we think they will, then you can maybe they will turn FX into the next t and t. Who knows? Yeah. Have we, I mean we've had the one commercial so far Monday of that football, have you, have you noticed a discernible bump in in Chatter because of the commercials or anything thus far? I think, yeah. Well, not like a lot, but you, every time you see a commercial, there'll be like four, five or six posts being like, oh, the XFL is coming back. I forgot about that. Or like, oh, there's an X Ffl commercial, I don't wanna see that. Or, oh, there's an ad for the X ffl on here, but the main sponsor of this college football game isn't, isn't getting as many ads or whatever like people notice. Do I think that, I think most people aren't like thinking about the actual games coming yet, mostly because they didn't have a schedule. Now that we can see what they're gonna do with the schedule we'll see. I will say this, there has those that, that promo I sent you, like screenshots of when that promo's coming through. There's, they're on all the ball game, all the big ball games, the playoff games, they're, they're going hard not just on the N F L modern football, but they're going hard on college football. They know their market. Am I, am I so negative on everything Max? I think you're just maybe personally affected as a, as a Seattle Sea track and fan, which I understand Well no, but I mean, I don't, like I said, I, I work for myself. My life is, I can go to any game at any time. I mean the one game I'm in Mexico, that's my brother mean. It just seems like, am I, am I overly negative on the reach of the game? I don't know. I mean, where, what am I being overly negative about? I think you're just maybe a little bit bothered by the number of FX games, which again, I understand why you're bothered about all those things. Although I'll say this, the back end of the season if you're looking is like all ESPN and ABC and ESPN two. So they're smart. They're trying to build up towards the playoffs now. At least if it, if it has enough reach, it's smart. If it doesn't have enough reach, then you're ruining exposure in week two. And then we'll time will tell whether that's smart promotion strategy or not. I, it could work. You have the rock behind you, you have Disney behind you, you can make this work and we'll see whether or not it makes sense at the end of the season. Say, Hey, we built up week one, we maintained a strong cable audience and then we built up to network television as they and bigger cable games as the games really mattered. And also, quite frankly, the quality of play will be better on those games than in week two if we're being real with ourselves. So we'll see. This is this Chris, Chris reads my mindset, us my take away on the schedule. So remind you, at the end of the day, spring football is ultimately seen as programming filler by networks building fan base, secondary. And we're really lucky that we have a prior season with the X ffl. We already have five out of eight markets with established fans because if Vince hadn't gone so hard as he did, we would not be in this position where we could say, Hey, yeah, we're not always on broadcast early. And we, and most of our better cable games aren't until late, but we already have enough established audience where hopefully we should still be able to pull together and have a strong season. We have a question here. Going back to Allegiant oh yeah. Is Allegion a a win for the league? I it's a win in that. I'm so tired of Eric Cashman. I'm so tired of talking about the Vegas stadium. I could just literally like stab this microphone in my head. So I'm really done with it. I mean I don't, I I I I think it's a wash. What do you think? Okay, so I want to go so that rewind a little bit. So cuz I've done all this research on Redbird and whatnot, knowing that Redbird wanted Vegas and didn't come up with an alternative plan that was real for if Vegas didn't work out, is the biggest red flag about everything. And not necessarily in terms of things failing or whatnot, but just like in terms of like, what are you doing? Bird as notorious with their soccer clubs research, they were researching like over 80 clubs for like five years. They're like, we're gonna find the perfect stadium in the perfect metro area. With the perfect academy. All that. They made sure they found the right choice. And then with Vegas they're like, okay, we're going in on Vegas no matter what. We don't care where we're playing or at least we do care where we're playing and we're gonna try to hold out for these great stadiums, but then when they don't want us, we're still gonna be in Vegas. We're not gonna try to move the team somewhere else. Those factors with the ballpark and with Allegiant will not change. They will never be able to get in those venues unless they wanna pay an absorbent fee or unless they rebuild up cash in which maybe they decide to buy Cashman and turn into a real estate property. That makes way more sense than buying Sand Vo because there is a lot of real estate development going on in downtown Las Vegas. So we'll see. It's still gonna be a lot more challenging and planned than what they probably had in mind and I just wish they had the same commitment to their process with Vegas as they had with their soccer clubs. He says, yeah, they signed the multid multi-year deal with Cashman. So that does speak to at least their commitment. I mean, you know, you're not gonna not, what do you think about that? I guess them they they, they sign the multi-year. It's not like, Hey, we're just gonna deal with this right Now. Where else were they gonna go? If you know what I mean? Like if you've seen the things that I've seen. Okay. The Cashin was was the end all be all. It's not a win. No, it's definitely not a win. But here we are, it's what's left. We're going I do like how our, you know, Kevin Costner feel the dreams and we're getting the baseball stadium out in Vegas very prophetic here. But what ultimately came to pass I I think Choctaw, you we have the retrofitted Globe life. That's the baseball stadium. I never got the hesitation on Cashman. I think you can add, we actually have, I have this pulled up that we can show oh, I'll get it pulled up here in a second. But you know, I think the baseball is better than extra bell playing in a high school stadium. Do you think the press of, you know, two baseball stadiums is better than high School Stadium? I think it just depends on who you ask. I will say that Cashman is a bit of a dump. If not, it's like the, the Cashman is just not comparable to ca to Choctaw Stadium in any way other than the fact that they used to be baseball stadiums as the only similarity. Now I will say with it being such a dump, it's probably really cheap, the purchase. So, hey Red Bird, get on your real estate game. You always love real estate. It's probably your only way to fix this Vegas situation unless you leave, which would be a little awkward considering how you could have just never gone there in the first place. Question here, we get this a lot. Vegas is having the actual state soccer stadium built. So Cashman's temporary, that's many years. Can you explain the, the Vegas MLS stadium Deal? That commitment, as far as I understand from all the reporting is only guaranteed. Like, like they were like, they were like, okay, we're gonna go in on this if we can get a partner with someone who wants to come in and make an MLS team happen here. And then that fell through. There hasn't been any recent reporting in Vegas from my understanding about there actually being a new stadium. And on top of that, the money definitely is not there. There's no been no appropriations from the public government. So at this point in time, I don't think we can say that there is going to be a new stadium built in Las Vegas for a soccer team or really for any other entity, including the Oakland Athletics right now. So we'll just have to wait and see. Maybe that changes, but at this point in time that would not be something you should predict. Yeah, I I don't mind them taking the big, like you said, red Bird taking the big investment in this, building it up. You know, maybe the, the, the Las Vegas lights kind of take off a little bit more mutually whatever, that way I don't mind that. I think that I, I just never got the hesitation where this is like, this is what you do in Dallas. There's no reason why you couldn't just do this and, and kind of retrofit that, you know, it's gonna look wonky. I think it's fine. It doesn't, it doesn't bother me as much. I just wish they would've done this two months ago. I don't get any indication of what, why the delay on this or we're just kind hemming in the h I mean, let's be real, they were probably holding out to try to get an allegiance somehow, or try to get in the ballpark and they just kept getting, no, no, no, no, no. And they probably went and looked at the other stadiums and they're like, we hate these stadiums. We don't want to go here. These aren't professional. And they were like, well, and they kept holding out long enough to the point where it was like, well, you've hired, you've hired Las Vegas event staff. Like you have to go in on Vegas at this point or else you're gonna be in trouble. So they, I think they, they were forced to settle for Cashman cuz they didn't really have a choice. And that's on them and on them for not sticking to the process that they normally have for picking markets. And now they're just gonna have to, they've made their bed and now they have to lie in it and it's on them to make something good in it. Do you think the Rock is becoming confused with his black Adam alter ego and thinks that he has superpower as he does? I'm like, well, no, I'm black Adam here. This is what we're doing. I'm a hundred percent sure that Red Bird was behind the Vegas. That's okay. That's okay. I just, yeah. Yeah, I, yeah, I, I'm coming off the black Adam, I spent the weekend watching that. It's just very, very interesting. Just perspective. And I don't know, I know that they're not pulling all the strings there, but it, it does speak to a lot of that guys in the comments. You know, do we like, do we like hash? Do we like, nah. Yeah. What do you think of the schedule? What big other big takeaways here? I mean, will Andy and I'll do a full breakdown later. I wanna make sure we get enough chat around here right now where we're kind of breaking news. People are still catching, you know, hopping on the stream now. Okay, so outside of the fx, XFL and FX thing and FX trying to be a sports network deal, the, I will say I'm probably most excited for week one to see the, that St. Louis San Antonio game and also the following Seattle and DC game. Both of those games should be really exciting. You have a very strong contrast of like, styles of football between those, those pairs of teams. You know, St. Louis seems to be more passing oriented, whereas San Antonio's more running music. And then you can say the same thing for Seattle and DC and you have the running shoes in Seattle game. So there should be plenty of excitement in those second pair of games, those second two games. On, on Sunday or to open the season. So you think three or four? You think three or four since, yeah. I'm trying to figure out here, like do I do Dallas and then up to San Antonio and then down to Mexico? No, anywhere but Houston. Because Houston will blow out Orlando by at least three scores. I promise you that AJ Smith is gonna put up so many yards and points on Orlando. It's not even funny. Yeah, I think that's gonna be my life. I would like to go to that Sea dragon. Steve, you think guys comment too? Like Yeah. Which games you're going to here? I'm trying to figure out, we gotta be in Port the Vita on, on Monday. So I think we do Dallas, San Antonio. Is that doable? San Antonio is at three. Gonna be tight. We'll see. It'll be 2 2, 2 Local. Yeah. 2 0 2 local. That's a good point. Yeah. So keep mind, this is all Easter time. Yeah, obviously I'm gonna be tuning in on TV for all of these, so I'm, I'm gonna be real excited. But we'll see which of these games end up actually being exciting and which games people actually wanna go to. We'll just have to find out. We had a comment too about the soccer, about the, the football field fitting in here. Can they even fit a football field? I'm gonna cover like, Captain. Yeah, they can fit it. I'm, I'm a hundred percent sure they can fit it. There's spare room on the, the ends. They, they can make it work. I'm not even, I'm, I can't doubt that. I'm sure they'll be fine. They, I'm, I think they've even played high school football games perhaps there before. I'm not certain about that, but I would not worry about Cashman. Worst case scenario, the absolute worst case scenario. They're, you can do the thing where you have one end zone and then like, just have them always go the same direction and then like have them when they get, if they get an interception, they just run to the end and then it's a touchdown. Cause otherwise it should be fine. But again, I don't think that's a problem. From my understanding, we, that should not be a problem. <Laugh>, I think it's like Fango show football. Flip the field, flip the field <laugh>. That is my biggest critique. If it not that anyone cares. Theil football, my my biggest critique is they always go the one direction. I wish that it was more set up like a normal football field. Yeah, I mean I'm, I'm not saying I'd love it, but at least it'd be functional. But I also don't think that's an issue, so I don't think it's gonna happen. I say Harrison here. I think there's more FX games than I expected. Best news is the league made the right call and went cashman over Bishop Portman. Yeah, I I agree there. Right. High school over Overman. I agree, but no comment on yeah, no comment. I, I agree with you, but no comment. Did you more FX games than you were expecting? Maybe a little. I think I knew in my heart of hearts that this was not gonna be a network league, honestly, just because they've already had that exposure from the prior season. So ESPN's like, okay, we've given you exposure, Fox gave you exposure. Now what can you do as your own league, as a real sports property on cable? That's where sports leagues make their money. So it's on them to prove it. And it is what? It's Ken here. Well, I be able to watch in Canada, I was able to watch Xon 2020, can't remember how and enjoyed it. Are they say they playing games in the hub? No schedule. Yeah, everything. No hub you know, all housed in Arlington traveling out Canada will be on tsn. Right? Is that how they did it before? Well, well actually, I mean, I don't know if they'll do it on TSN again. I'd imagine they don't have a whole lot else to put on t sn during parts of the X ffl season. But also, even if it's not on tsn, Canadians have access to ESPN plus two. So there's that. But I would imagine we get some Scats in Canada with tsn, but to be determined Texas p they'll bring back the cheerleader after 10:00 PM There you go. That's a go on. Texas P Yeah. And Texas also does, Texas p also does not like your per of the Orlando guardians. Okay. Get a real quarterback. Well, that's true. And I'll Also real offensive coordinator. That too. Can we talk through and we'll, we'll get, I'll get and Angie South later talk through Tamo here, go into DC So yeah, if you'll pull the post up from Fred Keis Fred Keis posted on, on Tuesday, a picture of him with Jordan Tom Temo saying, Hey, welcome everyone, welcome Jordan Tamo to the DC Defender. So there is now no dispute about whether Jordan TEU is going to defenders. I would expect him to either be the favorite or the co favorite to win that job. Just because he's probably the most proven out of any of those quarterbacks and has also perhaps the best passer out of any of those quarterbacks. We'll see though for sure, it's been a while since Eric Dungy has really played and maybe Dear King has something to prove that I don't, I I can't think about right now. I'm excited because whoever wins that job should be a really good quarterback. Cuz even if they aren't the guy you'd expect to win, they beat out the other guy. Which is the main reason why I'm so upset about Orlando right now. Cuz whoever wins that job didn't really have to beat anyone that established. But Max has Jordan signed the contract? I would, I would expect him to be signed if he's showing up with Fred. I mean, Until I I I, I said before with Brights Sky, until I get his signed facts and notarized the contract here in my, on my doorstep, I don't believe anybody really Bo is anyone playing in this league? I, I mean, let's put it this way, folks who say that when all the people who got drafted from the U S F L show up tomorrow, or today, or yesterday ready to go for the league, y'all can just stop talking. Yeah. So you said this, so Coach K tweeted this out or instagramed it out? This is with Mike's article over at ub. This was like on his personal Instagram, right? Like 14 followers or like, we got a lot. Well, I think it might have a little more, it might have 20 now cuz of the, the attention, but yes, it had like 14 followers. I found it literally on accident. Like the ex I went through the all tags post that tagged the XFL over like the past week on Instagram. And I just found it. I didn't even, he didn't even have an Instagram account until December Coach Keis. So it was pure luck. When do we think Tabu will get officially, because Mike posted this, it's not officially assigned yet. I mean, Mike said that he's been sitting on this info for a while, but where do you think he'll be, he'll be assigned when do you think he'll be assigned When Jeffrey wants to get it done? I don't know. <Laugh>. There you go. Jeffrey Outside wants to get it done. I dunno. Other question DC does that make the most sense for him? I mean, I know you, you were talking through that a little bit when I was trying to pull up the article. Yeah. I think they needed someone who was more proven at the packing quarterback than the other two guys. They had. Not to say that I don't think those guys could be as good passers. And also, quite frankly, they needed someone who had the size as while also being a more proven passer. So to checks those boxees those boxes. And also he's like the guy that you can say, Hey, you beat this guy. You've proven yourself. Whereas again, Orlando does not have that guy right now. So I'm very confident in what the DC quarterback room has to offer. And quite frankly, at every single team except for Orlando, I am pretty confident in what the QBs they have. Do you think Jordan will find more success than he had in the U S F L? If he, if he wins the job? Yes. Fred K is a really experienced offensive coordinator, had a lot of success at the H B C U levels and in ffc s and also it's a really, it's a run oriented scheme that has, it's like run that says that it's like pass set the run, but also they run a lot. So they pass early, but then they run later with a lot of power run. And if you look at the, the players they have across their scheme, there's a lot of talent on those ro on that roster. I'd, I'd be feeling really good about your team if you're the dc if you're a DC Defenders fan. And also, quite frankly, like I said earlier, if you're a fan of any team, but the Orlando guardians, you should be very happy about your roster. And even if you're an Orlando Guardians fan, yeah, your creepy room might not be that good, but you have some really exciting young players on that team, like Charleston Rambo. So you should be excited just to watch this league. It says here, I can't believe how many people dip from USL to exl US has talent issues going into year two, top to Qvs Dipped and many other top players. LF says a lot about what the players think. I mean, what, what are your thoughts on this? I'll put it this way. As long as the money is similar, they're gonna pick whatever league gives them a better shot in the, in the calendar to go to the nfl. And it's pretty obvious for reasons that we've gone over with the difference with the the off-season schedule, it's better to get out early. So the XL has that in their favor. They also have in their favor that they're, they're, they have, like, yeah, they have, they're in marque, yada, yada yada, but also they're, they're a more modern league offensively. Whereas the U S F L is playing a lot of really not just run oriented, but like really really running to the point where a lot of the QBs really haven't had as much high passing attempts as you would think or whatever. And I mean, you've talked about this before with Paul Reese about how like the passing yards per game is like at an all time low compared to other leagues in e in the NFL that goes back to like 20 years. So this league, the X ffl has play callers and schemes and the other factors that we talked about that are the more important things that make it much more sense to play in this, this league over the other one. And maybe the US F l will change inside the modernize, but currently they're very old school with the football they're playing. Let me, let me give a shout out here. Let me get over to this. Let me give a shout out to our girl Hailey here. Hailey, you know, social media here, this is phenomenal here. And I don't know, I haven't had a chance to look and see if any of the other people have done this. If you go through here, so this is what home in Seattle looks like. You know, obviously whatever <inaudible> we are down at Pike Place Market. We, you know, we got the, we got the graffiti here. Got the, see that was the teaser from yesterday. Yeah, we got the, the Seattle on there putting on the, this is, I'm gonna have to look through to see if any of the other social media people have done this yet. This is phenomenal. We're at the Starbucks, the reserve here. And then if you go on here, then oh, it pops up into new, there we go. And then you have obviously all the, all the home games. But shout out Mcg girl Haley on here. I think that that's really good. I don't know if it, we can look and see the other, other teams, but really, really good stuff. Really, really good. You know, the five home games. I, I Imagine St. Louis has one. Cuz they posted a teaser too. I I don't know if any of the other teams will have one though. I will say though, I would've little, little stab. We didn't put the gum wall, the Pike place gum wall. I would've, I would've put the gum wall on there for one of the <Laugh>. I'm not a Seattle light, so I can't, I can't Comment on, yeah, no, they just have the teaser from yesterday and then they Got that. So we'll click on the arrows. See what we, okay. Yeah. No, no. Oh, well At least That's fine. Least one. At least one team tried. I will just, I just will say just this is, I very pleased with this. I just, but this is like, we need this consistency though. You know, you, we can compliment, but then we need this consistency across the board with that. Yeah. Haley's awesome. Yeah. Yeah. Haley's Haley's doing overtime and trying to get that check mark back. Cause they had to change the team names of C Dragons just because even though they kept the dragons, they'd still have that check mark on Twitter. See? Know. Let's see. Oh, let's see whether, oh, here we go. Let's see what our boy Jay's working on. Jay Oaks. Here we go. This, I love this. So maybe they're just taking time, putting all these up. This is great. So see, I don't know oh. Residents at Pearl. I think I know that I've spent enough time. Yes, I do know the Pearl. I've spent enough time in San Diego or San Antonio are ready. Gates Braas. This Is great. These are great. These are great guys are great. I don't know if Jay did this or, I mean, I don't know if they have a creative person. We got the Riverwalk here. I I'd imagine it was the graphic designers and art directors and all those folks I got hired. This is great. Anyone else? Can anyone else? Oh, can you find a place to print the schedule? I, I don't see that yet. I don't see an official, I think all the teams have printed their own schedule. Yeah. Should we just check out all the team accounts? See if we got these on the other teams, like the guardians and whatnot? Yeah. I have nothing to do today until I record with pat pat r RiNo here later on today. So, yeah. So we're still getting ready. So the DC defenders Yeah, just the normal on there. Did we scroll down as it, the normal One? Oh no, we do. Maybe Battle Hawks did. Maybe I just didn't scroll down all the way. Okay. What, what Now we, okay. Okay. This is hot. I love these. This is great. I love is this, is this Bill McCull, how do you say his last name? Bill McCullough. Is this Bill McCullough putting in work? Is this the Emmy Award-winning producer, putting in work? No. Content Creator. Right? The graphic designers and the art directors and the creative directors. I'm, I'm, I mean, maybe Bill McCulloch was like, do this, but outside of that, I don't think Bill McCullick had anything to do with it. This Is because like he more of a, he's more of a producing content at the, at the bigger level than like this little stuff. But he maybe he had a hand in it. Now These are, these are phenomenal. These are, oh God, I love this. This is awesome. And I know I'm gonna sound like a fanboy. I don't Yeah. Tell you I've been waiting three years. I don't care what you think of me right now. I don't Care. No, this is good. I just think this is cute. I think this is this is all consistent style. All looks good on here. Okay, so we did the Defenders. So yeah. Did we just not scroll down? No. Battle hawks don't. I did scroll down. I'll have it yet, but also I'm not exactly sure who's running their social media right now because maybe they don't have one. We'll see. Vegas, let's see. Oh Oh. And they do have that though. New digs. Scratch. That's nice. That good? That's fine. Do we see if we have anything else? If you scroll down? No. Okay, so, okay. Now, okay, so let, let's try Arlington and Houston. And Orlando. Where is Renegade? Yeah, here we go. So keep in mind, max and I kind of live breaking news right now. Andy, you'll be, we'll have a much more concise episode on Friday if you're checking this out for the first time on here. Normal seven, the Pacific on Friday. Andy and Pat coming on previewing Battle Hawks training camp with Pat, who's covering that for New Sub. And then Andy and I talk through all this other craziness. This is really good. Vipers Renegades. Love it, Love it. Keep going, keep going, keep going. Ooh, I like that. Yeah. Got the beer cans. Yellow Dragons from the gates. That's what's, I mean, I don't know what stadium that Is. That's like a little local baseball field to got This cool start crossing. Don't finish. That's awesome. I think that baseball field might be, there's like a little mini baseball field next to the, the old Ranger stadium a little bit. So it might be over there. I'm not sure though. You said Nothing. Nothing. Yeah. We got Wade Phillips on there. He's huffy. Yeah, he's having a good time. Wade Wade. Wade is living his best life all the time. What is his son of Bum? What is his, what is his Twitter? His dad, his dad's nickname is Bum. Okay. I just, I'm like son of bum. Okay. And then and then we did DC we've got 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8. We did all of them, right? We, Orlando. Orlando. Is it not The Guardians Click? Yeah. They're not, they don't got a check mark yet. So it's a little it's a little wonky. Yeah, we got, Okay, so yeah, we're working on it. We're working on it. But yeah, let's give, let's give our girl go there. We'll just hold it up for a minute here. Give our girl hair questions. Chat. I think they're gonna go hard on promotion from here on out. They know they're a bit behind. Hopefully. I want you to be right. I am. I'm not, I I do not have a crystal ball, but I want you to be right. Yeah. Jared wants billboards in ex L Cities. Now I'm r ya. But no crystal ball. I don't know, I don't know if billboards do. I remember how in the world that we remember, remember when the U S F L put the billboard like next to the, whatever the heck, the parking garage and we were like going crazy and like, where is it on the Google maps and trying to find all that stuff. I think the billboards matter more. If you have one that's really ca if that's like one that really catches your eye, but if it's a basic billboard, then it's forgettable and no one will remember it. So if you're gonna do a billboard, you better be committed to it. Yeah. Texas. Pete, we had EXL Billboards here in Houston in 2020. Wayne checking in. Congrats to the EXL with the schedule team. So much for us. Substantive fans can finally buy tickets. Not Yet. Not yet. Can't buy tickets yet, but yeah, So yeah, you so keep, so just a reminder, if you're hopping on here, so season tickets, that's still available. Single game tickets January 12th, that will be available for everybody but Vegas. And then Did it say Fresh Route that season? Tickets were available for the Cashman, by the way? No. It said to be announced at the later date. So next Thursday you're gonna be on that, that And season tickets are not available for Cashman yet. Oh, well I didn't say that. You've always been able to buy season tickets for Vegas. You just didn't know where you were. No. You can only do the deposit. That's right. So I'm gonna see if you can actually buy tickets now, like season tickets for Vegas. Yeah. I would not expect it to be ready yet, but maybe it is. That Take your just deposit page. Okay. Yeah, Jersey. Yeah, but we're trying to figure out four season tickets. Yeah, that would, yeah, you can be in line for that. That's good to be quick on there. Moses here. Let's go. Dragons can't wait to go to Las Vegas to see a game. Oh, here we go. I'm, I have no idea how good Bill B Billboards work. Okay, that's fine. I've, I've worked in TV for 10 years, but I don't know anything about advertising. That's fine. Yeah. Wayne, what do you wanna talk about? The championship game. That's gonna be, we, we mentioned that off the top. No location set on here. Gonna be on a, B, c you know, I'll, I'll be wherever that is. So I remember for the record, for the record, just wanna put this out there. I remember the Houston championship game for Exfil 2020 wasn't actually announced until training camps got started. So theoretically we could announce the championship game location anytime over the course of training camp would be fine. So we'll see. I had everything b like I had tickets for that booked. I had flights for that booked. I had Airbnb Kago, my wife's favorite DJ in the world was playing like the Friday before the championship game in Houston. I'm like, oh my God, this is perfect. Like, we got her tickets to go see Kai. I'm like, we can go see Kai, we can go see the xfl because we were just fans at that point, right? I wasn't doing any of this stuff and then my world ripped away from me. I mean, obviously so many other people, you know, had much more horrible things happen. But I weird to think that it would be coming full circle here and we'll have an XFL championship game coming up. And I would expect that championship game to be in Arlington because, you know, as Moses says, because you know, they gotta have it with their hub. I'll say from 2020 I had tickets to one game, which was the Thursday night Dallas Renegades game. I, I think it was against, I actually don't remember who was against, but it was a Thursday night Dallas Renegades game on the Thursday before Good Friday. So that I could not have to go to school the next day. Cause I was still in high school at the time. Championship game does not have a name yet. Do, what do we think the external championship game will be called? That's a, that's a tough one. What about the Opportunity Bowl? The Opportunity Bowl player 54 Bowl. I can't call it the People's Championship fan Control football already took that. The the fan championship? Yeah, the fan champ. I mean I just, I think you Okay. Well yeah. Put your comments in here. Yeah. The MCM Manal Jr. Wants the MCM Mabel the Rock Bowl, The Cardinal, the Cardinale Bowl. The, the Cardinale Bowl. We call it like call it Cashman Field Bowl. You know, Guy calls him DJ Bowl, right? Cause you Know, the DJ Bowl, the DJ ball black Adam two coming soon. <Laugh> the ex bowls Tear on the bowl. It's gotta be the on bull Him on the bull tear him on the bull. That was Bowl. But either one. That was wild in that article. I read that The Rock wanted a tear him on the bar at his black Adam PG 13 Premier. I thought that that was, that was astounding on that people's game. Can't, can't you fan football has the People's Championship blame them for taking that name. I don't really know why. I Think they wanna have a sponsor on it anyway, so they can call it. I I bet it's Tremont Orzo Bowl. Just knowing them. They got a, they wanna throw off the I bet it's the, the Zoe Championship game. Zoe Energy. Yeah. Zo or Mont, take your pick. Zah might need a little more help from Tamana, so probably Zah. How are, is Z sales? Are they tanking? No, they're not tanking. They're just not terema. They're doing good. Yeah, But teres like going international and like they're about to start their, their mass ameer deal and they're, they're gonna go everywhere. Whereas z like just opened up in Canada a few months ago. Gotcha. Yeah, I got, when we were up there, I think we were up there in downtown Vancouver. I think I got the Zola there before the BC Lions game. Yeah. Expo works. Any other comments? Zs did Jerry Z's doing good. All right, that's good. Yeah, I don't know. Championship game. Do we like the playoffs? Espn ESPN two? We don't get, we don't get broadcast for that. I mean I wasn't expecting a network game for the playoffs mostly well until the championship game. Mostly because they, I figured they want to have a showcase to end the season on network and then have that buildup from cable to network to end the season. Which goes fine. It's not my favorite thing, but I understand why they did it. My one minor beef is, I wish both games were on ESPN instead of one on ESPN two, but it's fine. Texas speed. We finished the season bowl. I like That. Mission accomplish bowl. Like, like get the, the George Bush on the aircraft carrier. Yeah. Let's see your people's championship bowl. Yeah, Jared, he's gonna sign for ESPN plus. Cindy you bel release schedule yet? Thank you for not asking me to respond as quickly as possible. I appreciate that. I don't know. U S F L I would imagine February, right? Ish. I mean last time they released it in March, so we'll see. I had no idea. Also another, I mean they had ZipRecruiter at the draft. So what if it's the ZipRecruiter Bowl? Zip recruiter bowl. That's fine. Or the what's the, what's the what's Steve? Steve Guerra. What's his company? The No, that's too small. That's too small. The breakaway ball come on. No breakaway the ball. Yeah, actually we did touch on the north south division at the top. Yeah, it's basically everyone versus Texas and then cuz Orlando's, we've decided it's gonna be irrelevant. So it's kind of like Texas versus the world, right? I believe it was. Yeah. Well it was Texas and Florida versus the world. Cause it was south division, right? So Yeah. Mike has a good comment here. USS F l will released the schedule on February 18th. Surprising that we don't have you know, are, are we getting USS f L news here? Are we trying to, are are we getting the Detroit Hub announced today? Are we trying to poo on the X F L schedule? The, the, the Eastern Michigan hub because if they put it in Detroit, they're just gonna be subjecting their players to extra taxes for no reason and paying more for a stadium that will not even be close to full. Yeah. Who knows? <Laugh>. Oh yeah. We need to name the championship trophy. Like oh gosh. The US F L one is just the US F L championship trophy. Right. But Danny, you know how Danny is. It's gonna be the Garcia Trophy. It's gotta be the Man Garcia Trophy. She wants her signature on there. Chairwoman and chairwoman, the co-owner and chairwoman. You're fine. I'm fine with that. If you wanna be prideful about owning a league, that's fine. It, it was whatever. Yeah. Actions, comments from Yeah. Wet, we touched on the, the, the divisions that way like you was said, only really sustainable because it's the hub. If that was normal travel every week, it would be it would be very bad. Yeah. Like this is perfectly fine for the, for the next three years while they're in Arlington. Once they leave Arlington permanently and head out into markets, this is not a tenable situation because you can't have Seattle traveling cost country to DC or Vegas to dc That's unacceptable. Yeah. you know, I I I don't worry so much about the three year leases and everything. Like I live in the now again, this is if Covid taught us nothing else, let's get through this. Let's see, I don't e like this week, two Thursday game, I'm freaking out back like, we'll, we'll we'll cross that bridge when we get that Covid just really has really te taught me to kind of go, Maxx has a comment. Yeah. So speaking of things are not promised you will get into this with Andy later, but there is a non-zero possibility due to circumstances with the NFL that there may be delays that are out of the x FFLs control. Well, no, we can talk to that right now. We can talk to, I mean Andy and I touched on that. We have a lot of people joining right now. Obviously thoughts in prayers with, you know, DeMar Hamlin and his family and I, I watched that live on Monday and traumatic, I could not imagine being any of his family friends or teammates. It was scary enough to watch that, you know, live on TV and like what the, what the hell? Like I look up for my phone, like what the hell is going on here? But obviously thoughts and prayers with that. NFL still has not decided how they're handling that. I don't imagine they push back the, the Super Bowl, right? I I it's not worth me. I can't say what'll happen. If I, I mean also I hate talking about it this way even though we have to, like, I wish I could just be like, I hope DeMar Hamlin lives and has a happy life and if he wants to keep playing football, that he gets the chance to keep playing football and he has all his medical bills taken care of. But we have to talk about it like this if we're gonna be covering all the angles. I think if there was a delay, the most likely scenario would be that they shift the playoffs back a week with keeping the Super Bowl the same date so that they could have the championship weekend for the conferences over Pro Bowl weekend. I think if there's a delay, that's the most likely scenario. I will say this. If the Bills lose or, or tie and the Chief's win on Sunday, I believe that was the scenario that we, I talked about with someone. I believe that the, the one seat scenario is becomes a wash and the chiefs get it. And if that happens, that game loses I believe most of the consequence of being, of needing to be played. So they could just say it's a tie and move on. I think that's what the NFL is going to try to do. Cuz the NFL wants to take the easy way out. The only problem is the bills are playing, I believe the Patriots Patriots, which they should blow out comfortably, but then again, they are not necessarily in the best state of mind right now. So I can't think. Yeah, it's going to be tough. I don't, yeah, I don't think this affects the X ffl schedule. I just, you know, obviously we gotta talk about it. I I have a feeling we just combine and get rid of the, the buy week. If anything, I'm not the, the biggest fan of the buy week between, I understand that when I, I worked at Fox when the Seahawks made it to the Super Bowl and so I understand like we need to have the media week and the availability and do all that stuff and it, it helps to have that extra time. I was never a fan of that just because I can't spend two weeks talking about one game. It, it gets challenging That way. If college can have that same hype build up within the space of a week in the NFL can do it if they have to. Yeah. Yeah. Wayne here. I never thought I'd see a Vegas in the Northern Division. Oh hey, Learn more north than the rest of the week that's in Texas and Florida. So it's what it's Like I said, it's Texas first. The world here. It really is. <Laugh>, Florida, Texas And Florida. Well, I know, but like we said, we talked Orlando is not gonna be it's not going to be a contender hearing. I'm trying to limit the damage here, Reid. I already went in on them so much. Yeah. Any other comments here? We still, I mean we still have good viewership. I'm, I'm happy to sit here for a few more minutes and then we'll get outta here. Like I said, Andy, you'll be joining me later to the Andy Murray with New Sub. We'll do a full deep dive with all this stuff. Talk Cashman everything for our normal Friday episode. Pat Rapino is gonna be coming on doing St. Louis breakdown as well. It's just been a weird week with the DeMar stuff and, and X Ffl starting training camps and this coming out and I've kind of like had this penciled and what day is it happening? Trying to get like a proper show this week. I think we'll do. Okay. I will say if you want the C F L coverage that we normally do, next week is going to be the week for that. Very, very excited if you know what's happening in the C F L Mediascape next week. And I think I have the guys up there helping me out tremendously, lining up some stuff with that. So it could be like a crazy show next week. Could be, it could be multi-hour show depending on what we have going on. But Wayne wants to know oh m the knife. That's not nice. What casino parking lot is Vegas playing then they're playing the Cashman field. Let's, you know, let's show a little respect here. Wayne wants to know pre-season they're doing a couples ESPN n right, like test testing, what, walk me through pre-season. So in terms of actual, there's not like a televised or streamed pre-season game. Doug Whaley said on one of the inside the league calls that you can find on their YouTube channel they mentioned there'd be like a jamboree where there'd be a bunch of halves played between the teams. It's not a rumor. It's not a rumor. If the league says it Texas, Pete, it's real, it's going to happen. They need to test a bunch of technology and they need to test broadcast of, it's not a rumor. So they're, they're gonna be testing technology and the broadcast, I'm sure they're gonna be testing coach the player again even though they've already done all that before, just to make sure everything's still right. They're gonna be testing I'm sure just to make sure the rules look the way they should, even though they should be fine. Stuff like that. Also there's some replay technology that Dean Blandino talked about that I don't think he was supposed to say about bolt six. And bolt six was also used for the U S F L first down tech and whatnot because the chip in the ball actually was not involved in determining whether it was a first down or not. And they use the laser down to determine where the first down line was. So they could reproduce that in the X F L pretty easily. But they need to test that obviously and make sure it also works with S P N and whatnot cuz the broadcaster has to produce the graphics. So we'll see. Yeah. I think that'll be good. Yeah, Seattle DC being in the same divisions. Funny cross-country road trips. Yeah, Wayne, oh here we go. Wayne is GI C which yeah, Wayne, I promise next week and, and the week after Victor Que joining us. Victor was supposed to be on this week traveling president and c e o of the Edmonton Elks Victor will be on, I gotta record with him on Martin Luther King Day and then we'll be doing that. So that will be exciting. We got lots of C f L stuff next week. Yeah, curious. Yeah, if they end up going, well they, if they end up, they are going bolt six with the replay technology because that's what Dean said on the interview we had with him last week. You're saying they could implement a lot of the things that the US f l did in terms of the, the first down markers and all that stuff. Right? Oh, in terms of the determining whether something is a first down that Bolt six can do that with their cameras and that's what they did in the U S F L. There's an article about that from I believe it's sport techy, so you can read all about that. It's a division of Sports Business journal now. So make sure you know how to get around a paywall. Also the the, they'll have to figure out how to do the first down line whether however they decide to do that, but they can, they can make it work. They don't need the chip in the ball to do the first down tech. That is absolutely false. So they could easily reduce that. They want to and they should because it'll make the gains go faster. Yeah, I I, when we had Sam on before and he was, you have, they just spotted the ball at the yard marker every time. I I like that. I, I I like seeing Yeah, it's a simple solution, but if you wanna look cool on tv, this solution is quite functional too. And also you already have that replay system in there anyway, so you might as well just use it more if you can find a way to make that happen. So it's fine. Also, I was gonna say on a less technological, less serious note, what do we think that trophy is gonna be for the three Texas teams? Cause they talked about it at that town hall where they were like, we're gonna have like a cigar or something for the three Texas teams. You mean a, a standalone Texas trophy aside from the championship trophy Not provided by the league. Presumably provided by the coaches between each other. Cause I think it's just between them. Although it would be funny if the league gave out a Texas trophy, but, and I remember people way overreacted to that, that comment. People were like, oh, there's gonna be a Texas division and then it's the other, I mean it's basically a Texas division, but you have, it's still even, there's not three teams and then five, that would've been very strange. It would've been like the cfl. Well, no, yeah. At least we have balanced divisions. Yes. The C F L. Yeah. We have five and four in the C F L. Yeah, they could have done that. They could've done five and three. So at least it's not that way. I, I said I don't think they needed divisions. It really, I don't know. I don't, I don't, They could have gone around divisions and done like a rotating schedule deal, but I guess for they wanted to be as simple as possible, but you can't Yeah. <Laugh>. Yeah. Or a Texas state like the u i l trophies. Is that what you're talking about? Or like just a big Texas thing. Yeah, I know. I got my big map of Texas on the wall over here. You know, I like, I like having that the, it's like, so I, I've, I I think a lot of teams do it, but the Kraken do like the Davy Jones hat, it's like the old pirate. It's got like seaweed on it and they give that away in between the teams. Like after, if they win a game, like it'll be, you know, their goalie will give it to whoever scored the most goals or whatever on, you know, against the other team. And I like that. I like having the bragging rights to pass along. Jenna wants Victory Bell and or a barbecue like Turkey day. The other bell has. Yeah, you could eat like the, that I like that you could do eat, eat like the chicken leg, like, you know, like Josh Allen does on Thanksgiving. Except I think for Texas it makes more sense to do like ribs or brisket or something. Yeah, Yeah. Yeah. I like that. I like that barbecue That way. For Seattle, they had, it wasn't a trophy, but they had like the light, the torch steal for Seattle from 2020. Maybe they turned that into a trophy. I Don't know. Yeah, I, I didn't, I didn't love that. I remember we had, who did we have out, we had some legend out for the first game. I was Pretty, I you're for the first game then you had Brock Heer too, the second <laugh>. Yeah, I was pretty, I was pretty intoxicated for those games. See if, yeah, the Van Bowl trophy for the in season. Yeah. I mean let's get through, let's get through one. It is tough this year cuz we don't have just the battle of we don't just have the two teams. We have the three Texas scenes now. So it's, Well they could do it like how the, how Army, Navy, and Air Force do it where they have the commanders and Chief Trophy, whoever has the best cumulative record against each other between the three of them gets the trophy. That's a thing. So there's a model. Hey, you're gonna be happy here. We have new, we have be Hawks have posted their stuff. So if you miss, if you're hopping on now, they had the, all the social media people like our, our girl Hailey over in Seattle posting all the, you know, the, the home games. Cool little, you know little tidbits around the city. I love this with like the ferry and stuff. I mean this is, that's literally 10 minutes from where I live. Very exciting. Battle hawks had not posted theirs. Finally did. I have not been to St. Louis, but I guess if you're a St. Louis fan here, we've got the cornbread restaurant, grace meat, meat plus three. Oh, that makes sense. Like you get a meat and then three sides, right? Yeah. Is that, Yeah, something like that. Probably. We, we got the, the light rail or the, the, the whatever the subway here. Hawks. I like that. The Pimball arcade. Yeah. Or the light a little better, but it's fines Little better. Oh yeah. Yeah. That's cool. Little Hard. Yeah there. That looks to be outside of the arch. That's nice. Oh yeah. Maybe bit bit of a kid, but you know, And then I don't know the, the guardians was, we still didn't have yet. We're still working on Are you saying the guardians don't have the social? Is that who doesn't have the social yet? Well, I have no idea. I'm just going off. Well I think Orlando has a social team or at least they have someone with phones posting, but it's usually posting on Instagram cuz they like were there at the, the Cheezit Bowl. They had Terrell, Buckley going hyping up all the Florida State fans at the Cheezit Bowl. So they have someone posting stuff. I just don't know if it's a dedicated social media person or someone on their staff that's just like posting stuff when they're out doing things. I don't know. I'd imagine they'll have a graphic put out within an hour. Yeah. Well I think we're good here. Hour and a half. If anyone else has any other questions, I don't wanna make this, you know, replayability and be able to kind of watch this throughout the day. Like I said, we'll be back tomorrow. Andy Murray's gonna be hopping on today record break, you know, deep dive with all this kind of stuff. Pat talking about the battle hawks preseason. Now I have some other training camp previews coming up next week as well. Just if I'm looking ahead here Matt Lyons is gonna be joining me next week. We're gonna be doing a Sea Dragons camp preview. Sam just is gonna be joining as well. I think he's taking the over the vipers, do that preview. So trying to get some of these training can't previews, team roster kind of breakdowns headed into the season. Like I said, lots of C F L media stuff next week as well. And then the week afterwards, Victor qui Anthony Miller is gonna be joining me on January. The 20th episode. We're gonna be doing the renegades breakdown. Is that, am I doing okay Max? We're kind of doing these team breakdowns here. Is that makes sense? Yeah. So but now when you do these team breakdowns, you get to actually break down who they're playing. You could pick up some games that you might find that are interesting whereas before that we weren't guaranteed that that was on the horizon. So that's nice. Also I can't wait to see you talk to some other people who I know you're trying to talk to about some various things going on with the league and various different innovations we can look forward to. I'm very excited about that. And also maybe some other past guests, once the season starts to talk about the actual football really in depth with some real smart people that you've had on. And I'm really looking forward to that. Let's be, and also I wanna say for like 15 seconds here, no matter what you think of this schedule, whether it has the wrong TV channels or the game tapes aren't always the right day or the you wish they were playing this team on another day or your team is not playing at home until week four or whatever. Listen, we have a professional football league. It's real. It has fans for the carryover from the last time. This is the X F L and we are here. And you know what, despite all of that, I'm just glad we're back. Everything else will play out over time, but today let's be happy and let's be angry every day after today. Okay? Let's be happy today. It's gonna be good. Yeah, max is taking on a little bit more, at least here during all Christmas break. I don't know how long this'll maintain, happy to have it as long as it does a little bit more producing role, helping behind the scenes here. Appreciate that. I mean this is the labor of love one man band here. So it's nice to be able to bounce some ideas off of like, Hey, do you think this person's good to talk to? Really appreciate it. Everyone coming on, like I said, like and subscribe. Jared says XL Rule. So glad we have it back, Mike. Exactly glad the x ffl is back in any forum. Let's go actually, will you be hosting the XL personnel on the Mark House? See come. Yeah, we just had Dean bla you know, VP of officiated rules on last week. Have a couple this week is tough. Like I said, I know the DeMar Hamlin thing. I, I didn't, you know, I was really trying to be cautious, just kind of emailing anyone in the industry right now, you know, trying to be sensitive to that X F L loading everyone into training camp this week was also really busy that way. I will maintain. Same with the U S F L, I think the leagues need to be doing better of like, we can have people in training camp and then also facilitate stuff cuz U S F L basically once they win into training camps, they're like, we have nobody that can help you at any kind. And I'm like, well this is kind of when people wanna talk about your league is when you're in training camp. So I, I hope that I, as I go on my little diri here, I just got an email, I ordered a X Ffl C Dragon's beanie. Looks like it just got shipped, so that's very exciting. Have my X ffl C dragon's beanie come in. Yeah bad. Ba badger. Yes, we will have a show tomorrow morning. As always, bonus content today. Andy, pat, everybody else you know, breaking down all of this in probably a more cohesive manner. Max, anything else? I mean we still have good viewership here. I just don't wanna keep people on forever. Yeah. don't forget that Dean said he wanted to be back on to open the season, so you better make sure he gets on soon cuz I'm sure he is. Once everything becomes more revealed, he wants to talk about it again. I'm sure he loves talking about the rules and the, and the, the ins and outs of this and I'll, I'll make sure to help you with that. Also we got, you know, I, I remember you were talking about earlier this week. I was like, I was like so stressed out. I was like, I, it's not happening y'all. This is all fake, this is all nonsense. I, we've, there's been such a cynicism that even permeated me of like, this league is just gonna fail cuz it's taking too long and we had everything go wrong. Well, you know what, they've shut us all up. At least for now it's here and sometimes it's still a little bit of disbelief, you know, I don't know. I get, I get a lot of feedback even today, you know, read my negative and all that stuff. I, my biggest thing, and this goes for the U S F L and, and the X F L C F L, like nothing is ever improved by sitting around and saying like, this is fine. I, I own my own business. You're constantly trying to like, okay, whether do I gotta market this way and what do I gotta do and what did I do bad? Or you get a bad review, okay, should they've done that better? So that's always my goal with this stuff is trying to figure out the best way for these to be sustainable. Also like spoiler alert, complaining, it carries a little bit better on, on a podcast. I'm like, this is all great. There are plenty of shows that do that as well. If you wanna do that stuff. Not all great. Like I'm not, I'm not, I'm not. I've obviously, I'm not actually convinced that everything is going to be great and whatever. And like I said, I tomorrow I'll be right back there with you. Like, oh my God, this sucks, this terrible, why aren't they getting the juries out on time? Why aren't they doing this? Why aren't they doing that? But today I've been, because I've been in that exact same frame of mind for two over almost three years. Today is the day to just be like, we're here tomorrow. We'll get right back on them. Believe me, I have so many problems with the way this league is being run right now. I even out laid out one of them with the Vegas issue today. There are so many problems and there are so many problems with every single league being run in the spring football right now, and we can get on 'em about it, but sometimes you just have to appreciate it for just a moment. Just take a minute and then get back on it. No, I, yeah, I, I like to, I dunno, I I, I go back and forth. I see a lot of people and I know the people that work for the leagues and even we were talking last night about some of the social media people, like, okay, we're frustrated and people, whatever. I'm like, like we've been on this three years. Like I you've been here a month, two months, three months. Like, I mean, this has been a, this has been a labor of love for a lot of people. So really appreciate that. I, I think we're good. I think we'll, we'll wrap it here. Like I said, like and subscribe episode coming out tomorrow. Really appreciate Max working this week trying to figure out what day are we doing it and all, you know, sources. And I was out last night and I come home and everyone has sources there that confirmed a lot of different stuff. I'm gonna confirm anything till it happened. It happened today. We're here, you know, 30 seconds after the news dropped. I really appreciate Max for doing that. Texas fe the per, I don't think there is a perfectly run sports league, but I think if you make enough money like the N F nfl, you can probably get away with a lot more stuff. Yeah, there's, there's professionally run sports leagues and then there's the X F L and the US l both of them, believe me, I notice I said both and both of them are not being run professionally right now. And that has nothing to do with the employees doing the everyday work that's due with the folks up top. Yeah. Yeah. So get on them and Sure, talk to the social media people, but remember, have some grace with these folks. These people are working overtime and they are understaffed just trying to help out do with their jobs. And remember, it's really, it's the Jerry's, it's the Danny's. It's not really Dwayne, but you can say it's Dwayne if it makes you feel better running the league. And those people are really who's responsible for all this mess. Yeah, I don't, I don't get the, okay, we complained about last year us f l didn't have social media, and then this year the X F L has social media and like we're harassing them. I don't, I don't, I don't get that aspect of it. Like, I don't get like this like, like literal, like harassment of the social media people. Like, I don't, I don't really understand how that works, but it is what it is. I guess everyone's gotta do their own thing, so. Yeah. And it is what it is. People are upset, they're impatient, whatever. You can't stop people from being like that. So I'm not gonna, I, I kept it pretty graceful. I may have said one thing that was a little mean, but otherwise my main thing was keeping it funny, keeping it positive, having a good time, and hoping things came right and we're good. Yeah. Third time's the charm here. Moses, I think we'll end on that note. Really appreciate it. We'll see you guys tomorrow. We'll be up 7:00 AM Pacific, like, and subscribe. Thank you. I will get this banner plane here max. Stick around. We'll chat after this goes off the air. Thank you guys so much again, and we'll see you tomorrow. Thanks. Prayers for DeMar Hamlin. Yeah. Pray thoughts and prayers for Damar Hamlin. Thank you very much for doing that. And yes. Well thank you guys. We'll see you next time.

Episode 126 - The XFL 2023 Schedule Is FINALLY Here!!!

Coming up this week on the markcast. Well, here we go. After months and months of waiting, angry tweets, frustrations, everything you can imagine. The XFL 2023 schedule is finally here. Wouldn't you know it? So check your calendars, clear your agendas. Get your to-do lists. Ready? It is time to watch some XFL football. Okay, let's see my to-do list. And if that wasn't enough, wouldn't you believe it? The X F L Vegas fibers have an honest to goodness stadium to play at bank. Gosh, playing at Cashman Field, we have all the latest last minute decisions. This was a last minute deal. What is happening with the Vegas Vipers Great guest list today. Be Professor Andrew Murray. When we need to breakdown, we bring in the professor Andrew Murray, full XFL 2023 Schedule analysis. What is happening? TV networks, lineups. The Sea Dragons are playing on Thursdays. They're playing on Easter Sunday. What is going on? I think there's a lot to talk about here as far as a lot of the time slots. I know you and Max were going on about it quite a bit in the live stream, and I have some thoughts on it too. But I would say overall I'm not too displeased by it. And I think based on the days and the consistency of the days of which they're aired on, which we'll get into later. But I'm, overall, I'm pretty happy about it. I'm really, I'm just happy I can finally find my plane tickets and go to these games. And then Pat Rapino covering the X F L Battle Hawks gives his thoughts on the X F L 2023 schedule. And we're also previewing X Ffl training camps. Players are reporting this week. Practices start next week. There are some guys that clearly have a lot of ties to him and bowler. Dave Bowler, d ppp, when they were with the AAF together. There are some guys that he went straight to the NFL well like AJ McCarran, which I believe Mike Mitchell has made it very clear that McCarran was a Beck guy. I'm, I'm always of note that I want known commodities when I'm doing these alt leagues. I think AJ McCarran was a perfect, perfect pick because we know who he is. Hey guys, welcome to the Mark Reid here. Crazy day. I have been standing in front of this computer since we hours this morning. Max joined me researcher, producer listener Max. We did a full XFL 2023 live reactions right when we had a little tip off right when the schedule got dropped. We were ready to go. If you missed that episode, it is available on our YouTube channel. And you can go to the audio feed as well, the mark cast.com/watch or listen, really fun, max and I about an hour and a half breaking down, just frantically kind of going through everything that came out this morning. Lots of fun. Little more focused episode today. Now for your regularly scheduled Friday programming. Not gonna ramble too much here. Andrew Murray joining us. Fresh off of work coming in. Missed all the excitement today. I'm real ex kind of curious to see what Andrew's thoughts are about all this. You know, he hasn't lived through this all day. Like we all have thoughts on all the networks and the matchups, everything with the X F L schedule, you know, Thursday games and Monday Games and March Madness, all of that stuff. Lots of exciting things to talk about. We're finally here with the schedule. Really excited to get Murray's thoughts on that. Pat Rapino pat was on during the XE l draft, pat covers the battle hawks for XE l new sub pat's coming on. We were originally just gonna do a, you know, battle hawks training camp preview. I have a bunch of writers coming up, kind of breaking down on all the different rosters here, following the supplemental draft. Pat's the first one of that. We have many more coming here in the next few weeks. And then obviously getting Pat's thoughts as well on the battle hawks and not playing the home game until week four. Lots of things to talk about with Pat today. Going to keep this short. Make sure you like and subscribe officially now the non-homeless Vegas vis also talking about that today with Andrew Murray. Brian Scott, you know, one of the quarterbacks that's going to be competing. I don't know if he would like to, you know, competing. I don't know. Brian thinks he is competing, but one of the first quarterbacks here for the XIV l Vegas Vipers. Brian signed this ball back when he played in the Spring League. We are giving this away for our 2,500 subscriber giveaway. Almost there, you know, adding subscribers every day with all of the XF L news coming to about. Please make sure, like I said, like it, subscribe, get your chance to win this. I also have a bunch of spring league jerseys, Evan merchandise and stuff. We're all gonna give away. I think about a hundred or so, really getting close to the 2,500 subscriber mark. So, yeah, please get in on that. Get a chance to win. And I just got so much stuff in this office if you can't tell. So like it, subscribe, get some of this, these goodies off my hands. Really appreciate that. I will toss to the interviews, check back in at the end of the show. Thanks for as always for listening. And before I go just as special. We, we acknowledge it today in the live stream. You know, lots of still concerns, thoughts and prayers for DeMar Hamlin and his family, teammates, friends, everybody going on with that, monitoring that very closely. I know all of the X F L writers that I associate with, we've been monitoring that since Monday night. Thoughts and prayers with everybody involved in that situation. Really just horrific all the way around. Hopefully that all, you know, resolves itself here. It seems like things are at least potentially trending in the right direction. And then we're not really out of the woodwork yet. But thoughts and prayers for DeMar Hamlin and his family. Thank you guys all so much. I know it's, it's like X F L schedule talk you, lots of more serious stuff going on. But this is, you know, is what you come here for. A little bit of a, hopefully a, a levity, you know, break of kind of seriousness and all of that here with us, you know, analyzing the X X F L schedule. So thanks as always. Take care. Well, I'm gonna be full screen here for just a minute. Show off my jersey. Just coming off Kraken five two win over the Toronto Maple Leaf tonight. In that wardrobe change, I've recorded a bunch of stuff and I wardrobe changes. We have Andrew Murray here at the professor. I hope you don't feel like I'm calling on you too much. I do appreciate your expertise coming on so often right now. Like I said, I ride the bench every week. I, you g you did name drop me a lot this morning though. I watched the stream and you guys were definitely on about it quite a bit. So I appreciate it. I'm, I'm, thank you for promoting the segment so much. Really. No, I appreciate it. So Andrew's here now, so yeah, if you missed it, max kind of producer researcher, max and I, we went live this morning, seven Pacific. Andy had to work. A lot of people have to work. And so we now, we have have a little bit more focus cuz it's always chaotic. The live streams are always like, Hey, what's going on? And we're getting the press releases and people are posting stuff. So now we have everything ready to go. I can pop this up and we'll go through a bunch of takeaways. We have notes. Andy has a bunch, max has a bunch. Just kind of general takeaways from the schedule. And then Pat RINOs coming on in the next segment. And Pat and I also do kind of his thoughts, cuz back pat covers the battle hawks more kind of specifically. So we'll get his thoughts on that. Andy, first off, your general thoughts reaction today. I'm not surprised that there wasn't really a time slot officially announced beforehand as far as I knew. And I, but I think we all kind of speculated that it was going to drop at 7:00 AM Pacific time. Like that was kind of the thought going in and sure enough, there it was in all its glory and kind of just popped out. There was some teasing last night, obviously by a lot of the social media accounts, which some of it was pretty creative. I think one of the, the dpss I think for the battle hawks, I believe dropped also a little bit of a hint that it was gonna happen. So that, that obviously came to fruition. There wasn't any backing out last second. So I think the rollout was fine. Obviously the illusions were good. I I think there's a lot to talk about here as far as a lot of the time slots. I know you and Max were going on about it quite a bit in the livestream and I have some thoughts on it too. But I would say overall I am not too displeased by it. And I think based on the days and the consistency of the days of which they're aired on, which we'll get into later, but I'm, overall, I'm pretty happy about it. I'm really, I'm just happy I can finally buy my plane tickets and go to these games. That's really, I I've been, I've been on and on. I've banged on the table about that. I've sent you messages several times about that. I'm, I've been ready to apply my play tickets and make this official. So Yeah. Well so this good. So I am very worried. So maybe you can talk me off the ledge as we get through all of this today. Yes, I mentioned at the end of the show I've recorded, I have bought, we will be at the XIV L kickoff game. If you're coming, coming, whoever's coming, we'll figure out what that looks like. But I'm locked in for that. We're going to Mexico that next week. So it works out really well that we can bounce to Dallas and then down, we're going to get into the Vegas Cashman field of it all here later. Cuz Andy's been on that before. But if anyone kind of curious about last minute, like why did this come and we thought it was gonna be last week. So this is Acres here. He's with the, like the sports journal down in Vegas reporting that the Cashman deal came out finalized last night. So if you're wondering like, you know, where it was supposed to be last week, it was supposed to be Monday or Tuesday, like what's going on? For whatever reason, the rumors were Bishop Gorman, the, I, you know, what if they pulled out the reasoning behind that they decided to go with Cashman Field. We'll get obviously thoughts on that, but what do you make of the, this coming out, you know, finalize last night, Wednesday as we record this and now we have the schedule on Thursday. That's, that's pretty wild. I would like the 30 for 30 of like what happened there. I would too. I mean this has been such a whirlwind. I, I'm glad it's just done. But for it to be done in this fashion, I mean obviously there was a lot of backing out. I think there was reports that Gorman Field might have backed out of the steel. Obviously the whole, the the jousting with Allegiant Stadium was just not gonna happen. That was absolutely not gonna happen. I think the impending thought going forward as we were talking about it and continuing to discuss it was that it was not gonna happen for various reasons, which we've already del delved into. Look, I mean this is a fine enough venue and I think capacity-wise, it's not too daunting to fill. My question is, is it going to be filled with a hungry appetite from the Vegas goers? That's really my thing. Cuz if this is a tourist economy that Vegas is, are you gonna be able to just attract people to this venue and have them flock to it on a semi-regular basis? Obviously they're being five home games. I, that's, that's really my question here cuz I, I don't know what the fan base is like. I don't know what the attention to it. Like I know you were down in Vegas about a year ago and you said there wasn't really much going on as far as like outreach or like, people know, being in the know of what was gonna happen in the coming months. But I, I just think this is gonna be a really interesting experiment to see if people are willing to put up with this sort of venue and if they're going to be able to just go to it. Now I will say I personally am going to drive out to Vegas and go to this, to one of these games. I've already decided that it's about a five hour drive for me. I'm planning to do it. I, I've already made, I've already made that commitment. But again, I'm, I'm in the know, I know all this stuff. I don't know what that's gonna be like for these people coming in and out of the city. So as far as that is, I don't know, Allegiant Stadium would've been better, obviously, of course because it's a, it's a, it's a sexier venue. It's, it's a bigger venue. It's got more bells and whistles to it and it's more sort of in line with what people expect with Vegas. This is maybe not as glamorous as people were expecting. So that's really the question is are people, are there just people who just want to show up and go to games? That's really the question here. I'm curious and I guess we'll just stop down on this and then we'll, cuz you know, one kind of begets the other here, but the, the idea that this is slightly removed from the, the, the strip. I'll be curious what the demo is. I don't know the answer to that. I'm looking on, and I mean we've done talking about this before, but just now that we kind of, you know, we're able to look on here, you know, I would say kind of the stratosphere is kind of the far north that I ever, Dorothy and I, we've been to Vegas, you know, a dozen times. You know, this is definitely a drivable, you know, de destination that you're gonna go to here. So I'll just be curious like how much, you know, Allegiant, you get a little bit more, Hey, we're gonna stay there, we're gonna, you know, walk over, we're gonna go stay at Mandalay Bay, walk over. I mean, we've done that walk, we haven't gone to Raiders games there, but we've seen the store and walked around and all that stuff. So I'll just be curious like what the, are you getting like a casual audience here or is this people that like, live in town? Just be curious, curious what the demo is. It doesn't bother me. I mean if, you know, 8,000, 10,000, whatever, like globe life is weird too. And I said that last week on here, you know, globe Life is a weird, or Choctaw Stadium now weird venue in Dallas, they roll with it. And I always thought, okay, well that one's g grandfathered in. Like is that why? That's okay. But I, I'm just glad they settled with it because I'm really, I was just really tired of, of the, the comments every day about like, okay, what's going on here? What's going on here? So, Well, I'm sure, so were they, but obviously, but, but it just seems to show you that this was really last minute and this is kind of what a lot of us were worried about is, was this gonna get done before this? I mean, I've assumed it was gonna get done by the end of the season. I joked several times, I was like, I don't care if they play in a parking lot, if that's what it's gonna take, get them out there. But obviously left an ideal situation. This has been a far bigger headache than I think the league anticipated. And if this is what they end up with, honestly it's not the worst, it's not the worst thing they could have. And I think given the circumstances, I think they should be thankful that they even have this to go with and they can finally start to put this out there in all their socials and have people, you know, not just giving blind deposits into the, into the Vegas pot anymore. Cuz that's really, I'm sure maybe initially people were putting it in. I I would be curious also to see what the numbers were as far as like, were people putting it in in July and then as the the anticipation started to build, did less people start to put it in? I, I know we'll probably never get those actual numbers, but like I would really like to know what that effect was as well. And also how many seeds people assumed there was going to be too. Like the people think, oh, it'll probably end up at Allegiant, you know, it'll be like 10,000 deposits. Well, okay, now you have 8,000 seats here, so now what happens? Like that's that the number crunching there is gonna be really interesting. I thought that Max had a good comment. Like I said, if you haven't watched the live stream, they good comment where Red Bird is so focused, right? Like we, we we're, so we do all this research and we're so particular and meticulous and going through and we're researching all the football clubs and who do we want and family sport, like all these different things and, and just to like hop into this and really not have any sort of parachute at all. Or like when we go play in Reno, we call it the Nevada Vipers or like the West Coast fiber. Like, just that there was never any backup. And then it just got to this point. I mean, you know, worst case if the deal doesn't get done last night, obviously assume we get the stuff next week, it's just another week. I mean, but you're getting to the point where, like I said, people, people needed to get stuff going. We need to be able to sell stuff, we need to be able to market. So I think we're good. I wanted to look at the press release. I think they put one other thing about the, just talking about the, you know, yeah, Cashman 10,000 seat venue fans have access to parking, concessions, tailgating. The, the other note on here is single game tickets are going for sale next a week from, we recorded this on the 12th so you can get 'em for seven of eight venues. They have not announced yet when the, the Vegas venue is going for sale, which obviously makes sense because they gotta figure out where they're putting those season ticket holders in there. So anything else on Cashman, do you feel like we've kind of hit the nail on that? Anything else you wanna talk about? I mean, like I said, I'm gonna make it my best effort to go out there. So I will try to have a field report for you at some point and, and let people know what what's going on out there as far as which day that's gonna be. I'm still sort of debating that, but like I said, I'm just glad this headache's over with. I mean the schedule was the schedule I was excited for. The, the catchment thing I was just was having, it was just a big gigantic headache. It was something that I was not looking forward to really discussing any further with people. Yeah. So the, they announced, so obviously, you know, schedule came out today. The Cashman thing came out overnight. Vegas reported came out. Big takeaways. Vegas Vipers in the kickoff game at Arlington there, Chatta Stadium at February 18th. We've, you know, obviously had the date for a long time of that 3:00 PM Eastern, that'll be 2:00 PM local time there. The other opening day game is gonna be the Guardians at the rough next. We have a lot of Texas, if you know this home games that first weekend, T d t d e c U eight 30 you know, seven 30 whatever local, but Eastern time there, battle Hawks is gonna be the big a b C game on Sunday. They're on the 19th at the Alamo Dome. And then the repeat from last time, I thought it was weird, you know, like it's the kickoff game, but reverse, you're gonna have the Dragons going out to the defenders at Audi Field on E S P N. Thoughts on that. We have numbers and stuff from, you know, the, each network's getting all the games and stuff, but that slate of games having three Texas games. Does that make sense? Absolutely. I mean, that's the whole point of having the hub, right? The easy travel, being able to commute back and forth really showcasing that this is going to be a very tech-centric operation overall in every facet. I I think this is really cool that we get to see all three Texas home teams, which I think will draw well. I really think San Antonio's going to absolutely knock it out of the park. I'm so excited for that operation. Houston our colleague Evan Wilmore is gonna be at the Houston games. He's been trying, he said he is gonna try and get down there and be able operate down there. Rough. I mean, the Reneg Gates makes sense completely. It makes sense. That's the opening game. It is interesting that Vegas after all that Hulu about getting their venue and now they're on the road the first game. So that's kind of the funny thing. I don't know what their draw's gonna be out there. But I think for the Renegades fans, it's a, it's a return to form. It's their home stadium, it's their home hub operation Bob Suits returns. It's, it, I think it makes total sense that that's gonna be the first game on the schedule. But yeah, I, I think this is cool. I love that your dragons are going to DC again. Like that's a rematch of the opening game from last time, and I love that that's gonna happen again. It's really cool this time gonna be at night instead of it being the first game on the Saturday like it was last time. But this is, that's, that's really cool. It's pretty exciting to see that happen again, but hopefully for you it'll be a different result. Yeah. we have, and then the, the Orlando, which people like all day, I've just heard people poo poo on Orlando that they think they're gonna be like the worst team. I think Pat in his interview said like, I could go play quarterback for them at some point, but th this is the Simcast game, but we've gotten confirmation from this Mike and, and Tim over at the Alix podcast. Let me know as well the, with the ESPN press release that that's the simcast on there. So that kind of weird to get, I mean obviously we're gonna have a lot of FX games coming up and we'll we'll talk through all that. But what do you think about that in ESPN N FX simulcast for that you know, primetime Game Sun Saturday night? Yeah. Obviously that's not the same level as the NBC Fox simulcast that the original US L game was. I mean, that's, that was a very, very, very, yeah, much smaller scale on that, on that. But I think it's a chance for them to showcase both streaming options. Right? This is gonna show you, okay, here's the ESPN one that you're gonna be accustomed to. Now here's the FX FX one, which you're gonna have to get used to because we've, you also broke it down with Max. There are gonna be a fair, a number of FX broadcasts. So talking about what that's gonna be and that, what operation's gonna be. Look, if that's something that people want to kind of flip back and forth between and figure out like which, what, what the differences are, if there's any in terms of presentation, that's fine. I, I think that's, I'm curious to see how that goes. And I, I, I, I can't say I've ever heard of a f I never thought FX would have a simulcast, but then again, who knows? I mean, maybe like, I mean, it's better than the cooking channel, right? Obviously. So <laugh>, that's, that's one thing to consider. But I, i, I have a lot of thoughts about the FX broadcast, which we can get into as well. But I, I think it's fine. It's, it's not, again, it's not the most like glorious presentation, but I think it is something, and I will, I am curious also, like if you have the ESPN app, obviously ESPN will be on that, but would that also be like the FX feed going through that too? I I don't know how that would work. Yeah, if the, the, the point of this simulcast is the announcers every 30 seconds being like, a lot more of these games are gonna be on fx. Like, please, you know, I mean you almost, I would almost, I mean obviously they would do whatever they are have the ability to do here, but you know, you almost need a couple of those games of like, hey, just just keep in mind here, you know, look at your remote, you know, channel 1 52 or whatever. Like, hey, you know, Fred, 55 year old Fred that's watching the X Ffl here. Like, just keep in mind, you're gonna have to be able to find FX here next week, you know, be able to find a lot of these games. Like it is, I think it's like we're educating the masses. Like this is where a lot of these games are gonna be. Well, I was gonna say too, and I'm glad you brought that up. See, that's different than last year, last year with the U S F L, and suddenly I'm looking at my schedule and being like, oh, that game's on Peacock. Oh, I have to pay extra pick for Peacock. Like, that was not a pleasant surprise. And like, maybe some people were more in the know than I was, but that was not something that I, that even I was really pertinent to in like the middle of the season, like a, a week, a month in, and suddenly I'm having to kind of like pay out out of pocket for P Peacock and having to watch a, a game for the weekend. So that's something also to keep in mind, like what services you have FX through, which I've looked through all of, like the streaming options, they're pretty covered on a lot of different bases. Like you have them on like Sling I think I have 'em right here. I can go through some of them. They're on Hulu tv, YouTube, TV, sling they'd go Xfinity Choice tv, DirecTV cable. So they, I mean like they're on different streaming services. It's not something that you're, I think you're gonna just go out of your way to pay for. It's gonna be covered on a lot of different bases. So that's also something to keep in mind as well versus Peacock, which was an extra service. Yeah, don't, don't tell anyone this. I never, I never got Peacock in Washington at the US games. I never <laugh>, I did, I didn't watch the four that were on there, the mallers versus whatever on we we had the numbers here. Max put 'em on the thing oh. FX is available to about 7 74 0.8 million subscribers. Was 79.7 in 2021. U S A has a similar amount. So I was, I was kind of under the impression that U S A, because you know, we're gonna get all the U S F L comparisons and we get to it. And I am actually, I was scared, I am scared whatever extra L ratings and you know, having to argue people online and have all this stuff, but they have at least for basis a similar platform, which I think is good to be able to, you know, a, as much as we can apples to apples compare some of these things, I was under the presumption that FX was, was lot smaller. That's not, they're about the same viewership on that. The other note I had was so of the games we have, and we went through all this, but we have the numbers on here now. Yeah, all the games will be streamed also on ESPN plus, which is very helpful. If you have that, I believe that's like 6 99 a month. That would probably be the easiest way to get a lot of this stuff. 43 games total, 40 regular season two playoff championship, seven games on a, B, C I believe there was 24 22, 24 back in 2020 on, on like network TVs, espn, ESPN two is gonna have 22 games, I believe that's split, you know, across the board. And then FX has 15 of those games, so they're carrying the bulk of that. You said you had some other thoughts about the FX broadcast? Yeah, just as, as like I said, the, the presentation and also in terms of like their outreach, but I like, they are obviously included in all these other cable packages and streaming services, so it won't be as difficult to get into that. But I wanted to point out, so for your E S P N plus platform, obviously that's useful in terms of it being another option. I think the big key to take away from here is you have different options. So like this, conversely with for example, the CFL schedule, like you go outta your way to get ESPN plus if you wanna watch certain C F L games, right? Like not all of them are on ESPN News and ESPN two, some of them you have to have ESPN n plus four. This is not the case here. This is, okay, well if you wanna watch on ESPN plus cuz you're away or you wanna watch on your phone, that's fine. But if you do art in front of your cable service or if you have say this like live TV that you've paid for and you have it on your app on your phone, then you can watch on an ESPN or FX or ESPN too. So I think that the fact that you have those options is also very useful. It's, it's, it's catering to do two different audiences. Whereas with what, what we've seen with some of these other alternative leagues is they kind of split where it's like, well it's either this one or this one and that, I think this is more of a marrying of the two ideas, which is great. I think that is a better cohesion there as far as like whether you have them on cable television, obviously, if not being on a, always being on abc, I mean that's one thing, but as long as you're kind of creating some sort of more cohesion with the, the digital platforms, I think that's a little bit better and a little more optional for people to delve into those games. Do you believe that seven ABC games is enough? I would've liked more. I think I was hoping for double digits at least. That's kind of my, my thing. I would've liked at least 10 games, maybe 15 if possible. Obviously look, a B C has a lot of programming, they have a lot of things they're going through and they have a lot of stuff that they have to, to sort of, you know, move through. I get it. But I do think that I would've liked to have seen more cable games. You know, I I, I'm not sure what the official number was last year for the U S F L as far as how many games were on Fox versus how many games were on U S F L or excuse me on N B nbc. But I want to see more of that as far as like cable games available here for the, for the X ffl. And it would've been nicer to have at least in the ballpark of 10 to 15. Seven is a a little small for my liking. So on N NBC sports here, they said there was nine games on N B C nine on U S A four on Peacock, and then Fox had 14. So both Fox and N B C were each carrying separately more than obviously the XL is on abc and then clearly both combined is a substantially higher number just to put that in context. Okay. So there you go. So then they obviously were catering more to the traditional cable audience, but then again it was harder to find some of those non cable games. And I think that's what the X F L was avoiding here. They were just saying, well, some of it's, there'll be some cable games, but a lot more of it's gonna be catering to, or the traditional cable games. Obviously the big networks, but it's more traditionally towards s ESPN FX and the mobile platforms. It's gonna be more combined there. I think the thing they, they wanna really avoid here is, you know, not exclusively putting things on like say for example, Disney Plus, which who knows, maybe that'll happen eventually in the future cuz there are some platforms that are already starting to do that. But I have not seen that as far as sporting options go with Disney Plus yet. I know obviously we already have, we're, we live in a world where Amazon Prime already has an exclusive right to a weekly N F L game. So you know, that that might be on the option, but for right now, X F L cannot afford to really experiment with that option. They might down the road, but for now, just keep it this way. I think this is better. It marries both options and it keeps it more cohesive. But I I I think it just shows the, also maybe there's a little bit difference in audience catering between the U S F L and the X F L. I think there's just, there is, I think there is a difference. I know everyone in the universe who was an alt football junkie says they consume both. I'm not sure if I necessarily agree with that. I think there are people who do pick and choose. I think you, I I think you and I both know that there are people who do pick sides and I think that's also a difference in terms of the viewership habits as well. Those people. Yeah, that was the, the issue with U S F L was you were catering to a substantially older audience that was obviously like the, the nostalgia of the U S F L. And so when, yes, I can watch Fox, I can watch N b NBC when I'm, I, I don't know even how to get to FS one. I mean, let alone peacock on that. I think if they would've done the Disney Plus thing, that would've been a death now. I mean, that just would've been the worst thing in the world to have any exclusive N F NFL can get away with that with like ESPN or N NFL plus exclusives, like when they go to Germany or whatever. To me, this, and I was talking with like Seth today and I was talking with you guys and I was talking with you everyone offline. Like it just doesn't feel like this is like we're prior. Oh, I was talking with Jason over at xva Ppac, I'm like, I wanna make sure I, I was talking with DER over there. It just doesn't feel like it's a priority. Like we're not prioritizing a lot of these games. I mean, Fox and N B C also looked at us f l as we, this is a space filler, right? We're like, we would rather air this content than Mrs. Doubtfire reruns or like whatever we're airing that, you know, Sunday at, you know, one in the afternoon. But like I just, it doesn't feel to me like putting so many of these on. I, I dunno the time slots, they're late. We have some key matchups here. We'll talk about some notes, but just nothing strikes me as like we're going out of our way to give this better view, you know, better slotting than we could otherwise. Yeah, that's fair. And you know, that's, that's makes me wonder if there's maybe kind of a prove it factor here as far as, okay, well if we really wanna put you more on A, B, C, we need to make sure that you're actually a viable option. Your're sustainable option. Because again, this is, this is not like Fox, which owns the US F L and says, Hey look, we're gonna put this on our programming. We don't care. This is different because this is a, a partnership with a different entity. And if ESPN is gonna be, you know, playing second fiddle, the a abc they have, it's kind of saying like, Hey, a, B, C, we want you to believe in this. And maybe a ABC says, well, okay, but we gotta see some of the numbers first and if it goes well, then we'll be willing to put more of that forward. And, you know, in another world, I wonder if that would've been the case with, say for example, like the aaf now the AAF had a much lesser TV deal <laugh> it was a lot harder to get access to their stuff even more so because I remember trying to watch like rogue streams getting access to like CS Sports Network and other stuff like that. And that's something where I wonder like, would they put more games on CVS in the future if they, you know, proved it more so to their audience? This is kind of a similar concept maybe in terms of, okay, if you wanna put it more on cable television, original cable television, do you have to show the numbers first? You have to have the ratings. Do you have to kind of have a proof of concept again here? Because Fox and NBC I think proved that enough and I think they're willing to do that again. We'll wait and see what that schedule looks like too, if they're gonna put more games on those major networks or if they're gonna do maybe status quo and kind of do the same thing they did last year. I'm also wondering what they adjust versus they did in season one. Very curious. No, I'm really curious to see kind of how USL responds and they're like, you know, them seeing now the track record, they kind of know the numbers. I mean us f l did, you know, pretty consistently, you know, decent numbers depending really on the network in the time of day. A couple other things. ESPN plus 24.3 million subscribers. Just to kinda put you mindset, remember FX has about 75 million subscribers. Espn has, you know, proper has 76 million subscribers. And FX on, on on the whole averages about 462,000 viewers while U S A averages around 738. So about the same, you know, obviously households that are gonna get 'em U S USA on average doubles FX in terms of like who is actually watching. I lot of that has to do with content. I mean, for years I grew up, like FX has the movies, like that's what you knew and they just want, they just rear the old movies on there. Where I think U S A has done a really good job in the last probably two decades now of trying to build quality content, right? With like suits and all of that stuff, or your white collar, all these kind of whatever shows. The other thing is max pointed out in the live stream, and I'm this like, FX really is wanting to be rebranded as more of a sports network. And so that that, you know, they think that this has a lot to do with that. You get people used to watching f you know, X F L on fx, that little crescendo into other, you know, properties that we can put on there. Any, any thoughts on any of those numbers? Anything there? Well, maybe they buy out the league and they just become the FX ffl. How about that? So <laugh> has some synergy there, huh? Yeah. You like that? I like that. I like that <laugh>. But yeah, no, that's makes sense. I mean that's what I've, I grew up to doing too. I watch movies traditionally on that channel and now they're sort of trying to become, look, everyone wants to make their own content, right? And sports live content is gold, it's certified gold and it's something that everyone wants. And ESPN obviously has proven that and they're, there's something that is to be said about having that on your network. So this is again, a proof of concept for them and maybe something that they can continue to reverse their invest their time and money into going forward. I have a note on here, and this gets into like this, this is the, this will be like, oh, you're the X F L Homer, whatever, like Max has a note. I, if you have both FX for example and ESPN plus, or you're choosing to watch on ESPN VER versus whatever, we're not gonna get the streaming numbers. We're only gonna get the TV numbers and that's gonna hurt the viewership that way. I don't know. I think it is what it is. I mean, you can stream stuff on the NBC app, I I I on Fox as well. Are they counting all that? I don't, I don't think there's going to be tens of thousands of people that are streaming the ESPN games. That would not be, I don't know, is that a negligible number? Am I wrong there? I I think with the younger audience it might be, and I think that is something to consider. Obviously. I, I think it could really affect those overall numbers and then everyone's gonna squarely look at the Nielsen ratings and try and decipher it that way. But, you know, again, it's, it's in terms of like marketing and in terms of like putting those numbers forward, that obviously is gonna be done more so under the, you know, in the back rooms and sort of said, Hey, look, we got this number versus this number, but that, that's not gonna be published, obviously. And that's something that has to be talked about in the greater scheme of things. I know. And, and look, I know the TV number is, it's important, obviously it is, it's always been important, but I do think that I could see that some of those numbers in maybe the tens of thousands would go to those streaming platforms. Again, this is more of a marrying of the concept. There's two different options and with those options, people are going to sway towards one or the other. So I, I do think that's gonna happen, but I think overall, and we'll get into this more as the consistency of the schedule is the most important part, and that's gonna really bear out and seeing, okay, how many people on average are really getting into this? And are we getting that kind of reaction from game to game and time slot time slot, which we've talked about with U S F L, but that that'll be remained to be seen. The other note we have, and I, I have the schedule up on here, you can go to X ffl.com, they have the schedule, but it's all spread out. It's really hard to kind of like, I mean, I know this is like tiny man font, but really hard. They don't have like a nice principle one. The one that they shared on social is like so tiny. If you look on here though, you know, a lot of the fx you see, obviously we have the kickoff game abc, right? And then we, we go, you know, e s, espn, whatever, this Fs, F x, fx F you know, the whole way down, you get to the sorry, you get to the later half I don't want to pin that. You get to the later half of the season, you get a lot more a a, B, C, ESPN all the way through leading the, the note I had is this, trying to lead more to a crescendo. We're trying to hide maybe some of the, the worst gameplay, you know, we, we get a couple good games out of the way. Teams just trying, trying to figure themselves out. I know us f l my thing with them was always, I thought the rush, two and a half weeks of training camp, you spiked the big rating. And then the other three games the first weekend were like total. Really? They were not good games. And I think that that really hurt people checking it back in again, you buy into that, but like, okay, let's get some of these games hidden on the, on the lesser networks until until the team's ready to vibe, I suppose. So again, I I think it's a stretch. It's kind of a stretch. It's a thought. I, I, okay, well, okay, so, so these teams that are hiding, quote unquote, it really depends. <Laugh>, like, I mean, they're playing hide and that's great, but like, I, I think they have a lot of things to consider as far as the viewership numbers. Okay, so we went through Cashman Field in Vegas, okay, that's gonna be a bit of a project. We don't know what that, obviously they knew that and that was gonna be something they had to factor into the schedule. I think your biggest draws, if I'm gonna just come out and probably sit, have a guess. It's gonna be dc it's gonna be San Antonio, and I'm gonna say Seattle. I think Seattle fans are definitely gonna show back up and I think that'll be a thing. Again, I think that that, that legion will return Houston and, and Arlington are gonna be interesting. I think we're gonna see, I, I believe Houston definitely has a, a probably a stronger, at least a, maybe a more prevalent fan base. But I think the Arlington crowd can also draw really well. I think the Texan seams are fine. The Orlando crowd is really interesting. I am so curious to see how people react to a, there's no Vipers left that moved out of town from Tampa, and B, having the guardians in there instead, and the logos and supposedly the worst quarterback room and all that nonsense. You know, I look, I I I know, but like I still think Orlando people will probably show up. I think the Camping World Stadium is still really nice. And I, I actually watched a lot of the Bowl games this past week, and a lot of 'em were actually in the X F L stadiums. Like the Alamo Bowl was in the in the Alamo Dome. And you had Camping World Stadium for the Cheezit Bowl. Yes, one of the two Cheezit bowls. I know there were two of them, but and that was Florida State fans. So they all traveled to that game, but it was the, the presence in it was really, really immense. So I, I think some of the games, yes, I could see them like trying to kind of like piecemeal and figure out, okay, like, all right, is this gonna work out? Are people gonna show up for the games or people going to actually be in droves? Are you gonna have in like generated fan interest? But like, I think most of the markets make sense, really. The only one again, that I initially was not sure about was when they announced that they were going to Vegas because there was no template, there was no book on that that we had books on all these other markets we had seen in other facets in other ways. I know Vegas was, I mean, the Outlaws, but that was like 20 years ago. You know, that that, that the, the, the landscape has changed in Vegas. That that's a different, it's a different ballgame there, but we knew recent history. We knew all these other markets. So I, I don't know if there's so much like of hiding so much, but I do think there might be some, some finagling as far as they, they wanna put more emphasis on those teams that they know will do well. They know that they will draw well, case in point I think the fact that St. Louis is not playing until week four, I think they know those fans are gonna show up anyways. I'm just gonna say it now. I know there's venue conflicts with that. I understand that it's not all, it's scheduling and it's not just like, Hey, we're just gonna put all this Battle Hawk fans a month into the season. I don't think it's that, but I do think they are willing to accept that, hey, look, maybe they're still gonna show up because if they really thought it was a concern, I think they would put it on a Thursday night on like week two. Yeah, so, and a couple other quirks. Yeah, so we talked to St. Louis one. That's good. Vegas not at home till week two, right? Obviously they're in the kickoff. That gives them an extra week. We're trying to sell tickets, relate to the game there. They're on FX the first two times. They play week two and then week three back to back their home fx. And then they go on week seven, they go to espn. So maybe they're like, by that point we feel, you know, that maybe we will, Cashman will be overflowing with people that people will be in swarms to tailgates. But you know, I I I think there, there's maybe a little bit of scheduling quirks there. I do not understand like in this is Reed's brand, I, it doesn't really matter. This Seattle C Dragon's schedule is literally the worst schedule of any of the teams. We play two Thursday games. We play Easter Sunday, and then one of the other games, and this is a re problem, is on the same night as a Kraken game. So that's four of five home games. There are, I mean, the, the, the first game is this Sunday night, the 6:00 PM kickoff, Thursday night, 9:00 PM Eastern. I, I just wild to me that I, do you have any thoughts on the Seattle one? The, the, the, the next one is it's another night. Like they're late, they're late night 9:00 PM games both on Thursdays week five and week two. Any thoughts on the Dragons? I kind of echo what Max said in the stream. It's like packed 12 after dark. It's like, all right, well you're just gonna get those late Eastern Coast Times because, you know, it's, it's the West coast crowd. That's what matters most. I don't, I don't know if I agree with that necessarily. I do, I do think you got a little bit of the short end of the stick now. It is kind of a concept to prove maybe, okay, let's see if the East Coast audience stays up for these games. And I mean there, look, there are other teams in central time zones. I mean, you know, with, I know the Vipers, it's not, it's, that's a purely West Coast game. You're not really going to get that entire audience. So that does unfortunately rain on the parade a little bit. But you are gonna have some other teams that are coming from further out of town that are gonna still draw that audience. So I, I don't know if it's like the worst schedule, but I do think it's unfortunate that it's not as consistent as some of the other schedules because a lot of the other teams are just, you know, Saturdays and Sundays. And it's strictly that I do like, I I do like that there is not really any Friday games. There was one Friday game, I was very adamant about it not being Friday games. I think Friday nights are off limits as far as professional football goes. Like that just does not work. I don't think it worked for the U S F L in my opinion. I really did not like that they were on Friday nights. I really didn't like that. And the ratings showed it, right? The ratings were not very good on Friday nights for any of their games. I think keeping it around traditional N F L viewing times like Thursday, Saturday, Sunday, Monday, like that's like programmed in everyone's brains. That's the times you watch that. Friday night is for high school football. It's for maybe, maybe college football. Sometimes it's for C F L. It's not for professional football out in the United States, in my opinion. Shots fired. Cfl. I'm not professional football. Andy Murray In the United States. I added that at the end. Okay, you missed that part. Okay, don't <laugh> don't, don't erase that part. Don't wipe that out. <Laugh>. I used to love, I, when I worked in Bakersfield, I loved working Fridays. We would go shoot the high school football games. That was like the most fun thing. I got paid extra air cuz that was my day off. Got to come in and we had like our sports director, we had, keep in mind I'm not that old like we had G Ps, right? We were able to plug in the a really the old school ones, like you'd have to buy the GPS mounted to your car, but he would literally draw paper maps out like with Pen and be like, Hey, I can't see like, hey Reid, so like here's the road and you da. I'm like, Todd, just, just give me the address. I'll plug it in, I'll plug it in. The gps the other note, couple quis. So us f l kickoff is Saturday April 15th. That will be week nine of the X ffl that you do spend a lot of debate, like how much overlap, whatever we, I mean you could do the math and kind of figure it out. Saturday you have a 1230 Eastern, so that is a early morning game. Vegas Vipers at Houston Roughneck and then a Saturday night game, 7:00 PM guardians at Brahmas. A large gap there that's, see I am looking at that, right? It seems kinda weird thoughts on that. Yeah. Week nine 10 then obviously the playoffs going opposite that a lot of espn, N and A B, C, no FX games after week. Seven it looks like. Hmm. So yeah, I, I was looking at that gap. I wonder, and I, this is just, this is pure speculation on my part. So is there potential that this is anticipation of when eventually there are going to be U S F L games on the schedule? Is that going to allow for time and space for those u USS F L games to come onto tv Now again, we'll see how, how religious the schedule is for the U S F L. It was a little bit over the, all over the map last time they came online last year. And so we'll see where they go as far as like if they still gonna play games on Friday off times Saturday midday, Sunday midday. This is gonna be really interesting to see how they finagle the schedule. This is where the TV rating thingss come and it really comes into play of, okay, how much sword battling are we gonna see between Fox and espn? And I think with that in mind, considering what we have here on nine and 10 especially, I think that allows you to believe that there is going to be some space to finagle that schedule. And it's gonna be like, Hey, here's your space. If you want to be there, that's fine. Here's our space. Let's not get each other's way again. Will they do that? I don't know. Maybe they'll just go to war and say, Nope, we're gonna be at the same time or around the same time as you, but that seems to be a space that that can potentially happen. So that's my initial thought, looking at that spacing on 9, 10, 11. Yeah. the interesting thing the other note that we've had there is no week 12 the week 13 is gonna be the championship game. We don't have obviously sites yet for, you know, where the championship and, and playoff games would be. Remember in Exxon 2020, it was gonna be in Houston for the title game, did the playoff games. I think that was going to be seeding right where the playoffs were gonna be, but the championship game was gonna be neutral site. The bi-week, the Kentucky Derby is that bi-week, you'll remember there was a lot of drama last year with the U S F L that people, oh, the Kentucky Derby led in and it was the bigger, like, I don't know, I can't imagine them taking the week off to avoid that, but they are taking the week off. I don't know if we need two weeks of buildup and you're paying the people. And like, that seems weird to me that we're gonna have a week of no pay. I mean, at that point you only have the two teams left, but that just seems weird to me that there's a gap there. What do you make of the gap? You said you had a theory and then do you think the neutral the championship game is gonna be neutral site down in like Choctaw? I do think it's gonna be in Choctaw. I, I think that's just gonna, it's a logical destination. It's where everything is. And I think that's to return to the hub makes sense, right? You start the season in Choctaw in the season in Choctaw. I think that's kind of the idea there. I don't think they're gonna do any like Canton stuff like the U S F L did. I think that was just in the interest of getting away from Birmingham and having a different location, <laugh> and some, you know, some fresh and fresh things to kind of look at some fresh scenery. Well, Remember and they had the, the, the games, the, the, Oh yeah, the World Games. Sorry, they Had the world game. But I mean, that was in 19 six. They're like, we gotta get the hell out here. I got, I I think, I think that ended up being a good thing for them. Honestly, going to Cannon was really cool and I think that was a good idea overall. But yes, the World Game's also gotten that way of too, and thank you for reminding me. But no, I think really the big thing here besides the Kentucky Derby, which again, I don't know how much that's gonna affect the TV audience for the football crowd. I don't know if the football crowd is also horse enthusiasts or equestrian you know, proponents. But I do think they have to have that week off because then you get a bi-week for the players because you've been playing 11 straight weeks at that point. You have put your body through the ringer at that point, and you need to maybe have a week off of rest if you're gonna go into a championship game. And, you know, that's only gonna be a select number of players. Obviously it's only two teams, but that's still enough that it's gonna affect a lot of people. And I think having that time off is really crucial. Meanwhile, everyone else can kind of go do their thing and go figure out like, all right, I'm gonna go, I'm, I'm signed on to a, to a team. Which that, that time schedule too is really important because again, the draft is the end of week 11, which I, I, I think I talked about a little bit with with Mike earlier, is that you're gonna transition from the last day of the draft on Saturday into one of the playoff games. You kind of be able to transition. That's very, that's very like synergetic thinking by espn. So that makes a lot of sense. But in terms of the player pool, now you've got undrafted free agents after the draft looking for opportunities and you got other people trying to like sprint over to an NFL team and be like, Hey, I wanna get in the mini camps that are gonna start like an OTAs that are gonna start in May. So now you start to allow that window of opportunity and like kind of let people sort of wander into that afterwards. And I wonder if the bi-week is kind of just like, Hey, look you guys, you know, if you, you wanna come to the championship game, wait around, cool. If not, you just want to go ho home or you want to go, you know, figure out if you have a shot in the next league, then go for it. So that might be also the thinking there too. But I really think the big one is the bye week. Yeah, the other note and just, you know, put your tempo hat out for this, but just worthwhile sharing. So Joe Siegler on Twitter, when they posted the, the thing today about the schedule and all that, he is apparently a Dallas jackal, which is the rugby team that also plays at Chatta. He's also you know, season dick a hole around for them. They had told him that there wasn't going to be coinciding games and apparently they have a game for the championship game, you know, at the end of, you know, whatever that would be. I don't always take that verbatim just because like someone know, you know, and they haven't announced it yet and like, well we don't count the champ like you, you know, someone says regular seasons, whatever. But just keep that in mind, keep open. I'll be really curious to see where the championship game is, just cuz obviously I'll be, I'll be going out to that. I think that'll be fun. But could be. I agree with you Andy. I think Jot top makes the most sense. I just, I always like to put out, I did have this note to make sure we talked about that as just like a potential whatever on that it's earlier in the day. They could you could flip it and, and you know, it's turf. So you could, you could have both the same, you know, it wouldn't be the end of the world, but just something to keep in mind. Yeah. By the way in terms of a acc any clubs or clubs that actually wanna do that, shout out to the Vegas lights for, for putting out and not playing a home game for like two months into the <laugh> into the m l s season and letting everybody kind of get into in, into Vegas to watch the Vipers and not have to watch any soccer for the first two months. Shout out to them. Cuz that's, that is not, that is like almost unfathomable in pro sports. Like to not have a home game for the first two months of the season. That's almost unfathomable. And I, I think for them to be able to figure that out and have that be accountable, shout out to them, that's, that's honestly not something they had to do. And I think they could've put their foot down, but I think I'm, I'm thankful that they're allowed to do that. I was just thinking in terms of like, you know, other, other teams playing in other, in <laugh> in venues hosted by the X f ffl. It's almost unfathomable that I have a home game for that long unless you are the Las Vegas the St. Louis Battle hawks and then you, and then you are used to not having a home game for A oh my God. But, but think about it though. Think about how much of a home feel advantage that is for now on the back end too. Like I, I know that's a pain, but if they go into that like home game going up two, one or three oh like you're set for the rest of the season, you haven't, you have a huge advantage on your side the rest of the way. I think I, I definitely think Coach Anthony Beck will make that a point maybe is that okay, look, there's an opp it's gonna be rough on the road a little bit, but if you are able to get that advantage going into that late home slate, that's huge for them down the stretch. And I, I think either way, like I said, I think those fans are gonna show up and be maniacs regardless of what the record is. A couple more things we'll get outta here. North south divisions, we touched on it, we got the news cuz it was kind of buried in the pressure release. We did touch on it on the live stream. Do we, do we need divisions? I just would've done aid and done seating points or whatever. We have the north division that's basically everybody but Texas and Orlando. Orlando is going to be in the south with Texas. Like do we, do we like this at all? I don't, yeah, so I, I think in the traditional sense that divisions, I do think ultimately work, I know people have been debating that, that's becoming a point of debate recently. Especially with teams like, you know, in the NFL with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, you know, potentially finishing under 500 and they've already won their division title. It's like, I, I get that's, that's a thing, but here's my, here's my deal about it. It's like if it's that tough, go win the game. Go win the playoff game in their home. And guess what, that doesn't happen. Most of the time. I ran the numbers the other day, pe people do not put up their end of the deal and win those wild card games anyways, so I don't want to hear it. But as far as this format goes, since it's a less, you know, it's not a league with a lot of lineage or tradition and they seem to already play out of a hub as it is then. Yeah. Or not a hub, but like they have a hub, you know, format as far as like their operations and everything. Yeah, I I don't think they have to have divisions. I don't think it's really that important. I agree with you, they could mix it up a little bit, but I'm not upset about it and I do get that like Texas is like one big thing. I mean it is kind of funny that Orlando is like the redheaded stepchild in that, in that division and it's like, oh, you're the only one that's not in this state of ours. Sorry. so they're, I I feel like they're just keep getting this short end of the stick in a lot of ways. But they, it, it is interesting though that there are, there are these divisions. I I thought initially I thought there was gonna be an east and west that, that was kind of my thinking. But then again with there being three teams in one state, it's kind of hard to argue for that because it's like, well are you talking me like East Texas being one side and like West Texas being the other side, like stuff like that. So I, I think that's kind of, that makes it, makes sense in this configuration. But I agree with you. I I I would not have minded if they just said there are no divisions. Just whoever is has a better record gets in the playoffs. Yeah, I just, I I don't know. I think that I, I mean I don't north south in the US L makes a little bit more sense just cuz obviously geographically and they're all east coast and you can't do it all that way. One note I just got texted I guess scribbling went back to and Mike posted the thing too. Channey scribbling went back to the stars. He was assigned to the battle hawks. So that was a big loss. Us f l that's another ex Ffl Dr or yeah, exe l drafted player that, you know, played the US L drafted the Xe l I chose to go back to the US F L so I just wanted to make sure that was touched on here cause I don't see me recording anything else today to touch on that. We did the divisions. I just a couple more notes on here. We'll try to get out. Do you have any other general thoughts? We have, like Max has a bunch of like really specific, like, you know, we have a bunch of late games in Seattle, you know, six games at 9:00 PM or later. Five of those are you know, Seattle for four of those Pacific time. You know, there's a 10 local 10 Eastern. Any any other weird scheduling anomalies? Anything else you wanna talk about? The one Monday game, four total weekday games. The Monday, two Thursdays and a Friday. I, I know you're not happy about the Seattle being on a Thursday night, but I actually like the idea of a Thursday night game regardless. I think that's cool And I like the Monday night game again. I don't like some of the, a couple of the games being that 10:00 PM slot, the, that right there in week five. That's, that's really brutal, especially with it being so far apart from each other. Like that Saturday is 10:00 PM and then bam, next day Sunday is 10:00 PM Eastern. Like that's, that's really gonna test some, test some people's resolve and see if they're gonna actually tune in, especially that Sunday night. So we'll see, we'll see where that, that stands at that point. Other than that, I think, and this is something that is goes without saying, but this is gonna test to see how much March Madness affects this because we did not get to see that last time. We did not see the results of that last time and how much they're gonna be able to kind of get around that a little bit. Because as we all know, March Madness, the first two weeks just runs straight through from Thursday through Sunday. So regardless of where you put your games, it's gonna be affected in one way or another. You try to get, you just kind of try to like push through it in a motor through it as much as you can. Maybe they could have put more weekday games, like I think by the time you get to week six you have that Monday game, then you won't be affected by it. Obviously there's not gonna be a Monday, you know, NCAA game, but that is something that is gonna be monitored I'm sure. And that was already something that people were starting to talk about back when the X F L aired because I think that weekend was championship games, conference championship games. So they were getting close to it. We'll see how that works this time. One more just Seattle getting the shafter. Week one. We play the last game on Sunday. We are played the next game on Thursday. We have to travel from DC back to Arlington and then up to Seattle. I mean, talk about CrossCountry time zones travel. I mean I'm, I'm tooting the horn here. I think this is rigged against Seattle. Okay. so are you gonna start naming names or what's going on here? Cause I, I I, I feel like this was just an excuse for me to come up to do therapy for you in your Seattle <laugh> on Your Seattle schedule. I can't even go to that game. I can't even go to that game. But you, you should definitely come up for what you should come up for the one C Dragons game. I can actually attend I front row tickets, 50 yard line, you should whatever game that is, there's only one you should come to that. The other thing I wanted to mention there is one Friday game. We touched on that, right? Yes, yes. There is one. There is one Friday game. Yeah, One from the Friday game and then the, the last note and obviously thoughts and prayers, Tomar Hamlin, everything going on. I've touched on the top of the show, the back of the shows I've recorded all this debate today. Even when we did the live stream is there're gonna be pushback at the season. Mike's been going crazy and the group chat talking, you know, their NFL's gonna resolve all that, not play the game and coin flip or you know maybe they'll just do like an X ffl scramble to figure out what Tmobile team gets the, it's the neutral site game <laugh>. But that will not affect, I did not think that they would push back the Super Bowl. Like I did not think that that was a worthwhile endeavor to do. But it's just good to know that everything, you know, now we can just, not that that was the major concern, but this we can focus on DeMar everything happening with that X F L season. We don't need to worry about that. So Yeah, my thoughts in person too. There's been some encouraging news as far as his recovery. I'm, I'm glad to see that cuz the last time I recorded a podcast actually was on Monday and it was during that time and man, it was hard to get through that, just watching that in the background. It was, it was really rough and watching all the postgame coverage was just heartbreaking. But I'm glad, I'm encouraged to see what some of the results are as far as his recovery goes. But in terms of the schedule, I think that there was never really gonna be a possibility of the Super Bowls getting pushed. Like that's a deadlocked date that's not happening. What I did think might happen is that some of the playoff games and the overall schedule would get shifted up and then what would happen is there wouldn't be a bi-week before the Super Bowl and they would just kind of obfuscate the Pro Bowl flag football thing that they were gonna do or you know, put it on a different day or whatever. But I don't think that's gonna be a choice now either. I think they're just they always said they're ca basically canceling the game and they're not gonna be able to make it up and they're just gonna try and do some weird fining. I could see the N F L just kind of doing some, some whatever voodoo magic they have to do on the, on the results of that an out bearing of that result of that whole event. But no, I I never thought for one minute that that Super Bowl schedule was gonna get pushed back. But I do think though, and I'm I I might just right out with this and this and maybe I'll put on my tin foil hat here is I think eventually we are going to get 18 game schedules in the N F L and I think it's gonna be on President's Day weekend that the Super Bowl is because then they can have that day off for people who are going to school the next next day and they can just basically have that. So eventually I think that's something that maybe the X ffl will have to to think about but they can kick that can down the road and think about it later. But that's something that I think eventually will happen. Well And, and give teams two buys. Do CFL give them two buys, extend the season. It works great in the cfl. You get three buys in the cfl. I mean it's a longer season but you played tum more games and you get, you know, it's works Out. I cannot believe the N F L players association was not able to argue for that like the you were at when you were adding to the 17th game. Like they have to add another buy, right? Nope, they didn't that I that that short. Not having that rest is so critical for players. And honestly that's the other thing. If they had just played that Bill's Bengals game week 18 and then they pushed everything back and gave it an extra week for everyone, I think that would've been great for, for everybody and honestly it would've made everyone healthier going into the last week in the playoffs in my opinion. I think that would've been a win-win situation. But the N NFL doesn't see it that way. They have to keep the status quo but God if they do add another game, they better add another bi-week. Cuz that that, that's just so brutal. It's ridiculous that the C F L has three by weeks and just one more week of games and they give plenty of rest to everybody. And here we are with the N F L just a, you know, having one little measy measly week off. So Well I think that's good. We'll get outta here. I'll showman Cracken jersey one more time. Appreciate it Andy, I think, you know, calling you a lot here during the season as well. Lots of other stuff. Pat's coming up and everything else, anything else from you? Really appreciate your time. Well you know, hopefully it's not just calling and I'll actually cross paths with you in in person. I think this is, this is a reality now. So we can actually <laugh> look forward to that. I can't wait and I'm sorry about your cracking schedule. If you need to opine to it. Anybody else, I'm sure you will over, you know, for a few more Yardhouse beers or something like that but <Laugh> well, and I was so offended you said you were in the group chat, you're like Hey I need one of those hotels. Pat was like giving away hotels. I need one of those hotels. If I go to Seattle, I'm like Andy, I live like 12 minutes from the stadium. Like you don't, like you don't have to like I was almost offended. I was almost offended that you would even think that you would have to look for a hotel. I don't wanna assume that someone just wants me to roll over their couch and oh we Have a guest of everything. We got the whole, we got the whole shebang. Andrew Murray here, we're gonna get off. I'm gonna go grab some dinner here. Really appreciate your time coming off of work and everything else like you do. Oh always Reid, thank you so much. Well I'm excited. We had Pat on back XE L draft calling in. Now we get Pat back on. We are gonna originally do just Battle Hawks training camp and obviously XE L schedule stuff. We'll talk that first and then get Pat's thoughts on the rosters here for training Camp Pat, how are you doing sir? You know, busy day, but I'm glad I could make time for you. Of course. It's good. I appreciate it. So first and foremost, you know Battle Hawk schedule coming out first home game isn't until week four. I know there were some scheduling difficulties with the dome. I, I don't know what happens when you have a two year head start and we ready to this. When did you make, I know you've been running the around but initial thoughts on the Battle Hawk schedule? I mean, it's great that they're coming back personally for me it kind of makes, makes my life a little bit easier cuz now because I do travel for work. So now it's like, okay three weeks I will be in St. Louis, no problem. I'm able to knock out all three of those games. So there is a convenient part to that maybe. As far as with the dome, as people know, they do a lot of random stuff there from conventions to other sporting events to concerts. So I mean it might be an easier sell in the initial push for this to have, okay. Three week blocks. But regardless, and we've talked about this in I'm St. Louis is starving for football, you know, just give it to these people, they deserve it and maybe ease the passing of Stan Croke burning all these people. I've seen comments, you know, God, going into week four, you better hope the battle hawks are at least competitive. You know, last thing you want is the oh and three team going into week four. Do you think that that matters or the St. Louis is gonna be so happy anyway? I mean if you wanna have that conversation, I think in week eight when they return back I'll listen to you. But at at this point you could have put your local JV high school team, put the name St. Louis in front of it and people are gonna show up for week four. So maybe that's a little bit crass, but I mean we all know DER's gonna be there so he'll, he'll bring the crowd D Yeah, it's not dirty. Yeah. DER's been on the, on the Twitter video saying everyone the <inaudible>, the Battle Hawks Braas. I thought that was an interesting choice for one of the, I would say one of the more marque games, two in the afternoon, but it's one of the ABC slots, one of only seven I think that the X F L gets during the season. What do you make of that as one of the kickoff games, St. Louis going into San Antonio against the Battle Hawks or against the Promise? Well, with Texas being the prime jewel of the X ffl and it is obviously where they're running their HQ out of and everything, I mean it's gonna sell tickets people. San Antonio is another city that we've always heard about putting football there and whatnot. So it's not a terrible thing. I'm really pumped that they did go all home team like week one. Everyone in Texas, financially it makes sense since they're all working out of there and you know, I'm sure it's a little bit cheaper to fly in the DC maybe than Seattle. So I think they did the right thing fiscally and with all these spring leagues, in my opinion, it all comes down to money. Just let's get three year one, let's get three year two, okay, after two years of football, now we can start doing who's good, who's not, all that stuff. And now we can make more primetime games because regardless of what these P teams look like on paper, I mean we can argue that AJ McCarran is technically the best quarterback because he played in the nfl, had some success in the nfl, but we all know what's gonna happen is is once these guys actually take the field and then from there we can build the brands and the fan bases. So, you know, Jag's, well this year, Jack's Titans is a little bit more fun to watch, but you know, no one wants to see Thursday night N F L kickoff, Texans, whatever the other, the worst team in the league. Texans Bears isn't selling as many tickets as Bengals bills or Chiefs Bengals or go down that list. So then we can actually understand, okay, these teams have been together. Now these are marquee matchups cuz Ryan Willis was the MVP two times in a row or something like that. Yeah, it's hard to get my head wrapped around. I know Mike posted his article and everyone's kind of getting their articles out as they can with, you know, the, their, their respective teams and their breakdowns. It is still hard to just, where we don't have, you know, depth charts yet. We don't know we have these quarterback battles we're going through. It's still trying to figure out, we have the alumni guys, like you said before we started recording, still getting added on this week via X F L analyst on Instagram. It's just, it's still hard for me to get my head wrapped around team A versus team B at this point. Yeah, and I think we saw that with the U S F L when people are like, team X is gonna be number one and it's like, maybe you could be right, but no one has ever been a Birmingham stallion, a DC defender in o like none of these very limited of amount of these guys are returning to their original team and whatnot. So while it's good to speculate and it gets people going and jarring when I do my analysis, I'm going off pure speculation because I can't judge a 2015 AJ McCarran five and two for the Bengals leading them to the playoffs. I can't judge the Spring League Ryan Willis because he hasn't really played football in two years, you know, so it's, it's all fun for speculation but like everything, we will understand what's going on once the players hit the field and begin putting film together. Because even in the U US F L right now, we can't even really judge that cuz a lot of those teams are different. And the best team might be in the U S F L, the team that was, you know, maybe a four and six, three and seven gamblers because they are bringing back a lot of consistent pieces. So we can argue about who's the best team, but we're not gonna know until week one or two. And you always know no matter what in the alt league week one and two is gonna be very ugly <Laugh>. I I, I'll be curious to see how, and obviously I didn't live through the X F L media step back, I was just a fan in 2020, but how much of the week to week like football, this of it drives podcast views and interest in that way. I will tell you say for the X F L or the U S F L lawsuit kickoff, kind of that stuff, you know, I'd have two, three guys on, you know, Yahoo Sports, whoever every week talking through U US F l breaking down the rosters. Not a lot of interest there, at least just in comparison to like, hey, US L CEO suing over the trademarks. I'll be curious to see if X ffl, maybe if it's a different type of football, higher quality, if people just care more about the initials for whatever reason. Just if that carries the conversation more, I think it will because you're going into technically the third season of the X ffl and then you add in Danny and the Rock people know those, those names. So the name, the name not notoriety that revolves around the X Ffl is way sexier than the u s Ffl. And we are going through the third season of this. Yes, you can argue that it was the fourth season of the U S F L, but I am 29 years old. I remember X FFL 1.0, I was on contract in 2020 and I remember watching X ffl 2.0. There's a lot of people who are in that same, you know, bracket and even if they missed out on X Ffl 1.0, they may have caught the ufl, they definitely caught the AAF if they're listening to your show show. So you're getting these, you know, niche diehards and then you're adding in the casual viewers of the Rock who are like, oh, the Rock owns a football team. That's cool, as we've talked about on the show multiple times. And then you're actually putting the teams in the market regardless of the fans shortage of of the burning Birmingham hub people showed up the Birmingham games. So even if someone's a casual viewer of the DC Defenders, which I think could be the weakest market of the, of these teams, people are still gonna go because I mean like a $20 ticket, not a crazy thing. Let's, let's do this, let's go show out for this whatever this DC defenders are, Do you like friend of, you know, our show and the Spring league and everyone else we've tracked U S F L. Do you like having Brian Scott potentially in that marquee kickoff game on on February 18th? I like whatever Brian Scott does because I do believe he is an N F L quarterback. And I think right now he just needs to put together 10 games of healthy film. Now when I say he is an NFL quarterback, there are 96 at a minimum, 96 people who are in NFL quarterback. So just because I think that doesn't mean he'll be, you know, on the sidelines every day and the it dressed up or even in even in uniform or whatever on the practice squad, regardless of that. I do think it's great for him, if anyone knows who Brian Scott is, his journey's beautiful. If you're listening to this show, you don't know who he is. I'm a little bit disappointed, disappointed, but the fact that Brian has been through a lot, especially with this injury, especially with the way him and Bart started getting that offense rolling, I think it's great that he has the opportunity because mind you, he has to fight with Jordan Jordan, Luis Perez and Jaylen McClendon to get on that field to be the marquee guy that kicks this thing off. So nothing would be cooler than Brian Scott doing a rolling out versus Kyle Slowder. And they put up each 36 points, you know, in a 36 35 shootout where one of those guys wins and they both throw three touchdowns each. Yeah, it's not lost on me that, you know, and I wanna get, I know we're doing the battle hawks and we'll get to that in a second, you know whether it's, it's well first off, do you think Brian has the leg over Luis Perez? I mean, do, do you presume Brian's the number one starter? That's a hard decision because I know exactly who Luis Perez is and I know who Jaylen McClendon is, and that offense looks a lot like the New Jersey generals, which Luis Perez led to obviously that nine in one record. But I do think Bryant and Scott is air quote away, sexier quarterback to Luis Perez putting his 18 of 24 a tad, you know, plus or minus 200 yards, two touchdowns where I could see Brian putting up a 300 yard game with three touchdowns and you know, really airing it out. You know, especially if they keep that similar offense he ran with the stars. But the, but they're kind of different quarterbacks. You know, Brian's a little bit, a little bit smaller, he's kind of got a little bit more swag to him and you know, Luis Perez is kind of your diet. Alex Smith. Is it interesting that, and it wasn't lost on me either if, if it's Perez or Scott, you know, Brian Scott that start having, yeah, having the battle of the U S F L quarterbacks there with Kyle sl. I mean just, it seems like a weird kismet whatever. I mean certainly not planned that way that X F L is sitting there, Hey, we're gonna do this, but we have Kyle Slowder there presumably, and then Scott or Perez, it seems it's, it's weird, right? I mean they might have point pointed it that way, but the X F L is low key, showed a little bit of shade. I think we've talked about it in groups towards U USS F L guys. Why I believe both leagues think they are superior to each one. I know everyone makes a big deal of the X F L taking almost 60, well I think it would be 61 players now who have been in the U S F L or were drafted by U S F L teams and a lot of these xfo fanboy, non non you know, analytical types have been like, oh this league is the US F O is so trash, look, we got all their good players. And I'm like, that might be a little bit of a, a bad like verbiage to use because if this league is so trash, why did you take 61 of their guys? Now, 100% believe the XFL is superior in the fact that their schedule allows for an NFL esque player to prepare the post draft when teams are just like, okay, we have 88 rosters, we'll just sign this, or 88 guys on my, my 90 man roster. Let's sign this guy. Okay, let's bring in this dude for a mini camp with the rookies. See how that goes. If you're a good N nfl, if you're an NFL level player, you'll go to the F nfl whether you're playing in ffc F Arena, whatever it is. And now there's just more options for you. I think it was, I think it it, I I would, I would love to know what the thought process was with the, the U S F L brass we're, you know, we're tating all these guys coming in back in July and it looks so great. Obviously ante turban, you know, pro Bowl that is the standout in in that ride and that works for, it's good for FFC F as well being able to have his lineage there, but it looked really good. We have, you know, 55 or whatever guys signed and then to see one. But like you said, you, you do view as though the X F L has a stronger timeline there for guys going directly back in and actually not just hitting the camp but actually sticking. Yes, if you still had, if everything was the same in the perfect world between the both leagues and I was a guy who was on the cusp and I could go to an X Ffl team and garner 80% of the snaps at my position versus a U S F L team, then I would go to the X ffl because if I had that nagging hamstring and even if I put up 700 rushing yards, I'm a running back or something like that. Now I have three weeks after the X ffl season to go to the OTAs, the mini camps probably even longer honestly to recover. And now they're getting the best version of myself. Kyle saw played hurt all year while I didn't think that he was gonna make the Jaguars, cuz I felt like they were pretty keen on the EJ Perry as their, you know, reserve guy. And plus he's probably cheaper because he was a rookie on the practice squad where Slaughter probably brings in about 300 compared to Perry's 200 K. It's still, he, we all know Slaughter was hurt and we definitely saw a fall off with his play. In terms of final question for scheduling and then I wanna get to the the roster breakdown here. Having the, because I'll get, I'll get Andrew Murray's thoughts on this as well, but you, the networks, were you surprised to see so many cable networks? Not, you know, only, only seven games. A ABC rely mostly on fx. You know, ESPN one and two, I mean, anytime you're putting games on espn no matter what they are, they are gonna generate traffic. Fx, I'd have to see how they do streaming and all that stuff. But a guy like me who travels so much, I rely a little bit more on streaming to watch anything. So I do think the FX thing, I'm curious to see what the ratings do come out for whatever week it is. You know, like if they're obviously playing four games, it wouldn't surprise me if there was like a 50% drop off, not because of the quality of play or the teams, but because of it being on FX and maybe not everyone has that package. Maybe people are just Oh, okay, I, you know, casual viewers. Oh, I'm just scrolling through. Well I don't wanna wash Yellowstone. What's on AEs? Oh okay. The Guardians and Roughneck. That's cool. I think it's good too. And I, we mentioned in the stream today, but yeah, all the games available on ESPN plus too, I think is a selling point. If you're someone that you know, likes to watch stuff on your phone, you're like, I can pull it up on my TV or whatever, it gives you that other option too where U us F l like, okay, I gotta get PE peacock and get the premium or gotta get F like ESPN plus I think it's 6 99 a month and if you think you could get all 43 extra 12 games, that's really not, I don't think that's too bad, you know, 20 bucks or whatever to get all of that. Any other thoughts on that? And then we'll get to the Hawk Truster? No, and now that you tell me that I can watch all the games on ESPN plus like, you know, I, I don't think it matters as much regarding regarding the FX situation. But you know, I think, I think in time the ratings will dictate my opinion personally. So what have you, you know, you've had a chance to, you know, speak with coach and you've gone to obviously, you know, covering the events and everything there in St. Louis. we're getting ready training camp here, players reporting this week, practices starting on the 14th or doing like a week of medicals and you know, contracts and reading, you know, the playbooks and whatever, all that kind of paperwork. Overall thoughts just before we deep dive like A, B, C, D, how would you grade kind of the job coach Beck has done? Well, I think they're all a's until the end of the season, right? Because I don't know what any of these guys are going to do because they all are capable athletes incomparable to everyone else on the team minus the Orlando guardians who I'm pretty sure I'll be playing quarterback for them at some point this year, which is awesome. Right? So, you know, when I did talk to Coach Beck, it was on November 1st, so it was a little bit of a very reserved on the type of players he's gonna get. There are some guys that clearly have a lot of ties to him and bowler Dave Bowler, D ppp that when they were with the AAF together, there are some guys that he went straight to the N F L well like AJ McCarran, which I believe Mike Mitchell has made it very clear that McCarran was a Beck guy. I'm, I'm always of note that I want known commodities when I'm doing these alt leagues. I think AJ McCarran was a perfect, perfect pick because we know who he is and he might not be great, but he's something to build off of. So I have no problem bringing in the Ryan Willow suit to an extent is a known commodity in the alt league world. But you also go down to a guy like Austin Pro, granted, did his dad help him get a job? A little bit, yeah, because he's obviously the wide receiver coach, but you have plenty of guys who do have experience in alt league and also have experience working in these NFL camps. As you can see if, if you're viewing this and not listening, I have put even the salaries for a lot of these players showing that these people have been around NFL environments and have earned F NFL paychecks, which if you're air quote player number 54 going against another player, another roster, a lot of these guys might not even have touched an N F NFL training camp. So that experience that you got getting knocked around by first and by the ones and twos of an N F NFL team helps you out so much more and being around, you know, like Letty Brown was with the Chargers, right? Are you not telling me that Letty Brown didn't learn something from Austin Eckler? I think a lot of that goes a long way. I just looking on here is AJ McCarran, is he the highest grossing player in the, in of any of the X ffl teams right now with 15 million? That's what I think I've done. I think Marta Bryant and Josh Gordon. Mike Oh, Josh Gordon. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But the thing is is I don't remember if Josh Gordon actually signed that big money contract cuz he was a supplemental pick. So he probably got a 4 million deal when he was drafted. Marta, Bri third round pick and you know, the 15 million is definitely the most for the quarterbacks. I think the quarterbacks total about 20 million in this league with McCarran accounting for about 75% of it. You were talking, you know, like you said when you talked with Beck before, a little more reserved. Now that you're seeing the roster he's assembling, I mean, are are you able to better formulate kind of what this is gonna look like when we hit the field? Yes and no. I mean, I mean I'll have to dig deep into the offensive coordinators and whatnot. I do. I I mean if this team goes seven to three, that wouldn't surprise me. I don't see them finishing below 500. Bruce Gradkowski is gonna be a first time offensive coordinator at the NFL level. So we'll see what type of offense he wants to run. Beck is his first time head coach, I think this is his third year in coaching. You got Donnie Abraham's been around IMG Academy and then really the most experienced guy to have is at the linebacker position, which is, which is Dave Stle. He was a head coach. He was a head coach at Mizzou. So I was kind of hoping we might see a guy like Sean Weatherspoon come into this like, hey, because, and maybe even co yearly Eley and a couple other guys who are on the outskirts of their career who had Mizzou ties, you know, even Sheldon Richardson cuz he had 'em at Mizzou when he was a linebackers coach there. And d and working with the defense, It's just interesting with back, you know, like you said, first year coach coming in not knowing what exactly that's looking for. I mean he to me is the biggest blank page kind of of like, what are we expecting of someone? Do you feel the same way? A little bit, yeah. I mean he definitely took a lot of guys with alt league experience. He took a couple guys that he had with the fleet. I think that number's like six. And then in his supplemental draft, I think they took five or six a U S F L guys, you know guys who actually were playing in the U S F L not just happened to be on the team. And then you add in, out of the 14 guys, he got, 10 of them had prior league I actually played in a professional game and I think 13 of them were in camp 13 or 12 of the 14 with an NFL team at one point in their career. So he definitely went with the experience. And granted experience may vary, however, I mean it means something compared to someone who's all they did was go to mini camp for three days and hold a bag, which you've seen on some other teams. In terms of y wide receiver here battles, like you said Austin Pearl probably got a a leg in because of, you know, family connections that way. Do you see standouts there? Who do you see kind of rising to the top of that? Marcel Atman I think is gonna be, he's a big, he's a big guy. He's played in the nfl, played with the Raiders record. I think he's got like 20 career receptions. Darius Shepherd, he's kind of the that wide receiver six. I don't really see him being, and he's got, he's caught passes from Aaron, Aaron Rogers and he spends some time on the Denver practice squad and actually had his spot taken by Victor Bolden. That's a guy. Not really surprised if those two guys kind of hit it off. You throw, you throw any of these slot guys in in there and then they have a guy on a tight end Jaylen Smith, he's kind of that tweener. Wide receiver. Wide receiver to tight end. We might be able to see him kind of mold into a poor man's Travis Kelsey. And Dante die, if I'm saying his name right, he's played in the nfl, he's played in the a f and he's played in the X ffl. So the experience he can bring to these guys of teaching 'em about, you know, kind of a, kind of, this is what the alt league is like. I think that would be extremely beneficial to a lot of these, these gentlemen. And then JaMarcus Bradley, he's on the Pittsburgh practice squad. I got him highlighted in red. If this guy's getting N F L looks, that means he's still got something in the tank and you can't, you know, if he's on these guys' shortlist, it's something to keep out out for. It means he's got a lot of good things going for him. But if I saw Marcel admin, Darius Shepherd, Austin Proa and Dante Hadai, you know, catching being top four receivers on this team, which obviously doesn't mean they're top four receivers in the league, that would not surprise me at all. And then in terms of, you know, obviously AJ McCarran, you know, being brought in, having that experience, Ryan Willis, people you knows, I mean, do you see much of a battle there? Do you see McCarran as more of that mentor role? I see McCarran mentoring. I think he's comfortable with his life Alabama guy. So you know, he was doing the N I L thing before the n I L thing most likely. You know, he's been in the league for eight years. He knows kind of who he is as far as what he wants in his career. If you're citing AJ McCarran based off his X ffl play, that means you were probably, I personally feel that means you're gonna sign him no matter what. It's kinda like Garrett Gilbert, all Garrett Gilbert had to do was to maintain and he would've been on N F NFL shortlist. Granted he was the pseudo MVP of that League of the aaf. However, I think this is Willis's job to lose. And Nick ti was a guy just kind of a camp body for the Texans and a CFL team. I forgot which CFL team he was with. Yeah, I missed that he was assigned. That was, he wasn't on my short list of guys I was paying attention to on the Battle Hawks. But and then in, you know, running backs here, we talked a lot on the external draft, you know, trying to drafts heavy on that, at least starting out offenses, you know, starting slow in spring leagues with limited training camps and all that. Do you see standouts here and how do you think they did? I mean, I think Leddy Brown could be the guy just, just because he is younger. He's got, he's a little bit more fresh I think. John Vogel highlighted him during the draft a little bit, but Brian Hill is a seasoned veteran. He's been in the league, I think with all these running backs we are gonna see a running back by committee until one of them, one of them shows that they can take over the position. I forget what the first overall pick was. I forgot that John name on the DC Defenders. That's about the only one that stands out to me as like this is our day one guy. Cause he is still getting, he's getting N F L workouts every, every week. It appears multiple ones. Yes. Abdul Abram Smith. There you go. I knew was, I knew it was a a on there. I don't, don't put me on this fire to remember that too. Greg Abrams Smith yeah, Brian Hill was on the show. Alumni Academy guy, all that. Oh, before we go cuz I knew we wanted to make sure and get your time in here with all that. Obviously the team still signing the f NFL alumni guys right now. X Ffl had restructured their agreement with ever with them. They're gonna add the spots into training camp to be able to hold the guys in training camp. I have a feeling a lot of those guys are, are probably still going to get cut. Probably was gonna happen anyway. Obviously you'd rather be on a training camp, but at least have someone looking at you. What are your thoughts on that? And I know you had some stuff you wanted to add before you Go. I mean, I, I, with the Alumni Academy, I understand what they're doing. I like what they're doing. I think I, I hope all these guys who are going into this actually understand what this means. And I feel like some of these guys that I've seen even on social media posting about this they're a little bit overzealous. And while it's great to be excited about all this stuff, you know, there's one gentleman who I've seen post a lot of stuff and, and he played in the Fcf. It's not that I don't wanna use, don't get your hopes up, but tee your expectations, however, on the same side you have to be in it, the win it. So I totally get that. No, it's a double edge sword. I absolutely agree. But it is the same thing when we would see guys u us f l the same way next nfl. Like, hey, this guy's in the draft pool, this guy's in the draft pool, this guy's in the draft pool. This. Like, that's, that's great, but there's only going to be, you know, there's 1500 guys or whatever. There's only gonna be a couple hundred taken. Like yes, you absolutely have to be it. You know, you, you gotta be in the hand to win the hand. You know, you gotta, you gotta have your cards there. But it is interesting that way. I just hope that you know, maybe next year they can figure out a more eloquent way to do this. But I, I think this was gonna happen anyway. I just think EXL is having to bite the bullet and hey, we gotta pay these guys in extra two or three weeks here to come to the training camp. And I would love if the X Ffl and the US f l could, you know, run some drug deal to where these alumni Academy guys like Teeter in and, and reverse it to the hub as well if that's what it takes. I mean there's plenty of guys out there that will find that are out of nowhere regarding their, their skillset on that play football, obviously. Now if one NFL alumni guy goes and becomes an all pro or a pro bowler in the nfl, I mean that kind of validates a lot of it. But at the same time there could be a bill of goods being sold to some of these guys and I think that might have been an issue with all the controversy a couple weeks ago. And I think they both parties the a, the academy and the XFL did a good job in rectifying it because for all we know, you know, a couple of these offensive linemen go to camp, they don't want to do it anymore. And then all of a sudden an alumni guy who is your, you know, right, tackle five is now right tackle three and you know, the Battle hawks didn't want 'em, but you know, the defenders do now because they saw something in them or something like that. Final thoughts far let you go. I know you gotta run, do some other stuff here. You know, anything on battle hawks and schedule anything else while I have you today? Two things on the roster. Two guys to look out for are Vi Alexander a guard for that, A guard and jalon bush out pd. Both those guys played in the US F l last year. Alexander was out of football for like five seasons, four seasons and then came with the Raider and was with the Oakland Raiders. That's how long ago it was. And then became a serviceable guard for the Mul Kirby Wilson's Muellers, I do like their offensive line. I when, you know, real, real, real preliminary on that left side. Let's go John Toth pad, Alexander and Jowan Buswell Beatie as your, as starting on one of those sides. And then another guy is Christian Olmsted. He was with Brian Willis in the Spring League. And you know, they obviously won a championship. I'd love to get in the defense. I honestly don't have time if we kick over the special teams in the supplemental draft. They were the only team to pick up a other another long snapper or specialist in general. Now they did just hire Tory Woodbury to be their special teams coordinator. So you might have a battle at Long Snapper and no one cares about specialists until it's the last part of the game and they miss a season or something like that. Interesting. Well, you know, and with the, they've kind of neutered the extra points and stuff and the extras. I, I never liked that. I don't know. I dunno which is better than the US L and you kick for one or the extra fell and all that stuff. But interesting there, special teams, it's hard in spring leagues because it's such kind of a cluster anyway. I mean we, here, we saw with the, what was it, the Panthers were running outta the puncher, the kick field goals and stuff. Yeah. <Laugh>, we, we run into issues there sometimes. Yeah, they had the worst kicker in the league and then they picked up guy, another guy four weeks later who's kicking 60 yard field goals and winning players of the week. Well this is good Pat. A lot of work. Is your article up or is going up on UB with the, you know, the, the following up the battle Hawk supplemental stuff and then obviously Pat will be having his thoughts up, I'm sure about scheduling and all that other stuff. Anything Battle Hawks. Pat's gonna be your guy this year. Really appreciate it and I think it's good a lot of you guys and focusing down on the team so we can do stuff like this. So yeah, my supplemental update is there. I'm, I'll do an an alumni academy article at some point when I have time right now. Obviously the Alumni Academy hasn't officially been announced, but Exel analyst has been pushing a lot of that, those guys out. He pushed out a couple more guys today, so I'm kind of waiting until an actual announcement comes. I think that'd be fair and respectful to players who maybe, maybe got, Hey, we're going to get you versus we got you. So I think that'd be fair cuz we all know the players read the article sometimes and they'll reach out and they'll correct us on certain things. That's a very fair thing as well. Yeah, we don't want the CFL Allstar voting again, we're not the guys, guys, I don't wanna laugh and all the guys got nominated and then it's like, oh yeah, the tabulations wrong. Sorry. well Pat running around. Appreciate it as always and we'll get you next time and thanks so much. Thank you. A special thanks to both of my guests today, Andrew Murray for coming on, coming from work. As always, appreciate the professor's time, thoughts, and expertise and the Pat Rapino coming on as well. Pat is just a wealth of knowledge if you guys don't follow either Andy or Pat on Twitter, but I know Pat's always posting stats and tracking alternate league quarterbacks and their rankings and, you know, in the NFL season and how many backup quarterbacks have played every you know, every week this season and record numbers and all that stuff. Really appreciate that. And like I said, max, for coming on this morning as well with the live stream as I recorded this morning, but doing the xfl schedule breakdown analysis. Really appreciate that. You know, kind of above and beyond here. Everyone hopping in and helping me out with, with this is a one man show, but I certainly can't do it without kind of your guys' support, watching and listening and then obviously all of the writers and other talented guests and, and smart people that we have on to kind of help fill out this, this content. I could not do it without everybody involved, like, and subscribe. Get the Bryan Scott Ball off my hands. He, he texts me like every other day if you given the ball away yet. So get this off my hands, like and subscribe. Get ready. X ffl 2023 schedule is, is here. We're, we're getting close like five weeks. I have my tickets booked. We will be in Arlington for the kickoff game. I just booked my flights in the hotel. Dorothy will be there. Not quite sure what that show's gonna look like yet. We'll be there for that. Look for you know, coverage all, all weekend the kickoff weekend in whatever form that looks like. I will be missing the first sea Dragons game, the Thursday game. We'll still be in Mexico heading to Mexico on vacation. En route to the X F L championship game on that you know, February 18th. So anyway should be busy. Appreciate it. Lots of logistics today. Thank you guys for your support. But yeah, look forward to that. Like can subscribe, gonna have wall to wall coverage here heading into the X Ffl 2023 kickoff. Should be having X ffl news here as well. And then I mentioned on our live stream today, if you are thirsty for C F L content, I know it's been really x ffl focused lately. Just a lot of stuff going on with that C F L off season. You know, they're kind of taking their break after the breakup. Tons of breakup stuff coming. All right. Tons of cfl, excuse me, stuff coming next week. Should have lots, lots and lots and lots of good guests lined up. Not sure if it's all gonna be one show, multiple shows. What we're gonna do, I, I've mentioned before Victor Que is gonna be making a reappearance here coming up. Had to reschedule that with his work stuff, but he'll be coming on lots of other C F L guests. I will share it online as soon as I have all that confirmed, but should be really good. Thanks as always. You know, Damar Hamlin, everybody with that thoughts and prayers. Thank you guys all so much again.

Episode 125 - Dissecting the XFL's "New Rules"

Well, it always gets me extra credit when I'm able to point at the TV to my wife and go, Hey, this, that's the guy that's coming on the, the show this week. We have Dean Blandino here, fresh off the holiday bowl last night. How are you doing, sir? I'm doing well. Great game. I mean that Oregon comes back and wins, and then that last, last two minutes of that game was like, just super exciting. It was a lot of fun. Yeah, that, that's my mother's team and I don't know why, but yeah, very exciting. Out here in the Johnson household. So that's <laugh>. So Dean, a couple, you know, we're here, we'll, we'll deep dive rule book here in a second. You know, we're 50 whatever days from kickoff. Did you really ever think we'd get back to this point again after everything? I mean, I lived through all this back in 2020. Yeah, it's been si such a long, long journey. I mean, I still remember, I remember where I was in when I, when I kind of found out that we were, you know, we were gonna kind of, we weren't gonna play. It was going into week six and 2020 and we weren't gonna play. And I remember getting that news and then it was just the, you know, just the snowball of the pandemic and, and everything shut down. And, and I didn't know, to be honest with you, there was always in the back of my mind, I always hoped that, you know, someone will come on board. But even in my wildest dreams, I never imagined the group that came in with Red Bird and Danny Garcia and Dwayne Johnson and all the people, Russ, Brandon, I, I it was beyond what I imagined and I'm just so excited that we're here. Like less than what, a more month and a half away. It's crazy. H how do you feel right now? I did kind of a welfare check for our Twitter followers yesterday. Like, how are you feeling? Welfare check Dean Blandino here, X Ffl 3.0. Yeah, well, you know, in that journey it felt like, okay, we got, you know, we got two years, we got a year and a half, we got a year. Now it's real. And you're just kind of making sure, I mean, we've gotta get our officials to Arlington for a clinic and we're gonna do rehearsal games with e s, ESPN N and, and then we're gonna be playing games here in less than two months. And just making sure there's so much, so many logistical things that you have to work through. So it's just kind of working through all that and just knowing that on you know, February 18th, I mean, we're gonna be, we're gonna be kicking off and, and watching some, some real live X F L football. So we cover all leagues on our show. I, we do C F L and U S F L as well. One question I've been denying to ask you for a long time, you know, U S F L lack of a better word, kind of borrowed a lot of the ideas. You know, that, you know, you and Sam Schwartz's been on the show a bunch and the team, everything back did, did you, do we need to try something different this time? Like, cuz for the casual viewer, it is the gimmicky, little bitty thing that'll kind of make, oh, you can go for three points. Like I'll watch it. Was that ever a hey, we gotta figure out something else now with the rule book this time? You know, it's a great question and, and we were very intentional. And look, Sam Schwartzstein was so integral in that process in terms of putting some of those rules together. And we were very intentional about, right, you have a, you kind of have an overarching theme. It was like, you know, more, more football, less downtime, you know, closer games, all of that. Everything that, it doesn't matter what league it is, we all want those close exciting games, but how can we tweak some of the rules to, to ensure that our games are gonna be exciting and the fans are gonna be engaged in those types of things. And we didn't feel like we needed to, to reinvent the wheel. We had a great foundation, what we did in 2020, and there were some things that we, we felt like we could tweak. And, and with the US I felt look, more football's great for everybody. And, you know, it was never a thing where, oh, we gotta be different. We've gotta, it, it's still, we have to stick to the core of, you know, the, the game itself and the game is so amazing. And we didn't wanna, we didn't wanna, you know, migrate so far away from football to what everyone's used to seeing, but we felt like there was some things that we could tweak to make it even better. And, and, and we feel like we're in a good place. Was it helpful seeing some of these long arching changes kind of o over the whole course of a season to be able to, to see kind of more of a sample size of that? Yeah, no question because we didn't, we didn't have a great big sample size in 20, 25 weeks and everything was positive. It was really one of my first experiences where people looked at officiating in rules in a different way. I mean, it's usually, it's a very negative environment a lot of the time. And, and it was positive and, oh, this is cool. We get to listen in and see what's happening in the replay booth and oh, they're, they're using Xbox remote. It was just kind of cool to see that reaction when typically official. We don't get that reaction in officiating in rules. So to see, you know, to see things that went through the U S F L season and it's all just learnings for everybody and, and how can we, how can we create you know, more opportunities for players and coaches and, and it's not just players and coaches and officials, it's athletic trainers and, and equipment managers and, and all of the people behind the scenes that go into a, you know, putting on football games and giving those people more opportunities. So it's, we talking about some of the tweaks here and we kind of have a broken up in this subsections here. So some officiating questions going from eight personnel back in, you know, 2.0 here to seven more the f l alignment thought process behind that here in 2023. Yeah, I think we, as we look at professional football and the differences between college and and professional football, especially here in, in, in the United States, seven officials felt it felt like the right number. We're gonna incorporate replay's gonna be more involved in, in, in certain situations. So we felt like we could cover, and also with the ball spotter really in 2020, we felt like having that ball spotter, bringing the ball spotter back and managing the ball mechanics would allow us to go to the, the, the N F NFL setup. And a lot of these officials that we're gonna be using our, our prospective N F L officials, the NFL is looking at them, scouting at them. So to give them an opportunity to work seven official mechanics helps them in their progression in their career. So we just felt like that was an opportunity to help the officials. We didn't feel like we were losing anything in terms of coverages and, and we felt like that was the right, the right decision. One of the big changes this time was obviously incorporating back the challenge, right? Coaches challenge thought process, bringing that back. Yeah, this was something that we've discussed when I was with the N F L and the Competition committee and, and you know, I remember Bill Belichick bringing this up and o other coaches is that, look, I've got a limited number of challenges. Why am I restricted in what I can challenge? As long as I understand that, look, if the video doesn't support making a change I, I live with that and I lose a time out and I lose the challenge and we can all move on and, and we, we've never really done it at the N F L. Like we tried past interference in 2019 and some other things and we just said rather than try to take the rule book and create a another subset of plays that you could challenge and then it gets more complicated. It's pretty, pretty simple. It's, you could challenge any officiating decision you want and, and if we look at it in the command center and we see that the we, that it is a mistake and we need to change it, we'll change it. If it's not a mistake, we're gonna leave it as is and you only get one chance. So with the coaches, they know they only have that one opportunity. You don't win and keep it. So you've gotta hold that for what you feel is a critical moment in the game. And, and we're excited about that to see what we learned from, from this process. You know, what do they challenge, when do they challenge, how do they utilize that? So I think we're you know, we're excited to see what we get this season. Some pushback we've gotten from some people covering it is you're asking these, you know, sometime first time head coaches now you gotta legislate the game as well. Concerned of kind of being able to balance that versus just being able to be a head coach out there. Yeah, there's no question. Look, being a head coach at any level, there's so many layers to it. And that's one of the things we talk about. You know, I'm a part of the N C A rules committee and being a part of those discussions and I'll tell you those coaches, right, they don't want necessarily to change to an NFL model where more is put on them, right? Because they have so much going on and in college, right? The replay official can stop the game at any point. And the coach has a challenge, but they rarely use it. And so they don't want that additional responsibility. But look, this is, these coaches are excited, they love it. They, they really do. Every coach, all of our eight head coaches really love that part cuz cuz for us it's another layer. We've got great officials and, and, but the game is so fast and officials aren't perfect, right? So there's gonna be situations where, where there might be a mistake and we feel like we've got layers in place to correct the, the, the mistakes that could have a significant impact on the outcome of the game. And the coaches appreciate that. I think they're excited about it and we'll see how it goes. We covered the C F L as well. There's been a lot of, you know, the season and roughing the past we're kind all these different things. Yeah, we said, Hey, you know, we, there's a league up here, you could, you know, challenge a lot of this stuff. Did you guys have any communications with any of the C F L people about how, like how do you implement challenges for things that aren't normal? Yeah, a lot of collaboration. There were a lot of early on in the early stages of, in terms of when, when we really just started up with the X Ffl 3.0. There was a lot of conversations with the C F L and their rules are you know, I I'm certainly not gonna sit here and say I'm an expert on the C F L rules. I've got a pretty good grasp and some of their rules are really interesting. It's a different game, right? You have a, a wider field, you're playing with more players, you have, you know, less downs. It's all, there's, there's there's some, some major differences that make their rules fit in their game versus, you know, whether it's the N F L or college or, or spring football X F L U S F L. So absolutely we, we looked at and we presented to our coaches a couple of times, a couple of C F L rules. One was, you know, in the C F L you, you end a quarter with a play, there's the time doesn't run out. And, and we presented that to our coaches to see what they thought. Ultimately there wasn't a consensus to go that route, but we thought that was interesting enough to present to our coaches. And so we had a lot of collaboration and, and looked at their rules and, and there's some really interesting rules that work for the C F L and, and it might be something we look at in the future. But in terms of the actual challenge like mechanics and all of that about when to use that just cuz it's, that is a way more technical part of their game where you're, you are able to spot a lot more of those challenges. Any of that when you're adding the challenge in here. Yeah. You know, we looked at that as well. But again, we just, this is new in terms of challenging anything and everything. And, and so again, it's gonna be, we don't know what we don't know yet. And I think this is gonna be something we, we, it's, it's incumbent upon us, we're gonna be making decisions to be consistent and to, and to set a consistent standard as to hey, so the clubs know and the teams, the head coaches know that okay, that I have an opportunity to get that one changed. You know, where that one, we're not gonna waste the challenge because we know where they've been with a decision like that. It's just not obvious we're gonna leave it alone. So that's on us to make sure that we provide that consistent standard in that direction. And and that's what we'll do. So we have some tech questions here. Is the replay technology gonna be the same with Hawkeye? No. So we're gonna be using Bolt six, which is, which is another replay another replay system. And we're really excited about bold six cuz it's all cloud-based. And so this'll be, this'll be the first time that that in, I believe in North America that we'll be using a cloud-based based replay system and and it's not, not significantly different in terms of the mechanics and we're gonna be getting all the camera feeds and we'll have the ability to play them back and piece angles together. So very similar to what you see in other replay systems I think, but again, the biggest difference is that this is cloud-based. There's less infrastructure, there's less, less of that, you know, that hardware. And and we're, we're really excited to work with them as a partner. This is how you tell those questions from my researcher here. Cause I'm a did you look at the National Rugby League in Australia and their replay bunker, you consulted with them back a few year, years ago? Yeah, we did. I mean, I haven't, I haven't connected, I haven't been there unfortunately. But, but yeah, we, we had some good collaboration with with rugby and those guys are great and they do a great job. And again, we're studying every, everyone, you know, I've been talking to the European League of American football. I mean there's so many leagues out there, not just here in the United States out in, in, in the world that have been doing different things and have different mechanics and you can really learn from them. So, you know, that's an opportunity, you know, I'm hoping to, to to get out to you know, Australia and New Zealand and, and see, see everybody down under and see what, you know, they've got going on. Yeah, I just, I guess they have the replay bunker and we were, I was looking at videos and stuff of all that the, in terms of the read the communications and stuff, same here in 2023 as it was in 2020. Yeah. Like same number of players and stuff and everybody being involved. Yeah, the we're, we're gonna have the same system, you know, it's gonna be up to the clubs there, there's gonna be a number of, of players that they can use to have the receiver in the helmet and it's up to the clubs and how they, how they distribute that. So it's gonna be, you know, where in the N F L you just have the right to quarterback and, and the one player on defense, we'll have multiple players that'll have the ability to hear that play call. And, and, and again, that just helps with the communication and it helps keep the game moving, right? With a 35 second play clock versus 40 seconds. Having the ability to communicate helps avoid, delay a game, penalties get lined up you know, in a more efficient manner. And, and so that's, we're still using that, that same system Still no cutoff with the communications, Correct? Yeah, no cutoff. It'll, it'll stay open. Is the league still gonna be monitoring those comms for like cheating and kind of all that stuff? Yeah, There's always monitoring in place and that's something that, that obviously you have guidelines and protocols in place and you have to monitor to make sure that, that we're following those protocols and, and we're gonna have a lot of, what I'm excited about is the access that the fans are gonna have and to be able to listen in and hear those play calls and listen in to what the players are talking about, the coach and the quarterback, the officials, and the amongst each other replay. And and we have controls in place to make sure, because look, the reality is is that communication sometimes isn't, isn't fit for, for everyone's ears. And we wanna make sure that, that it's a really cool, you know, look behind the curtain, but, but it, it doesn't show anyone in a bad light. And then I think that's, that's the goal and I think that's what we'll Be. Yeah, sometimes some of the sideline communication wasn't fit for the TV as well. Oh yeah. Oh yeah. That, well it's an emotional game and that's, that's part of it. And yeah, and we understand that when you're gonna give fans that access, you might, you might hear something here or there that, that might not be you know what we're, what we're used to hearing on certain broadcasts. Yeah. Consideration down the line to have refs to be able to hear the play calls to help officiate. Yeah, that's a great question. It's something that we've talked about for a long time. You know, because it certainly would help, look, the officials, even if they knew it was just run versus pass, it would help, you know, from their, their pre-snap mechanics and their positioning. The concern has always been if the, if the officials know to then do they do something to tip off, right? The defense and, and then that you start studying the officials and their movements and things like that. So there's always been that concern. You know, I don't know, it, it's something that we'll continue to look at and discuss. I don't think it's on the horizon in the near future, but it might be something down the line. Some timing questions here. And then we have kickoff, and I promise I'll get you outta here every single time. I appreciate it. In, in, in terms of the, the play clock, the changes this year, you know, obviously maintaining consistency, was it also done to make the clock operator easier to officiate? Yeah, I think we wanted to look at, look, we, we liked the 2020 version with the, you know, it was different, it was new. We hadn't done that with the ball spotter actually winding the clock and, and we timed it and on average we were seven, seven to eight seconds during, from the end of the play. So we really were at a 32, 33 second play clock in 2020. And we wanted to go to more of a traditional from a game flow. We weren't there, there, there's not gonna be any variable in terms of maybe there's a long play where the ball spider has to go, you know, further down field versus a shorter play. And so now it'll be what you're, you know, every, all the fans are used to in terms of the play ends, the play clock starts, it'll be a 35 second clock in terms of just keeping the game moving and that whole goal of less downtime because there's a lot of downtime during a football game. That's just the reality of it. There's no way around it. But if we can just continue to keep that flow and that consistent, you know, play, play, play, I think it'll, it'll show, it'll show up as a, as a more engaging and more exciting game. Yeah, we were at that, it was because we're Seattle, we were at like that dragons game in 2020, the first home game. I was like, I don't understand this play clock at all. At the end of the game it was like, cause I think we were trying to hold onto the lead. I'm like, this is just taking Breath. Yeah, the end that was confused. I think it was, I think in theory it was a good idea, but I, you know, we kind of got away from that again with that, that five second hold because that did create, and the goal was, you know, to create conserve time and then you get comebacks. But it was, it was very, it was different. And we, we, we weren't, we didn't hate it, but we just felt like, okay, let's switch it up. We'll go to the two minute in the last two minutes we'll go to the first down, get, you know, stopping the clock like what they do in college throughout the game. And and we'll see where that, that, that leaves Us. I know the big concern in 2020 was getting like the three out, you know, we want the game under three hours and fitting into time slot. Do you still think with all the clock changes, that's gonna be feasible? Yeah, and you know, we haven't, we don't really have a a we wanna keep the games. There's a window, but it's not like if we go over a little bit over three hours if it's an exciting game. And I think that's tends to be a, a, a misconception in terms of, well we, you know, whether it's N F L or college, college games tend to be a little longer obviously cuz of halftime in some of their timing rules. But if it's an exciting game, I mean, no one really cares how long it goes. It's those games that where it's choppy and the stops and starts and maybe it's not that exciting. So we feel like with the changes we made you know, in 2020 and we only made a couple of minor tweaks, we feel like we're, we won't be much, you know, much different than where we were in in in 2020. In terms of game length In terms of the new play clock and everything, the kneel down period increase from one minute and then 2020 to 1 45, was that a byproduct or did you intend to make it more like the N F L? I think it was just more like the N F L I think we just wanted to try to, again, keep it more traditional in terms of what people are used to. And and I think we're, again, we, we, we feel like we're in a good place. It, it, I don't think we're gonna drastically the goal, whenever you're making timing changes you wanna make sure you don't lose plays because that's your right plays, that's your game and, and you don't wanna make so many timing changes to where you go from, right? An N F L game might average 155 plays if you make a bunch of changes, you don't want to go to 150 or 148. You want to maintain that, that healthy number of plays. And we, we, we think we're in a good place. You think you can average, cause said the USL average 158 plays per game, 2020 XL average 1 57 using the slower comeback period, but you believe you can maintain the same number of plays? Yeah, I think we'll be in that a hundred and fifty, a hundred fifty five range. I think that's the goal. And then we talked about the U S F L being able to see all that with their 35 second play clock and you being able to see it over the season. Do you think, did that give you the confidence you could avoid like delay of game stuff and be able to kind of maintain that going? Yeah, yeah, no question. And I think with the communication and having the skill players and other players be able to get that communication, we don't feel like we're gonna have a lot of delay games and obviously, you know, we're gonna work with our, with our teams and make sure they, you know, they get lined up correctly and, and we give them an opportunity to to do that. And, but when it, when it is a delay game, then it is and we have to call it, but I think we're gonna be in a good place. And then in terms of the kickoff stuff for the fourth and 15, that's one something that's brought back now that was like the AAF and then it was the flip the field I think in fan GRS football, they did all that concern with, that's always player fatigue, you know, if they're going down and then you decide to go for fourth and 15 to, to keep the play going. Any concern about that with player fatigue and how you guys are gonna address that? Yeah, every, everything we do, any rule we look at, any rule change, player safety, health and safety is, is obviously the top priority. So I think that was part of the reason why the fourth and 15 is the fourth quarter only option. You know, that that's not, it's not like something we're, hey, we, we've, our offense is rolling they can't stop us, we're just gonna, you know, we're just gonna go for it in the second quarter. And and again, because again, that, that defense has to stay on the field and so we felt the fourth quarter only when, when the team needs it. And look, fourth and 15 is not easy. It's not easy to, to, to convert. We looked at the numbers, the, the onsite kick in the NFL traditionally, I know they've had some dips in recent years, but it's a, it's a, it's a 10 to 12% success rate and, and fourth and fourth and 15 in the N F L over that same time period is right around that, that type of success. So we feel like it, it doesn't, it doesn't give you a better chance or a worse chance. But we felt fourth quarter only was the, was the right time was the window for it and we didn't wanna do it throughout the Game. Yeah. And with the, you know, the safety of the onsite kick and like you said the, you know, percentages of the completion doing this fourth and 15, allowing the offense defense to control the game versus special teams. Was that any consideration? You know, I, it, I don't think we, we really feel like we want all three phases to be a part. That that was one of the big reasons behind the kick the kickoff changes in 2020 because what we saw, and I've been a part of it at both the college and the N F L level is that, you know, kick returns tend to have a higher rate of injury. And so what both college and n f in terms of the rules committee committees have done is they've, they've made changes to increase the number of touch backs. I mean, that, that's the reality. And because less returns, more touch backs, you know, the, the, the less injuries we wanted to look at, okay, how can we keep the return in the game but make the play safer? We wanna keep all three phases as part of it obviously getting rid of the extra point kick. But yeah, we, we really feel like you know, offense, defense, special teams are all a big part. We just felt like fourth and 15 was something we wanted to try, you know, the N F L is looking at that we have, we have good communication with the N F L and in terms of things that they, you know, are looking at and if we have an opportunity to try it out and help them get some, some, you know, some learnings from it, we, you know, we're open to do that. The x l overtime obviously big exciting part of it, you know, we never got to see it back in the yeah, we got to see, you know, so us l adopted part of that they did their overtime, but the two which seemed to more favor the run teams, do you like doing it the overtime, but the five even though it may be harder to score, Yeah, we like the five, we felt like the five was, you know, the, most of our teams were going for two from the five in 2020. We feel like that gives you, you look, you could still run the ball, you could, you know, it, it certainly opens up more of the passing game further back. And and we just felt like the, the, you know, the dive up, the middle I is that, or what we're seeing now with the quarterback sneak and everybody gets behind and push is that really an exciting play? So we felt like the five was a good, was a good spot. It gives both teams a chance. And and, and, and what's exciting about that is we don't have these debates about, well they, you know, this team didn't get the ball. Every play is either a score or a stop, you know, and, and, and we feel like that's a good, that's a good place to be. I know part of the five rounds of overtime in 2020 had to do with sport the spreads and sport books and stuff like that. And with the two points or whatever, all that, like going down to three, did you guys consult sports? I can't even talk sports books and kind of any of the philosophy go into that to go down to three. I think the biggest, the biggest reason for the change to three was just again, the, the health and safety and not extending the games. You know, because you're gonna, like, you're playing 60 minutes and now you've gotta play another five, you know, one play possession series. And we just felt three we'll have a good chance to end it in three if not, especially from the five where it's not an automatic and and, and, you know, we'll, we'll alternate until we get a winner. So really that was more about player safety. Obviously, you know, the gaming and the sports betting, that's a big part of, of football today. And, and and that's always a consideration, but really that one was just trying to make sure that we're not extending the game unnecessarily for, for our players. Do you feel like the coaches this time around with, in terms of like going for three, a lot of these little minute changes get kind of the strategy involved and obviously we still gotta go into training camp and stuff, but Yeah, we famously had Jim Zoran go in and like wasn't supposed to go, like being able to, to know the success rates of like the one, two or three and, and the different strategies. Yeah, I mean, you just look at the, the evolution of right analytics and that word is such a liking rod, but even over the last three years absolutely they're gonna be looking at all of that and you know, what are, what are our, you know, what are our chances in this situation? And I think that's just a part of it, right? The analytics is one piece and then you have to look at all the other factors and make a decision. I'm excited these coaches are just fired up. I mean, I don't know what we're gonna see in terms of you know, are they gonna be going for three more? Are they going, you know, certainly there's times when it's just necessary to go for three, but I think we're gonna see more teams that are gonna, you know, we like our chances even earlier in the game to go for three. So, and that was part of it, you know, the, the nine point game is no longer a two score game. And that's all part of Right. Given that that team an opportunity to come back where you don't have a game that's over with, you know, five minutes to go and then, you know, you lose people that don't wanna watch anymore and that's all part of it. Well, June Jones I think has already said he intends to go for three every time, which is good for us, for my Seattle C Dragons. I'm excited for That. Yeah, we'll see. And I know that, that you're Jim Haslet. I I am, I have never seen a head coach at any level more excited about his team's uniforms than Jim Haslet is about the Seattle Sea Dragons uniforms. He is so happy and excited about the uniform. It's incredible. That will make one Seattle c Dragons fan <laugh>. I will tell you the, the wild consensus of us Sea Dragons fans not the biggest hit. So I am glad that Jim Haslet is excited about That. He's excited. I'm telling you he's excited. Last question from me. Thank you. Rapid Fire through all this. How do, I didn't even realize this was the thing, the PSI and the ball back in 2020, no restrictions on that. You were able to have less inflated for quarterbacks to play with. And I I got sent a clip of the reporter on the sideline showing all this, any PSI restrictions on the balls here in 2023? Yeah, it'll be, it'll be the, the, the normal N F L rule <laugh>, it'll, it'll be, yeah, we wanna keep the ball, you know, the integrity of the balls. So it's between 12 and a half and 13 and a half. And I know I gotta brush up. I mean, we haven't, I, I, I've, I've tried to put that, that chapter of my history behind me, Deflategate, and that was, I've, I've heard enough about psis back then, but it'll be it'll be the the N F L rule. Yeah, I didn't, I didn't know that was a thing. I was sent the Cliff and I saw, and they were talking about, I think it was Taylor Cornelius being able to grip the ball better with the, with the lower psi. So that was a very important question. I guess we wanted that Out. Yeah, but you have that range just like, you know, you can be on the low legal range or the high legal range and, and you know, that's up to the, up to the clubs, but the officials will, you know, they'll check it. Well Dean, I really appreciate it today. Rapid fire. Got through as many as I could here. Thank you so much for your time. I was crazy and the week of New Year's and everything else, I really, really appreciate it. So Thank you very much. Yeah, no, thanks for having me. And we'll have to do this again during the season. It'll be good. Thank you so much.

Episode 124 - What Is the "Cost" of Spring Football?

Well, it is the yearly tradition. Now we last Christmas came on, Mike, I can't give you the sole episode this week. Cuz there is a lot going on cuz I was like, we're gonna bring Mike back on. Solo effort, but now we have Andy's coming on. We got a lot of other stuff going on, but obviously, you know, we still got the star, Mike Mitchell here. I appreciate that. How are you doing today, sir? Just in general. First of all. I'm doing all right. Happy holidays to you read. And everyone out, out there, who's listening to this, watching this, you know, the holiday season can be a lot of fun, but it can also be stressful. So you gotta try to balance it and you know, life is life. So you just in, in enjoy the good in the bad while you can. So what, you know, we got this all set up and you DM me. And I can't remember what it said, but it was like, we got a lot of stuff to talk about here. Like we really gotta go. So I have questions here. We can go in any order, but what was on your mind of things that needed to be stored about right away? All I think right now we're in a, like a sweet spot. I know that, you know, there's been a lot of dry spells all throughout this journey as we head towards 2023, but we're so close to the new year now. And with everything that's going on with YFL the U S F L. NFL stuff right now. I know my jets are about to when this airs, the jets are gonna lose to the soon to be AFC south Jacksonville Jaguar. So I'll probably be visible when I'm listening to this tomorrow, but we're in football heaven right now. If for us, for someone like me, who's been invi advocate or alternative non NFL. Leagues my whole life. Since I was a kid from the original USFL to the world league of American football, NFL, Europe. United football league, the original XFL and everything in between. Right now we're in a real, we're in a, we're headed towards a sweet spot. This is gonna be a fascinating, time's up a headache. Exciting times up ahead. If you love football, you gotta love it. What, what do you make? And we're gonna do a deep dive Andy's coming on. We're gonna break down all the salaries, everything I wanna save you for a little bit more existential, kind of, you know, pontificating, like. Thoughts U S F L CBA. You know, we're minimum pay higher than the XFL. We're getting rid of wind bonuses. Is giving housing, stipends, all that, like what do you make of the USS F L CBA? I think it's tremendous. Shout out to Kenneth Farrow, Nick temple. And everybody there. With that PA doing such a tremendous job. This is so great for the players. So this is a win right now. We're we're entering an area where it's win, win, win, win. For all these players, you're gonna have over 800 players that are gonna have. Jobs playing pro football in 20 20, 20 and 2023. And that's not the NFL, but close to it. And so I think it's great. The CBA for the SFL there's, you know, there's tweaks here and there, you know it, but any. Raisin pay any guarantee. Is a great thing. And I, I think Farrow, temple and everybody over there did a tremendous job. U F P a putting that together. So. I think that's a great for the landscape and it's great for players. So I, I, I, like I said, I think the whole situation's win-win. I don't know the answer to this. That's why I'm asking. There's no bias. Like. Was Fox. Were they like, yeah, this is awesome. Or were they like, okay, twist my arm. We're going forward. Yeah. You know, I, I wish I could tell you for sure on that, you know, they had, there's no way they could avoid this. Right. So just the way it came about. And I think when you look at the contracts, they're not absurd. Like this isn't a situation where. The union. These players through the steelworkers union, where they're all of a sudden making unreasonable demands on what is essentially a startup league. I think all of it is fair. You know, eliminating there's trade offs, eliminating the wind bonuses, how things are covered. As far as lodging goes, there's just a little bit of a gray area there. But there's no doubt the players. Are at least as a baseline in a better. Situation than they were last year. And so that's great. And so as far as Fox look the publicly, you never hear, you'll never hear these companies saying I wish there wasn't a union. But, you know, you gotta roll with the punches. So I, yeah, it's not like all of a sudden Fox, you know, the players are gonna get a percentage of, of revenue and all that, which would be a hindrance for a new league. That's unreasonable. So, so I think this is fair all around. And I, I think, you know, it's best case scenario for both sides, you know, cuz you know, like I said, you know, these corporations companies, they don't want unions, but you know, you worry sometimes about the type of leverage. That's you know, given to one side over the other and they want to be able to build the SFL. So. As the league grows, hopefully. Wishfully, you know, there'll be more revenues and more profits and everything, but first things first, so. Year two coming up and so far, so good. Obviously you haven't heard the interview yet with Kenneth and Ryan that's later in the show. I asked them, I said, you guys. Obviously came together union with the USFL players. It's a weird situation where Kenneth. Is is gonna be playing in the XFL, you know, president of this player's association. They're not doing the same thing with the XFL, right. Obviously XFL hasn't kicked off yet, but I said, Do you, you know, why did you feel the need to do this with the us, Phil, not the XL. And they said, well, basically there were concerns we had with players in the USFL that we did not have with the XFL. I mean, that's, that's their word, like. What do you make of that situation? That feels weird to me. It does feel weird, you know, especially when you got two union heads who are currently XFL players. And I know you have Nick Cavan as well. He's a, you know, important figure in all of this. It is a little bit strange. I think. You know, the U S F L situation, you know, you know, I've gotten a lot of flack for this online, but there've been a lot of players out there that have had some concerns and they weren't too happy with the setup last year. In terms of how lodging was taken care of, or wasn't taken care of. In terms of their pay and the situation of their living arrangement and everything else is difficult, you know? So. So I think there are a lot of concerns there from players. Because, you know, You being shortchanged and having to come out of your own pocket to play in a league is tough as it is. And it's not like these players are being paid. A ton of money to begin with. So there were some concerns with that. And then going into year two, there've been a lot of players that were worried and, and, you know, Perhaps some of their fears have been que year taken care of that were worried that if they're moving into a hub, In in Memphis, or if they're moving into a hub in Michigan. You know, whether the league would take care of them, raise their pay a little bit, take care of the lodging because you know, there's cost of living taxes, everything else, trying to figure out how you're gonna situate your family. Friends, where are you gonna live? Who are you gonna stay with? So, I, I do think it's kind of interesting that there it's not immediate right now with the XFL. Perhaps that's something that's coming down the road. Let's first things first, let the XFL get through their season and, and, you know, and finish up our things. But you would hope that the X FFL. Would grow and take care of their players. The players are gonna be paid well, there's a little bit more upside playing in the XFL because. You have a downside in the USFL, a guaranteed base of money, but in the XFL, depending on you know, what team you're on, you can make more money with more success that you have. And I know that the XFL has talked about this publicly. We'll see how they implement certain things about how they're, they're looking to monetize and. Help players actually get out there more and market themselves. We'll see, you know, proof will be in the pudding. They have to do that first, but I think there's more potential in the XFL. Doesn't hurt if you're playing in Texas, you know, with all those nice stacks breaks you, you got there. But right now, the S F L player, all the players that are returning for year two. You know, and all the new acquisitions they're they're, you know, they're gonna be in a better. Situation how much better remains to be seen? BC cause, you know, and we obviously, with Eric last week, got in this a little bit, you know, we have more details here and now coming out after, you know, it was like such breaking news last week, trying to fit him in. You know, when I question these things, it's not questioning Kenneth and Ryan or the players. You know, my job is not to defend Fox sports. So when I look at these, you know, everything's a compromise where it was $850. Win bonus preach player. Now they're all getting that. Right. But it's not like they got. $1,500 Versus, I mean, you're, you're moving it from one column to another. Right. And I looked at the housing the same way. I said, well, That's this great. They're giving them $400 a week now, but that's $525. They're not subsidizing that for hotels. So I'm sure they're sitting there and they're like, well, sure. I mean, If you wanted that way versus another, right. It's like getting an allowance from your parents versus going out and like, We'll give you 400, but then that also covers, you know, meals. Housing versus, you know, I'm just trying to look at like, where did Fox. Give back a little bit, you know, kind of where, where did they concede while still being able to keep the bottom line kind of the same, because they're not gonna come in and say, we're gonna give everybody 20 grand more. Like, that's just not how it's gonna work. Right. Right. And I think that's the concession in and of itself because if the union wanted to, they could have played hardball. In this situation and ask for a lot more. Lot more perks a lot more this. So, so I think, you know, maybe perhaps Fox, you know, and that group thinks this is a win for them because they didn't have to go. You know, they had two tradeoffs back and forth here to make it work. So. So I, I would, you know, I cuz honestly the union could have, if they wanted to pushed it further. And I know, you know, the wind bonus thing is fascinating because you know, it was like one of the best elements of XFL. 1.0. Was the wind bonus structure. The idea behind it was, you know, rewarding players for their success, but also, you know, who, however you wanna look at this. Added motivation for players to play hard and want to win. And you know, there's already the motivation of making it to the NFL. But a lot of these players in these leagues, you know, it's a big difference, you know, if you're, if you're, if you're adding to your, if you can make a maximum. Of close to a hundred thousand dollars in the X FFL be like $93,000. If you're on a winning team, it's best case scenario, you have to be on a winning team, go on defeated, be active for all the games, win your playoff game, win championship, but you can make close to a hundred thousand dollars in the league if you're in the, that kind of scenario. So. It gives you added motivation and makes players, you know, at least from the ownership standpoint, their, their standpoint is. That it makes players want to win and work harder and that it, you know, so, so if you already guaranteed money, you can, you don't have to worry about, you know, Goal all in, you know, a risking, you know, risking it all kind of, so to speak. So there's like a lot of things you can weigh positive and negative, but I think overall, when you look at the whole picture, I think this is a positive, the thing I care about the most in this situation. Cause I really don't care about five, no district disrespect to Redbird capital and all that. I care about the players. So that's really. Who I want to win in this scenario. I want Redbird and Fox to win. Because if they win and they make revenues and profits, these leagues exist. If they don't, they shut it down. So, and then there's no avenue for these players. So that's important too, but first and foremost, the, what I care about is the players. Yeah, I just, I just don't like congratulating big, you know, big conglomerate. I, I have left, you know, I worked in corporate for a long time. That's always my thing. And it could be football could be anything. I was like, let's not, you know, let's not give apple kudos for, you know, you got the carbon tax or whatever when you're paying off or like, yeah. Fox like, yeah, this is a win for the, I just don't wanna be, you know, like, Break my arm, trying to pat Fox, you know, Fox sports in the back of like, this is the most tremendous thing ever. Cuz like you said. You know, the players really could have made this a lot more contentious. I think if, if they wanted to, but you know, what leverage do they have? Are they gonna go out and get another? I mean, I, you gotta play. I mean, it's December 22nd, like we're, we're playing in a few months, so we kind of gotta get this going, you know? Yeah. And I had discussion specifically with people in the union. And people in Fox about this whole situation and related to the USFL. And the hope was that there were there that you weren't gonna be negotiations that were unreasonable. And that there was a, you know, and on the, the corporate side, the USFL side, there was hope that these players wouldn't like try to push things. And the conversations I had with the union was that, you know, the, they, they, weren't gonna be unreasonable because they. Realized that, you know, in their early going these leagues, they need every profit revenue stream. They, they can get you can't just come in and say, gimme 70%, gimme 60%. Gimme me a cut of revenues. Gimme this, gimme that ticket sales, which we didn't get very much of that. And UFL last year. So you can't really ask for that, you know, so you have to be. Reasonable. And I think that's where I, you know, I. I'm not gonna call the us FFL side, the owners, the owner. You know that group noble. But I, you know, I'm, I will have more of a heroic spin for the union side because they did the job here. Yeah. So, so, and I, you know, talking to them months ago, I had a feeling that this is the kind of deal that they were headed towards. And that they weren't going to cut off their nose to spike their face kind of deal. And so that's, that's great. Yeah, and I, Andy, and I'll get into it. If you wind bonuses are not. A, if you are on the team that has at least two wins in the XFL, it basically balances out. So, I mean, you would have to be on Kirby Wilson's modelers and go one to nine or whatever. I think it was to, you know, It, it's not an unreasonable just to put it in perspective. If, if, if I'm in either league, if I have two wins in the XFL, That balances out versus the no wins on that. Yeah. And there's also things like, you know, five weeks of training campaign, there's also fo full coverage for you and your family, medical insurance. That's important. There's also full, you know, not just housing, but like meals provided all. You don't have to worry about that coming out of pocket for certain things or amenities or my can I have wifi in my hotel or not? That's all covered. So those are great things to, to have. Those are added things as well, you know? Whatever it is three grand in XFL training camp. And then of course the salary and the, the bonuses and everything else that's that's entailed there. So it's good that the us F L setup is much better in year two. And, and it's great that the union was able to make that work. We'll move off here in a minute. Are you surprised it already with us FFL here at Keo cuz on paper. It is a great stat to have, I don't care how they did it with wind boom illnesses forever. To be able to say us FFL increased salary. 19% Year over year. Right? However, they did it, whatever math numbers they did. You have Dave nailer tweeting about it? We had Chris Jones on, I think morally Scott's show out of Edmonton talking like, yeah, we're already having trouble getting you players and personnel, like. The attention of these CFL people. I don't care if it's USFL or X, it felt like what, what do you think that means now with this CBA and the, the leagues kind of, you know, combating for players and all that. You know, perception is reality and reality in this kid, there is some like more reality than perception. In this case, the USFL salaries have gone up. And that they needed to do that, not just in the landscape of like, you know, they're competing with the XFL. Which, you know, the XFL could wave the flag for a long time. Hey, we're paying up the players more. So now the USFL can point to CFO players and say, see, we're in year two, our players are given more. We have a union. And, you know, and you can do that, you know, to look I wrote about this before. I know for a fact, and I have a list. There's over three hun it's 316 players, us FFL players that have reached out to inter intermediaries. To see if there are any spots available for, for them in the Exel that's due diligence. That doesn't mean that a player wants to go or will go that is to check and see if there is an opening for them. So I know all the names of all the players and, you know, so that's what you're supposed to do as an agent, as. A player you're supposed to look into all your opportunities. If I go to Arlington, will I start at middle linebacker? If I go to San Antonio? Will there be a spot open for me. If there isn't, I'm staying right where I am. So a lot of these, a lot of these players have to be happy that USFL players have to be happy that there's, you know, things are improving for you too. And that their faith in the league is being rewarded. And it's sending a message to future players. Hey, come to us, you know, here's look at our growth. It's a sign of progress, no matter how you paint it, 19%, whatever the case. It's a sign of progress and perception is reality. So you have the CFO people out there. That are, that are noticing that. And then of course the XFL notices that. And then, so all the players that are out there, this is great for the players. This gives them leverage. Opportunities. They can weigh their options. You wouldn't be smart. If you're a USFL player, if you didn't weigh your options, my contract's running out 1231. Let me see if I have a spot and another lead. So the agents are doing that too. So we're seeing some players that are choosing the USFL over the XFL. Because their depth chart is, looks more advantageous to me. And we're seeing some players that are choosing the X FFL or the SFL because of various reasons maybe they want they're like the coaches that they work with in the SFL that have now gone over the X FFL. Maybe the timeline works for them. They like the timeline betters. So maybe they want be in Texas. So this, that and the other. So there are a lot of like things that these players have to weigh on both sides before they make a decision. And so it's great that it's worked out this way for players who normally in this situation are like field hands who have no leverage whatsoever. And just have to take whatever's shoveled in front of them and it be accepted, accepting of it. So that's changing. Good. So, yeah. And just to put a pin in this, you know, so 300 USFL players. Variety of factors. Was it monetarily, you know, cause obviously they knew these negotiations were going on. Was it. We like, you know, live in an Arlington and we're flying. We are gonna be in the, like, what, what did you get a sense of what the majority of the players. Wanting to reach out. Was it just checking to see, do you know, do I have other interested parties? I was like, what was the main factor of, of people reaching out? You know, just due diligence, really like you trying to see if a situation's better for you on the other side of the fence. Trying to, you know, you, you, some players like the timeline better and they have interest. Look, even if you have a hundred USFL players right now, let's just say, for example, there's a, let's just give it a hundred right out of the 316, right. Let's just say a hundred players. Are are wanna jump ship to the XFL, even if there's gotta be, it's gotta be a two-way street. You've gotta have an opportunity. On the other side, if I'm working for the USFL, I would've done the same thing. If I was an agent, I would reach out and see my contract expires at the beginning of the year. Let me see what's like on their side. So there's a lot of different things. You weigh. Hey. Time of the year you play, you know, some people want to be in Birmingham during the season. Some don't. You know, some people would prefer to be in a different state, different location. Some people like there are a lot of great assistant coaches that left the us FFL for the XFL to Chris Dishman. So Jonathan Hiba it's Tim Lewis's list goes on and on. There's some players who played for them that want to rejoin their coaches. Now we might see that we've seen a little bit of that already. We might see that after 1231, in terms of players reuniting with their former coaches, no surprise with the Arlington renegades that Jonathan Hiba, you know, Hugh already has one of his all star offensive. Alignment first team Allstar offensive alignment with him in Arlington. He also has a first team Allstar offensive alignment in us, Phil Garrett, again from the New Jersey generals who joined him as well. But, you know, so there there's some of that, there's a lot of networking, recruiting, connections, back and forth. Coaches also reach out to the other side. And I think that's what agents are supposed to do. You're supposed to sit there. Like we just saw recently a keel glass who chose the, to, to join the USFL. Talented player chose to join the USFL with the new Orleans breakers. That's a smart, when you look at it, honestly, that's a smart move on his part because. If you join Las Vegas and we're presuming now we'll see you. After the new year. We're presuming Brian Scott and Lu Perez is there. And along with J McClendon, that's a tough nut to crack, you know, in regardless of like ACHI glasses background, whether or not he has a connection to the offensive coordinator or not. It's gonna be hard. You have to figure XFL teams are gonna dress only two quarterbacks. They might carry three, maybe one on the inactive list. That'd be the smart play. But you, you know, if you looking at the San Antonio situation, you see that the Braas have four quarterbacks currently on their roster. And then you look over the other aisle and you see, well, the stars only have one quarterback and the breakers only have one. That's a better, because these guys wanna play. It's no different than a college player that gonna transfer portal. They're looking for opportunities to start and play. They'll leave Georgia. If they're the seventh or eighth wide receiver to go play at a smaller school, if they're guaranteed that they're gonna get playing mile opportunity, they might be thes C to do that. So that's, what's happened in this situation and that's where. There it's due diligence. It's exactly what agents are supposed to do. And what was the lore of the XFL? The lore of the XFL is besides playing in the actual markets. You know, and you know, the tax breaks that you can get and, you know, the three Texas teams and all that is also the timeline because a lot of players. You know, rightly or wrongly, a lot of agents feel that the timeline is more conducive. To, to, to go to the NFL from the XFL because you ha you get an earlier jump. Of joining NFL teams learning the playbooks and all that. Look, we saw Kyle SLO and Louis Perez, ironically are in the XFL now. They did a very good job of the USFL. They both got NFL opportunities, but they didn't last for longer than a month. Because they were so late to the, it's not, it has nothing to do with their talents. They got, they got in so late into the door. That they're competing with other guys that are already there. So you weren't in the meetings during the spring, in the early summer. And it all the installs and all that. So you're against April. That's why you gotta give credit to all the USFL players that have gotten into the NFL. We knew quant tur was gonna be a star. I mean, everybody knew that Dallas knew that in the three year deal. So I'm so happy to see him make the. NFC pro bowl. So, and it wasn't a talent issue with Turpin. He had all field issues that led him to not be in an NFL player with domestic violence and all that, so that it took a while to get me on all that. And so I'm happy for him, but there's a lot of us FFO players that are on practice squads. There's 21 in total wrote an article about that us SFO, new sub.com. So there is still an avenue in the NFL, but there is a belief. That you can better your chances. If you get into an NFL camp three or four months prior to when U SFL season ends. So that's one of the selling points. Well, I think just worth noting too. And this might be something, because again, we're kind of living through this in real time of like, how are these leagues? With the exit L being the front loaded, right. They're playing in February. You might see, like you said, a keel glass, all that. Guys opting assigned to the USFL, looking and seeing like, there's just not enough room for me here. Right. Versus. You know, the us development has that luxury of, Hey, we're playing second. You know, we're kind of able, you don't wanna say the leftovers, but you can, you can get some of those, but then also appeal to others and say, Hey, like you said, you're you got four other quarterbacks, three other quarterbacks you can competing. We can give you a, a starting position here. You. Know, we, because we're kind of forecasting out. Just, they'll be interesting to see how the talent kind of lines up for that of we're fellows. First us have found, and obviously with the NFL in there, God forbid, you know, Geral football here in may. I don't know what they're gonna do, but it'll just be curious to see the pecking order of like people, you know, you could realize very quickly the excep has room. For you or not sure if I'm a running back too, this is what agents do. They do this in the NFL. They go through every team step chart, and then this is kind of the ugly side of sports, but you have to get into it. You look for teams that have injuries. And then you go, if you see two tight ends go down and you've gotta client, who's a tight end. You go, oh, Eagles need to tight end. Dallas goer is injury or Ry Jackson or NFL player is injured. We, we gotta let's get a set up a workout. Right. So that happens. If I'm a running back, I cover the DC defenders at XFL news, hope.com. I just did two supplemental draft kind of preview articles went over their roster. If I was a running back right now, and I look at their dev chart, I think, wow, they got PKU Williams. They got reque arms stead was just in N NFL. Can they got Abrams Smith who was the fifth leading. Rush air in the nation last year, he was getting a lot of workouts. I don't know if you'll end up on the defenders or not with how many NFL teams are interested in, in, but be, be that as it may. If I look at that ourt Pierce who's with the bears this summer, too, another towns who run back, he couldn't make that bear backfield because they got LIO Herber, my Montgomery, etcetera. Cetera. One of the more towned. Backfields in the NFL. So if you're looking at the defender's backfield and you're a running back and they go, Hmm. Then you look over at another team in the us film, go, you know what? That chart looks like, you know, I'm Mallers I got a shot to start. Whereas if I joined DC, I might not even make the Ross Trek. We're gonna be running back five. So you have to weigh that if you're an agent and that's what agents do for their players, you study each team's depth chart and you look at what, where is the best spot for me to fit? You know, we're seeing that when Nathan RO who's from the CFO, who's working out for a bunch of NFL teams right now, he and his agent at this sit there at what they have to do is they have to look at the number. Two and number three and number four quarterbacks in some cases on each individual. NFL roster and say, Hey Nathan, I think you got a shot against Nick Mullin. So I think you'll do better competing against him. These are the conversations I go on behind the scenes. And they look at the coaching staff who's gonna get fired. Who's not. So there's a lot of things that are tying in what system am I gonna play in? So, If you're a Rico, gaffer who the San Antonio. Brahmas drafted in their last draft pick in the open phase. Where FFL teams were passing on players in that round, he was like the last choice the LeBron was had if you're a Rico gaffer, and you're looking at the Braas and at defensive back or wide receiver position, and you see your seventh or eighth already, and they're gonna add more players. And then you look over at the USFL and go, wait a minute to stallions lost some. Players, I could go play for them or, you know, it's a better opportunity for me. So that's what these players are supposed to do is try to find the best opportunity that fits for them because they wanna get to the NFL. But the. Best way to get to the NFL is to actually get playing time. So that's how you get game film. You better be careful here. I, I saw you on the you've you got all your defenders are article is EXL news hub, cuz I know that was the complaint with you. And the Argos was CFO news hub is struck. What is this Argos new hub like you may have, it's kind of become a defender's new sub over the there. I just wanna say I like keep that in, but it's. Good. It's good for you. See how it goes. As we get closer, I'm hoping, you know, there's more, you'll see articles on a lot of the teams, but you know, re me read by now how crazy I am. And the last five days I've written eight separate articles, three Argos articles, three USFL articles to FFL articles. So I try to cover the NFL too. The jets. Who are gonna lose to the Jaguars, but, you know, . Hope not, but I think that's where it's headed, but yeah, you know, me Reid, I cover all these leagues, so I'll, I'll be all in on the defenders. You know, I went crazy on that football nerded on, on that entire roster even listed, you know, it's a pipe dream, but I listed some guys like John Ross and other guys, I would like to see. In the XFL as possibilities through the supplemental draft, I threw in some names that I have heard. That have been in negotiations and in the pool. It's crazy right now. You know, we can get into some of that, but it's crazy right now. It's so volatile the whole situation right now. Like for example, The sea dragons. Appears to have lost Steven Montez. To the Seattle sea dragons, but I did someone to the lions. Right to right originally Seattle sea dragons, he went to the Detroit lions, decided to Detroit lions, a team that's Steven Montez was with. Previously, he was also been with the Washington football team now known as the commanders, but I spoke with someone close to the sea dragons who. And in the XFL office who told me today that Monte has reached out to, to tell him that he's still interested in coming back. If the opportunity arises now, whether or not he decides to sign a future's deal with the lions and remain there, that remains to be seen there that's, it's an unpredictable situation, but is it. Possible that he could circle back. As far as I, I talked to someone closer to see dragons and they told me that they would even hold a spot for him in camp if necessary, but. They could, you know, they might have to pivot and move on and I would likely add a third quarterback now, just in case doesn't come back, you know, they have Ben Denuchi and all that there. So it's very volatile situation right now, as we go into, you know, period where N FLCs start to end practice squads. Contracts expire and then futures contracts are given out. And then all the craziness with the U whatever U S FFL players join. I don't figure it's gonna be that many. USFL players that jump ship a select view. The reason why I say that is there's only so many spots that are available anyway, to begin with. So there's only 70 spots. They're not all gonna go to, you know, players on the other fan. Other side of the fence that are interested. It has to be a two-way street. So we, so that's just kind of the story there, but there's a lot of volatility every day. Now we wait and see like, which XFL player is gonna be picked up by an NFL team that an XFL drafted player that is because, and in, in some ways that's good and some ways that's bad. The. Good thing about it is that it shows the quality of the draft picks that we're selected by the X FFLs personnel departments reach individual team. When you've got whatever it is now, eight or nine guides that have been signed by NFL teams. And over two dozen players that have been worked out by NFL teams since the XFL draft happened in mid-November. So. Fascinating times a lot of excitement during all this great roster turnover, craziness. Well, as you know, as Seattle's premier C dragons fan, I will say we are a pro. Benton NHI podcast. Ben's been on me, a friend of the show now. So I just, you know, Steven can go do whatever he wants. Go play with the lions that are probably gonna knock the commanders out at the NFC playoffs. That's fine. That's fine, but let's hit real quick alumni academy cuz we wanted, I wanna talk Vegas before we go. I don't think we're gonna get to everything else. Obviously we know, you know, you were on mark show. Andy was on deep dive, NFL alumni academy, all that like any update of that, any news that we have. Like have we just moved on from this entirely? No, I don't think they've moved on. I think they're still talking. I think they're still working. They're still planning to work together. They're still trying to find a resolution there between both sides. Moving forward. You know, the reality is that the numbers are not matching up. So, so, and they're not, you can't force that you can't all of a sudden enforce. Every single player into the league. So the FFL is not expanding beyond eight teams. The XFL office did not force. Selections upon their teams. Now, could they have made it mandatory? You have no choice, but to in your draft, select. This amount of guys from the academy. Perhaps, but I think they didn't wanna force the issue. They're not forcing players X FFL, the X FFL football ops by Mark Ross. Everybody else, these teams are being given the freedom to make their own decisions on who they want. So some players from the academy were drafted. Some weren't, you know, you got AJ McClaren was chosen by the battle Hawks. That's somebody that they wanted on their roster brew. Kowski. Anthony Beck that bowler, that personnel department that's who they wanted on their team. So that's a good thing, but you know, they're gonna have to work it out, you know, I don't think. They you, you hope that they find a happy medium on both sides where everybody wins. And so it's a positive that so many players are going to have opportunities to play in the XFL from the academy. Maybe it's not the number they hope for initially, but it's the positive, whether it be 30, 40, 50, 60, however many players end up playing pro football this spring. It's a good thing for them. Maybe not, it's not a happy thing for everybody. I just don't and I'm, I I'm sure we have had, and you have had like, But I remember like talking with max about this back, I mean, months ago. And they, it were like, We're like, there's no way they're ever gonna have this many spots. Like I just can't for the life of me, figure out how they didn't see this issue coming. From, I mean, and I'm, I'm not a smart person, but I, you know, I. Kind of, I was like, if they got 400 people, whatever, this, I just never gonna work out. Yeah. And there's no doubt that the numbers for a long time now. We saw that we foresaw this coming. Anybody who looked at the numbers. So. Yeah. Yeah. I, you know, I, I think they under. Underestimated the, the amount of interest, you know, that's kinda like my take on it. The, I. You know, I think they wanted, they wanted to ensure a pipeline, 100%. They wanted to ensure a pipeline, what a competing league on the landscape. They wanted to ensure a quality pipeline. And it is a quality pipeline for the academy. A lot of the, those players are guys from FFO camps that recent NFO camps, all that. So that's good, but I think they overdid it in, in trying to ensure that they had a guaranteed pipeline into the league and the aesthetic of it with. You know, from an image standpoint of having, you know, even on paper. The NFL, helping bring players to the XFL. You know, people forget the alumni academy is really like a startup. Operation themselves. They're trying to like build up. They wanna get to the point where they have. Agents and players who consider them the premier and first destination. For, you know, for, for getting into pro league. So. Baby steps. And maybe they're, haven't taken the leaps that they wanted in this situation. But yeah, I think the XFL didn't calculate it correctly. And there's, you can't really, you can't really like, excuse it, or it, you make an excuse for it. They didn't read the, the T leaves. Correctly on how many people actually want to be in their league. These guys Vegas. I think we'll stop down. I probably have one other thing here before we go. We ha I have a couple questions here about the rule book, but I think I, I think I have a good. Qualified XFL spokes first and that'll be coming on next week. We can talk about some of that stuff. You know, like the countdowns in nuclear warfare clock right. Ends at midnight. Right. And it's every. How close to midnight are we for nuclear disaster for the Vegas situation? I would argue it's a disaster already. Because honestly, honestly, this situation should have been cleared up much sooner. It's a red flag. It's not a good look on the league. Look. There are a lot of like anxious fans out there that were like, go going. Overboard in their lack of patience for team names and uniforms and all that, we knew all that stuff was coming. We knew we knew the players were not gonna get on the field naked. We knew the teams were gonna have team names. We knew all that was coming. It maybe didn't come as soon as some people wanted, but we knew eventually that was coming. I think eventually they're gonna announce the Vegas situation, but this is not a good thing for it to be a little bit later than you expect. And, and it's not a good look on the league overall. Because look, if you and I read were starting a league. We started suggesting cities. The first thing I would ask you before we get into all the cool and fun stuff, like uniforms, who your coach is gonna be, the players, all that, the first thing I'd say, okay, Reid, you want a team in San Diego? What are they gonna play? And then you'd be like, I know where they would play. So you would figure out from a that's just being fans. Talking through, you know, and, and, and come, you know, that's the first question. If you're any league and you pick a city. Unless you're and here's the thing with the XFL. And I reported this and they shifted away from it. Initially they were gonna do a hub in Texas with all the teams and not be in their individual cities. And then they made the, what I think is the wise decision. However later may have, may have been to let's put the, these teams in their market. Let's figure out a happy meeting way to do this, or we can still. Have a hub during the season, but still bring 'em out to their market. So we're not fully fledged in these markets practicing there, but it's a start. Right? It's all cool. And thank goodness cooler heads prevailed on that one. But. You know, cause that would've been a disaster if they just did the hub thing. I mean, come on. So it's just who, who, who plays all, who plays all their games at this point more? No, I'm kidding. I'm kidding. I hear you. So, but anyhow, it would've been, especially for them, because if you're trying to come to the marketplace and present a different kind of league, you won, you want, plus you wanna capture this, isn't a new league. You wanna capture what X FFL 2020 had what? The average, nearly 20,000 fans game. Now, some people would mock that, but the CFO struggles to do that. And they've been around forever in a day. And so, and it's not easy and it would brand newly when you got a new players, new teams, new identities to draw up people to put money down and come see your game. So the XL in 2020, the advantage they had is they had good crowds and they had engaged crowds. It was, and that was more of the reasons the league was lit. Besides the quality of the play in the field, the innovations. So when you look at it with the XFL, as far as Las Vegas goes, If you choose a market, you have to have a fully fledged plan of where they're gonna play. You can't be a month out from the season almost. A month out from the season starting and not have the situation, the stadium. Situation settled. So that's not a good look on them. Have there been hurdles in that market? Sure. You know, you could, you know, have there been some opposition, you know, at least from what I'm hearing, it sounds like there may very well be getting as steel. A deal with a legis stadium is difficult. I only you going into the Raiders territory. But you're gonna have to pay through the nose. You can't get a deal that's favorable to you. If you're a new league. So the pay rent in that situation. And then, you know, the Allegion stadium has a lot of partnerships. You know, the Raiders managed Allegiant stadium, Mark Davis, a lot of partnerships throughout the Vegas area. You know, there hasn't been really a welcome wagon for the, the Vipers to come in and Hey, here complain our stadium. We would love to have you. You would figure they would, because if the Vipers played in Las Vegas, ballpark, you know, they have a very nice minor league team there. The aviators obviously, and they average 6,000 fans per game. I would guarantee the Vipers would dwarf that they would. Top that easily. So as far as attendance, you would figure out a location like that would wanna have them. The XFL chose Vegas. Jerry card now it was his personal choice. They saw the business opportunities in that market, that potential. Windfall that could come of being in Vegas. I get it, but unless you had the stadium. Because with the other cities we knew St. Louis would probably end up back in the dome. We knew DC would end up back in Audi field. There's, there are a lot of hurdles in getting those deals done too, but at least there was some form of relationship there. Some evidence, Seattle Luman field with the dragons, sea dragons. There, you know, they had good attendance and that venue liked having the dragons in the EXFO there. So, and the, the market liked it and they did well. So we knew that those stadiums would be back on board. The XL took a risk with Las Vegas. Because they went in, they dove into a market. They rolled the dice, hoping to roll snake eyes. And, and to have the Vipers, you know, Fittingly enough, you know, you know, I have the red carpet rolled out for them and have a stadium ready to go and they don't have one and it's holding up the entire league. You have other, you have a lot of understaff teams right now under a lot of workers in the XFL that are working extremely hard, multitasking doing whatever it takes to get ready for the season. And. Vegas not having a stadium is holding up the entire league. Just can't push forward with schedules and TV schedules and sell tickets and all that. Cuz Arlington's ready to go. Houston, the roughnecks are ready to go. All these other teams are ready to, to go. So. We're gonna get an announcement one way or the other. We're gonna find out where they, whether they're playing it a high school stadium, like the Bishop Gorman or what have you we'll see. But, or whether they just take up shopping in Texas for one year and take the a, and say next year, we'll pull, play in Vegas. But if you are gonna do that, that's a fail. You failed. Because you could have chosen other markets you could have played in that would've gladly. Welcomed the league with open arms. And so, and I, it's a shame because I love that coaching staff. I love the players. They, they got on that roster. I love the uniforms. I love the brand. I think the Vipers are better now than they ever were. You can't say that for all the brands that are returning from XFL 2020. I think the, I think they look cool. So anyhow, but it's a no matter how you, no matter how you slice it, how you try to spin it. Eventually they'll announce it and they'll move forward, but it, to this point, they screwed up, you know, because you can't go into a market if you don't have it set up, if you don't know where you're gonna play. So. That's how it is. My, my concern is we, we do announce it. And it's still is a disappointment, right? At this point, because, you know, Bishop Gorman, like really good at, on that ESPN U over the weekend or whatever, I just like. Like the football, I'm sorry. I'm, that's fine to interrupt you. That's as long as they have a place to play, that's fine. The football side, rod Woodson, you know, we heard his comments you'll play anywhere. But I think the football will be good. So, you know, you deal with how you deal with it. But I think at this late stage, it's bad because you're going into a market that there's. Vegas is not really a market. That's like, well, you know, Salivating for this. Yeah. And so I'm sorry. It's just the way it is. So, and so you. You're late to the game as it is. So you're, you're. You're giving yourself a very difficult runway to try to sell tickets and draw in vans and draw interest in the market. You were gonna have a hard time as it is a challenge as it is. So I, I, you know, I just, I, I think like to me, Las Vegas is. Has been the whole situation. The whole stadium situation has been in L for the XFL. They, they, they, they they've handled it poorly. So there's no dancing around it when they announce the stadium. You get over it, you'll be just happy. They have a place to play. I'll look forward to the games. I'm looking forward to rod watching rod Woodson's team. So, and they're gonna have some really cool players there Perez everybody else. So, but. The football side is not the issue. It's really the business side. It's the business side. Why are they, why is current XL management? Okay with CTA, right? Like global life park, you know, we've retrofitted all this and, you know, made that work and it's kind of a thing. Is it just cuz that's grandfathered in and that's okay. Because they seem very verse like, you know, we've heard like they don't wanna play it. The Vegas ballpark or the Vegas ballpark doesn't want them or they don't wanna play Cashman. They don't wanna play a Bishop Gorman. They only wanna play like. But you do that in Arlington. Right. You play in a baseball stadium. Like I, I, is it just cuz that was grandfathered in like that's acceptable? I suppose, you know, they do have a, you know, at. I don't know too much about caw, but I'll say this it's more of a state of an art state of the art complex. And as far as their facilities, than, than some of these other, you know, high school places or names that we're mentioning here, no disrespect, you know, obviously Texas Rangers management, that's where the Rangers you used to play, play. They made it work. It looked good on TV. And they have state of the art facilities. That is an awesome area to wanna be in, to do business and all that. So they can make it work. Listen, if they end up at Gorman or Cashman or wherever it may be, you know, they'll, the games will P. And the XFL will do everything it takes to make the games respectable. On television. You know, some people would, you know, some people were very much against them playing an Allegion. You know, a lot of fans out there, a lot of critics out there felt that that's too big of a stadium. It's beautiful as it is. It's too big of a stadium. So perhaps from an, a visual standpoint, from a TV standpoint, perhaps it's better if they. The Vipers play in a smaller venue. The one I have trouble selling it out. As long as they find a place to play. I just have to question choosing the market that they chose when they didn't have anything lined up. So I, you know, it's, you know, proof's in the pudding, you know, so it, I, you know, it's not, it's not a deterrent to not wanna watch the league. If only seven of the eight teams are playing in their home cities and one isn't. But ideally, if you were gonna sell tickets, In that market. And if you were gonna try to win over that market, You would've gotten this done a hell of a lot sooner. A couple more questions on base. I you, we are still talking at the ramping up. We know we're, you know, we're trying, we're ramping up all the social media now. We've like, everyone's got a pack up. We gotta get to Texas. We're doing all this stuff. Like. Why did we have directors at team operation announced in August? And like, we're still hiring social media people in December. Like I don't, I don't, I've never understood like the order of events of like some of the hires for this. Like, well, we can get social media people later. But yet we really need the people in charge of team. Travel announced in booked in, in August. You know, I'm gonna get in trouble for saying this. And I get, always get a lot of heat for a lot. A lot of the stuff that I say it. Almost appears re as if the people who are running the XFL have never. Operated a sports league before. So. That's heavy to say that, but it's the truth. Redbird capital partners, tremendous success. They that business dealings in sports dealing, you know, worth billions of dollars. You know, they they're, they've had relationships with powerhouses. We know about doing the rock Johnson. We know about Danny Garcia, nothing but respect for them in the business world, the entertainment world, all that. But they never running a pro football league is hard. You know, it is very difficult. That's why the USFL, you know, Rightly and wrongly took the route of let's start small first. Because it's much easier. And so, and when you're trying to be a fully fledged league with eight teams in their cities and do all this and hire. Everybody you can possibly hire they're a little bit, you know, they've had, they've had a lot of hiccups along the way. It's not easy putting together a new league. It's not easy putting together a new company or a new business and football leagues are very difficult. It's very challenging. So. And you often have people that are overworked and teams that are understaffed, and you're getting that with the XFL at the moment. So I'm not surprised to see these issues with startup leagues, but, you know, The XFL before. Didn't have these problems. Just I've always said, it's just. Hubris for both sides. It's USFL has had their own. It's just weird hubris with both of these where like, I, I think I said it with, I can't remember a couple weeks ago. Like, I just feel like neither of these leadership groups really like, understand like their core demo of like who they're trying to attract and like, This is alternative spring football. This is not, you know, this is not number five sports in America right now. Like this is really niche. Like. You know, I don't know. You, you look at. I look at what's happened with like black Adam and DC. And like, I, I went down a deep dive the other day of like the rock and black Adam and Superman and like, His demands and what went into all of that. And I, I, I. Understand that the rock is not entirely involved in this, but it's that kind of thinking where it's. It's odd to me where like, you know, the rock is coming in and saying like, I, I need to be a superhero that is as powerful or more powerful than Superman, or I'm not gonna be in this movie. Like it's weird stuff like that. That has permeated. Like we can't play the baseball park in Vegas, but we can play at one in Texas, but that's okay. I don't know. There's just, I I've always sensed like weird hubris here. And then, and I think it's showing right now, like you said, this a little bit of egg on the face. It's not a, not a wonderful situation. I think right now that we, with a, there's a lot of. Angst out there. And there's a lot of like criticism. Whether, some of it valid, some of it, some, sometimes a little over hype, but I think that you, you start to look at all different types of angles. I can see maybe why you would like look into. I, I think the DC stuff has like very, has no bearing whatsoever on the XFL. Perhaps you can look at it, like, that's my, it's just a mindset. It's just a mindset. It doesn't, I, what you're saying, I think there are two sides to this, right? Like when you there're a lot of side to it, but real I, when you set, when you section it off, there's the football. Side and the business side. Right? So from a football perspective, I have no doubt that they're gonna put out great football, right? So I have no doubt whatsoever. Right? They're gonna have the great rules that everybody's using from 2020. They're they're gonna have all those innovations at you have all these players. You just look at the rocks, how many good players are on there and how many more players. Are gonna join you. Look at the coaching. Staffs are terrific. The personnel departments are terrific. So I'm I have no doubt the football's gonna be good. The business side, as far as league building goes. And hasn't been perfect. There have been a lot of hiccups along the way. There's a lot of stuff that warrants Chris criticism. So they'll get to the field, they'll get the games out. They have a tremendous partner in Disney. The, the presentation's gonna be tremendous. So I'm no. Doubt that it's gonna be world class, the product on the field. The, the issue is, you know, not being able to finalize all these different business aspects, not being able to put everything in place when you're supposed to. Love them or hate him. Vince man did a tremendous job with Excell 2020 hired the right people. And he was the engine. He had a mission statement. He was the engine and he knew how to get it off the ground. Obviously it was every single set that was come out of his own pocket. A complete madman doing that. But you look at the XFL in 2020, it's hard to do a startup league. It's difficult. You have to expect hiccups and issues. There are always gonna be issues. No doubt about it. Every single league that's ever been created. Has had issues in their early startup phase. There's just no way around it. Vegas is an L for the XFL, because they should have had the stadium done a long time ago. And they they've gotten to the point where they have to press the button. And decide one way or the other, you keep hearing from people. That it's done. It's coming soon. I keep hearing that from people in the XFL that it's coming this Monday, all that. You know, I believe it when I see it. It's coming this Monday is in like two days from now. Yeah. Well, I heard this Monday that just passed and now I'm hearing the Monday that's coming up. So I don't report this stuff because I, because you don't see me going out to reporting, writing article that it's coming Monday, be because. I believe it when I see it. So it's reached that point. They're eventually they got no choice read, though. They're gonna have to decide one way or the other, whether or not they, you know, whether or not they play in a baseball stadium, high school stadium. Whatever it is or playing in Texas, they have plenty of facilities to play with there. The except teams are gonna be in camp in a few weeks. At a different high school facilities training together, working out together, teams are gonna be paired up together. So they got plenty of options in Texas. If they want to go that route with the, with the. The Austin Vipers, but, but they have to figure, they have to figure this whole situation. They have to announce it one way or the other, where are the Vipers playing? Here's their schedule. Here's the travel itinerary for all these teams and the fans who want to travel to games. So, and because you're holding back the other teams from being successful, you know, St. Louis gonna sell tickets, you know, DC's gonna do well. These other teams wanna get a jump on things. They wanna be able to start selling tickets. And, you know, that's the thing with uniforms. Dude, uniforms are kind late as well, because you want, you want put them at out as early as possible. So you can hit. Black Friday, so you can hit the Christmas season. You don't wanna make money, right? This is what it is about. So my criticism's more. About the business and how they've handled that. And then it is the football, the football stuff. I'm loving. I even like the uniforms, you know, for all the good and the bad, you know, you know, there's a lot of incomplete passes. In there, but are there's some scores there too. So I, you know, right now it's the business side that that's really troubled me, them finalizing things. Well, that's a, and I've said that in here before, and I've gotten, you know, probably not as much feedback as you have about things being said or whatever, but like, You know, my concern is never been the football. I think it's gonna be the best football that that's been played in the last 20 years in the spring of, you know, we're real like we've we have scouted the globe for all this stuff, but, you know, I just, I don't know if anyone's going to see it right when just to, to finish the, and then what I have one more question on. This cuz I think it's important when I tell kids you're like, well, the DC and all that, I understand that when I was in Arlington, you you're familiar with B D E right? Like I got sure, sure. Was a, B, D E. In that room on, in Arlington of like, you know, we're do it like, cuz I ask. Why is this gonna be better than the us O we're playing in the stadiums? Why wouldn't it be like we're, you know, we're doing this, we found the best, like. This is just not indicative of that. Right. That's why I say, like, when I'm talking about like hubris and mindset of like, there's this B D E that. You know? Yeah. You've been successful with a lot of other things, but you, like you said, you might not know this or might not know whatever. Why didn't they, why hasn't the exit fellow just said Vegas, T B D let's release the other seven things and get going on it. Like, I don't get why we can't just say like, You're gonna know where seven of the 18, you know, Hey, they're playing in Seattle, they're playing whatever, like Vegas TVD, but at least you can get the schedule shot for the other seven. You know, I'm crazy. Like before the 20, 20 season, the reason I'm bringing this up, I actually tried to simulate how I would've scheduled the entire XFS season when I was those 10 weeks. It is hard read. If you actually sit down and do this, if you eliminate one team and you go, okay, well, wait a minute, DC, are they go into Vegas in week four, but wait. Okay. So. Where's Vegas going in week five. And then who's traveling to them. You know, if you eliminate one team from the equation and only schedule S teams, but you schedule Vegas and you just say, it's gonna be somewhere in the greater Las Vegas. Area right. Right, but they don't know if they're gonna be in Vegas. I mean like, cuz they could eventually be in Texas too. And which part of what Texas stadium are they gonna be playing in? That's a little bit easier for them in terms of travel. Right? I would assume that they're gonna be in Vegas. Eventually, but, you know, You know, I, I think we're gonna get, we're gonna, we're gonna get the, the Vegas stadium. That's my feeling on it. But it's less than ideal when we're getting it, you know, so, and you're not doing yourself any favor Intel in terms of selling tickets. In that specific market. I didn't think it was a great market to choose to begin with. So as, I didn't think they have an appetite for football. Even though, you know, it's, there's an appetite there for the Raiders. They're gonna have the super bowl there. It's great city. I know that the gambling, all that. But the, the interactions I've had with Vegas media members and people there, it doesn't seem like they even know they barely know the vice exist. So, so we'll see how that goes. But I, I, I, I think it's a little bit hard. I like your idea, Reid, but I think they would rather. They have egg on their face already. Yeah. But they would rather just have the Vegas location settled. Whatever it's gonna be, and then released the schedule. So you can see, you know, DC will be going to Vegas on March 8th or whatever. And then, you know, you can do the whole schedule, hype videos and all that attach that. So they wanna get that settled so they can push forward. If you had to put a hundred dollars on, if we know by the end of this calendar year, I'm gonna say, where're not gonna get it to, I'm gonna say we're not gonna get it until January. I'd say we're not gonna get it till the, probably the first week of January. I'm I want to be wrong on that, but. Just cuz I think you're doing yourself. A disservice is a leak, you know, in that, in that specific market. So I, I wanna say first week of January, I. I'll I'll be happy if I'm wrong about that. Well, I like, I just, you know, I, I gotta know. I'm getting to the point where I'm getting, you know, and even if I didn't do this show and wanna do live shows and stuff, like I get, I'm getting inquired for March weddings and Hey are U of available what's going on? I like why I don't. I don't know if it's a Saturday home game or a Sunday, or if we're gonna be here. A lot of fans that wanna try, there's a lot of fans that wanna travel a lot of fans in St. Louis that wanna travel to Vegas. They gonna make it, make it a trip like, oh, well I wanna go see the battle. I'll play the Vipers. And this is perfect. I get to go to Vegas. I get to do all that. So there's a lot of fans out there from different markets that want to go. I, I wanna be able to go out to Vegas too. That would be an awesome trip. So it would be nice to know when I could go. Yeah. So that's just the way it is. But yeah, I, I, I don't think we're gonna get it until we get past the Christmas season and into the new year. I'm hoping that I'm rolling about that. Yeah, I was just, I don't know if you wants me to talk about 'em on the show anymore, but I was just tagged in face or on Twitter with, Hey, you can get a flight from Seattle Vegas for I think $19 or whatever right now for a Christmas specialist that, you know, trying to figure out. Okay. It would be nice if we knew when the Vegas games were. I said, man, I would start looking to flights. Arlington, but screw Vegas. I got, we gotta figure out last question today. I appreciate your time. We, a lot of the other stuff I'm deleting, I figure like, In terms of XFL looking for more funding. Looking for more equity stake, we want minority owners. USFL wanting any of that stuff, you know, FedEx, like. They're not selling it to the Memphis right. Where that's selling it to the FedEx guy, but he's encouraging us to come here. Like any updates on ownership for the XFL or the USFL, trying to franchise out these teams. I think both sides are looking for funding. I think that's Redbird. Capital's wheelhouse. Is seeking investors, finding you raising capital that's Redford capital. Right? So that's, that's what they do. So, yeah, that's a never ending thing for them. And so, and the USFL, the Fox has been trying to do that. They both have prestigious partners who have helping them along with that. So there's an interest on both sides to continue to do that. You'd love to be able to get to the point where you don't need seed money, cuz we're right now, Fox is covering all the, the call of the us F L. Bird is covering all the costs. They have money earmarked to cover all the expenses. But, you know, over time there was hope with the USFL that they'd be able to sell off the franchise to individual owners. But if you get to the point where you can sell, sustain it and it can grow and you can create revenue streams, then you know, and. You could operate way and not have, and not need anyone else to join in. Maybe you want the entire pie for yourself. That would be tremendous if they could do that. But that was the initial, that's the initial thought process with this. It's like with anything, if I have a company that's, you know, and I'm putting a hundred thousand dollars into it, I'm trying to raise capital and have it grow. I hate to go shark tank on us, but. But, you know, you, you, if you can get some investors to come in, put in $6 million and then you can really cause that's the whole point of getting capital raising capital is for growth. And so maybe the us of on the XL can have growth. Without that money, but that's red, bird's wheelhouse. And you know, these, these two companies have the higher prestigious partners to help them in that. And the USFL had a year where it was kind of an infomercial to sell their product. To individual cities and, and owners and all that. And the product was good, but they really didn't get that. Not yet. Anyway, they haven't gotten that kind of seed money from investors. Where Redbird is just kind of getting started. They haven't shown their product yet. So. So we'll see how it goes, but I, I think that's more down the line stuff. All right, Mike, get ready. You got a big AFC battle tonight here. I I saw today. They were like, as long as Zach Wilson just doesn't kill the jets tonight. I think they'll be okay. But we'll, we'll see Mike, anything else from you? I appreciate your time today. No, thank you very much, Reid for having me on. Thanks for being patient, you know, working around schedules, all that happy holidays to you and yours and to everyone out there, it's been a fun year and where we're headed toward an even more fun to in 2023. This is what was, there was a time there was a time we heard 20, 23 when the XFL had announced that they're not coming back. In 2021 and then they're not coming back in 2022. And when I heard 20, 23 is. Another two years. So like, you know, it was, they was, and now we're fi you know, thank God willing. Thank God. We're headed towards that. And then, so it's finally here 2023, cuz it didn't sound great a couple years ago here in that year, specifically. So anyhow. It felt like a really long time. It has felt like a really long time. I think this is the third time now we've had these super CFL super agent Darren Gill on. How are you doing, sir? Awesome. Thanks for having me. This is good. I, we had you on back CFO. At some point years ago. And then I think when we had the original USFL stuff last year, I brought you on, but now we're getting into XFL. Exel year one, us FFL year two for people that maybe don't know you, haven't watched the CFO segments, just a little bit of background about who you are, kind of who you've represented, just so we know why you're such a valuable resource to have on. I appreciate it. Yeah, no, I've been representing CFO. Players for close to 20 years. Represented hundreds of players. My client base is typically nationals or Canadians, but I've represented. Americans and brought several players in guys like Ken Dorsey years ago. And also sent some players south of the border. So have had to experience in the national football league K football league. And with both Americans and the Canadians, and they've certainly been around this league for a long time and seen. Several iterations, several CBAs and, and certainly the evolution of the league over the last 20 years as well. Well, that's good. So we're getting, like I said, getting in here, this is exciting and I think this is great for the players. Because here in the states, having, you know, competing in spring leagues is, is only gonna help drive, you know, value up of contracts. Seeing this year, USFL in their new CBA that they're getting ready to pass. Raising baseline salaries by 19%. Getting rid of wind bone. Thises where the minimum would be. I have it. Right. Of course I have this all, all kinds of . Of course, I had this ready to go then. Where the us of a minimum would be 56,000. That's assuming the three week training camp maxing. Now that's 71,800. For that from your, and, and I know that that caught Dave Naylor's attention to online this week, having the spring league, you know, increased salaries year over year from year one to year two. What do you make of that? A 56,000 baseline for USFL contract this year. Yeah. You, I think come to competition is great. You know, it's, it's great. For every football player out there. I think it forces leagues to get better. I, I think the, the overall growth of the game. Is gonna help everybody. Inevitably, I'm hoping this all trickles down to the grassroots where we see more youth football players playing the game. Which hopefully then turns into, you know, youth football fans and players. And, and this is a great thing that's happening. What's also happening as well as just having more. Opportunities is obviously more money. It's forced the Canadian football league to change their salary structure. It's forced a more attractive. Kind of entry level salary. But obviously the inevitable challenge for all these leagues is these careers are short. So, you know, the entry level salaries. Okay. But you know, if this is still a three year career path, when we're looking at kind of that average length of your career, you know, it's still not a great. Viable option for these players. Because honestly it's not a 10 year window that they have to make that. So I, I think what is nice about this is that the leagues are sensing the competition, the real struggle. For the player obviously, and we'll get into, this is really having to make decisions around. Where do I go? So more options is great, but also you're having more difficult decisions and also. You know, roster. A alignments and having some sense of less turnover, which is really what everyone's been seeking. That's been a problem. Nickname football league with one year contracts becomes even harder right now. You're gonna have guys, you know, skipping between leagues, just all trying to find kind of the fresh hot ride. I know last week spoke. I believe you had said that at least one of your clients was at least talking to entertaining USFL. Now in the year, cuz it's been about a year since I think we've talked to you actually USFL is that enter in more into the conversation that you're hearing with, you know, players and other people you're talking to. Yeah, I'm definitely getting a lot less calls from us based agents. Looking for opportunities in the K football league. Whereas that used to be, you know, a a really, you know, I used to work with a lot of us agents helping get their players to the Canadian football league, less of that's happening. There's no debt about that. That's changed the landscape, you know, obviously, you know, this is just the reality of being in. Canada, our weather is not as nice. It's, it's a foreign concept to go to, you know, Regina Saskatchewan or Winnipeg, Manitoba, you're, you're much better off being in Birmingham, Alabama, or, or somewhere closer to home. So I think, you know, even before we get into this notion of, well, you know, what is the salary looking like? I think the, the concept of going to Canada is, is something that. A lot of people don't even have to explore. So that's, that's changed, but certainly we're, you know, I used to get desperate pleas from, from agents going, please help me please find a place for my player. I see a lot less of those, and usually it's, we've explored these other leagues. Can you help? 'em get to the CUNY football league. That's interesting. And, and the idea too, in, on here in, in both their own way. X FFL, you know, paying for housing, right? They're they're, Hubing everyone in Arlington. And then obviously flying out to the games USFL, they're doing the housing stipend 400 a week, you know, because that, and I've talked to players about that, you know, they'll whole time I've done the podcast, like, well, I got a fly to Canada. I gotta maintain the whole household up here. You know, also in the states, you know, if I have a family or a partner or however, all that works out, like I. Is a real challenge, right? CFO presents those other challenges. Am I looking at that correctly? Yeah, no, I think that's just the reality of the situation now, you know, on the flip side, there's enough players in this league who who know. Who have come from programs in the, in the us that are talking to players. They, they played with who are saying, man, this is the greatest place. You know, the, the league is obviously been around for, for a long time. There's stability. These communities. Are are ingrained, entrenched in the game. So, you know, if you get to go and play in front of the crowd in Regina, Saskatchewan, if you're a rough rider, You're gonna feel very similar to what you might have felt, or even more, depending on what college you came from. You're gonna feel that. Some other leagues right now are paying players. Well, but aren't, haven't necessarily brought the crowds in, haven't attracted the fan attention. So this league also has some other things that, that benefit. You know, certainly the player of going well, this is a real pro experience. Versus a lead that right now is trying to get off the ground. And not that this league hasn't had its financial issues with teams going. Bankrupt, but this is currently a very stable, you know, league with, with very stable ownership. And, and a pretty good fan base. So I think. With the drawbacks comes some positives. And also, you know, a lot of the coaches in the league have obviously coach to in the us and in a major programs. So, you know, they're, they're their, network's bringing guys up. So it's not just the it's in Canada, but I think it's trying to find unique ways to attract that talents because becoming a different game. Had we have a question on here about genius sports and working with the CFO. Has the, has the league been pretty transparent with that, about how they're able to kind of project future revenues? Now I know they're looking into this American TV deal, right? We have the schedule and then everyone's losing their minds about that. But if they, it kept you guys. Pretty apprised of future revenue, projections. I think, you know, the word transparency comes with a caveat in terms of what that means. It's gotten a lot better since, you know, since I've been around, but I don't believe we're at the point where we truly believe that there's transparency between the league and the players. And with that being said, truthfully, you know, Not every league is either. So I don't think the Canadian football league is in its own category of less than transparent. Leagues. I think they're, they're making strides and they're trying to get, go down that path. And certainly every CBA has allowed. That conversation to be tabled and we're seeing it improve. In terms of the nuances of genius sports deal and whether we have. Pure transparency. I don't think so. But there's certainly been many steps in the right direction. And I certainly believe that today the players are better informed than they ever have been. So that's a, a strong reflection of the relationship between the PA. And the league, but also a very strong reflection of how the PA communicates with his own players. When we're looking at the minimums here, right? 54 XFL, 56 USFL. People are always talking okay. In the CFL, like the rookie deal or what's going on, like, what is, what is the average CFL player? I know that's so hard to say, but, you know, because there's a difference, right? If, if I'm coming in the bare minimum rookie deal versus not most Canadians are getting that, can you give some idea of like where the salary. Ranges in the CFL for the American listeners. Yeah. You know, it's, it's, the CFO obviously has a pretty wide disparity. Right. And, and it really speaks to the notion of that, that turnover cycle. You have some players that never get outta that cycle because they're always at the lower end of the salary range. They're always kind of around that league minimum, which has kind of been, you know, around that 60, 65, 70 range over the last few years. So you've got some players that can never get outta that cycle because they're just few viewed as like the, the last guy in. But once you make it to the. Next contract, you know, the jump is substantial and that's what I think the players do appreciate is that if you can make it in this league and we're, you know, even if you're a non quarterback, the quarterback's obviously being into category on, on themselves. But if you're a, you know, a star non quarterback, you can make north of $150,000. So you. Can get into that one 50 to $200,000 bracket. And that's where, you know, you start to see a little bit of a disparagement or sorry, a difference between the CFO and those other leagues we're talking about because of that earning opportunity. So they are selling a bit of that hope down, down the line of going, man, you know what here's, you know, here's that Adam big hill and here's Willie Jefferson. And here's a bunch of guys who have made a. Good name for themselves in this league and are doing very well financially. Yeah, I think the, the ceilings higher. Right. But then the floor. You know, cuz it's 65 Canadian, right? So you're, the floor is about the same, but there is, like you said, if you can get into those elite, you know, Kenny Lawler, you know, breaking the bank and going to Mont to kind of all that stuff. The idea that. Here I had, I had, I I'm too caught up in the numbers today with all this stuff. What was my. I was gonna ask, sorry about I have no Ben hard for me to, they juggling all these numbers on here and trying to figure out it's all good. Oh, From a negotiating standpoint where the USFL, the union there decided this year, we would rather. Sacrifice or, or take some of the wind bonuses and roll that into a higher minimum. Salary. What do you just think about that from like a negotiating standpoint of, you know, where the XFL we're gonna pay you less, you have a chance of earning more through wind bonuses, SFL. We're gonna get rid of that, but then you have a higher base level. I never liked the concept of the wind bonuses, you know? And it goes back to the arena football days where, oh yeah, here's your, you get like two food stamps. But if you, when you get 150 bucks, whatever it was, you know, I think as a player, you know, or as a, as a human being, I think you need so. Secure income, or you need some more guaranteed perspective on what that's gonna look like, cuz obviously your bills don't vary if you win or lose. So regrettably you know, the win bonus, although it's nice, you know, You're better off finding ways to guarantee your income. So you can project what that looks like. So I think you start to look like you're a little bit more grown up. When, when you're structure makes more sense. I think you'll look a little bit more like an upstart when you're varying, how players get paid. It's interesting. Now that's good talking. More about the Canadian and, and like the taxes and exchange rates and stuff. Is that besides just going to Canada, is that a major factor as well? That people would consider. Center. I mean, I'll tell you this, that most players who are initially considering which league to go play in or agents. That's not even a consideration, cuz most of 'em aren't even thinking about that at all. They're just hoping for a place to play. Now once, you know, they get that first paycheck or, and or they, or they bring it back to the us bank and they see what the exchanges and they get kind of hits 'em differently at that point. But, but I think when players are looking for a place to play. They're just, you know, and listen, I'm not saying that players get desperate. This is not the message. But I think at that point they're looking for an opportunity and it's, it is kind of interesting what happens when the player goes from, man, just gimme an opportunity. I wanna play anywhere to when he makes a team he's going, man, I, I'm not making this as much as I should somewhere else. Right. And, and that's just a matter of perspective of. Anybody, right. It's like, you know, if you, if you're desiring to go on vacation, man, if I just gimme a vacation anywhere, then you get to that, you know, destination you're at, well, the food's not so good. And you know, it rained a couple of days and you leave there and you're like, it wasn't so good. But meanwhile, you were just desperate for a vacation. So I'm not trying to make it sound like it's that bleak, but it terms of considerations. It's not something that I usually hear, you know, most players wanna know what, how much play time they're gonna get. You know, how long is the contract? So when can we start renegotiating and giving, getting next big deal? Cause everybody understands that whatever move you're making, wherever you're going, it's a stepping stone. That's the vision, right? So am I stepping to the national football league? Am I stepping to my next contract? Where am I going next? And I think that's always. Kind of the top of my question. Could you see if you XFL and SFL surviving here, you know, we're, we're paying players, the, the weekly stipends and all that with the CFL, be like, Hey, we need to start. Right. Are some of the contracts who they get some housing stipends in there or is it mostly, they have to figure it out themselves. Is it a case by case? You know, very rare when you see it on a rookie contract, you know, you'll see some, but on a veteran contract. You, you will see it now, truthfully, you know, if they're gonna play it player X, let's say they're paying 'em a hundred thousand dollars. You know, you can get a housing. Allowance as part of that, but that's gonna be included in your a hundred. Now the good news is you're housing allowance will be non-taxed. So there's a benefit to it, but it's not something that's necessarily given above and beyond the team will figure out what your value is. And they're gonna say, Hey, we wanna pay you a hundred. And then you, you know, the agent and or the player with the agent kind of decide, how are we gonna chop it up? Right. We're gonna get assigning bonus. We're gonna use you some and housing. I wanna travel out allowance. I want work, workout bonus. You know, so you can, you know, then kind of carve that number up. But, but the benefit obviously being is that it's non-tax money. As would something like kind of a travel allowance where, you know, if, if you wanna, you know, take a vacation or, or use it to fly your family to, and from the city you're playing and you can do that. So you definitely try to help your players find as much ways to maximize that whatever that bundle of cash is at the they're getting in terms of the. CFO this year, there's people notably marked at the, you know, lack of quarterback, playwright, you know, outside of like Nathan work and all that with the XFL now kind of doing the centralized quarterback development, right. We're bringing in everyone ahead of time working with Jordan Palmer. Do you see this? The CFL doing something like that to help. And we have the question here. Basically, they can get the guys more. Us of L and XL. Are you get guys more that wanna play right now? Right? I don't need to come in and do a three year waiting here. We've seen like Taylor Cornelius take a couple years, get up to speed at Edmonton. Like, do you see CFO trying to kind of adopt a different way of how they're looking at that of basically a like come up here and figure it out for versus, Hey, let's try to cultivate these. Guys from the beginning, I think disruption, least innovation and, and, you know, the XFL model, the new version of the model. Certainly has caught attention from the Canadian football league in terms of, you know, how are they gonna develop players? Because that's obviously top of mind right now, it's all been done. By teams, but because of limited budgets and now you've got a football operations cap. You really have to start making choices about how much kind of money you spend on development, because. Hate to say it it's a win now leak. Right? So there really is no incentive. By anybody on your football operations staff. To develop somebody long term. Now, if you can marry the two where. Development and winning come together well have at it, but we all know that they're usually is more incentive to win now, which means that, you know, a veteran quarterback will have a different value than trying to develop somebody new. Especially for, you know, a younger head coach going, I, I don't have three years. I don't have five years. I gotta win today. So I love the model. I think there'll be a lot of eyes on it to see how it works and to see. You know, a, does it actually. Achieve its goal by developing players and B once you do that, how does the league handle the distribution or dispersal of talent? And, and I think from that standpoint, there's gonna be a lot to learn and, and that's what you know, that what's so good about every league that's come and whether they've come and gone or just come and stayed. Is is how we all have to learn from it. And I think you're seeing that. I think you've seen the national football league learner. I think you see now sports, you know, looking to work in imitate others, whether it's playing styles, whether it's coaches that are, you know, referencing each other. So you're gonna continue to see that happen. But I think the, the Shion we're seeing and football. Is only gonna help every other league speaking XFL here, we're recording this December 21st. Yeah. Week of Christmas, we thought, you know, maybe by the end of the year, XFL still does not have an announced venue for one of its 18. Teams considering they're kicking off, you know, in February, obviously they're training everyone training camps can take place down in Arlington without the venue in place. But was that concern you as someone that's kind of fall following this from the outside? You know, I think, you know, the one thing that the Canadian football league brings to every player is certainty. Right? And that's what, you know, if I'm a CFO GM or a head coach, or if I'm an agent, that's what I'm selling, right. Is there certainty? There's, there's a certain level of guarantee around the leagues wherewithal where. The teams are gonna be playing how the structure works. There's less risk. So obviously in seeing what's happening in the XFL, despite the fact that you're gonna believe a lot in, in who's leading that, you know, league with obviously with the rock and, you know, with his group around it, you, you know, you're gonna get excited about Danny Garcia as, as a leader and where this thing can go. But I think you're gonna have some reservations about whether this is just another version of something that doesn't work. And, and, you know, I'm not saying that, you know, that's a, you make a short term decision because of what's happening. But I think if you're looking projecting long term, you have to weigh the risks of whether that leak didn't be solvent or not. Just, and I would just, this isn't the amount like. Just from your outside perspective, looking at both of these, you have the SFL owned by Fox sports. You know, they, they kind of control everything top to bottom, but then you have Danny in the rock and kind all this stuff. I do. You, where does your opinion sway of which one you think is kind of the more. Long-term viable solution. Yeah. You know, I think both of them have built a model that can work. And, and I think. The question around it will be. Is the success of the league predicated. On football. Or on all the other intangibles. And, and if it's football. Couldn't these leagues build compelling enough cases. To be a realistic competitive football league or not. And I say that only because, you know, I think Canadians have come to accept in a good way. What Canadian football is. I think Americans have a higher standard. And, and the concern would be is, is this the same version of football that people are expecting or is this really viewed as. The minor leagues and unfortunately, minor league sports. Don't get the same attention in treatment as major league sports. And, and I think that's the question is. Can, can they find a space in everybody's football? Needs or are they viewed as less than. And luckily in Canada, the Canadian football league is not viewed as less than it's viewed as other than. You know, most football fans in Canada. Are fans of both leagues. They might have a preference. I'm not saying preference can exist, but they view. One as being different and like, you know, it is, I get it. Like the, the balls are bigger and the field is bigger and, and, you know, the, the rules are different, but it's just viewed as a different brand of it. Whereas, if you've look, you know, and I'm using a Canadian example, cuz it's closer to home. You know, minor hockey. So any league below the NHL is viewed as. Less than the NHL. Now the structure. Tells us that it is, but those leagues run a lot differently. They're not trying to compete. Right. They're they're not looking like that league. They're like, we are a minor league sports and you know, we're gonna ride buses and we're gonna, you know, hopefully make a career and, and you guys are here chasing the dream. So the, the balance around trying to be a minor league, but act like a major league is really kind of how I see it. And my, my long-term concern. Would be, is they're minor league sports that are trying to act grown up. And I don't know if that works as well, because that costs a lot of money. And if you look at, you know, the fan base, and if you're looking in the stands and the camera's panning around and there's 62 people there, it's hard to make it work. No, I, that actually say segues perfectly into my last question here have just. You know, we, we went and interviewed coach back to the St. Louis team back in the summer and, you know, hi, his thing was. If every single one of my players made it onto an NFL roster here at the end of the season, like I would deem that as a success. Right. And here you have the USFL and you know, they're touting and you know, KTI, Turick got signed of the Cowboys and this is going on. This goes on. Like if they, if they sway too much into that, right. If they, if they veer. Too much into that where, you know, it could actually, you know, potentially hurt, you know, salaries and things. Right. Because we are just kind of a minor league that is a concern. And do you feel, do you see. You share similar concerns. You know, the minor league model. Works when it's connected to the major league. Because the, the major league has a vested interest in funding, net minor league sport. In this case. These are minor leagues trying to operate independent. And yes, it's nice. If your star player could go from your USFL or XFL or CFO roster to the national football league, that's a great calling card for a coach or G to say, come play for me. Unfortunately, it doesn't pay the bills. It's, this is not the European soccer model where you can then sell that player and you get paid for it. Right? The MLS, you know, has, has become kind of a mix of let's bring some old stars over, but let's also have some young stars that the weak our clubs can then sell the van Vancouver white caps sold Alfonso. Davies to buy her Munich. One of the, I think maybe the largest transfer and that's gonna fund their operations. Right. It's a new way of operating in the MLS, cuz they'd recognize the fact that they're a second, third, fourth, fifth year league, wherever they rank in the soccer world when it comes to these football leagues. And I've always been a proponent of listen, Canadian football league players or any football player, not in the NFL has a contract. Teams can have a buyout. If you're a national football league team and you want player X, if you want Cameron wake who wanted to have a phenomenal NFL career, and I'm the BC lines you buy me of his contract. Right. So at least there's an incentive for me now to go and develop these players cuz in the end, if, if he's really good, I can sell 'em off. But unfortunately. That's a little bit harder model because now players gonna go, well, I've got three league choices. And, and I'm caught in your league and you're gonna try and sell me off. And if you don't get the right asking number, I can't leave. So I, I guess to kind of go back to your question is. The model works in places where either the major league team funds the minor league team. Or the minor league team can sell its players and make money and fund its operations. And that's what if you look at, you know, the English premier league, Where there's several leagues or, you know, they, you know, football in, in England, right? There's several leagues. You can get relegated. So you could be a third division team. And you're not tied to any of the first two, but then you can sell your player and you can make money. Right? So you can find this, this talented kid who nobody knew of and you can sell 'em right. Well, that's not gonna happen. And in these leagues, you know, so again, if you're the coach, that's awesome. Hey, come play for me cuz every, you know, every two years I get a guy who goes to the league. Awesome. But if you're that team owner, you're like, I don't care about that anymore. I wanna keep that guy here because people are coming to see him when he leaves. I don't get anything. Last question for me today. I really appreciate your time. You know, I, I think we talked to you last year, kind of in the USFL stuff originally came out just well for a check on you, like, how do you feel here? You know, USFL is making it to your too fells, starting up. I mean, better, worse. How do you feel right now? About the spring football. I think it's great. Honestly, I think, again, going back to our earlier comment, the more leagues, the better, you know, I think it's great for the game. Obviously we've seen the youth football numbers. Plummet, this hopefully continues to keep the game. Top of mind, we get more kids playing, you know, it's, it's all about growing the pie, right? And, and if we can keep growing the pie, more players get paid, more fans, watch the game, more kids start playing. That's great for the game of football because. Obviously, I, you know, I represent players in the K football league of represented players in the NFL. I I'm a football fan. Right. I wanna see this sport succeed. I wanna see it grow. And honestly, the more people that are turning their eyeballs to it is, is, you know, it's like the more is the merrier. And I love that aspect that you leagues are. And obviously the more TV contracts yet. This is just great. So, you know, I think it's great. I want every league to flirt. Obviously. I would hope that this success of one league. Isn't predicated on the failure of the other. I understand that within that there is likely gonna be competition for, for talent. That's cool. Right. But that doesn't mean that one league needs to have more success than the other. We'll see if there's room for all these leagues. I think that's what the real big question is. But, but I want them all to succeed and I think that's great for players. Which is kind of where I usually sit. That's great for owners who will be happy. It's great for anybody who's investing. It's great for sponsors. So I think I like where it's going. And I really hope that we're not talking about the demise of another league or what went wrong with this one in 12, 18 or 24 months. Darren, the CFO super agent really appreciate you coming back on. Well, I appreciate it. Today. We have leadership of the United football players association, Ryan cave, and then the president, Kenneth Farron. How are you guys doing? Pretty good. Thanks for having this on. Good man. Glad to be here. It was getting the exciting times last week, getting all that going bunch of questions today, really hot button issue here. Right? Kind of. Comparing everything between the XFL and the USFL player. Salary-wise so I really appreciate it, I guess, first off, just we'll start with Kenneth and then Ryan, like, how are you guys feeling now? You know, that we're getting everything agreed to, right? They're gonna, you know, vote and sign and all that, but how do you guys feel that everything went. I think it went well. I think we definitely, you know, reached our goal of wanting to get the players, voices heard and address some of the issues that were, you know, kind of outstanding with the guys after kind of them going through that first season. And I think Ryan has done a fantastic job with all of his experience from. The arena league and the things that he he's done in the past it's, you know, so he definitely led the charge on this and, you know, we're, we're excited that the guys are, are kind of getting what they want and, and really happy about it. Right. What do you think? Yeah, man. Hey, this it's been a heck of a few months since we kind of got this thing rolling down in Birmingham and you know, I mean, I'm, I'm grateful for, for Nick and. And Kenneth for kind of bringing me on to this and, and reaching out. And we able to put something together from the whole team with U F P a. To a great partnership with the United steelworker. Everybody's been amazing and great, and just, it really came together by really listening to the players. Listening to their main concerns and making sure they had a voice. Cause you know, every major space of sports organization has a player's association slash union. Whatever you wanna call it. So it was, it was key that, that those guys got a chance to, to voice their concerns and see what worked. What didn't work and make improvements there. Do you, I know there was some, when there was the vote to unionize over the summer, you know, turnout and all that. Do you feel like there was a better turnout here in, in terms of the members and kind of getting everyone involved in the CBA? Man. So, so the hardest thing you ever gonna do is organize guys. Right. And then once everything gets approved and everybody in this official. Then, you know, everybody wants to be a part of the negotiations and learning what we're gonna do. And. What about the money? What about the housing? You know, I mean, those are some of the big issues, housing. Compensation better health and medical benefits. And we were able to achieve all of those things. Kevin, do you feel like you got, you got more involvement this time around. You know, I, I think it was actually the opposite. I think. Ryan having the expertise of the bargaining and the arena leagues and things like that. That was something that, you know, I don't really have too much experience in. I think, like I said, I think it was the opposite. I think the organizing part, like Ryan said was kind of the harder part for guys that maybe haven't been too involved in the NFL P or, or haven't really been involved in the player's union at all and trying to get them, those kind of younger guy or guys that just don't have that experience to understand. What we can really accomplish if we have this put together and organize and up and running. And so I think like Ryan said, I think the organizing was probably the more difficult part just to get everybody on the same page to fully understand, you know, what it can do for and what the benefits can be of. Accomplishing what we were able to get done, kinda with being, you know, obviously here. Presumably signing the contract. Here you go to the XFL. Does that give you a unique perspective of being able to kind of see a little bit behind the scenes of both of these leagues? Oh, yeah, I think, I think I'll, I'll I think all of us at this point in time, After, you know, there's probably, I don't know the percentage, but I'm sure it's over 50, 60% of guys that are playing in these leagues now USFL or XFL that are probably played in these leagues since the AAF and some way shape or fashion. And so I think it's just kind of a co collective of like guys going through these. Experiences going through seeing what has been good, seeing what hasn't worked. And so I think that, you know, going into the USFL, I think there was a lot of work to be done on the player's behalf. And I think the that's where we kind of stepped in as a player's association, we're able to do, do and get a lot of things set up for the guy. And they immediately saw the value. Of just having the organization on behalf of the players, working for them before the union and before the organizing even got started. And so I think as guys start to identify these leads that they want to play in, they have a better idea of what needs to be in place. What does it sound like? What does it look like going in? And so I think, I think the extra. Has done a great job with a lot of the things that they have in place right now. So I'm excited just to get a get into it and see just the level of professionalism that they bring to the table, I think is gonna be very high. And, and just kind of excited to get back on the field again, but yeah, definitely a unique perspective having. Played in so many of these leagues. Ryan now that you know, we've at least agreed to the CBA. How, how do the players. View the XFL in the USFL. Is it pretty even footy now in terms of financially? Man. So. The jury's still out with that, man. We'll we'll see, man. I mean, one thing you have with the USFL. That, you know what I mean? Not knocking the XFL at all, but one thing you have with SFL is they're going into a year, too. They got a year under their belt. They've they know their, their cost and their prices. They know. I mean, whatever the else they gotta understand on the management side of things, but. They're going into a YouTube XFL is gonna be. This is a new ownership group with, you know what I mean? Dwayne Johnson and red bird capital, Danny Garcia, all of those good folks over there. This is, this is a new venture for a so there's, there's always gonna be the X expenditure of what they, the unknowns. So one thing you have with FFL now is you have a. Players' union players association with, you know what I mean, a great partner in Fox that was, you know, I mean, they were forthcoming with one to sit down and get a deal done and, and listening to the players. So I will give, I mean, I give, I give, I'll give Fox their flowers, meaning, know what I mean? So they were willing to sit down and. They are really trying to make this a partnership and they, and understanding that you have labor peace right now. Between the, between, you know, I mean the players and, and the league is a great thing, knowing that there's stability, knowing that you have. A a great compensation. Healthcare housing benefits and all of that good stuff. That's for certain and that's in contract language. So even though it's a first contract, so God's gotta understand this is a first contract. And first contracts are always the toughest thing to get done. But having, like I said, having a willing partner, ready to sit there and dance with us. We were able to get a great first contract for guys and, and, and looking for you. I mean, great future with us F L. SFL, besides monetary, both of these leagues have kind of their own unique challenges for the players. You know, us FFL with the multiple hubs XFL and the Arlington where they're non-financial factors that played into maybe one be more just when you're talking with players about being more preferential or not. And we could go, Ryan. And then the Kenneth on that, any thoughts? I mean, it's kind of. So, so basically. Between both leagues. I mean, let's just be Frank. It's gonna be a race for arms. You know what I mean? Race for players, race for talent. Who can provide the most benefits for the, for the players that said players and you know what I mean? They're gonna be overlapping by for. Or so weeks, so. Yeah. I mean, when it comes down to it, the, the, the player and individual player has to, you know what I mean, do what's best for him, which league is gonna be better suited for me, which league's gonna be better suited for him. I mean, someone else, I mean, with the XFL right now, what we know of you have. What they they've given housing, but you have a roommate and you're staying in a hotel room. From all understanding, but in the SFL you're gonna have. This stipend, you're gonna have a $1,600 stipend. For a month or $400 a week that you're gonna have to go out. And if you don't wanna, you couldn't stay in Le you can stay in the team. Hotel housing, whatever gonna have per team in ho in, in training camp. And pay, I mean, the, the discounting rate or whatever rate they have per hub city. Or you can go out and find yourself some living with you in a, a teammate. You know what I mean? Find you a decent, you know what I mean? Most of the, what we found is the most of the. Furnace places in these different hub cities. Are around 16, $1,700. So. For a one bedroom decent space. So, I mean, you get your roommate. I mean, 22, 2300 bucks, 1600 per person. It makes sense you keep money in your pocket. So. That's one good thing. I will say about the USFL. Kenneth, any thoughts on that? The differing between the leagues. Yeah, I think like you said, I think. I think with these leagues, I think. Just, you know, from outside perspective, looking in, maybe people don't often. Think about or take into consideration, you know, this isn't. Million dollar contracts. These are, you know, pretty average salaries. And so I think you have a lot of guys, we spoke, I've spoke to, you know, over 600 guys, maybe over the last two years, whether it be bankruptcy or whatever the case may be, and kind of hearing that, you know, what was their path after the leak folded? Having to go in and out of trying to start up some type of career outside of football and things like that. And so when you look at these leagues, these are, you know, pretty average salary paying jobs. And so I think a lot of more factors come into play. It's not like you're oh, million dollar I'm going on. I'm going wherever it's it's okay. I'm gonna get 50. Thousand dollars this year. And let's look at what the best location is for my family. Let's look at a number of different things. And so I think all these things really. Play a big role into, you know, where a guy decides to play. It might not be necessarily money. It might be strictly off of location or, you know, housing alone. So I think there's a lot of things that go into the factoring of guys' decisions. And I think people kind of, you know, maybe not fully understand that, you know, Like I said, it's not millions of dollars getting around. So guys are really more realistic and kind of forward thinking when they think about the choice that they wanna make and which league they wanna play. In terms of, and piggybacking off that we're, you know, all these little things matter, right? Getting the, you know, 50 extra dollars, whatever for training camp, Ryan and I talked to before we hit record, it's gonna be four week or 28 day training camp on that getting paid. When you're looking and especially negotiating, we're gonna have three hubs in the USFL. Right. We have an announce, you know, Officially, but you know, players are gonna be housed in different areas. XFL, obviously no state income tax in Texas, like what's cost of living in the hubs for the USFL. Did that factor at all, or like, how did you balance that between people live and, and Birmingham versus me wherever it's gonna to be in the north. So we looked at, we looked at like the rental rates and, and all these different cities. And for the most part, they're mostly. There aren't the major, major us cities. You know what I mean? They're the second tier kind of cities between Birmingham, Memphis. You know what I mean, Detroit hasn't been officially announced, but you know what I mean? Is a possibility on Detroit. And you know what I mean? Stay tuned, never know. So. So between the, the hub cities and whatnot, they kind of looked at the average rental rate there and kind of figure out housing. The most, the, the biggest thing being. I mean, most guys are coming from wherever they're coming from. So they have another situation living situation there. So be able to take that burden off of someone. And, and, and provide. That was a big thing for the guys and the, and the player committee that was helping negotiate. So. That. So in terms. Of in the last. Last season in the USFL, we had a lot of stuff with like injured reserve and players getting, you know, cut, cuz they're trying to save roster spots. Is there anything this year with that, with the process where they can still be with the team, but maybe not taking up rosters spot or any changes to the, to the IR this year? I mean, so the roster is 10. You wanted to get a little bit higher, but of course, you know what I mean? Roster spots. Account to economic terms. So when you're looking at adding more players to enact roster spot, that's more salary. That you gotta take on versus someone being on an active watch. So it's less out someone gotta be on. So it's a fine balance between the scales. There are more IR protections in there right now. So. The, if you get placed on IR. If you get placed on IR. You, you deal with this, that state's worker's comp and for the most part, I believe the. These states are, have a statute of limitation of two years. So, I mean, for those who listen in, who don't understand that statute of limitation is the, the, from the dates you get injured. You have two years in order to file that claim or file that injury with the state's worker's comp I mean, your team trainers should already be reporting the injury, but you have up to two years to file that. Injury and whatever the, the, the. Average weekly wage is for that state. That's what you'll be receiving in. And in most states is less than what you're making. So let's say a guy's making the minimum salary. He's making 53 50 a week. He's active. He gets hurt. He gets put on IR. While that states will take Birmingham. We'll take Alabama the weekly average to E the weekly, the maximum. Amount you can receive on workers' compensation in the state of Alabama is 963 or 9 81 or two it's nine in some change, right. That's not 5,003 50. Right. So what happens is we've negotiated with belief to where during the regular season. When a guy gets hurt, he goes to IR. Now he gets the 9 63 that the worker's comp is paying him. Plus the legal supplement, the rest of the pay. So they'll make him whole up to his, whatever, his, whatever, his. His roster. Is whatever his roster spot is for them. So if you was active, he gets that. If he was inactive, he gets made hold to his inactive pay. So that's another, that was a, another big step cause guys were just. Beforehand guys would be cut. They were making 9 63. That's definitely not gonna help em out as much, but I mean, it would get all the benefits of workers' comp, but now you're being made whole for the rest of the season and in the season. You'll dose specifically with workers comp, but for the season, you'll receive a majority of, well, all of your salary that you were. You, you were gonna get, well, I think that's huge. I mean, I'm someone that E even through, COVID lived through a lot of that with, you know, small business and unemployment and stuff. I think. Supplementing that the difference, cuz yeah, I definitely does. Not. Unemployment is definitely not make you whole it's it's so that's good. That's a good step. And you guys feel proud about, I, I mean, I think that's great Kenneth, in terms of. How open has the USFL been with you guys now how with, with the, you know, U F P a, how they sit financially here after season one, going into year two and trying to. You know, being transparent about trying to get into more markets and things like that. They've been pretty open and honest with you guys. Yeah, I think, like I said, I think the deal was very, what we worked on was very transparent from both sides. I think, you know, we wouldn't be, I think one of the things that we know as players is that we don't wanna put any of these leagues in this, the situation where it's like, oh, we're Chrome crumbling the league, or we're putting the league. In jeopardy to, you know, and I think you hear a lot of that from, or maybe not a lot, but you hear some of that. From, you know, some responses to, you know, your unionizing in a startup league and things like that. And I think it's just, there's so much more to it than just. Trying to get more money. Like I think at the end of the day, like I've said before, The opportunity to go play on. ESPN or on Fox or whatever the case may be. Outside the NFL is golden to guys. But I think there's been a lot of things that in the past that have not made a lot of sense to us and not have been, you know, As, as, as fairly, as, as fair as it could have been. And so I think that was more so the objective going into this is how can we make this fair, but how can we also make this sustainable and last and keep on going with that with our, with our voice, being heard about some of the things that we know as players can make, not only the league better, but our situations trying to play through a. Season like that in the spring better. So, yeah, I think from, from that standpoint, I think, yeah, the deal was, the deal was reached with all of those things in mind. And I think, you know, I think everybody's happy about it. Yeah. People complaining that. Yeah. You guys at union has, are trying to get more like I'm like, you guys are insane. Like you don't understand, like, you know, like you said, the size of these contracts and whatever. Like, no, we, we need to protect all that stuff. I do not like that. When I see people commenting on their like, oh yeah, well, you know, here go goes the league or where, whatever they're trying. To unionize it's like, no, no, no, no, no. Like we need to protect all that. Ryan has anyone, one of the big selling points going into us F L season one was the, like the tuition waivers and all of that. And obviously carried that over. And that's part of the benefits package. Are people taking advantage of that? Is that something that's enticing? The players? Yeah. You got quite a few players in a, going back to school and getting degrees, actually, one of. The players on the bargaining community, badly quarterback of the Mallers he's taken full advantage of. Going to school and getting, I mean, at his coursework and getting some classes done and working towards getting his master. So that's a huge benefit for players. I think all players should take advantage of that. If someone's gonna give you a chance to get some free education, if we wanna take advantage. To to further yourself, you know what I mean? Whatever subject area you want to. By all means, especially if it's free. And it all online and, and you can take full advantage of those benefits that the league has already. Had, and in me stating that they're going to keep in there. So. I I, I mean, any player who asks me about it, I think that's a, that's a huge benefit. Well, I love that. That's good. I'm glad to see him take advantage of that. That's good on that. Do you guys, am I just recorded with one of the CFO agents here before we got on? Do, do you guys feel that. As with both of these leagues now being, you know, strengthening and, and, and decent minimum salaries for both. Is that gonna change players opinions of like, oh, I gotta go up to the CFL. Now I can stay here. I can play in Texas. I can play in Birmingham. I can play in Memphis. Heres your thoughts, Kevin. And the, then we can talk to Ryan. Yeah, I think, you know, I think it opens up the landscape. Just to have more opportunities to a situation. Like I said, that better fits you. I think. You know, I think all three of these leads are similar across the board and, and saying that, you know, nobody's gonna be, you know, wealthy from playing in one of these leagues for one year. So I think the guys that have. Have a situation that fits them, have a, have a location that fits them. I think it gives the guys more opportunity to kind of really. Look and see what gives them the best opportunity to further their career. If it's going to the CFO going to NFL or XFL and making the jump to the NFL, like I said before, there's so many factors. There's have you been with the coach before? Have you, you know, the offense scheme fit, fit, you does the defensive team fit you. And so. Now you got three leagues with, with, you know, three sets of teams and all three leagues. And so it just gives you a better. Opportunity to further your career or further your. Situation in whatever way that you want to. And so I think that does open up the door for guys to. Just make a, a better decision for what they believe is right for them at the point in their career that they're in. Ryan, I'm curious, you know, obviously you guys working with the USFL and all of that. Like, how do you guys know how the relationship with the XFL is gonna be like, have you guys had communications? Is that something that's going to be open for you guys to work through? Our relationship, like I said, with USF has been great. You know, once you get organized and things like that, and starting to get a one guided contract done. So. The relationship is there is, is gonna be ever grown and never continu to grow. As far as XFL, I really don't really have much to say about them. I mean, we'll cross that bridge when we get there. But, you know what I mean? Hopefully they can be successful and hopefully. They can, they can stay around and provide more jobs and opportunities for us. Kenneth, anything to add to that? Oh, yeah. Like I said, I think the USFL, there is a lot of. Guys that had reached out to us previously, before or prior to going into that league and voiced a lot of concerns. And I think that's why, you know, we felt the need to step in and help. I think, like I said before, I think that USFL did a great job of getting through the first season and then obviously bringing the guys. To the table to hear out the concerns and the things moving forward. I think we were able to get a lot of things changed, and I think it's just a little bit of a different tone going into the XFL with seeing some of the. High profile kind of people that they have involved and things like that. And not to knock anybody from the USFL, but. I don't think guys are too worried about some of the issues that were major concerns going into. The USFL. So, you know, like I said, I think, I think right now everybody's really happy with. What is on the table and kind of what the XFL future looks like. And so I know I'm excited to, you know, be a part of it and get in there and play in this first season of their new ownership and kind of see what they bring to the table. So. Yeah, like Ryan said, we'll kind of, you know, we'll see how that goes. I think as of right now, they're in a very good position and have done a lot of good prep work. To start off the, start off their, you know, new, new season, new league, the right way. I just have a couple, a little more Ville centric questions here at the end. We'll try to get you guys outta here. I really appreciate it. I concerns. We're still talking to Vegas stadium. You know, a as people involved with player reps, You know, we have seven to eight venues announced thoughts on that and, and that, you know, we're getting ready for training camps here at the beginning of the year. I think they'll get it done. I don't really see. I think, like I said, I think. The, the things that are in place with the XFL. I think the things that they've been able to accomplish and the partnerships and the deals that they have in place. I don't see, you know, any kind of. Any hiccups going forward? I think maybe it's just taking a little bit more time than people would like, but I think when it comes down to it and we get to the season, I think everything will be squared away. Have you guys heard anything from Brian Westbrook, he had about any of the engagement stuff they're gonna be doing with players? Not, not yet, you know, we've gotten forms me as being a player. I think there's doing a lot of good off the field things they asking guys, you know, kind of what areas of. Of life that they want to kind of get involved in outside of football. And as far as being able to grow off the field. So I think that's something that guys are excited about to be able to kind of learn and educate themselves. So I think they're doing a lot of good things out off the football field for guys. Do you know, have they given you insights? How the, the commit date's supposed to work here at cumber up next week, the 26th. No. Or you said the commit date yeah. Where you have to be either sign or committed by the 26th, right? Oh yeah. The, the LOI. Yeah. I think, I think most guys have already. Kind of signed that. I know, you know, I have, I think. I don't think that's been too big of a deal for anybody. I think. Like I said, I think the guys that are are. Have been drafted. I think all those guys are pretty excited about the opportunity and. Ready to get to camp. So I haven't heard any, anything about that from anybody. Have you guys heard anything, either you Ryan or Kenneth about any of the alumni academy stuff, the fallout of that with the XFL, any of that relationship? No, I haven't heard anything about that. Nah, I, I haven't really heard anything about the, the NFL, the academy thing they got going on. I, I knew, I know they have the partnership with, so. The the is. Besides that I'm not, I'm not totally sure. Yeah. Just curious if anyone had reached out to you guys, last question from me talking about the AFL CIO sports council, you guys were kind of founding members of that, any. Things to look forward to in their horizon. From that to anticipate, we could start with Ryan. Man there's there, there's some big things on the horizons coming from there. I can't really speak to him yet, but just know those between all of those organizations in there. There's gonna be a lot of good and lot of new information that will be coming out very soon. Kenneth. Anything else from you? Oh, yeah, just kind of echo what Ryan said. Like I said, I, I, Ryan hats off to Ryan, he's kind of taking the, taking the helmet of things and I've shifted back into training and, and getting ready to go. So I'm, I'm ready to go play. Ryan's doing an excellent job with everything going on right now. Ryan last question. Biggest of all the, the work that you guys did getting the CBA together, what do you think stands out? I know you mentioned that the compensation for the workers comp and you obviously raising the minimum. Like, what were you most proud of that you think was the most important step that you guys got in this. Man. The biggest thing I can really see is how, how the players. Kind of stepped up cause you you're really not too sure. What. What the players in the league want do and how is their temperament and how things are going to shape out when you're organizing, getting this thing really going. But to see some of the older guys in the league, Kind of step up and take reigns and bring a lot of the young guys who really weren't. Up to date with, with like knowledge and or how all this stuff works was really a great to see. Deceit. So, you know what I mean? I, I want a shout out the, the player committee. That you know, I mean, I'm not sure if you're familiar with 'em, but. Dez Jones from the new Orleans breakings. He's a safety Jonathan Newsome. He's from Birmingham stall. Been Lance Leno or wire receiver. Devon gray wire receiver, Philadelphia stars. Bad, you know, in quarterback Pittsburgh, Mallers Christian Schoolly office Islam in Houston gamblers, Trey Williams, running back the generals. I mean, some of the key figure heads from around the league. From performance standpoint. So just having those guys, a part of the board, And kind of leading effort was really great, man. So like I said, the USFLs in great hands, move forward. We're looking forward to a great year too, man. So just stay tuned. Well, I really appreciate it, Ryan, and kind of both coming on both exciting years here for both of you in different ways, but thank you so much for coming on.

Episode 123 - This Is a Prayer Circle for the XFL Vegas Vipers

Well, you could. Successfully converted another Sportico subscriber. Today. We have Eric Jackson here. I. Purchase I hopped on. I said, I gotta get all the details of this us F L CBA. How are you doing, sir? I'm doing great Reed. Thanks for having me home, man. Good. So I have a couple questions, but first we'll get to you cuz I say, well, I'm just gonna read through this article anyway, so let's get them mastermind on here. I'll always let getting credit to hard work. Your reporters. Where are we at with the USFL? They just sent out the press release, you know, kind of just saying that they can't do an agreement. So where are we at? Absolutely. You know, I, this has been in the work for a little bit, right? Like the us FFL, they got with United steel workers, one of the largest unions in the country about six months ago. Right. So coming off year one, I, you know, the players, obviously they realized their somebody efficiencies. Right. And in terms of housing and pay, so. Things have moved along. Right. It's moved along a little quicker than even I thought. Right. So even after six months, they've, they've reached this deal. And I know for a lot of the players, it's a big win for them just because. You know, you have the season coming up and you can kind of, they can kind of now focus going into the spring of. You know, kind of focus on, you know, the football, right. You know, I know the player reps have been really tied up into all of this, so. So now, you know, they, they got a nice little bump in pay and. You know that the housing situation is a little bit better with a new stipend. So. So, yeah, for sure. And I think one of the most interesting things is just. The way a positions, them verse the XFL. Right. So, I mean, I, I think. Next. Spring's just gonna be so interesting to see, even with the brief overlap between the both leagues and you know, how, if they both can, can coexist right. History says they cannot, but we shall see. Well, it is. And it, it, because it's, you know, one. Shot fired over the bow. One way. Shot fired over. Having competing leagues is always going to be better for players. Just like with the Monday night wars back and wrestling, you know, you always get. You know, better product, better compensation, everything is better with that. Do you feel like. USFL. This was their shot of like, Hey, we gotta really make sure we're competitive here. Absolutely for sure, because I think for Fox and everyone else, you, you don't wanna make it seem like the XFL completely. Offering everything that's better. You know what I mean? Like, so I think it's. It's kind of the ying and yang. Right. And we'll, we'll still see, I mean, And, you know, it should be clear that, you know, for folks who are NFL hopeful, right. They'll. Whether you're, if you're a star in the UF L you're a star next fellow you'll, you'll get an opportunity, right. Even the CFO Canadian football league. So. You know, I don't wanna make it seem like one is better than other, but I think when you're competitive with pay, I think it goes a long way for sure. And. Retaining some of the talent. Cause as we know it's about the products, right? I mean, People viewing at home, it's getting the best players on the field, you know, I mean, it's, you know, if you wanna really have long term stability and get good viewership, You know, what's on the pro you know, the field what's on the field is what's gonna draw people and get them to, to tune in. So what it looks like here, we're trying to kind of break the numbers down behind the scenes here before I got on with you. Seems like both USFL and XE L had been relying on wind bonuses to help increase minimum salaries. Right. USFL players. Now it seems like it say, Hey, we would rather take a, you know, lower. Ceiling and kind of have a higher floor of, Hey, we are getting a more minimum. Per week sacrificing those wind bonuses. Is that, are we reading that correctly? Right. Exactly. So no longer you don't have the weekly bonuses anymore. But you have a better salary, right? So it's. You know, I, to me, it's. Kind of similar in the sense of, you know, You know, obviously you should be incentivized anyway, I think as a pro athlete to get wins. Right. But you know, of course it's nice to have a little bonus there, but that doesn't include what they'll get in the postseason. Right? So the postseason stuff still exists, right? So there's still are postseason bonuses and everything else. But as far as the regular season go, as far as wins goes, That has that, you know, Any CBA agreement, NFL. I don't care what league it is. There's a give and take, right? You want this? You gotta give up something. Right? So, so that was given up, but. I think a lot of the players are from the ones I've spoken to are just happy to at least have that minimum salary. At a better position. Right. So, so yeah, so that was one of the questions. So. Playoff championship, win bonuses, those remain, I, I know Fox or NBC. They did some like player of the week bonuses. So like all regular season bonuses, not just win bonuses gone. Right. Right. Exactly. So, you know, that's been cut, but like I said, like you mentioned postseason championship still there and. You know, and guys, and we're talking minimum salaries, right? Every player can still negotiate their deals. And, you know, as you can imagine, quarterbacks will still. Quarterbacks will still probably get the fair share, just like the NFL. And I don't think that's just a part of it, right. The position. But. But yeah, I think just getting that minimum. And NFL does, you know, NFL deals with these things too, right? I mean, the next CBA guys are gonna be fighting over a split contracts and minimums too. Right. So. The, the, you know, the minimum is always debated. Right. And, but I think. I think one of the big wins for the USFL players on this one was even if you're inactive, You're still gonna get a bump. Right? So even if you're dealing with injuries or whatever, it may be, you're still gonna get a bump, you know, which is over what the XFL is offering right now, a thousand dollars worth a thousand dollars more a week than what the XFL is offering. So. So I think it'll be interesting to see over time. You know, if that, if the XFL wants to. You know, have to players eventually when a. Unionized himself, I think potentially puts more pressure on Exel to as well to. Kind of review their own compensation. Right. And. Now, you know, of course, Exel can still say we have. You know, the partnership with the NFL and some other things that the USFL doesn't quite have. So it's kind of the ying and yang, right? I think if you're a, it depends on the player, right? I know some feel better that USFL is better for them. I think some XFL guys. You know, so maybe some guys who have, you know, who think they're more acquitted to. Or more position to go to the NFL might choose XFL. So it's yeah. It's interesting, man. It's really interesting for sure. Does this, the USFL, the whole thing last year, they had a bunch of initial players. Brought in for their contracts. You know, they're opting out. If, if you're in the NFL, you got signed training camps, all that kind of stuff. Does this CBA does this affect all the players that they're already under contract? Like will all of these players now playing in the USFL next year, have these minimums. Right. Exactly. All 300, roughly 350 players. Yeah, for sure. Now of course. You still can't go to the XFL, right? And then of course you can, you can go to the NFL once you. Your deal expires right for the USFL, but there's still that. You know, they still have those walls up of avoiding players going straight to the XFL. Right. So. I think both leagues would say they compliment each other, but clearly there is. You know, both leads, clearly want each other to be separated from, you know, players jumping back and forth. Right. So. So, yeah, man, it's. I think it's gonna be really interesting to see, like I mentioned, just coming to one of the spring comes and. Kind of see who rises to the top. Right? I don't think one necessarily has one footing over the other. Right. I think. Whoever has the best product on the field. I think they'll have the best shot. Right? So. A couple more questions here, cuz I, yeah, I. I was staunchly saying I did not believe the USFL would. Retroactively. Hey, we've signed players to a two year deal back last you're like, we're gonna bump that. So that is good. That that is going across the board. Cuz you can see how they can say cuz the, just in our, I don't think I've said this on the podcast, it's going from 4,500 to week up to 53, 53 50 per week minimum. I. Didn't see them going back and saying, Hey, we'll give you players more money. Right. No, definitely. For sure. It's. You know, of course, and, and that'll be effective once it's ratified. Right. I don't think I mentioned in the story, but they're looking to have it ratified before new year. So make it officially official. Yeah. So once that comes down, That will be, that will be, that'll go right into effect for every player going into year two. Do we know if training campaign has been affected at all? I believe last year it was six 50 a week for the three weeks. Actually I have the information. One second, one second here. I'll cut this out. Don't worry. 700. Trinity camp 700 a week now. A bump for SFL player. And then it's a $500 for a travel reimbursement. So. Little incremental, not a huge, not a huge lift on the training camp, but. But I think, man, I think the main thing is housing. I think that's just really big cuz. As, you know, once training camp was over, these guys really had to go, you know, you gotta go fit the bill yourself. Right. You know, Airbnb. Hotel. I mean, you gotta pay for yourself. So. You know, $400 doesn't sound like a lot, but for those guys, I think it'll really. I think it'll be really helpful, you know, just from the day to day, the week things and. And of course, a lot other things are still in place. The, you know, insurance, didn't all vision. You know, all those other things. You, they even have a free education program. That's kind of involved in that program too. So, so yeah, man, basically it just puts them more on par with XFL. Right? I think that's ultimately what sums up. Just a little bit more competitive in that sense. So. Speaking of the housing and this is gonna get in the weeds a little bit here. So yeah. Last year, the us L players had to cuz they were all in Birmingham. It was 150 a night in the hotels. People complained. So the us L said, okay, we're going selfless, subsidize that or discount it. It's gonna be 75 a night. So if you figure those players were paying, you know, it was, if you do the math, then it was 75 in night when whatever. That's less compensation than they're getting from the USFL did a flat 400. Stipend per week. Does that, does that make sense? Right, right, right, right, right. You're saying what the stipend. Right. So cuz they, so if I'm, if I'm having to pay on my own. Right. But if it's 75 a night, I'm paying times seven. Versus if I'm getting 400 a week and yeah, I don't have to stay the hotel. I can go pay whatever, double up, do all that stuff, but it actually is less compensation back. It's more freeing because obviously they're gonna be presumably somewhere up north in Detroit, right. They have an now announce that you yet, and they're gonna be a Memphis with we know, but it's curious. How that works out because it's actually worse off for them getting 400 flat than it was to reduced 75 a night at the hotel. Yeah. That's kind of, that's a good point, I think, but I don't think. You know, I think it's a week to week basis. Right. I don't think every hotel was, you know, 75 per night or, you know what I mean? I think it was a week to week deal and, and that everybody wasn't always in hotels too. Right. You had guys who were, you know, found other situations, right. So. So I think guys will be happy to, even if it, even if it's a little less than what they're paying for the hotel, you know, out of their 400, if they get a couple dollars extra, I'm sure they wouldn't mind pocketing, you know, that money. So, but you see, you see how these negotiations work out because like, yeah. Yeah. We were giving you 75 a night. Flat and now, okay. We'll pay you your own money, but now you gotta, I mean, it's just, it's curious how that works out. Yeah, no, for sure. I think what I think your point's like. Literally how CBAs are done. Right. Sort of that give and take, right? It's like. You might seem like you're getting more sometimes when maybe not quite, really, but it's. It's an interesting dance, man. It's interesting. And. You know, I, the United steel workers are kind of leading this whole deal for, and the, you know, representing the USFL players and. You know, so, and from what I've seen before, You know, they've been able to get things done. Right? I think it might not always be the numbers that add up, but from, from, from what it looks like, you know, six months they got this. You know, got this done. So. So, yeah, man, and obviously this is. You know, there's, what's interesting about this. There's an annual. They can opt out potentially at, at the end of every year. So. I, you know, Which is interesting. You usually see in the big, early leagues, NFL there's 10 years, blah, blah, blah, everything else. So even though this is a three year deal, you can opt out every year. So, you know, which I think is smart. Cause everything's evolving so much, right. Even for the players, right. If XFL comes out and offers their players. This amount it's like, well, maybe we should go back to the drawing table. Right. So. So, yeah, man, I, I, I, I think it's, you know, I think that aspect is, is interesting. Did you get any sense if this was. Contentious in negotiations. I mean, obviously Fox did not necessarily want them to unionize. I think pro football had put that out back in June when they said that they were, you know, getting to vote on doing that. Right. What were they negotiations like? I from talking with players. I think the interesting thing was. How many players didn't show up to. Vote when it was time to, you know, Decide if they're gonna unionize or not, which I think is indicative of just. Young guys being 21 and blah, blah, blah. You just kind of wanna just make the team or you just, you know, it's just natural. I think for a lot of guys, that's why I usually have veteran players who are like, Hey, you should come to these meetings or blah blah. So that's one thing that's stood out to me six months ago and that think coming around now. I don't think it's necessarily contentious. I think it's all, every CBA has it's about the money, right? I don't think it's. You know, they met in Atlanta, they met in other places. They finally. Over the last two days they've been in Chicago. Right? So. You know, they finally were able to just get it done. It's just a, it's just finding the right number. Right. You know, they had to come down a little bit from their number, like any negotiation. Right. But. I wouldn't I, from my talks, I wouldn't say it was contentious. I think once it became, you know, I think. I think once it became clear that. The us F L was gonna unionize. You know, I think the, you know, I think Fox and others are proactive about that. And. So, yeah, for sure. By every CBA has tension. I mean, I'd be remiss to say this was smooth sailing and everybody's happy, right? Like. That's just not how CBAs work. Right. But. But compared to others I've covered NFL and others, I would say it says. As contentious as, and this is still so new, right? It's the, you know, this is second season, I think. I think both sides are still trying to figure out. To be quite honest, what, what is a value? Right. You know, like this thing still needs to make some money. Right. So it's, it's an interesting phase of, that's why smart to have the annual opt out. Right? Like everybody still trying to figure it out. Ultimately, you know, Is this interesting, like I said, at the top, and I'll let you go here, you know, balancing between the excep valve. Hey, we're gonna pay you less, but you have a chance to earn more USFL. Okay. We're gonna pay you less. CFO did that this year, too at their CBA where they, they I'm believe opted for more money. Now versus percentage salary cap increases, you know, cuz they assigned like a seven year deal. So they're like, well we don't care what the salary cap increases in year five. Like we want more money now. And you're like, But yeah, but you kind of gotta, not that they're not right now looking out for the long term. I mean, this is not that extreme, but it is interesting how, yeah. You're incentivized. We wanna get paid now. No, that's what every CBA, right? Short term thinking versus the long term, right? Like even the NFL one. Right, right. The minimum on SALs. Which is good. But you're also hurting veteran plays at times, too. Some of the star players in the last end of all, C B a two. Right? So it's like, You know, you can't make everybody happy. You can't make everybody. Yeah, that's good. That's every CBA man. I appreciate you hopping on here middle of a work day, all that kind of stuff. This will be good. We'll track it. Like you said. Obviously, they came to the agreement here, hoping to pass before new year's getting ready for the season would be curious. Obviously some of the FL guys jump to the XFL already, if this would've slay any of that, we don't know, but it is, you know, that's another thing in there. The FFL already had their first draft and had their pick at some of the players that were already up for negotiation. So you, yeah, man, for sures. Now they can focus on the football, right. So I think everybody should get in their seat, grab their popcorn, and we'll see how. We'll see how, you know, it shakes out. Come February, April started getting in the thick championship with the overlap of XFL coming in and. I look forward to it, man. It's gonna be, it's gonna be fun. Awesome that Eric Jackson here with a sport of the co appreciate it Well we're back at it here. Jake Russell, Washington, the post, I think you came on back. We now, you know, Elle announced they're going to DC. Now we have a lot more to talk about how are you doing, sir? Doing. Alright. How about yourself? We're good coming off and we'll just talk about this first. Breaking the SFL, getting ready to vote. They've agreed to a CBA. Deciding to, as supposed to taking. More wind bonuses per week. They wanna get paid more upfront versus the XFL so that, you know, the minimum is higher than the XFL, but then the XFL wind bonuses, thoughts on that. We were talking before we recorded. So all the information I have on that just came from the last 15 seconds from you. . So it does not sound, I don't know, just off the very first brush. I could be very wrong on this, but on first blush, it doesn't sound like that much of a win for the players. It sounds like a little bit more of a. I don't even know how to fully describe it. It doesn't sound like that much of a, to the player it's just on first watch for me. It's hard. Yeah. I, I get the debate there of, of we'd rather get paid a little bit more upfront versus kind of sacrifice in a lot of those bonuses. How, how do you feel we're two months from kickoff here, ex FFL, this mid-December. How are you feeling the, about every everything happening with, with the, the rock led Danny led league? Well, I feel like they've done a decent job at least. In terms of the defenders so far, they have, they've done a decent job of reaching out to. The local fan base, you know, despite the fact that they're gonna have training camp for the next three seasons in Arlington, Texas, and to the chagrin of locals, not in Arlington, Virginia. They're gonna have training camps down there and they're gonna practice. Every week throughout the season in Arlington, but at least they'll still get to have home games there. But they've done a decent job of reaching out and they have an event. Event tonight that that I'll be attending. They're reaching out to fans there trying to get the word out. It's pretty smart job on their part. And I saw a Instagram story. I believe that they were at children's hospital in DC earlier today. Reggie Barlow and I believe some players were there reaching out to the kids and re you, communicating with them, doing some exercise. I saw some pushups going on in the video. But despite the fact that they're not gonna have, you know, Practices or, you know, be in the area. For the most of the season and training camp. They're doing a decent job of, of getting the word out. Cause it's hard. I mean, obviously they're doing that today cuz they're in town for all this other stuff. Right. It feels like. You know, we do this one boost, we do a bunch of stuff, and then we come back a couple more weeks. I don't know. Do you think that more is necessary? Are they doing enough? I have no. I mean, I know what I think, but I'm curious what you think. I mean in a, in a. For lack of a better phrase, a startup league, you can always do more. To get your name out there and let people know that you'll be playing. At Audi field on Saturdays and Sundays in the spring. And here's where you can find us. Here's, you know, information you can have about us. Here's how to get tickets. Here's how to get gear. You can always do more, but I guess they're working with a limited timeframe, a limited. I, I. A limited amount of, you know, Options because there'll be in taxes for 95% of the season. And the other 5% will be at the games on the weekends, traveling to each stadium that they're playing in. Do you think that just when I, when I went down to Arlington back when they announced the hub officially, and I asked Danny in the rock and I said, what makes you guys different than the USFL? And she said, well, we're, we're playing in the, you know, in the state stadiums. That's all that needs to be said. I mean, is that enough? That's the that's the major component. For me, is that that's a huge difference that separates that from USS L like Danny and it's, that's, that's the biggest difference. It's very important to actually be there and actually. That's the product that people are, you know, supporting you for is the games. They wanna see the games and the fact they could get to go to them as opposed to the FL on this past spring playing in just Birmingham, Alabama, you know, I think I said it on the last time I was with, you know, think Pittsburgh fans or Michigan Panther fans. The voyage all the way to Birmingham, Alabama, just to watch a us F L game. I mean, they might enjoy the team, but I don't think they would. Care that much to make a road trip for SFL game. And a lot of ways, the same way with the XFL, but so the fact that they're having these games in the whole markets. Is it's very important and I'm just from afar. I'm very curious to see what the St Louis turnout's gonna be like, considering how, you know. If I remember correctly before the pandemic hit, they were set to host a game. The week after the pandemic hit and everything was shut down. And they had. Tens and tens and tens of thousands of tickets already sold. So that was gonna be a big atmosphere. For them. And I'm, I'm curious to see how, how quickly they fill up that stadium this year. Are you sensing? Besides you, obviously you have your finger on this. Excitement elsewhere. I mean, you said that they're doing a good job with fans. Like, are you talking with people about this coworkers, anyone in the sports space? Well coworkers, I'm one of. Less than amount of people, you can count on a hand that fed enjoy spring football and watches it on. That would be watching on their own if they weren't writing about it or covering it. Fan base wise, it's still. In the mode where, you know, it's still NFL season. And also the commanders are doing better than people expected, at least at this point. And they're in a playoff front and you know, this upcoming Sunday, they have a big sunny night football, national TV match up against big rival, but they just tied with, you know, two weeks ago. For them. I think it's just. Once the NFL seasons over then they can focus on the XFL. And I think three years ago, they did that pretty well. They compartmentalize pretty well in 2019 in two. Thousand 20 once the, then Redskins had a three 13 season and then they. Immediately shifted from that. And, you know, the team was ever in playoff contention, so they had more time to. Plan now their mind is preoccupied with their NFL team. Is at a playoff race and it's very realistic, especially with the extra team per conferencing, NFL that you're making a playoff spot. So once this even lines down, whether it's, you know, week 18 or the wild Carter division round, however far the commanders make it, then I think the fan base will start to. Gradually turn its attention toward the end or towards the XFL a little bit more. And then when the super Bowl's over then. It's about 90%. They'll be able to focus on the NFL a lot more cause the whole NFL seasons behind them. No offense, the XFL, but everyone pays attention to the super bowl. A lot more people pay attention to the NFL and. Willing to ride that season out before they focus on anything else. So once the NFL team is over, I think the defenders will have a better grasp of. What the fan base is feeling and thinking, and that the fives, for lack of a better phrase, that they're, that they're putting off in terms of excitement for the opener. But also having a schedule out would not hurt. There's no schedule out right now. So fans can't really plan on when to go get. Yeah, I love you ask. I'm just gonna go ahead. I'm gonna switch my hat over here so you can see, I got my I'm rocking. I'm rolling here. I'm ready to go Sunday. Talk about that. Talk about your thoughts of we're we're. I just talked to a CFO correspondent today. CFO has their schedule out. They kick off in June ex FFL here. We're about 60 days out. I, I know it's the Vegas hold up, but what do you make of them not having to schedule. I mean, just feeling from the outside and putting two or two together. I think it has everything to do with, I imagine they have it ready. There's no way they can be a competent sports league and not have a schedule prepared. Like you said about 60 days out from the start. There's no way they'd have to have it. My instinct is. That they haven't announced a stadium for Las Vegas, but for the Vegas pipes yet. And that's probably the biggest hold up. Then once they come up with a stadium for that team, then they could say, all right, we're playing the games there as opposed to. You know, the Seattle sea dragons are playing at Vegas. Location to be determined. I don't think they wanna do that. I think they would wanna have every single venue. You know, picked out and, you know, officially announced as opposed to seven of the eight venues. Cuz I would look a little embarrassing for them. It's still. I'm still surprised. They haven't been able to lock down a deal with, with loss, the city of Las Vegas yet consider announced there was gonna be a team there months ago. And even before they announcement, they had had the groundwork late that. Well in advance, so I'm not sure what the hold up is with that. But I think that's, what's holding up the schedule right now. Yeah. At this point, I don't know why they don't do that. Like you said, obviously you don't wanna say, you know, Seattle at Vegas to be determined, but. You know, we're talking here. Okay. We gotta get through the NFL schedule. We're gonna do it, you know, we're trying to do some marketing. I know there's still hiring a lot of people to do a lot of this stuff. Like, unless they're counting on just like a boatload of walk up, people come, Hey, it's the end of February? Like, what are we gonna do? Like. I, I don't know what we're, what we're promoting right now. Like, I we're, we're so close to this and it's like Christmas. Yeah. I mean, training camps start January. Sixth or seventh. I mean like we're, we're really close here. Yeah. I mean, there's, you've got the uniforms already done. You've got the names. You've got the head coaches. You've got the draft that already have you got the rosters? The only thing left is basically the schedule and then training camps. And, you know, I don't. I haven't seen any announcement about fans being able to go to that, but. That's also restricted to. For the most part Texans, even if fans were allowed to go. From the 99% of the fan base would be either Arlington renegades fans. For Houston roughneck fans or San Antonio Obama's fans. So I don't know how much of an appeal there would be to training camp for anybody from the other five teams. Especially since they would've to travel for that, I don't think that would be a thing. Yeah. Outside of the schedule and training camp, there's nothing else to do, but wait for the season to start. And I still have no timeline on when the schedule gonna be announced. Yeah. I just don't know. We've just been promised this. Ramp up and we're working and even then, okay, we're gonna do the four month thing. And now, you know, like I was, I was telling max, one of our listeners, cuz you know, you were scheduled this week, everyone we had on, I said, I have a great list of guests this week. There's not a lot to talk about. And we're really, really close. I mean, we did. The roster breakdowns we did, you know, and I mean, we talked uniforms again, whatever, but it, it, at this point now where. You know, you go away for a month now we're gonna come back and we're, we're kicking off here in two months. I mean, if you only can talk about Abram Smith for two hours, heck in the. Skill position selection. Of course the draft. But yeah, that's what we're, that's what we're waiting on is the schedule on, I'm just, I'm just like you, I'm waiting to see what's happening. I'm not getting any inside information on that kind of stuff. I'm not that popular. The rock doesn't help me yet. So he hasn't given hasn't text me that information at all. I was one of our list listeners this week. He actually lives in DC as well. He's. Not going to the event tonight, Seth. He says, you know, it. It just doesn't feel. And I hate, I know they hate being okay. We don't wanna be referred to 2020 anymore, but like, It doesn't feel as fun as it did in 2020. Like, you know, you live through all this. Like, what do you, what do you make of now where we were versus, and I hate doing that, but I think it's important for the people that have stuck it out. Well, so that he cite the pandemic as why? Cause that that could be a big reason that could also change the way people think, because we found out ourselves, we could add strange as it was. Believe without sports for a while. Just give us a ton of Netflix shows to binge and we'll keep ourselves occupied, you know? That could be it. And if he's a commander's fan, the whole. Dan Snyder debacle for the last two to three years could also taken a toll on him as being a football fan. That could have just wear 'em down, even though he should be able to compartmentalize the defenders, have nothing to do with him. That's a fresh start. I could. Enjoy in the spring. And it could also have to do with, you know, we're still in the heart of NFL seasons and playoff races are heating up. You know, if he's in a, if he's in a fantasy league, the playoffs are going on right now there that's kinda important. You know, it is possible to walk into the same time, but. Not to insult your friend, listen or anything, but there's also Thursday night football tonight. And. The capital are playing the stars and Alex Ove is going for. You know, tying boarding house all time goals record at number two overall in history. So that could be a something that's on his mind, the DC sports fan. So there's a lot of different things going on, so I can kind understand why someone wouldn't wanna drive all the way out to the heart of DC on, you know, a Thursday night, especially, you know, it's rain, it's been raining all. It's supposed to rain all night. It's, it's freezing cold. It's like in the mid thirties and rain, it's just, it's the type of weather that makes you wanna stay inside. So I can't blame it that much. Is it as the interesting point. I mean, the XFL just, you know, us developed too, but we exist in a different. Situation than it was three years ago. Like you said, people have learned, we don't necessarily need sports all the time. As hard as that is. It's hard to say this. Yeah, exactly. I was. I was a little surprised myself. I'm like, I'm just, my life has been just revolved around sports. And then when the pandemic hit, I'm like, Doing better than I thought I would let out these games. And then when the games came back and there were no fans, I'm like, This stinks. This is not entertaining. I can only imagine how the players feel to have to ramp yourself up with no crowd. There. Like it's, you know, it's so much easier to like get energized for a game as a player. When there are people there when there's a palpable buzz in the arena or the stadium or wherever you're playing and just feel the excitement. But when there's no one there and you have to, you know, Artificially generate your excitement yourself to get ready for a game. That's gotta be tough. And then as a fan, you're watching it and you're like, Ugh. And then they, you know, They started implementing the fake crowd noise on broadcast. You're like, I know there's nobody there. I'm not that stupid. Come on now. It's not that fun. To watch knowing there's no fans, the fans add the ultimate element. To the games to any sport. And that's partly why when I was watching the SFL. In my, in my interest in it. Dropped off exponentially after the first game. Cause the first game they had a ton of fans there because was the Birmingham stallions who were playing. And the fans got to see it for the first time. And then once all the other teams started playing, there was like maybe a couple thousand, then maybe a thousand then maybe like 500. I'm like, this is just. It's just, I don't . As a sports fan, I don't really wanna watch a scrimmage, you know, and I imagine I, America feels that way. I don't wanna watch something that feels like a scrimmage, even though a real being accounted. But, you know, it's just not that appealing when there's no one there and, you know, with the, and think fans of still. They're also, probably still. Mostly skeptical and cynical about, well, the first XFL didn't last, then the second XFL didn't last, not fully understanding that it's the pandemic that did it, not the fact that XFL the failing product, like the first go round. It was actually. In my opinion, the product was doing well with. Operating a lot more smoother than the first bill round in 2001. And the rule changes and the cameras and the, you know, interacting with the reps and the rule changes and the calls and all that stuff. I feel like that was on track to be a solid. Sustainable product, but then the pandemic hit and decided to shut the league down. And then fans just, you know, instead of just. Thinking of it with nuance like that, just that just didn't work yet. L failed yet again, gotta fail a third time. And they don't little, they don't think beyond, you know, a few feet in front of their face and say, okay, this is the reason for that. And it's coming back and fingers cross. There's not another pandemic hitting us anytime soon. So fingers cross at this would last. Fans don't really, for the most part, don't think of this way. I don't think. Do you think that current management has. Done or is trying to do enough to dissuade that line of thinking. I don't think they're actually. I can't really get of their heads, but if I had to guess. I would guess they're not even thinking about that narrative about, well, didn't last, the first time. Didn't last second time. It failed twice. And here we go again for a third time. I don't think they're thinking about it like that. I think they're just thinking in the moment. Presently and what could make the league sustainable and what could make it appealing to fans? Not a, not a boy. Let's, let's try not to make this fail. I think they're thinking of, you know, All the ways that. It could last even beyond. The three years that they have with that contract done in Arlington. Beyond that and what will appeal to fans and what will. Make it work like in terms of. You know, the, the, the partnership that they have with the NFL alumni associated. So I was a little bit of a bump in the road with that now. But things like that will give it legs going forward. You have a relationship with the NFL. Whereas it's explicitly states. Obviously the XFL is not a competitor with the NFL. Here's what we could do to make a relationship work between us. Then that has really solid putting in my, if they can get that stuff settled. I don't know the ins and outs of that, but if they can get that settled and, and just stick with that, I think that'll be big for the legal going forward. Yeah. Had you tracked and it's okay if you haven't and it'd be alumni academy stuff. I, the last I saw was just that there was issues with payments of some sort. And, and from the XFL side and that's. Not a great sign. If that's true. If the X FFL is already struggling to pay NFL alumni academy. X amount of dollars that it owes them. I don't know what the official agreement was between the two and the first place, how much was owed or what is owed to one side of the other and what the exact specificities of the deal are. DLR, but if you're already having trouble with paying off something like that, That's that's not good. I'm sure they're waiting for the games to get started, to get fan revenue in first to, you know, help them out a bit. But that's not a great sign, but I'm waiting until the game start to make, you know, any judgment about the, the viability of the league in its future. Yeah, I think, I think it ultimately is. And we kind of try to do a deep dive last week, ultimately boiling down to. ActivL promise to draft like X number of players and then return, they would, they, they would be compensated back the alumni academy, X amount of money. And they're obviously not drafting that many players or getting guys from the, from the USFL and from the I FFL and all that stuff. So I, it, but it's, it's which curious to me just talking to. You is, is like how, how this new spreads out. Like, I'm just curious, like, what was your takeaway of this? Because that's probably what a lot of people's takeaways was. Right. Yeah. I don't remember exactly where when I saw it. But what I did see it, I was. I just, it's not something that's gonna be in the front of my mind, like a big red alarm light going off, but it's like something I'll, I'll just dial back in the recesses, my brain for make a little mental note for later on. If the league doesn't work out, this is one little check mark for one, it did a little, you know, You know, a crack in the armor, if you will, for lack of a better phrase. Yeah, that's just something I put in the back of my mind for now. And if I really need to do a deep dive on and I will . Down the line, but right now it's just something that's. A little little cliff note in the life of XFL three. Oh, right now, before it's even fully birthed with the scene, starting in February. Awesome Jake. Well, I really appreciate it getting you on today. We, you know, have stuff to talk about. We're in this weird waiting for kickoff. Any final thoughts for me before I let you go? Well, as a. Self self proposed uniform and logo nerd. I was a little underwhelmed with what they harbored. I'm. You know, I tell people I'm like 35 going on 85. So a simplicity is the key for me. When it comes to uniforms, I feel like they tried a little too hard with all of them and none of them really stood out to me. That well, I think of, of what they put out. The Vipers are probably the best because they're the cleanest and sleekest, and. Sleepest and I wouldn't, I would've changed a few things on that. Like, I would've done the number spots so thin, but I know what they're going for a slick. You know, slithery type of look because they're hello, wipers are snakes and it's a little simpler of a look. They don't have too many colors. They don't have too much of a design going on. And I think the sea drag has had a, I like the color combination they have there. I would've done a bunch of things different with the other ones too. I would've gone to the fenders red helmets instead of white. I would not have done the camo look. I would've gone back with white pants for the road in oppos to just the same pair of pants, but without stripes or whatever the combination is this time. Would've done a different thought for them. The numbers I would not have, you know, would not have done that little gray line. Inside of the numbers and it's, it's so many little details. I know it's the league and they're, you know, forward thinking and they're supposed to be modern and futuristic and stuff, but. I dunno, call me old, funny duddy, but I like stuff uniforms. I like the previous uniforms for the defenders. Much better. That's surprising. I like the Campbell a lot. I like, I wish they would've put that on both of 'em. I'm sad. It was just on the, it. Wager is it that makes one of us . I feel like I don't really need that much. You know, extra, I don't need extra with uniforms. I say that the colors. And the logos on the helmets do enough popping for me. You know, they do enough of the standing out. Cause, you know, with the football uniform, the most part, you know, you think about. What NFL fans love, what uniforms they like the most, the Packers, the Raiders, you know, the classic. Uniforms that have been worn for decades and decades and decades that have a very simple design, just a few stripes. And walk font with a, with a dark outline or a light outline around the numbers. Simple stuff like that. I dunno. Maybe I'm just aging too fast. Like I dunno, reverse Benjamin button. I'm just getting, I dunno, I dunno what it is, but simpler the better for me. Do you like the defender's D. The team D like the logo type, the new logo. Oh, the D. Not really, cuz I don't like the beveling. I don't like beveling I like the, you know, Lemme double check. I think they incorporated this. Sea inside of the DLO. Yeah, it looks like Dallas, to me, it looks like a Dallas logo. It kind of does like, I, I like how most of the other. Teams in the city, you emphasize DC, at least the commanders do so people don't say, do, do stands for Dallas Cowboys because that would defeat the purpose of, you know, I dunno, emphasizing DC with their biggest R in the NFL. Yeah, I, I don't really like the beveling. And I feel like they probably should have stuck with the last logo. That they had with the, the shield and the. And the lightning bolts, I don't know what their name is gonna be. I don't know what they're their giveaways are gonna be. If it's not gonna be foam shields, when they came out the fans last time. Maybe it'll be a phone version of the DC logo. I mean on the helmet, it looks solid. I do like how they incorporated the BMC logo. Inside the stripes, the shoulder stripes with the, the stripes of the DC flag and the three stars too. The bars and stars. I did like that. But at first blush what I saw it, I got very strong at Indiana hoo. Your vibes. When I saw it, like, it looks like Indiana football team. And I just feel like use red helmets. I dunno. Call me a funny dunny, but I, I do like the striping patterns though. So there is that like on the pants and on the helmet. I do like those. But also another note, if you're gonna add. A white helmet, please make the face mask red outta it. I'm just an amateur expert. No one consults me for. My professional uniform and logo opinions at any sport. So. This is my, this is my chance to ramp about it. . No. It's good. Well, I, I will say I do think the Washington commanders, I love, I love all their branding with everything I have. I, I have you probably don't. You don't do not. . No. I had a . I had a long write up prepared on my website, J Russell sports. The night before the uniforms were officially announced because I'd seen all the leaks coming through and I had my story prepared just in case. It's . How much time we got here. Cause we, I can talk about this for a while. The least favorite uniform is the one they wear the most, the white jerseys. I, I despise gradient. It rarely ever works. There's like only a couple times where I think it works like with the wizards cherry velocity uniforms. I think that works. The gradient, the San Diego state Aztech football helmets from like, 20 Years ago, I think that worked, but for the most part, grading is it does not work very well. I can't believe you spent money on that. yeah, I gotta support my guy V Robinson, man. I could've done it in burgundy at least. well, I got, I got a lie. Hey, you keep talking. so the, yeah. That's and they've worn that Jersey. Most of the season too. And like, Last I checked, their primary colors are supposed to be burgundy and gold, and they're gonna wear burgundy on Sunday night, but that's only gonna be the third time all season. They've worn that. And it's just, you know, . I have a number for somebody who you can talk to about this kind of stuff. . They specialize in this kind of situation. but yeah, you, you watch every game. So you seem like they wear the white one, almost every game. And they, you know, the, and the fact that two thirds of their uniforms don't even look like what the franchise used to be. The black ones, they look like the Steelers, the white ones. They look like the Cardinals or Falcons. Like they don't even look like a Washington. NFL team it just, and the fact that those are the jerseys that they've worn most of the season, they only worn burgundy twice so far. It'll be the third time on Sunday, an 18 game schedule. It's like, I'm, I'm just wondering. I just, it's just another question, mark, for me, like when you guys dealing with this rebrand, why are you not wearing your teen color that much? It's just, I dunno. And the fact also that they chose to debut their black uniforms on the road in Dallas, as opposed to debuting at home also did not make sense of either debut at home. I dunno, and like . Uniform stuff. Would've been a lot different with them. Province in charge. once again, I'm not, well, that's good. I give on that. We're probably gone down the rabbit hole now, but I did think that was at least funny to get THEC parts guy talking about that. Jake, I, I really appreciate your time. Get you on the gate here. You know, every week I say we're gonna have. Well, I think. Dave Campbell here. I think Dave was our first. CFL media guest ever. Back a long time ago, and now it feels like you've certainly come on in the past, but you know, again, but I appreciate you coming on again, Dave Campbell, how are you doing? I'm doing great. And it's great to see you read. And I hope you're well, and I, I had no idea that I was, I was the first. CFO media member to be on your podcast. That's awesome. That's great. Yeah. Well, you were, I mean, now I've, I've adopted the BC lions, but you were the reason, one of the reasons why I adopted the Elks is kind of my fir and then, you know, and then we had the disparaging comments about the XFL and all that stuff, but it's all, you're part of the rich tapestry that makes this podcast. Well, it, I appreciate that. I mean, I'm almost speechless, which is bad. For a podcast. So I better find my words fast. Right? well, this is good. I was gonna have Dave on anyway, and I always like it when I book a guest and then I immediately see spicy takes and hot tweets and kind of all that stuff online. They put out the schedule this week. We'll talk about other stuff as well, but why is the CFO 2023 schedule the worst schedule this ever put out on the Canadian? It kind of seems that way. Doesn't it. First of all. It's good. And we've had this format or, and this schedule release happen before Christmas. I think it's the last four or five years. Somewhere in that range, cuz we used to have to wait till. It was usually sometime in February. Sometimes it didn't drop until early March, which is a nightmare. I mean, that's just not good, but for the league to have the schedule ready before Christmas, it's good for them. Of course, cuz it gets them some publicity that they need. They, you know, it's it's CFL. They can be 12 month league. Even when they're in the off season, that that's big. It also helps the fans. Plan their, their summers and their, their schedules. And, you know, am I gonna fly to. Vancouver, am I gonna go to Regina? Am I gonna go to, you know, Toronto and sadly elk fans, can't go to Montreal this year, but, or in 23, but that's good as well. And the reaction of the schedule is. Incredible. Now I will admit. When I first saw it, I went, oh, wow. Wow that. Okay. Well that this is gonna. Take some getting used to here. So. Especially the 11th, Sunday night games. And yes, they started at 5:00 PM, but. There we're basically gonna have Sunday night football for the very first time in the Canadian football league. So that'll be interesting to see how. That plays out. I like the fact that there's less back to backs. There's more focus on. A more balanced schedule. We won't see the Argos in the tie, cats play each other. What four times in six weeks, which was kind of fun, but kind of, you know, okay. Can we move on please and place someone else. And I like that the great cup or not the great cup, but the playoffs are on Saturdays. I think it's worth trying it again. I know in oh eight, it wasn't a very good adventure. It wasn't very successful. Lot of people upset. So we'll see, 50, 15 year later, if that impact is going to be the same. Or whether it's going to be, you know, more progressive and more people willing to accept it. I think this is a schedule where. The traditionalists are going to be. Tested big time. And I have seen some interesting. Reaction or should I say overreaction to this schedule? You know, when I first thought I went, oh, well, wow. I mean, I don't know. I don't know if I like it. But we've never tried it either. So let's see how it goes. First off. So you're talking and because I remember last year, the schedule came out. It was like the week after gray cup. Like it was like, Ricky split really fast. I would say we are recording this on December 15th. XFL kicks off February 18. We do not have a schedule yet. So if you. If you are talking about, you know, getting out of the ahead of time, letting plan, you know, fans plan all that we're, we're approaching 60 days from schedule. Yeah, so. The broad takeaways is like you said, more Sunday night games. I've seen a lot of, oh, the timing doesn't work. The Saskatchewan has a lot of late games. People are driving them. Like, what are the big complaints we're getting from this? Because it's seems like the presumption is most of these. Changes are made to appeal to potentially a, a TV contract in America as well. Right. Mm-hmm yep. For sure. And you know, Dave mailer has talked about that at length from TSN and. The deal last year was with ESPN. So we don't know if. If, if that will be, you know, the, the us carrier, will there be, you know, one main carrier, will there be two? I don't know, but. And yes, it, it is kind of the CFO way lately of kind of sacrificing what has worked for them. To appease another entity now. And I could say that about, you know, the, the global program, which I don't think has worked out really well. But this is a very important initiative, I think is to get more eyes in the us on Canada. Cuz one, I think there are. Number of Americans like yourself that. Appreciate the league that, that love the league. That want to see it more than they do now. And how many players, families, and, and friends wanna see. Their family member or their buddy play. And it's very important. And from a financial perspective, it doesn't cut into the bottom line very much. I mean when you compare it to the TSN dealer, the TSN deal is the, is the biggest money maker for teams in the, in the CFO, when it comes to non gate revenue. But eyes on the product is important. And genius sports has been working with the CFO. And working on a new us contract TV contract. And I think that's big and that's why we're seeing consistency with start times. And that's why Sunday games start at five. You know, that's why the labor day game in Calgary starts at five. I kind of don't like that because I think traditionally, I don't know if that's gonna work. Very well, cuz I, it, I, you know, when it's at two 30 or, or two or one, you have a lot of people coming from Edmonton and then they go home after the game. Well, You can still do that. It's gonna be a long, long. Day for them and they're gonna get home very late and. It's the way it is, cuz the rematch games on a Saturday in Edmondson. So that gives more. Time for people from Calgary to come up and watch the game and go home and not feel so tired the next day. But you know what? Like, I, I live in Edmonton as you know, And there's 41 order games plus playoffs in the NHL there's concerts that happen. And people are saying, well, I can't take my child. Oh, gimme a break. You take them to a lot of things that they, that they are have to stay up late for in our little bag the next day, when they're going to school or you're going to work. So. I think it's important to make sure that they can find the best TV deal in the us possible to get more eyes on it. And honestly, some fans just have to get over it, you know? 5:00 PM on Sunday. I'm gonna be tired the next day. You'll be fine. Don't worry about it. You'll you'll be fine. It's just, it's never been tried before. And I'm just looking forward to it. If you look at the summer schedule. Every single day, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday, there is one game on those days. We don't see a double header, I think until labor day. So. It's new. It's gonna test people, but I think people have to have more open minds, which. Unfortunately in the league, you have too much, and they're great fans in the CFO. There's so many great fans, but sometimes they're they're minds are a little closed. It's hard and because I've had, and I haven't gotten into it a lot this week, cuz I've never liked to be the big, you know, what do I know? But like, It it's some of these things I'm seeing, I'm like, guys, this is such a personal problem. Like I hate to, I don't wanna be rude that way. It's like, well, I gotta, I got a four hour drive back and like, That is such a personal thing. Like don't, don't tell CFO fans about our 8:00 PM to 11. 20 11:30 PM. Sunday night football that we live with in America. I don't wanna hear about a late. Five o'clock start. I mean, you know, you have those east coast games. It's 1130 by the time that game's out. Yeah, no question. I mean, and it's, it's an atmosphere, you know, in, in the NFL. Those prime time games are. Are relished, you know, if you're in prime time in the NFL, all the guys are on you. And I think that's a great opportunity for the CFO to have four games on four nights. Or four days. That they get max exposure of those games. And then of course you get past labor day and then you're gonna see a little bit more double headers and that sort of thing. And there's reasons for that. They don't want to play on Sundays when the NFL is on and they're trying to. You know, limit themselves with the NHL starting up as well and in October, but you know, they're comfortable being a. A Friday, Saturday league after, after labor day. But yeah, I mean, I I've seen fans. On social media say, well, I've heard people are going to cancel their season tickets because of the schedule. Like, what are you crazy? Are you kidding me? So you, you're not a fan of the league unless. You know, it's or you're gonna keep your season tickets unless you have Sunday, two o'clock games and Saturday two o'clock games. And seven o'clock games on Fridays and don't have Thursday games, you know, and I mean, am I the biggest Thursday night football fan? Not really, but you know what. It, when you, when the game's on, do you care? What night of the week it is? You really don't care, you know, and you'll find a way to survive the next day, but I just think there's, this has been grossly overreacted to. Just the CFO, trying to be more. Progressive and innovative and we'll see, we'll see what happens here. But. You know, there's more consistency when, like I said, there's fewer back to backs. There's less short weeks, which is good, which is very good. But I just want a little more open-mindedness from, from, from fans, you know, and I, and you know, myself as well, I've been tested cuz I, I don't know if I like the schedule fully, but I go. You know what? We've never done it this way before, so let's just see what happens. Yeah, no, but Dave, they've been doing this for 45 years. They've been going Sunday at two o'clock and this is, is what to with yeah. Yeah. It it's. I, the biggest strength in the CFO and, you know, bringing in is hour league and hour fans and our balls, and we do this way and you know, the community own teams, all that. But then you get stuff. Like I remember back when they had the CBA negotiations and the fans are sitting there and they're going. Dammit, like we play now, like, we want you to play. We want you to play. And you're like, well, Okay, you gotta get the players. It's like, well, no, but it's, it's our league, you know, we're putting money in, you get these people to buy in, but then when you have a scheduled to come out like this and you, you p**s people off, it's double sided that way of, you know, it's our thing. But then also CFO has to dictate sometimes to way things are. Yeah, no question. And you know, To, to use an Edmonton else. Example. Elk's example, cuz you know, I'm, I'm in Edmonton here. If the team starts winning. Fans won't care about these other things surrounding the team. You know, they won't complain so much about other things, you know, winning. Is is a very important. Aspect in all sports. Excuse me. And it's, it's what this team needs. They have it at home, went in two years in two seasons. It's been embarrassing and they, they haven't hid behind that. The organization, I mean, They they're having their, a guaranteed wi a guaranteed win ticket. You know, where you can buy a certain. Seat in the, in the, in the stadium. And if they win against the riders on June 11th and the home opener, well then great. You know? Yeah, you're happy, but if they don't you get that seat again, you can sit there until. They win. So it's kind of poking fun at themselves. A little bit for the losing streak, but it's also trying to find a way to get more people, you know, involved and get more people in, into the stadium as well. So, You know, it's it's. It's it's, it's just that, you know, it's interesting working in the league and being a fan of this league, cuz of course, you know, I've, I've worked in the league since 2004. Or worked with, you know, Doing on, you know, being on the broadcast and all that. And you know, I was a fan beforehand. I'm still a fan now. And. For me, I just want this fleet to survive. So if this league is going to thrive, you're gonna have to try and do different things. Couple more just on this, that you, we haven't gotta hammer this to death, but I do think this is the most interesting stuff this week. This, like you said, this res of genius sports, right? I mean, this is very much okay. This is the long promise. Okay. We've been working on this. This is, we're finally kind seeing a little bit as what I feel like. Yeah. And Randy and bros said, The CFO commissioner said, you know, we're probably gonna take, it's gonna take two to three years to see the full scope of genius sports, but. Look them up their powerhouse. They've worked with every major league in the world. It seems. And they have been very innovative on the digital side and the marketing side. And the streaming side and, and, and TV. Contracts and you know, this league has to find. Other revenues, other than gate revenue, which I think will always be. Their number one source of revenue is spots in the seats, but you gotta find other sources as well. And so the TV deal in the us might not be very lucrative and probably will never be, you know, Crazy lucrative compared to the TSN deal. But if, you know, they can find a way to make a little more money with it. Great. But if you get more eyes in the product, I think it's very important. So. I'm I honestly, like as, as some reservations I have inside of me, I'm, I'm looking forward to seeing how this plays out and. Honestly, I'm looking forward to a Sunday night football game. I'm in, in the CFO. We've never really had it. So I'm curious to see how, how it works and. But to have your game spaced out. On four consecutive days in the, in the summertime is, is pretty cool. I think. Oh, I think it's a huge selling point to that because how much are you sitting around? I mean, even, even this time of year, you're like, you know, because I'll like watch the crack in, but you know, the crack in our playing, it's not Monday, Thursday, whatever. Like, what the hell am I watching tonight? What am I doing with my life on a Wednesday? You know, you obviously, you know, different days in that, but I see a. Lot, you know, people like posting, you know, this pie chart showing like all the CFO, you know, like gate revenue and the TSN content, all that I'm like. Adding in the American TV deal to that, like that doesn't shrink the pie. That just, no, you're trying, you're trying to grow. This, you know, it doesn't, you're not chipping the way other things here. I think it was John Hodge from a three down nation that said the ESPN deal last year was. Summer between 100 and $200,000 that doesn't really cut into the. CFO's bottom line, but again, it's the exposure, but you always gotta find some ways. To move your product forward to innovate your product. To try. Something different that hasn't been tried before. And you know, there's my complaint about the league office is, and it's, you know, I think it's changing slowly is the mindset is, well, we can't do that and we have to do it this way. Well, you know, we've been doing it this way for 40 50 years and we have to be progressive and. You know, now the league is understanding, I think a lot more. What they need to do to try and move. Forward and move the needle even more and let's face it. Read. This sleek has to get younger. You know, the, the, the people who are upset, the league needs those people. But those people are aging too. They need to get younger eyes on the product. Do you think having people like Omar Doman having Victor que up in, you know, up in Edmonton, here, bringing in. Plus a genius smart. So you really does feel like it's this influx, right? That, like you said, younger thinkers, people that are more willing to try things. I think I lost you for a second then. Oh, sorry. I think my, that connection when. Yeah, crappy there. One second. Oh, it's okay. Hang on here. You're good. Well, I'm good now. Okay. Is it better now? Yeah, I just cut for a second. There. Okay. Okay. You have to re-ask that question? That's okay. Sorry. No worries. I'll add the, yeah, it's all good. Do you think. Do you think having people like Omar Doman, you know, Victor queen up in Edmonton, like you said, plus the genius sport. So bringing in all these younger thinkers right now, people that are more willing to try think it feels like it's an influx right now of a lot of positive things. I do as well. I, I think Amar Doman has been huge for the league. I think Victor que. Has been also very vital to the league as well and has had a similar impact, you know, I think Doman, and andwe have different philosophies. Like Victor doesn't really wanna have the one offs, like Amar Doman had last year with a one Republic concert, but there's, you know, it's different markets. You know, that's the unique thing about the CFO is, and it's, it's like that in every sport, every market's different, but when you have nine teams and you're hoping to have a 10th team at some point out east in the Atlantic, Canada, You have to tailor to what your fan base. You know, what, what drives them? What's their currency, that sort of thing. And I think Omar and, and Victor have been very good at thinking outside the box and trying different things and, you know, Talking about Victor's case. Not everything has worked. I think a lot of things have, and I think he's still trying to figure things out. And I think he's not afraid to, to try things. And if it fails, it fails. And if it, if it sticks. He, he builds on it. So I do think those, you know, Gary stern is another, is another voice with the Montreal allots. I think he's been very good at trying to move the, the league forward and. I, I think those, you know, it's the Victor Queens and the Yamar dins and. And, and really it's more that type of attitude, that type of mindset. Is let's try different things. Let's prioritize. What our fan base values the most. And of course in Edmonton, this elk team has to start winning. They have to start winning games or else it's gonna make. The job of the president, much harder. Yeah. Is it, what, what, what was this year like for you guys up in Edmonton? So. If I compare it to 21. It was a much better year. I will take this year. Probably 10 times out of 10 compared to 21. That being said. A four win season compared to a three win season. I wouldn't call that progress. But it did see late in the year. As I've watched Chris Jones and I've, you know, I've, I've followed him and covered him for a long time in this sleek. This is his second go around in Edmonton. And I said, you know what, it's starting to kind of feel like the first go around. That the players are starting to understand the philosophy of Chris Jones. Done understand the attitude, how the he and the coaching staff expect them to play. And they lost too many games, obviously. But they were in games for a while. And, you know, the game against the allots, you know, in the fourth quarter. You know, they had them on the ropes. They had a league. Lead against the Argos for. 14 Minutes and 33 seconds, and then they lost it with, you know, under, over, or just under 30 seconds left. So they started to, to get it. Injuries didn't help. But. Chris Jones is bound to the term to turn this around. Like he's amazing, you know? The season ended on the 21st of October. The met with the media on the 22nd. Which was a Saturday, then they had the week, the next week off because the week 21 by they had it. And here's Chris Jones, middle of that week already going on his first scouting trip. He has dog had determined to make this a, a winning football team. It's unfortunate, you know? You know, we learned that he has to. Have his football operations budget at 2 million and not two and a half million because they're paying past GMs and coaches. On that cap. Because they were let go. And. That makes it harder too. So they're working under. The cap they're working under what's allowable, as far as the match. Amount of staff you can have, and that makes it harder as well. So, You know, he's doing every innovative, creative thing you can scouting wise, you know, kinda like word of mouth. Scouting is, you know, Hey, you gotta come down here to see this kid play. Right. And they do have, you know, technology. Talks about the, the, the pro football focus, how they're scouting is. So specific. And so. You know, he can scout one player and. In this one area and they, they say, okay, here are four players that you can watch in this specific area. And you can go there. Right? So. He's he's just, he's just gonna, he's not gonna arrest until this team wins and this team wins a championship. I I'm, I'm very sure of that. Do you think that, that people up there have the patience for that this go round? That's the question, right? Because. You know, I haven't seen this in any sport, really with any team it fall off the rail. So fast. I mean, even in 2019, they were. Over the eight and 10, I think. And they made the playoffs and they beat the allots in the first round in the east, and then the lost to the Hamilton Tigercat. You know, they were five and four at home, you know, after a seven and two season at home. In a year where they didn't make the playoffs. But, you know, since 2019 up to now, there hasn't been a lot of winning. You know, they've won. What is it? And I had 16 wins. In three season. That's not, that's not very good. And I think there's. There is frayed patients here. It's hard to preach patients when. Vans are so mad and so upset and there's some people still upset about the name change, and that'll never, that'll never end in. It's not going back. Sorry. People it's not going back. So you have to kind of capture the imagination of the fan base, but you gotta find a way to win. You know, winning is the first priority for sure. And then it's everything you do after that, you know, to make the game experience really good and make sure you're connected to your fan base. So. It's a tough job because it's a double Ammy right now where off the field, they're still trying to repair. A damaged relationship with the fan base and then you're not winning at the same time. But I do. Feel that they'll start winning. Before they can repair the off field stuff, but winning is the first step. It's so hard. Cause he had, you know, here of our domain, you know, best case scenario this year, right. Comes in, you know, last year didn't really count, you know, kind of came in midway through that comes in, you got, you know, Nathan's taken the world by storm, all this kind of stuff. You know, Vancouver could be happier here. You have Victor, Victor trying to do everything. He can. Rebuild all this and it just, they couldn't get, I mean, I watched some of those games where, you know, our buckle, like just got the extension and we're down there. Like you said, you know, 30 seconds left or whatever, you know, throws the interception. You're like, oh my God. Like this team is just like, is allergic to winning the, at home here. Like, it just is fascinating. How two different size. Of the coin. This is, yeah. And I'll tell you, the Elks are sick of. Playing against Nathan rock could have him just destroy them. Cuz it happened in three straight games. He's phenomenal and, you know, whatever happens for him in this off, season's gonna be great. You know, maybe elk fans don't wanna see him in the CFO right now. They would rather him catch on the NFL and it it's okay. We don't need to see Nathan Rourke, but you're right. I mean, it helps to have that type of player that captures the imagination in the hearts and get you excited. And makes you want to buy a ticket and that's what the Elks need. I mean, when they had Michael Riley here, You spend money to go watch him. Right. You go watch Chris Jones run defense. You watch. Strong special teams. You watch Darrel Walker in a Darius Bowman and you watch. Odell Willis and JC share it on the, in the secondary. And you know, the Elks do have a couple of studs on, on offense. Now with Kevin Brown at running back at Mitchell at receiver, and you got Taylor Cooney at quarterback who is developing. And I think we need to see him more for, from Taylor. And I think he's got the potential to do it. But you gotta get people excited to go down and, and watch the product. And. I will say one thing about 22 compared to 21, going back to, you know, just what the season was like. In 21, you wouldn't bring too many of those players back. In 22, you kind of have a core that you can. Grow with, and we'll see what Jones does in free agency. He said publicly, probably gonna be quieter than it was last year. Things can happen on the day of free agency that can change the trajectory of, or change your plan. But. You know, now the Elks have a core. That they can build with, and it's a young core. And they're gonna have to grow up real fast. But. Yeah. It's you know, if you're a Mar Doman. You're hoping Nathan R comes back as you just see what a, what a presence he is and just how much he gets the fan base. Just excited. I, and I apologize. I said I met Cornelius was the one that got the extension and came on through, through the, yeah, just too many, too many leagues in quarterbacks. You were tracking final question from you today, you know, Trey Ford, right. With it came out and we kind had the Canadian thing and then he got hurt and all that came out like is. That kind of the future plans here, is that what we're looking to? Because not that he's like Nathan worked, but being able to get someone young like that to build behind. Yeah, no question about it. And you know, Chris Jones traded for an extra first round pick and he identified Trey four as the, as no one he wanted you knock Macon out of coastal Carolina was. The first pick in the first round. And he was, he was sensational. He was. He was outstanding this year at the Sam linebacker spot, but yeah, specifically on tray Ford. Know, one thing I like about tray Ford is you understands he's not Nathan Rourke. Nathan Rourke cut his teeth in us college. Trey Ford cut his teeth in youth sports, and that's not to downgrade youth sports, but he knows. The, the level of NCAA and youth sports it's it's different. Right? The only played 16 games at Waterloo. And he was spectacular. No question, but you know, he knows he's got. A lot of work to do to improve. And he won his first start in Hamilton. Then he gets hurt first offensive series against the stamp Peters. And that was. Tough for him to go through a, you know, a collarbone injury like he did. And it took him out for two months and then he got back in, then he had to wait for his chance. And cuz at that point, Chris Jones says, we're, we're going with Taylor. Cornelius is our number one. Cornelius, you know, R or has a spleen issue against the Argos. He's hospitalized and he's out for the finale and here comes straight forward. Who's good to see Trey play. Cuz he looked good. I mean that touchdown throw the fade. In the end zone to Mitchell was one of the best fades you'll ever see a quarterback throw, and then he made mistakes, but then he bounced back. Like his second quarter was really rough. You know, he had the pick. He made, you know, he was indecisive, he made bad decisions, but his second half was much better. But the plan will be Taylor. Cornelius will be the starter. They're gonna have a competition at camp and see what happens. But Taylor's gonna be the starter. Tray, Ford's gonna push at number two. And the stone that we haven't seen turned over quite yet. We've seen a little bit of it. But there's a lot of people, including myself, are wondering. Kai Oxley with more playing time. That is the one thing that I'm really curious about. Cuz I like the mechanics. I like the poise. You know, he is a receiver right now. And he's willing to do whatever he has to do to play. And stay on the field, but. There are some really nice things from the quarterback spot. That we saw from Kyle Oxy that I wonder Hmm. Given more playing time, which is probably gonna be hard to do, but you know, given more playing time, what, what kind of quarterback do we have here in Kyle? Axley? It's hard, you know, the Cornelius thing, cuz I know, you know, he was like exile. I mean came up and you know, I hear from all you guys and LER and everyone knew would takes a couple years. Like he's getting there, but we'll see. I mean that we, with the extension of the, all that was not great for him, but I do think. I think he fights really hard. Right. I think he's coming in there and, and has earned, you know, earned at least getting looks at that spot, but it'll be fascinating. I hope Edmonton gets it around, you know, they're my, my second heart here in the west, but it's good. I, Dave, I really appreciate you coming back onto today. It's been too long, but you're always good. And I really thank you so much for coming on. Well, as the first CFL. Media member to be a guest on this podcast. It's always great to come back and, and chat with your read and always appreciate your, your love and support of the CFO. And Hey, we're gonna look forward to Sunday night football in the CFL this year.

Episode 122 - The XFL Is Coming Together!

Well, I, I said this when I, I posted the teaser this week, I said, big time guest alert. We have Kevin Seifert coming back on. ESPN. I mean that thank you for coming on today, sir. How are you doing? I'm real good. How are you, sir? We're good. So, you know, lots of emails and we were trying to correspond and we, yeah, we were gonna do the town hall event or the local activation events and then, you know, yeah. Okay. Ian, and now we're, we're here. We have team names. We have logos. We still don't have a Vegas deal. We have some other news. I think you're gonna share her coming up, but. Like welfare check on you. How do you feel about the XFL December right now? I think, I feel like they're on track. You know, I think we have to be careful to compare it to the exact timetable that the 2020. League did you know, there's. You definitely wanna make sure you have all your, you know, tees crossing your eyes dotted, but the timing, the specific timing of it, I don't get too caught up with. I know some people were worried that they were behind or that, and I get that and that, that. You know, there was so much more work to be done, but you know, now that they have, they had the draft, I think they have. Their secondary draft infrastructure in place. They're gonna have another round of it. Right before training camps open, they have the training camp situation planned out pretty well. And they have, you know, they, I guess, need to wait on the, the full, you know, schedule of, of games, but they have a good idea of how that's gonna go. And so. And, you know, part of what they paid for. Of that 15 million was this sort of infrastructure that was already established. And so I think they kind of approached it with the idea that. We're not starting from scratch. We're not a startup. We paid $15 million to not be that. And so. At least in part. And so I think that's kind of the approach that they're taking. And so I, I think they're on track. You know, I think all, a lot of people in the football ecosystem are still really focused on the NFL and the playoffs are coming up. So we'll see. Exactly how they can compete for attention. Once the regular season NFL regular season is over, I expect to hear more. Promotion and that sort of thing. And you'll start seeing it on, on TV. I would imagine as well in terms of promotions, but. I think they're on track to where you would, you would want them to be at this point. The most, one of the most fascinating things about all this, cuz we've gotten feedback and talking with you and other people on the show is. Like you said they paid, you know, we paid 15 million, we won all this. We want, you know, the fan base, everything from before, but then we really don't wanna be. Like compared to what they did in 2020, like, this is very much our own thing and which is great. But like you said, I mean, you're buying this stuff. You you're acquiring these fan bases. You know, we move cities and all this stuff and timelines like you don't get one without the other. It's always fascinating that that's the feedback I get from this when like, That this is the dis, like this is the bed that you have made, you know? Yeah. And, and I don't think that, I mean, and it's not as if an association with the 20, 20 version is like bad for business or bad, like toxic. Like, obviously they went bankrupt and. You know, I think we all know the reason behind that and. I don't know that anybody thinks that, you know, when a whole lot deeper than that, you know, that was pretty successful. They, you know, they. Sort of blaze the trail for what was to come later, which was the SFL. And, and also now that the second version or the third version of the XFL. And so I don't think there's any harm in the association. I think. You know, part of sometimes I think, I don't know all the details, but I think some of the attempts to separate have been kind of business related in terms of. What they can have copyrights to and what they can have trademarks and what the, the, where they can get insurance and all those kind of things. And so I don't sense. You know, from them. Any desire to. Ignore the fact that there was a, a 20, 20 season. I think that they just are maybe a little wary of relying too much on it, cuz it was three years ago. You know, it'll be, have been three years ago. And so not to act as if you're just picking up where you left off. And so. I think when you watch it from afar and you didn't know that there had been an ownership change. You'll probably see. Enough similarities that it wouldn't make you think this is under new. Operation. There'll be some things that are different and there'll be some things that people have forgotten. But I, I think that. In the broad. Landscape that this there'll be. Enough connection points that. It won't be as if it won't regardless of what they might say or what they are hoping. I think people will. See a lot of connection points and I don't think that's a bad thing. It's interesting, cuz it I've heard both. And I, because I talked with, you know, I'm obviously way more deep in the weeds with us than you are with a lot of this, but you know, a lot of people like it's not gonna look the same or it's not gonna feel the same. We, we just did. I I like actually I, I won that hat. I don't know if it was because. I run the, the Mark House or now, but the ex of all drag, the C drag did in the van over the weekend. Like that was kind of the first. Popup event after the town trying to get some of this interest. Like, I, I, I'm just curious, like, you know, we're December here. I, I, and I feel like it was, it was months before, and I, like you said, competing with the NFL. I just don't know. It's a really hard time coming after the super bowl. Superbowl. Yeah. And that, and, and. You know, there's not, I think there, there can be that, that issue. I also think that they're gaining a lot of attention. In growth areas where they weren't before. Basically cuz of Dwayne Johnson, you know, and like let's, you know, there's, they have one of the most marketable people in American. Celebrity the, the world of American celebrity is one of their owners. And so. They may not be generating the kind of hardcore football. Attention, but I am positive, you know, BEC compared to, so say an Oliver luck led operation where, you know, the people really were getting nerding out, including me. On the football innovations and the football approach and the impact it could have. On the football ecosystem. You know, they they're gaining broad, enormous attention. Outside of that world. Through him and through the, the Disney partnerships, I think. And, and elsewhere. And so. It may not be the same. It may not be the group that we kind of circulate in. I, I guess I shouldn't, I should assume that you're not circulating in, in the rocks celebrity circle in neither am I, but people who are fans of him, you know, the, a lot of those people weren't wouldn't necessarily have been. XFL fans and their eyes have been drawn. And so I think we have to probably. Step back and broaden what we're looking at there. When we talk about, you know, The extent to which they've generated attention because there's enormous numbers of eyes, new eyes. On the league as a result of him when you came on back. And I think it was sometime over the summer, I think it was before the NFL season came on and said, The most interesting thing for you is gonna be them negotiating the stadium deals because here, you know, you advance an Oliver before. I mean, Vince, primarily with that. You know, the decision to go from, you know, the hub to the modified hub. Okay. We're gonna play in these cities and how's everybody. Are you surprised that we still don't have a, like an announced place to play in Vegas and that you kind of foresaw this being an issue from back when whenever you were on? Yeah. And I think, you know, there's, there was a lot of. You know, each there's a lot of manpower. I think I remember we talked about this earlier. Just a lot of manpower that goes into and, and legal. Probably fees and legal work that goes into creating these. Leases. I don't have the specific reason. I don't know why. They haven't announced an a Las Vegas stadium. There's only a couple of options there. And maybe they're. You know, having just haven't gotten to. An acceptable deal with either one of them or. And, you know, maybe there's some people who have, who looked at. The lurch that some of the other stadiums were left in after the bankruptcy and. You know, partially knowing that was a very unique situation, but also knowing that. All these leagues prior to now have failed. Eventually every single one of them. If not after one year after several years. And so making sure that you're not. Caught in a, in a bind, if that were to happen. And so, like I said, I don't know the details. I, I quite confident they'll find a place to play, but I do know that. You know, those that was, you know, in talking to some of the USFL people like that was one of the. Streamlined things that they were able to do was, you know, there were some downsides to it, but only having a negotiate, the one stadium and then next year, a couple. More was a, you know, allow them to move a lot quicker and allow them to be a lot more efficient. And, you know, this is a different model and, and. I think it was, you know, anticipated that it would take a while. Like I said, I didn't necessarily think we'd be at this point, but I, I, you know, there's only a couple options. And they'll find, they'll find a place. Yeah. Whether it's an we're recording a little early this week and the, whether it comes up this week, next week, I think the Vipers like tweeted, Hey, good news coming here, you know, happy Monday or whatever. But yeah, whenever it comes, presuming they don't play in Arlington. They will play in Vegas, you know, somewhere. And yeah. Do you, do you concern, okay, we've lost time there. We haven't been able to, or is it Vegas? Like, it doesn't matter because people are gonna go see stuff cuz it's in town. Like is Vegas a unique model in that or I, I mean, I can speak to the NFL. Portion of it, you know, they're their games. Are destination games for people all over the country. At ESPN, we have this partnership with, I think it's called vivid seats and they are able to come up with. Estimates based on the online purchases of. How many home fans will be at a game. How many people are coming in from out of town, with connections to the opposing team. And. Their games like people come. Like in, by the thousands from other cities to, to watch. To watch Raiders games, like most often against the, the opponent, you know, especially if it's a good team and, and the same is to a lesser extent in Los Angeles for the charters and, and Rams games. And so Vegas is a unique. Is a unique model. In that it's a, it's a, you know, that you could add Vipers games to the list of things to do. In Vegas, when you come into town. And that, I don't know if, if that works at a lower level than the NFL, I'm sure they'll get more. They'll get more. Walkups than other XFL type teams. Would, but. Certainly the, the, the quicker, the better, I mean, they're, they're, they're. Whatever marketing they're doing locally is already started. They just can't tell people yet where they're playing. And so I, I don't think that it's. That it's that there's. They've necessarily fallen behind because of that. And I also, it will be interested to see if, if Vegas, you know, if they. Attract. If, if there's ever like a data study done on the type of. The demographic of people who go to, to those games. Will it be similar to the NFL where it's a lot of people who didn't necessarily come to Vegas to go to one of those games, but who came to Vegas and chose to go to a game as well? I, I would be curious if like, you know, the hindsight here of the juices worth to squeeze on this. I, Amanda, I know Mike Mitchell's come on and reported like this might have been Jerry Cardell decision. Hey, we wanna to be in Vegas. Versus, you know, pulling out LA or New York, like we had on the, one of the beat writers in Vegas, when we were talking about like, where are they gonna play and whatever. And it's like, if, if we can't interview the rock, like we don't really care about this league right now. Right? Like we, we have so many other things in Vegas. Yeah. And we're covering the golden Knights and the. Indoor football night, like all this be curious. If you could have done it in two years from now, when you have it all locked in and just go some, you know, go to Canton right now and just play whatever, take over the us that felt like I'd just be curious if it was worth it. Yeah. And we'll find out. And I just think that just the business people look at Vegas is such a growth, average opportunity. And, and maybe, maybe the, the peak of that. Has already happened and it's coming, you know, it's leveling off. I don't know, but like hockey was first and then the Raiders went and, you know, it used to be a place where no sports would go to and suddenly it, it became acceptable. So everybody pounced. And so I am guessing, you know, the XFL wanted to, to jump in there and, and see, you know, what, what. Is left over, I guess, but they also, it's not like. You know, year to year moving a XFL franchise as quite as. As dramatic as moving a, an HL franchise because you're the infrastructure in town is pretty limited. We're done with the draft we live through that. Are you. Surprised we got like the countdown to the draft. Right? Think Laura hosted that. And then we've kind of rebranded that now. It's just like, whatever, going to kickoff, but are you surprised that we didn't get more? That it was the online we, I, were you surprised at all with how the draft was first presented? No. Like, I, I, I think back to the, I covered the 20, 20 XFL draft and it was. Literally being done in their, in like a very small conference room in their office, across the street from the WWE headquarters and like, They had a little corner set up for where Oliver luck could do like a live shot or two on sports center. And then I think they were planning to stream it, but like, some things didn't happen quick enough. And so they didn't. And so you really didn't get any even like, just if you wanted this log on and see a list of people as it was happening, it, you really could couldn't. And so. You know, the, the, the, like it is tempting to say, well, the NFL draft is such a massive. Event that there has to be some way to replicate it at a lower scale. And I, if anything, they were probably more ambitious this year, creating a streaming event and creating, you know, having Dwayne Johnson there. You know, probably again, brought eyes that wouldn't otherwise have been there and created a lot of social media moments. Maybe more importantly. Than the actual stream that they could clip and, and send out. So if anything, they were probably a little more ambitious. Like I know there's exclusive deal with di Disney and ESPN and it's way above, you know, my. Pay grade, but you know, it was, it was more than. Than what they had done the first go round and more than the USFL did as well. I mean as someone that's that I stream the whole eight and a half hours, Kevin of, of the draft we did. So I, I appreciated not having to compete with like the official XL stream, but. At least like the quarterback show or something. Like, I would've, I would've figured, like, we've just had this promise for two years of okay. Like Dwayne and Danny and it's, they're, they're, we're gonna, we're filming all this stuff and we're gonna do, and then I, I, I appreciate it. I like the little light live aspect of it. Like you said, the social media just, I don't know. I just, maybe they talked big and now they, you know, Hey, okay, well that's way over the top or whatever, but like I was always told, Hey, like we gotta figure out how we're using the rock in this, on ESPN. Not. Posting clips to XL Twitter later. Yeah. And maybe that's coming and maybe, you know, it takes, it was two sides of every agreement and like, You know, there's probably a limit to which you can. Broadcast the XFL draft. As well. And so I, you know, I anticipate there being more. Connection between him and, and Danny. And ESPN and. The various other entities that, you know, platforms that, that they're in agreement on as we get closer. And that, that was probably like a first step. Talent level that came out of it. Were you surprised better, worse, any, you know, names that, that took you off guard you? I know Benon Uche was one of the, kind of the more. My friends were like, oh, Hey, like we kind of know, I am. Yeah. Well, I was, I had initially gotten. A hold of a list of the people in the quarterback pool. And like UCCI was by far the most well known name. And I was like, this is interesting. And I talked to. To Doug Whaley. And he said like, yeah, you know, the, the profile is basically. Guys that are a couple years outta college. And, you know, either got cut from an NFL camp. And haven't really had a chance to play, or maybe they got hurt. Or guys who have been sort of languishing on practice squads for a few years. And are number three guys, and aren't getting on the field and need film. If they're gonna. Elevate their chances. And so he was very upfront about. You know, it being NFL related. And then, you know, the first two picks were Kyle floater and, and AJ McLaren, whose names I had not gotten. And I guess it came together very quickly. And I was a little surprised there because I had talked to Doug, you know, about, you know, Landry Jones and how, and that he was sort of the main. Quarterback take in 2020, and it didn't really work out for him. And it wasn't really necessarily. A big enough name that. People were like buying tickets to go to games because of Landry Jones. He and. And worse. He wasn't necessarily. Playing well enough to give them the other part of what you need. In that regard is you really need competent quarterback play to make the whole thing work. Like if you've got a guy that can't play, then it's not gonna be a very pleasant game to watch. You know, no matter how good the coaches are, no matter how. Good. The rest of the roster is. And so I was a little surprised at the AJ McCan. That that was somebody who was targeted, cuz he's, I think he's 32 or so. And hadn't played in a while, but we'll see, you know, Open mind there, Kyle floater, I think, you know, he, he proved that he can play a little bit in the USFL and. I think he led the league in yardage at least. And so he was a guy, frankly, that I remember Oliver luck telling me that he really would've liked that he really wanted for the 20, 20 season. But at that point they couldn't pry him off of sort of the practice squad track. You know, Kyle thought that he. Was on track to, you know, keep moving up the ladder in the NFL. And so. You know, To me, like that's, that's where it all starts is that those quarterbacks and, you know, there's a few names and a few guys that are intriguing and we all know that like at the beginning of the 20, 20 season, we wouldn't necessarily have peg PJ Walker to be the best, you know, to, by, by far the best to come out of that league. And so. Maybe there's somebody who's gonna, who just needs that chance. And will show us that they can be the next PJ Walker. But it was pretty much along the lines of, of what I thought otherwise across the board. It seems like. Well, I guess, first off, were you surprised that we had slow and Perez, you know, guys that were with the us FFL jumping ship, you know, utilizing that, Hey, we got signed to the practice squad. We're able, now we're free from the USFL contract. No, I think that there's been a lot of behind the scenes. You know, pushing and pulling and frankly competing. You know, I, I think, you know, it was, I'm trying to think when we reported it, but it was much earlier this year, probably during, right before the us F L season started where. Doug Whaley and, and a couple other, maybe Mark Ross. Met virtually with as many agents who would jump on with them and were, were basically trying to sell them on. XFL is gonna be a better platform. XFL is gonna pay more money. X FFL is going to, is it better place for your client? We know the USFL is jumping in first, but. You know, and so the USFL was trying to sign everybody to two year contracts. They didn't get everybody signed. Some of them. You know, be, could become available at the end of this year. And some of them, as you said, the practice squad. Work around. So those, but there's, there's been all kinds of, I mean, there's a recognition that, that quarterback and an offensive line, there's not. Enough to go around probably the other positions. You know, you could, you know, you there's enough younger. Players that you can have two leagues, but. There may not even be enough offensive linemen. Like competent offensive linemen for one. And so they're gonna have to make in the USFL, had do the same thing, make some schematic. Adjustments or schematic, you know, at least lean into the idea that you, you're not gonna have five guys who can hold their block for two and a half, three seconds. And so how do you get around that? Just a quick passing. Is it re option? Is it draw? Like how do you, how do you. Scheme around that. And so, and that might have been the case, even if there's only one league with two leagues, that's definitely a concern. So that's like from the personnel standpoint. That's and you're talk when you're talking about alternative leagues, those. You know, even the NFL, like those people will tell you, like, those are two of the harder positions to fill. And so when you get down to the second level of XFL us FFL, like that's where the concern is. And. If you have a team where the quarterback isn't. Great. And the line can't block, then no matter what else is happening, it's gonna be, you know, really a tough watch. And that's what you have to keep in mind. The NFL does too, but. Especially at the second level we were trying to make a good impression is that the quality of the game has to meet a certain standard or people aren't gonna wanna watch it. It's interesting. You're talking abouts and them not being able to get him off the practice squad track cuz you know, God forbid if any of these leagues could exist for a couple years to, to have that be a real option here. You know, we just saw yesterday, like all these players in the, the trans portal and you're, you know, it's, you're one of a thousand and. You're trying to do all the like is cementing. These is like, this is another option that you can do. I just think it's pivotal. And I think USFL is getting to that point, right. Having made it now, you know, going into year two and the XFL, like, this is what we need. I mean, there's just so many players that need the opportunity to yeah. I, and, and I know Tom Brady's agent. Donald ye was trying for a long time to. Come up with a sort of an alternative league that would even. Take people straight from high school, you know, be almost like a college level pro league. And say like, you know, if you, if your goal as a high school, Kid or as a, as a young college kid is to plan the NFL. Going through the college ranks is not the only, you know, and getting drafted out of that is not the only path. And so, you know, I don't, that hasn't really materialized, but the idea of. Creating more avenues to get. To the NFL or to get to a higher level of football. It requires, you know, I mean, you think back to the XML 2020 plan, like they'd set aside hundreds of millions of dollars for a three to five year plan. And so it takes a ton of money. To do that. And no one's been willing yet to, to do that. But if the SFL can stick around and the XFL can, you know, find its place. Over time then? Yes. You're you create? You change the paradigm. Basically you change the infrastructure. And, and it's not just college football. That's, that's responsible for. For feeding the NFL and, and you know, this transfer portal is a perfect thing. And I know this is probably. This is certainly not the case for many of the kids, but. Certainly for some, like, they are better off financially. staying in, in college, you know, finding a, finding a, the best. Free agent deal through the transfer portal where they'll get, you know, millions of IL money. In that first year and, and that for one year, and then go to the NFL after that, there's, there's less incentive now to even go pro in the first place. So. Another another obstacle. That that's that's been laid in terms of the college game, being the sole provider. Of immediate NFL talent. So we're recording this kinda out of order today, earlier in the week, talking some news coming out this week. Right. Potentially, and other things going on. So why don't you fill us in on everything and I'll figure out how to type all this up in post. Yeah. Yeah. Well, the big thing is like, and the, the, what really peaked my interest in the 2020 XFL. Was the attempts by Oliver luck in Sam Schwartzstein to. To basically redesign the game. And I'm kind of a rules nerd. And, you know, I know it's a small community. It's, you know, it's not quite the rock size celebrity community, but people who like want football to. Evolve and, and, and be locked in for the next generation and knowing that you can't just sit, sit tight. And so. I was really intrigued by all, a lot of the rule innovations they've done. And, you know, again, we've talked about infrastructure and the XFL, you know, Paid 15 million, you know, these guys paid 15 million to keep. This infrastructure. And one of the things they're, they're definitely planning to keep is, is the rule book. And there's gonna be, you know, and this is no surprise, I think, to anybody, but the kickoff that has really was probably the most unique thing is, is gonna stay. You know, there's I think there they were at 90 plus. Return on it. People were starting to learn how to block it. And those first five games, the NFL is still at less than 40% returns. So, you know, it's a home run once, once PE and I think people like after they saw it once, twice, like it didn't really bother them as far as. Being too out there, you know, they're gonna keep using the. The official to spot the ball so they can move the game as quick as they can. I think that they'll make a few kind of mechanical adjustments in terms of how the play clock. Will will be. Administered, but it'll still be about the same, about 35 seconds from the end of the play to the next play. I think there's still hoping that they have a quick enough game that it's well under three hours, you know, there's still gonna have. The three tiered extra points that. That people. That I think people liked and, you know, they expect most people to go for, for two points, but you know that one and that three are there if, especially that three, if you're trying to come back, people have to realize that nine points is a one score deficit in the XFL. And so like that to me, like that's a really interesting and cool. Thing to think about as you're watching those games. And, you know, Dean Bino has sort of taken over as, as the head of the, you know, officiating and rules and innovation and all that. And so one thing, you know, he was, he was the NFL's officiating chief from long time and, and he. Dealt with things like challenges and replay all the time. And one thing that he is gonna try, I think. Is allowing coaches to have one challenge. It used to be the previous, previous XFL in 2020. Was that. You know, this, it would all be reviewed upstairs. So coaches will now have one challenge per game and it can be anything you can challenge. You know, a penalty you can challenge. A, whether somebody was outta bounds, you know, it's not that kind of limited. Thing that of set of objectives that. That you see in the NFL except for the one year where they tried to review pass interference. So in the XFL, in, in 2023, if you see a really, if you see a pass interference call that you think is wrong, you can challenge it. And then Dean will review it in the, in the, in the command center or wherever he's located. And could overturn it. And so like that's, that's something that's never really been tried. You know, cuz it could be holding, it could be offensive holding. It could be. You know, illegal block. It could be hands the face, quarterback, you know, roughing the quarterback, any of that stuff. And so. And, and the, and the big thing will be. On Dean to come up with a way to, you know, create a standard for. Here's what's acceptable. Here's what needs to be turned over and be consistent. With that at all times. And if he can do that and he can show that. That can be done that could have an impact. Directly on the NFL because the NFL position right now is that. It's too hard to, to, to. Judge, you know, we don't wanna add another level of judgment. It's too hard to judge whether something should have been passing interference or should have been offensive holding. We're not gonna try. And, you know, bill Belichick among many others have said for years, like, why not? Like why can't we're we're the NFL, we're smart. Why can't we come up with a way to use challenges for anything? Like, if I lose a game because. A referee thought that that. A pass rusher, hit a quarterback in the helmet and he didn't. Like, and we can see it on TV. Why can't we fix that? And so. If I I'll be watched. So I'll be watching this, that part very closely. With Dean and, and the XFL, if he can just show over time that it is possible to establish a clear standard and to be consistent with it over the course of a season. I think that could. Open some eyes around the NFL as well. Well it's interest. I'll try to get you off here in a second, but now you just popped a couple quick questions in here before you go. Mm-hmm cuz it's interesting because we did, we got the whole thing this year with. Deriving in the passer. And it was like the back to back weeks who was the Brady game. And then I think it was. Car that got, or was it Mahome? I can't remember the second one that we got hit. And, you know, people are going crazy. Like, why can't you challenge this? So I, I cover the CFO. Like you can challenge all this stuff in the CFO. And so it's weird to me that it's always a weird to me that you can do this in the CFL, which seems to make sense, can't do it in the NFL, but I like this where the FFL, it is supposed to be kind of the training. Grounds of okay. Let's experiment with some things. I think. This is a clean way to kind of at least introduce it in, right. Without totally Chan, you know, you have one challenge, like we're not going crazy here. Yeah. Yeah. And, and you might save it for the end and you might, you know, you might not want to waste it in the first quarter, even if it was a really bad call. So they're not gonna, they're not gonna create a situation where, where people are, you know, Challenging throughout the course of the game. And I've, I've done stories on the CFO. As well in terms of their replay. And what they said is that it took 'em a while. Like the first year they did it, they didn't have a good standard, just like the NFL didn't have it, but they brought it back for year two and they got better at it. And they brought it back for year three and they made some tweaks and they eventually got to a play where they thought they had it down. And I think you'd have to ask, you know, people, any individual person who watches CFO if they think so. And I think we'll have different ideas, but I think they, they feel. Like they have a 97, 90 8% hit rate on that stuff. So that's pretty good. And so. The first week, you know, the XFL might not, you know, Have it down, but hopefully they stick with it and hopefully it comes back for another second year and they can stick with it again and show that over time, you know, this, this can be done. I, I got, I don't wanna be the exit all Homer, but do you. With the USFL, having lifted a lot of these. You know, the good you we're going for three, you know, tweaking the overtime. They don't do the kickoff, but they move back the kickoff. And now the exit Val is coming back like, Hey, this is our stuff. Like thoughts on that. And, and just kind of these two competing properties, you'll utilizing some of the similar, I mean, there's only so many tweaks you can do with. Still have it be at football? Well, it's, I mean, it's, it's a copycat world and like, nobody is going to out of pride. Ignore a good idea. And so I'm sure that if you talk to the 2020 people, that they, they hope that it would influence the NFL a little bit, but they knew that if another league came along, That they would grab some of that stuff. And so it, then it just becomes like who's who's innovators are. More innovative, you know? Cause you what's the next step. What's the next step? You know what, where can you push it further? Like if you're, if you want, you can stay ahead and like the, let the other league. Just continue to, to pick up what you came up with. Or you can just kind of sit tight and, and just say, we've, we've done all our innovating. Now we're gonna go play football. And I, and, and I think that they. You know, made enough tweaks that it's clear that they're not just gonna sit tight. But they need to know that the us fell would be silly to not pick up and maybe make their own tweaks to stuff. One thing the USFL did throughout the, their first year was, was change the rules, you know, when they saw something that wasn't working, you know, they, they would change it and. Right away right after the game, whether it was field goal kicking and the type of ball they were using, or other, other things like that, I'd be surprised if the XFL felt like they needed to do that. But. You know, Ultimately your goal was to have the best product. And if there's an idea out there, no matter who came up with it, If it's good, it's gonna get stolen and not even steal. That's probably too hard for a word it's gonna get, it's gonna get used. And you've, you've produced this out into the public ether. There's no trademarks for, I don't think, I guess that would be interesting idea. Could you trademark your rule books so that nobody else could use it? I don't know. But it hasn't been. And so, yeah, it's it's fair game. I can't remember if it was on or off the podcast, but Sam Schwartzstein told me, watching the first XL kickoff and like, The guy was like slightly outta the position. And like they had rehearsed it because, you know, it had to, it had the nail and him, you know, the story, him watching from the sidelines and like, you know, the sigh of relief when it was able to be healed in and ran back. Cuz if that. If it looks like crap on TV the first time, you're like, what the hell is like, okay, we're moving on. Like, what is this? Yeah. And I think the TV partners, ESPN Fox and ABC in the, in that iteration were really good about prepping people for what it was gonna look like. So I don't think like anybody. Like any fan who had been paying any attention at all were surprised by it. But, you know, even like, I remember talking to some of the old school Scouts that the XFL used that year and they would look at it and the first time they saw and they'd been, what the heck is this? You know, like this, this, you know, garbage, you know, and then they, then they watched it and then they saw that. Really what ha you're doing is you're kicking off and then you have a running play, you know, it's like a, you block it as a zone. As zone scheme block. And, and if you wanna run a trick or you wanna run a revert, you could do all that stuff too. But like just understanding what you could do with it probably took some time as well. But the idea that it's a live play. Every almost every time is, is I think the most important thing. Anything else from you today? I really appreciate it. I know busy. NFL and covering the Vikings. And, you know, currently my, my commanders are hanging in there on the BI week, but that was, that was, that was a tough game for us on Sunday. But anything else before you go, I really appreciate it. I know you're busy. Yeah. Well, no. When you say that or yeah, at think the one thing you can rest of assure is there will be no ties in the XFL. You know, you're referencing the giants commanders tie Sunday. And the number one goal of the XFL overtime rules was to avoid a tie. And so. I think, I think that you will not have to worry about that in the XFL. Huge move that could be made there. Is, does Mike want more say in the player personnel and will Kyle Walters be able to give him that. And will the bombers be able to give him that, but that's the only thing that might be a sticking point is because Micha breakup week was talking about, you know, the, your, your contract extension should not be about what you did. The last couple of years, it should be where you wanna be. Going in your career. So. Is that where Mike wants to go, which is a little bit more say in what's going on with the organization rather than just head coach. Now I know Mike and Kyle, but they have a lot of. Mutual understanding when Mike wants something, Kyle will go out and do it. Right. So they have a pretty good relationship that front anyways. Interesting. You think that there might be. He, he wants more agency in terms of kind of team building and stuff like that. No, it just, it, it is the natural progression of a guy, right. You have mastered being a head coach, you won a great, great cop. But what is Mike want? I don't know, Mike. Personally to know, is he driven to be. What Chris Jones is, or the co GM and. In BC, of course, with Rick Campbell, as a head coach, he's progressed from coordinator to coach to now having more of a say in player personnel, plus it saves your organization. A lot of money too, is having a guy to two jobs because CFO has the ridiculous. Front front office cap that we have to deal with. I've seen a lot in this really, I guess, both to, you know, the rough riders and then also the red blacks where I see, okay. You know, we hire, you know, Bobby dyes gets hired full-time for Ottawa, right. He was the interim coach. And then a, a people declining. Interviews for the writers. Right. And I, I just, I see a lot of like, okay, this is. People you have to hire within. Because people don't want to interview their right. Both with Ottawa and with Regina. Is that something that you're, I mean, is this just noise or is that something you're seeing. Well, it, it is interesting to see like Marcus Howell and Jerry is Jackson. And the offensive line coach for the Winnipeg blue bombers, Marty Costello. Like these guys are going not, no, thanks. And that's where you go. What's going on here in Saskatchewan with is this it's, but I can understand it. How appealing would it be? To be. I want to cut my teeth as an offensive coordinator and I want my first job to be in a place where I don't know who the quarterback is. The offensive line was questionable. I don't know who the receivers are, cuz most of them are pending free agents. Like. As much as it's an open slate for you to make it your own. But can you make it your own with where free agents might land as well? And do you wanna deal with that? So like, I can understand where people might go, eh, not sure if this is an appealing spot for me. Right now. So it, you know, it could be peak stanza. Who's the Toronto Argonauts passing game coordinator. And the running backs coach at Kelly Jeffrey, who's been around a little bit in the Canadian football league, but really most of his time has been spent in youth sports. In the Canadian university programs. Is it, is it just how bad the, the writer situation is right now? Cause you know, they have it, like, Ottawa's kind of been terrible here for a couple years, right. Where, you know it tell this year really then the rider's kind of fell off the clip, but I don't is it just cuz they're so desimated and we don't know who's gonna be quarterback or everything else. Well, I think the, the dynamic in Ottawa is a little bit different because it was, it was the head coach that was being hired and he could make his staff. Right. So Bob dice. Is interviewed and he says, I'm gonna bring in this guy. And I wanna bring in this guy and we're, we're seeing it work out with Kahari Jones and barren miles. And company, whereas Saskatchewan, it was well our Jeremy Day and Craig Dickinson gonna keep their jobs. Like are they gonna get fired? And they, okay. They're not. So now it's okay. Now they're only on one year left on both those contracts. We're usually an OOC will get a two year deal. Right? So it, it is this weird dynamic. That the riders have going on for 2023. And 2023 is a make it or break it year. I think for Craig Dickinson, especially maybe less so Jeremy O. Day, but. It's gonna be interesting to see how they can rebuild, cuz they really do have to rebuild this offense. To be competitive again. With Kahari taking the, the OC job is that. A good move for him just considering this last year. And I mean, I just, I feel like he. Should be doing something better than the, you know, the OC for the red flag. Is that, am I off base? Well, there's not a lot out there for 'em. If it wasn't gonna be the head coach and it's not gonna go be the head coach in Montreal. But it's a great, it's always a great stepping stone for Howard to get back into it again, as an offensive coordinator. And work with an offense again and prove yourself again, that you can lead a group. So when that head coaching job comes open somewhere. Who knows maybe it would be the Saskatchewan refer riders next season. That you've gone. Hey, look what I did with the Ottawa red blacks. And he's comfortable there. Like it's a good spot for him because he, Bob dice, BARR and miles, they all work together back when they want break up in Saskatchewan. And then of course, Barron and him worked in Montreal together. So it's a good pumpable spot for Kahari Jones again, to sometimes you. Have to take your lumps, take a step back, go to back to coordinator before. Someone gives you the head coaching job again. I just felt like he didn't get a fair shake. I remember never felt like it kind of felt like he was the scapegoat kinda. Am I reading that riot or was that like, no, we needed to get rid of him. Well, I, I, I felt it a little bit when that happened, where I was like, this is Danny Maro who never, he didn't hire Kahari Jones. He came in. Danny Mao wanted it done his way a little bit. And that was the out, they had a bad start to the season. And it was an easy move to make for Danny macho to come downstairs, but you have to give him Acho and old Thorpe credit that they were able to turn. Montreal around and did win more games than lose and make the playoffs. And. Trying to get close to a breakup again, but. I, I looked at that going well, Danny kind of proved himself a little bit, but. Would've Kahari Jones been able to turn it. We'll never know. I like Dari. I know Kahari I, he was here in Saskatchewan. I. Believe he can, he could have turned that team. Around, but we'll see what they do in Ottawa where Carri Jones is gonna get another head coaching job. It's just a matter of when, not if. So, but the people turning down it. Guess first off the, the hiring, you know, Bob dice going in. I saw, like I said before you a lot of, well, this just proves there's someone from the outside. Did you buy that? Or like, no, this is someone that the locker room really likes. Let's go with him. It, it, it felt like I'm, I'm a. Raider's fan. So I, I watch rich Versace, the special teams coordinator last year takeover and went, man, did he just win himself ahead? Coaching job the way he motivated that crew? And it looked like the players really believed in him. And of course they Mark Davis, as he always does. He goes for the big name, hire. And he did with Josh McDaniels. So. I, I looked at it. Bob Dyson, similar to rich. Pachia a guy who knew the room, special teams coordinator, working with both sides, offense defense. To get a special teams and a guy that I looked at when he won that one game. On his first start, but the competitiveness of Ottawa. They got more competitive and it's just seemed like they started to believe a little bit more. I think. And when you can galvanize a group like that. And I think Bob D might have come in with the best staff I got Kahari Jones and Barry miles ready to come in here right now. And. A head coach is only as good as the staff. He puts around him. And right now, Bob dice is putting an excellent staff together. And Bob dice has been around the game so long that he's got. Incredible incredible. Intangibles on just knowing what it takes to win, because he has a few great upbringings to prove it. I totally with the Raiders, like, and not that this is the spot for this on the podcast, but, you know, They're finally getting stuff together now, but who knows what they would've had? You know, you hear Derek car, we're bringing in someone else again and all this, like if they could have rolled with. Rich. Like, I think they, I don't know. I mean, they're hitting fire now, but I I'd be curious what that looks like otherwise. Yeah, I'd be very curious on what rich Versace and that drew would've done right off the start of the season, but they're finding their legs. I have been so against Josh McDaniels that I'm just like, Fire 'em already, but looking at maybe some. Crow menu recipes to maybe munch on by the end of the season, but we'll see what happens. Going forward. I so with, with the riders and I saw Cody was on Rod's show this week and talking like. Well, I, I haven't heard from the, I haven't heard from the riders yet. Like, I don't know. And I tweeted the movie, you know, he's just not that into you. Right. I'm like, if, you know, I said, if, if Cody, if Cody had blocked me on Twitter, I would probably just show him the, this movie, cuz like, do you need more of a statement of like, We don't want you here then, like we're not calling you did are your name's on the list of guys he's blocked too. Yeah. Yeah. Like. Cause he blocked me. He blocked my show. He, you. He's blocked the voice of the riders he's blocked. He's like, he's just nobody that anybody that criticizes with him, it seems like, Nope, that you're blocked, which sure, whatever, it's your Twitter account. You can do whatever you want with it. Well, I didn't even, I, because I'm BA like I'll tweet at people and all, whatever. Like, I, I think I retweeted a three down article that was when he was using the chicken McNuggets, as opposed to cus words or whatever, that whole thing, like, I didn't even tag it. I just, I just shake it. And I was like, this is really weird. And the next thing you know, like, Got blind, like, oh, he's going through like the quote tweets, like, okay, who's sharing this. I mean, it was, we, we did a whole thing where. I did a book cameo. For, you know, I hired him for a book cameo and did a promo for the podcast. And I tried to be like, Hey, we'll donate trees. Like he has his charity and all this. Yeah. Couldn't get anything. I tried, I spent money to try to get unblocked. I I'm at the point where I'm like, okay, whatever, but it's, it's the mentality that I just don't understand. I don't know if you saw Marshall Ferguson's threat on Cody Fujio but it is. Oh, spot on. Like I'd like to some direction and it's like, they benched you in the most important time of the year and they're not calling you. Take the hint like. Sorry, like you said, he's just not into you. But is he, does he, like when he, I don't get them the purpose, like if you go on Rod's show and you're like, well, like I don't get what he's trying to get out of this. And then it was. Oh, his agent, you know, he sent his agent the list of like places he would like to go. It's like, oh, I bet. I bet he did send over. Like, I could send you a list of a lot of things that I would like. That doesn't mean that anything's gonna happen. He's gonna go, whoever pays him. Yeah. Like the list should be, well it's maybe nine teams long, but it should only be eight because I don't think. Saskatchewan's an option and it's, who's gonna pay you money. And where, where are the options? Well, if Nathan RO goes to the national football league, Maybe he can battle Vernon Adams junior in BC. Maybe if I don't know, Montreal might look for a capable, backup behind Trevor Harris. Maybe. Toronto if McCloud, Bethel tops, but it's all competing for jobs. I don't think Cody Fujio is a. Day one, starting quarterback in the Canadian football league anywhere. And he wouldn't have been here either. It would be, it would clearly have been he and Mason fine. And whoever else they go get. And if they do go out and try to convince bully, I Mitchell now that'll come down to offensive coordinator then. There leaves that out. So. Yeah, it's, it's gonna be an interesting off season for Cody Fujio to find out. Who is really into him. You like that you like that you can use that on your show. I know I'm using it tomorrow. I might use it for the rest of the off season. Absolutely. Well, it's it's it feels very much like baker Mayfield. When he was kind of like leaving the Browns and then he was, you know, all this, like. Like you are not, you have zero leverage in this, like at all, like baker had no leverage any of this, like, well, I'm gonna go on and do like, it feels like Cody going on there. It's like, You literally have no power in this, like you said, I mean like, does he go to Ottawa? Like, is Ottawa tied up with Bao for a couple years? Like, are they in the multi-year there? Oh, we'll have to see where miss O is. He did sign a two year deal when he went there. So we're, we're gonna have to look at where. That goes with Jeremiah's health and how he recovers. It was, it was a broken leg. It's not like he tore up his ACL or anything like that. So. He should be back. So again, Ottawa would be. You're the backup to Jeremiah Ms. Solely and who knows where they lie with Caleb Bevins and Nick Arbuckle. Like. Where's Nick Arbuckle end up in his tour of duty around the Canadian football league. Like he might be an option for the rep riders who knows on what's gonna happen. With some of these quarterbacks this year and just like everybody's waiting for. Been a cloud Bethel Thompson and Levi Mitchell to make. A decision and then watch the dominoes just fly after that. But that to me is a really good thing to have some good off season intrigue in the CFL. Like I think that that's very. You know, because it just. Dies otherwise. I mean, you know, and I've luckily like you're coming on and I had awes you give, you know, players this week for me to interview and stuff. Cuz like, you know, that's always, what I've heard is CFO season ends and the people go on vacation for two months. Like you're even joking, like maybe the Winnipeg PR got out town. That's what I'm we can't, I don't know how much of a joke that is. Right. . Yeah, well that, that's where it goes to where. December January, even some of the coaches are like, Peace. See you later. See when when's the, our coaches meetings for free agency and it's usually mid-January so they go through it. Now, something the CFO did, I'd love to see come back. Is they did CFO week, which was, they came to Regina. They'd went to Winnipeg. And it was middle of. March like there's snow on the ground, but they brought in all the stars and they did media blitz and they did the combine. Then they made it an extra week. It felt like the NFL combine, like where here's. A bunch of media hits and all that stuff that was going on. And. There was it, it was like gray cup, media day. They brought the guys in. It was fantastic. Now, financially, I don't know if they can make that work, but. I, I, I would love to see a little bit more of a push. Now they're making a combine now five days. So maybe they'll try to do it a little bit like that. This see this off season, but yeah, the CFO. More noise in the off season. The better for the Canadian footballing. Yeah. I mean, that was cuz last year was my first year doing any of this at all at offseason. I'm like, oh, I just like, yeah, let's get some players on. Like, what do you guys, you, and like you said, the PR people they're out of town, but otherwise it's like, At least for me, it's, it's a 10 minute, let's send a zoom link and go, like, it's very, he's very easy to generate some of this content in the off season, you know, not even having to do the breakup week and all that. Like we can do little, like, is your. For your radio show and stuff. Are you, do you feel like you're able to keep enough momentum going or you guys talk other stuff? Well, it, it is the green zone for a reason. The team we, we cover is the green and white with the rough riders. Right. So we, we keep it. Pretty top of mind. And the riders are always making news in the off season, a signing here, there, and everywhere. It's like. Any NFL team in the off season signs a player, it makes noise on their. Sports radio. And that's what it is here in Saskatchewan, too. And especially this off season, it is gonna be once they hired offensive coordinator, it is gonna be full on who the heck the quarterback is gonna be for the Saskatchewan rock rider into free agency. So. We keep it busy, but other markets. Around the CFO. They don't like much. Everybody has an NHL team. Really everybody has an NHL team except for Saskatchewan. So that's what they have to and Hamilton, but Hamilton's pretty well in the GTA and the Toronto market with the may leaf. So. It's harder for them to stay relevant. In the off season with NHL teams, they have to compete with. For the rider because, you know, Assuming Cody doesn't go back, you know, assuming there's no, you know, midnight. Phone call. Is it, do, do you ride with Mason? Fine. I mean, I, I, was it my ballsy screaming that Bo Levi's going to Regina. Do you see that? Or are they just gonna ride with fine? Well, once Mark Mueller turned him down, I'm like not, no, like peak stanza worked in Calgary. So that would open that bowl, Levi Mitchell door. But if it's. Kelly Jeffrey? No, I am less than 50% on Bo Levi Mitchell coming to the Saskatchewan rock riders. But I'm looking at the free agent list. Well, E not even free agent list, Dan Evans. It sounds like he's done an Hamilton after the trade with bully by Mitchell. Matthew Hiltz is another option. Nick Arbuckle. I mentioned already, there are lots of. Quarterbacks out there. But it is. Throw spaghetti at the wall and see what sticks for the Saskatchewan rough riders. Because, yeah, Mason final will come in. See what he can do. And. Yeah, go from there. But. It, it's not like I don't see a blockbuster. Wow. Coming to Saskatchewan, unless. They make a trade. As I loved when Dave naer was on our show breakup week and he is like, what if a club Bethel Thompson goes back to Toronto? Why not trade for Chad Kelly? And then Chad Kelly does what he does in the breakup. And everybody at the time when Dave said it was like, no Wade, we don't want Chad Kelly, but after the breakup, everybody's on the show. Let's train for Chad Kelly. Let's go get him. And he would be perfect for the market in the Saskatchewan, because he's such a character, but who, yeah, it is. Higher offensive coordinator. And then the quarterback story is gonna be. So fascinating, not only is Saskatchewan, but across the Canadian football league. Yeah. I like that. Chad Kelly. I like how immediately it was like, oh, is he going to the NFL? And I'm like, I don't think playing the one quarter in the gray cup exceptionally well is, is gonna you, if name's going the, make the turn here. Yeah. I, I don't, I don't quite see that. Maybe next year, maybe he can really build that. But I certainly, I mean, he's clearly better than 50% of the starting quarterbacks in the NFL. I mean, according to Chuck Kelly, No according Chad Kelly. Yeah. I, I think I'm 50% better than every radio host in Canada. So. You gotta believe in yourself. Right. But I, I just, I, I look at. God Kelly is going. You gotta do it more than, like you said, one quarter. Or the one throw in the Eastern final. rounding out the discussion here. I know Brian Bernham retired. That was kind of a big deal. I saw. The video, they had put, you know, Nathan crying when they lost. And then they were like, well, that is totally different now, cuz it's him and Brian and him saying like, you know, I wanted him to leave a champion. Like any thoughts on that? I thought that was a really touching, like you said, you know, like I said, I how's more mean now in retrospect here, this moment that they. Shared at the end of was at the, the west finals. Yeah, it was, it was an emotional moment between he and Brian Burnham and Brian's kind of pat him on the back and he can kinda get it now going it's OK. Like it's OK. Kid, like you got bright future. Go get it. And, but Brian Burnham has been. So darn entertaining for Canadian football league fans. Like some of the catches he made. The, the one he didn't make well, he made the catch, but his like. Hair landed out of bounds against the Saskatchewan rock rider a few years ago was. Like maybe better than Nodel Beckham Jr. If that tow comes inbounds. And can the NFL go with the CFO rule by the way, and only have one foot. Could you imagine that all the great catches in the NFL rather than two feet anyways, but Brian Burnham. Was is one of the most entertaining guys because the untouchables that he caught. Were unreal, like Ben Cahoun would go down as a former Montreal Allo wet mill. Stegel. Brian Burnham, SJ green, the another former allot, like there there's. High praise for what Brian Burnham. And it wasn't for the COVID year. It would've been like what? Six straight. 1000 Yard seasons for Brian Burnham, one of the, one of the best to do it. And the CFO will miss him. Well. Yeah. And I, you know, with Nathan and whatever, like, it just felt like they were so posed to like, you know, make the run last year or that, you know, this year, whether you last season and, you know, you wonder what that looks. Like next year and here, I mean, even like in the NFL, look at the Buccaneers, you know, and like, oh, okay, they're gonna make the run again. And like, you never quite get back that exact same combination of intangibles to kind of do it. No, you don't. So we'll, we'll see what they do without Nathan work. Without Brian Burnham, they still have lucky Whitehead. Now they have a bunch of a couple offensive linemen. They need to sign in free agency to run it back. And then. Can Vernon Adams Jr. Be the guy or maybe Cody FIJA be the guy for the BC lion to try to come out of that. So they have a bunch of free agents that they need to lock up. And with Rick Campbell rehiring in the entire coach staff, It shows the players like. We're ready to roll here. So I'd imagine a lot of those guys will be back in BC. If Cody gets signed to the VC lion quarterback, be, you know, that's my team, you know, that's America's CFO team was like, oh, that I might have to go outside the BC place with like a cardboard sign, like love actually, you know, like please Cody unblock me. Like we need to make a mentor. I, while that one be wild, like you say, you were blocked by Cody, like. You're the, you know, you're the lead radio guy in Regina that cover, I mean, that, that that's wild. Like, I didn't realize that you had also be on the S list. Oh, yeah. He's. He's done on a blocking spree. It depends like I've noticed. On who he is blocked is more of the people that have had, have shared their opinions. And I, I say honest opinions. I always say like, oh, you you're so negative for the rough riders. No, I'm honest. And I'm always gonna be honest. And he is, I. I have to go back, like I've been doing this a while. I think he's the first player that's. Actually blocked me, which. I go, whatever. Like I'm, as I said, it's his Twitter account, but out of all the players, I have criticized. I can't believe it was Cody Fujio who was like, Nope, I can't stand this guy. I'm but of course we have other ways to. See what he is tweeting anyways. I will I'll I'll send you that. I'll dig up that book. Camia we did with Cody. I'll send that at your way. I'm sure you'll laugh at that. Jamie. I really appreciate it. Like I said, two years in the making, getting you on. And then we hung out last year in Hamilton and then this year I said, I got, we just never exchanged numbers. Anything else before we let you go? I really appreciate it. No, I, I love coming on and was excited to see the XFL Jersey. Reveals this I like the Texas helmet. For Houston. I will tell you this will be a big episode Friday, cuz we already got the rule books out again. Now we got the uniform recaps. This might, hopefully this will be a good one. You know, you talking to all this Cody for jar nonsense, but yeah, the, the, the Houston roughneck top to by bottom, everything about it is the coolest one. I don't. Love the dragons. I don't, I'm like I don't bright. Orange is nothing, nothing. Seattle. And also we hate the Broncos. And so now we it's like, it's like the Broncos uniform. I don't, I don't like all orange for Seattle. Well, come on. It fits in with your BC lions gear. So it's, it's all good. Right? I just, I actually hadn't even thought about that. That is actually true now. Okay. Alright. Alright. Well now I might have the second guess my life, but it's. Yeah, that's actually is true. I totally I'm having like a revelation here on the podcast. I guess. Yeah, there you go. All right.

Episode 121 - What Is the XFL's Long-Term "Vision"?

Coming up this week on the markcast. Hey there. Did you know that the X in the XFL represents the intersection of dreams and opportunities? Well, it does. And now that you know that we are here today trying to figure out what is the long-term vision of the X L. Now that we're done with the Exel draft part one, we're approaching February kickoff. We're getting all these teams together. What does the Exel want itself to be? Is this NFL light? Is this a standalone spring alternative? What is the XFL's long term vision? Maybe I am a monster. I don't think I'd know if I were one and not what you are and not what you intended. So there may be no way to make you trust me, but we need to go Incredibly excited to bring back longtime friend of the show and avid listener of the Maras that he tells me. Emery Hunt comes back on the program, was gonna kind of do another deep dive into the XFL draft class. Kind of ended up having a philosophical discussion about you. What is the xfl? Where does it fit into the world? Where does the USFL fit into the world? What are we doing in this space here? A really great conversation with Emery. I hope you enjoy it. If you want it to be minorly, then don't brand it as your own. If you all want it to be Minorly, okay, cool. Come to the table, merge and be the spring league, the NFL Spring league. That's that. You know what I'm saying? If you want to go that route. But if you're creating your own entity, investing all this time and effort and money into creating your own brand, then make it your own brand. And then continuing our CFL coverage, following our record breaking gray Cup pre-show, a live stream that we did. Thank you all for watching long time for of the program. We were just partying with him up in Regina for the Gray Cup. Ted Wyman comes onto the program to talk cfl. Everything. Blue Bombers, Argonauts, Macau, Bethel, Thompson's Thumb Michael shas resigns, everything else. The Core is still there with this team. You know, I think Stanley Bryant is looking to come back again. They've already got Cals wrapped up for three years. Brady Avera is under contract. There's like they, they're ready to go with that same core once again. Thanks as always for watching. Like subscribe. Hey guys, welcome to the Mark Cast. Read here. I hope you all had a happy American Thanksgiving if you were in the States, if it was just another Thursday, if you were in Canada, if you did not already, check out my big draft special with Rick Sara last week. Hope you do that. Rick and I went live, took some questions and kind of did a really deep dive breakdown into, you know, all eight of the Exel teams thus far. You know, talking, Rick had 10 standout players from each talking about why different DPP of teams would want to kind of pick certain players and kind of develop the teams that way. Really great conversation with Rick. Really appreciate that. That was on the YouTube channel today on the program. More of a philosophical debate. Was gonna have Emery Hunt come on. Long time. Friend of the show Emery was going to join us on our XL draft stream. And then just, you know, his work schedule with TV hits, couldn't make it on. So we have Emory on today was gonna kind of do a continuing coverage of that. Okay, let's, let's focus on the players. Ended up a little bit more kind of broad meandering terms of like, you know, what does the XL represent and are the players that they're drafting, is that what they, they mean when they talk about, you know, the X in the XFL being an intersection of dreams and opportunities. Like, are they putting their money where their mouth is, right? Are they, are they, should they be targeting different players? Kind of all that stuff. Really appreciate that. I thought Emery was great today. Really you know, you could talk with him for two hours. Really appreciate that Emery's time. Super valuable. Really appreciate him joining us. And then, like I said, Ted Wyman with the Winnipeg son joining us. Really appreciate that. Getting kind of all the nitty gritty here, approaching the you know, beginning of the C off season talking to you, the Argonauts Gray Cup celebration, talking to you, Winnipeg, rebuilding, resigning. People already we're resigning coaches. And Adam Big Hill, Willy, Jefferson, all that stuff. Really appreciate that today. Hope you guys enjoy going to have I got my, my fingers in the fire. My spokes in the fire. What, what does it say? Next week? Should have a good interview. Lined up some more Exel stuff. And then, you know, we're gonna be hitting here. Gonna have some more news coming up. Gonna have you know, gonna have the uniforms, gonna have all that stuff coming out. Before I tos to the interviews. Couple hires. The XFL has had, I'm recording a little bit earlier this week, so if I have to pop back in, if there's any more hires. But the XL has announced a couple more. I kind of joining the, you know, you wanna call it the executive staff whatever of the xfl the XFL has announced today as I'm recording this, that Brooke Campbell has joined the league as senior vice president. She is replacing Erica Moleman who was currently filling that role. Erica has been promoted to Chief Revenue Officer. So remember back we had one of the ticketing ladies left to go join the, the Sixers. I think. What does it say now? You xfl. We're, we're already promoting people within the organization here. Congrats to Erica for that. Congrats to Brooke Campbell. In this role, Campbell will manage day to day business operations for the X L's A teams, including developing a consultative model to optimize market inputs and executing growth strategies in local markets. As the XFL prepares for its 2023 season that is legally corporate speak, if I've ever heard it. She will also implement in lead community focused engagement initiatives to promote team and league awareness and build unique fandom in each city. I think back when we had announced Erica hire for the same position, I thought the big takeaway, I'm pretty sure this is the exact same job description, but we, everyone was like, oh my gosh, that means they're actually gonna be in the cities. Cuz at that point we weren't really sure. Once the season begins, Campbell will oversee team activities, game day operations and fan experiences. Going to be exciting here. Anyway, so we got that. Brooke Campbell joining Erica Millman going up to the Chief Revenue officer. But the senior Vice president of team services, like I said, working with the local community is kind of building that up. You have to imagine that the, you know, the local team representatives will, will be working alongside Brooke for that. The other hire this week, Wendy Bass hired as the chief Business and Legal Officer for the Exel. This was announced on Tuesday as we record this ville. Now, Wendy Bass has joined the league as Chief Business and Legal Officer. Bass will oversee the legal people operations and technology departments, and will be responsible for the league's bra pass partnerships with the Walt Disney Company and espn. She will also oversee the league's bedding and game efforts, and will assist in collaboration with league sponsors. Bass will report to the XL President Rush brand. This is exciting. You know, obviously X L 2.0 leaned a lot into, you know, sports betting and they had even like during the games to kinda have the betting lines on there. Gonna be kind heading that up. We had a quilt from Rush brand and Wendy brings a wealth of industry knowledge and her business and legal background will help us navigate our ever evolving growth cycle. Brandon says we are excited to add her to the team. She joins the exit file from NBC where she served as the senior Vice President of programming and rights management, overseeing programming, digital management and acquisitions while managing digital strategies and partnership. I, I would love to hire one of these people. What, what does Reid do at the Maras Re is the brand manager, content producer, online host. I would love to hire one of these people. Love to get, I think all of our resumes would be, but this is exciting. I joke, but this is exciting. Wendy Ba, the Chief Business and Legal Officer. I think that's it. We'll see if there's a future read update here. If we have any other breaking use come in, we will do that. Otherwise, I will toss to Emory and Chad probably be back at the end of the show to say goodbye. Thanks. Well, I'm excited that we have Emory Hunt on trying to get you on during the actual draft. I see how you do this though. Now we get to do a deep dive with you specialized today. But that's great. We get to talk with Emory today. I'm really appreciate you coming on. How are you doing today? Doing fine, man. Always a pleasure being able to talk ball of the alternate kind as you know, people think it's winding down what's gonna happen to football season nine. It's still about to be football season once a calendar turns 2023. No, it's good. Do you, is this striking the chord, any of this XFL stuff going on right now with you and you know, your college guys and everyone Dr. I mean, is this, is this making waves right now in the time of year that we're in? To be completely honest, no. And you know, they look at me like I'm the weirdo, like, man, you cover all these leagues. Like, okay, yeah, let me just be the one covering all these leagues then, you know, it's more work for me. But yeah, not, not a people from the, from the people amongst my media colleagues outside of a few that are hardcore like I am. So it's like four of us that are constantly talking about it every day. I hear a lot from it from players college players. Like they're excited, you know, for the opportunity. But, you know, everybody wants nfl. But in terms of the overall landscape, it's tough. I mean to be, it's funny, I said this on Sunday while watching the NFL games. It's like, man, I see the USFL throwing out their promos already and they're after the XFL and you don't even see the XFL throwing out their commercials and they right off the bat, right after the Super Bowl, it should be now, you know Yeah, I, I would agree with that. A, the XFL need, I don't, those, those US L promos are so weird cuz it's like June whatever 20, you're like, okay, so wait, what is, and then at the end it's like April, 2023. I'm like, okay, so when is, I don't like those com. I think they're great. They're highlighting like Matthew Colburn was on there. I thought that was great, right? He's a standout. I think you want it to look like it's football. I don't know if they're showing the dates to try to have it be like, see this is not in the normal time of year, but when I watch those I'm like, I know this is happening April 15th or whenever the kickoff is. Also, I don't know why we're advertising this now five months out, but I do agree the XFL needs to be, They have to man, because at the end of the day we know how it is. It's outta sight outta mind. And you wanna start to draw up that support for your, not only ticket sales cause you're gonna rely a lot on buts and seats, but also just for the fan to continue to maintain that football interest. Okay, after the Super Bowl I got something else to look forward to. Well, and you know, and that's the thing is also, you know, we do these shows, you know, the draft and like you had your analysis articles and all that, you know, this kind of peaks interest, you know, I thought we were hitting this four month window now where we're gonna, that's what we were kind of, you know, told then, hey, okay, we're not gonna do all this stuff but four months out now we're really gonna build up. I mean, I already saw people commenting yesterday, Hey, I want exit fellow news. I'm like, Hey, we just had the draft two weeks ago. I mean, that's like a millennia in terms of XFL time. Like we, that's very recent in, in XFL news time. Especially when you know, and I saw your, your, your commentary the other day talking about the, the, you know, road to the draft and then it was supposed to be something else that came out and it ended up being a repeat of the path to the draft show. It's like, man, this would've been a great opportunity cuz I felt, I, I felt bad. I was like, oh man, I miss it, but I'm gonna go back on demand and check it out and then I saw your two. I'm like, oh, I ain't gonna check that out cuz it's what I've watched already. You know? And so I just feel, I, I feel bad. It is almost like something you said a while ago. Like, you feel like you're the only one that cares about this. You know, that sometimes I feel like the same way. It's like, man, why am I caring so much about this if they not doing, but you know, I do understand everything is a slow buildup. But they've done a great job with these, with acquiring talent and getting the draft stuff and you know, talking about that. You know, we have team names, we have logos, we have colors you have, you know, rosters now you're still waiting probably for that deadline to really go full fledged into hey, we're gonna promote this guy that, you know, he's gonna be on a roster as opposed to hey, we're pro promoting this guy that he signs with the NFL on the practice squad and takes a future deal. So I get it why they're being, why they're slow playing this. But I'm just excited that, you know, they have these rosters in place. Guys know that they're gonna be playing the XFL and it gives these college players that are coming out, hey okay here's an opportunity I can go, you know, option A XFL or option B US L So yeah. And so well, we'll get it on that cuz I think we could do a whole, you know, segment here just talking about kind of the, you know, where is the XFL stated that, but when you were on before, you talked about how fundamentally USFL and XFL need to target different sets of people that the usfl, maybe these guys have been out to the league for a couple years, kind of like their last hurrah, right? You get like a kind slow in there. Which you know, interestingly enough was in the SFL here and then the xfl, you know, these guys that wanna bounce right back in. First off, how do you, how do you think the XFL did in terms of this first, and like you said, obviously we're gonna have the supplemental job. How do you think they did targeting who you think they should have in this initial run? You know, I thought they did a fantastic job outside of the quarterbacks. Cause when you look at a lot of the rosters, okay, this guy's from the, you know, you saw a heavy 2022 in 2021 draft class, that's perfect. That's exactly what you need. Even 2020, you know, when I was putting together my draft recap, I'm looking at the rosters, I'm looking through my draft guys, I'm like, oh, okay, this guy, you know, I stayed away from guys that were like 18, 19, but you know, 20, 21, 22, that's ideally what you want if you're the XFL because you're getting these younger guys giving them an opportunity to get fresher tape to bounce back. And on the USFL side, you want those guys, like we talked about the slowder or even the case cookies, those guys that have been on rosters, you know, maybe you want the guys from the 17, 18, 17, let's say the 21 draft class, you know, and with your sprinkle of the rookies of the current draft class. But you want those guys that maybe two or three years predating the three years at the XFL focused on with their draft. And that's why it kind of makes sense when you look at the, the schedule. The younger guys are going to take that opportunity to be on a future's deal and be on a practice squad when the older guys know the game and know that if I take this future deal, I'm not gonna really get a real opportunity. Let just stay here and get this money and get this opportunity to play in the usfl. So that's why my thoughts initially was this is how they should focus. And I'm glad to see it kind of manifest itself out there in the XFL draft. This is to me now the most interesting part of, you know, having both of these leagues now, cuz this was the a f XFL that was never promised where we have these two leagues now, you know, different similar, I I still get people like, oh, they're not running the same time. But it's, it's, the timelines are interesting enough. Now we see guys, you know, tried to sign, sign to the nfl. Now they've, you know, faulted back to their free agents because of like the contract loopholes. Were you surprised to see the amount of talent we saw move to the xfl and then obviously it was one of the running backs re-signed with the Jackson or whatever resigned with the US L that was drafted by the xfl. But were you surprised to see the talent and, and kind of, it's like the talent war is now actually happening in real time? Not, not surprised at all because it kind of meshed with some of these guys contracts expiring or some that were, that got that NFL opportunity so that voided their contracts, although they were free to jump into the xfl, it shows you how bad these dudes wanna play, you know, and that's the most that's the overarching PO point I got from this thing was that these guys truly wanna play. And doesn't matter if it's the XFL or usfl, but that's why I'm so excited because we have two state le statewide football options, 11 on 11, 120 by 53 and a third's not a different game like the c I keep trying to tell a lot of guys that, that say, Hey, just go to cfl. You know, it's yes, but it is a different game. You got the ratio up there. Plus you have to really, and somebody, it was on the last show I was on where I, where they asked about and I read the article on three Down Nation too, talking about how the CFL can, you know, put a, you know, kind of cut the, the ties with some of these places to where you cut off the talent. Like no, all three leagues are vying for three different types of guys. CFL wants a smaller, quicker guy and they have their own talent pipeline with eSports. So they're gonna be fine regardless what the US L XFL does. And a lot of times they're gonna get the guy that's on the older side of the NFL side to come up there and play. So instead of, you know, the USFL going from let's say the 19 20, 21 class or 18, 19, 20 class, CFL's probably gonna get the guy from the 16, 17, 18 class more so than these other leagues. So you're not even vying for the same talent. You're not gonna get a rookie talent coming outta college to go to the c If they do, they go later in the, you know, like in November, like a Levi Lewis of the University of Louisiana, he's gonna go up there later. Well he should have been up there from the start. So I think, you know, everybody can eat, there's enough football talent around the fact that Canada has its own college football system. You're gonna be fine in terms of your own pipeline, invest into that pipeline, get more guys to play, develop those guys faster. And you won't even have to worry about players from the states. Interesting. I, I have Jim Molen on a lot, president Football Canada, and it seems like they're very much not going that route, right? I was just trying to foster these relationships with, you know, football Canada and, and amateur sports up there. Interesting. That like, that's what they should be leaning more into. But it's like, no, we, I, I also don't think the timeline matters at all. I think that the game is so different. We, we were talking Mike Mitchell Mitchell in the group chat when that article came out and it's like, the game is so different. You have to be a really talented scout to look and see a lot of the scouts look at the C and they go, well, they have the waggle that inflates numbers. They have the, you know, their line yard off the ball. Like we can't really judge offensive line that way. Like the game doesn't translate the way that I think CFL people do. And there's a reason why, you know, 51 people went from the USFL to the NFL last year and you don't get 50 people from the C every year transitioning down after this, you know, not after the season, but you know, into the next NFL season. So It, it's a different game, man. And it's, it's funny cuz I started to reflect that in how I graded players. And it cuz watching the c you know, a long time, you know, I saw there's a, there's a crossover for the nfl for the longest it was like, hey, you know, free safety, strong safety. But then watching as much CFL as I did, it was like, you know what, there's a, there's actually a third safety and we can call it in the NFL a combo safety, but up there they call it a halfback. And so it's the same concept. So you may get a guy that's, you know, not the more fluid free, safety deep third guy that we're used to seeing, but he's not necessarily the thumper strong safety Rodney Harrison type that fly in the box and knock you out. He's kind of in between. He could play, but he's not as fast for free safety, but not as powerful for strong safety. But he can cover a little bit, man, that's a, that's a halfback, that's a defensive hat back. So I started adding that to the draft guy and calling it combo safety. And a lot of those guys we're seeing now trickle into the NFL because of how the game is slowly become passing game wise, slowly has become with the c has been doing since, you know, the 18 hundreds Focusing on the XFL here, one of our, you know, listener Max helped us come up with all these wonderful questions. Talking quarterbacks, you said you thought that the XFL did a good job except, you know, some of the quarterbacks in in the Orlando quarterback room, obviously we still have the supplemental draft coming up. You know, they had Fran SW there, you know, the Fcf guy kind of struggled dormy and then Mitch kid. What do you think the difficulties are from transitioning from like Fcf Arena ball to the XFL as a quarterback? I, I think it's tough because you're playing inside a, it is almost like you're playing, we used to say this a lot back when the, when the original arena football league was out and we were in college, like, man, it's like playing football in the classroom. Like you gotta be, you gotta be accurate and the ball gotta come out quick velocity wise and you have zero room for error. But when you take that guy who has played in that, that game and put him outside, it feels like, oh, I have so much more room to work with. That's why Kurt Warner was able to, to transition rather well. Because he was already trained to, you know, throw in the tight windows cuz he had to go outside. Okay, now expand. But you take somebody from the outside game that have played that pre predominantly their whole life and go into an indoor game, they think they have the same amount of time in the pocket. They have have the same type of passing windows and it's tough. So I think them getting those guys back into the 11 on 11 game outdoor game, they're gonna make that transition easier. But I just felt like the biggest question I had was, man, here's a great opportunity for this league to, to really, I mean all the marketing and promos that we've heard from Danny Garcia and the Rock talked about, this is the crossroads of opportunity, whatever they say, right? But they say it all the the time, right? They takes your dreams and opportunities, But we go get AJ mcr, what the hell is that? You know what I'm saying? Like that that totally contradicts, you know, your, your whole mission statement. Go and get some of these young guys that are class of 20, 22 guys like what the Houston Roughnecks did with Caleb Eby. That was a fantastic pick. That's the type of quarterback you should target because we know that guy won't get the opportunity in a NFL camp as a fourth arm, bring him in, draft him, let him ball out, and that's your new star, like your PGA walkers. You know what I'm saying? So don't go what AJ McLaren is 30 plus years old, what are we even doing like that that now gives a black eye to the league and people say, oh, AJ mcn. Like, I'm not taking that league seriously. No, they wanna see these young guys come in there and, and get an opportunity to play. Yes, you want a veteran guy, but if you can go and get these young guys and go through a normal training camp, they can then hit the ground running like you think a veteran will, you know what I'm saying? We saw this last time the XFL came out, they front loaded with with name brand players who stunk and by what, midway through the sea midway, I would say after two games the backups were already starters in, in a lot of these places. Cause the backups were the young guys that could move around that, that brought exciting play it brought fans to watch. So I think some teams got it right and some teams are way off. Do you, do you, do you blame that on on some of the coaching staffs? Or is that, is that a league issue? Where do you think that, where do you think that stems from? That's a great from SRE question read. I'm thinking, you know, it is multilayered. I'm not gonna put it on the coaches, I'm gonna put it on the league itself for the people they got in bed with who made Jordan Palmer, the end all be all for the quarterback guy. So now if he says, and and it is again, it is, it is all about relationships, right? So if I have a relationship with these players, they've worked under me, oh, I'm now in charge of the quarterback development for the league. I'm gonna give my guys an opportunity that's just human nature. It's no shade to Jordan Palmer, but it's just how human nature is. If you got hired at NBC or CBS or Fox or espn, you're gonna bring in some, they say Reed, you're in charge of, you know, xfl US L content and you have to build all a team. Who you gonna go to, the people that you work with that you know, that have, you know what I'm saying? Like, you're gonna bring your guys that are in this space, so I get it. But now you have to like, you know, who's grading the greater, you know, like, bro, do we really need AJ Mcclar? Do we really need this guy in because you know, he's, you know, are, do you have an inherent bias towards certain quarterbacks because of how you played the game? You expect everybody to play the game how you played it. Like there's a, there's a lot that goes on in those decisions. So I think because they, you know, married their they tied their wagon to one guy as the quarterback developer. That's why the quarterbacks look like they do for these teams. So it'll be interesting to see in the supplemental draft who these staffs bring in that are, that doesn't run par that don't run parallel to what Jordan Palmer already gave or through these quarterbacks that were issued to these teams. Cuz I'm willing to bet a lot of guys that they bring in are gonna beat out the guys that they, you know, awarded to these teams. I hope this isn't a slight at America's sweetheart, Brandon Silvers here. I have his his, I mean it was weird seeing some of these names come back. I mean you had DeNucci was interesting to me just cuz I tracked him through I think hard knocks and everything with the Cowboys and you know, he, I kind of thought he would've stuck on and you were dealing with all that with Dak and the contracts and stuff, but like that at least excited my season ticket holder. Friends in Seattle were like, yes. Like that was a great pick for Seattle. Did some of the other names like Silvers and all that, were you like, okay, here we go again. No, not it, it wasn't necessarily those names. Cause you know, silvers played well in, you know, his time. I was the Louise Perez, right? And you know, Like, why man, and, and it is not a knock on Louise Perez. Let's just judge Perez off what we saw last. He wasn't better than Deandre Johnson. You know, Deandre Johnson was a guy that made that offense go, that offense ought to take off when he was the guy. Let's talk about Brian Scott, who's a, you know, I know he's a friend of the show. He's a good dude. He played well when he got the opportunity, but that offense started to cook, cook when Cook was in, you know, and so at what point did we trust the tape? And so that's the whole thing. Like you even just suspend it to the usfl when, you know the Michigan Panthers, Shea Patterson, number one, like, what were you doing? It's not a knock on shade Patterson, but what happened? We saw, let's take over, then we saw the better quarterback Eric Barry, who's a young guy, rookie to, to my point earlier look good in, in, in the opportunities he got. So it was like, Hey man, you don't, my whole, and I tweeted this out during a draft and I, it was kind of like reading between the lines. It was vague, but this is exactly what I was referring to is like, don't create something new to do the same things that you, that have been done in other leagues. Like don't create a whole new league talking about you gonna be fresh and innovative and then you bring in AJ McCarran. What the hell are we doing there? So I feel like until these quarterback situations get straightened out, so I, I know the supplemental draft is gonna be big on bringing in maybe two quarterbacks. So now you have four, let them compete and let the best man win. But some of these names you just like, man, we just, you know, as good of a story, Luis Perez is as solid as he has played. I think even in this juncture of his career, he's better suited to be a QB two on a roster. So for Vegas, I see Jalen McClendon as the, the, the quarterback along with Perez. So if you told me Perez was your backup, I have no problem with that because I know Perez does one thing. Well he's always prepared, he's always ready and he's gonna step in and and not tank the team, you know what I'm saying? And he'll keep the team afloat. If, if McClendon starts to struggle, you throw Perez in there, Perez at least will give you a chance, you know? But in terms of elevating, you wanna go with the guy that has a more upside and that's probably McClendon. But looking at that depth chart, you're like, they need to bring in at least two more guys to see what happened. We saw the Generals do that when they made the Ben Holmes draft pick and then we ended up seeing, you know what, go get Louise Perez and get Deandre Johnson. And both of those guys ended up being exactly what they needed. Shout out to Ben Holmes great Cup champion out there for what you would call it, one organized <laugh>. Shout out Ben Holmes, the only player that ever stood me up for an interview and then blocked me online. So I mean it's really, I thought he had the mar cast curse. He really had, cause he got cut from the generals and I think he was on the Ts got cut from the, he was on a couple different C teams and then latched on to the, to the Argonauts. But I said I value that was going to haunt him for a while and then wonder why I know he went and won a gray cup, but maybe that was the Mark Ka bump then was you, you know, you no show us and then they, then you get to be a Gray Cup champion. So no, it was the only player that's ever set me up for an interview. Does that surprise you knowing Ben Holmes that he would stand me up for an interview? You of all people that do a great job of, of covering these alternate leagues, like unbelievable if anything stand anybody else up but you Yeah. Do you the X value, you know, we're talking the X, the X is the intersection of dreams and opportunities. Like so do they, quarterbacks aside here, but I mean this, I always think, I don't know like do they have an identity crisis here? Like what are we doing? Do you like confidence level right now where it'll be December as this airs confidence level on X L 3.0 here in December of 2022. Confidence is about even, you know, I listen, I trust the football people that they have involved. I was amped about all of these rosters. You know, cuz a lot of these guys, you're like, I thought this dude was still on a practice squad in the nfl. I'm glad he's going to get an opportunity. And this is across the board all positions, all the DPP are strong football guys that I know they had a hand in a lot of these, these picks and the coaching staff I'm excited to see cause so I'm not worried about the football part. The other, the, the other side of things is, is where you worry like how much is ESPN putting into covering this or promoting this? You know, who's gonna be in charge of covering it can't just be Kevin Seaford. You know, it has to be, you know, people that actually there's a, a host of writers that are there, you know, Toron Davenport who covers the Tennessee Titans. He is a football head like we are, you know, he is all in on these XFL USFL guys. He would be great to cover. You want people like that that that would have a vested interest in covering the league. And I get the, the reason why it's a little bit of trepidation because to be completely honest, you have to put together a whole league, you know, from scratch. Next year the confidence is gonna be sky high because all of this groundwork has already been late, which is why the USFL next year, you know, this upcoming season, confidence is sky high. Cuz we've seen all the, you know, the, the rough parts. We've seen all them smooth out all that stuff. They got year one out the way XFL 3.0 is gonna be the same way. You know, you, it's hard to build a whole league from the ground up, especially when you don't have experience in building the league from the ground up. And that's the other part of it too. So that's why I'm even, I'm not worried about the football part. It's the administrative part that they're still working through and that's gonna be solved at the end of this season. So therefore going into, you know, year two of XFL 3.0, we, it'll be sky high like it is with the US L It's, yeah, I don't know. I even USFL here heading, I, my, my big thing last night I tweeted before I went to bed and got up for this was you know, us l did this too. We're still not, we're not color grading our footage. Like we're we're, have you seen like these xfl like the social and I don't know if it's like we haven't hired the art director yet, you know, it's, again, it's December, haven't hired the art director. We haven't hired all these people. Like we're we're posting things like it, it just, even like the Black Friday, it feels, I don't know, it feels like it's u I feel like now it feels like USFL last year where we, where it's like social media by committee, we're posting things, we don't really have a direction and I understand all that and I get, it's December, but I didn't create this timeline. Like we've had 27 months now to figure this out. It just, it feels like we're really kind of getting our homework done here the night before or like we're walking into the classroom the day of trying to get the homework done here before we, and I just, I don't know why it feels so rushed when we've had so long. Yeah and it is interesting. I you know, I'm scrolling Instagram yesterday just wasting time and a Houston Roughnecks ad pops up or the, you know, I follow all the XFL teams, they'll pop up and I'm like, they talking about the cell I guess as a cyber Monday or whatever. So I, I hit 'em up. I'm like, yo, do you have mini helmets? Cause I'm a mini helmets guy cuz I use them for props behind me when I'm on air. Why don't we have the helmets yet? Like, it seemed like that would be like the first, you know what I'm saying? Along with the logo, helmet, colors, then uniform, then apparel. So some stuff like I would would buy all eight helmets right now if they even just, if it was a league helmet. I only had the old XFL from the 2000 that one, you know what I'm saying? The original XFL helmet. So it's like simple stuff like that. Like why is, why are the uniforms being withheld uniforms would've been perfect for the draft. You know, the helmet would've been perfect for the draft. So yeah, it does feel like we're figuring things out as we go along. I see what you said about the the, the video quality looks like that one person that just likes this one filter, it's like the one person that wants to create graphics for you and they only like comic science. You like, Hey man, there's other fonts out there you could use like all of my, but this one just works for me. Like, nah, pick another font. You know what I'm saying? So I get what you're saying there. Well I just, and I don't, you know, and I text with people and I, you know, don't worry about that. I'm like, but it's, it's like a million cuts here. Like it's a, like it's you know, death by a thousand cuts like every single one of these things and it just us l does it too and they're po like they posted Skip going, I think it was when they did the Birmingham hub thing and it was such a flat color profile. Like you're like, what is even happening here? Like, you know, shot at right outta the camera. I understand all this. Like I've said, I'll consult for free. I have no interest to work for any of this stuff. This is not Reed trying to, you know, I do wedding videos. This isn't Reed trying to like get a job. I would consult for free here, but this is crazy. A couple more football things before I let you go. I appreciate your time here and I'm gonna run to talking back to the XFL talent level. You know, when we're talking developmental league, minor league, you know, whether it's us L or the X l people worry about loss and competitiveness because they expect teams with split reps distribute player development like they did in NFL Europe sometimes. Is that a long term concern for you in the XFL and maybe even the usfl, but especially the xfl? It, that's another great question Reed. Because for me it's like, I think it's all due to the messaging. You can get what you, what you want. If you change how you talk about it. And if you talk about, this is our league, you kind of talk into in terms of people investing in it, buying in, staying in the league and not looking at it as a jump off spot. Because if you talk about it as a jump off spot or launch pass spot into the NFL or developmentally league for the nfl, people will treat it as such. And so you'll see somebody coming here and complaining about the reps they're getting. I ain't get enough reps, I ain't get enough tapes to, you know, to really show to the nfl. But if you have ownership, like some of the dudes in the USFL have already done, they've relegated, Hey man, this is, you know, I'm, I'm in the USFL and you see their, their bios on Twitter, you know, tailback at, you know, Memphis Showboats or whatever the case may be. If you treat it like a pro league, everybody around it will treat it as such. Don't treat it like a develop, stop talking about the nfl. If it happens, cool, keep that, you know, in, you know, internal, but talk about, this is our league. We want to create XFL stars. We want, we want J McClendon or Louis Perez to be an XFL hall of famer. We wanna talk in terms of that. We want to grow our game, our league, our own players. If guys contracts are up and they get an opportunity elsewhere, that's even better for us. But we're not gonna talk about it. We want it to happen, but we wanna make sure guys are, because we wanna get to a place where, and I brought this up on the XFL news hub show. You know, we wanna get to a place where college guys choose us over them, right? You want to get to the situation where, and I keep bringing them up, Stetson Bennett, after they play their playoff game, I am going to the xfl. I, you know, that's why I wanna play that suits my style, you know? And I think that once that happens then you have yourselves a league. So, and you gotta operate like you would a, a regular professional league. So you can't just get the NFL's, you know scraps, you know what, be proactive. Go out and recruit juniors that are thinking about coming out. You may come over here and play, you know, you may based off our evaluation, you know, you may not be able to, you may not get a day one or day two grade. If you're day three, you're already on the fringe, which means you gonna end up in our league anyway. If you come out, come out with us, play early, and then, hey, we finished before the draft, you still get drafted by the NFL of not you, you put out good tape and come back another year. I, I just want, I just want these, and this is for both leagues, really invest in building your own brand and, and you see a, you see less of that in the USFL guys talking about the NFL as opposed to the xfl. That's all they talk about. I know it's, we, we, we were down in Arizona that we were talking with the coach back did. Yeah, he said the same thing. Like if every single one of my players got drafted by the NFL here after the season, I would consider that a success. And it's like, well, or winning the championship. Like I I, you know what I mean? Like at some point it can't just be NFL light, it has to, I don't think there's enough eyeballs there that this is just minor league. I mean that it's going to sustain that over year one or two. Cause if you, if you want it to be minor league, then don't brand it as your own. If you all want it to be minor league, okay cool, come to the table, merge and be the spring league, the NFL spring league, that's that. You know what I'm saying? If you want to go that route, but if you're creating your own entity, investing all this time and effort and money into creating your own brand, then make it your own brand. Like make it, you know, a unique brand of football and that's what you want. Cause guys are gonna always peek over the fence and they want the NFL because of the dollars, but they, you know, it's hard to get someone that's 22, 23 to think long term, you know, effects. This is almost like the NFL and its infancy when you had guys playing in different leagues. Some guys are playing the nfl, but, I'm gonna go play in Canada cuz they pay me. They were paying more than they were playing the NFL at the time. But thinking in terms of longevity, you know, as the game grows, so will the salaries and all of those things. So now you can then make you, it may not affect you as a 22 year old. It may affect the guy that's right now in fifth grade, you know, and so, but hey, sometimes you have to sacrifice to build a better brand. And if everybody, and they say rising tides raise all boats. So if, if the USFL and the XFL are making at least base salaries three 50 to four 50, that raises everybody's level of, of competition. And so now you can really legitimately choose between the three different leagues. And I think we gotta get out of saying, you know, developmentally, cuz that sounds like if that's what you wanna go, there's ways to make that happen. There's, you can combine, you have 16 teams, you can be the NFL Spring League in the States and go go from there. Last question from me. I'll let you go. Max is gonna be mad. We didn't get to all these, but I think we hit a lot of 'em. Young talent and the quarterbacks and stuff on here. It seems the way the timeline is now, right? We said XFL is relying on nfl, right? The alumni academy, all that. They get the leftovers now except for, you know, the one player that signed thus far that was drafted by the xfl usfl, you know, it seems to be spiraling, you know, goes downhill in that direction, right? Is us l is there enough quality? I don't think there's a question, is there enough talent? But is there enough quality people there when, you know, XFL get, it seems like they come in, they take whoever they want. USFL is getting to be left more or less. I don't see a lot of players holding out right now, you know, slowder and Lu Press even Case Cook, right? Could be back here after his, his Rams practice spot. Where, where do you make of them in this landscape now? I think the USFL is sitting pretty, you know, they, they have, they're backed by a network. And so they un they have the season, they have an, Hey, here's what we can show you. This is what we were able to do. And I, I feel like they have a brand, you know, and now that this lawsuit is over, they can probably lean more into the history. You saw them bring back the Memphis Showboats, which means they're gonna eventually bring back the Tampa Bay Bandits. Once, you know, things get settled, we talk. We're already talking about what like three hubs, maybe even four. So they're already on track for everything they told us prior to year one. They're on track to do it which is great. So they're building slowly in the right direction. So I think they're sitting pretty with where they are right now in this whole landscape. Prettier than the XFL Prettier right now than the xfl. Yes, because they're, they're, they have have a, a year of experience in belt and, and do we have to give a lot of credit to Brian Woods and, and you know, and what he's and Darryl Johnson, they both have experience in building the league. Johnson was heavily involved in the AAF and Woods has been doing this since the FX ffl, you know, the Spring League, all that stuff like that where, you know, Danny Garcia and the Rock are just kind of, they're still learning how to build this thing. They got people that have been a part of other leagues and professionally they get, they, you know, they got good people around them, but they are the figureheads and the front people and it looks like they're still trying to figure out how to promote this thing or run this thing. And almost they're thinking in terms of like TV and movie as opposed to football. And you know, once they get those to, to get on the same level, then I think they'll be fine. Yeah, I just, you know, Brian Woods basically did, you know, three seasons of spring football with cardboard in his garage, you know, kind of fan back like usfl. It's interesting. I I love this. I think it's so fascinating and I know we were supposed to do like more player breakdown stuff today, but I appreciate this conversation too because I think this is where my interest lies and just how, how do we get these, you know, these two headed monsters here and fight Any other thoughts before I let you go? I really appreciate you something by today. Yeah, I, I think once, once the XFL gets on the field, I think the second supplemental, the supplemental draft in January is gonna help coloring some of the, the, you know, the spots that we are looking at on the different rosters. Like I know DC will probably get back Derek King, but there's another guy out there. I, I know the guy but I can't say it. I know who's gonna be the other quarterback and that's gonna help coloring a a, a big question mark. You know, that that is just like what we're talking about. But I also feel like, you know, once they hit the field, the football is gonna be the football and it's gonna be good. It's gonna be competitive. These are talented teams and it and based off each individual team, you know, I think it'll ultimately come down to who has the better quarterback that'll win the game. Cause both offense and defense are stacked. Like they have legitimately put together really good rosters and it is gonna be the to the death or success of the quarterback position. And if they nailed that and I like the fact that now they understand based off what the USFL didn't do in year one, you know, you gotta get these guys a ramp up time, a longer runway. US l is gonna be able to do that this year, which we should see better play right out of the gate. And I think we're gonna see really good play from the XFL right out the gate and I'm excited to talk about it. Excited to cover cuz I know we'll went into putting these rosters together. You know, you have all the guys that competed in, you know, the, all the showcases, which now those, those guys could be upset right now, but don't be upset. They now have you, you are like first call up, you know, you know they have now your height, weight measurement, speed and all that stuff like that. And if somebody goes down or somebody decides to go to the NFL and not sign their, their commitment to the league, guess who's gonna get called up? They, they know you, they built the relationship. So it's all good things. I think football wise coming from the xfl. I do agree the longer football ramp up, like you said, maybe not so much marketing with the xfl. I I do think that was one of the biggest things against the US Ffl season one. I think if, if that first weekend of games the, the kickoff game was good, but the other three were kind of trash. And I know we had that delay. It was like the weather delay and all that stuff. But I think if that first weekend would've been like, oh my God, this is much watched football, I think they would've maintain that viewership, right? Where they, they they really peaked. And I know the, the kickoff game's always needed to get the most. But I think if, if they had had two more weeks of training camp and a little bit more gel on those rosters, I don't think they would've seen quite, cause I think a lot of people checked it out. I think they did a great job getting the views out there. I think XFL will too. Like you have to nail that first weekend or people are never gonna tune back in this whole like, well, you know, better call saw if you, okay, it starts slow, but by the time you get to season five, like it's fire. Like people don't, you don't do that. Like you turn on this and if it's great, if it's not, then you, you're not gonna turn back in week two. So I will say this too. And, and it is based off, you know, how people kept talking about the optics. First of all, I've never tuned into a football game and, and was like, look at the crowd, you know, I've never done that. I will always look at like, I just watched the FCS playoff game last in Montana, Southeast Missouri state. I didn't realize they had 13,000 in the stands. I I just assume cuz it's Montana, it's a playoff game. It was packed. But then they did a crowd shot. I was like, oh wow. But that was the first time I started that. But I'm focused on the football on the field. And I think people also, people that talked about the crowd constantly didn't really care about the football on the field anyway. They would, because you know how people get on social media, they just want to throw shots at everything. Everything is, they always wanna be a negative towards something. But if I'm like the usfl or even in some cases the xfl, you know, XFL has done it cuz they, you know, they saw what the optics were with the crowds or whatnot. But if I'm the USFL and let's say you're looking at New Orleans, new Orleans would support their team in the city, get ahead of things, you know, and I would say start investing in some of these places that you wanna play. So I know the stadium options in New Orleans. You know, I played in different stadiums in New Orleans. The, the tag Army stadium would be the perfect spot for the New Orleans breakers. But the locker rooms looked like it was when I was there in high school in 98. You know, if you invest in that locker room, get, get it renovated, you already have a in-house stadium right there, and then you can move the breaker. So start investing into some of these places. You know, I know you can't, if you're in Philly, you can't invest into Franklin Field because it's a historic landmark and there's not much you really can do. But at worse you could build a parking deck, you know, and put it around, you know what I'm, I'm saying, started investing in the infrastructure to make it easier for you to move some of these teams to the, their cities. So it'll be fascinating to see how they do that with New Jersey. With New Orleans with the, I think in Tampa, they're waiting probably for their USF on Campus Stadium. There you go. You know, that's when we'll see the Bandits come back. So I, I and I, and you know, the XFL really has to figure out what they wanna do with Vegas, you know, and, and figure that part out. But invest, start investing in the infrastructure of your own buildings. Cuz then we know how buildings are, you own the building, you own the property, then can have events in there. That's why everybody want these new stadiums with retractable rules. Not because they want the football to be in perfect conditions. No. They wanna hold events all year round to make money to help pay for the state. You know what I'm saying? So if, if you sort of thinking like that, if you're the usfl XFL investing in infrastructure that you wanna see to help your teams move, but also trying to create revenue the rest of the way, you can grow this thing faster than than anticipated. You're talking, investing in buildings here. I'm talking like color grading video. We gotta, we gotta crawl before we can walk here, Emery. But no, I, I appreciate it. I think I, I definitely understand. You gotta have a long term vision here. It's, it's, and I, I don't know. I was told get through us l year one, then it's going to be better. And Exel we'll see. I don't know. I mean, I, it, it's interesting. All the crowds that are running these are very interesting to me. Very fascinating. So I really appreciate it. Thank you so much extended time today. Thank you for sticking around and I appreciate it so much. Always a pleasure, man. Thank you again. And keep doing great work out there. Listen, I am a loyal listener every week, no matter how long it is. It's either when I'm on the road or on the treadmill. I am locked into the mar. Yeah. All eight and a half hours of the, I don't think my, I don't think my wife watched all that. She or normally watched all that, but I don't think we got the all eight and a half hours to the job. But I really appreciate it. Thank you so much. Er Well, the hangover from Gray Cup weekend, I think is fading off now. We have Ted Wman on, we are busy partying in Regina and now we are virtual here. How are you doing, sir? I'm doing well. I think I've had enough time to recover, but you know, it was certainly a week that was fitting for a gray cup. I mean that, that's one of the best times of the year. It's like Christmas if you're a Canadian football guy. And it sure was a lot of fun. Great to see you too. It was good. Yeah. And you're coming down here to Seattle. We're gonna, you're covering the, the Jets here against the Kraken, the red hot. As we record, we'll see the red hot Kraken. Just before we talk, kind of the weeks' news, great Cup. Any, any lingering thoughts on Gray Cup? The game, the festival, you know, Winnipeg, the, the No Dynasty anything? Yeah, I mean, I, I was in a bit of shock for a few days that the bombers lost the game. I just, you know, I didn't think they would, I, I really thought they had the better team than Toronto. You know, they had, they had done everything right all year and they had this veteran group and the mindset that you just thought there's no way that they're gonna come out and have a clunker of a game. But honestly, they did. I, I didn't think that the Argos played that great, to be honest. The bombers just played worse. And you know, Toronto did play better. They were the better team on that day, and they won. I just didn't think they were out of this world. Fantastic. And that's why they won. It was disappointing, I think, for the bombers especially to come out and just not have their best game on that day. Cause the way that things are shaping up with this team, they could be in Great cups the next two, three years and it will be kind of a, you know, just that blip. It could just be that blip on the radar of what we were thinking would be a dynasty. Yeah. And obviously we'll get into, you know, coach OSHA and all that, but you don't, you don't feel like their loss, we're not blowing everything up. I mean, this was Oh, The opposite really. I mean, when they've had a week, week since the Gray Cup, when they've already signed Pat Newfeld and Adam Big Hill and Willie Jefferson, these guys, all guys all live in Winnipeg, so it's not that hard I don't think to, to get them to come back. But it's you know, it's, the core is still there with this team. You know, I think Stanley Bryant is looking to come back again. They've already got Cals wrapped up for three years. Brady Vera is under contract. There's like, they, they're ready to go with that same core once again. And you just have to assume Michael Shea, we believe he has signed a con or he is in the process of signing a three year contract to stick around. It's not all done yet. I don't think it's signed. It hasn't been announced, but it certainly sounds like that's the case. So you're gonna bring back that core, you're gonna bring back Michael Shea. What's to, you know, what are you gonna look at at the start of next season that's gonna stay? They're not the favorites to win the Great Cup. I, I can't see it. I think they are going to be the favorites from the start of the season once again. And I expect them to be in the mix at the end of the season. You talked, you know, resigning the couple of them this week, you know, c to me it always goes dead, right? The day have to, I mean, is this unusual? We're getting everyone back, like you said, a couple of these guys are local, but is that unusual to get it signed so quickly? I'd say so. I mean, I, they have done that in the past where they've had staggered a few few signings in December before it gets really into it. And then usually there's a pretty big lull until you know, until free agency comes. So if guys don't sign in December, maybe then you start to wonder what's gonna happen. But I have a feeling that with the Bombers, maybe the, you know, that there, there's some method to the madness here in that they wanted to make sure that they got some good news out there after what happened in the Great Cup. I don't think that the fans are that upset. I mean, they, they had just won two in a row. They've had, they had three years on the top because the one season was canceled. They made it to the Great Cup again, which makes Great Cup Sunday awfully fun when your team is in the game. But they didn't they didn't get the job done. And then to be able to come out and have press conferences saying, we got Pat Newfeld, who's a two time C All Star, the last two years coming back, we've got Willie Jefferson, who is one of the best defensive players in the league, and we got Adam Big Hill's, another one of the best defensive players in the league. They're all back, they're all committed. They wanna go after another great cup. I mean, that speaks to just how committed the entire organization is to trying to run it back and make people forget about that one point loss to the Argos in this year's Great Cup. It's so weird. You know, I've lived just in the C world where the bombers are, you know, the greatest team in the world and all their fans and stuff, right? But now you know that the shoes on Torontos. But it is funny that people, like, I saw that, you know, it looked to me like a pact on Twitter that I saw people celebrating and, you know, Enoch Mambas at the hockey games. And I've, I've seen a lot of powering circumstances and you still see people like poo-pooing on that. Oh, there's not that many people there. Like I don't get, like, even when they, it seems like they really showed up. I mean, do do you have an alternative perspective? I mean, you've seen what I've seen online. Well, the thing that I think is that it's, it's like you feel good for fan bases when their team wins. Especially if they're a fan base like Saskatchewan or a Winnipeg or Hamilton or Ottawa, where they're really committed. The BC Lion's getting a lot better too. You know, they're really a committed fan base. They care, they support, they come out, they yell, they scream, they drink the beer, they support the team in many ways. They buy merch and you kind of, it's nice. You, you feel good for that group when a team wins. Now the thing with Toronto is, you know, where have these fans been? They, they don't support the team. A lot of people in that city do poo poo the great cop. They do poo poo the CFL in general. And it makes it kind of like, I don't know, like, does anyone happy for Toronto that they won? I mean, does their ownership even care about them? I mean, we don't really know those things. So it's amazing that they do it cuz they're just a ragtag bunch. They were fighting on the sidelines. They were not a cohesive group. They were like the anti bombers. The bombers were the most cohesive group you could find with all these great pros and all these veterans, Hey Toronto comes in with a team that's been fighting and and having problems all year and they win. So, I mean, it doesn't make a ton of sense, but it's a good story. And if that's what it takes to get people in Toronto to take notice, well I'm, I'm hopeful that they did cuz it did look like there was quite a few people there for that celebration. And you know, I hear they always get good ratings on television in the Toronto area. People just don't seem to wanna bother going to the games. So maybe that's a, you know, all you can hope is that it helps bring a few more people out next year and that there's a real future for football in Toronto because it's important to the CFO that they be good and, and a good strong franchise. Yeah, I mean, cuz I, I just like, I retweeted that, you know, one of the, I think they had, you know, the Argo had posted, I'm like, it looks like a ton of people and oh, there's only 500 there. I'm like, I don't know. To me it's online. It looks like itest time. I, I agree that maybe they don't all come to it Wasn't the Raptors winning, I'll tell you much. But The, the other last comment on that, and it's been, you know, we, we've had American Thanksgiving Sunday between, you know, but Bob Irving, you know Winnipeg Legend came out really hard, right? Oh, Toronto hasn't even updated their website. Any any thoughts on that? And, and just, I I don't know any thoughts on that? Pretty major oversight, wouldn't you say? I mean, they didn't actually have a story saying that they won the Gray Cup on their website and we're talking about 24 hours after the game. It's, you know, to me there's a, I think their explanation is that maybe something just got hung up online and didn't publish and people weren't seeing it. Cause those stories were published on the Canadian Football League site. Like they did exist. So it just wasn't showing up on their site. Somebody should have noticed though. And, and it's pretty, it's just a little bit telling, you know, it's a little bit telling because there are concerns and I think Bob Irving would be one of the people that would have this concern that MLSE doesn't really care about the Argos much. If you go into, you go to Toronto and you go near the the arena, I think it's the Scotia Bank arena right now. I can't remember what they're calling it these days, but they, their offices are there for Maple Leaf sports and entertainment and they have logos for the Maple Leafs, the Raptors and Toronto fc soccer team. They don't even mention the Argos. The Argos basically don't exist in their world. And, you know, unless they're gonna show the respect for it, I think that people, you know, wonder why anybody else is gonna respe have respect for it. So, you know, and we also know that Larry Tenenbaum was not thrilled with how the direction the CFL wanted to go in. He wants a younger audience. He, he's a proponent of xfl you know partnerships. He's a proponent of maybe looking at four downs. Realistically. There's a, there's a big divide between what he is the chairman of MLSE wants to what, say Wade Miller wants in Winnipeg where he is a a publicly owned team and and being very successful with what they have right now. So that whole thing is just a really interesting dynamic and you can only hope that when they get together in the board of directors chairs that they're all gonna be on the same page going forward. Just to round out the Argo talk here, cuz I do wanna talk, obviously Blue Bombers having you on you know, McKay Belt Thompson getting thumb surgery this week. I saw he zoomed into the, you know, the championship game cuz he would be home celebrating, you know, Thanksgiving and all that. I saw, you know, is, is he retiring? You know, Chad Kelly looked really good at the end of the game. I saw people online saying, oh, Chad's going to the nfl. I don't think that happens after one quarter of good play in the Gray Cup, but what do you make of the, the Argos quarterback situation from your view? Well, all you gotta do is ask Chad, he's better than 50% of all the quarterbacks in the NFL right now. So, I mean, surely he can play, almost start if he's better than 50%, right? So I I'm not sure I buy that, but he did have a good fourth quarter against the bombers and I think that he would be a very interesting player to take over as the quarterback there. If McLeod Bethel Thompson does indeed retire. I've heard those rumblings that he might, I have no inside information on that read. I don't know what his plan is. I do know that he doesn't really need football. I I don't think that's, you know, he doesn't need the money to play football. You know, he, he could certainly move on to other things. Incredibly smart guy from a successful partnership and his life and all that kind of stuff. So I think it, it will be interesting to see because that's the first time you've ever really seen McLeod Bethel Thompson be on top of the mountain, be considered the best. You know, he was the, he even got hurt in that game, but he was, he was the winning quarterback, right? So he's never been an Allstar before. You know, he was the West East Division all Star this year, but he's never really been thought in that category. But he came out this year and he threw for a ton of yards, looked really good in the, in the post-season, had a decent enough game in the, in the Great Cup to help the Argos win. And he could have a real nice opportunity to do that again, but maybe that's not exactly what he wants. And, and you know, I I've heard talk that if, if he does retire, the Argos are in on talks for whoever might be available at quarterback. And we know that, well Levi Mitchell hasn't signed yet with the Hamilton Tiger Cats. So would it be impossible that he'd even be in that conversation? Well, we've gotta see if it gets to free agency, but if he does and, and MBTs not coming back, I wouldn't even be shocked if the Argos were looking that way. That is so, it's so weird, you know, it's foreign me at least how, you know, like they traded for his rights and you know, they gave up picks, right? That Hamilton gave up picks for that, but then it still might not be, I mean, I see you know, ballsy like screaming online, he's coming to Saskatchewan. Like, I don't really know what to make of that. That was kind of the other big question this week. I mean I do you really think I, if I was strong though, I would just ride Chad Kelly. That's just me. But I have, Taylor Heinke is my quarterback. I like the scrappy kind of underdog guy there. But what do you think that the Argos really need? Bo Levi? No, not necessarily because we could see what Chad Kelly has to offer, but do we know, do we honestly know what he has to offer? He took amongst the fewest snaps of any quarterback in the league this year. He, he was a short yardage guy. He's definitely big, he definitely had a nice run there and in the Gray Cup. That really was a big part of them winning. But would I, as if I ran any of the teams in the c would I say I'm just gonna anoint this guy as my starting quarterback and go with it. I'm not sure I would be able to have that faith. I I, I would have to say though, I didn't believe it when Rick Campbell anointed Nathan Rourke last off season and said he's gonna be our starting quarterback. And was like, well what are you talking about? You're just going to just give him the job. Well, obviously I didn't know that he was as good as he is cause then Rick Campbell did so all the power to him. But I don't know that Chad Kelly to me really fits in that category. He reminds me more of a Chris Traveler type. I mean maybe a, maybe a better thrower, but we haven't seen a ton from him either. But that scrappy guy, those guys are popular in the C and they can certainly be successful. You gotta be able to throw the football too though. His photo with the gray cup that he posted, I said, I don't know if you see it like him with his beard. I said, put this in the loop. Like this is, it really is like, it really is a, you know, he's got, like I said I think s swag Kelly is, I think whatever they're saying online, the kids are tweeting me at sway Kelly, I like that. I mean, I like that. I don't, they I'm better than 50% feels like when cam Newton was saying that like two years ago, like, there's not 32 other people better than me. It's like, well no, there's like 64 people now better than you cuz you not on any roster. The the Michael Shea resigning, was that ever in doubt? I mean, I know we bated around, I think Darryl and Darren and I on the live show, pre-grad cup Dar Davis and Dear Ba, but like, was there ever any fear that he wasn't gonna come back? I've never had any doubt about it whatsoever, to be honest. And I mean, one of the number one reasons is if you look around the cfo, there's not a lot of opportunities there. There's nothing really, in terms of advancement. The only way that he could really advance to leave Winnipeg to get a something better would be if he was gonna be a coach GM combination. And there's not really anywhere where that job is available. And so, you know, unless he wanted to leave now and just go do the exact same job in Ottawa and try to turn that around, or Montreal for that matter, maybe, but he's got something going great here. You know, he's built something and from year to year it, it works for him and he lets the players run the room because he's brought Mike o she's players into that room so they can do what they want because they continually push his message. And and, and it, it gets through to people and the new guys spend one year, one year here and then they're leaders themselves, you know, and it's just, it's, it's a real cycle. And I think the bombers probably look at the situation right now and say they, they're probably gonna host a great cup in 2025. That's the third year of Mike o she's next contract. We'll, you know, just again reiterating that, that has not been officially announced yet and we're still waiting onward on that. Probably not gonna come right away this week, but we'll see. But they can look forward right now I think and say we have an excellent chance to be one of the top teams for the next three years with osha. Big Hill sign for two, CLA is signed for three. Willie Jefferson doesn't wanna go anywhere else. He lives here, you know, this is home now his family's here. So that core is there and there's a chance to keep riding it. And you know, I don't, I guess if I'm just speaking from a personal standpoint, if I'm Michael Shea, I don't really see why you'd wanna leave. Well, that's the thing. I think some people take the, like, the personalness out of it, right? And that was, I think even when they were, when Calgary, they were trying to figure out like, okay, is Jake Mayer like what's he doing? And he was on our show back, like pre whatever season. He's like, I really like living here. Like I really like the town. I really like the people. My girlfriend. I think now they're engaged. Like, you know, you like Michael shaves really comfortable there. Like he probably walks around, he's the living legend and people like him. Like, I'm pretty comfortable here. I just, I think that that goes a long way sometimes into just like, hey, yeah, why, why go and start at the bottom again somewhere when I have a pretty good thing going. Well, he's a Winnipeg now, and as you know, from your interactions with me and Jeff Hamilton and Darren Bombing and all those guys we're pretty awesome, right? So, I mean, you know, we, it it, it, there is a lot of there's a lot of that to it, you know, I mean, I I do believe, although we're a crazy cold place, Reid, it's stupid to be here in the winter, to be honest. I even wanna go to Mexico right now. But we do, we're kind of hearty people and we're pretty friendly people and there's a certain kind of guy that fits in in Winnipeg and I think Mike Oche with his sort of put on your work boots and your, and your construction hat kind of attitude fits in to this community and, and is really you know, really embraced it and, and really been a part, you know, a big part of shaping what Blue Bomber Football is all about, but also embracing what it was from the past and kind of bringing that back too. So, you know, I I do really believe that the future is bright for this organization for at least a few more years. Eventually a lot of these guys are gonna retire. Most of the core is in their thirties, but for the next few years it should be a real good chance to be successful. And Michael Roche is the catalyst for all of that and looks like he's gonna continue to be We talking about Manitoba and freezing butts off. We were having the conversation. I'd be curious to get your thoughts. Did you see jcs article on three down about like changing the, the, what is it, the, the window that you're able to hop between the CFL and, you know, trying to like stay talent? And we were joking that, well one of the reasons why people might wanna stay in the XFL is just not to freeze your off in Manitoba for half the year. But what do you think about that thoughts of, you know, is we we're getting ready here, XFL February usfl, like CFL trying to figure out like we gotta preserve some of the talent here? Yeah, I mean we, it's not the first time it's been discussed, but I do believe that the schedules would line up where people could play both, right? And then, and, and if that is possible, you have to wonder how many people would wanna do that. You know, I think if you're, if you're the cfl, the concern would be having real good talent go and, and play elsewhere and, and maybe get heard or, you know, you, you might lose some of your branding power and your star power. Like, it's, it's pretty important I think to the Canadian football League that Zach Cals wants to be in the Canadian Football League and that you know, Nathan Ro there is a guy like if there's competing leagues looking for him, he's a guy that would've a lot of offers, isn't he? And, and, and, and it's important that Willie Jefferson wants to stay here and it's important that Jake Mayer and, and players you've mentioned they want to be a part of it. And if they do start doing something like that where maybe they're splitting their time between leagues, it kinda loses their identity as C players. So I personally would not like to see that. And I, I just think it's too important to the league's overall brand to make sure that we know that these are C players, but if that causes you to lose some of your talent pool, that's not good either. So far, none of the leagues have really taken off yet and they haven't really lost a lot in terms of their talent pool. They certainly lost players off the negotiation list, there's no doubt about that. But they seem to have been able to find pretty good players as well. And and, and I don't think it's been a huge deal so far. But yeah, I think it's gonna be important to the preservation of the CFL to, to keep players part of the CFL brand unless they're free agents and then of course they can do whatever they want and not that many people are signing long-term deals up here either, right? One or two years for an American. If you're a brand new, you're getting a two year deal, surely you can wait to go to a R league if if that's what you wanna do. Well, I think, like you said, I think it muddies the waters and obviously you're gonna have CFL detractors, but I think, you know, nfl, CFL and that, you know, then you have those other leagues there and whether if you wanna call it the beach here, the seats here, whatever, like, and I think yeah, allowing players to jump immediately down, that feels very much like USFL this year. Okay, we gotta get as many guys as we can onto the, you know, NFL practice rosters. And I don't like that. I think Naer responded to that too and was like, I hate this because it makes us one more step closer to a developmental league, which unlike what the unlike what the XFL really seems to want to be like, we are just a developmental league. Like I don't, the CFL does not want that at All. No, it never has wanted that, it never has wanted that. And if it did want that, it probably could have changed to four downs years ago and become NFL light. But they, they've resisted that because there's history and there's a brand to the Canadian game. It's the reason to my, you know, it's the reason that people don't love it in Toronto, but it's also the reason why the league is still on its feet after a hundred and whatever years, you know, it hasn't always been the cfl, but you know, I really believe that's the biggest the biggest thing that does keep it going is the branding. It's the unusual rules. It's the fact that players come up here and want to stay. You know, like if, if all of a sudden guys are able to jump around all the time, would Willie Jefferson, when he came up here in 2014 and all he wanted was really to go back to the nfl, he told us that if there was another option available to him, would he maybe have gone for that and never been, you know, never had a kid who was born in Canada never become a citizen? Well he's not a citizen, but never a resident of Canada. You know, I, I would really worry about the legacy that a move like that would leave. So I'm definitely putting my vote in the no category for for those kind of transfer possibilities. If you would've told me two weeks ago that the CFL show would've been high in the week, they had the XFL quarterback selection, the XFL draft, then they have the day two of the draft. But I was traveling and then the Gray Cup. And if you had told me that our Gray Cup show would've been by leaves and balance the most viewed content that we did all week, I was thinking it would be far opposite. I thought, okay, we're gonna do the XFL show, you know, we, we gotta go, you know, we're up in Gray Cup, we gotta go do it. You know, we got everything booked in blown away the other way. So like you said, I think it speaks to it having its own brand and identity and everything else on that, that I don't, I wouldn't wanna muddy that cuz it very surprising to me as a, even as a still an outsider, that the weight that, that carried over the week of the Gray Cup, Are those clicks all coming from Canada or a lot of the, is it from the us We get, we get a mix. I mean obviously still primarily American. I would have to look, I I, oh, I could probably look right now on here if we wanna see the first. Well, You know, you don't have to, but I mean, I, I would just be curious about that because it's how much is it growing in terms of the attention that it gets in the us That's one area where I do think the XFL and the USFL have an effect on Canada because Canada's or the CFL is still trying to make those inroads into the US in terms of their coverage on ESPN and, and, and, and getting a little bit of viewership here and there. They certainly draw some numbers on occasion for some of the games, but if there's, you know, these so many leagues that aren't the nfl, it kind of might, you know, muddy the waters in terms of I guess what consumers want, right? I mean, I, I personally think there's, if, if there's NFL going until the, the, the spring leagues start and then the CFL starts and goes into the nfl, I think year round football, personally I don't like it. I I think it's too much. I I think you do need a break from it. I think you need a break from it to get excited about it the next time. And so that's my personal opinion on it. And it's like, if, if another baseball season started right after MLB after the World Series, you know, I would have tough, I would have a tough time with that as a consumer. That's all I'm saying. I don't, I don't disagree with that. And I also think you need to stop talking to Dorothy cuz you're gonna poison her into saying that too much football in the spring. But no, I, I agree. I mean I, but see, I look forward to the nfl like this has, has work to me, right? CFL and usfl, like I'm, I gotta watch the games, I gotta do whatever, like nfl I can watch this as a fan and I can scream at the commanders beating the Eagles or whatever. Like that's where I enjoy that. To answer your question, we had we had we, we hit about, well I think it was like 14 and a half thousand views on our breakup show. First off, that was very present. 86% came from Canada. We had about 10, 10% from the us and would you be surprised that 50% of the audience was 55 years or older, 50% <laugh>? I didn't know people our age knew about podcasts. I don't <laugh>. Yeah. So yes, I would be a little bit surprised, but there you go. But I mean, yeah, so the big news here is that you're a hit in Canada re so good for you buddy. Anything else before I let you go? You're coming here to Seattle in a couple weeks. We'll hang out. Any other news? I mean, I think we did good hitting all the kind of the weekly stuff here. I wanted to get your thoughts on Winnipeg, kind of the Postgre Cup. So Yeah, I mean the interesting thing that I, I mentioned on another show that I did earlier was that when we went into the stadium this week to talk to guys like Willie Jefferson. So on this past Monday, went in there to talk to Willie Jefferson and the weight room was right next door to the media room and that weight room, there was people in there, man, it was noisy. You could hear people talking, you could hear the weights going. And I asked Willy about it, you know, I said like, didn't the season just then? And, and he said, no, there's 10, 15 guys in there, they're already there, they're already working out, they're already thinking about next season. They're already like, not all of those guys are signed for next year, but they're here, they're working, they're thinking that they're probably gonna be part of this team still going forward. And you know, it's, it amazes me that the work starts that quickly and and I think that's just another thing that tells you the Blue bombers are an organization that takes winning very seriously. And, you know, that's why I expect them to be right there at the top again next year. If not playing for the Gray Cup again, at least contending Was the other show you did any good big show? Well, it was Jamie NI's show, the one out Regina and they were asking me some similar questions, but it was just a radio show so they didn't get to see my pretty face And your fire and everything was, so that's good. I need to get, I need to get Jamie on here. I think I've like, I think I've, I hit him up multiple times or like I've tried to get the follow back and I haven't always got that. So we need to get Jamie on here. That would be a good that, that would be a good like feather cap, you know, cap in the whatever, feather in the cap to get Jamie on the podcast. So what Matt knows his football. So you definitely should. Well Ted, thank you so much coming on. I appreciate it. It was good seeing you and everyone else up in Regina and I, I think we're locked in for Hamilton, it seems that way. So right on. Dorothy's excited. So anyway, thank you so much and we'll see you in a couple weeks. Yeah, we'll see you in a couple weeks. Thanks a lot man. Special thanks to Emery and Ted for coming on. Really appreciate that busy week for me. Just with real life works. I really appreciate Emery and Ted for kind of scheduling around. I had to go film a bunch of apartment inspections. We were checking like sewer lines and stuff. Very interesting work. Kind of weird, but anyway, should be back to normal next week. Like I said have a big guest, I think scheduled for a Tuesday interview so we'll know if that is coming. I'll be able to promote that. Incredibly exciting. And then, you know, we're kind of here, we're kind of in the getting ready for the xfl usfl CFL off season. We'll try to kind of do some postmortem what do you call that? Postmortem interviews of the CFL season. Continuing to reach out for that. Maybe we'll get Jamie Nyon, maybe I need to get Jamie Nyon, see if Ted can help me out with that Ted Whyman. I really appreciate that. We did the jersey giveaway last week, if you guys missed that on the livestream with Rick. So we announced winners for that. Robert is getting the, the case cook jersey and the Texas Pete is getting the Doug footy one. I think I have that right. We'll be mailing those out. They haven't been mailed yet. I know Robert was curious if, if he missed that in the mail. So we will do that. You, you have any voicemails? I think Dorothy was asking about that. How do you leave voicemails, the texts on the screen every week at the mar.com/voicemail? You ever wanna leave a question or comment for a guest? You know, sometimes I'll try to promote those ahead of time. You ever have a question for me or I can, you know, you have a general question. We can pose that to any of the guests. Like it, subscribe let me go grab and we'll jump cut like it, subscribe. Don't forget now this ball suddenly has gotten way more interesting. We were gonna have the Brian Scott Science Spring League Veterans Day ball here. Brian Scott MVP of the Spring League, played in the usfl looking to be like Brian Scott is going to be playing for the Vegas Vipers here in the xfl. Saw a lot of people posting xfl XFL extra points. I believe Scott, they're on Twitter posting, Brian posting the photo with the XFL ball and I think he tagged like Las Vegas in the, in the post would be, wouldn't that be wild if Brian tagged the, the stadium that the XL was playing? And we sure would like to know that. But this ball suddenly has gotten way more interesting if you have a future XFL quarterback of the Vegas vis Brian Scott. So like it subscribe, this ball can be yours. We, we jumped up tons of subscribers following the Great Cup stuff, following the XFL draft if you missed any of that, but I like it. Subscribe, this is going to a lucky winner. And then I have some other spring league jerseys we'll be giving the way as well for that big we're less than two. I think we're short, you know, like 180 whatever. We're almost a 2,500. So like it subscribe. Thank you guys all so much. Hope this episode does all right, timewise, like I said, pre-recording part of this this week. So we'll see how we do. Thanks as always for your support. Take care.

Episode 120 - Winners and Losers of the XFL 2023 Draft

Well, happy black Friday here day after Thanksgiving, earlier in Seattle, but happy to get on for this here with our East Coast friend Ric Serritella thank you so much for joining. Rick and I gonna do a live show. Don't you know, don't know who's gonna watch now or later, but this is our regularly scheduled time. Rick could come on and I have a interview with Rod Pedersen coming up here in a little bit talking c Rick, did you have a good Thanksgiving, Man? I'm getting over to Food Coma, Reid and yeah, we're giving a little coast to coast coverage here and kudos to you and and your crew for the live coverage. Eight and a half hours. You guys are beasts man. And I was tuning in when I can where I can. And you know what, man? I feel like the Mark Cast does the best alternate football show coverage out there and I wanted to come on and chop it up and get into the nitty gritty here with some of these XFL squads. Well, I appreciate, yeah, Rick was gonna hop on the live stream and they just so busy and, you know, timing didn't work out. So we got Rick here, we're doing the deep dive into the rosters. I wanted to get Rick's thoughts and all that stuff cuz we had our big CFL coverage here. Wanted to make, had a lot of people like, Hey, where is the deep dive and where is the recap? So we're gonna do that and then, like I said, we'll have CFL stuff on here. Please like and subscribe. We crossed it, I think we added like a hundred subscribers through all the C stuff over the weekend, so I really appreciate that. Rick, overall thoughts on the Exel draft, you know, talent level I wanna talk quarterbacks and then we'll dive. What did you think of of how it all went down? Yeah, you know, I heard some of the commentary with, with with your round table discussion during the live stream and how s l you know, I, I guess, I don't know if captive is the right word, but they're signed to contracts, which, you know, made it somewhat limited. But I think overall, when you think about 600 players drafted, I mean, this is what spring football is for. A lot of players that are either coming off injury really didn't have a place to showcase and, and, and, and develop. And I'll get into some of those developmental prospects that, you know, you graduate college and a Chauncey Smith who's so raw and athletic on the edge needs to bulk up a little bit. A guy like Jack Snyder at San Jose State, maybe he is a guard, maybe he's a tackle, they just need developmental reps. And I think that's what I love about it. And so you see a little veterans that are a little bit longer in the tooth that want to continue playing. I think I saw somebody from the 2014 draft class. There was another team, we'll get into it, drafted Will Hill and Rahi Moore at the back end safety. So they're gonna have a smart veteran back end of their defense. And so my Guyon Hutchins, who I worked with many years at the nfl PA collegiate ball, I saw three receivers come off the board. Speed, speed, speed. It looks like they're emulating a Kansas City chief product. And so we'll get into some of the head coaches, some of the GMs, a lot of the guys that I'm friendly with. And each team had a different approach and I think that is what makes it so unique. Well, I thought it's cool too. Now we finally are getting an identity of some of these teams, right? We had on coach Rick talking kind of what do we think that some of these schemes might look like? What do we think some of these coaches wanna do? But now, you know, seeing some of the quarterbacks selected, seeing some of the top picks off the board, I think it's helpful. Now we can, okay, this is what the, you know, the seed dragons are gonna look like or whatever. In terms of the quarterbacks, you know, that feels like a millennia ago now when they did the quarterback selection show. But any names you were surprised that you saw or didn't see? You know, I thought, you tell me. I thought Carson Strong was in this draft pool, and I thought that was kind of Ira that out of what 15 quarterbacks drafted, Carson Strong was not one of them. So that, that was, I was kind of looking forward to see where he would go. I know Louis Perez and Jalen McClendon, I don't have which roster they are on in front of me, but I think that'll be an interesting quarterback competition. I know both of those guys really well. Mcclenan is a guy, McLendon is a guy. I've always been intrigued by his arm strength because he was stuck behind Jacobi Burett at NC State. Then Ryan Finley came in and he was somewhat her, I think he got drafted by the Bengals, then he transferred to Baylor. It was kind of late in the game. He was stuck behind Charlie Brewer there. And, and by the time he did get snaps, it was kind of late in his senior year, so he never got a real opportunity. But man, that kid's got a live arm. And Louis Perez, we all know, is a guy that's been bouncing around some of these alternate football leagues. And so that one stood out to me. I, I spoke to Coach Anthony Beck right after that quarterback draft, and he was so pumped up about having Ryan Willis. I really think, you know, Ryan Willis to me reminds me of the modern day Tommy Maddox back in the old xfl, and he got picked up by the Pittsburgh Steelers after that and kind of resurrected his career didn't quite pan out to be the John Elway successor in Denver. Went over to the xfl made a, I think it was the mvp, got picked up by the Steelers and I could see Ryan Willis being that guy. In terms of the, the big talking point we have on the, the live show was the, the factions it feels like from the USFL to the XFL and Kyle Loader, you know, Louis Perez we're seeing more of the players now. Some of these guys that were signed, we even saw Case Cook now, right? He got signed to the practice squad here of the Rams, I think yesterday dealing with the staff and stuff, you know, is that another quarterback that we have to kinda watch out for it? Were you surprised that some of these guys said, Hey, we wanna take our, we kind of know what we have in the US L let's take a swing here. You know, I think at the end of the day, money talks let's be honest about it. And XFL is offering more money now. I give us l lots of props and, and credit for finishing and completing a spring season from start to finish. And so, you know, I think you feel better about that long term play where xfl, you know, their TV contract is real. Like XFL has real TV money coming in where the USFL is kind of, the investors are the TV networks. So I think that's a big difference. We always talk about the survival of any Spring League is gonna be predicated on a television deal. Now USFL is a little bit of a different dynamic because I think, you know, a quarter million dollars they put up the fund, that league last year, that's a drop in the bucket for reality sports programming. And I, and maybe you know, better than I do, Reid, I saw, I think this morning or yesterday, there was a guy in the XFL draft, I think a running back that just signed with the usfl. So I don't know how these contracts work. I'm not, I've seen the contracts, I haven't had time to do a deep dive into them yet and, and have a complete understanding of them. But it is definitely an intriguing dynamic. And I also saw, like the way the USFL schedule lines up, I thought they announced the start of their season in April, so the XFL will almost be like ending as the US L ramps up, which I'm a big fan of, but I didn't, I thought they were gonna be competing during the same time of the year. Yeah. So the XFL players have until December 26th to sign the contract, right. So they have it, like, I think Max said one of our, it's like a DocuSign. They were able to, you know, figure that out. So yeah, you will see some, some movement back and forth, which I do think is exciting because, you know, hear, I'd wait through the, I, I don't think the US LS say no that anybody that took a took a couple weeks to decide like, Hey, I wanna go to the XFL or not. So it'll be interesting that way. Yeah, April 15th, like it's the same weekend there, the Memphis and all that kind of stuff. It does feel like anyone that gets cut from the XFL here, or even up through training camps and everything could be picked up very easily by the usfl if there was someone they wanted. It feels like XFL gets kind of first dibs on a lot of this stuff. Yeah, and I think, you know, also you gotta take into account they have an announced partnership with the NFL and the whole Canton, you know, campus with the, you know, with the program up in Ohio. If you don't get picked up by an NFL team, essentially the Rock came out and said, well, you have an open invite to play in the xfl. So there is somewhat of an NFL relationship there. I think the XFL is more glitz and glamour quite frankly, and they're gonna do reality TV programming and Rock is gonna tap into his, you know, Hollywood connections there. But us l I think is more for the nitty gritty football fan so far, based on what I've Seen. Yeah, I've always said that XFL feels like the matrix to me of like, Hey, we have 1800 layers of this is kind of what we're doing. USFL is like caveman, like here at Football Field. Like you, like enjoy, like it does and not to, it's fine. I mean, they made it through the season, they had great ratings. I just, I, and I don't know, I've always said I it is the inception of the XFL is not too much. I don't know. We'll figure out here. So going through, so we're gonna do kind of Rick's picked out, you know, highlighted players from each of these rosters who wanna go through, I mean, I guess we'll start with the renegades. Does that make sense? Arlington renegades there? Yeah. Who stood out from you for that? You know, we have Bob Stoops returning. I thought it was interesting, you know, we're bringing back some of the highlighted specialists and Taylor, Russ, Marquette king there. Those are excited to see. But what did you make of the Arlington Renegade Squad? Yeah, and Rick Mueller is the director of pro personnel there. So you get an NFL experienced kind of decision maker, which is always interesting. Mark Marquette king, I think is good for the brand. When you talk about XFL Entertainment, he's a personality. They are the team actually that have Will Hill and Rahi Moore as their safety. So Will Hill outta Florida Rahi more outta ucla, you know, more on that Broncos super Bowl team, I believe. And Hill was just a guy, he's a Jersey guy, always had his nose in a little bit of trouble, but he loved the game. And that was clear when he played with the Giants. He could play nickel, he could play safety, he could play in the box, little bit undersized, but his heart and toughness outweigh the lack of size. So the secondary Devonte bus Busby has NFL experience sticking on defense man, Isaiah Graham Mobley. This is one of my personal favorites from, I think it was in this year's draft class, but Loco Ocho, they used to call him during his Temple days, then he finished up at Boston College. This guy is a special team's extraordinaire, dynamo every NFL team that's looking for a gunner and a special team extraordinaire guy should be looking at Isaiah Graham Mobley Bruce Hector out of the UCF or South Florida School defensive tackle. I know he was with the Chiefs and the Eagles, you know, again, he just needs to get his weight up a little. Came out at like 2 85. We actually had him at the NFL PA collegiate bowl. And so I think he's a guy that'll eventually be picked up. You know, offensive linemen and defensive lineman. A lot of these guys like a Bruce Hector, this needs to be developed. He needs to pack on, you know, 10, 15 muscles, stay on that pro regimen and strengthen conditioning program. That's why I love these leagues. Now offensively, Sal Canella, you know this guy has made a name for himself and the XFL and, and Alliance League and some of these ultimate leagues. And, you know, he was a little bit of a knucklehead coming outta school. And so, you know, he's finding himself out here trying, you know, but he's matured, right? And so now he's performing at a high level. All he does is make plays. He's a dependable pass catcher. And Sal Canella just continues. Part of the problem read is like, you know, scouts get fixated on the last image or the last thing that they've heard or seen from a player. And I think, you know, now that we have two spring leagues, they can see guys more consistently and like, yo, he did it in the usfl, now he's doing it in the xfl. Hey, like, maybe we should bring him in. Okay. He, he is a little immature coming out, but dude's been still bouncing around four or five years. Obviously he loves the game. Ja Sullivan is just an athletic freak. I think he's a UCF guy. Brandon, a con from Washington, I believe, a solid route runner. And then Kyle Slowder, who you mentioned, and somebody again, like he's, he's developed more since he's departed college, you know, then I saw him develop in college. And Steve Fairchild, who's a good friend and trains a lot of the Minnesota based quarterbacks or, or out there Colorado, I think he's based he told me about Slowder coming out. I've always kept tabs on him. I think he ran into a little bit of an injury down there at the USFL last year. But in terms of being a capable backup quarterback at the NFL level, Kyle Loader is capable. And I said the same thing. You were out at the CFL Championship. We had McLeod Bethel Thompson out at one of the hub camps, and immediately he signed with Toronto, like a week after the camp. I said McCoy McLeod who, he was quick to correct me. I had him on the show. I said, you know, you clearly can play at the NFL level. Why did you choose to to sign with the CFL team? But he, he enjoyed being the guy, being the starter, the, the camaraderie and the team. I, I get the same sense from a Kyle Slaughterer and this guy is gonna have the opportunity to continue playing as long as he's healthy. Kyle Loader ain't going nowhere and I'm here for it. Well it's interesting, even in watching you McCloud starting quarterback win the gray Cup, so cool seeing him like he was in the Spring League back when CFL had the off season. But even his backup, you know, Chad Kelly, here's someone that Chad had the opportunity to do usfl, kind of whatever he wanted, decided to go up play number two in Toronto, ended up winning the game and now, I mean he is going to be a very valuable name in the CFL here moving forward after he gets off his rookie contract. So it's interesting, you know, parlay and some of these leagues back and forth, but absolutely Kyle Slowder, we had a comment from listener Max saying that, you know, slowder back with Canella that is, you know, even with the Breakers in the US fell, it's good to see some of these pairings kind of make their show up here in the XFL as well. Some of these guys that are familiar with each other. Yeah, and I think, you know, that's one of the things, not to bounce too, too much around, but like that's one of the things I try to express to the fan controlled football league is keeping those characters, those storylines, those players developed and I think they had too much turnover in that second season. And back to your CFL point, my understanding is whether it's written into the contract or not, CFL has had to become a little bit more flexible with their contract rules in, you know, in an effort to not lose too many guys to the XFL and cfl. So you are seeing guys consider the C, which I still think is number two in terms of overall talent, competitiveness, pay stability, CFL is still number two. But here in the states, man, we love the xfl, we love the usfl, we just love football. Yeah. so anyway, Renegade's good, Bob. So back, I think that helps, you know, he went through it last year, able to kinda, or you know, whatever it was, but knows that pace cuz it is a different pace. I think getting some of these coaches, I think USFL dealt with that as well, right? Some of the, okay, we gotta get a whole team together here in a couple months and do all that. Anything else with the renegades before we move on? I got defenders next year on the list. No, I think it's a good blend overall. You know, they, this is a team that really has, I think mostly veteran guys. If you look at NFL experience, I think that's the direction and angle that they went. And you know, Bruce Hector even is a two or three year developmental guy. Isaiah Graham Mobley I mentioned is the last year or two, but for the most part, a lot of these guys have NFL experience and we mentioned Rick Mueller, the DPP there no coincidence. And so yeah, I think it's a great gig for Stoops and you know, overall I, I'd say off the cuff, solid seven, you know, Seven outta 10. Sure, sure. Jen. Jen is a Renegades fan. She says renegades going all the way here. Oh. Max has a question before we move on. How do you feel about the Renegades? Basically just having the offensive and defensive system from the 2020 Battle Hawks? Well, you know, a lot remains to be seen. Hopefully coaches adapt and adjust and I think we'll see a little bit of a variety. It's good though. It's, you know, if if it's, if it ain't broke, they'll fix it then move on for that. Alright. Do you see defenders, Eric Dungy, we had the Art King, I presume we'll be picked up here whenever they decide to do that. Transaction was going to be the other quarterback got signed to the Panthers I think made like 11,500 bucks to kind of fill in there for that week. Simulating whatever in, in practice for that. But we have Eric Dungy, presumably Det King here, everything else of the defenders. What did you make of their roster? Man, this has got my Guyon Hutchins fingerprints all over it. And Vaughn is just such a well respected talent evaluator, of course doing it with the Indianapolis Colts and the Raiders as a player and a scout spent three or four years working with us at the nfl pa collegiate ball. And it's good to see some of our alumni pop up on the roster. But yeah, again, now you could tell Vaughn, he's been in the college scouting side of things, right? We talked about Rick Mueller being an nfl, more of an NFL guy, seeking those kind of experienced players. Look at Vaughn, man, he's got all young studs that are overlooked in recent years drafts. And you know, you mentioned Eric Dungy, which, you know, I'm not a huge fan of. I get it, I understand it and I think he's good for the league. I don't think he's a guy that's gonna use this as a springboard and go on to the next level, but I think he could be a capable, competent quarterback. And you mentioned to Eric King, it's good to see him still get an opportunity to play quarterback. Really, that's what the beauty of these leagues are. Now I'll go into the running backs. Abram Smith, Reed, I don't know about you, but I like a running back who started off as a linebacker. You know, that's my kind of party. And you saw that at Baylor, man, he's just tough. He's hard news. He's got size, he's physical, pretty good speed. I'm surprised quite frankly, that he was available. And we talk about running back, there's just so many good players. I would say there's such a fine line. If there's one position where I've seen NFL talent players not make it, it's that running back just because there are so many. And Pookah Williams is another guy coming outta Kansas. He's split time there with Khalil Herbert early on, I think, you know, he, he was one of those guys that had that quirky scouting report in, in our notes. He was born with six toes, I believe. And you know, you remember these weird quirky things. Raquel Armstead, man, I'm, I'm glad to see him pop up there. I don't know what his health status is. I heard he almost died from the vaccine or Covid. I mean, I really heard he, he was bad. And so hopefully this is a sign that he's bounced back and recovered and temple tough guy. He is bounced around. He was with the Eagles most recently. I know he started off with the Jaguars just hasn't been able to stick and, and latch on, but he, he's a tough hardnosed guy. And then, you know, we, the wide receivers like Jaque Ezer, if you watch the FCS playoffs two years ago, I think it was, I mean he just, he puts Sam Houston state on his back, carried them into the playoffs. I I, we had him at the NFL pa collegiate bowl and I kind of felt, I felt like he was a poor man's Deebo Samuel, where you see like what Devon Dorene is doing in Baltimore, lining up in the back field, kind of emulating that Deebo Samuel role. Every team, it's a trendy type type of league and everybody's looking for that guy. Jez is that guy. And he could return kicks, he could line up inside outside. He's got blazing speed as this KD cannon who's somewhat of a one trick pony. But then when you start putting ARD and KD Cannon and then Jazz Ferguson, I think at a unc all on the field together, you know, you just run seems, you know, stretch the field, let Eric Dungy or de Eric King air it out and play pitch and catch with these guys. But I think that's what they're hoping to do here is just put a lot of speed on the field and defensively like, you know, Vaughn, I know he graduated from Ole Miss, so I see his hotty Toddie guy, Fidel Brown defensive tackle with some NFL experience. I'm sure he'll get every opportunity to stick and make an impact. Jacob panas the defensive end outta Michigan State who I had a chance to scout personally. I, I think, you know, he's a guy, again, a developmental prospect who could come in and, and get a practice squad opportunity and work his way up and become a valuable backup at the next level. He just needs reps. And Parnell Motley is, is maybe one of those guys too, where he just plays an aggressive style of corner and, and needs more in game experience. So I think Reggie Barlow is, is a guy that I, I love what he did here because I think, again, Vaughn Hutchins fingerprints are all over this. I think Reggie Barlow's gonna coach. I think Vaughn is gonna be the evaluator and decision maker and you know, I know Vaughn is all gas no breaks. So for me, in terms of in season maneuvering and transactions between now and the start of the season, I, I would imagine DC Defenders are gonna be a very active team cuz Vaughn's a very active guy working the phone lines. That's good though. You know, let's add a little bit more of that. What did you think of you know, Abraham Smith, number one, running back, we took, you know, number one picking the draft here. We had even debates in our show. Like, do you start with that? It's, it's, you know, spring football, we gotta, gotta hit the ground game running because the offense is a little, so what did you make of that take? And a lot of running backs went early, but especially number one, Yeah, I, you know, I didn't put too much emphasis on where and when players were picked. I think, you know, a guy like Abram Smith, he may have went earlier just because he's one of the more recent draft classes and some of the, you know, we'll get into some of the other decision makers that probably looked like they didn't do any homework. So I think there was a little bit of like, Hey, let's grab Smith cuz a lot of people know about 'em and let's make sure we get 'em type of thing. But you know, they did it in a, a weird way where like they drafted all the quarterbacks first and then, then they did the skill positions and it looks like, you know, I wasn't able to keep up with everything. It looks like they lumped defensive players together, then they kind of just did rounds where they selected only special teams. So I didn't personally put too much weight or emphasis on it. I think when we get to XFL training camp where these guys were drafted really won't make much of an impact or difference. It says this doesn't, were you surprised to see the return of summit? No. I, I, I, that doesn't mean anything to me. So does that mean something to you? No. Okay. All right. I I have no idea. Moving on. Houston Roughneck here vie this is, this was exciting too when we had the quarterback selection show, you know, seeing like Brandon Silvers come out. Some of these guys are very excited. That's that's my quarterback here. I have a signed Brandon Silver shirt that you can see mine here with the quarterback Here. Yeah, that's, that's my word. What did you, what did you make your wave Phillips, everything else going on? What, what did you make of the roughnecks? Yeah, mark Lillibridge there former director of personnel for the Packers now with the Houston Roughnecks. He's, he, he was based in St. Louis. I know Mark and I know he's run a lot of camps for free agents, so he's got his finger on the pulse. In terms of silvers and ee, you know, I think he was an underclassman, if I'm not mistaken. Got some bad advice regardless, you know, has all the traits, all the tools in the toolbox, like they say very raw unpolished needs to hone in his mechanics become a more consistent passer. But when you talk about the athleticism ability to buy time in the pocket, extend plays, throw on the run, LB can do that, but he's gonna have to wait his time. I think Brandon Silvers is the guy that really, you know, I, I like what he does with the rpo. He is in terms of the XFL quarterbacks ch chosen, I think he'll be more one of the better decision makers. And, you know, he's a, he's a stare of the ship kind of guy. You know, we've seen him have his outbursts at times. But I think in terms of being an efficient game manager, smart decision maker Brandon Silvers can do all that. And so it'll be interesting to see, I think silver starts there and, and, and we'll see how it wears on LB will probably get a chance to showcase some of that talent at some point. Max Borge from Washington Switching and saving with Geico is easy. So you're freed upon her life's big questions. Like, is the word dictionary in the dictionary? If so, it probably says something like dictionary now. A dictionary is the word you're reading now on the pages they were printed on. Basically this thing you are looking at right now that you're holding reading words from. Its a dictionary as in, Hey, look at me, I'm holding a dictionary in my hands as I read the definition of dictionary. Yeah, it's probably something like that. Switch and say with Geico, it's easier than you think. And now it's Geico's motorcycle rules of the road. Avoid biking in the rain and never touch another person's bike. Hey Guys, look at tee's, bikes so shiny. Whoops, I'm gonna leave a note. Oh gosh, there's more. And the rule to saving on motorcycle insurance is in 15 minutes Geico could save you 15% or more. Washington State Mike Leach's team up there, he was an impressive pass catcher early on in his career. Now we had him at the nfl pa collegiate ball and he was banged up. He was kind of injured during that whole draft process coming out. And I think that was a year ago or two years ago. And again, we talked about running back is so deep if you don't have a good clean draft circuit. Now he, he wasn't a combine guy. And so I think he ran injured, had a poor pro day, and you get kind of lost in the shuffle. So here's a great opportunity now for bogie and you see a lot of teams employing the specialist role. A lot of, a lot of teams use committee like three running backs now where they have a pass catching specialist. And I think Bgy has an opportunity to kind of establish himself to hear in that role. Offensive linemen, you know, there, there's really not enough developmental offensive linemen, but Sam Cooper outta Mackman, this guy has got one of the better back stories I think of any player in the league. He's so tough and hardnosed on the field, he's a big panda bear off the field you know, lacks height and length. But I think center is his best position. I hope that's where they play him. I do believe he could be a, a, a valuable swingman at the next level, center guard, whatever the case may be. And I know he's, he's had his cup of tea with a couple teams up there. So I'm a big fan of Sam Cooper. Jack Snyder, somebody I had a chance to see when I went and made my trip to San Jose. You know, I don't like him at tackle. I do think he has a future at Guard. And so if he just kind of refines some of his technique and converts himself into a true guard, which I think he might already be in the process of doing, I think he could stick around and maybe get a look at the next level. Chauncey Rivers is a guy that again, has all the traits and the tools and the size and the athleticism just really hasn't clicked and put it all together. And I'll lump John DACA outta James Madison in that category, who I love daca when I went and saw him at James Madison, that was back when Ucci was there. But, you know, DACA made so many plays and he is a specialty, he's awesome on the blocked kicks. Like this guy had like eight blocked kicks at James Madison. Now he was playing defensive end, he was like 220, 225 pounds, which as you know, isn't gonna cut it. So I think he needs to convert and be a standup linebacker. But again special teams, like I mentioned, Isaiah Graham, Mo Mobley, I like John dca if for nothing else more, this guy's a special team stud. And then Tivan Beckett man I, I was talking to somebody in the league that had called and was like, oh, what do you think of Beckett man? And I, I gave my whole spiel, oh, he could play safety, he could play linebacker defensive player of the year tackle machine, knows for the football. And I went on my whole spin. Yeah, I agree Rick, but man, he's just short <laugh> and like, you know, he's like, Sam Mills short, he's like five nine. But you know, I think if he wants to have a shot at the nfl, he's probably gotta play like that. Strong safety in the box role. But you talk about an exciting, productive collegiate player, man. Tavan Beckett is gonna be one of my personal favorite cause he is just gonna make plays. You're not gonna be able to take him off the field. He's gonna be roaming sidelines to sideline playing with his hair on fire. So he's gonna be one of the more decorated players, I believe. If you want just straight production, Beckett will give it to you. And then Diago FGO Baggo, Foggo, I don't know, whatever he floats your boat. From Navy. He was a guy who I believe was on the radar for the NFL PA Bowl. I think he wind up taking an East west Shrine bowl invite. And I had a chance to see him on the All Star Circuit. I thought he played very well. I thought he was head, I thought he was smart. I thought he had good size. I don't know what happened at the nfl. I'm sure he got a, a shot, but I think this is a guy that has every opportunity to find him himself back into the league. And then Brandon Easterling a big long athletic safety that was really overlooked for some odd reason there, I think outta Davidson. I couldn't find a lot of love for him in the scouting community, but every time I, I put on his film, he flashed and he, he just seemed to make plays and I thought he had a tremendous size athleticism combination. So I'm gonna be looking out for Brandon Easterling. But overall, Wade Phillips is somebody who was our assistant coach last year at the PA Bowl. So I had a chance to spend a good amount of time with Coach Phillips. And he loves the game. He wants to continue coaching the game and they got themselves maybe the, the best head coach there, I think maybe of the xfl. Interesting. You're that high on the Phillips. That's good. Well I think, you know, this guy's forgotten more football than we'll ever know. And when you're able to have a defense in a spring league, the defense is always gonna be ahead of the offense coming out of the gates, then the offense has to catch up. So if the Houston Roughnecks can come out and play that wage Phillips defense, I think they're gonna have every opportunity to go all the way. In terms of last comment here. You're talking a lot about the offensive line and you know, we had on there Gaco and lots of conversations ahead of the season and us l needing an O line and xfl. And is there enough curious, I think a lot of the teams kind of saved a lot of their picks that were in the offensive line rounds, right? Presumably I think that the feedback was if these guys are available now, they'll be available in, you know, January when we do the supplemental one. But did you think just in terms of offensive line in general, there's enough guys here that fill out some of these rosters? Is this concerning? It? It, no. I mean, listen, it's the one position on the planet earth. There's just not enough gargantuan, 6 5, 300 plus pound athletic people to play offensive. There's not enough of these guys in the nfl, right? And look at the nfl, they're, I I would imagine every NFL team, not just backups, but there's a lot of NFL teams looking to upgrade their starters. And it's a combination of there's just not enough of these guys. But also when you talk about now at least 10 years of this influx of spread rpo, college offensive schemes coming into the NFL and NFL offense is being dumbed down and it, it trickles out to certain positions like wide receivers. It impacted at first. And I think now we've adapted and adjusted, but wide receiver was a hard evaluation in some of these simplistic offenses. Now what you're seeing is a lot of up tempo players looking over to the side reading a flashcard, a lot of times offensive linemen aren't even getting down into a stance. And so there's a lot of work to be done with these guys and look at the centers. I mean, you got centers that come to the pros. They never did a snap under under center. They never had a quarterback take a snap under center. So now you gotta teach a center how to do a basic snap. I mean, these are things that we've never had to think about or imagine or, or, or try in the past, but it's just a byproduct of simplified offenses, not enough player development at the collegiate level. And so when these guys get to the nfl, they get weeded out real quickly and you see guys like Jason Peters, they gotta beg him out of retirement cause they just can't find the enough of them. So I agree, long rant there. But working with the hub football guys, I can tell you Reid like, hey, we, we don't just take guys just to take guys. If we feel like we can find a talented player that can continue his pro career, we take them. But I can tell you offensive line is the scariest, you know, other than quarterbacks. Cuz if you're a good quarterback, you're somewhere but offensive line man, it's, it's the most scarcest position, not just for the springing for the nfl. So of course that's gonna trickle down and CFL has their own issues as well. Moving on here, the guardians, I, I've heard so far people are kind of down on this quarterback group. Mitch Kid was added late, but then we had Deandre Fran, SWIS qu Dormy there. I, you know, Fran Swis that he famous, you know, for Fcf, right? That was kind of where he got a lot of his looks. Thoughts here for Orlando? Well, there's a lot to unpack there. Let me just say Quentin Dormy, and I hate to put it this way, he just can't play football. I mean, that's just a bad pick. I don't think, you know he's a guy that's gonna last very long, even in the xfl. That's just my personal opinion. Who is, who is the other quarterback that you mentioned? Dire Francois. Yeah, Fran swis, I'm a fan of. And you know, here's a guy I've been around a lot over the last three years and really most of us know him from his days at Florida State, cuz he was this big four five star Herald did recruit. He was involved in some funky stuff off the field. And so he, he went down to Hampton, I believe and finished his career off there. Didn't quite have, statistically speaking through a lot of interceptions for my liking, but you know, I was expecting to be like, I heard that he was an immature guy. And so, like, I've been around him, I was around him at a and C combines, I was around him at a, at the fan controlled football league. I was around him at multiple hub football camps. And like, every time I saw him, he was better, his mechanics improved. Like he's a real polished pocket passer. His accuracy. Like people say you can't improve your consistency. Like I I say go look at Jalen Hertz and go look at Deandre Fran sw. But again, like he does it in the Fcf, which to me, you know, go, go use the Kurt Warner analogy, he'll tell you it's harder to play the indoor game with the short intermediate passes quick decision making game. Deandre Francois did that effectively at the Fcf, then he went and played somewhere else. And I think, you know, I think Deandre Fran is gonna surprise a lot of people here. And I, I like the kid and I went in there with a misconception about him and every time I saw him, I said, said, man, he looks better than the last, he looks better than the last. And I've seen him at least at four or five different free agent workouts. So I can follow up though. Larry Lee, I wasn't too familiar with the director of personnel. Terrell Buckley, obviously I re gosh, I remember him coming outta Syracuse. So after the quarterbacks, you know, Jermaine Martin, which I was a little bit disappointed, it didn't sound like your, your compadres were too familiar with him coming out. NCA and t I had a chance to look at him at the H B C U Bowl, you know, kinda lacked the explosiveness in person, like when I saw him on film and when I saw him in person, the explosiveness didn't match. So I'll be looking close at j j Jermaine Martin, he's an intriguing guy. Charleston Rambo's an intriguing guy from Oklahoma, finished up at the, at the u I think he ran into some injuries maybe along the way. So, you know, we'll see what happens. But Steven Guidry is another good looking wide receiver that they got there. Another size speed guy. But to me, one of the best picks, and again, that's why you can't put any emphasis or weight on where these guys were chosen, but man, Andrew Jamil, this guy is Unguardable he is the definition of being able to create separation and short area space. Andrew Jamil, you can't, you can't stick this kid. And you know, he might be 5 7, 5 8 he's a white slot wide receiver. So I think he gets miscast or Mark cast a lot, a lot of times. But Jamil, I think he's gonna have a shot at least maybe in the MVP running, if you want your hot take Andrew Jamil is gonna be one of the elite players in the xfl. You can, you can take that to the bank. And then Cody LaMer, I mentioned, Hey, I saw a guy from the 2014 draft outta Indiana, Denver Broncos, Cody LaMer. I mean, that's so cool to see. And I think he might be another guy that that ran into indies. But when you see a guy, obviously he doesn't need to be doing this. He loves the game and he wants to keep on playing. And so I get excited when I see stuff like that. You mentioned offensive lineman, Brandon Murphy, I apologize ahead of time. He probably is not gonna like what I say here, but he, he needs to hear this. And Brandon Murphy was a guy I found on a hub film, and I don't think he even played college ball Reed. And he sent in his film, he's playing out yard in the backyard and really like amateur film. But I saw a guy here, I was like, man, this guy's a lump of clay. And so we brought him out to the hub and Eugene Chung fell in love with him. He's like, man, this guy can play now. And I think he's one, like, he, I think he has some basketball background to his game. And so like Eugene Chung took him under his wing. I probably shouldn't even share this story, but it's true. Brought him into his, his home, worked with this kid for months and like, you know, the kid started getting Hollywood and he was getting some NFL workouts and it was starting to get to his head and he stopped working at his heart and he stopped doing like all these things that Coach Chung was working with him on. And so like, you know, I hope he gets his head on straight because in terms of like potential, I think sky's the limit for Brandon Murphy. He, he's good enough to be playing in the nfl, he's gotta get it screwed on, right? And, you know, I hope he does. But Nick Co from Mississippi, I wanna stay. He, he was drafted by the lines, I believe Nick Co at one time was very highly thought of. So on the defensive side there to wrap up with the Orlando guardians, Matt Elam was another guy that came out to the hub. We get a veteran, guys like Brandon Marshall, the linebacker was out there I think with Matt Elam. And you know, ELAM still flashed that he could do it occasionally. Like, I don't know if he's still got the pep in his step to make an NFL roster at the safety position. Like he might be good for five to 15 snaps at the NFL level, but he's, I'll tell you what man, what I really appreciated about Matt Elam and his time at the Hub football camp is this is a guy that passes it forward and you could see like the younger players knew who he was. They wanted to pick his brain and like he had no ego, man. He was, so he, he, I think he actually embraced the role and because he was another one of these guys coming outta Florida, characterized as immature and I think he got into some trouble as well. A is his brother who also played in the NFL and an agent. So, so Matt Elam, I think is going to make his mark in the xfl. I think he'll be a good player for the league and I think he'll be a good player for the, for the younger players that play alongside him. One last guy, Tommy Ager, the long snapper. We had him out the hub. He was there as a tight end. So I like this pick because here's a guy. Yeah, he'll be your long snapper and that's cool that he is gonna try to make it as a long snapper, but he also plays tight end. And so I, I kind of like that dynamic and we'll see what Tommy Ager, I think he might even have played in the fcf a little bit, but he's a guy that, again, the passion of the game, the love for football oozes through his pores. So you can't help but to root for guys like that. No. So yeah, he was in our, he was in the chat during the live stream. We were like, oh, Tommy, like we drafted and he knew a lot of the guys. Yeah. And then like you pointed out correctly, yeah, getting drafted as a long snapper, but playing the tie them position there. So it's like kind of, and we noticed that a lot during the draft. So some of these guys were drafted maybe outta position and have dual purpose for, for some of these guys if they're able to do it. Well, you know what, Tommy, or go look up man, the kid outta Duquesne Christian, Kus outta Duquesne, all NEC performer came out, tried to make it outta linebacker, got cut and signed. I can't tell you how many times reinvented himself as a long snapper. And like now he, I think he finally stuck with the Steelers, but it took him like six or seven years to transform himself and actually stick and make an NFL roster and now they can't get rid of the guy. So that look no further. Kristin kus, man, great story. Going here to the Braas you know, coach Hines Ward here, right? I think a lot of people are excited for that. Like, you know, exciting branding, everything else behind that. Thoughts on that? They brought in re ette here and Jack Cohen coming in and then drawn past Anthony Russo. A lot of different picture where, what did, what made you stand out from the Braas? Okay, you mentioned a quarterback there, I didn't have on my list. Who did they Sign? They brought in Jack Cone and Reid Ette here in the kind of that post supplemental kind of, Hey, we're adding off people here at the end. Okay. Yeah, cuz I was gonna say like, my initial reaction was like, will Lewis and Hines Ward here? They, they maybe didn't do any homework, but Anthony Russo is a guy. He started as a freshman at Temple that was arguably his best season. He went on to Michigan State and he's just not, he's not a guy for me and I want him to be a guy. And I, and I love Russo and he is a a a a northeast pisan and a good dude. But, you know, I don't see NFL in his future Jwan Pass. This is a guy who came out very highly touted started his career off at Louisville actually early on. He had had enjoyed a little bit of success there, and then he was one of these quarterbacks down at the H B C U Bowl. And man, you know, I I I was talking to a lot of the scouts down there and I'm just like, man, what happened to pass? What happened? Like, how did he fall from Grace so far at Louisville? And like when I tell you Reid, like he wasn't even one of the top five quarterbacks at the H B C U and none of those ki none of those quarterbacks made it out that game. Well actually, yeah, not even the kid we had at the NFL PA bowl from, from a and m a killed glass, right? He didn't even make it. And so like when I said Jwan Pass is getting drafted in the xfl, I'm like, he wasn't even one of the top five guys at the H B C U blah. I'm like, what are they doing? Pass and Russo. So Jack Cone. And, and, and whoever else you mentioned will probably be the other, the two quarterbacks. So we just wasted five minutes of this podcast that we'll never have back, and it might be the highlight Ofan Pass and Anthony Russo XFL career, but j Patrick running back outta Florida State. You know, I, I thought, you know, I thought he flashed some great potential when I saw him at the East West Shrine ran hard. Just, I guess was product of the numbers. I'll tell you what, San Antonio might have the best backfield, Kalin b you talk about a pass catcher, he could kind of play that role. And then one of my favorite picks of the whole entire draft, Calvin Turner if you love, you know, if you love football and you're up at two, three in the morning and, and there's nothing else on and you watch a lot of Hawaii football, then you're familiar with Calvin Turner. He's return kicks as a pun, returner, he's returned, kicks as a kick returner. And it's interesting to see him lined up here as a running back. And I, I did cartwheels and pounded the table trying to get him into the nfl PA bowl game. Didn't work out. I think he did go to the hula bowl and the biggest critique was his size. So the fact that he, it looks like he's converting from wide receiver to running back at 5 8, 5 9, that might be the best play, but I think they've got a pretty interesting three headed monster with Patrick Turner. B Bella, that's gonna be interesting. Then you add a two big tree trunk receivers TJ Vasser and then at White out. And then Dylan Parham at Tight End, who, man, he made some good plays for the Chargers down the stretch of the season. I'm surprised they didn't bring him back. I think Vaser and Par, him, you know, you, you do a little grounding pound, you get into the red zone and, and you throw some model hoops to those guys. Could be a good, good recipe there. Luke Juga, I think is a guy that just, you know, lacks the size to play at the nfl, but I think he'll be one of the better offensive linemen in the xfl. Mike Te Rudolph is a guy outta Rutgers that, you know, is just a lunch, lunch bucket guy. And he had a hell of a pro day man. He just, he was so far under the radar. I think he's gonna do very well in this league. I think he's gonna surprise him. People, I think he'll be in amongst the league leaders in Sacks. Mike Tedo, this is a guy that I, I can tell you scouts overlooked him. He's gonna turn some heads in this league. Mike Tedo, remember that name? He's very well coached on the fundamentals. He's not gonna wow you from first appearance, but man, once you start peeling back the layers of that onion, Mike Tedo complain out. I think he's this year's draft class, so keep a lookout for him. Carrie Vincent Jr. It seems like yesterday he was just an Eagles camp at a lsu and that he's had a couple stints with different NFL teams. And then Safety Bub Bold is just a guy I I've always liked. I know Ed Reeb is, is, has been around the Miami program and has kind of been his protege down there at the U the last couple years. So that's what the XFL is about, taking guys like Bubba Boldon and developing the talent and potential that resides inside. So that's your San Antonio Braas. That's good. That's good. You know coach Ward ward there, people making sure you didn't, you know, I'm curious kind of what that would look like here coming in and getting the reigns. Curious to know your thoughts here. My I guess now Sea Dragons, I guess we're going with that. I would never, I'll always ride it as a parenthesis, you know, the Seattle Sea Dragons here, but I, Bendon uci. That was someone that you at least popped a lot, you know, in terms of, hey, this is someone we know. Right? Obviously Steven Monte in there, they othered Brian Leki as well, who I think was a spring leaguer guy. I can't remember, you know, the blues or one of those teams we had. Brian Loki, what did you make of that? And Jim has led and June Jones and Randy Mueller and everybody else up in Seattle. Yeah, Randy Mueller, good friend. So yeah, Loki was with the Giants too recently, so you know, not an NFL guy. He is got a great agent in Mike McCarthy, but not an NFL guy in my opinion. But I think somebody who's gonna come in and compete like Steven Montez at Colorado, I had a chance to scout him in person. Obviously, I think starting as a true freshman and having a rocket launch or arm got a lot of people's attention. But, you know, again, just a guy, if you ever watched some of his interviews, especially early on at Colorado, just like, dude, like, what are you talking about? Little bit of a quirky personality maybe along the lines of a Will Levis, but never really panned out. Never really, like, I felt like watching Stephen Monte at Colorado was just a plateau. He never kind of ascended to where we thought he would be. Bend Ucci. I mean, like he played, I thought, well, in spurts for the Cowboys a couple years ago, I didn't, I didn't really see him as an NFL guy when I went down to James Madison. Now the coach has kind of poisoned my mind a little bit. They just said, this guy is so Hollywood, he's so full of himself. He's so conceited. He rubs teammates the wrong way. And so, like, you know, I didn't view him as a big time prospect. And then before, you know, he is making plays for the Cowboys and I thought he flashed enough potential where he at least deserves another look. So I think Ben Ucci will be the guy. Jawan Greens somebody from Albany that I've always had an in affinity for. And he's a nice ball threat. We had 'em out at the nfl pa collegiate bowl a few years back. He was catching passes from Jeff under Cuffer, who's buried over there on Coach Moorehead's team in Akron now, but under Cuffer to Jawan Green Man, this was, I watched the game in Monmouth where these guys went into like triple overtime, 54, 52. Jawan Green caught like three or four touchdowns. He probably drops like another two or three in that game. And that's really, I mean, if I'm being honest, like he dropped some passes throughout the week at the NFL PA ball that I thought kind of hurt his stock as well. So like, Jujuan Green to me is a guy, if he can just cure some of those drops, he's an NFL guy all day. The the the next guy I get excited about, man, Julian Davenport, who I believe came out of Bucknell. I called him the, the condo. This is one of the biggest wingspans I've ever seen in my life. And I don't have it all in front of me. I know it's 80 something inches, but this guy's wingspan is like eight feet. And he actually started some games, I believe for the, for the Texans. And so I don't know if he got hurt or what happened, but again, that's what we find out about guys like Julian Davenport and the xf. And I'm excited to see what he brings. Cause I would imagine he's gonna be the starting left tackle there. And then Paul Gratton is somebody who started off at Villanova, smart as hell, was all CAA, transferred over to ucla, finished his career there. Maybe not the prototypical size. Switching and saving with Geico is easy. So you're freed upon her life's big questions. Like if a person can get discombobulated, does that mean the rest of the time they're just like combobulated? Are we humans always in a state of conation until of course something dramatic happens and we are discombobulated for a while, then we go back to being combobulated Kad. Yeah, that's funny how that works. Switch and save with Geico. It's easier than you think Home. They say it's where the heart is. They also say it's wherever you make it. They don't say, it's where you unload your stuff. Get tired halfway through unpacking. Use some boxes as furniture. Realize your oven's in a box that doubles as a nightstand. Don't want to buy a new nightstand and use a towel as an oven mitt instead. But no matter where you call home, Geico makes it easy to bundle and save on renters and car insurance. Easier than grabbing a piping hot panel with a towel that's a bit too thin and trying to quickly get it to the counter. Hot, hot, Hot, hot Center. Obviously being a hard position to make it at, especially when you come from the fcs. And yeah, he played his last year at ucla, but West Coast kind of flying under the radar. How about PJ Halls? Flip, flipping a defense. This was like a second or third round pick. We all know I think the Raiders took him which was no surprise cause he had all kinds of off the field baggage and so, but he was always an electrifying guy. Could bring some pass rush from the interior move up and down the defensive line. And obviously his heart is still into it, so I hope that the, the light switch flips on and he, that's a guy that can just straight up kick some in this league. Nick Laos is a guy who could kick some in a street flight cuz he is a jiujitsu and black belt and he's outta Dartmouth. I know he spent a little bit of time with, with the, the Giants and he's just, he's just a, he's a good football player without a true position. Like he's kind of too small for defensive tackle, not big enough for defensive end. Probably too slow to play linebackers. So like, they're gonna have to get creative with him. He's a good football player. But where do you play him, I think is the question with Nick Lelos. But obviously another guy with a Dartmouth degree that doesn't need to be doing this. He obviously loves the game. All, all Ivy League performer and then Tsar skipper, like if you're looking for the Paul Oror for this league, like Tsar Skipper, is it? Man, this guy's so chiseled. He was trained in the New Jersey, I think coming out. I forget where he came from. Maybe Maryland. I, I could be wrong there, but dude, like I remember the first day I interviewed Cesar Skipper when we got done with the interview and I like patted him on the back of the arm. I was like, yo dude wrapped up, huh? He's like, oh, you know it bro. Don sun's out. He start flexing and like, this guy is so ripped. And then he tested really well. So you, he, he, again, I think he had some injuries cuz he was doing really well with the Steelers. At one point is our skipper, and I think this is a guy he comes into the XFL proves his worth. He's gonna get the call up to at least a practice squad, I would imagine. Kareem or at Cornerback is a guy with NFL experience that I wanted to highlight. I I kind of liked him coming out. And then ROEs Ferris, the Hawaii cornerback who we had at, at the NFL PA Bowl and made a handful of interceptions throughout the week. Had himself a good NFL PA Bowl game. Think he was with the Falcons last time. I was able to keep up with him. Again, somebody that has a great agent and Evan Brennan. So I expect him to be working the phone lines and pointing out to the NFL teams about how well ro just FARs does in the xfl. And I believe he can return kicks as well. So that bodes well for his NFL potential. Out 10 for the C Dragons. How did Jim Coach has do? Oh yeah, we forgot about those. Yeah, <Laugh>, Well, I'll give the C Dragons looking at it right now. I'm gonna give him a solid eight. Yeah. Okay. I, yeah, well, I just wanna know top and bottom at the end, I think we'll salvage the worst, worst the first, cause I think I called this winners and losers of the drafts. We really should like, at least we, we'll not we'll name a winner and the Loser you know, your friend, you said you talked to him here. Coach Beck over in St. Louis. we'll be, you know, probably one of the franchise teams, right? You know, whether, whether we want beer or not with the Con and all that. Ryan Willis, you talked about before, AJ McCan there, they brought in Nick Tiana as well recently with the quarterback. Additional one on that. So you said good on that. Any other thoughts there from the bes? Yeah, Nick Tiana. In fact, I remember a couple years ago, Von Hutchins was sitting next to me and we were getting ready for kickoff. He goes, all right, Rick, who you got? Who's the MVP gonna be? I looked at him, I said, man, based on what I've seen all week, there's only one guy, Nick Tiana this guy throws a beautiful deep ball. He's a gun slinger. He's got plenty of confidence, maybe borderline too much confidence. But that's interesting because, I mean, I just don't see room for him. And like, that's just Anthony Beck and Dave Bowler identifying a, a quality arm and injecting him into the mix. Cause I did, I did speak to Beck, like right after the QB draft, and I, I, it was, was so raw and fresh. And I, he's like, oh man. He's like, yeah, cuz I was like, yo, you know, Tyler Bra is a guy we had out at the hub who was with the Chiefs and is looking to play. I was like, yo, Tyler bra might be a guy you want to check out. He's like, no, we're good at quarterback man. We feel great about it. And then I went back and looked after our conversation. I was like, oh, well you got Ryan Willis and AJ mcr. I wonder why he's good. I think I, we talked about it at the top of the show. I think Ryan Willis is gonna be the best quarterback in this league. St. Louis is gonna probably have the best attendance if they play games there in this league. So I like what they're doing there. In terms of Anthony back, I had a chance to work with him at the nfl, pa a bowl. He's been one of our tight end coaches for the last four or five years. Just one of the best coaches I've been around. So I think this battle halls team, like Mateo Durant, again, he was at the NFL PA Bowl but couldn't play cause he was hurt. But he did the interview thing and got to meet with all the teams. And so, like to me, Mateo Durant out of Duke was a borderline draftable prospect, but I think he had an ankle and, you know, that just kind of ruined his whole draft stock. So I think, you know, they've got a great backfield. Then you inject a guy like Austin Pro into the mix. He could do some interesting things. He's also a a, a returner. And then I was intrigued to see Dante die. I mean, how many lives does this guy have? But he's so, he's had so many, like, borderline career ending injuries. So I think for nothing else, I these, that's a storyline I'm excited to see. Like Dante died. That guy was making some big plays for Tampa Bay at one point back in the day. And the tight end, Dani Haskins outta Rutgers, I'm not surprised. He's really just a blocker. But I mean, this guy is all jacked up, six foot 5, 255 pounds. My guy Marco Bataglia over there at Rutgers vouch Tom. And so, like Dani has, he is just a big body people mover and I like that pick John Toth he could play center, he could play guard, he could play tackle. I think he was a senior ball guy. So like that was another good pick. Mike Rose outta Iowa State, just a very smart headsy linebacker who could make plays. I think he'll do very well as the mike there. Chaning struggling outta Michigan. I always felt like he, he played very well. I can't remember what the last team he was on, but I just know this guy was balling out. Jim Harbaugh always spoke very highly of him. So Chaning Stribling is a guy I expect with that kind of size and pedigree for him to continue doing well. And to me he's an NFL caliber type of cornerback. I haven't been around him to know the person, but in terms of the talent, I like everything I've seen. And then Ben DeLuca, the safety outta Charlotte was somebody that I didn't love everything I saw, but a a lot, lot of scouts that I trust and respect did at Charlotte. I was there in person. I liked about five other guys better, but they kept telling me, check up Ben DeLuca, check up Ben DeLuca. I don't know he, he might play, he might be a linebacker, he might be a safety. I know he plays some special teams. I just put 'em on my list because I think it's a guy that does have some love in the NFL scouting community. So you should at least like have him on your radar. Yeah, tripling was a USFL guy as well. So these are some of these guys that, you know, were, were signed and we're able to kind of get into that loophole here before the end of the year. Which I think we'll expect to see a lot more USFL guys here once the, the first year contract is up. Faso. Finally, I, I think we did pretty good on time here. We said a little over an hour to do all these. We got Vegas Vipers I guess outta 10 for the battle hawks, just to pretend like we're doing that and then we'll Go back. Yeah, no, I mean, listen, I gotta give the battle hooks. I think they're the biggest winner. I'm gonna give them a, because I feel like they have the best head coats. I think they have the best quarterback. I think they'll have the best home field advantage. And those are some three big building blocks to, to have a foundation of. Also just Anthony Beck, I think has the best teeth of any head coach. I think he's just, every time I see him, he's always just really smiling. He's really drove me out. Like I think he, he's always doing interviews and he just, Good, you know what, that's who he is. Like that's no. Like that's truly who Coach Beck is. And that's gonna go a long ways with his players. Like if you look at some of these coaches, he's, he might be the youngest and I think this, this way, the game of football is trending to be a young man's game. I think Becks is probably the best guy of the bunch. Alright, finally, Vegas Vipers here. Louis Perez, you, you know, the old gunslinger show up there at jla McClendon on that. Final thoughts on the Vipers here as we round out our breakdowns? Yeah, I think we, we did a pretty deep dive in the quarterback situation there at the top of the show. If you just tune it in, you can, you know, go back, watch the, the opening segment there in terms of where and what Jalen McClendon has done. And, and Louis Perez, I think if you're watching this show you should be well versed on one Lewis Perez. Otherwise, what are you doing here? John Lovet I heard you guys talk about on the show at a Baylor. I think it can give a good one two punch there with Matt Jones. And Jones is another guy that I really liked coming outta Florida, a big bruising running back. He was drafted relatively high by the Washington football team somewhere in the middle rounds. I think he had a a, a resurgence with Buffalo a couple years back. I know we had him at the Hub football camp one or two times in the last year or so. So I mean, when you talk about a big bruising running back I know there's a couple teams in the league that, that can use a running back like that. I think Matt Jones just has to go out show and prove that he's in shape, that he can do it on a consistent basis and, you know, be utilized. You know, if I recall correctly though, he was able to catch the ball a little bit out of the back field. So if he could show some of that and, and, and prove that he is more than just a two down dump, then you know, maybe Matt Jones finds his way back into the league. Marty Bryant maybe the biggest name brand player in this XFL draft. We'll see where his head is at and and if it's on right then you know, maybe he gets back into the league. Jeff Batt is a guy I think coming out of what Oklahoma, really speedy guy that should do well on paper. The Vipers have a good team on paper. And again, I don't know if this is accurate, Deandre Tori, they have him listed as a wide receiver. He was just an Eagles camp as a running back and he's only like five nine. So I know he did have some past catching ability. So I don't know, like I, I'm not sure. Is he converting to a slot or is that just a typo on the, the sheet? We'll see Jamele Debe outta Maine. Another one of our NFL p able alumni and he's been bouncing around the league in terms of just brute strength. You talk about throwing guys out of the club Jamele Debe man is, this guy is just ferocious. He's tenacious, he plays through the whistle. He's gonna endear himself to the Vipers fans. He's gonna be one of those guys that you know, he'll, he'll give you a little bit of the business now after the whistle. And I like that. Robert Windsor was a guy that kind of raised my eyebrows at a Penn State, cause I like this young man. I think he's somewhat limited athletically, a little bit stiff hip, but man, all he did was produce and make plays. He was a team captain. One of those first one in last one out guys, Robert Windsor who was I believe drafted by the cults and maybe the fourth round or so. This is a guy again, I don't know what the story was, why he didn't make it, if he ran into some injuries. You can only keep up with so many guys read when you're doing the NFL draft for 21 years. You have trouble keeping tabs on all these guys. But Vic Beasley is another one. A lot of what's in, and Joey Clin clin scales from the Raiders who's got a really extensive NFL background. You can see Matt Jones, Mar Bryant Vic Beasley. They, they, this is a team that favored veteran guys and I think it's a nice combination. I I I give this a seven and a half. Seven and a half. Yeah, no, I think your knowledge in recall is just fine. I think sometimes people, it's like there's a lot's, a lot of people's time here. I I get confused. The catalog of index back there, man. Yeah, no, I get confused enough of, okay. Who was on the, you know, the Alphas back in Spring League of last year? No, we were, we're good with that. So I think we did good. Vit seven and a half. So you gave Battle Hawks, you gave them a nine, you thought they were the winners. Who do you think flunked out here? The losers of the XFL draft and not the players, just the coaches. Oh, I mean, I, I would've chosen the San Antonio Braas based on their quarterback draft picks, but I think they kind of salvaged that with some of the guys that you mentioned there. So, oh, I hate to say somebody's a loser. I guess we'll just stick with the San Antonio Braas for now. But everybody's a winner after the draft read, you know that. No, this was good. This was exciting. I thought the USFL drafts last year was really good. I thought the exit, I would've preferred a little bit more prime time and highlighting some of the stuff I, you know, it was good that we went all day and you know, obviously it wasn't done for like casual fans, whatever to be engaged in, but I thought that it could have done like a little bit more like the USFL than I thought that was good. Let's highlight the first couple rounds at night, make it more of an event. You know, even doing the quarterback one, like at 11:00 AM I thought like, I thought you could have highlighted that a little bit more as well. But what do I know You would've hoped that with, again, the extensive background in Hollywood and TV connections that we could have done something a little bit more extravagant. At the very least go find two bozos like you and myself to go there and chat about it. But they chose not to that I'll never understand that. I think, I think the C drops the ball there significantly as well. If you wanna connect with your fandom look no further than the league draft, right? Like after the Super Bowl and World Cup, the NFL draft is the most watched sporting event because people love this stuff. And to not have talking heads and knowledgeable analyst up there reacting to the picks. I thought it, I thought it did. The fan base unjust and hey, we know a lot of folks over there, so if they're watching and they're tuned in, which I'm sure some of 'em are, hit your boy up, we're available, you know, <laugh> Well that, that's the thing is, and I know next to nothing about any of this stuff, but I at least can, you know, that's been my whole business and I do wedding videos like I don't know anything about, but I can, I can present a platform here, right? That we could do, and I'm not trying to pitch any of this up, but I do agree of like, you know, having you and you know, John Vogel and all the XL news sub guys on and we, you know, Cody Mae and their like all these guys, like you have so many smart college and fantasy and nfl like all this kind of stuff. I just would really like to see that highlighted more. I think you, like, you can do more. I think there's a hurdle there of like, how do we make this be approachable? Well Here's the deal, like the players deserve it, first of all. But if we're being honest, like there's really not, like all the, all the people that you've mentioned, I'm familiar with them, you're familiar with them. The XFL and the USFL might not be, but the, the fact of the matter is like, you know, these networks are always looking for the former player broadcaster. And let's be honest, there's not too many folks that are well versed out there that can talk about these players the way that we do and are knowledgeable about it because I've always respected CFL scouts. None other for the fact that you've gotta have a keen scouting eye cuz yeah, you gotta know how to identify talent. You need to learn how to identify fringe talent and why a guy might not make it or what his downfalls might be or why he should be a CFL guy. And I think the Spring League also now will have them out at the NFL PA Bowl. They're already popping up at the hub. I'm sure they'll be at the East West Shrine Bowl and Senior Bowl and Hula Bowl and all the other all Star game events as well. But I mean, I just don't think that they had somebody in house qualified to talk about it. And it's, you know, I thought we did a pretty good job here making it look easy. But listen to just rattle, I mean, I just went and looked up at the rosters and found 10 guys that I'm familiar with and, and just going off the cuff here with you, but I I, I don't know if the XFL has somebody in house that can do what we just did here for the past hour. I'm just keeping real <Laugh>. Well Rick, I really appreciate it. You know, I, we definitely need to try to schedule you if we can get you on for the supplemental draft here when that happens in January. Your knowledge. Yeah. When is it? January? What do we know? Nah, I don't think they have a publicly announced yet, yet. Sometime in January, I assume the second they can, after those US l contracts are expired. Do we still have someone that wants to say goodbye before I let you go? And then I'll do it Time And then I'm gonna, I'll transition here. So this is my daughter Ocean. She's my cohost over at the football Playbook Show on Jacob Sports. If you guys wanna catch more football talk each and every day, Monday through Friday, 10:00 AM to New Eastern, right? Thank you. And we're getting over our food com coma read, I hope the Thanksgiving and the travel and the family and food and everything treated you guys well. And all the listening audience really respect the heck out of the Mar Cash show. Great, great job as always, man. And, and we're fans and listeners, so appreciate you. Well, perfect. So Rick's gonna, yeah, Rick's gonna say goodbye. I'll transition here. And we got Rod preta, but Rod's coming up here. Rick, thank you all so much again, you guys have a good day and take care. Rock on. All right guys, I appreciate that. Stick around here. Gonna transition, just give a couple quick thoughts here and then we'll go to Rod Peterson coming up. Got back from Gray Cup. Really appreciate that. Everyone that watched all of our coverage over there, I was really surprised. I didn't really know what the, the CFL attend viewership would do this year. You know, last year we were coming off of all the xfl CFL talks blew everything out of the water. I think we hit over 14,000 views on our Gray Cup pre-show. So I really appreciate that and that speaks to me that as much work that we do and put into the XFL and the usfl, I think there's obviously a huge need and a, you know, want for CFL content as well. And so really happy to do that. I really was on the fence, like, are are we doing Hamilton again next year? Like what is the thought process there? And I think we're full speed ahead, obviously really excited for Vancouver in 2024, but certainly next year looking good for Hamilton as well. With all the viewership there. I'm gonna toss to Rod now Rod joined me here a little bit before Thanksgiving. So we, we will transition that. I'll be hearing the chat cuz I gotta play it out live. So if you guys have any comments in the chat, I'll come back on, excuse me at the end of the show and that we will do, I will announce the Doug flute giveaway cuz I know I had promised that we were gonna do that last week and then that got lost and all the weeds with Greg Parks coming on and the pre-draft and all that stuff. We did the pre-draft episode and then we did the quarterback thing and we did the draft and we were Great Cup. So I have it over here. I'll go grab it. And we will give that the way at the end. And then Robert is getting the US fellow Chase cookies jersey. So we will give that that that's given the way, but we will go ahead and send that out. Have a bunch of hard drives and other things to mail for my work. So we will do that. I will try to play this video now. Hopefully this works. We'll transition to Rod. I'll be here in the chat and we'll see you guys in a little bit about 25 minutes, 28 minutes with Rod reacting to gray Cup and cfl, what's next? Randy Abro and all that stuff. Well you were so kind to invite me on your show last Friday. It really meant a lot to me. And now I, I said I have to return the family. You have Rod Peterson here. How are you doing sir? I'm doing great Reid. Thank you. Always a pleasure to come on the vaunted mark Ka Making moves here, making moose. I think we did good on our C show so I think maybe people are paying attention now. I really appreciate it. You guys had a great, you know, showing and and party everything else going on. But I wanted to get your thoughts, talk everything, you know, gray Cup and the festival and all that. What was your biggest takeaway just from the week, the game, kind of anything else? My takeaway was that when the chips are down, the CFL always delivers and the playoffs and especially the championship game. I said read the gray Cup should have been sponsored by FedEx because the C always delivers. It was a great game. I was back here in Florida watching the game on ESPN and I thought it was awesome with the snowbirds coming through. They had a camera in the snowbird cabin for the first time that I've ever seen. I thought the concerts were good, the game was great. Like I is from my perspective it was an awesome great cup. I expected it and they delivered it. Yeah, even, you know, cuz obviously my family know that we're at the game and like my mom's watching it, you know, never watched a C game. She's like, well this is great. I mean, it really, if you're trying to get that casual audience, I do think it's a good, you want that game to deliver if you're gonna get the most use. What did your mom say? Because I want everybody's opinion. What did she think of the whole Deal? Thought it was great. I think, I think the last quarter makes people feel like the game itself was better throughout. I do think it was a little sleepy in the first half and obviously that last eight minutes or whatever it was, was pretty thrilling in there where it really kind of seemed like it could have went either way. Well, you know what, it was a classic CFL game. I mean, that's the one thing you know, and I think a lot of people watching right now, what my problems are with the cfl, it's lack of innovation in a way. It's aver and alert allergy to change. But I've often said that when it comes to the game, the CFL has always gotten it right. The rule, the rules are great, the athlete's great. It comes down to the last minute usually. And that's what happens. Do you think Chad Kelly Good chance that he's the Argos quarterback here? I mean I know McLeod was kind of, you know, teasing in retirement and all of that and Jack Kelly came in and and kind of made it his game there at the end. Well he has to be. I mean unless they've changed the rules, which I go back to it again. They can fiddle far around with certain things. They did have nine rule changes last year, but to the rules that really matter, one is if you're a rookie import American, you have to sign a two year deal. That's not, they're not changing that dude <laugh>. And you know, the last guy that I really, you know, that anybody even cared about was Johnny Manzel. He came in and whether you think he lit it up or not, he still wanted out after his first year in the C and it's like you're not getting out. But same thing with Chad Kelly. So why, you know, you see Rider fans, obviously I know them cuz I lived there for 48 years. They're like, oh, maybe we would should get Chad Kelly. You can't, you can't just cherry pick from any team or why would you expect that? He wants to, maybe he likes Toronto. He's got an interesting story there. So we'll see how the off season plays up. But that's, that's the other thing that was very predictable, that this guy would come off the bench and Rider fans would think that they would just pick him cuz they want him. It doesn't work that way. So yeah, where that was obviously had a lot of questions and you rob Band Stone. I know our mutual friend was on our show talking and I've heard Dan Evans, I what, what did the riders do here now in the off season? They clear a lot of money to sign whoever they can. Cuz that's what it's gonna take. Because if you notice Cori Futos been literally silent since he left Regina. He's not stupid. The riders clearly showed what they think of him, put two and two together. What do you think he thinks of the way he was treated yet if Vo Levi Mitchell Science and Hamilton and, and and I often call it the quarterback and Coach Mary go-round or the musical chairs you ever played musical chairs read, you know, when the music stops when the music stops, if these guys have nowhere else to go the court, they're gonna take whoever's available. But bo it would appear if he's not gonna Hamilton, it seems like he might go to Toronto, right? And Chad Kelly's under contract. So what are the riders gonna do? They might end up having to sign Cody Fugato. I, I could like potentially see that happening, but it's, you know, we're just a week past the Gray Cup. We got a long ways to go to a free agency. I literally have no idea what they're gonna do. But if they don't get bold, let's put it this way, they're in a lot of trouble. Curious your thoughts. The game itself, we were there a lot of empty seats. We were talking afterward, you know, is it that Ry fans, okay, we're like protesting and we don't wanna give it to Winnipeg. Is it just that there's no home team in the thing? But that's horrible, right? Cause if you're rotating the gray Cup, what did you think? I mean to me there was a lot of empty seats. I have to go by just what I heard face value from Saskatchewan. People, you were there for the first time, they're real, they're genuine, you know, you might not like what they have to say. It's very similar to me. You may not like what I have to say, but at least I'm telling you what I think and what I believe. And Rider fans bought tickets expecting the riders to be in the gray cup. That's what it was. And then when they weren't, they didn't want to go cuz it was cold. Let's be honest. That's it. How would you like to come home to a bartender who will fix you any cocktail you want? I'll have an old fashioned, I'll Have a Marita now you can with the Artesian Home cocktail maker. 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Does that jive with you? Yeah. I mean, but is that, I mean is that why Regina hasn't hosted a gray Cup in so many years? I mean, is it just there's not enough people there outside of the diehards that are coming into, I mean we were at brunch that morning in our waitress. She's like, I've never been to a rough rider game. I'm like, you like you live. I don't, I dunno what you do here. You know, <Laugh>, it's, that's rare. That's incredibly rare that you would meet somebody that hasn't been to a rider. I think I've known, met like two people in my life that live in Regina and were raised and never went to a rider game. So I mean their battling the rough riders a pr battle <laugh>, if you will. And as are the cfl. You, you noticed that if you didn't before you went to breakup, you'd know that now leaving. And this is quite frankly one of the biggest reasons why I'm, you know, now living in Florida. Like I came home from the Super Bowl last year in LA and I said, we need to make Canadian sporting events must attend. And I literally got drawn and quartered and nailed to the cross and lit on fire. Nowhere did I say they need to uptick prices. I never said that. I said we need to make our events must attend and the national media and a lot of beat reporters just kill me. I said, you know what, I'm done. Because no matter what I say, you guys argue point being the 22, 20 22 Gray Cups should have been must attend, but it wasn't so good luck. Cuz where do you go from here? I remember that. I remember all that going down and yeah, people like it's even I've heard, you know, they, they, they're trying to charge more now, but, you know, keep it smaller. Do you bring in extra seats and then charge way less? Like, I don't know what you do, but to me the optics even compared to we were in Hamilton last year, just looked way less. And obviously going back to Hamilton to get, I think just being in the more populated areas. But it was really alarming to me to walk in there and see some of the empty seats. Well and back to the, the PR nightmare, the narrative was that you couldn't get a hotel room, but you told me you didn't have a problem. I mean, I don't live in Regina anymore. I'd had to get a hotel. I didn't have a problem. Where are the people that are having a problem getting hotels? Cuz you and I had no problem. And by the way, I paid $90 a night at a nice hotel. So I again, maybe they were talking to the wrong people. Maybe you and I knew where to go. I don't know. But those are the headaches you asked. Why has Regina not had breakups? They say no hotels hard to get to. You don't fly direct from Seattle as you found out to get. It's not easy to get to. So it is battling. You need to really wanna go if you're gonna go, you really wanted to go and I hope that you had a good time, but you're not gonna go there to get a tan, you know? No, it was, I mean I, we were really dreading it. I mean, my wife and I was like, I don't really know how this is gonna go. I mean, Hamilton was one thing and you know, you were going through Toronto and I was, I was really scared, but I do, I thought everything lived out. I thought the city was great. We had lots of good food and beer. I mean there's a lot of other stuff there. I don't like the narrative. There's no hotel rooms. What the hell are you gonna do with like, we had a great time. I mean, and I live in Seattle. That's a pretty, you know, populated area. You know, you live in Florida now. I mean that's pretty Very densely populated. Yeah. So, you know, I'll say it again. I think a lot of people didn't go cuz they didn't think they could get hotels. Cuz the word was you couldn't, you can't get hotels. I had no problem and you had no problem. So again, I, I came off of it this way. I thought the, where we started this, I thought the game was great. I thought the telecast was great. You know, you saw people complaining about the fact that the entertainment stages, the singers stages weren't on the field. They were up on the concourse, blah, blah, blah. That's the one thing I think the CFO's battling next year. If they want sell out Hamilton, and let's not forget it's only 24,000 seats compared to Saskatchewan, 33,000. That's, that's a big difference. But if the narrative becomes, oh, it's better on television than being in the stands, there's not a real hook to go. But again, that's not my battle to fight. When I was on your show, you it was just following Ambros and all of that. We had the big media stuff. Big takeaways from that, now that you've had the chance to kind of reflect on it. I mean, we had the ambrosie tenureship, we have the Saturday playoff games, a lot of other stuff from that. What, what did you strike when you had a chance to kind of reflect on it? Well, I didn't watch the state of the address. I went by what you told me and then what they said afterwards about moving the playoff games. And when they did it in oh eight, I was a proponent of it. I thought it was a great idea to move it to Saturday. I think we do, we discussed this, the ratings tanked. So they went right back the next year to Sunday. And I'm like, you gotta give it a chance, but I can't argue why you're going, I can't, the the data's there why you would not do this. But I think back then, Reid, that was 14 years ago. The landscape football-wise in Canada's changed a lot since then. Back then the CFL used to clean the NFL's clock for ratings. They don't anymore. They, they trail the NFL for ratings on Sundays. So this is a very good time to do it. I applaud that as far as all the other things, the genius sports, and we're gonna do this and we're gonna do that. I did the expansion talk even come up Halifax in that. Yeah, I mean it was always one of the questions, but I, we, Rosie talked about the temp team and I see a lot of people now saying like, it's more like cry wolf now. It's not. When we get a temp team, it's if we get a temp team, I mean it really feels like it's continuing to drag out. Well, yeah, and to be honest, that's, you know, kind of when I, when I got finished with anything, Randy and Brosy says I think they killed it with this touchdown Atlantic when they announced it last spring that Toronto was gonna place Saskatchewan and Halifax. And the media came away from that news conference going, we're really close. We're really close now. And I think Ambros said, we're closer than we've ever been to having a 10th team. And then the weekend comes and the guy that I know, well that's the money man behind the schooner goes, I'm not even going to the game cuz we're not even talking and I don't wanna give people the wrong impression. I'm like, I'm done. I'm out. Why would you believe anything after that? Yeah, I just don't get how that can be just so disconnected. Those messaging where, you know, you're, you're saying this and you're coming out. Like that's the one thing he's asked about all the time. I mean, everything I see him on that is the number one question. And it just seems like if you have no plan at all, then, but you're talking about it. I I never understand that. I I hope you're not asking me for the answer because I don't have it. I have no idea. So, you know, the commissioner's job is to focus on the good, not the bad. And that, that's not a surprise. There's a lot of good things that the CFL has going for. I mean, you can look at the BC lines and what's going on there. Everybody feels that the Edmonton Elks are going to be good at some point under Chris Jones, they had to start somewhere. So those markets, which are important markets, every market in the CFOs important. But lemme ask you this, it's your show, and I don't want to take a hairpin turn here, but somebody wrote in to our blog, rod peterson.com this weekend, said, how ironic is it that the one team that wants to leave the cfl, the Toronto Argonauts win it. It is a little ironic, isn't it? Well, I, I saw a lot of, yeah, no one in Toronto cares. And I saw a lot of reporters arguing with fans and it's like, well you're, you keep spelling this, you know, spouting and hey, nobody cares and then nobody cares. And you're focused on that. I don't know, I don't see a lot of Toronto people going crazy. I know you knock MABA was at the hockey game. I mean, I saw, I I think it's good, but I don't know what that parade looks like. I think it was today or tomorrow as we record this, right? The, the right they do a Victory parade. They're doing, I got the email from the Argos they're doing, they're honoring the team at, I can't remember, I'm not a Toronto guy, but it's, it's a place downtown right across from the Sport Check and the Cactus Club if I'm correct. One something square. So it's not a, I don't think it's a parade per se, but they're gonna have a little rally there, which I think is awesome and they deserve you know, I've never spent one day living in Toronto as a Toronto and Tony. And so I don't pretend to get inside their head and what it's gonna take for them to support the Argos. What I do remember long before you Reid were probably even thought of was the 1991 Argos winning the Gray Cup when the team, you've heard about it a million times, obviously when the team was owned by John Candy, Wayne Gretzky and Bruce Mcna, they were packing Sky Elm every game, 55,000. They won the Gray Cup. It was N Narnia. And what's happened since I don't understand it, but I think anybody that's grown up in Toronto remembers that. So they had a, they had a good crowd for the East Final. I I don't think that Toronto aaus Heartbeat is dead in that town, but I don't know. I'm not from there. It is, I I agree with you though. It is a bad look where there's been so much anti M LSC and anti Argos and all this kind of stuff and then, you know, I see it's not even on the website. They haven't even posted on the thing, what the hell is going on. I saw Bob Irving going crazy about it. So it's, it's a mix there where if any of the other, you know, eight teams won it, they'd be doing back flips. And it is the one that's kind of the, I don't know if they're the heel of the, of the cfo, but it kind of feels that way sometimes. I don't know what it is. I mean, as each year goes by that I'm not working in the league full time. I drift further away from what's going on. But I mean, here I addressed a high school football team here the other day on, you know, other part of life, the recovery world, a mental strength and stuff. And one of the coaches came up to me and was talking about what Bob Irving had tweeted and how bad it is on the Argos. I'm like, well that's not very positive. The Hall of Famer Bob Irving taping, taking a swipe at the Great Cap Champions and they're talking about it down here in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. That's not good. But on the other hand, was Bob wrong? Right? They, you know, I didn't see their website, but if he's saying that they didn't update it to the fact that they won the league, that's not good. You know, Peewee hockey teams have <laugh> are more with it than that. Now, the first thing I thought was they're too busy partying. You know, I was the voice of the team for 20 years. The two, you know, that won two championships the next day is a blur <laugh>. You know what I mean? So yeah, it's somebody's job, but it just kind of goes back to what Mcle, Bethel Thompson said. I will, I'll take that with me. Well into the off season, what he said on the Wednesday or Thursday at Gray Cup, where the narrative and the problems and the negative tone of the CFL starts at the top and it's a crab bucket. And we don't celebrate ourselves, which we should, we really should. But here is somebody taking a strip off the Gray Cup champions cuz they hadn't updated the website. Not that positive. But I think I I but I get into that too with the xfl cuz I am, you know, I'm, they always, I miss her negative whatever, but I don't think anything is improved by sitting around and saying, this is fine. I mean, I think you need to, I think you can celebrate, right? And, you know, the, the game and everything else and the festival, but there, there's always room to improve, especially with the cfl. Like I think having people like Bob or you or you know, these people that, that have followed and been a part of the league for so long. And I think you have to have that or else nothing ever changes, right? You'd think, but you know, I have people in the league, people that were in the league far longer than me when I, when I point out those types of things, rod hates the CFL rod's, anti CFL Rod's a CFL hater. And I'm like, that's why I've just kind of stopped giving my commentary. I went to Great Cup Week, I celebrated it, but I'm not gonna point out their mistakes. I told you how much I love the hundred and ninth grade cup. Like they don't want who, who likes having their mistakes pointed up. Not too many people, you know, <laugh>, you know. So, and by the way, as I said on my show with you, I'm so grateful that during that 2020 season being wiped out, you and I met, I just really thought that the XFL partnership was gonna happen. And I'm, I guess maybe deep down I'm upset at Randy and Bros for duping us that the week of the regular season he just pulled the rug out from everybody and said, Nope, we're not talking anymore. Well I, and I told you I think it was a duping on both sides. I mean, I feel like that really was used to buy time for the Exel side as well. I mean, I don't know, I don't think they came into that as, hey let's fi you know, let's like play it. But definitely both sides benefited from let's have a lot of the people talk about this for three and a half months. And then, yeah, sorry Anne Rosie was on, was it Donnie and Dolly? Like, oh yeah, we talked about the down thing for five minutes and then moved on. I'm like, I got a lot of YouTube content outta that. Five minutes of talking. You guys did Well. Yeah, no kidding. Well I guess the point is, all I'm saying is it got me so fired up about partnering with American interests that I said if you're not gonna do it, I'll do it. You know, so here we are in Florida and I'm doing, I'm doing outreach in the community here on behalf of our show and our brand and we're now on the air in Atlanta, we're growing in America. And guess what? It's awesome. And I just really get the sense that the, that the CFL doesn't wanna do that. Like I've had some of your XFL guys write me and say, why do you think the Rock was meeting with Larry TBA when he was in Toronto? I'm like, I have no idea. I don't, I don't even know. The only reason I reported that, which I think I told you, you either texted or DM me was two very influential football people told me the meeting was happening. They're like, put it out. And that's all they said. I wasn't trying to stir any, you notice nobody denied it, Reed, nobody denied it. But why they were doing it, I have no idea. No, I I was still the cranky that day. I was like, I think Rod just woke up and chose violence this day. Like ah, that's just, I never choose violence, but I'm like, when these guys whom I trust give me a tidbit like that, what am I supposed to do with it? Here's what I realized long ago in this media game, when somebody calls you up and gives you info, they're not doing it cuz they're your friend. They're doing it cuz they want you to put it out. So I did. And I don't know what it means. Well I think a lot is to be said, like you said, for you guys going in the states expanding, you know, I, we, we have, you know, really good, I, I had really no idea what the second year of the C would look like. Cuz you know, last year we were riding off all the XFL stuff and here, you know, we did better views and you know, kind of blew all my expectations out of the water. So I think it says to just having outside opinions and thinking outside and whether you're, you know, moving up or down. I just, I think that it all benefits from that. And it's frustrating to me sometimes where I do feel like sometimes I just a don't, we don't, we don't want your opinion cuz you're, it's like, well, yeah, but I feel, feel like I, I might know something here or have a maybe just an outside thought that maybe not be all, all BOLs, you know? Yeah. But <laugh>, what, what time of the world and society are we living in that we can't host a show like this? And just give our thoughts. Like when you celebrated alternative football media, remember when you said that a couple months ago? And I was like, is that what we are? That sounds weird, but it probably is what we are, you know what I mean? Xfl, usfl C it's anything not nfl. And for you to say that people got upset about that, that didn't really surprise me either. What, what's next here for the do? I mean, coming out last year, it feels like we've rebounded a little bit. The games were good, everything Ambros says he's sticking around. I mean, what, do you see any big stuff here? Are we just back to, you know, pars course and we're just moving forward? Well, let's put it this way, what's disappointing to me. I mean, I'll follow the sources. I've got a lot of football sources here in Florida that are giving me interest. Interesting. It's gonna be business as usual is my point. There's a lot of teams that have camps, open free agent Trio camps here in Florida that I'll be attending right in this area. I think the Elks have one, the rough riders have one, the awes have one. So I'll head down and, and see my, it's business as usual. I think the really disappointing thing for me, if you sit back, like what was your first year read of really, really following the CFL in terms of checking the standings week to week and knowing who the players were Last year after all the got, Okay, so before that you don't even know what the CFL really was. Pre Covid. What was disappointing to me was when they came back after the canceled season, nothing changed other than the Eskimos were renamed the Elks. But other than that, nothing changed. It was all the same personalities whom I love in a lot of ways, but I would've liked to have seen a betting component. You had a, you had a full year to work on having an app, having all these digital assets at your fingertips that you promised you we were gonna get. None of that happened. So my answer to your question is coming back, I don't think too much is gonna change at all. I mean, from what I understand, money is an issue. It's always an issue. I understand it's an issue with the xfl and you're following that far more closely than I am. Like, does Las Vegas have a place to play yet? No. Does it? Not yet. Not yet. No. So that's a problem. So unfortunately, I would love to be the guy and as I think you would too, to be able to go on the air and talk about a league is flourishing and growing and everything's great, similar to, you know, the NFL media does that, but we're gonna be talking about a lot of problems and financial problems if we wanna do that. The other thing is free agency and whatever players are available out there, we're gonna be following that a bit, but I'm not following it as much as I used to. It used to be my everything and now it's just not It wasn't, I think I mentioned it when I was on interesting. Just the people that weren't there this year covering it that were there last year. And I don't know if that's a CFL issue, if that's a print media issue, kind of what the problem is with that. But it is alarming as someone, I, my first news station ever, I walked in and three weeks after I was there, they laid off half the newsroom. So I'm very aware of like this downsizing since I've ever been. And now I'm obviously, you know, do wedding videos, but always aware of that. It's just alarming to me. And I think that's something we need to keep an eye on. You know, when Toronto isn't sending people, when Calgary isn't sending people that, you know, like the Danny Austins of the world, that you would just expect to be there and they aren't there. That is alarming to me from a bigger picture. Well, <laugh>, we could listen, I, I'm 49. I started covering the C in 1991, so do the math. 31 year. I was 18 when, and I'm talking about on Sideline Reporter on Rough Riders Radio. It was, I was not only with that, the Cups and Regina, but I've been to 21 Great Cups and dude, those gray cups were bursting at the scene. Everything, all the news conferences, all the party rooms, the stadia, everything was bursting and now it's a trickle. And you know, there's gonna be a lot of people talking blaming Covid for that. I'm with you on the media cuts. That's hurt the CFL more than anything. That's not the team's fault, but it's still a thing. And that's where Bob's right? I mean, I, I, I joke Bob is, I'm Bob Irving, I love him. But the teams, if you're not being covered in the Toronto Sun or on tsn, you might wanna update your own website. So a lot of the CFO's problems are of their own making. I just remember that I was on a Zoom call with a lot of the reporters after the great couple astro like that frc, whatever thing, and they were lamenting the Zoom calls and like, we don't wanna have Zoom interviews anymore cuz we want everybody in person and you should be like, because you have boots on the ground, you should get these benefits. I'm like, yeah, but then this year, like nobody was there. I mean, it's just interesting. Like you can't, maybe you guys could also benefit from that and not complaining that people aren't showing up at the practices if your station isn't sending you, I mean, there's something to be said for that as well here looking in the future. I just, I I was alarmed with that. It scared me. Well yeah, but that's a reality for me that I've known of for the last few years, right? I mean, I was one of the first guys to get whacked long before Covid, but now I got long time media guys calling me scared it either think it's coming or it has coming. They're like, how do we do what you do? I'm like, ah, not that easy. Takes a lot of balls to be honest with you. But, but that's where we are in this media landscape. And I go back to this, I mean we could sit here and I'm gonna have to run here right away, but we could go back to you know, I saw the thing the other day, C News was tweeting the news. The you know, the account on Twitter that Gary Stern, the TS owner said, you know, the US market is a really untapped market for the cfl. I'm like, you're just dawning on, that's just dawning on you. Okay. And now what are you gonna do about it, Gary? Because I talked about it on our show today. You need to be setting up a popup, a tent at every state, fair, county fair, going to Super Bowl, having a venue there interacting, but they're not doing any of that. None of it. Right? What are you doing to grow within Canada, let alone the United States? That's the thing. They sit around and talk about this stuff forever and nothing ever happens and it's very frustrating. Ta me cuz I've seen the way they used to do it and it's just, it's not the same people running the show now, you know? But I yeah, and I'll let you go here. I appreciate your time Thanksgiving week. You very gracious. Yeah, I be, I mean the Exit Fellows isn't even doing that in the markets that they're playing in in three months. So I mean, <laugh>, you know, if we're gonna criticize the cfl. But anyway, Ron, I really appreciate it. Like I said, it meant a lot to have, you know, let me come on and in person and meet you and Darren and everyone else. So I really appreciate anything else before I let you go. You're awesome guy. Rita, I appreciate you. Happy Thanksgiving to you. Thanks for having me on this special episode and if you need me throughout the winter, you know where to find me. Awesome. Thanks again. Well, there we go. I think I got that all figured out. That was pretty tricky there huh? There. Repost back in. Thank you guys all so much. You know, a little different today just coming back into town. I appreciate Rick being able to come on, you know, trying to record stuff during Thanksgiving, probably easier for my family life, not to record stuff all day on Thanksgiving. So I appreciate that. Appreciate Rick's, you know, hour plus today, day after Thanksgiving, doing all that. And then obviously Rod and for having me come on the show as well, that was really cool to, to see Rod in person. Do all that back. If you missed, it was the Friday before Gray Cup, so that would've been the 18th, his episode there on the channel. I really appreciate that Jenna. Thought it was cool. Anything else before we go? Thought we did decent today. Didn't know what the viewership would be. And hopefully this episode lives a little bit now because we've got the, the XFL roster deep dives gray Cup reacts and all that stuff, you know, still timely, but a little bit more timeless there. I I think this roster stuff will be interesting here for the next few weeks and then we'll get ready for the supplemental draft here in January. I hope you guys all had a great American Thanksgiving. I always get that every year. We had no Canadian Thanksgiving was back on October 10th, but really appreciate that. Before we go, this is long overdue. We are giving away the Doug Flute BC Lions jersey. If you are wanting to get this, I had a call for reviews. This has taken like a month. We had the tried to give away the one and then it wasn't claimed and then we gave away. Robert got the case Cook jerseys. So we really appreciate that. I had a lot of people submit reviews for this. Wanting to get to Doug Flute. This is Royal Retros custom, Doug Fluey, PC Lions, Jersey, brand new Texas. Pete, you are going home the winner. If you claim it now, this is the thing thing, you gotta make it to the end of the episode to find out. But Texas, Pete, you are the winner of the Doug Flute. Robert, we'll get your case. Cook one out guys. We are so rapidly approaching 2,500 subscribers. We added on I think 110, 120 something with all the CFO breakup stuff. So appreciate that. If you guys like all the content we are doing, like us subscribe, hope everyone has a great weekend. Very excited. We'll be watching the Apple Cup tomorrow, university of Washington with my wife. And then the Commanders a big game Sunday. Who would've thought six and five here hosting the Falcons at home? Really appreciate that. Thank you guys all so much. Again, I think that's it today. I think we did all the comments. MRP says happy Thanksgiving. Yes. and if you guys did not, if you did not, check out our Gray Cup Show. 14,000 views insane. 14,000 views, doubled the CFL's own channel in terms of you know, viewers for the Gray Cup or a pre-show. Really appreciate everyone. Farhan Nailer Pinball was on that. We had Dar Davis, we had Darren bombing, everybody that came up on that, Daniela and Adam and Rob Vanstone and Dan Ralph and Jim Mullen. I think that was it. But 14,000 views that tells me that people care and are passionate about the c they are passionate about you know, the different platforms that people can provide. I'm very proud of the platform that we provide here. So thank you guys all so much for checking it out. Hope you have a good Friday. I, I'm gonna play the outro here and I think we should be good. Good show next week. Don't know what the heck we're doing, but I'm sure we'll figure something out cause start reaching out to some guests on Monday, but we'll figure it out. We always do. And we'll see you guys in the next week. Thanks so much.

Episode 119 - LIVE From the CFL Grey Cup 2022 in Regina!

Well, here we are. We are here live. I think this is working and I'll check the comments that we have. Any issues, let me know. But we are here live at Casino Regina. I'm Jim Mullen here. Jim, how are you doing? I'm doing fantastic. I I may have, uh, been the Canadian that has made the most appearances on the mark. Have you tracked these things? Uh, I would have to say, and also one of the first, I think you led the way you said, I'll go on any podcast once. I might not always go on every podcast more than once. Wow. Look at this. But now Jim is back on here. Guys, let me know. I think we should be good. Let me know if we have any audio issues. Jim, we're here today. Casino Regina here for the next two, two and a half hours. Lots of guests stopping by. Jim's here. Rob Van Tone should be coming. I've heard pinball is stopping by. Yeah. What do you think, talk about the, the environment of Gray Cup this year different and, you know, we're back to kind of the norm. Right. Well, I, I, I'd say it's about 75% of the norm. Um, I, I, I'd say the, um, energy isn't, isn't hopping the way it would be at some of the previous Gray Cups I've been at. This is, I, I have lost count. This is about 17 or 18 for me. Um, it would've helped if there was a home team here. It really would've, but I think it would've energized thing. The other thing is that, you know, the Gray Cup used to be a 50,000 seat, um, type of event. And the CFO has scaled this back somewhat. They, they've taken it down to actual stadium capacity now. And I think that's part of what we're feeling in this town right now is a 33,000 seat breakup with, uh, with a lot of locals that bought in and bought tickets for this thing, uh, early in the year and are now selling them online to people coming in from Winnipeg. Well, that's what I was gonna ask, because, you know, we bought, I bought tickets cuz I didn't know, I never assumed we're gonna get media and mine are still for sale. I can't sell 'em. So Yeah, had they have scaled it up with like, I don't know if they would've hit capacity, if they would've added more. Yeah. You know, it, it's, it's something that you have to plan ahead for now, especially with the cost of, uh, bringing in bleacher seats. Um, it, there is a substantial cost, but, uh, behind that, I think it's, you know, the CFL probably already spent their money on that for Touchdown Atlantic with the, uh, stadium expansion they did there. Um, most of that would fall in the local organizing committee, though I will say that the, uh, local organizing committee's done a good job of keeping everything under one tent, uh, uh, out close to, uh, mosaic Stadium. Uh, nearly all of the team rooms are there. Edmonton did a, uh, did a big breakfast out at the Connexus Center, um, earlier today. Uh, I, I wasn't at that one, but, uh, I just had lunch with somebody that was there. She said it was just outstanding. So, you know, all of the, all of the parts are back in place again. Right. All of the basics are back in place. Um, you know, the only thing missing is the old Gray Cup parade, which has been hit and miss over the years. It'd be nice to bring that back. Um, it'd be a good way for people to get some fresh air after, after a previous night of, in my case, drinking Fireball with media members, Murray McCormick <laugh>. Well, that's, We we were out late. I mean, for our standards. We were out late last night, and then I woke up today, we slept in, and I saw people post two, three hours before. Oh, we're at Spirit of Edmont and Breakfast. I thought that is, I am too old for that. Yeah, no, I'm, I'm too old for it too. I, I, I, I treat these with kid gloves now I pace myself. I'm very conservative. I got work to do here too. Right. Um, you know, uh, I've met, uh, international delegates from, uh, other, uh, I a nations, uh, Finland's here, Denmark's here. Uh, actually took them out through the, uh, uh, through the activation area. Ladies and Gentlemen. The one that's okay. Hold is Now open. Oh, there we go. Texas. Hold. We're here. But we got the action here. We're in the Yeah, we do have the action. And I'm not giving a scent to them, by the way. Uh, I just, I will not, the only thing I will bet on is horses. Well, I don't Bet on sports there's, to it. Yeah, I don't bet, I don't bet on sports because it just takes the fun out of it for me. And I'm partially sponsored by, by a sports betting company, which I'm not sure I I could even mention on your Podcast. Uh, so I wanna talk to you. We were, and not to, you know, uh, delve into anything too deep last night, but we did talk, you know, commissioner Ambrose had a state of the league address, right. We talked, apparently we're moving playoff games to Saturday. We're, you know, we're working on the American dvd. Where do you wanna start with that? What was your, was that your biggest takeaway? The playoffs this Saturday? The playoffs on Saturday probably were my biggest takeaway. And you know, when I heard that, well, first of all, it didn't come out at the, uh, at the, uh, media q and a went to the fan, uh, q and a. And it was also weirder because the fan q and a, I think was, uh, probably a little rougher on Randy. That's what I heard the media q and a was. So, um, you know, the fans are kind of restless with the, uh, state of the league right now. Um, when it was moved back to Saturdays before it was kind of alop. Right. Uh, one of my concerns is, well, I got several concerns. One of my concerns is for the semifinals, which are a hard turnaround and a quick sell, if you don't know until the final, uh, week you're taking a day of sales away and in a gate driven league, that's tough. Um, you and I were both at a, at the lion semifinal on the Sunday, much easier to get in and out once again in a gate driven league on a Sunday to a game instead of a Saturday. I thought, I, I think that that gate numbers are being discounted, uh, for TV numbers. Um, I hope that between TSN Bell, who owns TSN and the cfl, there's a path to get this on conventional tv, which is the CTV network in this case, where NFL games are, um, are, are played, uh, in conjunction with TSN on the Sunday. Um, but, you know, I, I don't know. I I, I'll, I'll wait and see how this turns out. Maybe it's a good idea for football fans to sort out their Saturdays and their Sundays between the NFL and the C The one thing that I do know though, uh, reaching out to my youth sports friends is they weren't consulted in this. And, and Saturdays is a huge day for college football in this country. And, you know, I I I understand that, you know, it's, it's local markets that, that drive these things. But, you know, a discussion around this going into this might have been nice. Well, that was the, the theories I saw online was they clearly must be angling some sort of TV deal, whether in Canada, the US both, whatever that is necessitating that Saturday playoff game. It is weird that they wouldn't consult eSports about kind of crowding their space. Right. Well, and and it's also strange with the, uh, with the Saturday, um, when you take a look, and Canadians don't know this actually, but if you go into any American market, you got cable. How many college football games can you see on your television? Uh, and, and, and you know, we're in a country right now where live, uh, over in another room, I've, uh, got a friend, not a friend of the show by the way, it's John Hodge. I'm sitting watching the Game with Hodge. Sorry, I dropped the name. Drop the bomb, drop the name. Uh, but we're watching, we're watching a Canadian college football game on a laptop computer. It's a national semifinal. There's one thing I'm angry about today is watching a national semifinal for a national championship on a freaking laptop computer. Cuz you can't put it on a screen cuz it's not on television. I know the TV isn't the be all and end all anymore of distribution platforms, but it's still a backbone and it's still a core. And to, and to not have a game of this importance on national TV for this organization is completely inexcusable. Uh, it seems weird. It also seems, I think a lot of people, at least I saw on Facebook chatter thinking that maybe, you know, last year we had Genius Sports, okay, we're doing this revenue sharing, whatever that means. Maybe we'd have an announcement this year, TV deal, you know, working on the America with espn, all that kind of stuff. Are you surprised that there wasn't anything except really this, uh, this Saturday playoff move? Uh, I, I think it's unfortunately coming out of the, uh, pandemic. It's a slow build. And one of the reasons it's a slow build is, you know, with the economic hit that was taken by shutting things down during the pandemic, and then I think an additional economic hit by not being active during the pandemic. Uh, i, I believe that the league office itself is, is smaller. They had to lay people off. They didn't necessarily hire everybody back. They pushed out a, a lot of the, uh, uh, a lot of the, uh, secondary work to the teams and individuals and the teams. So realistically, you only have so much capacity as an organization to, to address these things in front of you. And, you know, in, in fairness to the, to the cfl, I can understand why this is a slow bill. I think it's, uh, fortunate for, uh, Randy Abro that the Board of Governors have given him enough time on the calendar to pull this off. Because, you know, it, there is a pretty cranky fans at at that fan thing, You know, but I don't get that. I, we, and we were, I was on Rob Peterson show yesterday. I appreciate, I mean, I don't like, what are fans upset about? I mean, I've, I, I get why media people are complaining sometimes I don't get what, like, what are, what is the, what is the regular Saskatchewan fan upset about in the cfo? Well, First of all, they're upset about their team. I mean, that <laugh>, it's that that sets, that sets the, that sets everything into motion right there. There's a, there's a set of grievances in front of them and then are gonna grieve even more, uh, about, uh, slipping attendance numbers, people not showing up to games, games, what they see coming outta Edmonton, uh, in terms of attendance. Um, you know, uh, uncertainty in Toronto. There, there's a lot of items and issues around the league that many people have seen before. And they have a fear. They know that, that that teams can shut down. They know that the Ottawa renegade shut down. They know that the old ette shut down. They, they, they know that they, that, that they're on an edge right now where if things don't break in the right way, there could be trouble. And we're heading into challenging economic times as well. So I think there's a lot of collective anxiety out there. Uh, did the league, um, through their communications fully address it? I think the only thing that they addressed is they, I think they asked for a little forgiveness and a little patience. And, you know, it, it's something that, that the fan out there that, that a stakeholder like myself, that's all we can give 'em. Cuz we don't have control of that outcome. That, that if they're asking for it, we gotta give it to 'em. I'm just always interested in that because I live in this and we live in this, like, same with the xfl. I'll get there and complain about all this stuff and I have people be like, re I don't even think about that. I don't even care. So I just, I'm genuinely curious, like, what does Bill Saskatchewan come and like, Hey, Randy, this is what I'm upset about. Like, yeah, it's good. I mean, I'm glad that they're vocalizing that because I'm, I'm a firm believer that you have to vocalize sitting around and saying like, this is fine. Doesn't do anything right. You have to vocalize when they're, and tangible things that you can work on. Well, you know, I, um, there's some things I agree with Randy on. There's some things that I don't and that's gonna be natural within a, within a, within a structure like this, right? Where we have different concerns and amateur football and professional football does they look at different outcomes. That being said, I give Randy Ambros full credit for standing up in front of a, in front of a bunch of cranky Saskatchewan fans with a supporting cast from around the country and taking bullets without a black jacket on that, that takes guts. I'll, I'll, I'll give him full points for that. Uh, he mentioned not having an end date for his tenure ride as obviously he would like to serve as long as the Board of Governors. Would you expect anything different? I mean, obviously it's been a really hard last tenure for Amber. I mean, it's just been a tough four or five years for him right now, right? Well, you know, like anything, um, everybody had plans, uh, in 2019. Like if you would've asked me at Football Canada what our plans were, we would've, uh, been staging a world championship in 2020, uh, stepping in for USA Football. Uh, we would've had games on tv. We would've been like, we woulda, coulda, shoulda. And it cut us down. And I think the one thing that, that, when people talk about the cfl, um, Randy's in a servant relationship, uh, in terms of his leadership with the nine teams, right? The nine teams give him so much leash. He tries to, in that office, tries the best they can to build something out. But as we saw with not, not playing in a bubble in Winnipeg back during the, uh, the pandemic, some teams would, some teams didn't. And they, and you can't, it's really hard politically in this league with these nine teams, with all of these different interests to bring people around to a common cause. If, if somebody wants to sit out on something, they will. And they can. If you had the grade ambros here, as we approach you the end of his, I think, original tenure, right? That he's gotta renegotiate with. I don't know how all that works, like grading on that. And then I do see, we have our next guest, Rob here, so we'll transition him in here a little bit. But thoughts on that? Uh, you know what, as someone who's the head of a, um, uh, uh, national sports organization, I'm gonna put my NSO hat on and take my media hat off. And I'm not gonna comment on that because I, I think that's probably the wisest thing. I'm, I am not gonna make a comment on where Randy's at with the Board of Governor's. What's up? It's Tanner and Drew here for Bubs and great news Power Hour has arrived and it goes down every Monday through Saturday from 9:00 PM to 10:00 PM Power Hour at Bubs is the Prefu spot. Get your night started right for nearly nothing $2 drafts and well drink. And we all know that Bubs is known for their wings, but they also have some of the best burgers in town. Enjoy the full loaded burger lineup and a cold beverage at Beat Up. Come watch the game and enjoy Power Hour Monday through Saturday from nine to 10:00 PM at Beat Up. Power Hour at Beat ups is the Prefu party spot That, uh, I, I had my piece during the cba. I think I'll leave it at that. Uh, final thoughts before I let you go? We do have a big matchup tomorrow, but I like this show to exist more than just like Winnipeg, Toronto. Cause you know, come five o'clock tomorrow, this doesn't matter. But, uh, who do you see having the edge in that? Uh, it's Winnipeg. It's Winnipeg. And, you know, look, uh, depending on the sports book you look at, it's anywhere between five points to six and a half points. Uh, in, in Winnipeg's favor. Uh, I think Winnipeg covers, I think this, this is shaping up like, um, like a, um, Toronto, Saskatchewan final, I want to say from 1997, uh, no, yeah, 97, it was, I think it was Doug Flu's last, uh, against the, uh, Reggie Slack in the Saskatchewan and Rough Riders. Um, the Riders came in kind of outsiders. Toronto, clearly the strongest team kind of closer to two quarters inside in the third. And they just blew the doors off them. My, my, uh, my column, my score, Winnipeg 39, uh, Toronto 17. Okay. Uh, nobody's coming up and scoring Gammy with 39 17. I can guarantee you that. Uh, well, Jim, I appreciate you coming by. You weren't sure if you were gonna be in town today. I certainly appreciate it. And like you said, all the times you come on the show and everything else you've done, I I planned my trip around the market. Well, there you go. You can't get much better endorsement than that. What a sucker. <laugh>. Well, we'll get you outta here. We'll transition. I think we have Rob, Rob, you ready to hop on here? We'll bring Robin. Uh, Jim, thank you so much for your time. I appreciate it. Uh, we're gonna bring Rob Vanstone in here as we transition again, live at Casino trying here in Saskatchewan. You can see Dorothy, some of our other, uh, fans and listeners behind Dan Ralph coming up. We'll get to him in a minute. He's early. We're good. We're gonna get Rob Vanstone in here. Uh, you know, leave your comments in the chat. Who do you see winning today? We have Toronto, Winnipeg, tomorrow talking to other c stuff today. Uh, we have good friend, you can sit right here. Rob Dan Stone here, uh, sand's Candy today. But we're in your hometown. Uh, Rob, how are you doing Today? I'm okay, thank you. The dog's not feeling too well, but I made it so she's, uh, she's a bit of a vacuum cleaner on walks and something got to her. She must have picked up something that got to her today, so may or maybe she just looked at my column, but her stomach isn't feeling that well today, so. Gotcha. Well, uh, Rob, we're here. Welcome. Thank you. We're in your home province. We're here in Regina. Oh, what do you, what do you make of the activities, the excitement, everything else happening? I, I, it's, it's really been a, a nice demonstration of resilience by the, by the community because there was so much let down with the way the rough riders performed or didn't perform. And, uh, I think there were the initial feel fears that would, that would just cast appall over the entire breakup festival. And, and I think early on, as you know, a week or two ago, it was like, uh, and there's, you know, there's a fair amount of tickets on the resale market. Um, but, uh, and that's gonna be interesting tomorrow to see how many the seats are actually occupied. You might wanna hire some of those Golden Global Awards seed fillers. Uh, I'm available if I, for a nominal feat. And, uh, that may be the, you know, uh, kind of a symbol of the, of the frustration or the, or the lack of production for the rough riders this year. But if you look at how it's been executed once everything started kicking into gear Tuesday, Wednesday, uh, it's, it's very reminiscent of the previous three gray cups here. Uh, not as reminiscent of 2013 because of the exclusion of the, uh, of the home team, but the organizers. And they've done a great job. And I'm sure you've gotten around kind of gotten a feel for the, for the, for the vibe and, uh, you know, the fact that people such as yourself, uh, see fit to come all this way to, uh, to experience a great cup in Saskatchewan, I think is a testament to, to how special this event is. I will be honest, Dorothy and I, were really not looking forward to coming to Regina. I'll be, we were really scared. Yeah, that's, that's my fault. But It'll be over soon. Don't worry. We, I mean, we are really scared of the cold and we hear it's windy and you know, and like you hear all the jo I mean, we're from America. You hear all the jokes, Canada, everything else, but like, we have had the best time, the best food. Oh, that's awesome. I've been in it, like the restaurants, the bars, the people here have been awesome. Like, we've had the blast everywhere. We've gone. I mean, we haven't gone. So, uh, what, what is it are, do you think that, you know, obviously Gray Cup moving around and Regina this year being able to showcase, is that a good place, a good way for like other c communities to kind of showcase what they have and kind of bring people in? Like do you think Regina's doing a good job in embracing that? Oh Yeah, absolutely. I mean, this is, I think the place above all others that is going to embrace it. I've lived here for 58 years. I'm still scared of the cold, so don't, uh, don't, uh, single yourself out or Dorothy, it's, uh, there's some days that it just isn't tolerable. But, um, uh, I mean, what really sinks in for me, I think they got close to 1200 volunteers. And I'm not sure that the term volunteer is exactly accurate because they're paying $85 each to volunteer. It's sort of the antithesis of volunteering. They're paying for it. And yet more than a thousand people signed up for that. And, uh, that, that as much as anything just blows me away. And I think is, is emblematic of the type of spirit that there is here. And not just in Regina, but I think everywhere I've been to a great cup and this is my 15th now. Um, it, uh, you know, you see it even in supposed areas such as Toronto, where the interest isn't as fervent. Once you get to the venues, once you get to the game, there's still a, it's still a really neat bit of Canadiana that I think, especially as I get older. Um, I, I appreciate them, appreciate more. I got a question for you here from the chat. Uh, is Dan Evans wearing a green jersey next year? I don't think so. Um, although there would be a neat to a neat historical precedent in that in 1951, the rough riders really, really, really needed a quarterback, and they signed Glen Dobbs, formerly an former Heisman Trophy finalist out of the University of Tulsa. Uh, Dan Evans emanates from the University of Tulsa, so maybe there's a good Oman there. <laugh>, I, I really like his attributes. I really like his attitude, his accountability. He's got a great arm, but, uh, I don't think he's gonna be on a lot of teams preferred lists. He certainly is on, he certainly is on Hamilton's right now, is evidenced by the Bully by Mitchell Trade. Um, I mean, maybe he's as good a bad as any to come here, but I, I'm not sure that that is gonna be at the top of their list. There's then again, look at Zach Collos, maybe I'm equivocating here, but to look at Zach Calero and how he was written off three years ago and now he's twice the league's most standing player and about to win the Breakup, signed a huge contract, You know, three years, 1.8 million. And, uh, that's one of the ultimate comeback stories. So I don't think you necessarily rule someone out on the basis of being unsuccessful somewhere because, uh, look at Zach Lars, look at Mcle, Bethel Thompson and all the, all the, uh, the itinerant pro football career that he has had on route to playing in this great cup. And a lot of people wrote him off last year after a playoff game in which he struggled, and now he's in the Great Cup. So I guess never say never in the Canadian Football League, but Evans isn't the name that I hear a lot around here. I mean, people obviously have a, an appetite for bringing in Boley by Mitchell. You know, you should Trevor Harris, shake Free and Montreal, I think they, people here would be open to that, uh, Mitchell and I think Harris are the two biggies. Um, but after that, you're, it's a bit of a bit of a coin flip. Well, it's getting slim. I mean, that was asked, and we have our announced here that was asked yesterday doing bro by Farhan friend of the show at the press, you know, the media press conference. Like, is there a problem with getting enough quarterbacks up here to Canada now? I mean, here it's like we're scraping the barrels. Saskatchewan needs someone, Hamilton, I mean, I guess Bo Levi, but we, I mean, what do you, is that an issue right now? I think it is across football. I mean, you, I mean, PJ Walker is starting, or has been starting in the, the National Football League in Jacobi Perce. And, uh, there's a pretty marginal starting quarterbacks right now in the National Football League. So then if you start looking across the universe, football universe is like, well, what is, who's gonna start in the xfl? Who's gonna start in the United States Football League? Who's gonna start in the Canadian Football League? And I think part of the issue too is that once upon a time, the collar Murrays of the world would automatically end up in the Canadian Football League and wouldn't get a sniff from the NFL unless they were gonna play running back receiver, defensive back, et cetera. Uh, that has not been the case for a number of years now. And so I think the NFL is taking the, the, uh, Uber athletic quarterbacks that, uh, once upon a time found a haven in the Canadian Football League. And, and I mean, look at Lamar Jackson, for example. La Lamar Jackson's of the world 30 years ago would never have played football in the Canadian, played in the National Football League as a quarterback. And look at, look at the way he's been playing. So, uh, once the c lost its niche in terms of getting the American quarterback, that wasn't your classic Terry Bradshaw, six foot 3, 2, 10 with an arm, you know, you could throw the ball to Peoria. Once that template changed, I think that started to, to, to make it more difficult across the Canadian Football League in another fledgling leagues to get the quarterbacks that might have been at one point deemed, uh, not entirely adherence in adherence to the NFL's template, Uh, in terms of the actual matchup. Right. I've seen a ton of riders here everywhere. I mean, as would be expected, uh, you know, trying to get interest, like you said, at the top from non-local, you know, from locals, from teams that aren't from here. Uh, who do you make to win the game and what are you looking forward to in the matchup? Um, well, my, my dog picks, uh, Toronto and I pick Winnipeg. So I guess the smart money's with, uh, with Toronto. Um, I mean, I, how do you not play pick Winnipeg unless there's some level of, uh, uh, limitation that Zach Claros is facing with his ankle? Uh, I don't think from everything that's been said that Zach Cals is gonna be like a shadow of himself. If, if it turns out you're get, there's 30 or 40% version of Zach Claros, and maybe that makes it more interesting, but I really can't see a path to victory for the Argonauts. I thought maybe the path to victory would've been a foot of snow buffalo type weather, and then all bets are off because it's, you're just not even playing a real game of football at that point. I thought it maybe of the elements where the great equalizer, then that becomes a pick. But it's supposed to be a nice day. Winnipeg's been there before they know what they're doing. They're the best team in the league. They're 15 and three. Uh, I just don't know how you pick against Winnipeg, although in 2004, people didn't think, uh, Toronto would win. They won in 2017. I think a lot of people laughed at the notion that, uh, Toronto would do, would even, uh, interest playing the Calgary stamp Peters, that was a supposed route. And the, and the Argos won 27, 24, the last two Great Cups, the Argos have win of won, they have won them in the role of the underdog. So, uh, maybe this is a, a role that, uh, they are ideally suited for pinball, I'm sure remembers it Well, Uh, well, Rob, I really appreciate Dan. I think Dan's ready to come on. Oh, come on. We're gonna get Dan Ralph on here. Rob, I so appreciate it getting to meet you in person. Finally, uh, we'll get candy here at some point, but I really appreciate it. Your city's been wonderful, and I really thank you so much for coming by. I, I'm, it's, it's really great to have you here and I hope to return the favor and visit your, your beautiful area. You got a place to stay when you come to Seattle, man. <laugh>. Well, the dog will be a good guest. Anyway, Reid, thank you so much. And it was great to meet Dorothy. Thank you so much. Awesome. I'll take that back here. We'll get Rob out. We'll bring, uh, Dan in here if Dan's ready, and then we'll get Frank on call here next. Got Dan Ralph coming in here again, live from Casino where Giant today, here in Saskatchewan. Uh, really appreciate it. Dan, you, uh, were brave enough to join me last year in Hamilton. Yeah. Came back for more. How are you doing? I'm a sucker for punishment. What can I say? How are you doing Here? Everything's great here. Everything's great. It's nice to go to a great cup in a commute with a com in a community where football matters. Uh, it seems like, and I mean, Rob was saying obviously you'd prefer, you know, Saskatchewan to be in there, but it does seem like people are genuinely really Excited. They they are. And, you know, and I mean, just to get here, I was, um, on a shuttle talking to the driver. He was talking about, he was, he was thinking about giving up his tickets because the riders weren't in it. And then he saw the weather forecast for the weekend. He went, Hey, you know, maybe. And so they're, he's hanging on to his three. So you know, this, this is my third time here for a breakup. And like I said, it's nice to be in a community where football matters as opposed to where I call home. So You were Yeah, with us yesterday, you know, the media address, Randy, a Brosy, all that lot came out even more, came out after the media dress. What was the biggest storyline from you from yesterday? From the Commissioner <laugh>? Um, I found it was more the same, uh, long on optimism, short on specifics. I mean, uh, you know, his, his declaration that C 2.0 is still alive and well, was sort of somewhat surprising to me. Um, you know, he discussed the possibility of moving playoff games to Saturday, and then an hour later it makes the announcement to fans. Like, um, I have a bit of a problem with that. But Why? Well, because if it's news, it should go to the news people first. And, um, but I, I get it. I get it, right. Randy's one of the people, so I did laugh. I saw, I think it was on a Twitter or Facebook, and they're like, people ask me, well, why didn't it come out at the, the media one? They said, well, they should have asked about it. It's like, Did Also, it was like, how do you know it, Randy? Are you Mo Yeah, I mean, if, I'll be honest, I, I mean, we had heard it obviously, and it was, it was mentioned and discussed and he talked about the merits of it, but never, and, and as soon as you talk about the merits of it, it's on the table. So are you going there anyway, if ifs were skiffs, we'd all be sailors. I liked the very blunt question. I can't remember if it was, uh, Britain, I can't remember who asked it about the global and the, you know, global 2.0. Like, has it made any substantial money? All Not a dime, not a, did That Surprise you? No, no. Um, because the whole, I mean, in my mind, the whole globalization, uh, track has been about trying to get revenue streams from TV deals. The year before in two 18, they brought Mexico, the football to Mexico, and they were very, very bullish about having CFL games there, about creating a, um, a TV revenue stream, which has not come. So to me, this was Randy trying to push the global initiative to, to try and increase revenues. And, and from what I'm told, they spent a lot of money traveling to 10 places to, to try and get partnerships and going to Japan and all this. And the money hasn't, hasn't, hasn't come back yet. So what Would you see them do as opposed to that? I mean, You know what, you know what I mean? I would like to see more grassroots involvement from the cfl. Uh, I don't, uh, I, I don't see much of it in, in my market in Toronto and Southern Ontario. Um, I'd like to see that, uh, I would like to see them try and get another, um, uh, TV deal with, with another, uh, another corporation if it's possible to get games on more than just one, um, more than just one broadcast partner. Again, is it possible smarter people than me are gonna answer that question? Just me on the outside looking in? Those are two, two places where I would like to s at least see a start. I, I was actually surprised yesterday, God forbid, American TV rights were brought up. I mean, like, I was on floored. Yeah. Uh, I, to me, that's the logical spot. Agreed. Agree. What do you, what do you do there? Uh, I, I mean, I always thought, I mean, unfortunately the TV deal with ESPN was always about exposure and not about revenue. And I, I would like to hope that maybe now you can, If your numbers are, are good enough, maybe you can get more, um, you can get more revenue from it. I like the idea of channeling everything to 2 26 so that when all those TV deals expire at once, now you can, now you've got more, a bit more clout. Right. You could, I can talk to you, I can talk to them, I can talk to them and try and get something together. You're never gonna, I mean, it's, I like the model of what the NFL does and they've got multiple broadcast partners. I don't, I mean, you can't compare the CFO to the nfl, but I think that that would be, to get three, two or three different revenue streams would certainly help. Well, or at least, you know, God forbid, being able to leverage too against each other. Yeah. I mean it's just, it's hard. I, it's hard to me cuz we get criticized a lot in, in America cuz I talk USFL as well and there's been all this okay ratings, whatever. And then the CFO come out and they'll get like 84,000 viewers and people go, well see, nobody cares. I go, that's with literally zero promotion bearing 1800 venues deep in ESPN plus. Like, it's just not even fair to compare that. Exactly. Well, and it's, it's, you know, and I mean I don't even know how to read television viewership numbers now anyway, because I'm told the numbers now are different than what they were five years ago. And the interpretation of them are different. But, uh, I've always thought when it comes to tv, the more the merrier. You know? And I mean, you wanna build your product, you wanna strengthen your brand and I think the way you do that is you just get it out in different venues. Right. And I've always liked the idea of, of a TV deal in the us um, we had us expansion once upon a time. There was an ex there was exposure to it. And I think people who are diehard football people will, will take a look and who knows, they may like it, they may not, but let 'em take a look. Well, and I totally agree cuz we get all these in. I don't put USFL and XFL on that, but we get all these other flukey, you know, major league football and, um, they're with like the Freedom Football League, like Ricky Williams was starting one. So I get all these people asking about all these other leagues, June to November, you have football to watch every weekend. I mean, every week, four games a week. Like, it's crazy to me that if you just, I think if they just figured out the way to get that in front of more people Yeah. And you never have to worry about it going away or team. Like, it's all, you know, this isn't like a one and done. Players can get invested in that. Well, I know, I mean, in Canada, from September to breakup, we get, you get football on TV five nights a week with the CFO in the NFL and for a football junkie like me, me, that's great. That's great. And I mean, I gotta believe there are people down south who are the same way. They just, they just wanna watch football and why not let 'em, um, question for you. I was surprised yesterday, not all the same familiar faces I saw back last year, right? Because I don't know any different. I was in Hamilton. Uh, I hear, you know, not everyone sending everybody or people are making decisions about that. Are you surprised with the volume of media here, greater or less than you expected? Uh, It's about what I expected. The numbers have been going down probably for about the last five years, certainly before, um, before Covid, What's up? It's Tanner and Drew here for Bubs and great news Power Hour has arrived and it goes down every Monday through Saturday from 9:00 PM to 10:00 PM Power Hour at Bubs is the Prefu spot. Get your night started right for nearly nothing $2 drafts and well Drink. And we all know that Bubs is known for their wings, but they also have some of the best burgers in town. Enjoy The full loaded burger lineup and a cold beverage at Bub. Come watch the game and enjoy Power Hour Monday through Saturday from nine to 10:00 PM at Bubs Power Hour at Bubs is the pre funk party spot. Science proves quality sleep is vital to your mental, emotional and physical health. The Sleep number 360 Smart Bed senses your movements and automatically adjust to help keep you both effortlessly comfortable and it's temperature balancing so you stay cool so you're at your best for yourself and those you care about. Most life changing Sleep only from Sleep Number, it's our Black Friday sale. Save 50% on the sleep number 360 limited edition Smart Bed, plus free home delivery on all smart beds. When you add a base and Cyber Monday to learn more, go to sleep number.com. And, um, so I mean, it's, it is a shrinking pool, sadly. Um, you know, organizations that used to send two people to break up, some of them aren't sending any. And, um, if they're members of the organization that I write for, they're taking our stuff and they're not sending their staff to save money. So even um, other organizations that used to send 10, they're down to four. So it's, I guess it's the economics of the business right now, but it really, it's a little concerning when you look around and when you, you know, what used to be a hundred people is now dwindled down to under, you know, under 40. And I mean, we had the, um, we had the awards and the FRC votes on the Player awards. You take away nine head coaches. We had 41 FRC members voting on the awards. And that's, that's, that's low. That's, that's, that's not a very strong number unfortunately. Well, I don't know if that's a, uh, like a print media issue, cfl, everything combined. I think there's a Confluence. I don't think that's just a Canadian football league issue. No, no. And it's not just a Canadian media issue either. It's, it's a North America issue. But I mean, it's, it's a trend that I, you know, we've seen happening, like I said for about the last five or seven years. People that I know that I used to see at Gray Cup, the last time I saw some of these guys was two 12 in Toronto. That's 10 years ago, right. Uh, you're a Toronto guy here. Uh, we're, you know, I, I do like to talk about the game. I like to have the conversation be a little more evergreen, but, uh, big matchup, I'm excited. Is this, is this a worthy gray cup that we're approaching here? It is, and it's not. I mean, this is my 30th and I've seen a number of them where a team is, comes in as the overwhelming favorite. And when you get down to a one game winter, take all, anything can happen with weather and what have you. I mean, fi Toronto's in the breakup for the first time in five years, and in two 17 they were heavy underdogs to Calgary and they won 27, 24, um, Calgary came to, to three straight gray cups where the heavy favorites and two of them lost the first two. Um, you know, and even last year's Gray Cup, um, you know, Winnipeg was a big favorite. They, they were pushed overtime and they had to come back in the fourth quarter to force overtime. Well, Hamilton forced overtime, but they had to make a game of it in the fourth quarter. And then in two 19, Hamilton was the big favorite and Winnipeg pulled off the upset. So, I mean, I don't expect the upset to be pulled this, this on tomorrow, but the potential's there certainly. Awesome. Uh, Frank, we'll get you ready here next coming up. Uh, last I had a question for you on here from Wayne Jones was talking, uh, Toronto needs to market the team to the youth. I mean, we've talked about this on the show, I mean, Agna, but, um, you know, does it help here? They're in the Gray Cup if they win the Gray Cup, does that make a difference? I mean, they're not, it's not that they're, it's like they're not a successful franchise, right? Yeah. So that's the problem too. I mean, you see dwindling numbers in Ottawa or Edmonton, you go, well, this makes sense, right? But Toronto was a good Team. Yeah, yeah. I I you know what? The Gray Cup won't hurt it. And, and Ryan Dinwoody, the head coach, went on yesterday and, and basically said that the thought is if we win and we create some, some interest and we create some momentum, maybe the organization can take that into the, into the off season. Maybe they won the breakup in two 17, didn't do it. They won two breakups with the guy who I think is the greatest C player in history, and that's Doug flute. And they still couldn't, couldn't do an uptick in attendance. So will it help? It won't hurt, let's put it that way. But I mean, I just think there are philosophical problems in Toronto and, um, you can't be solved by just with a breakup, sadly. So is McCloud retiring? He sure he sure gave that impression and the other guy who gave that impression was Andrew Harris too. So it could be the Swan song for both. I mean, the thing, the thing that's compelling to me about McLeod is he's married, he's got a young daughter who, I mean, you just see him interact with her. She means the world to him. And the man has led has been a football gypsy for the last 10, 15 years. If he wins, I think he, this might be, that might be the swan song for him. I don't get the impression he's been bad with his money. I don't get the impression. His wife apparently, uh, does very well too. So, you know, he plays football because he loves it. And I think the opportunity to stay home with his little girl might just be enough to say, you know what, spending six months outta the year in Canada, I, I'm not sure I wanna do this anymore. Uh, well, I have a pleasure. We're gonna bring on our next guest, candid, Frank. Dan, I so appreciate your time. My pleasure. Coming on, you know, on the remote, in person, everything else. We really appreciate it. Thank you so much Again. Anytime. Thank You. Awesome. We're gonna bring on candid Frank here. If he's ready, we're gonna bring him on a couple comments talking about, uh, you know, CFL isn't global. Uh, Jared's talking about that. We have candid franker. Will you help me pronounce your last name? Candid Frank, Uh, pretend it's Stanley. She so is s c i is is s h i in Italian. Well, there you go. Right. So that's how, And hold that right up close to you. I appreciate you coming today. We spent a lot of time hanging out last year at Grey Cup too, Right? That's right. Uh, what do you make of everything happening, uh, this time? Is it better, worse than you expected? Much better. Better. Uh, and how so? Uh, well, we've had, uh, two, the western and eastern final. I, I really believe that it doesn't matter which quarterback would've won out of those four, I think any of the four could have been a good breakup quarterback. And it's been a while since we've had that. Uh, the other thing is we've become very accustomed over the past couple of years of seeing the defenses demolish the offenses. We finally have an opportunity to see how offenses work with, because they need more time to get together. We always see in every season, you know, the season starts and the defense have an advantage and, and the offenses pick up later. But because of the pandemic and because of the way things were iffy, nobody knew what was going on. We finally have a stable situation where all the players, the coaches, everybody's on the same page and they can be on the same page. Not just physically, but emotionally, because I'm sure there's a lot of, you know, reticence when you're, uh, under the conditions that we're in before, Uh, you you're a Toronto guy. Yeah, right. Uh, I asked Dan, you know, I love Mcle Belt Thompson. We've tracked him even during the Spring league and the off CFL during the covid year. Uh, I as good as he is, there's still all these weird detractors and he's not good enough or he's, he's not this, not that I think in the world of the cfo, I think McCloud is doing pretty well. I agree with you and, and, and you know, really <laugh>, what it comes down to is you play your whole life, you know, and in his case, you know, he's in his mid thirties, you play your whole life and all you're doing is going for a championship and everything he's done in the past 14 teams, I think he's played for plus, you know, all the work he's done to be a quarterback, all the stuff he's done to be a pro, it's gonna come down to 60 minutes. You know, whether he's a good quarterback or not, it's gonna be defined by what happens here tomorrow. Uh, would be really cool in my view for I just, if this is his long song, whether way to end it, I mean, whether or not you win it, making it to the Gray Cup, everything he's gone through. Like he, uh, you know, he like, I think dancing, he's been a gypsy of the, you know, of these leagues and teams and all this kind of stuff. It would be a really cool way to end me win or lose. Making it to the Gray Cup is, is no easy for Not none, not whatsoever. He has worked very hard. He's very, he's become very emotional. This thing's really important to him. We're seeing all the interviews, we're seeing that he's very passionate. We're seeing that he's, uh, you know, he's the kind of guy that, uh, you ask him a question he'll get in deep on, on the question, he'll, he'll, he'll dig in real good. But I think what he needs is he needs a little bit of a break where, you know, his ability gets a chance to shine a little bit. But the way the system works, it, it's not really intended that way. Especially now when you have two really good running backs going for the Argos is his arm isn't gonna be what they're gonna rely on, even though the weather's gonna be better tomorrow than many people suspect it. And therefore it'll be more, more of a normal football game instead of a snowball. Yeah, I was a little concerned, you know, I, and I love, and I know it's like this proud Canadian and we gotta have it in the death of winter and freezing go, but I mean, it is nice to just be able to have like a good football game, right? So I, I prefer a good weather football game because for me it's not football. You can say what you want about what it, what the intention is when the game was invented. But in my opinion, the athletic beauty of the game is lost when you have snow. You know, and, and, and when I say athletic beauty, I know that's not the right word you wanna use, but a football kind of sport. But the fact is, uh, their talent shines when they get, when they're given a chance to catch the ball as opposed to have four layers of gloves. Yeah, yeah. You know, and that kind of stuff. Mm-hmm. <affirmative> and a quarterback who, you know, he needs to feel the ball, you know, some of the cloud was talking about not wearing gloves that he wants to go with his bare hand because he doesn't like the gloves in the way. The gloves are a layer that he has to deal with. And I think in a way for us to watch the game, whether you covered it or watch it, or you're a fan, you kind of wearing gloves when it's, when it's a snow game, you know, when the weather's reasonable, then we get to really see how the running backs can cut. We can really see some of the routes that, you know, that the receivers run and some of the catches that they can make. Cuz that's, that's what I look forward to when I watch football the big place. So I'm just getting the comments up on here. I, I mean, is Toronto super overmatched? No. Hell No. Okay. No, And I'm not saying that cuz I've covered the Argos. They, they're a team that came within a whisker of beating at, uh, them this year, you know, and, and they're a team, uh, that they have found this year. Anybody who's followed them closely knows that from the beginning of the year towards the end, they were a team that won games. They had no business winning. But that's what great teams do. Great teams win when they play badly. And the Argos have played not well and won. Uh, the last game, I think is the first time they've actually won a game front to back and done it in the kind of style that they did last week. When the chips are town, this team has gone through so much. Heck, uh, I asked the coach, in fact, I said, you know, in the Nova Scotia game when they went, you know, the TD Atlantic, uh, they were playing Saskatchewan and both those teams had a terrible reputation for discipline issues. They were not playing well. And look what happened to Saskatchewan, look what happened to Toronto. And that's due to the veterans that the Argos have. They turned that into a positive. It's not easy. They did it. And I think that's made them, uh, you know, that's made 'em a lot stronger, but they're still up against a team that's won two great cups back to back. I mean, they've got players there, they got Stanley Bryant, they're gonna name the award, the award, the Stanley Bryant Award. Now, I mean, when you get a guy like that on your team and he's rallying the team, I mean, you know, we're talking, this is gonna be a dog fight. I just don't buy into the Argos, don't have a chance type thing. That's all. Uh, we have questions in the chat here, uh, you know, a CFL video and then act My age is hopping on this Jared as well. You know, even yesterday, you know, one of the first questions up from the media address to Aunt Rosie, you know, we're talking about expansion, Halifax, whatever, like they say. The question is, um, do they need to stop talking about expansion and get going on issues, whether it's smaller markets like London, London, Windsor, what do you see? What is the next step here? I mean, we've heard 10 teams since the eighties. Here's the, here's the problem. Uh, this, you know, they have, you know, it, Halifax is not in the mix right now. Uh, city council's not doing anything. They're not offering any money. And, and you know, this isn't gonna happen without some money. Um, historically, the in Canada here, uh, the governments have historically said, no proof. Sports don't get nothing from us, not even for stadiums. They gotta do it all on their own. So the bottom line is where's the money gonna come from? So, to answer your question, it may have to come from an alternative market, one that has a football history, a football background, like a London, that's not a bad, not a bad choice to talk about. Um, you know, some people even talk about Windsor, you know, because of the Canadian, that olds that owns the old stadium there, you know, if they can turn it into something like a 2025 seat, 25,000 seat, a re uh, stadium, maybe they can, uh, put a team in Windsor or Detroit. You know, the what I, what, what I'm afraid of is that we're not getting a lot of answers from the upper echelon of the, you know, the league. They're not putting anything out there as far as what do you think, you know, what, what, what do we have to talk about? What do we have to discuss? Put some lines of interest out there for communities that might be interested in the team. Like who knows? They have a shot, who knows they have a shot. What are we hearing? Not very much. And you know, we, we've gotta scratch that surface. If we don't scratch that surface, we're never gonna get to the bottom that we want, which is a 10th team. We all don't mind. We need one. We just don't know how to get there. I hope they figure it out. It just, and I even covering the c for just a fraction of, you know, even our listeners, how long they've been fans of it. But it does seem like it's getting to the point of like, the boy that cries wolf here, we're even ambros. And you know, he was on my show and at the media and every time I see him, it's, well, we're gonna get tense. Like at some point. I mean, like, we gotta go, we're not here. I'm really tired of hearing this, like promise Tim team and it, I know it's been going on way longer than I've even been a part of This. Walking the talk, I think is the key. And a lot of fans are frustrated. But I have to say something, uh, in regards to that, we just came through the pandemic. The pandemic is something that hurt the Canadian Football League because the Canadian Football League, and I want you folks to hear this is like no other league where the teams that made a lot of money or make a lot of money every year, they're not allowed to keep that money. They can't put it in the bank for a rainy day. They've gotta get rid of it. So, you know, the, the way the C works, the pandemic really killed them because, uh, you know, I don't think they have the money to do the kind of stuff they wanna do. Uh, and, and now what we've got is what I've seen personally following the game, following the league. I've seen the game improve over the last couple of years. I've seen it improve a lot in the last couple of weeks. And folks, that's what's gonna happen. We're just gonna have to be patient. There's gonna have, there's gonna have to be scratching the surface of what's going to be next. And bros made it clear, a 10th team solves a lot of problems, like how long it takes to play the season. There are a lot of people we are right now re where we are right now. They don't want to play the game at this time. They wanna play a lot sooner. Yeah. And the only way that's gonna happen, not the only way, but one of the easiest ways for it to happen is if there's 10 teams, You think as in they can shrink down, get rid of the bi weeks. Is that Absolutely. Well, they, they won't need the buy weeks. Uh, for one team, you know, they'll be able to have two teams, have a five week and, and, and they won't have the other thing, they won't have, for those of us that had season tickets like I have, they won't have the team that plays on Tuesday and on Saturday. You know, that's a, that's a bit tough too, Right? Well, it's a short week. Yeah, absolutely. So anything that causes the game to not be as good, we need to try and fix whatever makes the game better. We need to find what that is and put that into, and if that doesn't happen, then the game won't go anywhere. We, we, you know, the, the CFL is the most challenged sports league in the world as far as I'm concerned. Challenge in terms of just how hard it is to maintain. I mean, what do you mean by that? Well, simply because it's, it's a leak that relies heavily on dedicated fans who can float by the, the noise that's going around the league, the noise that goes on around the Canadian Football League. It's totally, it's, it's such a waste of time. I've, I've, I've tried on my show and what I've tried to do and what I'm more and more trying to do is to basically try to be more positive. I think what we've learned from the political world is that if somebody says a lie long enough, and, and often enough, we believe the lie. And I think the lie is that the Canadian Football League is inferior to the nfl. It isn't, the athletes are not as big, not as fast, not as strong. But we're not talking about the players. We're talking about the game. And that's what's best about the cfl the games off. When you hear that, I mean, what do you say on your show that combat that? Well, I, I basically, now what I, what I have to say and, and what I truly feel in my heart about the Canadian Football League, is that we have to try and look at the league from a perspective of what we want, you know, based on expectations and the realities of what the league is. And don't over expect, you know, watch the game, don't judge it before you go to the game. Don't judge it until you watch the game and enjoy the game. You know, the other stuff, like I said, that noise that's around there, what I want people to know, the message I want to put out there is that just give the game a chance. I guess that's a new John Lennon song. He won't be doing any new songs. Will Oh, <laugh>. Just who? Oh, <laugh>, I <laugh>, uh, anything else before I let you go here? I, I think we're gonna bring on Dorothy next year in a second. We have our second hour here coming up. Anything else for You? Well, listen, I want to thank you for covering this league, coming from Seattle, being an American that comes here and shows us some respect, is something that we really like. And, and all of us appreciate what you do. It's, it's important that we get the message out there, and I hope you can help us get the message out there that the league is a lot better than some people wanna think it is. And I mean, wanna think it Is. Well, but that's the thing. I think that they, I think that everybody around the league carries it like the most important thing in the world as they should. I'm a proponent, I've watched professor wrestling my whole life, right? Things only matter as much as we make them matter, right? Pro wrestling does not matter at all, except if you, you know, you live that it matters and you watch friends, doesn't matter. Nothing matters, right? So I, I like that everyone around the c does view it as the most important thing in the world. I just, I don't know where the disconnect there is of also for years expanding that arm. I don't know. I don't know what, what, what the disconnect is. I Give, I'll give you two cities of the difference. New York and la that's the handicap. The Canadian Football League has New York, la, Chicago, and, uh, people in Canada are becoming more sophisticated. Uh, they're following things that have to do more out than outside Canada. And unfortunately, you know, the relevance of a game rises if they're playing against it. It's the Raptors playing against the New York Knicks. If it's the Jays playing against the La Dodge, you know, that's hard to compete against, which is why I say, and I repeat, it's not the athletes, it's the game. That's what matters. It's what the game is. And they, as long as we concentrate in the league, and Ambros and company make the game better, you know, he talked about the scoring being up and yada yada y and all that stuff. That's important. It matters. And that's a real, at the end of the day, that's what we need to achieve. And that is a game that is relevant and compelling. Uh, I was going to, uh, kick you off here, but I keep having questions for you, so I hope that's okay. I really was. I was gonna, but, um, in the presser yesterday, and Rosie said, you know, okay, we have genius sports, all this stuff. Page views up 5% year over year, Right? Should we have more than that? Should that be, should that be more? You and I both know, you and I both know when it comes to success, it, it, it can sneak up on you, but the odds of success sneaking up on you, um, in a business nowadays, yet you almost have to get bang for your buck. You have to, it has to. Everything's gotta happen real quick. So even if it doesn't matter that it moves real quick, the appearance of it not moving quick enough, intimates some sort of failure, but there is no failure. It, it can, it can work like they're saying, but it, it, it'd be a lot better if they all of a sudden had, you know, the proof that it's working and undeniable proof, then that's, that's where the issue is. Where there's an argument whenever the NFL or the C do something, you know, it's, it's a different, it's a different attitude. The nfl, they talk about how they have the worst thing happen to them. They turn it into a positive. Yeah, Totally. The CFL does something really good and somehow they turn it into a negative. How the heck does that all happen? Uh, well, Frank, I really appreciate it here. Thank you so much for coming by. Hope we'll see you tomorrow. Hope looking forward. Thanks for hanging out. I'll take that. Um, and then we'll see you tomorrow. Great cup. Thanks again, Frank. He and Frank. Um, we're gonna bring on Dorothy here. Dorothy, we're gonna bring Dorothy on here for a quick second here. We have our, uh, Adam is coming here in a minute. We have our guests texting me for hour or two. We're gonna bring Dorothy on in the interim. Frank, thank you so much. We're gonna bring on Dorothy, my wonderful wife, helping me produce today. We'll get this in here now, depending on how we go later in the show. Dorothy, what are you making of your time in Regina? I think it's awesome. Yeah, it's been chilly, but actually not as chilly as I thought it would be. And, uh, yeah, we're having a great time. Fans are awesome. Everyone's so welcoming, just like Hamilton. So, yeah, It's been fun. I, you see Dorothy Sporting her spring league, Jer Jersey here, the one that I had originally bought too small to fit me. It's a size large. It's still, it's still, I, I have a double XL for that. I do that. You're getting lots of compliments on your spring league garb here. As you walk around. The casino Compliments more like confused looks. But yes, <laugh>, I think people appreciate the, uh, it's just different. They're like, what is that? So if anything, it's a good conversation piece to be like, Hey, what is that? You know? So yeah. It's, um, it's kind of fun to have some, just a jersey. It looks different, stands out, but it's still Winnipeg. Yeah. Ju says, what the heck is it? Yes, spring League is, that was super precursor to the usfl, all you USFL fans out there. We podcast getting ready for season two. Yeah, Dorothy, we're back here. We, we've known a lot of the people last year coming back this year. Who have you enjoyed that? You've been talking to Rob here in the background, and Dan, everybody else, what have you, uh, what have you made of the CFO media community talking to here now that we're in year two? It's good. It's so fun. It's just seeing old friends again. You know, it's like, seems hard to believe that it was just last year we were here just kind of making the inroads to, um, to become friends and connect with all these people now. It just feels so natural and easy. Um, it's been awesome. I met my friend Jerry on the plane. He's my BFF Lions fan and he's here. And um, Rob, we're gonna go walk with Rob and Candy tomorrow. We already made plans. Nice. Um, it's just been so welcome. Everyone's always so welcoming here. And, um, it's been fun. You were on the podcast earlier too, with Matt. That was Cool. I was on that. Yeah, I was on Rob Peterson show yesterday. I was on Matt's uh, Matt Baker's gonna be on here later with Carolyn. Yeah. If you see Lions on that. Yeah. Uh, Wayne says, Dorothy's jersey looks like it should be a racing car, a theme team. <laugh>. Wow, Ladies. It is, it really is a University of Kentucky, I think with just different colors. I do think that's what the adjusters are going for with that. It is so funny how, you know, even when Paul was with us and we're, you know, we're trying to cover the cfl and it was a lot of like the online, who are you and what's going on? And like, once you're here, it really is like the, the wall comes down. It is like if you're on the other side of the wall, but once you get in here, it does seem like people are a lot more affable. Plus we're just like, we're just nice people and talk to people, you know? It's like, it is one thing to just, you know, you got to just be kind to people. So. Yeah. Um, thoughts on Regina? I know, you know, it maybe isn't the ideal spot for Gray Cup or Travel. I think we were maybe not looking super forward to what I told Rob, but I mean, what, what's it been like, your experiences here? It's been cool. Like, we've gone to dinner almost every night, like historical, like the old bank building and the old, uh, you know, his, uh, insurance building, like just beautiful. And the, now we're in the casino and the train, old train station. Like, it's absolutely beautiful, the architecture and just the buildings. I mean, it's a little chilly walk from place to place. But then I was telling you today, like I just, once you get to where you're actually going, like you appreciate it. Like, I don't care what they have here. Like I'm just happy to be inside. So I've just thought it's been great. Um, yeah, I'm excited to see the lake tomorrow if we walk with, um, with Rob and, uh, no, Regina's been a cool city. Everyone's, and we went to the party last night, the, um, the, the tweet up. And so that was fun cuz they had the big, um, the police there and the fun police and they were, um, running around, you know, giving people tickets for, for not being, not being fun or not, not having the gear on. So, yeah, that's been Fun. Yeah. Dorothy went viral, kind of famous last night here. Oh, Jared. Yeah, Jared says, uh, it's only November, come in January, February with US High School. We're, I, we're cold enough. It's cold enough here. I am surprised at how many historically old buildings there are here. I just, I don't think of, I'm obviously old city and Canada and everything of it. I just didn't think that they would've so many beautiful old still maintained archit, you know, architectural whatever's around It. Yeah, yeah. It's really beautiful. Um, the first place we went to dinner, they were saying how it's haunted. And then, um, our woman here, Sienna, who's, who's graciously made this beautiful setup for the, for our live show, was saying how the washrooms the washrooms. Now we can't say restrooms, washrooms wash are, uh, haunted from this train station. But the person I, um, I guess they said the, the upstairs, the third floor of that building was haunted. So yeah, there's a lot of, there's definitely a lot of beautiful history and architecture here, so. Yeah. Uh, so Adam, our next guest is coming. He's texting me. He's on the way. So, but you're here where I figured we get this in now, depending if we run long. You can always come back on. Wayne has a question. You know, have you taken any of the Gray Cup festivities? Like you said, we did the tweet up last night. Yeah. Uh, we did the, uh, I know we're gonna go tonight to the BC Lions and the Argos, their spirit. Uh, it's not the spirit of Edmonton, I believe. It's like the team parties. Yeah, We were, I wanna go to Winnipeg, Winnipeg Pig. And then we were with the BC Lions, um, today when we did the podcast up there on that. I know Rod had the big party last night at Ballers that we, uhhuh I didn't realize, I guess we could have come back for, for that, but it really is like a surplus of riches. Like, you can't go to everything, so you kinda have to pick and choose. Yeah, yeah. Um, because yeah, I heard a lot about that party too. That sounded fun. But, um, yeah, there's just like stuff every night and it's like you can kind of, you have to kind of choose where you're gonna go, right? But I feel like everywhere we go is just like greeted with just friendliness and interest and engagement and it's just been great. Just like Hamilton, you know? And like we were saying earlier, you know, you never, you never quite know like how it's going to go here, but everyone's just so friendly and, um, it's just been a great time. Were you surprised in where our next guest is coming? We time this perfectly. We'll get Adam on here just a second. Um, we even, like when we went to that tweet up last night, Uhhuh. Cause you're like, okay, what are we doing here? Who's coming? I'm like, I don't really know. They, you know, they asked us to come and like, but then you see, you know, Adam shows up, everyone's there. Everyone knows each other. What did you make of that and how it, you're kind of all strangers, but y'all kind of know each other. Yeah, it's like strangers, instant friend. Like, it's not really, it's just instant friends with people and, um, doesn't even matter that we're American, you know? It's just, um, we just, just meeting people and like hearing people's stories and it's really cool to connect with people. And, um, I just love it. I just love getting to know people and hearing their story. And it's really cool. Everyone's just been really open and not j you know, like, who are these Americans? You know? So it's been cool. Well, Perfect. Well thank you for hopping on here. We're gonna bring on Adam Dorothy. People are excited to see, uh, Jenna has a question in the chat. Any red black fans really hasn't been too many red black fans here, but there has been a lot of Toronto fans. We have Adam GOs here. Uh, I would say like lead in the world of Toronto, just the biggest super fan in the world. What's it been like for you? Thank you for coming. I appreciate It. I appreciate it, Reed. Thanks for having me. Good to see you. It's good to see you. I, what has the week been like for you? I just saw you last night at the tweet up and it, I was, what I was amazed was, uh, there's a, I was amaz, I saw you guys back at the breakfast this morning. I was still sleeping. I saw the tweets like two hours ago. Adam's doing this. What has the week been like for you? Well, much like a CFL season. Great Cup Festival is a war of attrition. Uh, it's all about survival. So it's been a great week. It's always a great week. Great cup festival's fantastic. It's like old home week, right? You get together and you see friends from, uh, all walks of life all across the country. Uh, it's a lot of fun. You gotta pace yourself. It's a marathon, not a sprint. You gotta make sure have the H two oh. Uh, every now and then you'll, you'll, you'll, you'll notice that my voice is a, is a touch horse. Uh, but well earned a lot of talking, a lot of hooting and hollering, a lot of woos and a lot of sociables this morning at the spirit of Edmondson breakfast. Talk about that for people that aren't here. Cuz we're getting a lot of, like, how have the parties been? You know, how's everything going? Uh, you know, obviously last year Hamilton a little different right? Just with everything and Covid and all that. But now how's it been like now for you as someone that's been to these before? Well, first and foremost, it's, it's nice to be a little bit removed from, from Covid restrictions and things like that. Uh, everything's a little more open up and free and everyone feels, uh, a lot better, a lot more comfortable about getting together. So there's that. Uh, Regina doesn't get a great cut very often. Uh, so I understand that this city really appreciates the opportunity when they can to throw a great party. And I think the festival organizers have done a fantastic job, uh, welcoming CFO fans from across the country and showing us a great time. Uh, yeah, it, to me, it, it certainly feels like, I mean, you could kind of put this in any city I like, and we were talking to brunch today, you know, know, I like how, not that we would not want Toronto to get a Gray Cup festival, but everyone here knows what's happening where even in Vancouver in two years, I'll be curious to see what that looks like. Right. Do, do people know what's going on? Like, everybody here, whether you're going to the game or not knows this is happening this weekend? Yeah, well there's really no such thing as a bad breakup festival. Um, every city has their turn doing it. And, and I, I've never been to a great Cup or I haven't had a good time. I think if you do that, you're probably in the wrong spot. Um, a lot of people are partial to having a breakup at Vancouver because you don't have to worry about the weather. In fact, there, there's, I'm sure there are, um, certain c circles that want to break cup indoors every year. Uh, I happen to prefer the elements. I think Mother Nature is a great equalizer. Uh, and, uh, but I'm looking forward to Vancouver. I mean, I, I know that, uh, uh, the commissioner especially is looking forward to seeing what Ammar Doman and his team can do. Uh, there's a lot of buzz, a lot of hype around that fan base, a lot of excitement and uh, I think it's gonna be a fantastic event. I can't wait. I'll be There. Yeah. Can't wait. No, we're gonna be there, like I said, road trip up from Casa Mar cast in Seattle. It's not too far. Uh, in terms of the AraC, you know, big weekend, uh, we've been lots of, you know, McLeod and I haven't, we've been partying, but like I hear, okay, he's down on Ambros here, he's retiring and now he's like getting cut off at the podium cuz he is crying or I haven't seen any of it. Right. Like what's been happening in Argo's world right now? Well, I don't want, I don't wanna speak on McCloud's behalf. Yes, McLeod has his own thoughts and, and that's, that's wonderful. Uh, I, I do applaud McLeod for speaking his mind because I think, I think the players need to, need to speak up a little more often. I think they need to, uh, they have every right to defend themselves and the players in this great league. Sometimes if, if you're an American player up here, you you, you might feel underappreciated and that's understandable. Um, I also think that their focus is 100% where it should be on this game. Uh, McLeod Bethel Thompson had arguably his best game as an Argonaut in the Eastern final. And I think this football team is playing his best football the best time. And I, I, for one, am excited about seeing what number four can do tomorrow. You know, Winnipeg heavy favorites. Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. I don't like that. I, I, I mean, I like a little more evenly match. I felt like last year was the same thing on like Hamilton and then they really kept it interesting, right? We go to overtime, we had all the, you know, the rouge and all that other stuff going on. But, uh, what, what do you make of it? Does Toronto have a puncher's chance? Uh, absolutely. First of all, it's one game, 60 minutes, anything can happen. But in, in terms of Xs and O's, uh, the Argonauts have beat this Blue bomber team in 2019. They took, they took a victory in 2021. They played, they played against the bombers this year at BMO Field. It was a one point, uh, missed extra point loss. So I think the Argonauts match up very well against the blue bombers. I think everything comes down to whether or not they can curtail aza, Polaris, um, you know, we ran the ball well against Winnipeg this season. Uh, our defense played exceptional, but that bomber team still found a way to score points on us. So I think if you can, if you can keep colos pinned, you've got a fighter's chance, like you said, I think if you get into a shootout with the bombers, they're gonna have some issues. Yeah. So what is ER's game plan? Well, I I think it's really simple. I think it's get pressure on Zach, make him feel uncomfortable, uh, and, and, and score early. I think if the Bombers score early, it could, it could be, there could be trouble. Um, McLeod has shown that he, he can play well from behind in the fourth quarter, but I think this bomber team is just too strong for that. Uh, they do have to, they do have to establish a running game early. They've gotta play almost flawless football. Disciplined clean. What's up? It's Tanner and Drew here for Bubs and great news. Power Hour has arrived and it goes down every Monday through Saturday from 9:00 PM to 10:00 PM Power Hour at Bubs is the Prefu spot. Get your night started right for nearly nothing $2 drafts and well drink. And we all know that Bubs is known for their wings, but they also have some of the best burgers in town. Enjoy the full loaded burger lineup and a cold beverage at Be Up. Come watch the game and enjoy Power Hour Monday through Saturday from nine to 10:00 PM at Beat ups. Power Hour at Bubs is the pre funk party spot. And now it's Geico's Motorcycle Rules of the Road. Avoid biking in the rain and never touch another person's bike. Hey Guys, Look At tee's, bikes so shiny. Whoops. I'm gonna leave a note. Oh gosh, there's more. And the rule to saving on motorcycle insurance is in 15 minutes. Geico could save you 15% or more. Uh, Jenna, and this is Derailer, but I just thought it was too funny to the pull asking about poutine. Are you, are you a fan of the poutine? Are you kidding? I haven't had it. What? Yeah, I know. I've seen, I feel like I've eaten really heavy here. Oh my gosh. The last thing I need is poutine. First of all for, for our, for our Francophone listeners. It's, it's Putin, Putin, Putin, Putin. But it's fantastic. I don't know. And, and I guess our, our rider Faithful can probably help me out here. I don't know where you can find good Putin in Saskatchewan. Yeah, little more of a Quebec thing, but, uh, it's definitely a national food and, and certainly worth trying. Uh, one thing that I think is really interesting about the matchup this weekend, you know, besides obviously exceptional quarterbacks defense, everything else on both sides, coaching staffs, right? We have D Witty here coming in second full of season, right? Head coach Michael Shay, you know, just won the award the other night, is like the pinnacle. I I think Rod Peterson was saying like he would put him on the Mount Rushmore of all Canadian athletes of any sport, both football argue you. So, I mean, talk about that. You have two like elite coaching staffs here working against each other. So there's, there's, that's just one of the many sexy storylines that go into this game. You've got got D Witty versus his former team, OSHA versus his former team, you know, Andrew Harris coming back, uh, so on and so on. But d Witty would be the first one to tell you, uh, the key to success is to surround yourself with good people. And even though Didn Witty and, and both D Witty and OSHA were for Coach of the Year, it's because they've both got exceptional coaching staffs, you know, and, and Ryan and Witty. He's had a lot of success as, as an Argo head coach. But you look at Kevin Ibin and Coach Castanza and Mickey Donovan and Corey May on the defensive front, uh, you know, these guys have, have really prepared this team, uh, to play at a high level day in and day out. So I'm looking forward to seeing what they can do tomorrow. Talk about game plan. I know, I know the assistant coaches have been working their butts off all week long. I can't wait to see what they come up with tomorrow. Well, cuz that's my thing is in, I get in like CFL and the coaching and the, uh, you know, the caps and being able to bring it like, so you hear all this, right? And here we've even had turnover this year, you know, Montreal and on one, all that. But then you do have some of these coaches that are like absolutely, you know, could excel in any sport, in anything. You just truly great leaders. So I like that. Right? I like that as, yeah, we have some of this, but also, so my question is like, how do we get more of that and highlight that of these like exceptional, you know, individuals we have coaching these teams? That's a great question, I think, and I think, uh, I'll speak from a national perspective in terms of Canadian, I think we have a little bit of an issue with minor football in Canada, though obviously there's, there's a lot of discussions about player safety that are discouraging families from having their young kids play football, both young boys and girls. Uh, I think that, um, high schools have really scaled back arts and sports and schools. So there's minor football programs that have been canceled or, or at least, uh, have been minimized. So we gotta, we, we need to, to do a better job of, of bringing back the fundamentals of football in, in schools and Pop Warner programs that Pop Warner is an American term, but minor football in Canada and supporting these programs and, and, and encouraging them. Um, so I understand there are some player safety issues to, to work through, but it's a great game. It's, it's, it's, it's worth investing in. And I think that'll, that'll get interest in not only coaches, but players, officials. We have an, we have an officials issue too. You know, we were at the CFO awards in Wednesday night, and, uh, you know, most, you know, most of the Canadian officials will tell you they're, they're a dying breed. It's hard to find of fish in these days because it's, they're, they're so ostracized and vilified. No one wants to do it. So, and these are, I think these are, these are Canadian issues. Uh, I saw you and I think it was you, the one that I saw the tweet of before I was going on yesterday. You were at the, the fan, you know, pressor, right? With Dan Bros. Yes, sir. I heard it was tense. Well, it usually is. Um, But with the fan one, that's what surprises me. The media one is always intense, but the fan one, Well, there's a lot of very, um, there's a lot of very passionate, uh, football fans in this country, and there are some answers to questions that for very, very obvious reasons, the league is reluctant to divulge or, uh, share any intricate detail with. So, um, it's tough, you know, it's tough when a fan wants answers, a question that they can't get. Uh, but there's also a lot of very strong opinions about what's right for this league. So, um, and I, and I know Randy appreciates that he, he wants to hear those voices. There's only so much they can do currently. But, um, it's, it's, it's wonderful to see that there's still a beating heart for the cfo. That's good. Well, I see our next guests are here, very time sensitive. I'll bring on in just a second. Uh, we have Farhan and Dave Nailer here. I know they're time sensitive, so I'm gonna bring them on. Absolutely. Adam, you have excelled today. I really appreciate you coming, uh, and texting me that you were on the way. I'm like, good to see it, brother. But, uh, it just, I want you, just before I let you go, in a nutshell, what has this been week been like so far for the people on the ground here? Well, look, anytime, uh, anytime you're at a Great Cup Festival as a fan, it's a great time because you get to celebrate this great game with the people that you love. Uh, it's extra special when your team is in the big game. And, uh, you know, as, as an Argonaut fan, I've been spoiled, uh, this team hasn't lost a great cup since 1987. So, you know, it's, it's a tall task to win seven in a row, but I feel good about our chances. All right, well, I hope it, I, like I said, are you coming? You said my bags have been packed since June. I appreciate you coming today and we're gonna come later to the Argo thing tonight. I really appreciate. I appreciate It, Ray. Good to See you, brother. Thank you so much. Adam GOs here. We're gonna bring in Nailer and Farhan if they wanna come in right now, time sensitive, and then we'll bring on our next guest. We have a couple people standing by, but, uh, we'll bring them on now if Farhan wants to come on as well, we'll get a two for the price of wine here, uh, working through TV hits and everything. Really appreciate it, uh, having beers with these gentlemen the other night. This is gonna be fun. We see we're undressing, we're getting our warm coats off. Uh, we can bring 'em down here. Uh, Mr. Dave Nailer. Farhan coming on. Uh, this is, we've gone a little smoother than last year. Last year was a little job technical. This seems good. Uh, how are you guys doing today? And hopefully you can share the mic with that, but how are you guys doing? We're Doing really well. I think this has been a, a pretty smooth, great cup from what I've seen. You know, it's, uh, seen enough of these to kind of know the rhythm of these things. Lots of good talking points. We always try to, you know, put a foot into the off season and look ahead a little bit for, we can't answer all the questions, but we can tell you what the questions are and we can certainly speculate on the answers. Well, and on top of that, look, I'm really impressed with the difference between last year and this year for you, because when we got here, Jager Davis was at the front, told us exactly where to go and escorted us right down here. Like he Jager Davis, six string, great Cup. And he knew where Reed show was, and he is like, no, no, come, come with me. That's impressive. And I gotta ad just, I think the Canadian media is really deeply appreciative of the effort you have made two years in a row, you know, to come to the Great Cup. I mean, that's, I really, I mean, I think, I think it's great. I saw you in the FRC Suite the other night. I knew you were coming here anyway, but I really think it's great that you're here and, you know, presenting this brand of alternative football, you know, to your Audience. That's good hand. Farhan this, Mike, I'll work with you on this one. Farhan, we have a question for you from Cole. Uh, did you pack your sandals? I did. In fact, they're in my hotel. If I had a chance to go to the room before coming here, I probably would've put 'em on. But you know, you can't wear them on Gray Cup Sunday outside. You know what? I forgot. Truthfully, I brought my sandals. I forgot my parka. Typical BC move. I, I had given myself an hour to pack on on Tuesday, and right at the start of that hour, the Nathan or Adam sch your tweet broke. So now I'm in work mode. So in the end, I had about 10 minutes to pack for a week in Regina through everything in, got to meet up with my wife so she could drive me to the airport, realized that I'd forgotten my park. So she had to FedEx exit here. And I, I will have it for the game, but I won't have sandals on, Uh, for both of you guys. And Dave, we were talking the other night, you said, if anyone ever asked me who's playing quarterback in Saskatchewan, uh, next year, I won't know. So who is playing quarterback in Saskatchewan? You know, it, it's the most intriguing question of the off season because you can't answer it without intersecting on about five other storylines from this off season. And you know, the answer is, I don't know. And I don't think the riders know. I mean, you would think it's impossible that it's Cody Fugato when they didn't play him for a meaningful game this season. You know, they sat him down for a backup who frankly didn't have the resume that would suggest he was ready to win that game. And I, I don't think you could circle back. So then you've gotta decide if believe by Mitchell signs in Hamilton, do you consider Dan Evans starting quarterback and do you look at some of the struggles he had in with the spotlight in Hamilton and wonder how that might project to the spotlight in Saskatchewan? And then you start looking at, is Trevor Harris definitely gonna be back in Montreal or could you get him, do you have to look at some combination of guys like, you know, Nick Arbuckle and other players that haven't been able to hold starting jobs? Or do you take a shot at a backup, you know who you think might be, you never know what you have, right? Until the backup plays. Like I and I, I threw in a name like a Chad Kelly, you know, who's been in the league for a year, high pedigree guy. The Argonauts like him a lot. I think if McLeod retires, there's a decent chance that that, that Chad Kelly is the starting quarterback of the organizers next season. If McLeod doesn't retire, you know, he's only under contract for one more year. Would it be that hard to get him outta Toronto? I, I don't know. I, and again, that's one that I'm not trying to start a rumor on. I think I may have, but, but I just look at logically and say, you know, not every team is gonna start next year with a starting quarterback coming off a good year from last year. Somebody's gonna have to take some risk and roll the dice on somebody who is either never, never done it before or is coming off a disappointing season. Same Question for you. Well, a lot of it's gonna be tied into who the offensive coordinator's gonna be, right? So we talked about today that they've got some interview scheduled for next week, Kaari Jones, who's also going to be in the mix for the head coaching job in Ottawa, is gonna interview for the OC job. So he's gonna wait obviously to see how that Ottawa job plays out. And then you've got Mark Mueller, who's the quarterback coach in, uh, Calgary that's gonna wind up, uh, interviewing and maybe he wants to take a run at an offensive coordinator job for a year. But do you want to go into that situation, uh, with the head coach on the final year of his deal and not knowing who your quarterback's gonna be? Or do you think maybe if he goes there, it might encourage Boley Mitchell to go there? You know, I don't know. So, uh, and then, uh, Kelly, Jeffrey longtime you sports coaches, the running back coach in Saskatchewan right now is also gonna be a person of interest. And, uh, they're gonna interview him internally as a potential OC candidate. And there might be some in this game as well. So that's gonna tie in a lot. And I gotta be honest, it, it's kind of slim Pickens at both. There just aren't enough good ones and that's a, a bigger problem and a deeper topic that this league's gotta get into. Yeah, I wanna talk about that. I'm, there's a lot in the chat people mad at me that I call the c alternative football. It's, it's primary football. The other leagues we call alternative football, cuz this isn't spring football, it's summer football. You can't call it alternative. It's been around for a hundred years, I'd say for America. Come on. You call it alternative professional football. I'm comfortable with that. No, when there are strikes in the US they watch Canadian football, you can't watch, call it alternative football. I also have here that they said Reed Farhan and Dave, uh, C media royalty. So that's good. Uh, do, does the CFO have a incoming, especially now US L xfl, I just did an eight and a half hour live draft the other day talking to xfl, uh, quarterbacks. Uh, does the c have an upcoming quarterback problem, even not just in Regina. You know, I think it's gonna have an upcoming player recruitment problem and the quarterbacks are gonna be the most acute example of that. And you know, like I've talked to people in personnel recent weeks and months and asked them a little bit about what it was like to try to sign players this fall. It hasn't been easy. And you know, it's not a bias against, you know, Canada or the Canadian Football League or anything. When you're looking at players that are sitting on that NFL bubble, it's just a logical choice. You know, the, the entry level pay for C salary is about the same as it is in one of these alternative leagues in the States. The difference is the CFL asks you for a 21 week season and those leagues are asking you for 10 and they're gonna spit you out in time that if you can get an opportunity in the National Football League, you can go right into a training camp. The CFL season ends in early November, you're not eligible to go to the nfl even if somebody had a need next week, you've gotta wait until training camp of next summer. So from an agent and player's perspective, at least those guys that believe that they are future national Football league players, which would be, uh, all of them <laugh>, you know, they, they all believe it or certainly the vast majority, um, you know, that's gonna be a hard sell, is gonna be a very tough sell. And I think this league is bracing, you know, for a period where that as long as these leagues are in existence, uh, you play a recruitment is not going to be what it was. Well, and especially from a quarterback perspective, because now you gotta learn a new game, right? So even if you're Chad Kelly and you're wildly talented, you come up here and you're gonna be two years before you start, right? Whereas you could stay down there and play the same game and agents can turn around and say, PJ Walker, Taylor Heineke, John Wilford, and it, it just seems a little more real, right? And you get covered locally down there. You come up here and it feels like you disappear for a bit. You've gotta learn a new game. It makes it harder to evaluate when you go down there. So, you know, you, you can debate how much it's gonna affect on other positions, but it, I think it's definitely gonna affect at the quarterback position and the guys, guys, you won't notice it in 2022 or 23. You'll notice it in 2024 and 2025 when those guys have had their two years apprenticeship, but now they're not here this time. Yeah. And I think that's to far Hunt's point about quarterbacks, we always say that from the minute, you know, you go to your first camp with rare exceptions, if your guys played American football, your all your whole life, it's two to three years Right. Of practice and film and mentoring until you're ready to start games. Well, when we get those guys, like Zach Polaris came here at 22, right? So he's a starting quarterback in this league at 25, 26. If the Zach Polaris is of the future are gonna go to the XFL first, or the USFL put in their time there and we start getting these guys at 25, 26 as opposed to getting them at 2223, then you gotta tack on that development time. I mean, you, you get have quarterbacks that aren't ready to start in this league until they're nearly 30. So it, that's, and you know, guys move on with life sometimes, man. Like sometimes if you don't get them here early and get them to see the possibilities in the Canadian Football League, it's harder to sell them on it when they're 27, 28, something like that. Uh, We have a lot of questions here. It's not Nathan Mor, but a lot of questions for you two about Curtis work. People have put on, they said, and we'll, we'll try to hit these, uh, Leon. Will Curtis Rourke be the first pick in the C draft? I think so. Not this year. He's not in this draft. Yeah. A year and a half From now when he decides that he wants to do that, because the c evaluators will view him as a, a bubble NFL guy. Now there's a lot more to come with Curtis, right, right. Because he's got two years. We'll see if he does it. We'll see what happens with his injury. Uh, you know, if he's not hurt and he's able to finish the season this year, does he choose to transfer next year? If he blows it up at that point and has a, a great year at a Power five school, the narrative around him is gonna change for the NFL draft. But if he stays at Ohio, does another year because of an injury and then becomes a late round NFL pick Yeah, he absolutely could be the first overall pick in the CFO draft because Nathan's paved the wave. And if you can get a guy like that, you know, Nathan's the unicorn, everybody's gonna take a, take a flyer on the next unicorn who, who just happens to be the brother of the last one. Right. So yeah, I I could completely see a scenario or in 2024, he's the number one overall pick. Yeah, yeah. You don't have to go very hard to find people in football either, you know, at the professional scouting level or or college who believe that that Curtis work is a legitimate NFL prospect. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. And one of the things that differentiates him, I mean, one he's playing in a more pro style offense, so he's throwing the ball down the field, you know, more like in, in an offense it looks like the National Football League and he's six foot five, which he, you, he told me, he said he had a two inch growth spurt at 21. I said, isn't that fortunate? You know, like, or you know, that just came along and dropped out of the sky. Yeah. And, and so, you know, and, and even when we were talking about the possibility of him transferring, I talked to somebody at Division one program the other day and asked him, you know, with Curtis work getting these national TV games, is this gonna up his stock and he wants to transfer report Power five? And the guy says, now everybody at Power Five already knows who he is and have done an evaluation. This may be confirming what they already know, but this isn't like eyes wide open all of a sudden because he is on national TV and you know, if he gets there and does well, you know, the only way, not the only way, but one of the ways that Curtis could fall from being the first pick of the draft is if people just see that he's gonna get a really good opportunity in the National Football League. Yeah. Someone here said Ottawa could take him as number one, just as like a lottery pick, you know, if he comes up here. But, uh, we have a lot of questions too about American expansion, you know, uh, or, or even TV rights. That's more what I mean to that. Rosie said yesterday, uh, we're working towards something, it feels good, but I don't have anything to share yet. Uh, what do you guys both make of that? And, and you know, should they get, we they set aside here, ESPN two, they only had 40,000 viewers for the East finals, but it's like that's 40,000 viewers that literally dove 18 pages deep in the ESPN plus to find, so what do you guys think of American TV deals coming up? This is one, I've been down the road on a long time and I go back to the US expansion days as well, but uh, you know, for years the messaging on the cfo, and this has always been the same, Hey, we're, we're giving away our property to some American networks or we're, we've got a small a deal that's mostly about exposure, but a little bit about money. And the hope is that someday you're gonna monetize this thing. Well, like I've been hearing this for 30 years, right? And they've been on the NFL network, they've been on USA Network, they've been on espn, they've been everywhere. They dance all around the place. One of the things they're doing working with Genius Sports, which is their, you know, data marketing company for lack of a better expression, you know, has been trying to position them to get a US TV deal. And with all due respect to these alternative leagues in the us I think the time when there's the best vo biggest void and people actually would wanna watch football is June, July and August, right? Because you're only up against baseball, you're not up against the nba, you're not up against the nhl, the NFL is essentially like mothball for the month of July. There's no NFL news, like there's nobody in the buildings basically. So that to me, and you got all these guys that have played in major college programs, people don't even know they're still playing football. Then you tie the gambling thing into it, people love to bet on football. It feels like there are a number of factors here that should be producing an opportunity and the economy is scale in the cfl. If you got a US television deal for 10 million US and you could cut a check for every CFL team for 1.1 million us, which is about one four Canadian, I mean that's, that's 25% of your salary cap covered with one US TV deal. So it can be significant. Yeah, no, I tend to agree. And you know, we're hearing that, um, there could be a multilayered US TV deal or that's what they're working towards that could be worth maybe four times as much as what they're currently getting. So there's gonna be some digital component to it and some network component to it, right? And, and Dave's right, the timing matters. In addition, you know, we slowly are seeing the schedule trickle up the calendar a little bit, right? So there's a debate as to what the final end date for the gray cup is. You know, we, we've heard some things about an early November grade cup as early as next year. Randy and bro kinda cooled that a little bit by saying the, the calendar will get compressed that way when we get a 10th team and you don't need, uh, 21 weeks to play 18 games. So I think that's miles away from happening. But if it ever does, that's the simplest way. Or you know, maybe we do see a scenario at some point where they just move the start of it up a couple of weeks and uh, and see where they go because again, makes you go head to head with hockey and football or NFL less and and do more, more in those void times. No, and I think, you know, your point about 40,000 when it's buried on ESPN plus and like people have to go find it. You have to go look for it, right? Where you want is you want to get this onto, you know, one of the main networks ESPN or ESPN two for instance, or something comparable to that and then promote it. Like that's just other thing is, you know, you want to get a promotion, people know that it's going on and yeah, this is unscientific, but I, I've looked at ESPN reading ratings in the past, like any of the years, and you look at, you know, CFL tape delay game, MLS live game, how come we have a bigger audience on a tape delay than they had on a live and they have a like zillion dollar contract and we're given our property way. I just, as a layman, I'm not a, I'm not a television executive. I'm on television, but I don't, I don't know the business of television, but I just looking at that as a layman, you look at it and say, well, you would think there's some potential there if you actually put these games on. Again, most of they're on live now, but live and promote them and tell people about them and not make people surf through, you know, 19 pages to find it on ESPN Plus. Uh, I'll try to get you guys out just cause I know you're busy. A couple more questions. I did have, uh, I, I chuckled when I saw this stuff. Uh, Leon wants to know, uh, can we get a double congrats from Dave Nailer here? And I will say, I will say I accosted Justin dunk on the sidewalk last night. I think you guys came to the suite too late, but I, Dorothy and I were walking to dinner and I thought, dunk I be, why not now? Why not now to kinda like burn this bridge and be okay with it, but, uh, what do you, I mean it just reactions to anything happening. It's funny how people remember that, right? It was, look, What are you talking about? I don't remember. No, We, we got into a bit of a Twitter argument where Justin suggested I did not give proper credit to some reporting the three down Nations had. Oh yes, yes, yes. We Disagreed on some of the semantics and logistics of it. And when he came back at me a second time, I, I had already told him Congratulations on something. And when he came me back I wrote double congrats. And that has come back at me a few times. I'm not trying to be a Justin and I, you know, we, we get along it's okay, but we, we had a little, we had a minor Twitter spat and yes, double congrats seems to have stick with stuck with some people. So yeah, double congrats there. I'll give you a shout out and Double. I did ask Dorothy last night, I said, on a scale from zero to 10 of like zero, I wanna give you a hug. 10, I wanna like stab you in the throat. Where was dunk last night when I saw him and Dorothy said about a seven. That was about where we were at. I didn't see him last night, so I can't go. Last question for you guys serious. We'll get both and then we'll get on your way and I'll keep you guys, uh, the big news that wasn't news during the media conference, but obviously everyone's talking about the Saturday playoff games. We've had lots of conversations. I guess we'll start with Farhan on this one. Uh, I just tweeted last week, why did we not have the games on Saturday? And Rosie was listening, I think. Yeah, well for sure you've got a lot of sway in this league, but you know, when you, when you look at, uh, we attempted this back in, I think it was oh eight or oh nine, somewhere in there. It Was, it was the year of Cam wakes last season in the cfl. I Remember that. Yeah. And, and the ratings weren't necessarily good for it for the Saturdays. And there were some, some other circumstances around why that happened and, and they escaped me right now. But I think it makes sense for a number of reasons, right? Why do you want to go head to head with the nfl? You're more likely to attract an NFL audience than an NHL audience. I would take the risk of going up against a Leaf game, but you could also get both games done early enough in the day that you don't have to go up against the Leaf game. You know, on top of that, um, fans are used to watching games on Saturday. They might be used to watching 'em on Saturday night, but CFO fans are used to Saturday football. So number one, not only do it, but commit to three or four years of doing it so you can try to build audience habits still to watching those playoff games at that time. I think it makes total sense. And if it goes well, maybe we see the breakup game on a Saturday at some point I'm a little more skeptical about it. And, and there's a, I come from the newspaper business, uh, before I was in TV and there's an expression in newspapers. Don't move the comics <laugh> because as people know where the comics are and if you move them that, But we do move them. We move them on during the playoffs. Well, well, and we do, but, but we do move them. Yeah. And it is kind of, you know, weird because we're a Thursday, Friday, Saturday League, we only play Sundays on rare exceptions during the regular season, and then the playoffs always moves to Sunday. But it is amazing how the habits, and I remember that time, whatever it was 10 years ago, I couldn't even get outta my, when we played the Saturday playoff games, I could not get that outta my head that, that it wasn't Sunday. It just my, my, my whole life Sunday, the c playoff games. And I started thinking of other things that were going on that day and no, they're not. Cuz it's Saturday and the ratings dipped. Right? And the league got the Ys about doing that, so they went back to Sunday. I tried to get a confirmation today that this is a multi-year commitment, right? That this is not gonna be one, whoops. Back to Sundays and I couldn't get it. I think that's the idea, that's where they want to go, but apparently it's gonna be reviewed after next year. So we're not like in stone for the next three or four years. Like I thought we might be On this one, but hey, 1.2 million for the Western final, which is a great number. Uh, they don't have an exact number on the east because of how the RDS numbers are factored in, but they're anticipating around 900,000, so not so bad for the finals. Uh, my last question for you is, um, we're we're talking new TV rides deal both with TSN and trying to get into America. That was the theory I saw online is was that the Saturday thing must have something to do with, hey, they're wanting it on Saturday, whatever TV deal we're trying to work out, that must be part of it. Well, I think that the thing is that we are the exclusive rights holder, the National Football League in, uh, ctv, TSN is as well. So, and I think this was probably, and again, I'm not speaking for TSN on this, but I I assume this was some of the impetus 10 years ago, is that if you've got two massive investments in professional football as TSN does, both the National Football League and the cfl, and they're both significant investments, you know, from, from just the starting point, it makes sense that you're not program them head to head at their most important dates. And I, and I think that's kind of part of the philosophy of it. Um, it's, it's not so much that TSN is trying to engineer the deal to redo it or I think it's just saying, Hey, we, we have a massive inventory of NFL games, we have a significant inventory of, of CFL games and do we really wanna run our c playoff games right up against NFL games? And that's what I assume the conversation is about. I don't think it's anything about trying to change the value of the contract. We're, I think we're through to 2026. Yeah. So, you know, we'll see where we are on that. I, well, yeah, I mean for me, like I said, it, it just makes so much sense to not have to compete with the nfl. Right. And, uh, you know, it, maybe it opens the door. I know people in circles have been critical about not having the games on ctv. Right. And I don't know if this would open up the door for that by not going head to head with the NFL that maybe that happens. And again, like Dave, I'm not speaking for our network. Uh, but it certainly, it would make it easier to do that. But bottom line, just don't go ahead to head with your own important properties. Although as you say, it's done pretty well. I, I I, I kind of like this to and as much, I'm obviously a massive NFL consumer. You know, we both Farhan and I both spend some time covering that league, but I don't have any problem on a Sunday in November. Just look, there's NFL on Sunday night, there's NFL on Sunday morning, there's NFL Thursday, Monday. To me it's not that big a deal to give up two NFL games on a Sunday in a week, you know, in a schedule that has ad na NFL games to watch a couple C Yeah. For gambling. It's a big deal to other people though. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Absolutely. And that's what's also different about when we tried this The last time, right? Absolutely. Getting people focused on is a single game. But there will be, don't, don't move the comics crowd. The CFO is slow to move on this stuff it took is this long to go back to this, uh, for next year and it'll take long before the Gray Cup ever moves off Sunday. Awesome. Well I thank you guys so much. Double congrats to your hard work here this weekend. I really appreciate you guys making time here and hopefully we'll see each other later for if suite for a beer later or that I really appreciate. It's good. See you guys. Take care. Thank you Farhan and Dave nailer her. Yeah, see you. We only came cuz Dorothy invited us. Just so you know, You may not be in the camera next year, right? Well we've had a really good time. I was really, now I was sitting in the shower today, I thought this, this might be Good cheaper flights to Hamilton probably also than Saskatchewan, right? Yeah. A little more flights and a little more flexibility on that. We hope we see you there next year. Yeah. If not Vancouver in 24. Just send Dorothy. We'll Be good. Yeah. You guys think there the, all right, well, we'll give far Honda nail off. Thank you so much. I'll take the mic here. We'll bring on Danielle here. And, uh, thank you all so much. Big shoes to fill here. Thank you guys. Uh, we're gonna bring in Danielle up onto she here. Uh, getting lots of comments in the chat about, you know, the Saturday CFL games, all that stuff. Dave Nailer coming on. We also have Darrell Davis standing by. I see Matt Baker here. Uh, Carolyn Cody from the cfl, BC Lions. Lots of people. Daniela, you're gonna sit here. Big shoes to fill here. How are you? Danielle? Ponta. She, Yeah. Big shoes. And my voice rough. I got, I got the breakup voice going on, apparently. Um, how cool is this though, that you had mailer and Farhan on? That was wonderful. Great to hear them. Uh, I saw you over there yawning. How are you holding up with the festivities going on? You know, I'm just like, consider me one of the fans at this point. I'm, I'm rolling with it. I'm definitely, um, new to the whole experience. It's my first breakup and it's been a mix of work and, uh, and enjoying the festivities here. Uh, talk about, you know, we saw you at the tweet up last night. I love that because like I was telling Dorothy, here's something where, you know, everyone's strangers all year, we're able to get together here. You're like, okay, I kind of know you, like, I kind of look like you're, yeah, that's cool. Uh, what was that like in the atmosphere just on the streets of Regina here? You know, I, I was talking to, uh, I think it was my Uber, one of the Uber drivers in the city. And like the energy has picked up tremendously just from the start, like on Monday. And one of the things, it makes total sense. The team didn't finish the way that we would've hoped. And, uh, that's the way it is. Uh, what do you see, uh, Saskatchewan has a lot of stuff to work on next year. Yes. Yes. Uh, would you say, and I mean here we are, we have a team that just fired their head coach. We have another team that replaced their head coach, but, uh, I, I think the rough riders have, you know, at least top three most work to do in the off-season. Yeah, they do. Uh, so what do you see them doing or what would you like to see them do? Ooh, just in terms of where their focus Is? Yeah, I mean, we gotta get a quarterback here. We're keep it keeping the coach. I mean, what, what do you see people accomplishing Quarterback. I'm gonna jump on the o line bandwagon, but the offensive line, getting a little bit of veteran presence in there. And I know Mike at Heights would be somebody that, you know, we'd be looking forward to having involved there, but also get the defense clicking again cuz we were losing mojo big time towards the end of the season. And I don't know if that's just the, you know, reverse momentum of losing so many times and being on a skid for so long, not having a home game wins since July 8th. Hopefully we can get that monkey off our back early as we usually open the season right at Home. I got a good question for you here. Leon wants to know this specifically for you. How do you feel about SA fans selling their tickets to bomber fans? And now I saw the video today them the locker room is blue. Oh, that one hurt. I mean we knew that that was very, very likely when we were out of the Western playoff picture that whoever wins the west is going to be in that locker room. And we figured it's probably the bombers that one hurt. I mean, the fact that Saskatchewan fans are trying to sell their tickets, that's not surprising. It makes sense. They were so everyone's hopeful, right? It's in your backyard and how cool to be to watch your team play. Not everyone is gonna be willing to do that so that they think let's just sell it. And why not to Bomber fans, you can drive five hours to get here. I like it here. We've spent time obviously around this casino is gorgeous Casino where John, were here, but even with Mosaic and you've got the houses right around there. Yes. It's, it feels a little like Hamilton where it's like people you, you have, you can like walk from your front yard to go see a game. Yeah. Uh, it's cool. It's different. I, I know Green Bay is kind of like that in the nfl, but it does feel like it's a little different than, you know, your traditional nfl whatever Dale is coming back to again, grabbing his phone, <laugh>. Uh, but talk about that, just how it really feels like it's so ingrained in the community here. Yeah, I mean we are the, just where Mosaic Stadium is featured in the city, you every day you drive by it and it, well, at least I do and I love seeing it. It's a great reminder of the football that we have in this province. Cause obviously not just the home of the riders, but the home of some really great youth sports and uh, junior football clubs too. But um, yeah, it's just got that small town in a big city feel, which is exactly what Regina is. And from what I understand, that is the level of hospitality as well that's being delivered. That nice small town intimate feel just in a bigger city. Yeah. Uh, west is tough in the c and you know, we've seen BC here huge, you know, whatever happens with Rourke, I mean big, uh, you know, growth there. I think people are expecting lots of things from, you know, Chris Jones here coming up in season. How, how do you see the riders doing? I mean they really, and even, you know, Calgary, like, it's a lot on them to struggle here to remain relevant in the really tough West. I was gonna say, it's gonna be interesting to see the Calgary piece in all of this re because yeah, I mean, I, I imagine BC coming quite dominant again, what's happening with the quarterback situation, we will see, but I still imagine that they have such great pieces in place that they can still be a great contender. I don't know where Regina's going to be in the West. You could just hope that they have better records. But then you consider the records that the top three teams in the west had this season and they were phenomenal, right? Second and third place is 12 and six. Are you kidding me? So that's a really high bar. We only had six wins on the entire season. Um, what I like about you is you can talk both sides of the football, right? You can talk the Xs and Thoses, you can talk, you know, the crowd and everything building up that way. Uh, the game tomorrow. Exciting. I am excited for it. I am rooting for the Argos just cuz I am a McCloud fan. And you know, Zach's getting paid. He's got his, yeah, he's good. He's good. You know, he's the quarterback, you know, Mount Rushmore, all this kind of stuff here it feels like. But, uh, who do you see tomorrow and what are you looking forward to seeing in the matchup? Ooh, I, I cannot wait to see the run game from both of these teams because you've got the, the Brady Lavera and Andrew Harris. What's up? It's Tanner and Drew here for Bubs and great news Power Hour has arrived and it goes down every Monday through Saturday from 9:00 PM to 10:00 PM Power Hour at Bubs is the Prefu spot. Get your night started right for nearly nothing $2 drafts and well drink. And we all know that Bubs is known for their wings, but they also have some of the best burgers in town. Enjoy The full loaded burger lineup and a cold beverage at Beat Up. Come watch the game and enjoy Power Hour Monday through Saturday from nine to 10:00 PM at beat ups. Power Hour at beat ups is the Prefu party spot. Switching and saving with Geico is easy. So you're freed upon her life's big questions. Like is the word dictionary in the dictionary? If so, it probably says something like dictionary now. A dictionary is the word you are reading now and the pages they were printed on, basically this thing you are looking at right now that you're holding reading words from. It's a dictionary as in, Hey, look at me, I'm holding a dictionary in my hands as I read the definition of dictionary. Yeah, it's probably something like that. Switch and save with Geico. It's easier than you think. Connection is so thrilling. Not only to see perform on the field, of course, but just from the point of view that Brady learned from Andrew. But I always love a veteran who proves age is nothing but a number and he has proven that he was so dominant in the, in the final right. So I'm looking really forward to that. I do think though we could expect to see some nice offense, the weather read minus two. That's a nice forecast. Last week I was on the sidelines for the C JFL championship minus 16. That ball it, you, you could hear it, it sounded like a piece of cement being thrown around and it was minus 24 with the windshield. So what a difference one week makes is what I'm trying to say. Um, Final thoughts here. We'll transition. We got Darrell Davis, glad by here. Oh, you're great. Here's this. Just, this is great, but I Mean, I think Regina has risen the occasion here. I mean, in terms of hosting and I know it's such this big honor and you're, you know, it's we bidding and now like that's part of the thing now. Like Ammar had to bid to get Vancouver, but like, what, what do you make of everybody the good fan support? I see lots of jerseys of every kind. I mean, what do you think? Final thoughts just from vagina? I have gotta say, I'm so, so proud of the city. I tell people this story. I was one of the many journalists who were there February, 2020 before we knew about this whole covid thing. For the unveiling of all the merch and all the excitement. And boy was the city hyped. Well then the world went through a pandemic. We still delivered a great, and like, I was actually happy when we knew it was 2022. We were getting, because I knew that 21 would have to again be so abbreviated. And so anyway, they got to do all the things that they wanted to do. And I wanna give a big shout out to the festival and the fact that first time in breakup history, it's all on one site, one footprint, first time as well that there's been free shuttles, free transit, that's high level next level. And also first time that they're combining some really innovative events like eSports into the mix. And the whole idea there is to get young people out. That's what we need. If you're, if you're interested in listening to this young people, come on out, join us. It's Good time. Well, I really appreciate it. I think we're gonna run into you guys later tonight. I got lots of invites here where I told ro I said at least we're not sure of things to do here. There've been lots of fun invites, lots of cool things to go. So thank you so much for stopping by. Yeah, go get like a Red Bull or something here. Cause I think we have a long night ahead of us. Yes, we do. Thank you so much. Appreciate it. Danielle, Ella here. I'll take the mic, mic back. Thank you so much. That's okay. I'll shake your hand through here. Darl Davis coming up next. And then we have Darren bombing sobbing by here. Do you wanna go first? You want? Sure, yeah. Then you gotta go longer, but that's fine. We gotta fill, we got Darren Bombing here and Darl Davis coming on. Darren bombing a bonfire sports here. Uh, give darl that mic and then I'll give you this one. We'll go back and forth on this. Can you make sure that switched up on the mic? There we go. Uh, so we got Darl Davis, Darren Bombing here. Bonfire sports, everyone. Yeah. Daniela was fighting through a lot of horse, a lot of spirit of stuff. Uh, what has it been like? We'll start with Darren. They'll go there. What's it been like a week of here? I mean, you cover the most successful team that I've ever seen in the c I know my, my knowledge is very short, but what's it been week been like? Yeah, week's been good. You know, uh, I I think it's kind of just business as usual. That's the way this would've been. Blue Boomer's team is right. It's just they don't let the moment captivate them. They don't let anything get out of their regular reach. They just go out there and say, okay, today is practice day two and we're gonna work on these things and then we're going to go back to the room and eat and take care of our bodies and wake up tomorrow and this is what we're gonna do on day three. And, um, it's that very cliche, overused mantra, right? We want to go, we want to go one and oh every week. It's great that being in Regina doesn't change anything for Them. No, it doesn't change. It changes everybody else's life. It does. It definitely does. But they've had a lot of success of this field as well, right? Yeah. All, all the playoff success at Mosaic Stadium has come because the win pick Blue bombers have won every playoff game here. Yeah. So that's, we built it just for them. <laugh>, Uh, Darryl, what's it been like here? Lots of activity, lots of action. And I wanna talk more like get into the nuts and bolts of the C but we'll talk Greg up here for a minute. Uh, what's it been like for you in seeing everything happen In Regina? Well, this is the fourth time the gray house's been in Regina, and originally they decided Regina wasn't big enough that there weren't enough hotel rooms. And in 1995 when it first came here, there weren't, we've since built more hotels, casino was starting to flourish. There's a lot of things. It's still not a huge city though, right? We're still the smallest city in the cfl, but when breakup comes to Regina, it just takes over when breakup is in Toronto, when it's in Calgary, uh, ed, even Edmonton and Vancouver, especially the big markets Montreal like that, you don't even know it's on sometimes, but this, you can't go five paces without, without having it hit you square in the middle of the forehead. And that's, that's a lot of fun. It's also pretty tiring. Right. We have a question here, uh, Leon in the chat. What are the odds that Mike Oche leaves after winning the third gray cup? Ooh, odds on it. I'll, I'll say this and you know, I've talked about this a lot on, on my channel and, and with an audience that obviously loves Mike Shea and the, the amazing job he's done in changing the culture of the team and all the success and the rest. Um, it's a possibility. I think it's an absolute possibility. Mike Oche could decide to move on. You know, we know he is from North Bay, Ontario. He has roots, uh, his family, his wife, uh, his kids, all of that in southern Ontario, you know, playing with Hamilton, playing with with Toronto, friends, colleagues, family. The rest, um, you know, the success has been fantastic in Winnipeg. And you would think a coach like this wouldn't reach the end of a contract. Mm-hmm. <affirmative> especially with the, the, the recent, recent success, current success that, that he's having and that the team is having. But the reality is he likes to play to the end of the contract. And to me, as somebody who sees Mike Oche is wildly intelligent and extremely aware of the intricacies of the business side of things because the way he advises players and advises friends and, and other, you know, his own players and, and players from across the league. He, he tells them, you know, like, don't file your retirement papers. You never know if you wanna play again or if you get that opportunity. Um, you know, dealing with contracts and all that sort of thing. He gives them advice. He's very much a mentor. Why would he leave though? Why, why would he leave Winnipeg? He's gotta get a job as a general manager. He has to get that offer, otherwise there's no sense leaving. Do You think you'd wanna be a General manager? Yes. Doesn't every coach want to be, they wanna run it their way, right? Sure. And I know that he and Cal Wilders probably have a decent relationship, but it can always be better if you're in charge of it. Right? So if you run the whole show, and that to me is the only reason why he would go and who, who's going to offer him that right now. Everybody has a general manager in place basically. Sure. So I just, I just think he's maybe doing the one year contract or letting the contracts expire just to keep his options open. Okay. Tell me one person in the c today, the one team in the C today that would turn down Mike Oche if he wanted to be There. Well, that we even talked about that. You and I had that discussion right at the Saskatchewan r Rider say, well, we've got Jeremy O'Day and Craig Dickinson in place, but hey Michael Shay, why don't you come and be the general manager and the head coach? Would he take it? Uh, yes. Prob maybe, maybe he would. But the rough riders can't afford to do something like that. The way that salary cap operations cap goes, you can't, they can't afford to pay those guys out and then pay Michael Shay. So I think Mike as as good as he is, has gotta be back in Winnipeg next year. Yeah. I I I just feel that he is in such a unique position. He has all the leverage, all the power, and, um, you know, we haven't seen a coach this successful in the CFO really in a, in a long, long time in, in just the culture and how rock solid everything is, uh, in Winnipeg. I, I just, I just feel that it's absolutely a possibility. But whether it happens or not, there's obviously so much under the surface and and at play that, that We don't know about. We're on the verge of a dynasty here, you guys. That's right. They're one game away from becoming a dynasty. Yeah. Yeah. I get, I mean, we have a lot of comments here. You, she, he should go to Toronto, he should go to Ottawa. Ottawa should give him full Power. Some places would like him, Reid, but it doesn't work out for 'em. Right. They've got guys in Toronto, they've got Right. Pinballs running the running a pretty good show there. They're not making changes in BC or Calgary or Hamilton, uh, Or Edmonton. Or Edmonton. Yeah. And Montreal. I don't Think Jackson decided too. Right. So yeah. Well, maybe, but Danny Macho is not gonna give up the general manager's job in That's what I, Montreal, right? Yeah, yeah. People, of course, people would want him. Who wouldn't want Michael Shay running your franchise, but, uh, I don't know the way to be practical right now. It doesn't make sense. How do you guys feel about the state of the league right now? I mean, last year we had the genius sports and we were talking revenue sharing and all, it didn't feel, and I was at the thing, you know, with like, didn't feel as newsworthy. We got the Saturday announcement of course, in the fan thing. But how do you guys feel about just like the state of everything now, where two years past all the canceled this and all the craziness, like, are are we in a good spot now? It's it's better than it was. It's coming. It's still coming out of the, uh, outta the pandemic. So there's some things that they, they had to take five or six steps backwards on. So we're, we're seeing some progress. But, you know, and you talk about BC that's, that's a good good news story for them. The new owners made something that great quarterback who made lift to the nfl, but the, the biggest disappointments to me that last year, and there's still noteworthy the crowd crowd sizes in Edmonton and Calgary. To me, those crowds dipped and those were two of the most solid franchises. And there aren't people going to those games. And I think that they have a lot of work to do and it's very disappointing. They're trying to hide it and not talk much about it. But those are two big things that say we're still, we as a league, they are still in a big, big hold that they want, that they're gonna need to dig out of. And that said, you look at the other side of the coin, and, and I mean, I'm with you 100% D Darrell, well said. Um, but where the C is good, I think things are, are very good in Winnipeg. We're seeing fantastic crowds, young people, people in their twenties and thirties coming out in droves. Like, you go to a Blue Bombers game in the summer and it's all young kids, you know, and it's the cool kids that that's where they go and, and they kind of get their weekend started on a Thursday or Friday night, um, you know, with the Winnipeg Blue Bombers game. So, um, maybe a bit of a dichotomy in the cfl. Um, but you know, there is new ownership in in some markets and you hope that, uh, the plans to, uh, strengthen things, continue to, you know, be in that upward Trajectory. Hey, we're gonna get bumped when Mike Pinball, Clemens walks in over. Yeah, I just gonna streaking from off camera here. I can take over, man. Uh, we got Dar Davis here, dear mom and thank you guys so much. I just, I know this guest time is tight. We gonna bring him on, right? That Gerald, I'll take the mic back. Thank you guys so much. Uh, saw shrieking coming off here. Uh, crowds shaking. I was glad I've been, if you've noticed me looking on my computer, been texting, uh, one of our friends all day trying to set this up here. We have Mike playing Ball Clemens here coming on. Sir, it was so funny. I was talking with, you know, our associate to get you on. Thank you so much. And then I was walking by the mall yesterday. I saw you on the phone right after getting all this coming. Very good. Pinball is here. How, how are you doing, sir? Thank you. So my name is re this is the mark cast. Thank you for coming on. Thank you for having, having me. Real pleasure. Okay, Reid. Um, you know, it's, it's uh, obviously been a wonderful week. It's, uh, this is where you wanna be, right? And, uh, so we, uh, of course, uh, have a woo a a strong, a really strong opponent, uh, to go against tomorrow. But, uh, um, I, uh, I think the guys are ready. Uh, what is the, what is, what is the feeling in the locker room there with the guys, you know, practicing and everything else? What is their energy level this week? Uh, you know, I think they're, um, they're, they're, no, Winnipeg is a really good team and they're defeated. They, um, I think, you know, they're not really sure about the, no, no, no. <laugh>. So, so, so the guys have been, uh, working really hard this week and, uh, putting the game plan together and, uh, you know, it, it is gonna make, i I say it earlier this week that it's gonna take a miracle, but I believe in miracles. And, uh, but, uh, this is, um, you know, uh, uh, for our guys coming together this quickly, right? So we, we made a change, um, back in, uh, 2020, um, and, uh, didn't get a chance to play it until 2021. And, and, uh, consistent with that, uh, had a great year in 2021. And then almost the whole coaching staff, Ryan did what he had to replace. And so only one person stayed. And so you're looking at a new defense, a new special teams, right? And, uh, coach d Witty working with, uh, got guys he's familiar with, but, but a new group, uh, in terms of the players themselves. And so, uh, with all of that transition and being able to be where we are at this point, we couldn't be happier. I love your quarterback. I love McCloud. We covered him. So cuz we do all the American football too. So I fell in love with him in the spring league. He played in 2020 during the off year, he came down to keep up, you know, keep up shape the game, all that, whatever came back up. Talk about, what do you like about McCloud? Beth Thompson, First of all, he's one of the coolest people on the planet, right? When you get to know him, uh, he is just, um, uh, such a dynamic person, a a dynamic personality, but defers, right? He, he really wants to encourage people and build others up. He's a great dad, a great husband, uh, all of these little things. And, and, uh, and as, as a, as a quarterback, he could just flat out throw the football, right? And, uh, uh, we, um, we are so lucky, uh, to be able to, to have him as our, our leader on the offensive side of the ball. And, and, uh, he is, he's also proved a lot of people wrong. There are a lot of people who, who didn't think he would make it to this day. And, uh, so it is a wonderful story about a a a beautiful spirit. A guy who, uh, is, um, so dynamic both on and off the field, uh, but is at the same time, is so caring and understanding, uh, but is often misunderstood. You don't u usually hear all of those things in the same sentence. And, and to see, see him work through, uh, and push through and, and just become more consistent, uh, as the, as the year's gone on and be in this place, no place he'd rather be, To me, he just speaks of like, what is the C Right? It's like every man has worked so hard, has been to every, you know, all these different teams and leagues and has struggled and was always the number two, finally got a shot here, right? And always at the Gray Cup. I mean, it's, you couldn't write the about story, right? You could not. And, and, uh, uh, and as you know, a guy who threw for over 4,000 yards in, in, uh, 2019 in a very difficult year, right? Where we didn't have much, uh, success come, you know, uh, then coming back and, and, uh, uh, not, not re retain retaining his job. We actually went a different direction. And, and, uh, uh, and so yes, this was the first year where he started from the beginning of the year as his team. And in doing so, he's pulled the guys together, the, the, the players love him, right? Uh, his, his offensive guys, uh, uh, will, will run through a wall for him. And we just, um, we're so proud of what, what's transpired. Uh, Leon's got a questio here. He says, ask pinball if he has a couple returns left in him for tomorrow's game. <laugh>, Tell him I can return to my seat is about all yes, <laugh>. Uh, so yeah, so no, tell him, uh, the memory is better than the reality <laugh>. Um, talk about your guys' head coach here, you know, one coach of the year, right? Last year, whatever, the rookie coach of the coming back didn't wi he going up against Michael Shea, right? I mean, I was on Rob Peterson show yesterday, I think you were on either today, yesterday talking like he put Michael Shaa on, you know, the Mount Rushmore of, of, uh, CFL talent, right? I'm sure you would be on there as well, but, uh, did with you going up, but like excelling as much as he has, right? In his two years now, two full years. And what have you seen with him in the growth that he's had as a head coach? Um, well, yeah, I think the natural thing is how easy he is with the guys, right? Um, you know, you, you're, um, he, he is a locker room guy and he's one of those guys. But when you become the head coach, right? I think there's a little bit of difference, a little bit of, you know, trying to figure out what's my new personality here now? And, and, uh, he's a lot easier with the guys in terms of addressing the guys. He, he, uh, speaks and addresses them, uh, a lot more, uh, fluidly. Um, you know, he, he's a great football mind, a tremendous football mind. That was never the problem. He grew up in it. His father was a coach, and I think it was, he was two years old and he, he, uh, um, got, almost got zipped up in the ball bag, right? They, they had started to zip the bag and, and, uh, so he's been around the game it feels like forever. He's played the quarterback position, the position that we think is the big thinking position on the team. He's been an assistant coach and he's done all of those things. And, uh, and so we were really excited about the opportunity and we, we didn't say he was, um, he, we didn't call him the great one. We called him the next one and now his time is up. Uh, well, I appreciate it. I got one more question for you. I know you're busy. And then we got our last guest standing by here. I so appreciate you coming by today. This has been excited. Absolute pleasure. Thank you. Uh, so, you know, whatever happens tomorrow, this is, you know, we all the Toronto stuff, you know, you've heard, I mean I've heard you've heard it to ign nauseum, right? But Toronto's in the Gray Cup had the successful year, won the East, right back here again. What's next for the franchise? I mean, how do you keep this momentum going here into the next season with, you know, all the good will that's been built this Year? So, so, um, I think it's, it's properly said that, that we have two first place finishes, right? Yep. And that's what it's going to take. It's going to take consistency on the field. There's a lot, there's some things that we have to address off the field, but consistency on the field is, I believe the starting point. What's up? It's Tanner and Drew here for Bubs and great news Power Hour has arrived and it goes down every Monday through Saturday from 9:00 PM to 10:00 PM Power Hour at Bubs is the Prefu spot. Get your night started right? For nearly nothing $2 drafts and well drink. And we all know that Bubs is known for their wings, but they also have some of the best burgers in town. Enjoy The full loaded burger lineup and a cold beverage at Be Up. Come watch the game and enjoy Power Hour Monday through Saturday from nine to 10:00 PM at Bubs Power Hour at Bubs is the Prefu party spot. Switching and saving with Geico is easy. So you're freed upon her life's big questions. Like if a person can get discombobulated, does that mean the rest of the time they're just like combobulated? Are we humans always in a state of conation until of course something dramatic happens and we are discombobulated for a while, then we go back to being combobulated. Yeah, that's probably how that works. Switch and save with Geico. It's easier than you think. And do you think that you guys have the staff together to kind of accomplish that? Uh, yeah, obviously I think, uh, you know, being able to watch, uh, Ryan grow and what he has done, uh, so early, he's such a magnificent young coach. Uh, so we have that in place. We have a, a couple of dynamic, uh, young guys on the personnel team. Vince, uh, Madre has been with us for now 10 years. And, and another young man, uh, named, named, uh, Alex Russell. Uh, so those two young guys, uh, and then I, I got the, the old, the well who was one of my mentors and Jim Barker. So he, he, yeah. He'll, he'll, he'll throw enough questions at us that'll, that'll keep us honest, right? So, so I think from a coaching standpoint, uh, from a personnel standpoint as well as on the field, we have, uh, a great group of guys, I think, think we are only moving forward. Well, the chat is excited. We are excited. I appreciate you coming by today. Thank you so much. And I wish you the best of life. Listen, thank you so much. I wish I could chat with 'em all the time. I know maybe sometime soon we'll get a chance to do this again. Okay? Yeah, we'll do it. I appreciate it. Sounds Real pleasure. Okay, I'll take that you off spitball, uh, the legend here, CFL legend. Uh, let's bring on, uh, our final standings today here. Matt Baker and Carolyn here. Gotta ka got follow pinball. Here we go from America's CFL team here, the BC Alliances. Uh, rounding out the main event here. Carolyn, I'll give you that mic. And Matt here, uh, we have Matt Baker, Carolyn Cody here, uh, America's CFO team, the BC Alliance, uh, Matt, we were, we were so close this year. What happened? Well, uh, <laugh>, how much time do we have? Yeah, I mean, uh, just ran into a buzz saw. I mean, uh, the Winnipeg Blue bombers are what they are. Um, they've been the best team in the Canadian Football League all season franchise record wins and um, games like that won and lost front and best offensive line in the league was the difference. But no shame in it. Uh, we're all very proud of how far we've come and being here is certainly motivation to be a participant next time. Uh, Carolyn, I'm impressed with the work that's gone in from the BC Alliance team coming out here, right? I think that speaks to obviously a Mar do and the owner and, and just the excitement of, you know, all the staff that's involved with the team. Talk about like, what, what was your marching orders, you guys coming out here and like, what was your goal this weekend to be a part of the breakup? So for us, like we knew that, you know, 2024 breakup was gonna be awarded to to bc and we wanted to make sure that the fans that travel from across Canada got to experience the best BC Lions event so that in 24 when they come back to Vancouver, they're expecting even bigger and better than what you're gonna see in Regina. So we're really looking forward to elevating the bar on what breakup festivals will be. And you know, it's, we wanted to bring the whole team to come and experience it because breakup's fun and everyone should have a chance to, you know, celebrate with other CFO fans. How big was the getting awarded the Gray Cup for 2024? Oh, huge. I mean, um, you look in history of, of Gray Cup hosts and you know, the game's one thing, but you know, Vancouver's a world class city, right? It's an event. City Olympics, FIFA World Cups coming. This'll be I think the 17th Gray Cup in 2024. Um, hey, I've, I've pumped Winnipeg's Tires here and by all accounts they had a great bid too, but really, um, it's a no-brainer. A Mar said in his first, um, public appearance with season ticket holders that I hosted, uh, last October, I think it was, he f he, he said as early as then that they, they were putting a bid together and you know, it's a credit to Carolyn, Rick, Joan, everybody who's been involved. So yeah, it's a no brainer Thoughts on getting the, getting the, uh, award of the bid. I mean the timing is so perfect for us because it, it's sandwiched right between some major events for the, you know, the city of Vancouver and if we didn't get 24, we wouldn't get it till 27. So that would be a huge long break between not having a breakup there. So the timing worked out really well and you know, the stars aligned that, uh, it doesn't conflict with FIFA or any of the other, um, events that are coming up for, for Vancouver and bc So yeah, perfect timing. Uh, I like it that it, it, like you said with Mark coming in, it's like, put your money where your mouth this year, right? And what I also like about it is it elevates the importance of the Gray Cup, right? Like we want people, like we want this to be a coveted thing. We don't want it to be like, okay, well now we gotta award it here and now we got award it here. Like, um, just I guess, how much of pressure do you think it was on Amar and the, you know, the organization we have like make sure that we got this going this year, you know, in two years, but to get awarded This year? Well, let me say, um, this bid was originally for this year cuz you remember Regina was awarded 2020. We all know what happened. Hamilton was in 21, so I think the wheels were actually kind of in motion before Mar bought the team, right? This originally was going to be the year that the Lions, uh, bid on it. But you know what it was with the pandemic and, and Regina and even you can ask Dwayne Oa, our incoming president, he said he's been coming to Regina for the last four years it seems, cuz it was originally for 2020, this great cup. But yeah, I think, um, once the sale was final, i I I I think it was the type of thing that, you know, he would, he would get a chance, uh, to showcase himself and what he's done for this continuing to do with this Lions team, uh, by putting on a Great Cup festival. So it's, it's been 10 years too, right? 2014 was, was the last one. I think it will have been everywhere else except Montreal since that span. So it was our time, Carolyn, what is with, you know, Ammar Doman coming in and just like feeling like this was long overdue and getting, you know, someone invested in the community and he's been on our show. I appreciate you guys of that. Like, just the energy that that brings to everybody. I mean, and, and obviously BC I think was kind of on an upswing anyway, both on the field with everything going on, but just it all, it really feels like everything's coming together right now, maybe in a way that the franchise kind of needed for a couple years maybe. What's it been like? It's, it's been so interesting for us because, you know, we had ownership before and you know, blessed David Bra for everything he's done for the CFL and for the BC Lions, but he operated so differently where he knew how to run a football team, he knew what it cost to market and he wasn't, you know, interested in kind of going outside of the boundaries of what was possible. Whereas a mar, you know, he is big NFL guy, he travels the world and sees sporting events everywhere and really wants to try things differently. So it was, it was a fun learning curve for my team to, you know, come up with ideas that we never thought we would ever be able to do and suddenly we're getting approval on the budget to do it. So we're able to flex and do cool stuff and like get people excited about the BC Alliance and the CFO again. Uh, Matt, we talked, I was on the first and now podcast earlier today, right? With the BC lines. I appreciate that. We talked a little football, little Nathan Rourke and everything else. Obviously we want the best for him, right? You know, and we want success for, for, for the young man and I know that we all watch him very closely, but thoughts on the whole situation and, and I know that you, you know, it's a personal situation for all us in Here. Hey, uh, all the power to him, um, you know, he's 24 years old, he's right in that sweet spot. You look at Reed at some of the elite quarterbacks in this league the last several years, Bo Levi Mitchell, for whatever reason, didn't get that opportunity at 24. By the time he sort of evolved, he was too old to try the nfl. Um, I mean there's always examples of guys. Uh, I mean Mike Riley was another one. Um, I think he think he had some workout, uh, I forget where it was. He basically admitted it was a courtesy workout. He knew a guy who knew a guy who was a scout for team, whatever it was. And they basically never gave him a shot. But as far as Nathan goes, yeah, you're, you're gonna explore all your options, alright. I mean, you look, before the injury, he was on pace to shatter Doug Fluney's records that had stood since 1991. So the NFL takes notice. I mean, he may not have been on their radar coming outta college, but he certainly is now based on everything he did in essentially half a season. So yeah, as an organization, uh, you know, us too. We can't control it, that's for sure. But, um, I mean, time will tell and there'll be a long process. I'm sure there's not gonna be any snap decision. And I know for a fact Neil McEvoy, Rick Campbell have already engaged in contract talks, so he's going to be do a well-deserved, uh, restructure should he stay here. And uh, hopefully that'll get resolved in due time. But, um, absolute first rate kid, uh, every step of the way, just, I've talked about his age 24, but he handles himself beyond that age. Um, very impressive. And we hope he sticks around because it'll mean great things for our franchise, uh, for several years. But we'll see. Carolyn, were you surprised just how it was like Roca mania, right? I mean it was, and I was surprised too and you know, Matt helped, you know, we had Nathan on the show back pre-season and you know, there were all these doubts and like, well we don't really know, not from you guys, but I'm talking outside that, you know, other teams that, hey, we don't really know about this and you said he's the guy and you know, Rick's likes him and everyone and Neil's on board and we have all this. But then he comes out and it was just everywhere. I mean, were you just surprised at just how overwhelming that was? We were all shocked by it. I mean, like we, we all had faith in Nathan, like the way that we saw him trained February in the pouring rain in the snow out in the field, four o'clock in the evening by himself every day. Like the work ethic he put in was insane. So we knew that we had something special, but the city and, and you know, the country didn't realize that we, we had it and the conversation was kept on being about the Canadian quarterback and then it, the Canadian part dropped and it was just the quarterback and then talking about it in the people coming back to, to watch Lion's games because they were just excited to see him. So it just, he does so much for, for the entire cfl and you know, we wish him all the best if he is to leave, but you know what? We still think that we have a chance to retain him. So Yeah. I was gonna, I was gonna add too, you're talking about the whole readiness thing. I mean, we were surprised like Carolyn said, but here's one thing people forget. Um, Mike re's elbow injury last year. Yeah. Um, Nathan was essentially running the first team offense in practice, right? All season long. People lose sight of that. And um, you know, quarterbacks pr like to practice the way they play and I think the coaching staff look back at that and that made them even more comfortable. Cuz again, they, Neil and Rick, when they told me Mike was officially retiring and get all that ready and I, and I, I even, I asked them, I think, I think maybe Trevor Harris was a name that was available. I'm like, there, no, we're gonna make Nathan the starter and we're gonna announce that right away. And it's like, so it's a credit to this organization and, and the guy is getting paid, uh, to evaluate talent that they essentially knew what they had before we all hit. Right. Uh, I got a last question here from Cole and then we'll probably start wrapping it up here. We got our end time here at the casino. I really appreciate them working and you guys sticking around through pinball. Sorry. Hey pinball, take a backseat to pinball any day. It's good. Uh, we have a question from Cole and like I said, we talked about this on the BC Lion podcast earlier, which is gonna be good too, but they wanna know, you know, Vernon, friend of the show, you know, local guy from, you know, from not that far from where I live even, but they wanna know the what VA brings if he's the starter, you know, God forbid Nathan and all that. But just with the full off season and getting the chemistry and all that together, uh, what does he bring to the team? Vernon Adams Jr. Uh, consummate professional, outstanding teammate. Um, yeah, I think I'm repeating verbatim what we talked about on first and now get a plugin for first and now, but, um, it's not easy to come in mid-season like that and, and command the respect. I mean, his ability as talent on the field is one thing. Um, but outstanding teammate. A quick story for you Cole, and thanks for the question. Um, one of the lowest points of our season, we lost a game in Toronto, uh, 2320. Sean White had a chance to force overtime, hit the upright. And I cannot describe how the feeling on our bench just dropped, right? Because we knew we, we essentially gave, with all due respect, they're here representing the east, but we essentially gave that game away almost the first guy to run over and console Sean White was Vernon Adams Jr. He said, it's okay man, it's okay. Like, we're gonna get this ball back, we're gonna get the chance. Didn't get the ball back. But that just shows you the type of guy Vernon Adams Junior is. So I know for a fact, uh, you know, Neil told me this when they made the trade. I mean, we have a quarterback next year, you know, hopefully it's Nathan Rour, but if not, then they're, they're perfectly okay with uh, va. But, uh, I'm a selfish guy. I want 'em both <laugh>. I that Carol, anything else to add to that? No, we're, um, we're, we're just, we're we're excited to show you what 2023 has in store. Like you thought 22 was special. We got a lot of things up our sleeves for next year. Yeah, that's what was actually gonna be my last question for you. Like what, you know, what's next for the lion here? You know, we got a two year ramp now. I mean we look forward to some, you know, big for the franchise there. What are the next steps and what are you guys working towards before then? So I think you're gonna see another major, major home opener similar to what we did this past year. Big concerts, street party closures. We're gonna do it even bigger and better. Uh, now that we kind of know what the, what the appetite was. Um, you're gonna see a lot more street parties. You're gonna see, um, something new on the field. I can't tip my hat to that yet, but, um, that's coming in April. Um, but yeah, no, we're, we're looking forward to kind of test writing A lot of the things we're gonna be bringing in for breakup in 24, in 23, so game days will be incredible. Well I thank you guys for coming by, Ken, thank you enough for, you know, the help that you guys do with me with the, you know, with the podcast. It certainly is appreciated, you know, compared to all the teams. Definitely the best support you guys and I really appreciate you guys coming out and I am really excited. I think that, you know, Dorothy and I were talking at brunch today before this and I think you have a lot of talented people there pushing out content between you and Nick who I would have on the show as well. I can only have so many lines people on the show this year, but I do, I appreciate that and I'm excited for everything coming forward. Yeah, I just wanted in closing. Yeah, appreciate your support and uh, I am coming down to Seattle to see the Canucks in January, so I won't big time. You and I know Nick and I came to a Mariners game we never called you. So apologies. And, uh, so keep doing what you do. We need more shows like this. And I'm very, very happy that there's no issues this year. The George Hamilton Pub last year, that was, you somehow scraped that one together. I commend you for it, but I'm glad it worked this year When I show up and I, we had a private dedicated it guy that was like, I've made you your own wifi network here. I said, I was on my hotspot last year. We damned near, ran out a day at the end of the show. I like, and my thing was about melting and it said, you got about 5% left on your data iPad. We just got by. So I appreciate it. Hopefully it'll be even smoother next year. Thank you guys again, so much. Thanks. Re Oza. We'll bring Dorothy in to say goodbye here. I'll take that. Matt and Carolyn here. Uh, we have, uh, spamming in the chat that I'll get rid of here before we, uh, get rid of this. And then we're gonna bring a Dorothy to say goodbye here. Uh, that was it. I, I hope we did good. I hope you guys are happy. It's not every day you have a CFL hall of famer coming by. Dave Naer. Farhan Dorothy, back to say goodbye here. BC Lyons, Gerald Davis, Darren, everybody else. Dorothy, how was the show from outside the, the, the fence post here with everyone that you were talking to while I was on? It was great. Yeah. So many friends came by. I mean, it was just like, bam, bam, bam. You know, it's like one person after the next. It was great. It was awesome. And people loving the water. I mean, Danielle's voice, <laugh>. Yeah, I mean everyone, I just like, it's going hard and, um, it's just a busy weekend for everyone, so. Yeah. Well, I appreciate it. I appreciate we saw everyone saw you work in the room, getting everybody around. Genesis great show. We've had a lot of comments. Pinball was a big fan. That's good. Yeah. Did you talk to pinball? A briefly, but That's a legend. Yeah, that's a legend. He's a legend. Yeah. So We appreciate it guys. Like, and subscribe. Wayne says, thank you. Jenna says, thank you. We, How do you feel like the show went? Uh, I thought it went really smooth. I thought we, I think Darren and Daryl got a little short change when pinball came in, but I know that he's so, you know, time crunched. Yeah. Trying to fit everybody in. Um, you know, I thought we were gonna get more in hour one. We have more in hour two, but that's okay. I think it worked out. They wanted us outta here. We're hitting about two hours and 20 minutes. Uh, Cole says, thank you. We'll enjoy the game. We'll be back regularly scheduled next week, Friday, big Xfl, uh, you know, draft recap. I have some good guests for that. I'm sure we'll have a great cup in retrospective and all of that stuff. And so it should be lots of things to come. Yeah. Appreciate everyone checking it out. Alice says goodbye again and, uh, we'll get rid of that. Here. I'll play the, uh, the outro music here, the old school outro music. Again, like I said, like, and subscribe. We'll see Guys. Say go bombers. Uh, Dorothy. Yeah, go bombers. I want the Argos. We appreciate everybody and the thank you guys. Thanks again to Cina, Regina, and everyone else, all the guests who made this possible, that was everyone taking time out of their day to come here and be a part of this. So we couldn't have done that without everybody. Thank you guys all so much again, and, uh, I'll see you next time.

Episode 118 - XFL 2023 Draft Preview!!!

Hey guys, welcome to the Markcast Reid here. We're going to hop right in tonight. I have Greg parks here of Exel board stopping by. Lots of draft news here, breaking down the inside the lead call tonight. Obviously the pressure release and everything today. I just notes for me. Greg's here. Live stream next week during the XFL quarterback selection, I believe that's 11:00 AM. Pacific on Tuesday. And then we'll be there all day coast to coast at, at 8:30 AM Pacific. They love us west coasters on Wednesday. Doing day, one of the drafts to make sure like is subscribe. I think Greg's gonna try to pop in when he can. On Wednesday. I have lots of guests lined up lots of guests that we know some we don't. Greg, how are you fresh off your engagement? I wanted say Greg parks here. What is more exciting? Your. Engagement over the weekend or the XFL releasing the draft news today. In case my girlfriend ever stumbles upon my fiance ever stumbles upon this, I must say it was the engagement and, and even legitimately look, I that's. That's a life changing experience. This is a, this is the third, first time XFL draft that we've ever had. But you only get engaged once. Hopefully. So. The engagement for sure. That's good. So Greg and I are gonna break everything down the big preview show, and then I'll link everything on the post when I put it out. So you can check out the show Tuesday. Check out the show Wednesday, and then I will be up in Regina. It is currently I think 10 degrees of in Regina that we will be up there. Trying to stay warm accuracy in the vagina though. So if you want your a C news, we will have our regularly scheduled show. It'll be Friday or a Saturday, November 19th, before the breakup, like a subscribe. We're trying to get up there. We have the Brian Scott Ball, all the, that other stuff. So gray, we have the big XFL news dump today. The inside. The lead call will break down here with notes as well. Biggest takeaways from you, just general thoughts of the XFL draft coming up, and then we'll get into specifics. Finally is kind of the, the feeling I got and I knew. You know, with the, the inside the league called with Doug Whaley with agents today. You had to know that it was either coming right before or right after that. So not a surprise that we got at this afternoon. Good to see that all of the information that was in the espn.com article that was. Put out with the names and logo releases. Seem to be confirmed here. And, and the fact that they're doing it in Vegas. Or on the outskirts of Vegas. Along with the news that. They are having a Vegas town hall next week as well on the 15th. So you hope that that means a stadium announcement is coming next week as well? I, I think it would be very strange. If you had the town hall and had no stadium, I, I would. Hate to be put in that position. If I was rod Woodson, because that's gonna be the question on everybody's mind at that town hall. So ideally they announced it beforehand. But yeah, as for the actual draft. You know, I tweeted some thoughts at Greg M parks about it. And, and I tweeted some differences that I noticed between. How the draft will be handled this year versus how it was handled in 2019. I think ultimately, you know, there's some disappointment that ESPN is not gonna play a bigger role. In broadcasting, the draft, but that's me the hardcore XFL. Draft fan. I mean, the draft is something that even. Hardcore XFL fans may not be. All that interested in. So it you're, you're serving a niche of a niche audience. When you're doing something like this. So even airing it on. ESPN plus, you know, the juice might not be worth the squeeze. For the league and for ESPN, because that would take, you know, you'd have to have the. You have to pay people to be on. And, and dissecting the, the picks and a lot of the people who would know are college football analysts, and they're all on the road doing college football for ESPN. You'd have to pay for the, the satellite time to. To air it and things like that. So, Probably wouldn't be worth it, ultimately when it, when it comes down to it. But again, for me, who is, you know, A, a draft nerd, an XFL nerd. I, I, I, the more coverage, the better, I guess, but it does look like the XFL is putting some effort into it. They're talking about having a draft board. On xfl.com. So the pixel be updated. As they're made some other features that, that we might be getting as well. They did say ESPN will be covering it throughout the day. So that's good coverage too. And so, you know, that was the, the thing that stuck out to me, because that was the big question. I think a lot of the. Information we got today. Was just confirmation of what Doug Whaley had talked about in the summer. It call that I was on. And then, you know, the big question looming it over is. What kind of coverage was gonna be made available in real time for the draft? And we got that question sort of answered today. Yeah, I, I agree. The, my. With the limited interaction I've had with XFL kind of whatever people today I said, wow, I just, I was surprised cuz I thought the whole thing was we gotta figure out with the rocks schedule and Danny and we gotta get with ESPN and we gotta figure all this out, you know, to just do. Be to stream the quarterback one on Tuesday. And then, like you said, have the draft board on Wednesday. Right. So as far as I'm concerned, the only stream is going to be the quarterback one hosted by the ESPN college. I can't remember the sideline reporter I have here. Stormy boot boot, not. Boo Tony. I am terrible with that. I know she's very well known. But the interaction I got with the Exel was like, We have enough going on, like we're drafting 450 people and this many hours. And like, we, we just don't have time to, to deal with like ES ESP, which I totally understand. Like, let's just get through it. Let's post on the XL board. Yeah. I think a lot of people will be disappointed that the actual draft portion is isn't stream, but I I've been come. Watch me come watch me and then good for you. You know, we, we all do, but. Yeah. So I, I get it. I get the concern, I get the sadness, but I also think that they're like, let's just get it go, but it is weird. Cause I thought that we postponed a lot of this, of like, well, we gotta figure out with ESPN where we're gonna fit in. And then now if they're just gonna do a couple hits, I don't know, you know? Yeah. And it could be it, I mean, they could have been being honest in, in terms of like, Having an ESPN personality hosting the stream for the quarterback selection. That may have been what they were talking. I mean, we just assumed. That it, what meant that. ESPN was going to somehow stream it, whether it was on. You know, whatever ESPN network was chosen. But it could have been simply like we need to. Get someone from ESPN to host the quarterback selections. We need to get with ESPN to see. What the best time to have the draft is so that we could. Have them talk about it on sports center or however that's gonna be presented on ESPN. It could have been something as simple as that. We may just have read into it a little, a little too much. Yeah. So they're making this it's, they're calling it draft week here, which I think is exciting. We're making it event. So the 15th, 16th, and 17th. 15Th at 11, the Pacific 2:00 PM. Eastern. They're gonna live stream the selection show. I think that is. With a lot of people. I think that's a really. Easy thing to share. Right. Kind of get people involved, posted on the XLS. YouTube. I think that's really good. You know, the coaches are gonna pick the drafts. We'll talk through that. They've said they're gonna have quarterbacks available either. If you're on site, I'm gonna be here. I've decided my time's better spent, you know, life streaming here. And then it's going to be the two day draft. Like you, you probably would've expected. I am surprised it's going all day. You know, the USFL kind of tried to make day one into more of a prime time event. Day one, starting the 8:30 AM day two with the more of the specialist as starting it. 7:30 AM. Are you. Surprised splitting it two days starting so early and so extended. A little bit. I think they could have done the quarterback one in, in more of a prime time. Slot, because that's where I think a lot of the interest is gonna lie. That's where a lot of the. You know, based on the quarterbacks that are working with Jordan Palmer, based on the quarterbacks that were released by the league. In terms of who they were scouting working with Jordan Palmer. I think there's gonna be probably more recognizable names there. Then there is in the general draft. So you could have gotten away with something prime time related there, especially if you're live streaming it. As far as the, the regular draft, you know, It it's gonna be long, you know, if you could think back to 2019. That was a, a long process over the two days. So, you know, if you started it later in the day, you'd be going deep into the night. So I think. Just from a logistic standpoint, it would be very different, difficult for them to, to do something like that at night. And if you're not streaming it, then there's really no incentive to do it later on. So not surprised the first two days of the draft are being. Are are taking place during the day, but a little surprised that the quarterback selection show isn't in more of a. More readily, available time for people to actually watch since they are streaming it. Yeah, I, I, maybe it's a length thing, right. Maybe it's not gonna be very long, right. Like the announcement video, but that's a really easy, like, let's put that on ESPN too. Like, Hey, we got the quarterback thing like that is, I mean, just talking through it now, like, okay. Yeah. Let's not deal with like drafting the off offensive linemen here. Like, okay. Let's be, but Hey, we have, we have the. Quarterbacks, you'll get the rock involved with that. We have Laura, you know, that's gonna be a part of it is surprising that way you, I know you tweeted talking about they're gonna have four day. One's gonna have the four professional groupings, 11 rounds of selections for each group. You the offensive skill position, defensive back. Defensive front seven in offensive line. Any thoughts with that? I think you said there were more rounds. This, I, I know I was reading your Twitter today. Yeah, one more round then in 2019, each round was. Each positional group was 10 rounds. So you had 10 rounds of the skill position, 10 rounds of offensive line, et cetera. This way it's 11 rounds. I'm not sure. Why they added an extra round to each. I would assume that I, I, I feel like they're drafting fewer players this time around as well. In total, I think 66 is the number they're taking to camp. Gonna pair that down to. 50 For the regular season roster. So the open rounds at the end of the draft, I think are gonna be smaller than we saw in 2019. There was no. Listed number of rounds for the open rounds at the end. I think that's just gonna be kind of. Up to the teams really to, because, and this is something Doug Whaley talked about over the summer on the it call is. You know, they're not gonna draft 66 players per team. And that be, even though that's the maximum you could have. For training cap, because there's going to be, and it was announced today in the press release to supplemental draft in early 20, 23. For players whose contract expires this wasn't. Specifically said, but you know, the, the players whose USFL contracts expires on December 31st for. Potentially NFL players whose practice squad contracts expire. So there's gonna be a different crop of players available and. With the XFL didn't want to do because training camp doesn't take place till January and the mini camp is gonna be pretty well paired down is they didn't want to draft guys in November. And release them before they got an opportunity at camp, which is what you'd be doing. If you drafted 66 guys next week. And then had the supplemental draft in January in order to fit 66. You'd have to cut some from this draft. So I, I, you know, I would guess somewhere between 50 and 60 players per team, From this draft that would allow. Teams to add anywhere from, you know, six to 10 to 16 players. In that supplemental draft in early 20, 23. Yeah on the call tonight, they said about 450, like you said, they're gonna be drafted during the week here. Expecting 75, more a about for the supplemental. Like we've said, and Mike has said you pointed out the. With the us of all contractor expiry, those could be. Maybe some more of the exciting names coming in January than, than necessarily. Where we're getting some more of the alumni academy guys and everything else. Now, it'd be curious to see who, who is free from the us of all contracts or CFO as well. You know, comes January. Yeah. And it, it's hard to say, like, I know that, that you mentioned that expected about 75 players to be drafted in, in January. Is so hard to say there's still a lot of time between now and then for USFL players to make that decision for. Players who. Are taking workouts in the NFL and they decide if they're not signed by a certain point, you know, that they're gonna. Want to be a part of the XFL. So. I think the league's doing their best guesstimate, but those numbers could change dramatically from even their own estimations come early 20, 23. There was, there was a lot made that we were even talking in our chat today where. You Exel, you know, drafting earlier than the USFL obviously played, but it does seem like. There, you know, you're getting your first crop because even if you're someone holding out for the USFL, maybe. Take your shot at the XFL. If they cut you aside the USFL, isn't gonna say, Hey, we want you, or we don't want you now because you were like in ANFL training camp or whatever. I mean, it does feel like XFL kind of gets a first crop and a lot of the guys from the NFL and from, you know, they alumni academy obviously, and then USFL guys that were not signed already to year two. Yeah, we're seeing S F L players signed. The teams are announcing them on Twitter. So there are some players who even were an NFL training camps this summer who are opting to sign with the USFL. Rather than going to the XFL. The, the one thing we don't know, you mentioned, you know, taking your chance. Getting drafted by the XFL, maybe not making the team and training camp and then going to the SFL. We don't know. What XFL contracts are really gonna look like. And I don't know how much that was discussed on the ITL call. I'm sure you'll fill us in here a little later on. But we know that the us FFLs contract sort of prevents that from happening, at least the way that they appear to be written. Now we don't really know. How that's gonna work for the XFL and what that's gonna look like. So that that may not be possible, but I, I don't know for sure. Yeah. So the league said tonight, expect a lot more communications dump on Monday, coming out. Obviously the quarterback. Selection Tuesday, they're going to announce also who gets like the first pick and all that Monday. That's going to be announced, I think at like 9:00 AM Pacific. So I would expect kind of another blast of news. You know, I'd say the snake draft, you know, what the order and kind all that stuff. I don't, I mean, for my purpose, I think some people. Get really into that for my purposes. It's like, okay, whatever. I, I Michigan holds the first round pick for next year's USFL. But like, I don't, I don't really know who holds any traffics after that. . Yeah, I, I think that's another. Positive from the news release today that the XFL made is that they're making a real week of it. And. We've always talked about. How can the XFL. State in the minds of fans, how do they release their news? A, and that's been somewhat of a controversial topic amongst fans. How do they best release their news in a way that keeps them in the news cycle as long as possible. And so I like that they're doing sort of four days. Next week, you know, you have the announcement on Monday, as you mentioned of the draft order, you have the quarterbacks on Tuesday. Wednesday and Thursday are the drafts. So I think. Having something every day, next week as part of the draft week is, is a good move by them. Yeah, I like that. Like happy XFL draft week. I think that that's good. Yeah, they had on here talking about from the draft class. Players coming in about 725 players are gonna be from the 2022 draft class, 115 from 21 and 275 from 2020. Anything stand out to you from that. I mean, even going back, but trying to keep it kind of within. You know, recent, you know, I've, I've been on even other podcasts with people like, Hey, what's the XFL now? You know, they're still talking, like bringing in man cell and stuff. It's like, okay, we need to kind of equate our minds around. Kind of the numbers that we should expect in the ages of the people coming into the league. Yeah. So over, over the last. Three draft classes. If you add these up, it's about 840, a little over a thousand. So of these 1700 players. Give or take that are in the draft pool over a thousand are going to be from the last three. NFL draft classes. And not a surprise. They're probably the most ready. In terms of being fit and, and working out and things like that. You have to imagine that a pretty significant portion of the remaining. 700 Or so are players from XFL 2020. Who, you know, if you recall there, they had an automatic opt-in to the draft. This year. So maybe several of them took advantage of that. A good portion of them took advantage of that. But I think you're seeing this sort of youth movement by the XFL that is exemplified with its coaches as well. You know, they went young, they went. Inexperienced in terms of, of pro in, in college coaching and. That was a decision that the XFL made. To, to do that, you can agree or disagree with whether or not that was the right move, but obviously a conscious decision to give these guys an opportunity that. Felt maybe that they should have gotten other opportunities elsewhere. And just for whatever reason did not get those chances. And so, you know, you're, you're seeing that with the draft class as well. Going younger, you know, strange to me maybe that that 2020 has a lot more players than the 20, 21 draft class. I don't know what that means. We know that. The. Pandemic kind of pushed some guys around because everybody was afforded an extra year of eligibility in college. So, I'm not sure if that is. A reason for those numbers to, to look the way they do. But yeah, it's. It's gonna be interesting to see. And, and to track once the draft hits where these guys are coming from and, and. What kind of experience they have, because I think the USFL. You know, their philosophy is a little different than the XFL. They're taking players who. I, I wouldn't say are older, but maybe a little more experienced in the NFL. And same with the coaches. We saw John D Felipo. Hired today, which I thought was a, was a great hire. By the USFL, former NFL offensive coordinator. But again, it's just a different philosophy than what you're seeing from the XFL. Not only with the hiring of head coaches, but also the, the recruitment of players. You saved me half to add that in the outro this week. I appreciate that. We have no do appreciate. Cause I'm in my head. I'm like, I gotta remember to talk about USFL and the outro here at the end, but yeah, USFL, they, they filled who was it? Larry for do left. And now we have a new, you know, Goli or go waves or whatever the, the new Orleans. Breakers is and all that stuff. This is a. Draft players have until December 26th to commit. So if they get drafted, I guess it's three weeks longer than it was in XFL 2.0. So, you know, you're getting into that. Like I said, you could be drafted and then you're deciding, but that's still. You know, in these USFL contracts and you're in that, and that that's the 12 that's December 31st cutoff. Like you're getting into the weeds with a lot of this, but thoughts that you might get drafted this week and then have till the end of December to decide. You know, there's always gonna be players. We've seen that with the first XFL. We saw that with the second XFL that. Players get drafted. And for whatever reason, they decide not to report. To training camp. You know, the, the thing that's interesting is they have that date. And I don't know if that date is any more significant. Because. Usually they'll have them sign their actual contract. Once they get to training camp. So, you know, does, is that a signal that training camp is going to start around that time? Are they. Is this a separate issue, you know? Some players may commit by December 26th and then what happens? In between then and the date that they have to sign their contract and training camp, you know? How do you prevent players from. Changing their mind at that point or, or whatever the case may be. So. I don't know if that's a, a signal that training camp is gonna take place around that time. I don't know if that's. A preventative measure for the USFL to get ahold of these drafted players. I, I don't know. What, what the significance of that is other than just noting that it's interesting. Yeah, it, it sounds like the December, because the training council will be January. Sounds like that. Whatever December, like that might not be as fully. Official as it, maybe it was cuz we did like in 2020, right? Like we. Did the whole thing in, in Houston. Right. And they were all in the different, like all the high school stadiums, and then they stopped down for the holidays. And then, so we'll see, it sounds like, you know, if they wanna do some workouts and stuff, they can do that. Or if they wanna get involved with people. But I, I think it'll be come that January. I think it'll be the exciting time. And I guess in chalk talk. CTA. And it could be, it could be a mini camp. You know, we know from the, the, the summer call again with whale that the mini camp is gonna look a little different, mostly just skill position players. But, you know, that. If the skill position players have to commit by that time, maybe they want the whole roster, the whole directory class to, to decide whether to commit by that time as well. In terms of the draft saying that, you know, Danny and the rock, you know, I, you know, not gonna be live or whatever, but ESPN's gonna be cutting in and out to them. Maybe making some big draft class announces or a draft pick announcements. Is that enough for you? Is that a good use of, of the town that we have on, on hand? I mean, you talked about the draft getting into the weeds and certainly that's, I talked about sort of it being a niche of a niche here. So I don't know. Dwayne Johnson and, and Danny Garcia, you know, they showed up at the showcases, but they're not. Scouting experts, you know, they're, they're not going and, and scouting these players and, and suggesting players for the draft pool. So. I don't know what else you have them do. You could have them, you know, play the commissioner role. And maybe have them announce. I know that they said that that had coaches are gonna announce the quarterbacks, but you know, maybe have Danny Garcia and Dwayne Johnson announced the quarterbacks. They're gonna be the cornerstones of these teams. Or, you know, something like that. So I, you know, they could. They could do something like that. But beyond that, you know, with the draft and, and things like that, it's just not. I don't think that's in their wheelhouse, you know, of, of. You know, going out and, you know, they do media and they do marketing and that's their, that's their expertise. That's what they're really good at. They're not. Folks who are gonna sit down and, and break down film with you. So I, I'm not sure what else they could really do. I, I will just say this. I said this on Twitter, but I, I haven't said on the podcast XL shop goes up. How? Yeah, it's been, it's been down months. We've had months. It's been a year. We have, you know, the shirts, whatever we have a trucker hat with the team logos. Did you think. With the, the genius marketing behind red bird, Danny Garcia doing the rock Johnson. We would have a trucker hat in the year of our Lord 2020 tour. Did you expect more hats? I am the last person. Who should be speaking on fashion? Let me just say that. So I, you know, I, I have trouble matching outfits in the mornings when I, when I get dressed. So I don't know if trucker hats are a thing that's in now. I mean, amongst the younger folks, So maybe they do have their pulse on. On what the people want more than, than we do read. I, I won't discount that. I will say that. That's not my fashion. But who knows? I. That doesn't necessarily mean it's not popular, I guess is what I'll say. So. I I'll reframe from making any fashion, judgments or statements about, about that. Well, but you're said now, cuz you're engaged. My father was colorblind and my mother literally had to lay his outfits father in the morning because he couldn't like, he would know he'd have a good guy with a verbal shirt. Yeah. I mean, that's, I, I kind of feel like that sometimes when I, when I, you know, come out of the bedroom and my fiance is looking at me like, And I know exactly what the look is, and I know to turn around and head back in and look for something else, you know, you kinda get used to that. Look after a while. I'm wearing the utility right now as we record, just so not out there. So that that's a that's Riley with all this talking about. Oh, I have, I have my note here going to, well, we'll talk about wind businesses, cuz I, I lost my note of where I wanted to go. 11,500 To win the title. 8,000 To win the semifinal game. What do you think about the XFL win bonuses? Is that per player? Yeah. It came out on the call tonight. Yeah. Okay. I think that's reasonable, you know, anything above and beyond. To win, I think is smart. You know, every incarnation of the XFL has had that. And I think it's, it's smart because you know, part of it is. And, and we've had this discussion on the XFL board forums as well. Is. How do you, how do you walk that line? Between wanting to be a league that develops players for the NFL. But also being an actual competitive league. That's that's about winning because that's really what the fans are gonna want. It's nice. That they can recognize some of their players who are going on to the NFL. And say, Hey, I knew them when, but ultimately when you plunk down your hard earned money to go to a stadium to watch these teams play, you want them to win. And, you know, you don't want players who, you know, it's sort of like the college system where now so many players are opting out of the bowl games because they're trying to. Just train for the NFL draft or stay healthy or whatever the case may be. How do you prevent XFL players? From their sole focus being. Trying to get themselves. Into the, the NFL and, and, you know, because they are so close and that's. An instituting. The wind bonus, I think is a good way. To ensure that, Hey, you know, it's. It's still VI man line. You get paid to play, which you get paid more to win. And I, I think that's smart. I think that's a good incentive to get these players to. Keep in mind that it's a, it's a game they're trying to win. And I know, you know, these guys are competitors and they played football all their lives. And it, it probably goes without saying that they're when they're in between the lines they're playing to win. But, you know, just in case there is that temptation to kind of save the themselves a for the NFL, you know, adding that little wind bonus, I think is helpful. I don't wanna give Vince any credit, cuz I know this sometimes, you know, Certain new exta Val or whatever they wanna give credit, but. It felt like Vince with the XFL 20, 20 salaries was kinda like apple removing the headphones, Jack, like, remember there was no. The AAF went the way and Vince is like, I'm gonna pay this. And I remember everybody being like, this is so low, like this isn't enough. And Vince is like, well, there's no competition. Well, do you want me to do? Yeah. And now that's kind of what we're so paying. I mean, CEP fellows a little bit, right. And a, a FL, but it kind seems like Vince set that stand. Standard right. That we're kind of about now. And, and it really all depends on how much Redbird is willing to put in. And that's kind of the mystery we knew. Vince was very upfront about how much he was willing to spend on the XFL, you know, until he wasn't. And then. But red bird, we, we don't know. And so, you know, you can look at the, the bonus money and you can try to figure out, okay, you know, what does this mean? Does, is it a low number so that the red bird's not wanting to put as much money into this league? Is it a high number? That means that shows that're willing to spend. You know, without that context, it's hard to really judge. What that wind bonus number means. The other, I found that here. So there's lots of questions about, alright, are we doing pre-season games? Let's going on? There's gonna be a half game played by every team for ESPN. They have a dry run and then they're gonna have joint practices. So that doesn't surprise me. I mean, you USFL, they didn't do any, any real really pre-season game. I, I I'm sure. I'll be corrected on that if they did, but you know, joint practices, we're doing the driver and figuring out the broadcast, is that, does that gel with you? Yeah, it sounds very similar to the other versions of the XFL. I, I think XFL 2020 may have done. A little more scrimmaging certainly than the XFL 2001 did. And that kind of sounds like, you know, they'll, they'll play a half game for, for ESPN purposes, but. Given the fact that they're all training in the same area. I, I don't think there's anything preventing teams from kind of getting together and S scrimmaging and, and getting ready that way. So I don't think that's outta the question, even if there's no official preseason games. The other interesting note was, and I'm excited for them to put out the rule book, cuz Sam Schwartzstein that now works at Amazon. Prime has told me that he'll come back on and we'll talk about it. But we have our town hall. We have our town hall, the Seattle one last night and coach Hasley was asked, you know, What's the deal with the rule book. And he said basically the same. He said any. And I think his quote was like, Any, the things that were changed, like most people won't even know this. He's like, if you're watching you probably won't even know this. Are you happy? I mean, we can, we can live with that. Or what do you think about the rule book? For sure. You know, you don't know until you actually see the details, but one of the things that really put the XFL 2020 on the map and got people interested in it was. The rule changes. I know there were some people who were a little skeptical of some of them, especially the kickoff. But I think at one, the majority of people over. And it was different enough to set it apart from the NFL and to make it its own. Kind of personality, but it was this ultimately the same game, you know, there were times where XFL 2001 was too gimmicky. It didn't look like real football. But XFL 2020, their rule changes were. Enough to set it apart. But not enough to, you know, make the game unrecognizable for football fans who are tuning in to watch football. And so that was another line that they had to walk and I think they walked it really successfully. We never did see the overtime rules put into play in 2020. I think the USFL has overtime rules that are very similar and we saw. At least one of those games this year. I'm not sure how many we ended up seeing, but I think that might be if I had to guess. One of the rules that may have been tweaked a little bit. In in 20. 23. So we'll just have to see once that rule book comes out, but certainly, you know, the rules were, were successful almost across the board, maybe even across the board in 2020. So the fact that it's returning. I think is, is a good thing. Yeah. I hated that. And this is my ex fell and love Sam. Like I hated that us fell basically lifted thel over time and then got to do it before the excep fell. Did like I know. Yeah. Yeah. And that's. You know, that's just something you gotta live with. I mean, there's not much, if you believe the pandemic really killed the XFL and not decisions made by Vince McMann within the pandemic, then, I mean, that's just something you gotta live with. And. You know, the XFL is gonna be in stadiums before the USFL. And I'm sure that USFL is kind of. Not happy about that or, or kicking themselves about that. So, You know, they got the overtime first, but we got the stadiums. I'll, I'll take the stadiums. If, if I'm being honest, . Well, yeah, we got, we have seven right now. Seven stadiums. I know, I know. . I got a couple other notes here. I'll let you get off here soon. I appreciate you staying up late for us on your east coast time. They said, oh, just in terms of like final draft notes, teams can opt out after a certain number of picks. Like we were talking a little bit before we just to confirm that like, you don't necessarily have to pick 18, you know, whatever wide ratio I'm making that number up, but you know, like you're able to, to pick and then say some of those spots later on that, that. Gels with you. Yeah, I would assume most of that's gonna happen in the open rounds, just for training camp and competition purposes and just having enough bodies to, to have a training camp. I think you're gonna see most, if not all teams. Exhaust all 11 picks for, for each one of the positional rounds. I think once you get to the open rounds, then you're gonna see teams diverge in terms of philosophy on how many players to pick there. Yeah. I'm, I'm curious how all this ends up because there's been a tremendous number of players or they're in the draft pool, you know, I see so many and you've seen like, Tweeting I'm in the draft pool, whatever we have all these. Alumni guys where it says the, if you're in sessions one or two, you're gonna be in the current draft and then sessions three and four of the alumni academy. They'll be eligible for the supplemental. We have you the XL 20, 20 guys, all the alumni people like. There's gonna be so many broken hearts by the end of all this, like, I'm really. Scared for a lot of people. Yeah, that's the disappointing thing. It's, it's always the disappointing thing, even if, when you're watching the NFL draft and they've got cameras and people's. Houses and, and they don't always get drafted and you can see. It on their face. You can see the disappointment and, you know, that's. That's the reality of, of playing professional sports. And I think, you know, if you're in a position to get drafted by the XFL, that probably means you've experienced that disappointment before. So, you know, not that it's good to have to go through it again, but a, and it's not the end of the line, you know, if you're not drafted. They're gonna be injuries and training camp. They're gonna be teams looking to fill spots during training camp and, and fill spots during the regular season. So. That's not the end of the line. We're, we're seeing a resurgence in, in other leagues, like the, the arena leagues, the Naval and the IFL. The XFL is getting a lot of players from there. The CFO, the USFL. So really like this is a, a pretty. Good time. If you are a football player, looking to make a career out of playing the game. Even if you don't get drafted by the XFL, there are still other opportunities out there for you. And I would certainly encourage any of those players to, to. Look into those opportunities because you never know when a league like the Excel fellow or the USS FFL is going to come calling. It's like, you know, you cover wrestling for weight. I mean, having a w and having WW and having TNA being, you know, doing whatever they're doing and having. It, you know, you just, it breathes, it really is a peak time for a lot of these niche interests that people have right now of just having options for not only fans, but of course the players and the people participate on that side. For sure. And you mentioned, I mean, just that the. The, the strange brew almost of players who are gonna be in this draft. You've got. The XFL 2020 players. You've got, you know, Players who have maybe zero experience, but impressed in a showcase. So these, you know, lower level college players or. Players with no real pro experience. You've got, you know, free agents. Who were in NFL training camps. I mean, The it is a very. Wide range of, of players that are gonna be involved in this draft. I mean, you've got players who. Literally were cut by NFL teams probably over the summer and the final cuts. And then you have players. Who've never played a down of professional football and, and come from like, D three schools. I mean, so it, it's just gonna be such a strange brew of players that are, that are involved in this, right. You'll probably have players. With actual NFL, regular season game experience. I mean, it's just gonna be. Such a wide range of players. It's gonna be interesting to see. You know, how many of those. Players with little experience are chosen and how many. Players are chosen with, you know, from XFL 2020, how many players are chosen, who. Were in training camps this past year. It it's just gonna be, it's gonna be really fascinating to see how that all shakes out. It's it's exciting. I I'll be curious. They, that the other note they had here and I had something funny, I was gonna say, I totally forgot that every, every player that is in the pool has been recommended by at least one of the teams. So you have, you, you at least know ride that you're getting people that way, that at least someone's kind. Looking out for that. Mm-hmm makes sense. Right. Any other thoughts on that? No. I mean, yeah, that's, that's a, a good compliment to have that these players. It can at least know that by being in the draft pool. Someone recognized their talent. And even if they don't get drafted, even if they don't. Get signed, you know, maybe that's gonna be enough to keep them scratching and claw. Clawing to a professional career. And so. You know, sometimes even the smallest compliment like that is, is gonna be what fuels these guys and, and the passion that they have. So I think that's really cool. Yeah. I remember I, I have no doubt and I've said this. I have no doubt. I think the football that is gonna be put on the field here in February is gonna be the best on alternative football. We have seen just. Wow. Been enough. I mean, I, I mean, extra fall 2020 was pretty good. I mean, that, that was kind of the benchmark. So. This is that's, that's not an insignificant statement. I don't think, well, I was gonna say, but I don't, I, I have many other concerns about things surrounding the football. I think the, I think the football is gonna be outstanding. I think you have some of the best minds and the coaches are motivated and they seem bought in and. We we've scouted and we've gone to Hawaii. We've gone to HBC, you know, Jackson day that we've done all these things. And we have, you know, the indoor football league. I think the football will be exceptional. I just, but it is a lot of care. You can look at these zoom calls in the draft, and I think it's gonna be fascinated. Like you said, next week, seeing all these players, cuz they have put a, this is like. All the time that they've done the last year. Like it's finding all these players for this week, you know? Yeah. A and the other thing I will say too, is we've seen the team Twitter accounts and, and some of the coaches. Post pictures. I know Anthony Beck did. So, you know, Sitting down with his coaches watching film of these players and they had their laptops and they had their, I, I think. Something that kind of gets lost is. When you have coaches like Anthony Beckton, Hines ward, who, who don't have a lot of experience. You tend to think, ah, this is maybe gimmicky or, you know, maybe they don't, they don't know. How to run the process. They, you know, they're maybe the league isn't taking it seriously by hiring these guys. But when you see the time and effort that these guys are putting into it and the scouting that they're doing, and, you know, you see Anthony Beck at training camps and watching, you know, Hey, post pictures of and watching pre-season. Games on his laptop and then, you know, meeting with his offensive staff and meeting with his defensive staff and, and, you know, he's got the projector and he is going over film. I mean, these guys in the league itself is taking this very seriously. This isn't just throwing darts at a dartboard and it's to try to draft a guys. Yeah, I would. Say I, I would argue too seriously, but no, yes I do. But, but no, there are, I, I will say there are things that it does. Feel like this league is taking itself sometimes a little too seriously. Certainly the next, I felt 2020 did I? I felt like it. There was, there was a more fun feeling. Leading up to XFL 2020. Then there is this, it, it does feel like, you know, you're getting the corporate speak every time Danny Garcia does an interview. You, you know, it does feel a lot more sanitized. Version of football than we got in 2020, where it was just, you know, a. Vince McMan running it and just a bunch of football guys doing it. Now you have. Red bird, this, you know, multi-billion dollar investment. Company. And you have Danny Garcia and Dwayne Johnson who are kind of rock stars in their own way, but. Also very, you know, Dwayne Johnson. I I is one of the most popular. Movie stars because. He's very careful about how he approaches things. He doesn't, you know, E everything is, you know, he does things very carefully. There's nothing he says or does. That feels kind of off the cuff. And so we're seeing that in the, the build up to the XFL and. It's just not, it's just, it's again, it's different. I, I'm not saying it's wrong or it, they shouldn't do it this way. It's just different. When the team names leaked on the website and we did our big live stream and people said, well, maybe they're just, they were doing it for fun. Or they were messing around or, you know, they were put placeholders out there. I'm like, Nothing about this league seems like, like, oh, we're just gonna kinda wing this. yeah. No everything, if anything, it's the opposite. It almost feels too thought out in too methodical. Yeah. Anything else in far, I let you go. I know you were excited to come on. Do you know, do this? We obviously had the logo stuff and then all this came up, which is exciting, new stuff to talk about. Anything else you wanna make sure you get off of before I let you go? No, just, you know, plugging my work for XFL board. I'll have a column up probably this weekend. I'll try to get it in before the draft starts next week about the town hall events, we've had seven or the eight now, and I've been able to ask questions of people, yourself included, who it's attended. The, these town halls just kinda get a feel for it. And. And what it was like to be there and, and what kind of atmosphere it was. So I'll be writing a column about that. Certainly if you attended any of the seven town halls, I'd love to hear from you drop me a DM at Greg M parks on Twitter. And, and, you know, get it in before I write my column and submit it because next week it's, it's gonna be all draft. And my fiance is gonna be traveling next week, actually on Wednesday through the weekend. So like, I'm gonna be, I'm gonna be hunkered down. I'm gonna be doing so much writing about the, the draft next week. It it's. So be on the lookout for that at XFL board, I'll be doing a lot of draft analysis next week. Well, I, I think with you do as well, is, is more of these a little bit more deep dive, right. Really flushed out. You know, I think that that's good. I think you, and, and, and the, the content that you bring to XL board alongside the discussion stuff that's done over the, there, I think is tremendous in terms of having that other voice. And have, you know, we have hub and, and newsroom and having ex board, like, I think all the sites provide. And I think it's fascinating and I am really excited to see the town hall, especially when you do your solicitations with the mail bags and stuff and getting people it's, it's like you're able to filter everyone's voice and like, okay. Heres something that you can actually like comprehend. Yeah, I try to some sometimes successful sometimes not, but yeah, it's we, we have a lot of great voices covering this league. And, you know, I'm just glad to be a part part of that. Well, thank you, Greg, for coming on. Like I said, late night for him, we're getting off the, the inside the lead call. Appreciate that. Remember. We're announcing who gets his draft picks Monday, you know, the fir whatever, the order, quarterback selection, Tuesday day one Wednesday, day two Thursday, I'll be, I'll be traveling. So hopefully we don't draft pat McAfee or something in the specialist round. And then cuz I'll be on the plane to trying like, hopefully it's, it's a little more. Well, I'm thrilled today. Another CF perspective. You know, contributor. We have Wade here, wades and Cadillac. Thank you so much for coming on. I appreciate it. How are you doing? No problem. It's great to be on I'm. I'm doing well. I mean, we've had a really warm fall and it's always nice when you have the playoffs and you don't have to bundle up too, too much to go and watch a game. Well, they were scared of us. The, we went to the lions game and it's in the dome and they were posted, Hey, it's going to be cold. I'm like, I, okay. I mean, I'm gonna die if we're going this, and then we gotta go to vagina, but it is the, that is the one. Overlying you winter is coming here and the CFO playoff. So it is a little less scary. It is. And I mean, I know it's used sports, but the both of the Saskatchewan teams hosted a playoff game last week. And it was snow and Saskatoon and then halfway through the Regina game. Snow started there too. So. They're already getting their fair share and we're kind of holding off here in Ontario. Well, this is good. So Wade's gonna come on, see a perspective. You guys kill it. You know, Marshall and Conor and everybody killing it. You know, C stuff all year. Appreciate you coming on here and we're doing our CFL playoffs. Big games this weekend. I'm really excited that Montreal. Is is still in the race. And then obviously BC is our team overall. First off thoughts on the playoffs as we sit right now. Nathan Rourke. I mean, I, I, he looked good to me and week 21 game. Against Winnipeg, even though it was just a small sample size, but I thought he, he came out and looked fantastic. He looked like he hadn't missed a beat really. And I guess that's why they had used the, the previous week to get him prepared. But you look at just some of the throws he made. I mean, the two corner shots on the end zone. The first touchdown to hauls and the second one to burn 'em. That was great ball placement by him. So I was really excited to see Nathan Rourke. And then in the east, you mentioned Montreal. Trevor Harris. I like the tie cats. Trevor Harris has killed the tie cats in the playoffs, even when he was with Ottawa. So I, I had a feeling I said to Connor before the week started, this is gonna be a Trevor Harris. High efficiency, just kind of shredding the team apart. And as, as we see they're now in the east final. I am glad that. You know, we we've done the Winnipeg Hamilton thing, you know, it's like, if you ever used to watch WW E they would do like a cage match. Yeah. And if you had like the champion guy eliminated first, and then you're like, oh, no matter what, like we're getting a new, a new title. It's good that we can have a mantra or Toronto actually make. It to the, you know, cuz Toronto's been so close and. Yeah, it was exciting. I mean, were you surprised that the Montreal pulled it out? I mean, they've kind of been sluggish late. No, no, I wasn't surprised I was, I was more surprised at. Hamilton, I guess they, they kind of put up a fight later in the game, but. Six points to the first half Dame had his struggles. They went to Shilts as well, but to me it was getting away from the run game. And I know when you're down 14, three after the first quarter. Some people always say, oh, we have to air it out. But the strength of this Thai cat's offense later in the year was west Hills. S T E and that run attack. And then went away from it. West Hills, finished with five carries on the game. So that was, that was more shocking to me. I was very happy to see Jake Winneke find the end zone though. That was. Always a big plus. Yeah. I don't know what Hamilton does after this. Cuz it, it was like, they were horrible all year. They figure it out. They don't make it, like you said, you know, Dan. I, I don't, I love Dan Evans as a person. I don't know. If he's the future there. Where, where do you see Hamilton kind of re regrouping here after the season? I don't think they really can go anywhere else. I mean, they're paying Dane, I think. Well, over 400 K. In money next year. So. To me with Dan Evans. I, you kind of just have to hope that he. Regains his confidence. Cause that was the big thing to me this year. Was early on, you saw a ton of interceptions, but they weren't just like bad throws. They were throws that would be tiffed or deflected at the line and somehow fall into the opposing team's hands. And it just kind of took away this confidence throughout the year. And I, to me, that's where I, I want to see Dan go is where does he get his confidence back? Because. With Bo Levi Mitchell entering free agency, people are gonna be looking there and. Cody Fido doesn't look like he's back with Saskatchewan. So could that be an option? And with the Thai cats, you're paying so much for Dan Evans. You almost have to, or are handcuffed to. Him as a member of your team. And if he gets his confidence back, maybe he can return to form. It's just hard and I get it. I feel like we talked about all season with. CFL, you know, quarterbacks in general, you know, they gotta get right here, figure out. I mean, at some point, like we kinda, you know, you've had, you've had the, you know, CFO season so long and we've even compared to the NFL. Like at some point we kind of know you are not, I do just, I worry. I don't know. I, I like Hamilton and a lot of the pieces they have there, but it does seem like they came on strong. I don't know if that's better or worse to end kind of with the, with the bang. I, I, I think it's good for building going into the off season, but the same time you end on a loss, right? Unless you're the champion, you're gonna end on a negative note. But they have, like, you mentioned a ton of piece, Tim white really came on this year. Steven Dunbar was fantastic as a downfield weapon. I, I, I look at Hamilton as just a. Okay. We we've been to back to back. Great cups. We have our quarterback. We are gonna pay 'em a ton of money. But we're third in the east. Okay. Let's do we try it again or not? And I think they do try it again. I think it's kind of just a recollec. Recollect cuz this year was odd for them. There's a lot of just uncharacteristic things. With the Thai cats and maybe they add. An extra offensive line piece in the off season, maybe they add an extra receiving weapon. But I, I, I think that they're gonna try and regroup and go back again. Yeah, like you said, yeah, we've done all this work. We're still third in the east and I don't know what that. I don't know if that's not a great spot to be at, you know, no it's looking at it's really no man's land, right. Because with Ottawa, Yes. They, they were so poor. But you can easily point to them and be like, all right, well, we lost Jeremiah. Maoli. That would've drastically changed the outcome of our season. And you can kind of hope for that. And you have the young players, like. Surreal and Zach, the two offensive linemen. Where you can be like, yeah, we have young pieces. We have a lot of core. Aspects of our team. We just couldn't get the quarterback. Right. But we had Mazzoli sitting there with his broken leg. So to me, I think Ottawa is in a really happy place to kind of change the team we're talking about. Whereas Hamilton, you're kind of stuck in no man's land. Yeah. Do you, I mean, you're outside of the auto there. Like, do you. How different is the world. Look, if that Ole injury doesn't, what is that like week five or six? I mean, I think it was around week six. Yeah. Against Saskatchewan. I don't know. I think they for sure break the home, losing streak and maybe get a couple more fans happy back at TD place. But no with, with the REDX I, I don't know really. Cuz they ended up firing Lao during the year. Paul poli. And I, I really think that. With Misso healthy. The team. To me, it was the red zone percentages. And that was. Sort of getting better weekend week out, but then miss all's injury happened to just all went to health. So that would've been the determining factor to me. Speaking of, you know, so Hamilton, Montreal, I'm thrilled. So we we're one step closer. I have a standing bet with Gary stern. If the. If the outlets make it to the gray cup, he's gotta come on our live show. So that is, I am, I have a very vested interest in that. I know that Mike Mitchell, that listening to this covers, ergos who love the Argos and all the MLSC of it all. But do you think the outlets have a show shot? He, or, I mean, I, I, I never know of the. Argonauts are a good team. Oh, okay. That's . Nobody ever really knows. Right. The same with Montreal. You have. Such highs and lows during the year. But to me with Trevor Harris. And Eugene Lewis and Jake Winky. They can really. Play with anyone. And I know Toronto has a great defense and to various McFadden, former exo fellow. And NFL player. He makes a huge difference on the backend. So many turnovers this year. But with Trevor Harris, the efficiency, he throws the ball and the receiving weapons. They have. Like coming on slowly. They've been really splitting his reps with Walter Fletcher to get a one, two punch, but. I, I think, I think Montreal could do it. I think they really can. Their defense is very opportunistic. But it comes down to Trevor Harrison, his efficiency in taking care of the football. Seeing everything that happened, you know, and firing and, you know, we bring in all that is. You know, we just talked here. Hamilton's third in the east is, is Montreal. That good that they were, they able to figure it out this year is the east, is that poor? That they're able to be here a second now. See, I really hoped that this kind of selfish, but I was hoping that BC would kind of cross over and it would've taken away a great atmosphere at BC place. But to me, I've said since. Week one this year, I want BC Winnipeg in the great cup, just so we get that selfish matchup. But no, I think the east, the east is good. The east is always good. But when you have. I is the east really that good. If they're gonna lose that much to. To ham or to BC and Winnipeg. But I think they are a good football team and they're, they're well balanced and they've really dove in head first under macho into building with French players. And rebuilding that French identity. With, with the team. And I, I think you saw that last week with the home crowd. But I think this all the west team can compete with teams. I don't think they can compete with a Winnipeg if they get to the gray cup. But I certainly think they're good enough team to get there and earn a rightful spot. I would be, I have my they're blowing leaves outside my weather right now. So I'll be muting between questions, but I think we'll get through it. Just, yeah, cuz I mean the Al outlets really could have led everything fall apart. I mean, they really just, you had so much going on there. Mm-hmm even with the, the front office and Gary stern and everything. I mean, it's really remarkable that they've, they've made it here and they're, they're one step away from being in the great cup. All honestly, when they've made the head coach move this year and my coaches stepped. In, and it was the, the stretch of high penalty. Games. I was. I was out. I was saying, there's no way. On earth. This team is gonna rebound. But they've proved me wrong and they, they have cleaned it up. I, I try to fish through here. I don't, I think they only had. Yeah. They only had six penalties last week against Hamilton. So I mean, they, they certainly have turned around and I know the whistles get put away a bit more in the playoffs, but. I, I think they have turned around and as much just settles into head coaching. He hasn't had coach since 2019, right. When he was with the Cara. In eSports, but you just kind of get back into the flow of things. It takes a little while, right. Knocking the rest off. So he's done that. And now here they are on the brink of making the breakup. Cup is he, is he their guy moving forward? Cause I thought when he got instilled, it was like, well, we don't know if this is really how I mean is he, is he their guy? If they win Sunday, there's no way you're pulling him outta the spot. I, I think that if he makes a great cup as the interim. Interim hard bracket. . Head coach. I, I think there's no way that he steps away from it. He, he can kind of point to ownership and say, look, I took over, we made a great cop. Let's see what I can do with a full year. If they lose this game, I think there's probably conversation about it. But to have this late season resurgence. I think it would really be up to him in saying I want to step back away and let's find a guy. But I think if he wins, he's so competitive that he would just kind of say, I'm not, I'm not stepping away from this. Give me a full year and see what we can do. Well, talk to west here, but who do you have? Who do you have? I mean, I think both these matchups are exciting. I would probably give the west the, the benefit here, but who do you have between Toronto and Montreal? Toronto, Andrew Harris coming back off the BI McCloud, has the Thompson been, been quite good this year? Currently getten his junior as well has been fantastic. Think he's most outstanding Canadian finalists. But, yeah, I'm gonna say Toronto, just the extra buy week, getting some players healthy, rested. I, I think they'll, they'll pull it through on it. I know that doesn't go with your, your bet, but I I'm hoping you get your bet, but I just think Toronto. Off the buy makes too much sense. Yeah. Talking, you know, the west and, and there, there were so much side BC crossing over Calgary. What's going on. Might have been more competitive regardless. I think the bigger. I think even bigger than the gray cup is this match of this weekend. Between when they take a BC, am I wrong in that? You laugh? Am I wrong in that destination? Estimation. I think it's, you can't really say it's a mistake, right? Cause you can't stop a team from winning. In in BC, but. I mean, I, I just said I would've loved to have BC great cup. Against Winnipeg, just because I, I think that's the most fun. Right? The biggest storylines is Nathan Rourke. First years have starter. Injury comes back grade cup. That would be fantastic. And to have it on the biggest stage against Winnipeg, who's going through the three P that would just be great. Luckily, we get it a week earlier. Unfortunately it's not for a title. It's for a spot in the finals. So I, I, I think it's, yes, it sucks, but we can't stop a team from being good and winning. But that's the thing. I mean, it was like last year in the NFL, you know, we had Kansas city in Buffalo there on the playoffs and the super bowl was a, the visional game. compared to the. Conference files against Cincinnati. Most people. Like, honestly, even when I think of it, I'm like, oh, that was a great AFC championship game. Then I'm like, wait a second. They had to play Cincinnati after. But, you know, you do you, sometimes you get those better. I mean, I think this could be it. BC. I, I thought it was good that we were there. I was excited to get to go see kind of that atmosphere and, and, and. Felt, you know, fell a lot of people. I thought they did good without lucky Whitehead. How do you think the BC's game plan was? You know, they're kind of trying, we're trying to get back to full strength there. I thought it was great. You mentioned the atmosphere. So I do wanna say absolute shout out to am Omar Damman and what he's been able to do in a calendar year with this franchise and making them really BC's team wants again, I mean, opening up the upper bowl for a playoff game having, I think it was Sarah. McLaughlin did the national Anthem. Yeah. That was like all the, just little pieces, like the. Yard parties outside all summer. Long. And while we had the nice weather. But with BC, I. Attack is all about James Butler. And I know we like Nathan Brook. But 20 carries on the day for him. And I know pick pips their next leading rushes. They don't try to run anyone else. It's just James Butler. Go go go. And he, he really opens up a lot of the second level throws for Nathan Rourke. So as they kind of go into this Winnipeg game, Winnipeg's got a great interior line defensive line through and through. But that is gonna be the task for them is trying to get James Butler going and. Allowing the second level throws to be opened up for Nathan or. I thought the funniest thing and shout out to, you know, Matt baker and Nick over the, the BC lions, you know, Winnipeg all it's cold here and look at the weather and all that. And then they had James Butler, like the video with like drinking the ice coffee, the, the beat I saw that. But I think a caption was getting ready for the winter weather or something like that. No, that's a, that's a great piece of PR, but I kind of had like New York giants boat trip vibes. When I saw them all lined up to get on the jet skis. I was like, uhoh. What are we doing here, guys? Well, I know, but that's all I've heard is, Hey, it's, it's cold here. You plain at dome, which. I, you know, I, I would've like to women paid to maybe step a little bit more, Hey, we're two time defending champions. We've just paid our quarterback gazillion dollars, but yeah. Okay. It's cold. Like we, we understand that that is, I mean, clearly they have more, more advantages than that, right? I I know, but with Winnipeg, you gotta think about this. This is the identity of the team, right? They don't practice indoors. Like some teams like Calgary last week went inside. Winnipeg is out there. They are. Practicing in it. They are used to it. And the fans feed into that as well. I think I saw someone had mentioned their, their closing in, on a sellout already. For the game, we still have a couple days left of tickets sales, but. For them to really feed in that in the fans feed into it. It sucks when you're playing out in the cold and in the snow. The last thing you wanna have to do is kind of sit there on the sidelines for a 10 play drive is Calis picks apart your defense and you're sitting there and you're James Butler, just trying to keep warm and trying to stay loose. Or Nathan Rourke, you have to go over and throw the ball a cup times. Especially Nathan Brook, trying to keep his foot elevated. Now the new kind of a. I don't know. I don't know what to say. Like the. The thrown together elevated. It's like a cooler with a pad on top. Like even him trying to manage that, but still having to stay loose and warm in a cold environment. Certainly not ideal. Whenever you have long drives against you. This is like they, they were having the story earlier this year that the dolphins have their stadium built. So it's like 30 degrees warmer on the one sideline like Winnipeg, I think should get an asterisks here for all their games. Right. Well, you see that creative state of planning. Is always a thing. And I know. Queens university, they do the same thing at Richardson. So. Most are games, noon or afternoon. The Queens bench has the backdrop of the press box. And that's where most of the fans is. So you're kinda like, Ugh. Do we need that, but then as soon as the game starts, the other team's sideline is just sitting in sunlight. Until the sun sets. So a couple of those early games in September. And for last week of August. You really get that difference. And Jacksonville, I think does the same thing in the NFL as well with kind of dividing their stadium up like that. Speaking Nathan, you know, coming back, I, I saw Farhan. I can't remember it was this morning or yesterday talking like maybe NFL has cooled a little bit cuz you know, the injury and coming back and all that. So, you know, God's willing, maybe we get another run at this next year with kind of every everyone. But if that doesn't happen, I mean, do we have enough pieces here? I mean, when the peg is as, I mean, I have a very limited time covering the CFO, but the greatest force that's ever been known. I think. To go. I dunno with Winnipeg, they they've just been able to keep guys together. Right. You don't see those big lost and FRA, even this year, they lost Kenny Lawler. Oh, well, our rookie Belton, show's gonna lead the league in receptions, receiving guards and touchdowns. Like. They there's just always replacement and they've kept key pieces together. Like Jackson, Jeff Coke, Claro. Claros and they've been able to move on even this year. 113 Rush yards per game. When Andrew Harris left, people were like, Yeah, right. And even early on, like, You looked at their run game. You're like, oh, wow. You guys. Sure. You should have let Andrew Harris go, but as of year goes on, it starts to click and they find their form. Whether without Nathan Rourke, I think the bombers team is very talented. And BC has the talent to match it. But where the difference comes down. Is the experience in the quarterback play and. For what experience is worth, I guess, with Claris being. Back to back. Great cup champions. Nathan worked, just played his first playoff game. We'll see kind of how much that experience plays in. It's one thing to play a playoff game in your dome at home, in front of. A nice fan base. When you go out on the road to the frigid Winnipeg environment. Where everyone's screaming at you on offense instead of the other team, it's a little bit different. So we'll see how the experience plays in. It was interesting. I just, I was gonna mention before you, we going to BC plays and being from the states and you look, and you're like, Man, this is downtown. It's so cool. Right? Like here in Seattle, you know, like we, the cracking play like kind of right. Downtown, there's all this stuff. But like, you know, you're walking around, like no one could care less about this. Like it's all these people coming from outside of like the downtown. Yeah. It was just a really weird environment. Like where am I be? You know, my CFO stuff around and like, no. Oh yeah. Is that going on? Like, oh yeah, what's happening today. Like, no idea that this is happening. It it is. And when you have such global cities, right? Like Toronto is victim of this as well. And, and New York for that sense. For a great example. Yes. You have your diehard, jets and giants fans. But in a city of X, million people. Not everyone cares about it. Like life goes on around you. So you could be coming into the stadium and into the city. Whereas when you go to Hamilton. You guys were at the Hamilton. Yeah. Like it's right in the suburbs, everyone around you is a tie cats fan. And you kind of like, you know, a tie cat's game is going on that day. But in some of the bigger global cities, there's so much. Diversity in the population, diversity and interest that you do get that. Oh, wait, we do have a play. Oh, a playoff game today. Oh, cool. Well, good luck. Enjoy your day. I'm gonna, I'm gonna go bike down on the, on the ocean side. Like. There's just so much differentiation in what people are doing in cities. Yeah, I do. I do actually feel bad for Hamilton in that regard, just cuz they did feel like they, they live a lot more of that in that city and, and wanting them to kind of have that spot in the gray cup, but yeah, different the, the tailgates and stuff last year, I'll be curious kind of what this, this year, but who do you. Who do you give the advantage to here between Linda pack and BC? Winnipeg . Until proven, otherwise I will, I will take the back to back breakup champions. But when you look at it, more yards for game goes to BC. They have better pass rush in terms of socks. I'm not gonna say better pass, rush. I write. Because Jackson, Jeff code are who they are, but when you have guys like, boom, watch 'em I, I think he's gonna be back this week from the injury. I, I think he's fantastic and he's a great player in his own. Right. But. I'm gonna give it to the, to the defending gray cup champions. Just. I don't know, there's something about playing on IG field in the winter. With a lot on the line that these guys kind of get up for. Are we looking at the dynasty here? Are we seeing the three P on November 20th? I, I think you can already say dynasty with back to back championships, right? I mean, You want to say. Great team, super team. When a team makes it tune, right. You're from Seattle. When the Seahawks went to a second super bowl, it was. Oh, start the dynasty and then they ended up losing and it just fell apart from there slowly but surely. But when you look at a team to win back to back, like even when Brady went back to back, it was okay. This is a dynasty, and then they happened to go and win some more afterwards. But how sustained success like this with Winnipeg? Especially over the COVID year. It is just incredible to see them keep it together and, and not lose. Key pieces and have it fall apart because of that. Well, and here and now they, you know, they lock up Calis now for another two years. And I mean, I know the CFO contracts and stuff, but I mean, they clearly. Obviously, you know, have all their faith in him and it, it is cool to see. I just wish. You know, this one of the things CFL nineteens, but I just wish there was a little bit more parody sometimes with. You know them just basically like it we're ants and they have the magnifying glass, you know, and there's just like, like killing everyone else. I know it feels like that sometimes, but. I think last year, they're west final. Wasn't overly like big for score differentiation. I, I do think with. With Winnipeg though, they do just feel like that. Giant right where they're just stepping on everyone as they come through. And it, I, I think that's the biggest thing about the dynasty is they do that. With rotating pieces. Like it's not the same. Yeah. It's the same quarterback. Same left tackle, same pass rusher, but there's new pieces on defense, new receivers, new guys on offense like Greg, Alex, and Dalton show and Brady Oliver. Now the team leaders. Where in years past you had Lawler and Harris, right? Key is always Nick Demsky though. He gotta keep him around. Anything else before I let you go be, you know, bla rebuilding here to be done. And, you know, we got Edmonton and OTA, one stuff, anything you're looking forward to here. Sam's great. Cup CFO storylines. Interested in Edmonton's quarterback situation. We saw Trey Ford take the reins. And when he got hurt, Cornelius came in and. They extended Cornelius right before they brought Trey Ford back. So it's, it's kind of. Up and down, like, who are you going with? Are you going with the kid? Or are you going with the guy that you just gave a bag to? And that to me is kind of. Determining where Chris Jones goes with this franchise because. As you get the young, talented quarterback. Yeah, you want to give him a chance to grow? But do you have to have a guy making so much money? If Trey, Ford's gonna sit behind you. And, or sorry to sit behind Trey Ford and. If your plan was to have Trey Ford as a starter, why would you then pay him so much money? You can find a serviceable backup for a heck of a lot less than the CFO. I loved when they, they just extended corn, you know? And he played the XFL, you know, I mean, we know according alias that we lived through the Zo of it all last year and all that, but then they, they just extended and he comes in and it was like those two. Interceptions like ride the goal line on my theater. I, you are playing yourself out of like, okay. Yank him now. Like it, it certainly. I mean, I just couldn't think of a worst turnaround. Like we pay this guy. No one seems to really like him. I mean, and anyone I talk to from Edmonton doesn't seem like they're all in on him. And then he comes out and just totally blows it. I think that's, that's why nobody's all in on him. Right? Like he has such great measurables. He's big, he's athletic. He can throw the ball, like he can put his strawberry through a battleship as one of the old sakes. But then he comes out and he makes these so like, Your like, dude, what are you doing? Where are you putting the, what is going through your mind? And Connor. And I just saw this last week in one of the playoff games in the OU way where there's a quarterback, he made a throw and we're just like, What are you doing? You could like that's a grade 10 level read, like. You're playing your third or fourth year of university football and you're making that play. And that's just kinda like the head scratches that Cornelius puts you through. in a game to game basis, right? It's never even just all good. There's always one or two. Just kind of curious throws, I'll say. We're watching football or, well, the commanders now we are one interception away. One bath throw heke away from beating the Vikings last week. I mean, it's, that's what margin, that's one referee knocking out a safety away from being in a blowouts. So. I like that is, that's just the fine details, right? Where it's those two throws that make a difference in professional football and. As Cornelius has gone through. The last two years really? Well, a year and a half since he got put into the league and into the game. You've seen some growth, but. Every time you think he's making leaps and bounds? He regresses, like we just talked about with the contract. So I, I don't know where Chris Jones goes. He's always got something going on behind the sunglasses. And he's got a ton of time between now and kickoff next year to figure it out. But they gotta, I mean, you know, it's, it's not as crucial here in the NFL, you know, we're firing Frank Reich and all this stuff. It, you know, I mean, But like you have teams make and moves here and you assume Ottawa instantly going to be better. They're gonna get their quarterback back. Like whatever happened, we'll get a new coach and all that, but like Edmonton, a lot of these teams are, are. Figuring things out. And you just wonder, like how long that leash is there. I mean, I know people say, you know, trust and Chris Jones and all that, but there, there is a time coming for that. At some point there is. And I mean, you saw that timer run out for Paul Lale this year, even. I, I don't think he ever got a fair shot. You having a legitimate starting quarterback? But the timer, the timer ran out, regardless of who's playing for you. You are on that timeline. And for Chris Jones, He's so well respected and so powerful even within the organization that I think his time is a bit more extended. So he feels this time to juggle and play. As you were saying, But for, for some of these rosters, I mean, Carri Jones's clock was ticking. And they ended up turning it around. So. There's certainly hope for the teams out in the bottom to make their way up through the, through the ranks. Especially with the quarterbacks being available. I think that you can insert a. Bow Levi or FUO. Fido and kind of gave yourself a jolt. I know that both the teams were talking about have. Who they think is the guy. But even Saskatchewan, like you, you need to find something. To propel yourself back to the top. I don't think Bo is the answer there. I think that's going to be flashy, but I don't think that that makes the sustainable growth. I don't think so either. I also wanna see what they can do with Mason. Find for a full year. I know he saw a couple gains of action. Didn't look great this year. But it's a growing process. And when, you know, you know, but sometimes it's, it takes a bit, right. I always say. Give me three consecutive starts. And I think he played for a couple games this year, but. Three full starts and meaningful games. So next year, we'll probably see that. O Saskatchewan. I think it's just. No offense as a whole just seemed. Too much blame was being put on the quarterback for a lot of other issues. Like the lack of blocking by all offensive linemen. no, I, I mean, and I don't think the Bo I mean, Bo still, and he came into the game, you know, I, I tweeted, I said, Hey, Nathan, RO beat both, you know, the mayor and Bo Levi here in the same game. That's always exciting. But like, he looked good. I just think I, okay. You bring him into, into Saskatchewan. You get a year out of it. Him get a lot of P and you get a lot of. Excitement, but that's not, that's not a future plan at this point. Yeah, I mean, 61 SACS taken by Fujio. I'll pull up. Mason. Fine. Had. 15 . And not that many games. No. So, I mean, you. And that was 15 and two games. So. Plus change, I guess, for the game to be filled in. But. I I really wanna see just. Overall improvement from a team like Saskatchewan. Like you need to go and. Make some big investments at the offensive line. If you want any quarterback, you throw back there to succeed. But with Bowie V Mitchell, I don't know. I. I feel like he's eastward bound. I know it's westward bound, but I feel like he's heading to the Eastern conference. Get him a little bit closer to Toronto, get him. He does have the TSN deal for after he retires. Just get him closer to. HQ for TSN. I just ha final thoughts for me. I just Saskatchewan, total failure this year. I mean, to be hosting the gray cup and have all this and you know, that's like, it's such the coveted thing, right? We gotta host a gray cup and the Mar and we're doing the big thing. And 24, I, you know, to be able to be hosting all that. And to not even make the playoffs in, in the CFO, in the six, you know, and that's a pretty, that's a pretty little bar. Well, I, I mean, the confusing part for me was the punt. From like literal punt on the season when you still had a chance to cross over. And still had some fight left. They just went. Yeah, we're done with Cody. We're gonna put Mason in for the last couple games. What you have to win, like. One or two games maybe, and get some help. If you only win one to cross over and make the playoffs and have a shot at your home breakup. And it just seemed like they just kind of said, yeah, we, we don't want to do that. We either gonna host a game or we're not doing it at all. what was it that, that. The, the mythological, like them crossing over and then being the away team in Regina, making it to the crank up. Like, I, I like that idea. I thought that was a cool story, but I mean, they wasn't even close. Home games, a home game doesn't matter which color uniforms you have to wear, but. For the whole staff to just kind of. Throw in the towel on the season. With a couple weeks left. I. I don't know, it just didn't sit right to me. And it showed like, yeah, we're in full, full reset mode. We're gonna hit it now and try and make something happen for next year. Wayne. I really appreciated it. A little extended here today. Hopping on. Thank you so much. Running through everything. Should be exciting. I mean, I'm excited this weekend locked in, you know, America CFO team, and then we'll see, but we'll be, we'll be at the great cup one way or another, but I do hope there's, I mean, Everyone's saying BC Montreal, that I think that is the popular choice right now that people want. I think that would be a great fan choice. I know there's a huge contingent from Winnipeg that we're probably you gets bought in Regina. But no, I, I think either, either matchup outta the possible scenarios that we get are gonna be fantastic. Right. We can get BC. And Montreal, you said BC, Toronto would be an aerial battle. As both quarterbacks sling the ball around the field. Winnipeg against Toronto would be kind of like Andrew Harris going back. To try and stop the three P and then Winnipeg Montreal would be just, I, I think just a good game through and through both teams would be able to compete.

Episode 117 - The XFL’s “Field of Dreams”

Well, as I said on Twitter as always, when, you know, breaking XFL news, big XFL news hits, I like to, you know, always bring back on XFL, insider, Mike Mitchell, Mike Mitchell. How are you doing, sir? I'm doing well read, thank you very much for having me on. I like, you know, I like kind of, you know, and. Obviously you live your own life. And I live my own life and I like that we can come together for this. I, and I know we didn't rehearse this, and then we did a couple, you know, shots on the podcast a couple months ago. I did bring a beer because. I want to, we are toasting the death of the Seattle dragons and the, the New York guardians. So Ching, Ching and. I mean, Mike, we have a lot of stuff to get into today. Sure. So basic. Number one question like, you know, we saw the logo reveals at 5:00 AM. 5:00 AM Pacific on Monday we saw the logo reveals mm-hmm . That's where my week started was 3:45 AM Monday. How how'd they do. I liked them. I, I, you know, yeah. Obviously they're, you're always gonna have your qualms about certain things, colors, logos, all that. And then this is kind of an odd situation, cuz it's not, it's a new league, new ownership, but it's not real a new league. They inherited. Brands from before. So we've got seven of the names back. Although one of them is changed to the sea dragons, obviously. And then, you know, the renegades are now Arlington. And the only new city's new brand we have technically is the San Antonio Braas, which surprisingly enough, I like now, so it's like it's growing on me and I think that's what happens with a lot of these things. I think they grow on you over time. It's kind of incomplete right now because we don't have the jerseys and the uniforms, like the Bramos logo looks cool. But what if the uniforms and all that is a disaster? Hopefully it's not, hopefully looks great. It, I like the logo. I like to, I like the concept too. It's kind of in a old tired concept to have bulls or horns. In Texas, but this is kind of a different spin on it. And I think it has the potential to have that same battle Hawks appeal. When in the battle, Hawks were introduced three years ago, this time, a little bit earlier than this time, but three years ago, nonetheless, I scoffed at it, you know, back in 2000, what I was. Writing about the XFL, the original XFL. And you know, that league got trashed because of all the silly names. It was a sign of the times and all that. So anyway, fast forward. When the XFL was returning. I, my biggest worry was like, please just, I know, even if some of them are boring, just have traditional names, no maniacs. No one enforcers, no hit men. None of that. And then when the first name was revealed to be battle Hawks, I was like, oh, No Sik man strikes. So I, and you know, that was his choice too. So, and I, you know, I felt like, oh, this is pretty silly. What the hell is the battle Hawk? But you know, the logo is glorious. I'm glad that's back. The sword, the wings, everything about it is cool. Caused the law. And so, so it, it's awesome to see it back and that that's, I think the appeal, the Abras are gonna have kind of crazy that it's named after the rocks, former wrestling nickname and all that. But I think it'll grow on people. San Antonio was an awesome choice. We can debate if they're making good choices in other areas, but I think picking that market was smart. And, and it so far so good, you know, they got, they got, they're gonna have a cool coach in Hines ward. I like their color scheme and all that. I think it's gonna be fun. I think the Alamo dome they'll embrace that, that market San Antonio's an awesome market. So they gotta state. A stadium. So, I mean, they're set up on that front. So they got, you know, so I, I think, I think I was happy overall. Looking at it. It it's. Finally, you know, we got to the point where we're set now. So now it's baby steps, but we got all the teams, the brands, the logos, and now. We're three months away, a little over three months away from kickoff. So I'm looking forward to that. This is fun. Yeah. And I, so in kind of order for events, I do wanna talk a little bit about this. I don't want the logos to be like the entire, you know, and I think you would agree. There's a lot more stuff this week with, in terms of Vegas and the stadium. I wanted talk about timelines with Anthony Beck and getting that box. And maybe when did we know. So I wanna get on that, but I do wanna step down, you know, stop down on the logo it's for a minute, just because obviously that's the biggest news. Everything else might be more important right now, but we'll get to all that today. I mean, lots to talk through. I like the, the bras, the black and yellow. Hines ward, like you opened the box. Really excited. You know, I think that that's like a really easy way to like, get him jazzed up, like, oh, Hey. And maybe they did, maybe they didn't. Right. But like, oh, Hey, it feels like maybe they picked that one for me a little bit. Right. Cuz you could. Nothing about the bromus, you know, screams black and yellow. Right? You could have it be, you know, red and black or whatever. Sure. So I, I, I like that. And feeling excited about that. It does feel like Anthony Beck is very excited to be able to talk about. Battle Hawks. I thought it was weird that Danny Garcia in the intro video said, cause the law, you know, Kaka. But then very much in all the branding for the team name, it's like, this is based off planes and, and helicopters and not a bird . Yeah. You know, I'm not unsure. A lot of this feels incomplete, right? Like, like, you know, we have secondary logos. We kind of don't there are other secondary logos out there today at EXL news, hub.com where Perry put out an article about that. I'm sure it's being covered. Other outlets is well X FFL related sites. So it does feel a little bit incomplete. Like maybe the branding's a little bit off or they're not hitting on every single aspect of it. You know, you got seven brands returning. So I didn't hear too much, you know what the rock and Danny, I didn't hear too many, you know, different things with their little sizzle reels for each city, for each team named logo. So, yeah, they could have probably focused on the bird aspect a little bit more with the battle Hawks, but you know, that's such a glorious logo. Like it's so awesome that they're back there was never any doubt in my mind, the moment they purchased league in 2020, that was one of the reasons they purchased it. Like if you're looking at the XFL prop property and 20, and you're listening to top five things about the, the league. You, it wouldn't take you very long to get to the St. Louis Battle. Hawks is like why we should buy this league. Here's an example. Of how well received it was, how popular it was. And so it would've been full hearty. There would've been dead on arrival. If they came back as the St. Louis scooters or something like that. So it would've been the end of it. So they could've just folded up the, the shop right then and there. So. Yeah, they they're missing a few things. There's some stuff that's been incomplete this entire runway. But, you know, we've reached this point, so I'm thankful that. Their, you know, that Redbird capital partners, Dwayne, the rock Johnson, Danny Garcia, that they're moving forward with this. And as a huge fan of football as an advocate. For alternative pro football league spring pro football. I'm happy that they're given this thing a go, the odds are heavily against them. But I think it's awesome for the landscape and as somebody who's a diehard, true football fan. I'm glad that they're given this a shot. I'm you know, I can question a lot of the moves. And, you know, we could rightfully so. There's a lot of stuff you can be cynical about and critical about. But I'm glad that they exist and that we're headed towards kickoff. It should be fun. A lot was made. You know, supposed to come out town in the halls, we, you know, whatever. Hurricane Ian, you know, and now we're doing black Adam. We need all that stuff. To have the rock, not even involved. In anything Monday, right? To have it be Laura from ESPN, you know, we're doing the videos on there. Thoughts on that. And, and were you. You know, overwhelmed underwhelmed, were you well, versus how they did it in 2020, very similar. Delivery, but like so much has been made. Like we can't talk about anything right now. The rock is doing black Adam. And then yo, we had a most, we got from the rock was a tweet where he, he tagged the wrong league and then deleted it and then take, you know, take or not the wrong league, but take the wrong. Account deleted it, take the right one and then retweeted the handles on Monday. I mean, that was really all we saw from the rock. So curious your thoughts on, on kind of how they unveiled everything. Yeah, Xavier AFLA page is at XFL. On Twitter, if you wanna follow 'em. I think he has about 30 followers. . So, anyway, you got accidentally got tagged. That's happened a lot. A lot of XFL personnel have done that have tagged him. Even some XFL person. Personnel members have had that in their bio. At XFL. And it's just funny links up to that particular gentleman. You know, I think people expected different things. I mean, they teased it briefly. Obviously by, by showing little bits and pieces, that was a pretty quick reveal. You know, the next day or whatever. So, you know, you can argue about how this was rolled out, all that, you know, Laura Rutledge did a very good job. It was a nice video. The videos were nice. So, and they're doing a good job, the league in terms of getting together with fans that they're, you know, whatever they're calling them, fan activation events and all that, I suppose you can nitpick it here and there, how it was done. I think a lot of people are expecting rock to be front and center. Maybe a little bit more. I think we will get that. So a as we're going forward, maybe they expected it for the team logo reveals. I don't know how much the rock could've done. I mean, he's definitely doing the voiceovers for some of the teams and all that. Maybe he could have gone on a particular show, the Manning cast or something like that. I don't know. But, but yeah, you know, I, maybe I could, I expected maybe a little bit more, but you know, it, you know, I didn't expect anything that was grandiose in nature. It felt odd be a Brandon was on right. Exfil new subway. Well, brand was so nice to hop. I mean, I mean that like so nice to hop on that whatever time it was, you know, for him as well. Cuz. I think he's mounting time, but. It, it just, it, it felt odd that, you know, We did the teases from 20 and I don't wanna be negative Nancy, but I do just wanna voice my opinion on this before I move on, you know, we did the teases from 2020. It's kind of like what they did in 2020, like, Hey, they did it, then let's do it again. It was the next day. Halloween 5:00 AM. The, the videos felt here. We got a lot of cha to stadium stuff. We've shot. Here's a couple snippets of some, you know, stock footage that we've licensed. And like, you know, we got Danny in the rock here. Okay. Let like, we gotta get this out. And I'm like, We'll talk about the back timeline. I just felt like, you know, we had so much time. You know, we, we just kind of redid what they did in 2020. Is that what people want? And then obviously with the movie of the couple of the franchises, but it just felt like. All this time. And that was like, that was what we got. Like, we didn't get, we we've had 26 months and we just got the, the video on the website. I don't know. I mean, I don't know if I was expecting fireworks, but it just was interesting that that's what, in a league where it's like, we are gonna make our own thing. You know, be damned. But, Hey, this is what they did before. Like let's just do it again. Yeah. You know, it's. You know, I don't know if I expected more, to be honest with you, Reid, but I hear what you're saying. I get what you're saying. There was such a delay. In, in everything, a slow rollout with all this stuff. And I like, you know, for example, In April. I told the world of cities. You know, I wrote about it and then we got it on July 24th. And so we've known about the names. Why? Because the league leaked it on their own website. It wasn't a broken news story by somebody who can pat themself on the back and say, look at his story. Because those individuals who said that said, I think this is speculation. And we're kind of here this too. No, you saw that the league. Accidentally put the names on the site and then you took a picture of it and put it on your site, the sun breaking news or sourcing, or any of that. So anyhow, but the league, it hasn't been pretty, you know, the XFL logo that they changed to, which is ironically enough, close to the colors of the guardians. The brand league logo that kind of leaked early. And then, you know, and then of course the names leaked early. And so there's been information out there about their coaches. People have known for a long time. So. They slow played a lot of this stuff and then I don't have a major. Issue with how they presented the logos and the names. I thought it was fine, but it, you know, it could, they have built it up more anticipation for it. The one thing I'll give them credit for is they kind of like tease themselves. Joked about all the fans that were complaining, where are the names, all that. So that was kind of cute and cool to do that because that's legit, you know, a lot of people, they wanna know the names and all that. So, when am I gonna get 'em Dwayne? My, one of the tweet quote, tweets or something was like my social security's kicking in soon, you know, all that, you know, talking about how they're aging so much, they've been waiting so long. So at least that part of it was cool. I've just glad they're here. You know, I knew that eventually they're gonna get here. These, these teams are not. Gonna go on the field naked. They're not gonna have no names, you know, so that they're gonna have players. All these things that a lot of people have been griping about and I get it cuz X. You know, you make mention of it and I've seen it mention to other, other places as well, the 26 months, 27 months. Is, is that accurate? Yeah, kind of technically, is that completely fair? Not really, you know, they, they inherited the league from, you know, right in the midst of a pandemic. They weren't gonna come back immediately. There, there was a lot of stuff that needed to be taken care of before they even got that they got sidetracked. You wanna blame them to, for that by the whole CFO business. So that was also like a, a weird hurdle in there. So. You know, the funny thing is, you know, here we are two years later. And, you know, a lot of the teams are the same, you know, obviously they made some tweaks. You could question whether or not they should have done that. But there wasn't that much for them to change. I think from day one, they knew the battle Oaks would be back. I think from day one, they knew the DC defenders would be back. I, they wanted to be back in Seattle. They changed that up a little bit there, but I thought that they were gonna head there all along. The ones we thought about are the ones we talked about in 2020, would the Wildcats feedback would New York feedback. And so with Tampa, be back. And they're not. So, you know, for various reasons stuff I've written about and all that, but. Here we are. So yes, Reed. I totally get anybody. The loyalists who've been following this league waiting for two years have been extremely patient and. This hasn't been the prettiest of rollouts and presentations. I'll say that much. Low key. My theory and I, I think this was Monday in my delirium. After me enough. I think I was getting ready to go to bed that night. That the whole CFO talks, you know, cuz remember, you know, They came out, you know, they bought the league we're, we're doing it, whatever. And then it was like, you know, we're coming back and they're pushing it the next year, you know? And then they push it back again, all that, because it was, you know, it was gonna be 20, 22, 23. I, I think that the CFO talks and, you know, we they've had interviews with Randy. I've had Randy on the show, you know, they, I think it was Dolly up in Vancouver and they, he said, you know, the merger talks lasted five minutes or the four downs. Right. It was more about business talks. It, we milked months and months and months out of it, I think it was. Four months that talks on. I so think that was used. To like buy them then like, well, we're gonna push back because I think like, if you look at the timeline of everything, There even where we're at right now. I mean, we're still hiring. Ticket, you know, VP ticket people in Orlando, like ticket experience, right? How can we get that? We don't have the Vegas data in that. We're gonna talk about like, I think back in, in June of last year. And I think they got you, whatever that was. I think they're like, holy s**t. Like we got it. Like we're, we're, you know, we're kicking the can to get, I just, I'm curious, like how much of all that played into, like, we really need more time because there, there is absolutely no. Way CFL talks or not. I think that they were gonna be ready to go last. February. Yeah. You know, it, there was so much that went down. I think it was on your show. I don't know how many appearances ago, but I talked about, I talked about how there was some. There was a period there where there was talk and consideration about whether or not this would move forward or not. Yeah. So, and then, you know, the CFO stuff, would've been very complicated. Yes. All along. I was telling people like, you know, slow up a little bit, take it easy a little bit in turn, all of a sudden, assuming four downs, this and that. Although a lot of that stuff was discussed, but they did want to do some type of. Merger joint business, all under one umbrella kind of thing. And then, so then there was a lot of pushback in fighting and look, the CFO owners themselves, they barely get along. So they're always bickering and fighting with each other. They can't agree on anything. So, so yeah, if. Let alone agreeing with an entirely different entity from south of the border. So you knew that was gonna be problematic to begin with. So they, you know, and the CFO has their own issues. I love the league to death. Can't wait for the playoffs this weekend, all that, but. That reason why I'm bringing that up too, is because, you know, we saw some CFO issues this week, too. This league stuff is not easy. Putting like, like, honestly, like, you know, you can talk a big game and all that. It is very difficult. That's why to Fox and U S F L's credit. They simplified everything for themselves. Hey, we only have one location. We don't have to go crazy hiring a ton of people. We'll just play our games in one place. We're good. That made it easier because if they had to launch. Finding stadiums and venues and promotions and marketing and presidents and team employees left and right. That you get hiccups. Like every league in the history of leagues has had issues in their early going. And yes, this XFL is returning. It's a reboot and yes, there are a lot of employees from the 2020, the Janet Dukes of the world, the rush Julios the Doug whales. But a lot of these people are new in the position. And there's a lot of key figures that the new people in the X. XFL don't like me saying this, but okay. But there's a lot of key figures that were part of the XFL two, three years ago that were significant contributors and that did an excellent job hired rock stars. Rock stars that are still within the XFL right now. So people don't like me saying that because they think they have allegiance. I have allegiances, I don't have allegiances. These people are not my friends. I'm just. I'm judging the work performance job performance. Like I would, when I'm watching a sports game. So, you know, they don't like me saying the name, but Jeffrey Pollocks. All these Sam Schwartzstein, Eric algos. These people did a tremendous job, and I have no doubt that the people that are currently in the league can do a great job. And there are several people that I have a lot of respect for. Raio. Doug Whaley, Mark Ross Allum. So Janet Duke, I dealt with her covering the New York guardians. So. You know, my overall point here is that, you know, when you're putting a league together, this is kind of a new league. They've got the XFL name. They're gonna have hiccups along the way. There's gonna be issues. They're still trying to hire people. This stuff is not easy. It took them time. They, they. Weren't gonna come back in 2021 cuz of the pandemic you could argue or past the pandemic. We're not really, but we're past it in terms of what it was in terms of not no fans coming to the games that no attendance available, all that, they were never gonna launch a league without that. So the reason why VINs may folded up shop. Because he wasn't gonna have fans anymore. So there you go. There goes all the profits. So anyhow, but that's kind of where we stand now. So there's gonna be hiccups along the way I expect the SFL had hiccups. It wasn't a perfect operation. The XFL is not gonna be perfect either. And they're still kind of, you know, they're still, you know, they're, they're tripping on themselves a little bit as they go along here and they have, and so, and so I, I can kind of accept that because I've seen that look, the. NFL as big of a monster as it is now in the early going they had massive issues. So there were a lot of problems with them. It took 'em a long time. If they, they came to this, they had empty stadiums and struggles. The super bowl almost died. It was Poor's attended the first two years. So they were thinking about scrap and they thought it was ridiculous to have the NFC at the time, the NFL play with this American football conference, because there it's an inferior conference. Nobody cares about the super bowl. Let's scrap this whole thing. So anyway, so you ha so. Those early years in putting together a pro football league. This is hard and it's gonna take a lot of finances and there's gonna be bumps in the road and we've already seen them. Yeah. And just to, you know, I get a lot of interesting enough in, in now I don't get as much like reads a hater because I think that. People agree a lot with what I'm saying in terms of like FFL stuff. I got a lot of during the last year with USFL, I know you did. And we all, you know, you're and Mike's hate and res hate and we're hating all this stuff. Right. And now I'm saying stuff and people like, Hey, kind of agree with re like, I'm not getting this much of that. Like, You know, people spamming my stuff, but the reason why I bring it up is just today. And I just tweeted before we got on here, you know, pat McAfee. Had his big this week and the NFL was like, you can't use our logos anymore and you can't use all that stuff. And even though pat pays all this money, you know, and pat took a stand, said, this is what's wrong. This is why it's wrong. Obviously, pat is a b***h times bigger than anybody that deal with. On a daily basis, but you know, you need to like voice when you see things that are wrong and work towards improving them in ways that are tangible and doing that. So that's why we talk about this and you, I think are great and valuable in having these conversations. And that's, I, I was so proud that pat and not that pat gives it F of a, about me. Yeah, sure. Sure. But, you know, we, you have someone here that you have, like, this is why, and this is the biggest league in the world. Just got egg all over its face because they tried to overstep and they learned that they can't do that. So this is why. When I criticize the XFL and whatever. And do they care? Do we have enough times does USL it's because we want things to be better. And I just, I just wanna make sure I say that good for pat, you know, pat is gutsy, you know, pat, pat will, you know, and I, this a PGS show. So someone's the stuff liked, say, I can't say about him, but he's definitely. He's definitely, you know, he's definitely a tough guy and he is not scared to speak his mind. And, you know, a lot of people would not take the stance that he took. They would just like bend down and just, just accept it. You know, it's funny because you and I are fanboy and I don't know, he is agree with your opinions. I'm a fanboy for this concept. Right. So I'm a fanboy for football. I've been an advocate. For pro football college football my whole life. And I've been an advocate for pro football leagues, like the XFL us F L et cetera, my whole life. So I'm. So okay. In that respect, I'm definitely a fanboy, no question about it, but you know, it's just funny, like sometimes one side. Will accuse you of being an XFL fanboy and at the same time, little, do they know that the very league that they're accusing me of being a fanboy of is, you know, upset with me or down my throat because I'm maybe some in my opinions have been pretty harsh. Maybe can be considered unfair. What have you. I was this way with the XFL in 2022. So I'm optimistic. I know we're in the season now where we're supposed to be thankful, right? So I'm thankful that these leagues are in existence. I've waited for this. Practically my whole life for this. So I think this is really awesome that we're gonna have multiple pro football leagues, and this is great for players. And I just want more football, like a, give me more football. I want it. So, so I'm really excited. I'm really excited about this. So. Some of this stuff, maybe it's overblown, you know, we'll get into some of the Vegas stuff and all that. Whether or not it's the end of the world or not, I don't think it is, but it is, you know, a little bit of black mark, so we'll get into that. But yeah, so there's at the end of the day, we're advocates for this, we're rooting for this to succeed. We want to. Succeed and it, and it's not why the people would think so it's not, you know. Okay. I'm I get paid professionally to write about pro football. And I'm doing that for about the CFO and the XFL and the jets and all that. But, well, I'm not in this to get rich I'm in this because I'm a, or, you know, prophet or become some kind of celebrity or star or mainstream guy. I'm just doing this because I have a genuine passion. And I'm an advocate for this. I have been since I was a USFL fan, since I was a kid. So, so that's just the way it goes. I, yes, I, I, I will tell you if I build what I, you know, I work very hard to run my business and if I build what I did building this show every week and I, and I will tell you, I actually have, haven't even talked about the, but like, So the, I I've switched the music on the videos. Right. Comes out that, that by former co-host, maybe didn't have everything licensed correctly. Right. So we're moving forth. I I've had to pay an astronomical amount of money this week. It's fine. Right. I mean, thankfully I'm in the position. I never wanna be accused of like, and I don't wanna talk, you know, make a big stink about it on Twitter. Like I never wanna be accused like you like, oh, you're doing this for the money or for the FA. Like I paid them astronomical amount of money this week to like settle all of this so I don't get sued. So I just, you know, let's just, this is for the love of football and this is for us, you know, doing that. We really care about this and the players that I know that you are friends with and have a lot of people that try your opinion. All of like my, what should I, I mean, these are. Genuine people and genuine's lives. And I have by the fraction of that, right. They ask me, but it's, these are people that really care. And I think that that is, yeah. Should never be forgotten that that is why we do this. And it's it's for. That greater good of all of this. Yeah. And you know, like behind the scenes, like there's a lot of coaches that are involved in the XFL and in the USFL that I've been in touch with for quite some time now. And it even helps some of them get connected into the league and it's the same thing going on with players right now, helping players get connected into USFL. F L teams and getting in contact because I've been fortunate, recovering these leagues to develop connections. And to have contact. So I've been, so you know, this isn't about this isn't about me at the end of the day. Like I said, I I'm, this for me is football heaven. Right now I'm wrapped up in the CFO. I can't wait for the CFO playoffs. I'm wrapped up in the NFL. Love it. I'm you know, right now I'm thinking about whether or not I should have picked up Devin DoveNet or not for my fantasy team. So I'm all wrapped up in that. And I'm in heaven because the X FFL, the us F L are gonna be how long this is gonna last soon knows, but I'm this is so. Great as a football fan. This is so great. Anybody who's snobbish about it or doesn't care about these leagues? So, so much, you know, I don't, I don't really care about that cuz you know, I'm getting what I want. So so that's just kind of the way it goes. So yeah, this is a great period who knows in two years from now, if we have both these leagues still around, I hope so. Before we move off the logos and several will talk. I wanna talk to Beck step here. I'll give you a minute. Anything else you wanna talk about? Rebrands R IP at the guardians? R I P any of that? I was surprised. Dorothy hates the sea dragons. My wife hates this CJ. I like, I texted the, her I'm like, Hey, here's, you know, here's the logos. And she was like, oh, I hate that. And I, I was very surprised when I get the S and all that, but any other thoughts about logos, Brandy, and obviously we'll get uniforms and all that stuff, but the, the logos and names. You know? Yeah. The sea dragons logo looks like something my niece would do. Like, you know, it's like, it's kind of like, it's kind of cute, but like it doesn't, it's not an intimidating dragon, it's it kind of looks like a little kid's drawing. So, yeah. So look at that guy. So, I mean, so yeah, that's, that's kind of the story there so I can see why she, maybe wasn't a big fan of it. It looks like a sea worm or a seahorse. I don't know if that's what they were going for. You know, I, it, maybe the uniforms will save it and I'll see the uniforms and I'll go, you know what? I like the, I like the colors. I now, now you and I may have a different opinion on this. This is all subjective. And I don't even know if it's, this is their secondary logo or not, but the initial secondary logo of the tried it to means badass. So that's just a personal preference thing. I like it a lot. So, and I've seen people comment favorably about that, you know, as they've seen it on social media and stuff like that's, so, and then haveve had people reach out to me in the legal, like it as well, but I mean, That's neither here nor there, but yeah. Final thoughts on the logos. They're fine. There's nothing wrong with them. The names are fine. I like them. They were part of the league two years ago. I wrote an entire article ranking, so I kind of ranking the. Logos and the, the, the team names and everything else. At XFL news, hub.com. If anybody wants to check that out. And so I, my opinions are kind of mixed in there. The big topic for me is, you know, the Orlando guardians. And I wrote about the guardians and the rocks comments about not coming and come back to New York. And you know, and why they didn't and, you know, Maybe, you know, pushing that can down the road for the future. So, you know, that we knew that for a long time, New York wasn't coming back. So, so, and, and that's just the way it goes. And I reported that myself. So it's still a bitter pill to swallow. So I'm representing them here because they're extinct that the goodbye New York guardians you're no longer on duty. So we won't see him back. So maybe they're the New York Nighthawks of the New York. Gothams in 20, 26 or something who knows. But, but yeah, that was so me, you know, Personal feelings aside, just stepping back, you know, my personal feelings of being born and raised in new Yorker and wanting to see the guardians brand back. I like the overall package. It's a little bit incomplete, cuz I, I haven't seen the full uniforms and the helmets and all that, but I like it. I no issues with it. You can nitpick here and there and I know it's subjective. I did like the rocks comments about, well, you know, we really wanted to go back to New York. We just couldn't find any place to play there. It's like, didn't did didn't stop you in Las Vegas. Like we'll get to that. But I did last thing on the logos. What is the deal with the secondary logos? Because here we are, you know, Brandon and I are doing our live stream. We're we're reading from ESPN. I mean, this is the E like. ESPN, you know, TV partner of Exel and here's the logos. Slash here's the other logos like Arlington had. I don't like the Arlington one. Just, it doesn't fit the, the, the text. No, none of the other logos are built off of text. Right? Like, it's just very weird. Like every other one is like a character. I mean, DC. Okay. I'm going to, my argument's falling to pop, but don't like that. But anyway, but then, you know, you have like, Hey, looks like they have the old Renegade. The of Vegas has the LV, like you said, Seattle has to try that one. We have all these alternate logos. And then we get off and I'm doing other stuff you, we talked all about on the livestream and like four hours later, I get a text from Brandon and like, Hey, did you see the logo? Like ESPN they're off the website. It like, what, what is going on with that? Who knows? They're probably still working on things in terms of the logos and all. That they're probably still, they there's no doubt. Right? So this happens with every, and we saw this with the X FFL back in 20 18, 20 19. They had several different names for each city. They had several different logos for each city, color combinations, fonts, lettering, whatever. And, and I'm sure that on the cutting room floor, there are several secondary logos and different choices. Be fun to see him. I know, way back when we had with Seattle, with the XFL, we had, well, the surge and forgetting some of the other name right now, but there were, was like five different names. They trademarked. And so I'm sure that maybe that's why they pulled it because they're unsure of it. They still want to, you know, do a few things. They, so who knows, they. It's we'll see what happens. We'll see what they eventually roll out. They can put out five different logos if they want for each individual team. If they have 'em. Why not? If you want to sell different merch or hats, go for it. You know, it's not a big deal. Really? I it's fine. It just feels, it's just weird that they. It was on ESPN and, you know, some of, and like, especially to have like the Arlington logo still there, exa you know, the renegades one still the same. Like, I think that was a weirdest thing too. Like the Vegas one kind of a throwback to the Las Vegas Outlaws and. I didn't love the Trident, but like, whatever, it just felt weird that like we would post, like that's pushed out on ESPN. Like that, how many eyeballs did that have to go through? Maybe there was also one, my mother, there was also additional information like the league. I reached out to the league and they wouldn't confirm it. And. ESPN and even Kevin Seaford, who's tremendous been on your show. Tremendous writer, great guy. He, he was unaware. Of the ESPN and the information that was in the ESPN block of information on the day, they revealed the team names and logos that the draft details were out there, that there would be 16 assigned quarterbacks that the draft would be taking place in Vegas. Two day period, all that. And he was unaware that that was there. So I'm not sure who's working at. ESPN that gots early logos or early information on the draft. I mean, I also reported the Vegas thing for the draft too, but that's not been a hundred percent, you know, I've written about that for a while, too. But the, so the league makes something official, even though everybody knew that the, the team, the team coaches long before they announced it, even though everybody knew. The, the team cities in April and they didn't announce it until July 24th. And we all knew the leak logos. You know, at some point maybe these draft details have become official. I'm assuming that sooner or later, maybe this coming week. We're gonna hear something with, through perhaps through Neil Stratton and everything in terms of the specific draft details, how they're gonna assign people, how many rounds it's gonna be? How extended it's gonna be what their supplemental draft will entail. Post December 31st before camps get started. So there's some interest there. So there's a lot of stuff right now. That's like, you know, until the league confirms confirms, that was strange that their logos came out there on a ESPN article, which is their partner. So, but. But yeah. You know, sometimes the right hand doesn't know what the left hand's doing. I, I I've heard that a little bit. I don't get as many DMS as I'm sure you do, but I have heard a little bit. I'm like, eh, I don't really know what's going on here. Yeah, draft have to be next week. I mean, I would comedian go, should I buy a plane ticket? Can I be there? I would like to know. I mean, I think it would be. I mean, I'm going to gray cup on the 17th. So, I mean, I'm happy to go down at least for the first night of it, but it would be cool to. The last, you know, it's funny, the last X I felt wasn't going to do anything for the draft, besides just a quick announcement of who got drafted, where, and then, you know, Sam Schwartzstein and those guys like kind convinced the league to do something, you know, so they did a little, little bit of a conference call kind of thing. And it was very generic and all that, but it was something right. But when you're announcing a location, they havet announced it yet. So who knows? Right? But if you're announcing a specific location in Nevada, Then you would figure there's gonna be some pump in circumstance involved, something, you know, AAF, you know, I liked it when they had their little, it wasn't the greatest in the world, Marsha and Lynch Christone air and all that. But Josh Johnson, the first overall pick, but I liked their little QB draft with, with these former NFL players commenting on the players. They saw that they were being selected and all that players in person waiting to be selected. So hopefully they do something. Do I think they're gonna do 80 rounds? Or 70 rounds or 50 rounds or whatever the case may be. I don't think so. I mean, as much of a football nerd as I am, and I will watch that if it's like a 30 straight hour draft, I'll watch it like a maniac that doesn't seem plausible to me. So. So we'll see, but that's coming. I mean, they have no choice here, you know? I mean, if they wanna push, I know we said that for a lot of things with the XFL, they wanna push the draft in December with a shock me. No, but right now what we're hearing is the 16th and the 17th. So you have to have announce the details and they're supposed to be there's something coming. Up with Neil Stratton and, and all that. He's made mention that he's gonna have Doug whale on and, and the EXOS personnel people. So we'll get full details out there. They'll be in the ether and we'll know more about it. I'm curious, like everyone else is curious, but I think like part of me during this whole process has been looking towards January. Because of two leagues that have players would expire in contracts, practice squad players in the NFL whose contracts expire when the NFL season ends. And then there's that, you know, elephant in the room. The USFL players whose contracts expire on December 31st, who may decide to venture. Journey into the XFL. So, so this is fun. The football stuff, the players stuff. I think people will get even more into the league. Once they see the players that are attached to the teams. And so we're getting there three months away from them taking the field. Yes. And, and we've talked about how. The supplemental draft in January. Whenever that is, might be more enticing than the draft in November, just because, like you said, if there's us guys that won the championship, whatever it is funny today. I, I got the email reminder, cuz I'm able to select tickets Friday. As you listen to this, I'm able to select our season tickets for the XFL stuff, which I thought was great. Also in the email cuz they said. When I got the thing last week, they said, because of the fact that you were a 20, 20 person. And because of your early deposit for 2022 or 2023. You know, we're selecting you, you know, you're here. This is your time. Cuz I'm I'm 10:00 AM on. I don't know. I've heard some people are next week. Like I've heard anyway. I just. I think that's good to acknowledge some of the 2020, but I was texting my, one of my. Season ticket holders, Michael. And I'm like, Hey, don't forget, like be ready. I'll text you tomorrow. You know, we're gonna be doing the thing. He's like, yeah, I'm really having a hard time getting excited about this right now. And it was like you said, it was, well, we don't know any of the players. I mean, we got the logos, what are the uniform? So, I mean, we're building towards it, like. Just having the team names out there doesn't necessarily mean that people are gonna be flocking to the season ticket deposit line. Yeah. And there are a lot of people that are unaware of this league there isn't, it's not on the radar. Hold on. Like I'm an EXFO guy. I'm a us FFL guy. I'm a spring football guy have been my whole life, but. I've been distracted during the spirit. You have, you know, I've been, I've like wrapped up in the jets. I'm wrapped up in the NFL. I. I'm wrapped up in the CFO. I can't wait till the AR goes east final. I'll probably gonna end up being Hamilton, knocking them out again. Hopefully not. But anyhow, but you know, these are all so people in these markets. There there's a lot of people out there that had no clue, like. You saw that tweet from that New York guardians fan. That you know, basically said to rock I'm so disappointed. It was the greatest brand you guys had. It was so cool. I loved it. I I'm so disappointed. Devastated. He said Eric Francisco. Was the user's name devastated that the New York guardians are not coming back, but we already knew that New York guardians weren't coming back for the longest time, they already announced the eight cities back in July. So if you know it wasn't until these team names came out and a little bit of. ESPN stuff through their social media and their media and all that, that now people are like really the New York guardians are not coming back. There's a whole mess of people that have no clue that the XFL is going to even be launching in February 18. So, so there's and the people within the, the very markets where these teams are gonna be playing. So there's a lot of work to do to create awareness. And to, to actually, you know, they, they have us, right. They have the hardcores that have been crazy. Patient, you know, waiting for all this time because you know, all the COVID madness and everything else. So, but you know, the, you know, getting more visible and getting attention, it's hard enough to get attention during the NFL season. Really is everyone's wrapped up in the national football league. So I understand I get it. It's all my. So we'll see, we'll see how that all goes, but yeah, it's, it's in, it's an interesting endeavor and challenge for the XFL. Trying to get attention and trying to get notice. You know, the hundred people that were at the Santa. Antonio brass event with Hines for like, you didn't know that they're very much aware that they, I mean, it's very much, that's awesome. No, I'm not. I just max having to go back and forth. I'm like, I don't know how many people are gonna be, so there a hundred strong San Antonio, I will say Al Snell, the interview, that's coming up after this. You know, the Las Vegas talking about the stadium, the article I sent you today, not from Alan, from a very negative. Writer in Vegas talking about the, you know, the team. They don't really care, you know? I mean, that's the thing, like. You know, you think, Hey, just the rock and they're gonna come in and BDE and Hey, we're here and we're watching and like, you know, you're in Vegas. It's like, we got a lot of other crap going on here. Like, okay. Like, that's cool. Like we have. Like Allen said that, you know, we got the Raiders, we got the ACEs. Now we've got indoor football, we've got lacrosse. We've got every performer in the history of mankind. We've got UFC like, okay, like, it's fine. Like, I'm glad you're here, but there there's always so many hours to cover all this stuff. So yeah. And the, the Vegas subject. Oh boy, we could go on for hours or so pause. We'll do, we'll do Vegas before we get off this. I do wanna know. So that a lot of chatter this week, Anthony BACT had this town hall, he said during the town hall, I think one of the, and I don't cuz pu the tweeted the about it. Fudge Robertson, I think is his name, but he was there. One of the media reported that. Anthony Beck said like, yeah, I got my merchandise back in February. Right. Like I got my ball Hawk stuff. And you remember the coaches were announced till April and then the city were in announced. So July, everyone knows the time went. So, like, what is your thought process? Of that because my ice creamed out and I'm like, and they've known about these since February. So can you please give for anyone cuz there was a lot of childhood this week. Like what is the deal with Anthony Beck? Getting that box? Wow. There's so many layers to this, right? So like the battle Hawks, you knows, I wish it was a simple answer. The battle Hawks were guaranteed brand that was returning. So and so, and Anthony, I, you know, I don't have the official data on me when he was officially. Announced as one of the coaches. Well, they were all in April. I mean, it was all that, that week before the us had found, you know, we, we, you know, I released the coaches, you know, so then, so yes, the Anthony Becks and all these guys. And so, so, and obviously there was time before that, where they knew that they were going to be hired. It was just a matter when the league was. League wanted to announce 'em all at once. So they, maybe the. Different coaches got hired at different times. The league wanted to announce all their team names and logos at once. So maybe there was a lot of tweaking along the way until we got to this point, they've known for a long time, what the names are gonna be. They've known bud. You know, they, you know, they we've known for a long time, you know, because. A lot of these names, we figured they're coming back in DC. The defenders are coming back to say, they're coming back in St. Louis, the battle hog's coming back. They're coming back in Seattle. The dragons are coming back, even if they're called to see dragons. So they're coming back in Arlington. We know the renegades are, are coming back. They're not coming back. Cuz the Arlington armadillos. So, so that's kind of the story there. So. Yeah, there are some coaches and that already, and, you know, We also the battle Hawk's logos. Two years ago. So for Anthony Beck to see it in February, yeah. Okay. It's the same logo. So I, is that the case for all of them, have all the coaches known what their teams are gonna be named for for months on end, since the moment they got hired, did they have input? In their colors and logos. Sure. They did. They've been tweaking them all along the way till they got to the finish line. So, yeah, so I'm sure, you know, the rod Woodson, we know he went on pat McAfee and he said he already knew the name and you know, and all that. And we, you know, we had to wait a while until that eventually got revealed. So. I, I can understand why EXIF some exfil fans are upset. Because they're like, you know, why did you slow play this stuff? If you already had them? But I think they wanted to do 'em all at once. Rather than battle Hawks in February. And then, okay, we'll do defenders in March. And then when April 16th, let's say, here you go, here you go. Here's the Vipers. You know, so they wanted to do 'em all at once and they were tweaking 'em along the way, as we've seen with the secondary logos we did. We're not even sure for sure. What's official and what isn't at this point. So if they're having that issue now figuring out what's gonna be officially their secondary logo. They were having that for sure, with all their logos. You know, I remember a few months back, Danny Garcia had a box and she was teasing what's in her box. That was the XFL logos for each team. You know that you want, you know, these are the proposed logos. This is what we're working on. These is gonna be the logos. So names and everything else. So. Yeah, I can see why people would be angry. Like, oh my God, you had all the team names and logos in February. And here we are in November. And we, you know, we didn't get 'em to Halloween. But I don't think it was a one size fits all. Although, you know, Anthony Beck got his gear beforehand. I don't think it was one size fits all. I think some teams were way early in the process. Like they already knew now we'll see what they do at DC. Well, they introduced the shield. They have a little bit slight, slightly different logo. It's a secondary logo from 2020. I'm looking for the, that sheet. But, but they're probably still tweaking that. But I can understand why people are aggravated about that. But I think some of these, some of these locations, the Anthony Beck, some of these. Somebody's a lot of these coaches were working on getting into the XFL long before they were ever announced or hired Anthony Beck. Been positioning himself for, for an opportunity to coach in the league since. The league was brought outta bankruptcy by the rock and, and Redbird capital partners and Danny Garcia and all that. So. So, yes, I'm sure. You know, at the, in the early stages. Anthony Beck was considered for maybe the Tampa franchise, because that's kind of his home away from home. Tampa's no longer in the league. And then it was, you know, consideration. Maybe Anthony Beck could be someone who reps the New York guardians because he's former New York jet. Right. And he's got a close association in tri-state area and all that he's currently covers the jets. So, so there were a lot of moving parts during all this, but, and I'm sure Beck's extremely happy to be with St. Louis that's the best brand to be with as far as I'm concerned. So yeah, I can get the, I get the frustration with all this and this process because a lot of people wanted to know this stuff. We knew they would slow play. Some of this stuff. I just, when people hear February, they go, what the hell? So I get it. I get it. I get why people would be upset about that, but I don't think all eight were all set. Even if all eight names were set, they're still working on. Logos colors, all that. I. It is funny. I got, I totally lost. I had my good joke here. It is funny how. I told you the last, my train of thought, I had too many jokes lined up. I had never happens to me anymore. It's okay. I wanna talk about the trademarks in Jamaica. I do wanna talk about that and the, and the copyright just real quick on that, but I don't know, gimme something else. And I'll think of a question I totally lost. I was, I was texting Dorothy in the background and I totally lost my train. That's okay. I probably one on two long there you're probably, you probably can blame me for that. I don't know if you want to get into Vegas or any, any of that, but, you know, I think this whole process with the XFL, how things have been rolled out the coaches. And, you know, the, the team names, the logos, it's certainly something it's certainly where it's left room for critique. So, so, and then it's left the most diehard of the diehard fans. You know, they they're re they, you don't wanna lose them. So, so, and I, you know, I don't think you are, to be honest with you, you know, so, but you know, you might have lost some of the New York guardians people, so. There's that I, I, I, I just. My only critique is I do. And I, and I love Danny in the rock and I think everything is like so perfectly. The rocks pecks, right? Every, you know, we're so perfectly sculpted everything like. You know, Maybe you could have done a little bit more of like, Hey, this is what we're thinking of. Or Hey, these just things like, keep it, like you said, the ESPN thing comes out. It's like, oh no, no, no. Like get rid of that. Get rid of that. Like we have to be. Perfect all the time. And none of these things have rolled out perfectly and it is just. Interesting where we have this league where it's so like we are fan friendly. We are fan focused. We are transparent. We are everything, but yet. None of it has been at all this entire time and I just wish they wouldn't be so like, Uptight about that. It feels like it's a little uptight sometimes. Like we have to wait until this. And I'm OCD is, is anyone else? And I've designed logos and websites and had people help me, but like sometimes. You know, when I was in news, you would work on a news package and you're like, it could be the best package in the world, you know, news package, putting it together, the air. But if you miss your deadline, Doesn't matter, right? Like you gotta hit like some, at some point you gotta just hit export and go like. I don't know. I just wish that they weren't so tied up that sometimes it feels like. Yeah. And even though maybe we didn't like the answer, I appreciated Dwayne Johnson reaching out to that fan and being transparent and candid. You can debate whether or not the answer's good enough for people, you know, the economic reasoning, stadium, all that. But I appreciated that he was transparent and candid. You know, I thought that was cool. You didn't have to rock. They didn't have to do that. He was a disappointed fan. That's a heartbroken that New York guardians, an awesome brand for the league is not returning. So that was cool of him to reaching out like that. So more of that. Yeah. I think you need to do that with your fan base. You need to connect more, so we'll see. We'll see how things go. Moving forward. They got a lot of stuff they need to, you know, they can't. Unless you're fully ready. You can't reveal stuff. You can't come out there and publicly say, you know, we're thinking about assigning quarterbacks. We're unsure. We might do 40 rounds in a draft, but maybe 45. You know, we're thinking about maybe allocating three different drafts, but we're unsure. So you were still working that out. We might have somebody signed, but we might sign him before the draft. If you start doing that, you know that you're giving information, but you're not really given anything of substance, you know, you're just, you, you know, you wanna pres when you're ready. To present something, then you present it. You know, if they had done the February, we'll tell you, battle Hawks are coming back in February. And then we'll tell you March about the defenders. And then you know how angry people would've gotten. Would've said, what the hell? Just gimme the eight names right now. You know, what's going on? You here. What's the hell is it? We're now ready? Yet we didn't, we're not unsure if we're going with Las Vegas. Or if we're going with San Diego, which would've been good and you know, all that. So they can't say that. So they have to be secretive in nature. They can announce the stadiums until they finalize them. And then we still got one left, so they, they, so that's just still way it went. So, you know, people would've liked more information, but. Until everything is finalized. They can't come out with we're planning the Vegas. We don't know where we're playing in Vegas. We have the Vegas Vipers are coming. We don't know where they're playing their games. I totally know, like don't and out they never announced anything unless they're ready. Real quick. And then we're getting to the Vegas, cuz that is the big we've been teasing the whole show for that. It just, I just thought it was funny. It came out yesterday. I was looking on the trademarks and of course, you know, max was like, I already knew they were on there, but you know, the finally all the trademarks were registered right at San Antonio Braas and Arlington renegades. And then max had the added. Excuse me insights that they were all registered in Jamaica and then transferred over. Cuz we've known that for months we've talked and like, you know, it's in some country and oh, Jake Henry's hacking into, you know, the Hungarian trademark, the database or whatever. But I just thought that was fun. Like we, we saw like that is the, a mystery. We. Solved like yesterday, you know, when you're listening to this, like, How the hell did the XFL get away with it? Right. It's like a crime movie. How did they get away with it's like, Damn. It was Jamaica. They had him in Jamaica. I just don't you like that? Like, we haven't answer to something. Yeah. It finally, right. You know, finally something concrete, right. We can hold on. That's that's why, you know, even though. You know, some of the air came out of the balloon with all these announcements. It would've been a lot more fun. If they didn't leak it, if they didn't leak it on their own site. There was when that happened. I think it was about, I got like about 73 messages. Of people telling me it's on the website. They look at the names, these, the names, what see dragons, really what. So I think that took some of the fun out of it, you know, like, and, and all that, you know, like it, when they, they did a great thing at Texas live at Arlington on when, whenever it was July 24th, but. You know, or early April, we already knew. Where the cities were. So what is that? May June, June or three months and changed later. So, I mean their coaches, so it would've been nice if these things were, you know, it is better when things feel like more official and, and, and all that. When, when they're, you know, So I think it took away some of the we're happy the names have arrived, but I think because the way they got leaked out, it took away the oomph and the fun aspect of it. Eh, it is what it is. Yeah, I'm still waiting for, and maybe the draft, but like, you know, the big. Cuz I, I, I wanna have the one big read episode on here where it's like, Hey, we got something like breaking, like. And it's always the, the logo got F the day before. Totally screwed up that launch. Cities, same thing, logos, same like it just. That's all I want is one. And now, I mean, I guess the draft, right? I mean, that'll be the big kind, the big thing, but I just, I I've always wanted that, like here. Oh my God, we got, we know the names and, and all that stuff. You I'm waiting for that. So, We're getting to, and then we're gonna, you know, cuz we'll transition to Allen's interview after this. At the big Vegas stuff. That is the theme of the episode here, 45 minutes into whatever to our interview. We finally got to the theme of the episode, but you know, it's, I think I've got it. The ex AFL's feel of dreams, right? Like, do we need to find a corn field? Somewhere outside of Las Vegas for us to build a stadium here for, for the X. Like what, what are your thoughts on the XFL Vegas situation? This is guy, this is a black mark on the league. Like the way I see it, because I totally. Understood why they drifted away from New York and Tampa and LA. But when you look at it, right, if you're gonna get away from the New York guardians, because you feel that, you know, it's a stadium issue, economic issue. All that understandably so very expensive to run the biggest of big city teams. But if you're going to get away from that, and then one of the cities you choose, you don't have a stadium for yet. I mean, you, you. I mean whole, I know I've heard for the longest time that they've been in talk with Allegion stadium, that's their preference. That's what they've been working on. They're driving a hard bargain. That's that's a difficult one for them. But listen, you chose Las Vegas. Let's talk about this, right? So a lot of. The Orlando's in existence in this version, in the FFL, because there's a. Mic cut out or it's got switched. I think when you moved. Try again. Am I good? N yeah, you're good now. You're good now I'm good now. Okay. So wow. About to get it to something big here. Probably get me in trouble. All right. Okay. So let's talk about it, right. So Las Vegas. Is in this current iteration of the XFL because Jerry Carnell has interest in being in Nevada. Or Orlando. Is in this current iteration of the XFL because of Danny. Garcia's connection to that area. The Braas are the Braas because of Dwayne, the rock Johnson. Now these owners of reserved the right to make these own personal choices. I understand the cache of Las Vegas. For the XFL, it's a sexy city, the gambling, all that, it can be extremely popular. That market has gotten better for sports. It wasn't a hot place before. You know, with, with the nights and now the Raiders and all that, it was a, it was a long time there. You barely even noticed that they had sports teams with all due respect to U N L V and all those other. Teams there, you know, maybe the running rebels way back when. But, you know, Vegas is a mistake by the. XFL if you're guardians and you're not, and you're going to Las Vegas. Fine. That sounds great. But if you don't have a stadium lined up and here we are three months before the season starts. I mean, if they, I mean, Maybe this'll won't will age poorly and they'll end up in Allegiant and they'll have decent. Crowds and they'll do well out there and they'll have tie-ins with gambling and everything else locally. And they'll make it work and it's not the end of the world. If they play at cash from the field, it's not a preference. You want them to look like a professional football league and not look like a minor league. Although, you know, some people will label this as a minor league regardless. It is what it is. But I think it's a bad look on the XLS part. If they end up playing in. You know, baseball park, a minor league park. Because they couldn't get the type of deal they wanted. They couldn't play in the type of stadium that happens to new leagues. For sure. This isn't easy. You had Kevin sea on your show a few months back and he talked about how difficult it was gonna be for stadiums and venues to be done. And then you was looking at, at the timelines saying, you know, that's very difficult, you know, That was the one thing he focused in on. And so, and here we are, they were, they've locked up some really some great stadiums throughout the league. Alamo dome all that. So they've, they've done a great job with that. But the Vegas one is not looking great because this is their handpicked. One of their handpicked cities. They handpicked Las Vegas, they handpicked Orlando. They handpick San Antonio. So you gotta have your stadium set up here. And you can question whether or not that market, all these markets, you can question whether or not that market is gonna embrace. A second pro football league, a different pro football team. It's not a minor league. I know all those Vegas writers wanna call these minor leagues. It's not it's professional football. That's neither here nor there. But yeah, I think, I think, you know, if they settle this and they're able to figure it out, and this isn't a situation where Las Vegas is playing in Texas, or is it traveling team? Or, you know, you know, I, and rod Woodson had a great comment in one of the articles talking about he'll, he don't care where they play. That's a football player's mentality. That's a football coach's mentality. From a business standpoint, aesthetic. A aspect. They need to get that. Squared away. And you know, I haven't been pushing the panic button cause I always figured Jerry Carnell and Redbird capital. They'll make the right deal. And there's a reason why they chose Las Vegas, but the longer this goes on without with them not having a stadium. Their choice. You have to start questioning their choice of going into the Las Vegas market. Cuz if it were me. Throwing away. My New York bias. My own personal preference, I would be in San Diego. You know, or, or market like that that's without a pro football team that I think would be, even though the fleet didn't do great in the AAF that I think would be much more receptive to this. To this league then. Feeling that I'm getting, being in contact with people in the Las Vegas area is that they don't care about this league unless they can interview the rock. So I know New York cared about the league because they had the highest ratings in the league and they had great crowds and they have fans, you know, that are on social media, still crying about the fact that the guardians are not coming back, Las Vegas. You could have the Vipers playing there and people, men not even know they exist. So hopefully they're able to square this away because I think rod, Woodson's a cool coach. I like their, I like their colors, the blood red and the black. I think there's a great potential with the brand. I think it's a cool sounding name for the Vegas Vipers. So all is not lost. It's not the end of the world. If, but it's one, you know, these leagues make mistakes. These new leagues, they make bad choices. They end up relocating teams. They end up, you know, this has been the history of football. So could the Vegas vis end up down on road. It's possible. If they're playing in like the 10,000 year old Cashman field in front of 9,000 fans, we'll see. And just to confirm, and then I have a follow up question. It glitch just slightly at the beginning of your response, or you said you believe Vegas is a mistake. At this point, it's looking like it. For sure. I could be, I could be incorrect in a few months. All of a sudden they pick up steam, they have a hot team and it's a fun product. They're cool looking team and rod, Woodson's a great coach. And maybe over time there's hiccups with these leagues. Like I mentioned earlier in this interview, I remember the original XFL. They originally supposed to be the San Jose demons. And they had a little bit of egg on their face and they had to go play at San Francisco and they ended up playing in a baseball stadium. And it turned out to be the best atmosphere in the league. It turned out the demons were a fun franchise. So sometimes things can look bad on the surface end up being great. Who knows maybe cash would feel is great. I remember the. Omaha, Nighthawks ended up playing in a baseball stadium in the, in the United football league. And they had a cool atmosphere and a lot of fun with the Yaman greens and Jeff Garcia and all that. So. Maybe I could, I could be wrong on this, but right now at this moment, It definitely. When you don't have a stadium set up, it looks like a mistake. And if they don't end up playing it, Allegiant stadium, You gotta question whether or not, you know, you don't want this league to look like a Bush league. There are people already gonna label you as a minor league? So anyhow. It was funny. So just prefacing when we get Alan's interview here, cuz Alan's saying like, Well, you know, they could play a Cashman and, you know, for like a minor league, you know, it's not the biggest deal because, you know, it's kind of, I go. Alan, like you do not know who is owning this league and the egos and the hubris. And. They are not, they don't wanna be looked at as we are the Iowa whatever plan that Cashman field in Vegas. We are the Vegas Vipers. We are playing in Allegion. Like it was just funny cuz he goes, so yeah, like a lot of teams could play there and I go. But they have, you know, I was, I was at Arlington and I interviewed like, This is B D E with this league and it's Danny, and this is her effing show and I totally. Respect that. And like, I want to get more of that cuz I, I, I like that energy involved in this where Fox is like, yeah, we could take it or leave it. Like, it's fine. Like we, yeah, we have this, like it exists. I like that, but it, it is weird to me. That if you're having all this stuff. And then we still release the biggest Vipers, like why? You know, like I would've pivoted before. Now is I guess my question. Yeah, it's too late. It's too. You're too far in the game now to take a, to, to take a detour. And, you know, It it's the, the thing is with like Allegiant is they have no there's no. There's plenty of demand for dates at that particular stadium and they charge up the Wazo. So they ha they have you, they have all the leverage in the world there. You're not gonna get a sweetheart deal from them. You're gonna end up paying an exorbitant amount of money. To rent that venue for fo those five dates, you can make concessions, you can do partnership, you can do all that. Maybe give 'em the championship game. If you want. But to try to like, you know, give an extra date. And so more, more revenue. But yeah, it, it doesn't look good for the league. This happens a lot. Like I said, I think Vegas is, I know. Is a personal choice of Redbird capital. It's a it's, it's a, I understand why they want to go in that market. I get it. You're thinking long term, financially gambling. It's sexy. You know, look at, look at the properties, Redbird involved with the Yankees, the red Sox, the AC Milan, LA their in partnership with LeBron James. This is like, like, like, like top of the line, you know, partnership with the rock. It's movie star it's so Vegas is cache, right? So I get why. That choice was made, but. We reached the point now where I, you know, you have to in business, sometimes you have to take a L. So, and you know, and it's a tough one. You, I understand finances and all that. It's a tough one to, you know, basically. Be paying through the nose. For rent and you'd lose you end up losing money maybe on that. But. You might have to do that for the short term, so you can have long term gains. So that would be my take on it. To me, if they end up playing a Cashman field, I won't I'll understand it and be acceptable of it, but it just kind of shows that maybe. You know, they didn't think this one through the way they should have. And so that's, that's kind of the story there and, you know, and it has nothing to do with the New York guardians aspect of it for me. Because I will fully understood when the XFL ended in 2020, because of COVID that there was a good chance that the guardians wouldn't be back. Right. And so the, the REA it's come to reality. This has to do with choosing the right markets and right cities, and you have to. I, I think for the most part, they're doing a good job, you know, seven out of eight. Pretty cool. But you know, this Vegas thing, like I said, it's the openness, it's a little, it's a black mark on them. If they're unable to get this done. I, you know, the one shining gleam of hope you would think with them, scheduling the draft in Vegas. Is that they ha as that they have confidence in that they're gonna. Be able to, to make a strong impression and do a good job in that market. And they have confidence. They're gonna end up. Having the type of stadium situation. I mean, you, when you start looking into this situation, start thinking about it, you start thinking of all these alternative moves, they can do like purchasing Cashman field, renovating it, but buying real estate around it, you know, turning it into their own thing. I mean, that's, but that's kind of like down the road. And then, you know, there's got three months until they start games. So we'll see what ends up happening. Well, and the fact that, you know, as we record this and I DC did their town hall Seattles next week that we have the San Antonio, we had. The St. Louis one. I can't remember the order of a, but like, Vegas still doesn't have the, and it's so weird too, is like they had the Vegas town hall announced then after hurricane IEM, they moved it. And I, so I'm like, why, what were you guys gonna talk about it? That town hall. Yeah, that I thought there were gonna be cold. The Vegas TVDs the Vegas to B determinants. Because look at it. I mean, everything with them, between their offensive coordinator. You know, there's stadium, you know, everything with them has been to, to be determined. So they're, they're like kinda lasted line with all this stuff. So. Yeah, it's kind of funny. Maybe they end up in first when the smoke clears and they win the XFL championship. When it's all said and done, they have the most exciting team, but right now they've been a little behind on a, quite a few things. Last question. I think we'll do other stuff another time. I think that we've kind of exhausted all this tonight. I know Matt, we were gonna talk about alumni academy quarterback, but I think this was the Valiant, you know, conversation here. Appreciate your time. You talked about Redbird, right? Jerry, you know, wanting Vegas. Brandon. And I, I thought. I thought Brandon was great in kind of our recap of kind of the Axios event a couple weeks ago now was that week and whatever that was. You know, Danny and Jerry talking about the XFL, we've talked a lot about. Redbird invests in things, right? Like the Yankees we are investing in that. AC Milan. We are investing in that, like where they are. Starting this, you know, I mean, I know that the XFL existed, but clearly they, you know, Hey, we're moving stuff, whatever, like, Just about, I just curious your thoughts on that, and then we've texted a little bit, but I think that'll be my last question today of just like. What you, what do you make of that? And some of these decisions was, I think, are hubris around, you know, some of the things that are going on, you know, one hand there's a lot you can be critical of. I'm also impressed by the fact it kind of goes against their nature and it goes against script that they're actually taking a chance on this. You know, I know there's a lot of trepidation involved here because it's gonna cost a lot of money, but Redbird is used to buying into winning entities. You know, the, between the Yankees, the red Sox, Liverpool. AC Milan. These are winning entities. They're partnerships with the NFL. Everyone else in the sporting landscape. That's on TAs Cowboys. So these are top, top, top. Brands. So for them to take a chance. I know that it helps having the rock and Danny Garcia. That's great. But for them to, and, and they're being partnered now with Disney, which is as big as it gets. Right, but for them to take a chance on this concept, which we've seen already through our articles in Las Vegas, And all that. And we'll see, leading into the, the launch of the X FFL season in February, February 18th. We see how many people just kind of like laugh and mock these entities. And think that they're meaningless and fruitless and worthless, and that these players are garbage. And that they shouldn't waste their time. They'd be better off just donating money or burning their money than starting this league. So for Redbird to take this kind of risk, This is a risk because they can have a good league. They can have quality football, which I think they're gonna have, and they can have great coaching, good fan base, and still fail and still go under and still not make bigger enough profit. So I think I give him credit for trying this. Because this is goes against the script for them. This isn't betting on the Cowboys, doing a business deal with the Cowboys. You're guaranteed to make money. Doing a business deal with Liverpool ACE Milan. You're gonna make money. Sorry, you'd have to be really stupid to lose money. So even the commanders make money. Through their noses and look how many dumb things they've done. why. Sure. Amount star, you know, PR wise and everything else. Good thing that our owners trying to get the hell out. That's a blessing. Anyhow, we'll see how that goes. But, but yeah, I give red bird credit, so yeah, while I am criticizing them for the Vegas choice and for not being able to finalize that, hopefully they are able to, I do give them credit for taking a risk on this because. There's a chance when this smoke clears that this fails and that they get egg on their face and they were unable to make a league work. That they're better off just partnering with leagues and teams and not start in their own league. So, so I'm rooting for them to make it work. So we'll see how it goes. But. It's so it's great for the landscape. But, yeah, it's, it's fascinating. The, the, there's a lot of people out there that. Ex fully expect this league to fail. They fully, some people don't expect it to last a full season. They don't expect it. They expect them to lose so much money that Redbird just folds up shop and goes, screw this. We're not doing this anymore. We're not spending a hundred million. Dollars, you know, we're getting outta here. So for Redbird to try this, I give them credit for it. It's it's brave. Yeah, I just want more. Than just Jerry Cardell saying. Well, people like football, we wanted to do football. Like I just. It's the same thing we heard from the ex or the USFL is. You know, I just, that Axios event did not, you know, if this was a year ago, that's fine. Like he just didn't strike me as a lot of confidence. Yeah. I'm not a big fan. I'm not a big fan. To be honest, with a lot of the messaging that I hear from like the USFL or the XFL, a lot of the coaches too. I give the coaches a pass because a lot of the coaches. They do have that mentality of developing. You got a lot of college kids. So they think about I'm gonna develop them into pro football players. I'd rather them use that terminology, teach you these young college kids or these players, how to be great professional football players, rather than we've gotta work hard to make. 'em good enough to go play in the enough NFL, you know, so, you know, I'm not. A big fan of that messaging. And then I'm not a big fan of, well, you need more football that kind of messaging the market. People like football, we've done the research, people like football. Yeah, . People love football. No question about it, but you have to present Yex. If I was like, back in 2020 was kind of defined the odds cuz they, everybody expected it to be a joke and it wasn't. And then everybody expected it to be like, and then people were like, wow, this is kind of, this league is lit. It's so cool. So I mean, and the quality of play, and then we're seeing it right now. Oh, you laugh at people, laugh at the XFL, but you know, you got two dozen players that are in the NFL right now watching PJ Walker, throwing 70 yard touchdowns. Lasers you watching Taylor Heineke lead the Washington commanders and you see the players all over the CFO as all stars, six of them. So even when the CFO screwed up their all star list, they were still six XFL players. Wesley s**t from Montreal made his way on the list. He played in the XF FFL free year dragons. So anyhow, But we see the qual. I have no doubt about the quality of football players out there, but I think the messaging needs to be a little bit better. We want to present the best possible professional football league that we can. So, I mean, try that. And then you, you know, you're not saying that you're trying to be better than the national football league by saying that we're trying to prevent. Present the best possible professional football league. And so, so that's gotta be your messaging rather than we're here just to feed or service them. We're here just to, you know, our guys aren't good enough. You know, our leagues for the guys who aren't good enough. You know, so that that's not, you know, so player 54 is a much better messaging. So yes, I listen to Jerry Cardell Axios event and it's a lot of the tired kind of like, you're not convincing me with that, you know? So, you know, I convinced me with the there's more football than he needs to be out there. You know, so I'll Oliver luck did a tremendous job going out there, selling the XFL, say that much. They need another voice. It can't just be. They got some real smart people in that room, you know, so they need another, they need a football voice with all due respect to Danny Garcia and Dwayne, the rock Johnson. They're not scouting fullbacks. They can't tell me about, you know, you know, a whole bunch of different analytics in terms of football players and football games. So I would be nice if a Russ Brandon stepped forward or, or Mark Ross a little bit more, Doug Whaley got a lot of intelligent football people in there that can kind of like. And the messaging needs to be a little bit different VI man, would've fired everybody for just coming out there and constantly saying we're developmental league. We're a minor league. We're just our guys. Aren't good enough. We're just, we're getting the bums that couldn't make the NFL. We're gonna make 'em non bummish. So basically, so. if there's such a term. So, but yeah, so I, I agree with you Reid, some of this messaging doesn't really. Hit home because you and I know. That what this league can represent and how good it can potentially be. Same thing with you as L and that, you know, this kind of tired messaging, doesn't do the product. Justice. Doesn't do a justice to say we're a minor league of castoff players that are not good enough. And we're gonna try to make sure that they're good enough so they could go play in another league. That's not great messaging. You wanna, you wanna say that you're gonna, you wanna put together an a most as. As fan friendly of a pro football, a pro sports product as possible, that's gonna be innovative. That's gonna be ahead of the curve and that's gonna. Service the over 98% of pro players that don't make the national football league. There's a lot of talent out there. That's the thing. When you get in the weeds with these leagues read, you know, and you start kind connecting with all these players and finding about these players is you see how many dam football players there are out there. It's like, wow. And so now the, I feel bad. We're gonna get to the draft that the XFL is not gonna draft these thousands of players that, you know, they only field in eight teams. I'm all for them expanding their pre-season rosters, by the way, if they wanna expand them or I'm all for it, there's gonna be a lot of players that are unfortunately in the draft pool that don't get drafted. That's unfortunate. There could be some guys who get drafted that get replaced in January. So, but I'm just amazed with how much town there is out there. You need to do more just than the. Talent that's out there because I think there's players at the NFL misses on. How about that. And I do think that there are players that, you know, just didn't get an opportunity for playing time in the NFL that are good enough to play in the NFL. They just don't there's no time or space for them. So rather that than these guys, weren't good enough to be in the NFL. No I tell. And especially it's been such a high the last couple weeks watching, you know, Taylor Heineke and PJ, I know PJ won that game last week. I mean, let's be fair, you know, and it was even the back call on DJ Moore. They came out and they said, well, he wasn't actually in the end, but IJ my messaging. And I so laid in. This episode and no one will make, I don't. God knows who makes this we'll see what happens. So the same thing on Monday, like. I said the same thing Monday, you know, when Brandon and I were talking about the logo, it's like, I'm just, I, and I under, I, I'm not saying this is not the case. It totally could be the case. I am so tired of feeling like you. I Brett Matt Lyons, all the people in the group, Andrew Murray, you know, Jay. An I I'm so tired of feeling like. I care so much more about this as a wedding videographer that lives in Seattle that go, you know, CFO. I, I, I talk with these people. I, I see sense and wonder and, you know, I it's so enjoy conversations we have, and I just gotta accredit the today, go into the great cup and they appreciate. All this stuff. Like I just, I I'm tired of feeling like the loser covering this and that. I care so much more about this. I'm not saying that is the case, but that is how it feels and perception is reality. And like you said, you know, embracing these stories in these narratives of people that care and the players and everything else, like, I'm just so tired of like, we are like the weird, those that care. And they'll like, I'm like, but you, like, I don't have. 15 Million invested. I don't have 15 million invested. I don't have all like. Care about it and make us care and make the fans care. I believe the, the coaches care, I think Hines cares, Beck cares, and I think Woodson cares, but. The no one, none of this executive, anything, any dealings I had with. Anyone for the most part? I don't wanna say blanket all, but I just, I want to see more of that. Like you are a niche fan friendly league, and I think you really need to, as I break my microphone, I think you really need to embrace that. Does that make sense? So am I totally off based. Base. No, you're not. I think you need to like focus on. Yeah, because you're gonna give yourself a heart attack. I hear you read, I think you need to focus on more of the positives, like at least. Leads more. I agree with you though. I'm I feel you. I feel you read, I understand where you're coming from with a lot of this. But I do think like, you know, I, I do think because you're so passionate about it because you care so much, you wanna see it do well. I think sometimes. You might go a little, you need to like focus on the more the Anthony Becks and the coaches and the players that are getting an opportunities and be thankful that this, how crazy is it that the XFL is actually coming back. This thing should have died to summers ago. This should have been dead in the water. I can't believe it's coming back. I know I joked with you guys in. The past that I wonder what the next XFL is gonna look like after the alien invasion. So we'll, but this is crazy that it's coming. We just, you know, I get, you know, they're legitimate gripes, they're legitimate gripes, they're legitimate things. You can critique all that the end of the day. I, you know, I've been a little hesitant. I don't like to burn the playbook. Before I see the plays, some of the plays I've seen so far, you know, there've been some incomplete passes. You know, and so, you know, so they've had to punt or they've punted a little too much. But I wanna see what they, what they do moving forward before I completely. Kill the league. And I am holding him up to what I feel. People will laugh at this as a high standard because the, the XFL that I followed. The two years ago did such a tremendous job. So I'm holding them on. Oh, fair. Unfair holding them to that standard. And so they have to produce, I think they'll do a good job with the football. I think they'll do a good job with the production. And so let's see, you know, but I have to see the plays first. I can't, I'm not going. Give you a bunch of touchdowns and, and, and, and give you bunch of points. Field score yet. So, so that, that's kind of how I feel about it, but I get it. You know, these things were very passionate about this topic and about this subject and about this, you know, about these things and we won't, you know, we're hoping we're, we want them to do a better job of connecting. So we'll see, see how they do proofs can be in the put if they. Deliver some of the stuff they've already delivered, then, you know, Then there's gonna be some failing in the future. I Dorothy, my wife has told me she married me because she enjoys my passion. So at least if, if it gets me exiled from all about football, at least it got me a wife. So I will, you know, thank that. But I, my last comment and I, I dis disagreed Soly with more Mark Perry had the. Article out before the logos and stuff. And it was like, Exel, like, just be happy. It's back, like shut up, quit. Like the league note, like just be happy. And I, I don't agree with that either. So somewhere in between of like me, the screaming maniac and Mark Perry, be like, just shut up and be happy. It's back there is. The middle ground and hopefully, yeah, you gotta find, gotta find, gotta find that middle ground. You gotta be happy, you know, you're. You're your wife likes you, cuz you're crazy. You know, and I likes, I hope she more than likes me loves well, you know, but, but sometimes a crazy can go overboard sometimes crazy. There could be a little too much crazy and you could drive yourself nuts, you know, lose your mom, mind and everything else. So, yeah, so it it's, I, I think there's, it's like everything in life. You know, it's oh, there's, it's not always black and white. It's kind of, it's in the middle there's gray area there. So you gotta kind of meet that there. I appreciate the fact sometimes I do think. That. I felt fans of like, you know, just sometimes. Just go a little too overboard. With their, with their VE and all that, they should be a little bit more happier about because at the end of the day, this is what we want. Right. So we, we want these game staff and these players and all that. So anyhow, but we've, we've talked for long enough for sure. Reid. I, I think this is the Allstar performance tonight. Best one. I don't know how long we've gone. I'm gonna have a really short intro to recorder after the, this my Mitchell, you know, Caring for your family, doing your job, everything else you do coming on here to spend hour plus, you know, hour and a half plus on all this. Like thank you so much. I just, I, I hope people just, you know, respect and appreciate that and you taking the time. Right. And the, the site is LV sports, biz.com. Perfect. All right. I will do that. All right. Well, I'm excited today. Not, you know, the best circumstances here. We're talking about the home of the Vegas Vipers, who we have a Snell here with. Elvie. LV sports, biz.com have the big article coming out about. Looking at other options, you know, other than the lesion field. How are you doing? First of all, sir. Well, things are pretty busy here. It's interesting that the. Announcement about the Vipers just came this week. Because we are being besieged with new teams here in Las Vegas. So it'll be interesting to see how this team. Carves out its snitch in a very, very busy and growing market here in Vegas. That's actually a great point, cuz we've we get that a lot? Like why, why go to Vegas? Like why didn't they go to the San Diego? Or, you know, say, well, they're in St. Louis, but you know, any of the places like the non NFL. What did you make of hearing just at the XL was deciding to go to Vegas. Well, I think our market is the hot market right now. We are the flavor of the month. And. You know, we are a growing market. We're about 2.3 million people. And growing, but I think a lot of sports franchises and owners are romance. By the amount of tourist and visitors who come in and. We're around 40 to 43 million visitors. A year. And besides going to trade shows and, and vacations. They are looking for maybe some sports entertainment. So I think a lot of the teams. Get easily romance. By this big gigantic number of. 43 Million visitors a year. What's interesting about our market is that a lot of the people who attend like our. Our two major league teams, the Raiders and the Vegas golden Knights. The Raiders easily is 40 to 50% tourists in that stadium. And the Vegas golden Knights can. Fluctuate wildly. Sometimes it's only a few hundred fans, but sometimes there's literally thousands of fans. With the opposition. So, you know, I think the XFL coming here. To Las Vegas was. Probably because, you know, we're a hot topic. Number one, number two. They're probably thinking that people will probably, you might want, want to catch a game. You know, if they're here on vacation, the third thing is we are growing market. I, I do have to say the Vipers. You know, will be competing with other teams like the Las Vegas ACEs. We just, there's a new team in the NBA G league. The NBA G league ignite. Is based here in Henderson, which is. Metro Las Vegas. And also, I just did an item about the new, we have a new. Box lacrosse team. That's starting to play in the arena where the Las Vegas ACEs play. At Mandalay bay, they're called the desert dogs. I keep on wanting to call them the devil dogs. I just remember eating devil dogs as a kid, but they're the call? The desert dogs. They start in December in indoor lacrosse league. So, you know, it'll be interesting to see how the Vipers, you know, compete. And, you know, point of the story I wrote this week really was about. Where are they gonna play? They have not even announced a stadium yet, which. You know, the, the season I believe starts the week after the super bowl. So we're talking, whatever it is. February 23rd or whatever the date is. And I think it would be helpful for the Las Vegas market. To know what stadium they're going to use. I've been kind of talking with different people about this the past week and. My, you know, in Allegiant stadium is a huge, huge stadium. It's a 65,000 seat stadium that to dome stadium, obviously it's. Way too big, you know, for an ex XFL team. You know, the, the attendances also kind of varies wildly with the XFL teams. I mean, I'm just gonna do a wild guess and say they might get five to 8,000 people a game, perhaps, maybe, I don't know, depending on. Just the, you know, the particular weekend. And, you know, they did look at a, a pretty high end, minor league baseball park. Called Las Vegas ballpark, which is in a suburb of Summerland. Simin. It's where the triple a aviators play, which is the Oakland athletics affiliate. And it's a beautiful ballpark. They it's it's in fact, the facility was used by the NFL for their pro for their pro skills competitions. So football has been in the ballpark, but the president of the team said, you know, he didn't feel it would be a fit. And he recommended Cashman field Cashman field as the former. Baseball park where the triple a team used to play in downtown. In Las Vegas and it's where the Las Vegas. Lights play of, I believe it's United soccer league and. I do know they do get a, a soccer field in there pretty easily with a lot of room on the side as well. So. And you can probably get about, you know, that packs about 10,000 people maximum. So. That would be a potential, I think. That was, you know, that was Don Logan. Who's the president of the aviators and runs the baseball park for the triple a team. That's why he suggested. The XFL go to Cashman field. And it does kind of make sense, I suppose. U N L V used to play in a stadium, an open air stadium called Sam boy stadium. Which is about 40 to 45,000. It's closed now. So when U L V moved into. The Raiders football stadium. He closed down Sam Boyd. And that's not really an option for the Vipers. So, you know, we'll see, I mean, You know, perhaps at the end of the day, maybe the, they will rent out stadium. It seems. So much bigger than they really need. It's a, you know, it's and it's, it's a high, it's an indoor stadium. And there's a lot of costs that go into. Running a stadium for a football event. U N L V I think spends at least $150,000. To rent that stadium. For each of its games. So. My bet is that they probably would go into Cashman field downtown Las Vegas. Or, you know, perhaps they'll. You know, maybe they'll play in Allegion. And although, like I said, it's, it's hard to believe they would open up that stadium when you just, you don't have, you know, the number of fans to really justify it. Well, that's the interesting thing. So couple lots of things to that. I got a lot of follow-up questions here now. I certainly believe the XFL feels like they'll be dry more than five to 8,000 people. You know, for, you know, they got about 20, I think it was 23 in Seattle. When they've played in 2020, and they were looking at 28,000 in St. Louis. So I don't know, again, realistic or not, but I certainly imagine there feel like they're drawing more than 8,000 people, which is why. Even if you're looking at Cashman field, there would have to be some sort of retrofitting. To, you know, add bleachers or add whatever there. Yeah. I mean, they max out at 10,000, but you know, they could potentially put more. Temporary seating in there perhaps. Las Vegas is a very tricky market. You know, I, you know, I do remember that some of the numbers. You know, being in the 20,000 mark for some of the previous games. The thing about Las Vegas, which is kind of weird. We're we're having so many new teams come online right now. And we are reaching kind of a saturation point. In our market. So. You N L V. Their football team depending. Depending on the opposition. They'll they'll draw. You know, 10, 12, 15,000, you know, there's a lot of freebie tickets that are tossed out there. And. They're obviously looking, you know, the attendance numbers that are announced are usually tickets distributed. It doesn't necessarily mean it's it's, you know, human beings in the building. So. Yeah. I mean, I, I, I really don't know what the X FFL. Thinks would be a realistic number for attendance. You know, I, I, you know, maybe. 10,000. I mean, Cashman might be kind of pushing it at 10,000. You know, they probably would prob they probably might need some. Temporary, you know, seating. Infrastructure at, you know, at that, at that particular venue. It's it's too bad that Sam Boyd stadium is, is offline because you know, that stadium. Open air stadium. 40,000, you know, plenty of seats, you know, plenty of room there, 40,000 people. And it's a much, you know, it's a no frills football stadium. I mean, there's not much going on there. It's in part the Las Vegas market, that's on the fringes of the market. So it's not really, I, I don't know what the XFL plans to do in terms of marketing and promoting and. How it wants to fit into other BI you know, businesses or who they're business partners are. I haven't really, haven't seen much on that. But. Yeah, I, I you'd think you'd think they'd have, you know, their stadium. Issue kind of squared away at this point. You know, the, the, the schedule, you know, like it begins, you know, late February they're they're into their schedule. A couple things. So can you explain to our listeners. Why they cannot play it, Sam boy, because every time we've brought this up since. Earlier this year all well, they just play it Sam boy, because originally the people did think they'd do Allegiant. Maybe tarp off the top, whatever. I mean, that's what they do in Seattle, right? They're not opening the whole, but. Why if they're not doing Legion, why can they not do Sambo? Yeah, I think from what I understand, Under the deal between, you know, U N L V. And the Raiders, which manage Allegion stadium. Sam Sam Boyd was going to be closed. And it's unclear to me what the future of standpoint stadium or. Really the land because it's former federal property. It's in kind of an odd location. I don't know if you've been there. It's kind of near the Las Vegas. Wash kind of on the outskirts of the whole area and. It's it, it was former bureau of land management property. I understand. So I don't know. I mean, I I've been told by the facilities manager. For U N L V, that the stadium is closed and it's, you know, it's gonna be closed under the agreement between U N L V. And the Raiders and the stadium board, we have a. A public. Stadium authority board, which is the public side of the equation in terms of the. Running of Allegiant stadium. Allegiant stadium technically. Is, you know, in writing is technically owned by the stadium authority, but. For all intensive purposes, it looks like it's owned by the Raiders because they've run everything. They have hired a management company to. Oversee the day to day operations of the stadium, but the Raiders run it. And Sam boy is closed under the deal that has U N L V playing at Allegiant stadium. Do you find it odd? That this is not all taken care of. I mean, it's one thing we, they started, they announced the cities back in end of July and they said, Hey, put in your season ticket deposits. And we had seven of eight stadiums, you know, lumen field and the Domen at Louis, all that take taking deposits. It's all always been too be announced, you know, the Vegas stadium. Now we. Have the Vegas Vipers officially announced, you know, big brand reveal this week. Is it surprising that they don't have this finalized and it's November 2nd here? Yeah. I mean, I think that's why people, like, you know, if, if. To me, if you're a fan, you know, part of the experience is the facility. So, you know, I don't know. How you make your. Decision about whether you wanna buy tickets for games or season tickets or what, you know, Whatever, you know, ticket deal you want. Without knowing what the building is, that's gonna host the game. Because, you know, part of the experience. Is the venue. So, you know, The diff the difference between Allegiant stadium? And Cashman field is, you know, you're talking between Alexis and a Pinto, you know, I mean, That's it's a, it's a broad. Broad, you know, . Set of experiences there between the two venues. So. At the end of the day. I mean, I thought they would go into Allegiant. You know, and have kind of a U N L V kind of set up, you know, they, they, you know, the, the upper. Sections the up the upper bowls closed. They limit to the main Concourse. And, you know, like I said, you and all be football games, you know, they say they, they announce these 15,000. You know, crowds, but to me, if you eyeball the crowd, it looks more like eight to 10,000 people. In the building and. You know, I, I guess at the end of the day, they can only, I don't know, you know, again, it depends on how much cash they have. They have on hand. You know, it's not an inexpensive endeavor. To rent out in a, in Allegion stadium. You know, like I said, U N L V. Rents at rents at at least at $150,000 and up per game. So. Obviously that's , that's got a lot more than what Cashman would cost, which is I think, controlled by the city of Las Vegas. So. The XL would have to be. I got some, I got an interesting response from the city. Cause I did inquire about whether it's the XFL team, the Viper would. Plant Cashman. I've not received back. Usually these guys are pretty good at getting back to me. They fact that they did not respond back to me. I kind of interpret that as kind of a yes. That's gonna happen. Cause usually if it's not gonna happen, they're quick. They're quick with the no. Oh no, it's not gonna happen. But these guys have not gone back to me. So. To me when they don't get back to me, I kind of interpret that they're trying to hide something from me. So. Do you, I have a feeling that something might be in the works with Cashman. Do you, for the Allegion, do you think it's just the financials? I mean, is there any other reason why wouldn't be Allegiant? Just so they can't con to an agreement between like, Hey, it's gonna cost this much to run it. Yeah, I don't know. I mean, it, I mean, it's, it's such a big stadium. Like I said, I mean, it's a stadium where that, you know, usually has 60, 60 to 65,000 people. It just would be kind of a different experience. I mean, I mean, it depends on, you know, as a fan, what kind of a experience you look for? I mean, to me, I'd rather go to an event. That is kind of packed full, cuz I think there's just a different energy level, a different vibe. That's kind of part of the experience of going to the game besides. Following the specific players and, and the team. And being in a huge. You know, cavernous venue. Where, you know, you have 50,000, you know, just empty seats, you know, so. You know, I don't, I mean, it's, it's an, I dunno if you've been to. Allegion stadium. It's an impressive indoor facility. I mean, it's, it's just a, it's a, has a lot of. Upper end kind of seating. A lot of sweets, a lot of. Club style seating. Opportunities and. You know, the XFL is kind of building itself as kind of a developmental. Minor league that could be a feeder league to the NFL. So. It just, you know, when you think that if you think in terms of. Minor league experience. You just think of a. Smaller more intimate venue. You know, I, I will tell you that. I don't know if the XFL wants to be thought of a sound. I mean, I'm not saying that that's not. There's not some truth to what I mean, I, they are branding this as, I mean, this is, you know, this is the rock and Danny, I mean, this is their P I here have some big names, obviously, you know, Dwayne Johnson. And you know, and good for them for, you know, hooking up with. You know, like, you know, the Disney group of black platforms and. Broadcasters, which I think is terrific. And it, I think adds some legitimacy. To the league. But, you know, the previous, I think, you know, whatever that Fe you know, the Federation, you know, the association, you know, which was like a, just previous, I mean, mostly, mostly their followers and viewers, or just hardcore football fans. You just wanna watch football fans. I will tell you that, you know, In, I did see the XFL. We actually did a story on when something to consider is that we already have. What I consider minor league football, which is the indoor football league. We actually have. The owner of the Vegas golden Knights spell Foley. Also owns a team here. Called. I think it's the Nighthawks. They play. In an arena in Henderson. And the. Indoor football league has. A partnership with the XFL. They have a formal partnership. In terms of, and they, and they use the term minor league and, you know, in terms of. Having, you know, a relationship where. Teams players can transfer seamlessly. Between indoor football league teams or, you know, to the XFL teams. You know, I, I mean, I, I understand that, you know, the rock is kind of a big name and, and, you know, they have Disney. Behind it. But you know, at the end of the day, these are players who are dreaming to play for the NFL. And that to me just says, you're, you know, it's a AAA feeder kind of operation. That you know, that's, you know, the NFL teams can kind of keep an eye on as well. A couple more. I'll let you go. I appreciate your time. So one of our listeners, max is done a lot of research and like other potential venues. And like when they retrofit the Speedway or can they do all these crazy things, but Gobin field brought up or Goman. Right, right. The Gorman. I mean, that's a really nice facility. It's the, you know, it's kind of the famed high school football stadium. And an impressive facility. You know, it's, it's definitely more modern and, and more impressive than Cashman for sure. So I haven't heard anything about Gorman, but I don't know if Gorman would kind of want to go down that path. I mean, It's in an area. Of this growing suburb of Summerland, which. I don't know if they would be into hosting. You know, X FFL, professional football games versus a Gorman high school game. So, you know, those are kind of issues that would have to be ironed out, but in terms of the venue itself, It's an impressive venue and it's definitely capable of hosting an ex XFL team. I would, I would think in terms of just the, just the, you know, the, the, the characteristics of the stadium itself. Any other potentials between Cashman Gorman. Or allegate right. I mean, it's really, it seems like there's not a lot of options. No. I mean, They could, you know, I mean, if they just need to play a football game, they could potentially open up their checkbook and pay. For Allegiant. I mean, I just, and, and just talking to people, I just did not. Get the sense that yeah, Allegion stadium seemed like a possibility. But it just, when it came down to the actual. Nuts and bolts of the deal. I was just being told by people that it just. The state that allegiance game was just a little, it was just too big for the XFL product. The other idea. Oh, I guess one more thing of that. So for the, the Cashman field, You said if they have to bring an extra bleachers and stuff, is that right? Cause they max out it around 10,000 people. Yeah. Is that size set up that they could do that, that they could bring? I think they could. Cause I just that's based on the layout of, of the soccer field. Because I do, I do notice that. When they, when the Las Vegas lights play there. They, they can fill all the seating, all the existing seating. But at light soccer games, there is a lot, a lot of room. On the, on one of the sidelines. I mean it, I mean, it's basically, they have like the entire section of right field, the center field. Is pretty much empty. So. You know, they, they could potentially. Put in some temporary. Seating there. I mean, probably several thousand seats, I would think. So. There, there is some extra space there and, you know, you would have kind of, it would be, I mean, You've seen bowl games played in baseball parks. I think there's the one in Yankee stadium. The ball, you know, the, the Ray ballpark and, and St. Petersburg has hosted. Some football games. So reg I think Wrigley field has, has, has had games. So. It could be done at one time. Ours, our. You know, it's hard to believe cuz everything is all about amenities in the stadiums and you know, single sport venues. But. You know, we, we we're a country. Of multipurpose stadiums at one time, you know, Well, it certainly wouldn't be uncalled for the, I mean, there, the Arlington team explained that Chatta, which was the former Rangers and they've, I mean, they've heavily retrofitted that like, you look at the CD chart for that stadium. It's like insane, but I mean, it's certainly not out of the realm of them bringing in a modifying to do that. Yeah. I could be. Done. I mean, quite frankly, like I said, Las Vegas is so new. And there's so many new teens that are coming online. You know, the Las Vegas ACEs. Generated a lot of interest when they won their w N B a championship. And like I said, You have literally three new teams just coming in and one swoop. You know, the G league ignite, you know, you have, you have the. The indoor lacrosse team that starts in December and you have the XFL team and quite frankly, I mean just from, from the buzz and what I can kind of see in social media. There's still like very limited interest in the X FFL team here in our own Las Vegas market. Honestly, most of the chatter has been from people outside of Las Vegas. They see more interested in the Vipers and the people here in Las Vegas, honestly. That that, I mean, that just, hasn't been a lot of. Public buzz or, or talk, you know, maybe cuz you know, everyone is just kind of focused on what's in front of their eyes. You know, which is like, you know, the G league ignite, they start. This month, the lacrosse team, which is, and, and, and the lacrosse team is, is owned by some pretty high. Profile names, Josiah. Who's the owner of the Brooklyn net. Nets Steve Nash, who was just fired by the nuts. He's an owner. I think Justin Johnson and also the biggest theme of all Wayne Gretsky. They're all co-owners of this lacrosse team. So. People interested in that team were coming online, but honestly, Reed, I gotta tell you. I mean, I don't know. I, I don't know what, you know, rocking and his friends have in mind in terms of promoting. And hyping this team, but. Honestly, I haven't seen a lot of. Promotional buzz about the Vipers in our market yet. I do know they have. A very high profile coach, you know, hall of Famer. Former Raiders guy. So. You know, the, you know, having like a big name, like what's in, I, I think is a big deal. So, I mean, that's kind of like, you know, that. That will, you know, attract, I'll definitely attract some eyeballs and generate some interest, you know, out of, out of the gate. Last two for me being Vegas. Uniquely situated market with the casinos, hotels, all that stuff. I think the Orlando team they're also hiring like a. Like an experienced director that kind of helped do ticket sales in terms of like, Maybe more travel to four, then kinda all that stuff. I mean, do you see them in Vegas? Working with the casinos and the hotels and travel package. I mean, it, it. Yeah, it could happen. I mean, I will tell you that we have a very active. L V C V a that's our Las Vegas convention and business authority. They're the public tourism agency. And they, they, I mean, they work very hard at keeping an eye on all the dates. And trying to get. Conventions to maybe stay in extra two day or two to maybe take in a sports event. So. There's definitely a lot of interest. I mean, sports tourism is a big deal in our market. You know, let's not forget we have. NASCAR. We just had a NASCAR race. Only a couple weeks ago. In fact, we have two NASCAR races. A year and also. The high ride association is in town list weekend. We have a really big. Big car show SEMAS in town. And the N HRA has had a presence there. So to your point, There is a lot of tourism. Based promotions. I do try to tie in. Sports events. I mean, football is really popular. I mean, you will have people who just. Just have to watch football even after the super bowl. It's people still don't have enough of it. They still have to watch. Football, you know, and. You know, I, I think you could potentially see, especially. Depending on who the players are, who end up on the Las Vegas roster. You know, you might have interesting players who have like look followings in their, in their local regions or areas, and you might have fancy follow the players who might want to come catch games. Last one for me. And this is something that's had battered the round, cuz obviously. The whole exit valves being housed in Arlington. Right. We're flying people out anywhere. Right. That's seems to be, that's kind like their headquarters. Really? Yeah. So they're gonna be flying people into Seattle or Vegas or whatever, to play housing training, everyone down in, in Arlington. You know, if they abandon Vegas. Keep the name and just have that team as, as a traveling team, they play, I mean, you're a sports guy. I mean, any, any, cuz I mean, people are, you know, we get sent all sorts of different theories, but that's kind of, one of the more prevalent ones is yeah, I kind of, I kind of like their idea to kind of like, it could be like a barnstorming team, you know, and. You know, hit, like, you know, hit San Diego. Hit hit a Portland, you know, You can be like the Western United States team, you know, and just maybe play a game in Albuquerque playing game at the pit. Down, you know, down there in Albuquerque. Yeah. I mean, I kind of liked that idea actually. You know, Las Vegas. You know, it's still, I mean, to me, there's just such a jumble of these. Kind of minor leaky kind of products that have come online here in Las Vegas that. It might not be a bad idea just to. Have a team. That's basically the Western United States team. You know, and how many home games are they having? Like about eight, eight home games or what, how many there'll be five, five home. Five away. Well, and tag, I mean, but so you would just place them, like they would just go play. They would just be the away team with all the R established state stadiums. Yeah. I mean, I could, I could see the Vipers. Like just the west coast Vipers, you know, and play in Las Vegas, playing San Diego, playing Portland. You know, even pop maybe, Hey, throw a game into Boise, you know, into, you know, I mean it's, it's, it's the XFL. I mean, it's, it's not the end of the world. If you had to do something a little creative. You know, so, and especially if, you know, The the, the stadium issue is not ideal here. So it might, it might be ideal in a different market. So, well, a, I really appreciate your time today stopping by and that, I'm slowly working my way through my infinity gauntlet of interviewing all the CFO on TSM panel. We have CFO legend, Matt Dunnigan here. How are you doing? I'm good. I'm good. Thanks for having me, right. Yeah, really appreciate it. Just first off, how's everything going for you this week? We're getting ready for the, you know, semi-finals here a CFO, how's everything going on? Well, we just got off conference calls this morning. A couple of them, you know, just teeing up the east and west semis. And talking about everything programming to. Interview requests to storylines and. It's interesting, always on those calls read because. We. Yeah. You get outside noise, you get. A lot of input from. Different folks about what, what should be. On top of the list, what shouldn't at the end of the day, we got a pretty good collection of people that we can draw on and tap into their expertise. And on those phone calls come up with a pretty good game plan for this week, weekends game on Sunday. And. Yeah, tee up to be pretty solid at contest too. So we're, we're all looking forward to it. And. It's that time of year, you know, we're is, do or die. Put up for shut up. Yeah, love it. It's good. So for rounding out the regular season, you know, weird. Weekends a game. So we had Nathan war came back that, you know, kind of mattered just to see kind of how he looked. How did you think Nathan looked? And I was pretty disappointed by the BC lions in general, against the blue bombers. What did you make of their showing? It's hard to take anything outta that other than the fact that. Nathan got through what he needed to get through and take another step to coming back and being a hundred percent. You can mimic everything you want to read in practice and try to simulate game conditions, but it's just not gonna happen. Cuz nobody's trying to take your head off. Nobody's gonna hit you. You're not gonna blow outta your stance with the torque that you wouldn't game. In a game and put the pressure on your. Whatever injury you're coming off of in this case with Nathan. With his, with his foot. So I'll, although we didn't see him. Very mobile. He checked off. A couple of boxes for, for himself and the football team. One taking hits, getting in the live action, going through his progressions. And gaining confidence there and knowing that now. I think he can almost a hundred percent for sure. Say, Hey, I'm fine. I don't have to think about me. I can think about playing a game and executing. And that's a big hurdle to overcome. Cause like I said, you can't mimic those things in practice. You can only do it in game conditions when people are trying to take you out. So I thought it was a big step for the lions. I can't, I don't take much away from those football games. I did see Richie Hall's defense. All over. The BC lions attack. I could see the progressions. I saw it earlier in the season when Nathan was playing, I saw Rigie hall. Take away. Nathan's first couple of reads and then jump people. And his check downs and they, they gotta turnover early in this football season. On it. And you know, it's just to me, experience from a defensive coordinator. Able to understand what's going on. What makes his, this kid tick understanding Jordan's Jordan Maxim's offensive system and how he teaches his quarterbacks to go through progressions. And you understand those, you know, you can connect the dots to defensively. And kind of direct them to a certain spot and then be able to attack that and jump it. And they did that. So I did see Winnipeg do that early. And when Nathan was in there and I thought that was very interesting. I checked it off, was a box in my head going, okay. I'll, I'll be a. Attention that down the road, because they're just showing you a little glimpse of. How they're going to stop the BCLI is if in fact they get by Calgary. It was funny. There was a moment in the game and I tweeted, it ended up getting kind of viral. But when Jake Thomas had tackled Nathan Rourke, you know, Nathan. Went to go like reach for his hand. It was just kind of a funny moment. And I thought, man, this is like, I, I tweeted Jake. Thomas needs to be a national enemy after this, cuz this is like Canada child here. We have throwing him on the ground. I mean, did you laugh at that? I didn't think it was that serious, but people seem to get pretty wild about it. I don't know. I didn't, I didn't think it was. I thought it was like, what are you doing, Nathan? this, guy's not your buddy. And he certainly, and, and he's thinking the same thing. These 60 minutes. You know, it's, I'm not, I'm not doing the any favors. In fact, my job is to make you as uncomfortable as possible. You can lay your ass down there as long as you want to, but I'm not gonna help you. So yeah, you know, I thought it was great. I thought. You know, I thought it was very. Organic, you know, it was amazing. Yeah. It was, it was like, yeah, I love it. You know? And Nathan, like, all right, you know, I guess I was a little outta line there thinking I'd get help, but deep defense DLE. Yeah. And yeah, after time, Sometimes you do, sometimes you don't, but I would never expect that as a quarterback to get some love from the opposition during game. It just kinda spoke to like, you know, the, the naive that is, you know, Nathan bark, like, oh, here, like, come on. I just, it spoke more than that. I thought it was just funny that it was a good, like personality moment there in the middle of football game. Yeah. Yeah. It was a Glen. Into both of their minds, you know, it's like F you and okay. Yeah. I guess that was outta line there. I could help, you know, it's like, Crazy me. Yeah. Living in a different world. But yeah. You know, the kids had a. A euphoric start. Two seasons, you know, coming in the way he did last year. And I think. What? I don't know if you've talked about this before on your shows, but. I think what really helped the quarterback out was not only having Mike Michael Riley in the room last year. But taking all the reps during the regular season, during practice throughout the week, that's huge. Right? Because. Now people are used to your cadence used to your way. About addressing the huddle. You're comfortable with all the guys in the room and they're, and you're not coming in there trying to garnish those reps and meaningful moments throughout the course of the season. People already know, you know who you are, trust who you are. And then it carries over on the football stage. We saw that this year and, and this quick start is. Just acumen all around for the game. And how he was playing. It was phenomenal. Story continues to be, and , and. I think a biggest story going in this weekend's games. Aside from that. And I'm just curious your thoughts before we look forward to the playoffs here. How did the season go for you? Biggest story, you know, Winnipeg still continuing to be dominant. I mean, what were you looking at? Yeah. Well, just the whole that thing. And. You know, they lose Kenny law or they lose. They lost. I wanna say. Who else to lose? Kip Darvan Adams to Ottawa. They lose those two guys and then they, and they get SSON and they get shown. And, and then Ellie goes down. And shell steps up and, and is, and then Demsky comes into his own. I mean, he's, he's been a dynamic player for a long time, but. Just the way that Winnipeg continues to kind of reload. And Zach Claro is dominance. In the Canadian football league, no matter. Who he's playing. And how he was such a important piece to that puzzle. Last regular season game in 2019 in his record, this, to this point with that football team is just unprecedented and. And to go 15 and three is, is credit to them. I think that's the huge. Cuz everybody's taken the best shot at you now. And you're raining champion for two years in a row. And, and so that continues to be a highlight for me. The work story obviously was, was, was. Huge. Watching Chris Jones experiment with things in Edmonton was amazing. I got to cover that team quite a few times this year. Really impressed with some of the young pieces they have in their puzzle. Watching Dave Dickinson go to. Jake Mayer on the road on a short week. And to make that move and to. Be so definitive with it. I think that was a giant. Giant storyline this season. And to watch the way that's played out. And, you know, it'll be a story and watch this off season. That's for sure. Saskatchewan's demise started off four one, and then just sitting in the bed from that point forward for a number of reasons. And I think it was internal, you know, I just think that there was. There's a lot of. There was a lot of seemed like undisciplined. You know, both on and off the football field. And you can't have that certainly in that environment, in that world, in that fishbowl and reg giants, Saskatchewan, you can't have that. And there was just too much of that. That was a storyline for sure. Watch McCloud, Bethel Thompson, kind of coming to his own and lead a football team with. Total confidence that he doesn't have to look over his shoulder, which is huge. The whole. Jeremiah Soly thing in Ottawa, you know, going down how it changed the complexion of that football season and the firing and Lao, the change of guard Montreal with. With Danny Maho should and, and firing Kaari Jones and the defense coordinator. Yeah, so the storylines are just endless and it's just been phenomenal season. Oftentimes as a color commentator. You know, I only get like 12 games a year and Dwayne and Glen doing a magnificent job with all the others. But when I get an opportunity, I just always tell myself. Be prepared and let the game tell the story. Well, this season. This same goat holds true. The games told the story, the teams told the story we just had as commentators. As people on the panel as exa athletes and, and broadcasters. Now we just have to analyze and let the, let these guys tell their stories and, and kind of bring it to fruition. And that's what we were able to do in a tremendously year. And it's just gets more exciting. And those storylines are teed up for. The next three weeks and everything's starting to funnel. You know, and, and intensify, and that's what we're all about this time of year. Well, as a, you know, as an outsider that is kind of joining this and all we were at great cup last year, we did the show with a bunch of media people, and I'll be there again. I'm emailing people right now, figuring that out. It does blow me away this, the quality of talent cuz everyone talks, you know, see game and quality about athlete, but everyone follow, you know, from, from Kate. And you guys on the panel to everyone calling the games to nailer and Farhan and everyone else to me, it just speaks to. Just the exceptional level quality, right on both sides of the football up there, I think is, should never be understated. Yeah, I, you know, and we do it with, you know, I, I think we're comparable to what they, what you see down in the states and the coverage. And we're doing it with, you know, a quarter of the. Of the necessary tools that our fingertips and. And I think that's a Testament to the. Passion devotion and expertise and the people that we do have involved. Overworked underpaid and. And guys, just guys and gals, just getting after it. And, and not only just doing the CFO during the course of our six months, Doing a lot of other assignments as well, which is. Not known by a lot of people and viewers out there that the people behind the scenes are pulled a thousand different ways and doing a lot of the different things and they continue to week to week put on a tremendous product. Just to circle back on Saskatchewan. Then I wanna talk about the matchups this weekend. Like. They have the quote this week, it was like one of the, you know, end of the year, presser Dickinson, like, well, you know, like we lost a game and then we lost another game and then we had the COVID game. Like, it just, it didn't feel like they really had the excuses there except like we just continued to lose and continue to lose. Like why, why did they, as you said, s**t, the bed like so bad, just. To what people thought, Hey, they're gonna host a gray cup to, you know, from the outside, looking in it's crazy. Yeah. You know, I'll go back to discipline. I go back to locker room. He hope as a coach and coach and staff GM that you got the right guys. And I think there was a. I think that I think there were lacking. In, in, in some leadership. Cody is. Interesting individual. I think he's a warrior on the football field. I think is arm limits him at times. Down the field and. And it's frustrating for receivers. And then they get frustrated cuz every time. They're trying to go deep and look for an explosion play. They're having to make a contested catch. And. And I think that, that, and, and, and so. Getting back to Cody and his, his mentality towards the game. The way he plays, I love the way he plays, but I think his on is limited him. And. And, and, and I think he. Less is more when it comes to media for him, he he's just a nightmare. And as she stop, stop already. And, and. I think that is extremely. Evident most times that he's in front of the camera, they suck. It's just. I, I think he heard himself more than he helps himself when he tries to explain himself. And I think less is more. And I think you, as a professional athlete, I don't care if you like me or not. I'm I'm gonna let my. Actions speak louder than my words. And. I think that's probably best said for Cody moving forward, no matter how it shakes out for him. Just go play and if it's good enough, great. If not, then, you know, you move on to the next phase of your life, but. Trying to explain yourself in front of the media. For this, that and the other and push back about. You know whether or not you feel you're being fairly treated or not. It's just like irrelevant. Irrelevant. Where does CF next year? Yeah. Yeah. Know, I think there'd be teams looking for quarterbacks. You know, is Bo going to Saskatchewan, you know, Yeah. Trevor's I think. Entrenched in Montreal. I think, and Dom Davis looked pretty good. You know, last, you know, last weekend, this past weekend. He certainly had. Opportunity to shine in the past. So it can always use something there. Toronto, are they happy with Chad Kelly? Are they happy with my five Bethel Thompson? You know? Next game. For Toronto and their quarterback scenario. Could say a lot. And B T gets 'em into the gray cup. And overcomes whether it's Hamilton or Montreal, it's a big step for him, feather and his cap of. You know, stock squashing, any rumors about maybe Cody. Coming in back to Toronto. Hamilton, I think they're this shape with Schiltz and Evans. Dan seems like he's got his. Off field issues and his mind, right. Moving forward. And when he's on point he's as good as anybody in the league. Jeremiah is she gonna come back in Ottawa? You know, I, I liked what I saw and Terry dates more so than what I saw in Caleb Evans. And last week covering that football game. Tyre looked. Extremely fluid. Had a little Damon Allen ability to. Slide in and out of. Dangerous scenarios. I I Terry Adams, I'm sorry, I just got just, I think I misspoken his last name. But RIE Adams is, is a player that caught my eye. Are they gonna need depth in Ottawa? Would he'd be a fit there don't know they gotta, they got coaching situation. They gotta figure out before they move forward on quarterback. And seen whether or not Jeremiah can be healthy. BC? No. They got VA and broke. Edmonton? No, they got. Taylor, I call him Amarillo, they got Amarillo and they got. Young kid three for it. Four. Yeah. Trade forward, who. To me, I think has shown signs of brilliance and ability to play this game at a high level. He just needs more time. Calgary. They're good. I think Tommy Stevens woke up a lot of people last week. Like who the hell is that guy? You know? And then. I really liked the demeanor and what, what the mayor Jake Mayer brings to the table. So I think he looks good. Winnipeg. They're good. Two Browns backing up, Zach. Good. There. Not a lot of room for Cody right now. So. You know, when you kick it around, you go around the league like that. It's it's gonna be some, it's gonna be interesting to see how it plays out. And I know he said he is got more football in him. Just there's no way he's gonna be able to not really flog his trade at this point. Well, like you said, there, there isn't a cloud of. You know, with the media and everything. And I said, we're, you know, we're new still to covering the CFO. And all I hear is, you know, Wind in or throwing receivers under the bus. It's kind of like. Here in the states, you kinda have the baker Mayfield thing where it's like, always seems like you're kind of talking and people, maybe aren't the biggest fan. And not that they're the same person, but it does just feel like there's a little bit of funk with Cody where it just someone else on to inherit that. I mean, you've seen the last couple years of that now. Yeah. Yeah, Reed were y'all based out of I'm in Seattle. Seattle. Okay. Yeah. Yeah, you know, In today's world where everybody. Has access to. Every information or. Piece of news, they need about a player. You know, it's, you're dissected pretty good from top to bottom and they kind of know what they get coming in. And I, I don't think. Cody's gonna surprise anybody. I think what may surprise them is just how tough. And, and how. Physical football player. He is, you know, he. He, he exemplifies that brings that to the table. No question gives you a level of competitiveness that, that. Will attract some teams, but. I think what you do have to overcome is. His, his ability to make every fill in the field. And challenge the defense vertically. Just for the sake of challenge 'em getting off you, you know, just get off, you know, you can't. You can't trick 'em all the time. You can't double move 'em all the time. You know, you just gotta be able sometimes just plant your fifth step and let it rip which your receiver go get it. And I just don't see him having that ability and. I think there's a lot of times. Teams coordinators. That like to have that. I know I, I would this, I'm not looking for a guy that is lacking in that department. I'm, I'm looking elsewhere. You know, but. I thought it was really difficult for Jason Moss to continue to manage that situation this year and keep everybody happy. Duke Williams going down, duke having some disciplinary problems too. You know, it was not easy. You know, shack Evans was exposed, you know, bring, bring back some explosion for that football team, but it was. Change of baker that really. I think stole the thunder there. And Jamal Morrow and Cody's ability to run the football when things broke down. And good defects. And the defense just got wore out over a period of time, I think. And then they just lost hope. And I don't know whether it was Dicky going to. Cody or setting him down and going. The fine. That kind of broke the. Back to that want to, for that football team, but it seemed like. Calgary rolled over him. Pretty good. The last couple weeks over 500 yards rushing in football was embarrassing. But switching gears, the smash brothers for Calgary, Stan Peters. Those guys are freaking beast and Derick mills could carry than you throw on a Peyton, Logan. It's like, that's gonna be amazing. Can James Butler, can the Butler handle all three of these guys? Can he show me know, can he have the type of production of these three guys are capable of putting together? And you know, this coming weeks games is just it's 10 up, but. Yeah, lot going on SAS, a lot, going on Cody's life and a lot going around the world of, of athletes where everybody can see everything they want to about you. Anytime they want. Speaking of Calgary, you know, they're coming. I, so BC is my team. I call them America CFO team, just cuz I'm in the we're the states here. All right. That's all good. You know, to, to. We did not play great last week, obviously. Right? You said, you know, it's like kind of exhibition games and getting everyone didn't matter a lot. But if I take a lot away from that, you know, guys, you're trying to rest, they're trying, you know, tippy to around, which is often the wrong thing to do, but, but don't take a lot away from that football game. Yeah, but the my point, you know, if we've waited here 10 weeks or whatever for Nathan work to come back, then we get our ass to beat by Calgary at home here at VC place. I will be at the game. I'm very terrified of that. What do you make of the matchup? Well, Brent Mosson dere coordinated for Calgary is underrated. I think he's got a great defense. Got a flying around. Flying back in courts. Is really second to none defensive backs, you know, they can be aggressive cuz they ed the quarterback, this good football team. You know, they led the league in sax was 56 this year. And. People don't know that, but. They're pretty good. Sean lemon at 30 fours had tremendous year. He had five, four bumbles, two fungal recoveries. 14 SS second league. Pretty solid effort and around a lot, any the other side is I think is coming, coming into the zone. So that defense is incredible. I like him offensively. Right now their identity is, is. Bulldozing people and why not? Play action with Lee Henry coming back in the lineup is, is gonna be a dangerous weapon. He established that line pledge, boom, over the top one on one opportunities. Let him go get it. And he's as fast as anybody in the league. So. That's been really scary is getting Detroit mills. And Kaine care leading lead. Leading Russia in the league, 10 touchdowns himself. Tremendous yards per career average. And then Peyton, Logan. Is is, is explosive as they come. He can utilize not only in return game, but as a receiver and coming outta the backfield, he's just. Dynamite player. So. That's a lot to deal with. And then you put in TTAs there. And mark Gillum is a special teams, coach. Who's so seasoned and got those guys ready. It seems like weekend week out. They had a return on 'em two weeks ago and I saw kill him on the sidelines. He was not happy. So I know he'll have his special teams. Dialed in and he'll be a coach. That'll be up for. Some of the vacancies that could be coming around this, this football season. And so this off season, you know, that's the Calgary. Perspective. They got all, everything checked off. BC. Yeah. You know, I think they've got an underrated. Defense. I think that they're gonna have to be able to pressure. Jake. And they're gonna have to do it in different ways. Cause I don't think they just do it just with four. Which is tough. Sometimes they have to be patient. They got a bunch of ball Hawks on the back end. I really like what I, I love their secondary voting for the Allstar just this past week. You know, a couple of those guys were in there for sure. I'm Marcus sales and Peters. Gary Peters. I like those guys. Offensively. Sky's the limit for this football team. Can they protect for, can you get the ball out early? Can they establish, run? They're gonna get burning back, get rhymes. They got just a boatload of receivers that. And they gotta help. I'm not sure if he's healthy, but you've got. Lucky Whitehead coming back. Hatch or Keon Hatcher. I think one of the most underwriting receivers in the league he's long. He's got a great catch radius. And Kato is just, you know, a huge target that I think is already utilized as well. So they've got the weapons they need and burn 'em coming back. That just kind of makes it even ridiculous. It's kinda like. A, just an. Overwhelming plethora of talent. In that huddle, I'd be, I'd be really excited. About stepping out huddle every time and call plays and just going, wow, who the hell are they gonna let me go to ball to this time, you know? And. You just pick 'em they got 'em and teams. I I'm a big believer in Sean White. He he's as good as they are on the league. In fact, he's my top kicker this year. That's over Seth small it's over Renee prepared as, as over Louis Ward. You know, some of the big legs bore speedy. I've got Sean White. And I think he was a little over 92% field goal kicking this year. And I just fantastic football season for him there teams as good as anybody. I think Flint top was as good as anybody in the league with the, his punts and hang time. And so. You know, this football team shapes up into guys make it plays, and it comes down to the. Ever boring conversation about turnovers. And, you know, it's and whoever can create that take advantage and. Typically in games like this. I've been involved in a game now here in Canada for 39 years. And I can tell you that. Typically games like this. Somebody out of nowhere comes. And makes a point and it's like, Whoa, you know, didn't see that coming, but that's where the team aspect comes in. Guy might have been there all season along and the opportunity just hasn't presented itself or boom's put in a situation. And he produces and, and he just loved to see that. And. Typically, those are the teams that end up winning it all. Is people just understanding their role, not, not doing too much, not changing their colors when the s**t hits the fan. And you know, when it gets hot and heavy, you know, you're not trying to do anything different, but other being who you are, cuz that's who you're teammates are captain on, you know, that's who your coach are counting. I put you in those situations for certain reason, Reed is because. They know you can do the job. And then sometimes you're asked to do a little bit more and you're put in a situation where, Hey, ball's coming your way, step up. And the guy's ready for that moment, cuz he's not. Trying to do something different. He's been ready, he's locked in. And that's what being a team made is all about. And. That'll happen. That'll happen. This weekend's games is those guys. Some guys, unsung heroes will step up because they've been given that opportunity, been in that position to put themselves in that position all season long, worked their tails off, made all kinds of sacrifices. Both family on and off the football field to be there. And, and it's great to see those things in those moments pay off for those players. I'm excited. There really will be no excuses for BC if they can't get this going here this weekend, like you said, with this hall of fame receiving class, and we have, they have to work back and everything. I mean, it really is. A Mar do's done a nice, incredible job, right? An incredible job. And top to bottom, he's put people in place and let them do their jobs. And he's executed a game plan. And, and it's really cool to see. People getting excited about football on the west coast. And to see what Seattle and BC did this. Past weekend too, I think was great. You know, I think there was a combination of ticket. By ticket get ticket here. And to me, that is. Exactly way it's supposed to be. Can we all just get along? Can't we just love both leagues. Doesn't have to be one's better than the other. Let's just appreciate. 'em both it's for sure. What we have here, our history level play the difference in the game. And, and the talent that we have here in the talent we have, you know, where you're at, you know, it's, it's, it's a different game and takes different skill sets and. I love 'em both, but now always seems that people wanna choose one or the other. But I really think that Omar Doman has done unbelievable job of. Of getting over that. And then the team obviously producing on the football field has been fantastic and helps. Yeah, but it's been a real good, it's been a real good synergy out there on the west coast. And. Hasn't been lost out here in Toronto, you know? Mecca, you know, it's. It's it's, you know, we, we, we would love to have some of that. You know, some of that passion, some of that support out here for Toronto, it seems like they get lost in the shuffle year, in year up. I don't wanna keep you to on, I really appreciate your time. Just thoughts on the east. You know, we have the kind of mantra Hamilton. I don't know if it's a, it's a symptom of the east just being bad or Hamilton stepping in here, right. When it needed to be. But thoughts on that matchup before I let you go, I appreciate. Yeah. Yeah, you gotta. Eight and 10 team and nine, nine team, you know, and we're like, Oh boy, one's five and six of the last six games and one is five and seven. The last seven games, you know, Montreal is. Was will be rested and they got to rest everybody this past week. Or for the most part, Hamilton rests their entire defensive line. You know, I covered that game against Ottawa. And they arrested Santo Knox defensively. Tim white it's in the big hitters out some of the offensive linemen. So that's been bode well for those older bets, you know, playing a long season, people don't realize, you know, 21 weeks, 18 games and 21 weeks. That's not a lot of, not a lot of games. No's, it's not for reason it speaks to the. Violence and, and the. Get, and the residual effects that you get from week to week and how they add up. It's just, it's not a context. Sports a collision sport and these guys need rest. And so both clubs rested as well as they could. Talking to Orlando Steinhower head coach for the Helen tiger cuts. You know, he asked Jim, he says, yeah, I just wished it was a bi-week force. You know? And cuz that can rest everybody. Because you got sour captain implications about bringing people off rosters and things that setting guys and. All of a sudden you're, you're ballooning your salary cap and spending money that you don't have. And. Becomes very difficult to, to get those guys rest. Probably both gloves are coming in fairly well. Rested. I like what I see with the one, two punch with Hamilton right now at quarterback with Dana Evans and Matthew Shilts. I saw Shilts last week. Throw some footballs with confidence and timing. And that I hadn't seen before. Read. It was like, okay, that ball came out with a lot of confidence here, you know, and, and that only happens when you have confidence and when you're seeing the field and you're throwing a guy open and you, and, and. I saw him play faster and freer last week, which is a great sag for Hamilton. I think Dane is being pushed by Shilts as well right now, which is only good for that football team. I think they're a good one, two punch. Tim white. I, I really like, obviously he's huge offensively. He's one of the best receivers in the league. He's he's got my all star vote. And then you got Godwin, a kid by the name of Anthony Johnson. Anthony jobs and for Buffalo. He's really come right. This kid Godwin from George has really caught my eye. So he starts sprinkling them in with a Stephen Dunbar from Houston, you know, and second year. You've got some weapons financially now for Hamilton. It's like, whoa, then you go, you got west downhill. You know, it's like west Hills is a beast, you know, and we call 'em west downhills cuz he's coming. Down at you. And then you throw in a little St. Sean Thomas Arlington with a little scap back little ability for pop on the edge and even inside the tackles. Is football teams coming together. Defensive backfield is as good as they get mark. Washington's got, 'em going the right spot. Santos is rested. They'll have Dylan went back. They'll have. They'll have in the middle, they help houses back. They'll they're gonna be good defensively Montreal. I'll Montreal's funny. To me, the stand back, you got Walter Fletcher for the run game. That's as good as it gets. Great. One, two punch offensive line. Missed Jameson, but they've been able to fill the center position quite nicely seamlessly. Gina Lewis has been carrying that football team. Jake Winneke he hasn't been able to find the end zone. We should call him touchdown Jake, not anymore, sometimes every now and then touchdown Jake. And , and it's one of those things where. You know, but he's clutch right. Coming over in the middle, making. Contested catches is the lanky guy. The loyal sleep on point, but. These football teams read and they, they. They're bringing everything to the table, the Navy they need to be bringing and the rounding out into form both coming in hot, you know, and so gonna be a great contest. I'm excited. I think it's good. You know, we will see what happens here with Winnipeg and the, and less, and I don't know, you know, if it's all for not here, but I think it'll be exciting. Nonetheless, at least the, some I find, you know, I, we at least still have hope right now I'm watching commanders fan. So I have to like take the little bits of hope. Ike can. So. Yeah, but we're and when, and when this weekend they did, they did, they did. Yeah. We went to my Cowboys. Yeah, we won barely against a backup quarterback after they be Matt, Ryan in Indianapolis. What he get him? Yeah. Hey, where you get 'em, you know, speaking of quarterback, state in touch on Trevor Harris, he's, he's phenomenal in these scenarios, right? He, he can put up some crazy numbers. Trevor Harris can's football games. And if you don't get to 'em, if you don't pressure him who will slice and dice you up and he'll have over 400 yards throwing in a heartbeat, he may go 22 in a row like he did in 2019. In, in one time too, he is through six touchdown passes in a. In a, a finance game. So the guy steps up in big moments, he's capable of doing that. So all the right pieces are in place for a good game out east. Awesome. Well, Matt, I really appreciate your time. Persistence paid off. We got you on and good luck this weekend and everything else agreed. We'll be up in Regina.

Episode 116 - The XFL’s Doomsday Clock

Well, I'm thrilled. I can't remember the last time I had Brandon on XFL News Hub writer, but I always enjoy our chats. Obviously you were in the Arizona when we did the Arizona showcase, but I can't remember the last time you were one-on-one. Brandon Anderson, how are you doing today? Good. How about you? We're good. Well, originally we had scheduled Brandon. We were gonna talk a little bit of Vegas, a little bit of like, you know, whether we do with Legion stadium, whereas the Vegas Vipers playing, then we've had a lot of news come out this week. We have seven of eight town halls scheduled from next week. So we actually have a lot of stuff to talk about. Brandon, just. First off welfare check on you and, and the ex, how are you feeling right now? And then we'll get into the specifics. So I, unlike most people. I am actually feeling pretty confident on the XFL as a whole. When we get down to Las Vegas, which is a team I cover for XFL news hub. I am worried in very many ways, but overall, like, I, I think a lot of. People are I kind of looked at it as we got very spoiled with all of our luck. We got spoiled with Vince MC Mann because he ran the WWE. And I think we. Are coming to a point where we're getting worried because yes, we're what. Three or four months away from kickoff. And we don't have anything. There's a lot to still go through. Before we get to a season. So. Temperature check. I'd say for the league overall, I'm still pretty thrilled. I think it will work out just fine. Vegas kind of is sending some red flags from what I've seen. Yeah, we'll talk about Vegas here, cuz that's obviously the team you cover everything else. I, it was talking Charlie boots. Who's interview is on the show as well here with the alumni academy, you know, we're talking and. You know, the XFL and the showcases and the alumni academy. And we have the IFL partnership. We have all these Scouts. Like I, I think the, the football involved in the XFL might be the best football we've ever seen in the history of spring, you know, alternative football and, you know, longer training camps. Us AFL obviously had good quality, but there were issues with that and roster. Sizes. I just don't know if anyone's gonna see it or know what's happening. That is my fear. I have no fears at all with the, with the football op side of the XFL. Yeah. And, and that's where I kind of fear too. I, I will say a hundred percent. Most people are freaking out that we are not gonna see attendance in games. I guarantee you, we will see more attendance than the USFL at any of the stadiums. Except maybe the first, that first night, the opening night for USFL, obviously there was a huge crowd. I was there. But other than that, After that. I, I don't think we see one issue with XFL there. Maybe a certain. Few stadiums. We see it that we saw in 2020. Vegas. Obviously we are questioning where they're playing. If it's Allegiant. I kind of, if, if they can get everything worked out and we're good to go for season. In Vegas at Allegiant, I've kind of. Kind of changed my tune with it because I've seen a lot with the IFL. And now they're partnering up with them. Their crowd in Vegas was. Insane when I was tuning into their games. And they said a lot of people that they had talked to the crowd or fans or whatnot. Most of 'em didn't live in Vegas. They were there and like, Hey, there's something to do. There's sports there. And I've had that same experience with Vegas. I went for pro wrestling one time. There's nothing to do. And the college. I think. Not final four, but something to that extent, basketball was as a T-Mobile arena and I'm like, oh, stub, stub have $5 tickets. Let me walk in there and watch some games. So there's Vegas is a very busy place. I've been there so many times. I think you were there earlier this year or whatnot. But yeah, the, the, the. What I've heard from people I know in Vegas. That they still have no idea. About. Vegas or in trying to give you an insight. I, I won't say where I work, cuz this was a special thing. I gotta be a treat of, but. I actually got selected at work to be part of a conference with. Someone in ESPN that lives in Vegas. Used to be. I think I can't remember his name off the top of my head, but he used to be with the band Perry. Country band and he works for ESPN. Now he follows the LA Raiders. And during this conference. With my job that cuz we partner with ESPN a lot on stuff or whatnot. And. He was talking about all the Vegas stuff. Not a word about XFL and I'm in the chat like XFL, XFL, talk about XFL, nothing. And clearly we now know, like you're saying with the Axo. Thing. ESPN mentioned nothing of the XFL either. Yeah, and I wanted that is ki. Has become more alarming than me since yesterday when all this came out and I've been talking about it. Yeah. To put the Vegas. Thing to, to kind of get to where I want to hit on this. Seven of eight town halls, right. Next week and the week after Seattle's the eighth. And I think they had Houston is the, is that same week. It seems like a majority of 'em are next week. Vegas still has not been announced to town hall. It feels. Weird thoughts on that, that we, we have all of them out now, even the first round, right? Cuz this is the reschedule of the first time we were gonna have the town halls. I mean, Vegas has never been. No, it was mentioned in the first yeah, Vegas was actually the first one last time. Something. I did just notice actually, before jumping on here, rod Woodson, head coach of Vegas. Is scheduled to announce for. Ravens tonight against the box, cuz he has that contract with the. Ravens announced team through. This season, I'm wondering if that has to do with some of it. I don't know the Ravens schedule. My wife's gonna kill me for this cuz she's a huge Ravens fan. I don't know their schedule next week or the following, but if they're at all on a Monday night or. Potentially like late Sunday night game. After this or the following week. That could play a part into it as well. That's where I'm a little and I, I know, I think Anthony Beck with St. Louis, he does something for the jets. I don't know if it's their announced team. So it seems like his is more kind of loose, cuz he's all over the place talking usually. I mean, we've been quiet for a while now. But I think that that can be a concern with Vegas and. Again, I'm still waiting. I checked right before we went on to see if I got any other emails, but yeah, Vegas is sitting here alone. But what is interesting is last time I noticed Arlington. Was not announced now Arlington is so I don't know what's going on there. It's it's concerning to me, but I will. Pinpoint something interesting is. During that last time Vegas had scheduled their timeframe. It was supposed to be evening. And then. A lot of people were saying it was because of the fact that it leaked out, they had to change the schedule times or whatnot. What it actually found out is the place they had selected was a bar. And just like here in Colorado. In Vegas, past a certain timeframe, you cannot have people under the age of 21 in your bar. So that's then they moved it to a lunch. Period time for the reschedule. I'm wondering if that's their issue. They're also having. Is finding a day, a time. That because you figure people are gonna bring their kids. To these events. So. That, that could be the other issue and that if you're holding events in Las Vegas, that could always be an issue. The town hall thing is interesting to me. I'm fascinated to see how many I know Matt Lyons, you know, are co you know, co-conspirator with us on all this. Was Matt was originally invited to the first town hall. And then when they did the reschedule and I wasn't, and then this time I got the email and he didn't, and so Matt, you know, email like, Hey, I'm working, you know, what's the deal. And they're like, oh yeah, Sorry, whatever, but like, we'll, we'll extend an invite to you, right? Like, Hey, we're doing this randomizer. I can't imagine more than 50 people showing up at these things. Like, I just can't like, I don't, I don't know. I'll be curious. I think Sam, Justin said like, yeah, it's intentional exclusion or whatever, trying to say like, well, we're really gonna cut this again. I just, I don't know how many people are showing up at the Seattle. The, you know, the sea dragons van on, on November 9th. They'll be curious to see. With with the Vegas. Oh, and, and you were correct that the Ravens are Monday night football next week against the saints. Oh, so that is interesting. That's a, that's a big problem there, because you said the saints, are they in Baltimore or. They are playing. At they're playing at new Orleans. Okay. So hypothetically, you could have a Tuesday or Wednesday. After that, but it also. Questions what his schedule's like with. NFL stuff. I don't know if he has to go to their training camps. Or not training camp, but their like training and all that stuff during the week. I have no idea. It just seems a little odd. So Vegas, you know, the Allegiant thing. It's interesting, cuz obviously we dealt with this with XL 2020, where Oliver lot came out and you know, they announced, Hey, we're playing that MetLife, we're playing whatever. And then not all the contracts have been finalized and it gave this stadiums and incentives and they were, were able to charge more for that. Here we have. Allegiant, like everybody knows it's kind of Allegiant or bust in Vegas. If Vegas, isn't able to figure out the Allegiant thing, you know, we've batted around. I've seen I is Vegas, a permanent traveling team. They always play away. They're the away team. Or do we have them play also in Arlington, which is like, it kind of worst case in the scenario gets us a belt. What, what would you make? Where would you rather see Vegas or what them do if they can't figure out the Allegiant thing? It's so funny enough to go back. I was a season ticket holder for the Dallas Renegade. Once Vegas was announced and. Now Arlington, whatever, same place, same city or whatnot. I was a Las Vegas Outlaws fan in 2001. So I know family in Vegas or whatnot, and I'm like, I would rather go for Vegas. It's cheaper to fly there from. Where I live. I would, it would just be my luck. That they would be playing in Arlington. When the renegades are, are. Arlington, whatever their name ends up being. If they're on the road or if they face them maybe two times a season or whatnot, it would be disappointing. Especially, but I will give some little insight. That when they called me for the first event. What was odd about it is I had been selected. Twice. I was selected as a season ticket holder. Pre-sale person and also for the huddle. When I questioned, I was like, so. Does this mean that you guys have it all set up for Vegas? The play in Vegas? All he told me was, yes. It's all good to go. What didn't explain anymore. And he just said yes, cuz I, I questioned him like, well, if you're having a season ticket holder event in Vegas, We don't know the stadium. He's like, yeah, it's not been announced, but it's it. They have a place to play. Okay. I don't know what that meant. I don't know who this guy was. It was a number from Connecticut, but it is what it is. It's an interesting point, but I definitely. Dug a little bit, because I'm like, Why hold a town hall meeting in Vegas, which you're gonna get some of your hometown people there. We knew in 2001, Las Vegas Outlaws were massive. For that city, even despite it was in the middle of nowhere back then at Sam boy, that's a build up now. But it, it remains the question I'm like, That still worries me that we're still. There's still nothing. You could easily make that partnership or announcement for Allegiant. And it has nothing to do with team names. Has nothing to do with these town hall meetings. But if you actually schedule a town hall in Las Vegas, You better be prepared to play there. Cuz you're I think that'll sour the league. Completely the other thing with Vegas, and then we'll hit, we'll get, maybe do the, the rest brand and stuff, and then Axios. I I've heard conflicting. I've talked with Mike Mitchell about it, Mike. Sure. Conflicting, obviously XFL had a couple showcases last weekend, a supplemental one, and then the, like the specialist showcase. I had been told there was mixed messages regarding. Them telling some of the players, Hey, the draft is gonna be, you know, that was we, we found out. I guess this week from Bob stoops scheduled for Vegas, I had always kind of assumed they would just do it like at Texas live, but okay. We're gonna do it in Vegas. Her potentially being pushed back a couple weeks. I don't think it really matters. And I was talking with Mike and Mike said, you know, honestly, a lot of the players are probably targeting the, the higher quality players might not even be available in November anyway. Right. Cuz depending on us, the fellow contracts and the NFL contracts and all that. So might just be beneficial to have it, you know, further back. Anyway, but the idea of anything that was potentially set in stone. Being moved at all right. Is concerning just because we, as fans have, have, have had a lot of frustrations. Thoughts on that. And, and if that. Make to do with anything or any thoughts on the Vegas draft, potentially slipping back a couple weeks. So I'll say Vegas is a prime place and I, I saw your tweet about it. I had already booked. I had booked hotel flight and everything for that week. Lucky enough, it's all canceled can be canceled up till the 13th of November. So I'm not, I'm not too worried about that, but. As far as. Just as of Monday, players were still being told it is being held. That week in November, and to be expected to either have a phone call coming to them or to be in person. Two players that I have talked to that were invited. Personally by people have told me straight up that they have been told to be ready to be on a flight somewhere. But they won't tell me where, which fair. They know where I , they know I have a podcast on YouTube and work for XFL news hub. So they're like, we're not gonna tell you that, but just be aware that we've been told when it is and how it's gonna work. I'm like, okay. So, I don't know. It's good. It's exci I mean, I, I had not. I have, I have. So many times looked at my work schedule for a week and been like, oh my God, if they announced anything this day or, and you know, it never happens. I'm just like, I just waiting to buy these things. Just curious about that. I know Mike was still digging with that and trying to figure it out, but you know, the idea that potentially, okay, we do the draft, then we announce the Vegas. Venue. That seems to kind of make sense timeline wise, like you said, if they have the town hall, that's gonna be question number one. If they have a town hall in Vegas next week is where the hell is team playing. Yeah, exactly. And the other thought process I had too is like, okay, if it is Vegas, For the draft, where are you holding it? Because the, and kind of the other factor of the Vegas too, is November. Fifth F1. Which is gonna be in Vegas next year or whatnot in November, they have their actual big event kickoff event on November 5th. So if anyone is planning the. Town hall to be anywhere close to that. I highly doubt it. Because they've already, from what I've heard from Caesar's palace and some of the surrounding hotels from. My interest in F1 is that this event is expected to draw almost a million people just for the opening kickoff, which is. Crazy to me, but the XFL start promoting on signs that week. Why not but they won't. So it, it doesn't matter. . Yeah, I know. It's it feels even like today on Twitter, I was. CFO, read it, you know, and people weed back and forth. And, you know, he's big runs the, you know, we have XFL red and he runs the CFO one, you know, even he's tweeting like, Hey, you know, really just seems like really quiet on the XFL front. And they really, I mean, is when people out outside of the bubble, that kind of we're in. Cuz it's such an echo chamber and we're just every day. I mean, this is all we'll do. And there's all we do. It is, it is just interesting. And, and I'm wondering. You know, is the four month push. I mean, do you, you set the top, you weren't too concerned about it. I mean, I don't know, I get getting to this Russ brand and slightly just feels like, hopefully they're aware. I don't know. Do, do you feel like the exo fellow self-aware. I don't know. . It's it's a, it's a catch 22 in my opinion, because I almost feel like they know, and they're just screwing with us. They're like, Hey, every time someone posts, oh, more delays, more, you know what? We're kicking it back even more. It seems petty. But it, it literally sounds like that's what they're doing. Because it seems like the more. You go to like you type in hashtag XFL, you go to the latest. And it's all complaining. It gets very silent once that disappears. That Russ Brandon's email goes out yesterday. Oh, we're coming up with announcements. But then I saw right after that everyone was like, oh, Announcement about an announcement. Like that's what you guys have been asking for for the last six months. And here it is. And now we're complaining about that too. I, I feel like they are more. Social media drawn than the last owners. I don't think Vince McMann gave a crap about. Social media, nor did I think Oliver luck did. And some of the people working in there. Now we are talking about social media. Gurus who are getting paid millions of dollars for a tweet. I I speaking of the local marketing and then we'll transition here to the other XFL board article, Greg parks, friend of the show wrote, and I, I sent him a message. I said, you make me want to cry. I was so proud of this article, a really. Greg is, is really levelheaded. Greg hosts, PW torch, and he I've listened to him talk wrestling for years with Wade Keer and he hosts a common show. And every week it's people bird in the world down and Vince McMan or with all this stuff, Greg is the most calm patient. He teaches middle school civics, like. Very calm, easy guy escaping article talking about, I don't, you know, I didn't know if it's hubris or ignorance, but the exile and. You know, just in terms of getting the local marketing out there. I just surprising now that I, I felt like, you know, some of us were, you know, the call, the call and now I just feel like it's collectively, we all are kind of feeling the same way or getting in the same feelings. Yeah. And the other's part to that. I, I read his article and hundred percent agree with that. But. What I'm also thinking is too, like we are sitting back here and I know, like you said, it's a, a small bubble of all of us together or whatnot. I think what they're looking at is they probably looked at the XF or the USFL season and were like, well, it doesn't matter. We're still gonna have more people. Because we still have not gotta confirm. I know van had tweeted out a couple months ago where we were at with a level check of. The season ticket interest and whatnot. Seemed pretty decent across the board. I'm wondering if that's where they're leveling. Their statistics off of like, well, who cares? We've got all these people right here. As long as they don't cancel their pre-sale or, or pre-order or whatever. I'm wondering if that's where they're coming from, where they're like, Hey, we've got enough people that instantly already takes care of the us F L's attendance. And we're not gonna have a drone flying around our stadium where it's annoying on TV. Maybe they will, who knows? . It's just, it's so weird to me that like we're spending. You know, we, we we've had coaches under contract since April. We've had all the coordinators and we have, you know, Robust, you know, rosters of all these, you know, coordinators and defensive and co defensive coordinators, all these kinds of. Things. And then it's like, we're bringing on the social media people last week and it's like, Why I, I just, I, I don't get the, like the 95%, 5% spending here of whatever. Like, I'm not saying you needed to hire 18 people a year ago and do all this stuff, but I mean, they haven't tweeted out the season ticket thing in two months or three, I mean sense. You know, I just, I don't. I I've seen people post on XFL board, you know, like. If you're gonna talk with, if you're gonna tweet out PJ Walker. Taylor, Heinke do some AMAs with 2020 people, especially when you know, they're gonna be back in the league. It's already public knowledge, right? Like, Hey people in 2020, they're gonna get, get Brandon silvers on talking, do some more Q and as with the coaches we only had right. Three. Head coach Q and a, you know, Jim Haslet hasn't done anything for, I mean, it just seems like there's little things that we could be doing along the way here, as opposed to this islands. I, I, I still go back and I I've said it on social media. I've said it on my. YouTube channel or whatnot. I. A as much as people are gonna probably. Hang me for this. I still feel that hurricane. Really ruined everything. The block. Adam promotion. Poor thing. I think they, I think Danny and DJ were ready to go. Sail in the sun. To go make black eye money to tour the world. XFL was gonna work itself out at the end of September. Then all of a sudden that happened and then it's like, I don't know what to do. Let's just wait until, because he's still is. On Dwayne is still on. Black Adam stuff, which are not surprised at this point. Because I've even said, I, I thought he was gonna be on the Manning cast this past Monday night. And instead we got Chicago people which made sense of what they were doing, but. I'm like you have. It's just, it doesn't make much sense. And I. As much as a lot of people have have said, oh, the rock has scrubbed a lot of the stuff from his social media accounts of XFL. I see that to an extent, cuz I dove into that too. I, I. It TA I think it's back to the town hall. You can find stuff back in July. And that's a little concerning, but I'm also like, Russ, Brandon's now sending out an email about. The announcements. I don't know if they switched kind of gears where maybe we are gonna start having Russ, Brandon and the. Lower not lower end, but the people under Danny and Dwayne actually start doing stuff like reluctant. Lucked. And we wait till the season for him to really start hyping up or I don't know. It seems. Bizarre to me, we know. Based on what he said at the beginning of the year, that quarter four. Into the first part of 2023 was completely free schedule. Raises a lot of questions about. WWE because they have been mentioning Dwayne's name left and right. On this sh these shows that I've, I've paid attention to. So I'm like, I highly. And a lot of people are like, oh, that's great for the league. Maybe he can promote him with, with. WWE I'm like WWE is on. NBC and Fox's networks. They are not gonna promote the XFL with USFL. In that partnership, it's just that that's not gonna happen. I and I've, I have have a wager with listener max right now. I thousand percent agree. Believe not agree, max doesn't agree. I have thousand percent believe the rock is headlining wrestling this year against Roman reigns. I think that that is the plan. I think they wanted to do it back in 2020 and co and the pushed. Everything. And then it still was kind of the next year in partial crowds. And I think rock is 50. And I, I think if they don't do it now, it's never gonna happen. And that is the last. Roman raid. If you have not followed wrestling has beat everybody in the history of the world over the last 10 years, John Cena and Randy, he is the last person, their cousins, or it, his nephew, or I don't know, they're all familiar and the whatever. And I've think that that is the plan for rock and Roman and R gonna put 'em over. That is why his schedule's clear. Sorry. And again, what a better time to do it when your daughter. And Danny's daughter just debuted on NXT this past week. So it all makes sense. And I, I, and a lot of, I, I remember people were like, oh no, he can't be in WWE XFL, XFL. I'm like XFL is gonna be nearly halfway. Over or WWE. I think wrestling is in April. Right? Wrestling is usually the first it's like the first weekend of April. It's no, it actually is. It is the first week cuz my son's birthday, he was born on Russman he's because of the two day. Weekend which his name's Brock go figure. I like that. . But his birthday again this year because of the two day weekend. Dates fall on Russel mania again. Which usually never happens, but. We'll almost be halfway, if not, most of the XFL seasons almost already over with. So. But if rocks in, but if rock is in pre and I don't wanna go, we can have another deep dive about this if this happens. But I do think it's worth talking about. If rock WrestleMania hype is the last weekend of January. Through April and that I firmly believe that is why like the rock schedule is clear is cuz he is going to be. Either showing up, filming things, doing whatever that way, like I said happened to be wrong, but it, it can coincide and it can all happen at the same time with the X. I don't think the rock is gonna be, you know, CE. You know, every XFL, gamer, whatever. I mean, I think we needed a temporary, our expectations that way. And like you said to Russ, Brandon. I like that better. We met Russ Brandon tears up. Yes. I think Russ, Brandon is a great face of the league. I think he's got the NFL credibility. I think he is very well spoken. I would have Russ, Brandon do all this stuff. I don't, yes. I, I think Danny's seemed the Axios thing will hit he here, I think seems. A little disconnected, a little bit sometimes of what maybe the public perception is. And, and maybe Russ I is aware or not, but at least feels a little bit more like, Hey guys, like, let's get this ship going right now. Yeah. And that's, that's the other thing too, is. It's would make sense again, the rock. Does this thing he'll promote it. Some, I I'll be, we, we talked about this. I'm glad the 54 man thing is. It's done. I, I, at least for now, with the promotion, cuz that did get annoying, especially up to the town hall and stuff, but that's not there anymore. You don't hear Danny really talking about it anymore. I, I, I will put this. Right now, I still wanna know what was in the box. I, I I've been, I heard a rumor of what was in the box, but I had okay. And I, we are still waiting for what was in the box. Okay. So, Danny. Danny and Jerry Carnell were at this Axios event. That's like an investor town hall. It's called the BFD, you know, the big F and deal, whatever I got up, you know, 6:30 AM I joked? I said, just like the USFL, these alt football leagues hate us west coast. Let let's do stuff at six 30. My. It's extended. My, some of the quotes Danny said, I think Jerry obviously had the quote about competing with the NFL. It was a lot of the same talking points we've had from Danny. But it's different because it's not like April of 20, 22. It's it's now almost November of 2022, where she's talking here. Well, first off, what did, what did you make of, of the append and, and were, were you as concerned as I am. So, yes, I listened. I, I was taking my kids to school, actually. Funny enough. I tried to send my wife to that event because she works for a. BI or a financial. Company that's right down the road from that building. And they have partnered up with this company on numerous times. And I'm like, huh? Interesting. Let me try. She never got a reply back. Go figure. But when I was listening, I, I. Saw the tweet out about it. I was like, oh yeah, it is, it is being broadcast. I forgot about that. So I listened to it, taking my kids to school. And I'm just sitting there like. What is this? Like, it sounded like it was recorded. Like you said, April. There was, and it, what got me. Kind of like turned off too about the person during the interview. I don't know who it was. But it was weird the way he was like questioned. There were sometimes he would talk and it was in like a confrontational. Reply. It was, it just seemed very odd to me about overall. The conversation was weird to talk, like you said about the. Competition of the XFL or N NFL will never be that. I'm like, why are we bringing that up? Aren't we're you guys are partnering with the NFL. Alumni academy and whatnot. So I'm like, huh? Damn pre I did that. Like I also thought he like cut off Jerry a lot, which was just really weird. It felt like come up. But so we have some quotes here, Mark Nelson, over at board. He had a really good article talking like, yeah, I, I like this title though. If you believe Dan GARS Garcia, we should all be excited about the exit. Fell and Greg parks commented said like the word, if there is carrying a lot of the weight of that headline, which I thought was incredibly funny, but they say here first qu is asking, you know, the Exel getting about it. Danny goes for myself. I saw an opportunity to take this football universe and wrap it with layered storytelling. Bring it closer to the audience. Invest in athletes even more, bring more technology and make a property and extend it as if it was live IP. You know, this, bringing the audience closer, a lot of these things, but like, We, we haven't seen any of this layered storytelling. We haven't seen any, I, I don't know when we're seeing this. Well, and that, that was her same message during the Q and a during the town hall. It was the exact same thing. When fans asked this stuff, it was answered with we're creating. A a co-creation. With podcast. And she even said this, or maybe it was Dwayne. One of the two said it, it was with like, Podcast shows all this type of stuff we're gonna have in the next few months. Well, it's October, it's going into November. That it is the next few months. We've had nothing. I know, supposedly some people got reached out that they had to change their name of their. Podcast their YouTube shows because they had the letters XFL in it. I did mine out before someone contacted me. I took that out because I. Don't need that. But yeah, this is not co-creation co-creation would be, Hey, the mark cast is having such and such on. Let's do this and this and this. Hey, here's our property. You can use XFL stuff. Instead of like, no. Don't do that. It's just, it's bizarre. Yeah, I, I have lot, lots of, lots of thoughts about a lot of that stuff. It, it, it does also just seem like. There's just a, a, I don't know. I, I, I am frustrated. I've tried to go about lots of routes for, for months and months and months. Doing what could be like positive things with, you know, trying to talk to people that would be away from anything, team names, team logos, like, let's talk about stuff you guys wanna talk about. Let's talk about like, there's a million things you don't wanna talk about. Let's talk about, we do wanna talk about, and when it's still met with like, you know, Not willingness. It does get a little frustrating. The, the quote here from Jerry. This concerned me as well here, they're asking, you know, the survival league and, you know, spring football vibe, whatever he goes. Is there a legitimate to van for in the marketplace or string football? The initial work we did convinced me there really is interest footballs. One of the greatest exports of our country, you know, people want sport sports and where you wanna be a, a part of it. I'm like, this is a USFL all over again. Like, well, people want, like, people want football, we're gonna give 'em football. Like, it just, it feels like the lowest com denominator of like, why is the NFL successful at the ends, the NFL successful because of the game. And because of that, this CFL. Let's, you know, the CFO isn't not successful right now because of the game. There's a lot of other things to go into like league building and problems than just like, Hey, it's football on the field. Yeah. And that's, that's where it just doesn't make much sense because. Yeah. Being a football fan, you can draw your fans in. We saw that with. Some of the TV ratings with U SFL. We obviously didn't see it with attendance, but that's a different story for another day. I, I, I don't know where the, like, that comment is so weird to me. It's, it's almost like, Hey. We'll build it. They'll come it's it's that saying? And it's like, not necessarily. I, I think your diehard fans that we. All know, have bought season tickets. And stuff like that. And those are gonna be your fans. But other than that, like, I, I had a conversation with my uncle yesterday. That he was like, if it wasn't for you. And everything. I would have no idea the XLS returning he's like I knew about it in 2019. Based off of ESPN ADC and stuff like that, or some of the promotions that were going on. He's like, I follow most of those things on Twitter. Just because of you. And I still am, like, what is going on? So it's it's I don't know. it's confusing. It continually it continually. I, I don't get where you have. We have, and there they're in niche properties like DC, and like, obviously you're gonna get, you know, millions of people are gonna go see black Adam and whatever, but, you know, fundamentally comic cook movie, like, you know, that's a niche thing, right? It's it is this same full philosophy there. We know you, us AFL, you know, Minimal promotion. You can get about a million, million, three to watch a game on a Saturday afternoon. And that's great, but you know, It it's like we're in these product. Products, but we don't wanna deal with the niche, but like I just, I have a feeling that they think there's a much higher ceiling than, I don't know if it exists here for, for what we have at least this season. Well, yeah. And going back to when you. Interviewed Danny and Dwayne at the Arlington event. I mean, she even criticized the USFL for the exact same thing they are doing. With communication. And giving out announcements and stuff like that. So it's just confusing to me that. You criticize these people and we're gonna be a better league than fine. That's cool. But could you do it more than four months or three months in advance? Like. I I just, and, and like you said, with potentially. The draft, maybe if it does get moved back. Man, this league is going to be it. It's going to. The trend on Twitter is gonna be horrible if they delay the draft. Cuz then these people that are saying we're never gonna get a season, we're never, they're gonna come out with their pitch forks. The quote and Greg used this, and this was the quote that Russ branding gave in Arlington and just. Really fascinating. I thought it was incredibly exciting back in, in July when I heard it. And then today, This is the quote. We have plans to be very active in our communities and be very active member of the community. Whether we come in early, we stay late in the off season. We'll be fully embedded in each market. We're in. And I, and I have. Talked about this subject. So many times on YouTube. Because I get that same thing. Fans are telling me the same thing for my YouTube channel. Where's the local promotion. I live in St. Louis. I live in. Orlando. I live in DC, wherever people are following from. And they're like, there's nothing. What are you talking about their promoting it? And, and I remember those quotes because they said. Despite the fact they will be based in Arlington and travel. They are still gonna have a mound of people. In these locations to interact with fans. That clearly is not happening yet. I'll say yet, because. On a dime, I guess it could change, but. Is it too late and I, I don't think it is, but I think in a lot of people's eyes, it is way too late. Yeah. And that, and that's obviously, I mean, that's the question we have today. I mean that you, that, that it's, you know, kind of the very thesis where I, I don't know. I mean, I don't know until, you know, I had concerns about USFL and, you know, they got everything together and, you know, there there's. I, I will say. And, and I deal with this a lot in weddings, cuz we have a lot of like, you know, like wedding planners, right? Like. I, I have a lot of wedding planners that do or don't get hired by couples and couples go. Like I was able to get married. I didn't need a planner. They're like, yeah, like you can, you can have a wedding. It may be, could be way more successful or less successful, depending if you have higher quality vendors since staff in that, like us felt had a season. That doesn't mean that there wasn't. A hundred thousand things they could have done better or worse. I mean, you can still complete a season and not necessarily have the, the other quote I had, we have two more that wanna beg on this the whole time, but. They said the quote was, Hey, you're pulling outta LA. You're pulling out in New York. You don't, you're not in Chicago. You're not in Philly. Like what's going on with the cities. Then the quote is. Quotas. We are very specific. And when we were doing our analysis of where our teams would be, our FL teams are very tied to their communities. We knew we were bringing the fans back to the game. I don't know what Ivy, I don't know what that means. I don't either because, oh, the, the. Exfil is close with their fans. Well, are you. Also because she did speak about being part of the 2001 league too. I'm sorry. It's it's nearly 21 years later or 22 years later by time kickoff starts. Sorry, Danny, if you are judging. Interest based on Orlando rage and the Las Vegas. Outlaws. I don't know what you're talking about now. I could see. San Antonio, maybe they're judging it off of AAF. Perfectly fine. I, I don't think we're gonna have a problem there or in St. Louis, but. We never know. You never know what could happen. I just think that quote is so it it's, it's almost like Danny. Is talking about something. Like she she's being told all this information. I'd be like Vince McMann, like, Hey, yeah, we've got all this going on TV and he's not paying attention to the product. And then, oh, it's good. Don't worry about it. It's happening and not paying attention, not paying attention and nothing's happening. I I know dang well that that's not the case. I would better believe, I would assume that's not the case, but. You're still sitting there claiming that you're gonna, you have all this stuff and you, you don't. You don't have any of it end to be, as that quote said, be happy or we should all be happy. About the league. I'm like, we may be, but we're. Slowly drifting off and. Going, and we'll probably discuss this in a second, but going off of Russ Brandon's email that I. Got through my email yesterday and I was like, oh, what's this. Like XFL. I thought it was to the Las Vegas event and I'm like, Announcements coming this upcoming week. Okay. Well, I've heard that before. We'll see if it really happens. And I think the real thing is. I'll make a point about like names and logos and stuff. We need to watch the XFL shop like a Hawk because once the countdown happens, I think that's when we'll know for certain I don't thinking anything's happening till then. Yeah, I just, and, and I've said this before a couple weeks ago with Mike, like I just. I, I hate feeling like a loser covering this league and like sometimes just the interaction and like, This is such a passionate and, and you know, the people that messaged me and are even way more passionate, like there's such like a robust passion of people that want this to succeed. And I just don't like, feeling like that. There's like, well, I'm the loser, the like, I car too much about this because. God forbid, I wanna talk about, you know, whatever the last quote I had here, cuz Jerry was talking about like, I think we can. Well, I guess we have two kids, Jerry, we're talking about being like the minor league for the NFL, which I don't like, but. Danny says. The concept of the league, what is the Danny's concept? This is my con you know, what is your elevator pitch Whatley. They're gonna see best practices, right? Faster game clock rules that make sense dynamic play plays about, okay. That's all XL 20, 20, you know, we we're just reciting that. Yeah. In addition, we're looking innovations as far as happens, far players. Even get on the field, how are they introduced? How are you experience to that? We'll have game activations while partnerships coming on. So you're not just watching it, you experience it. You're feeling the culture. And you continue with that. We have storytelling that's 365 days a year. So there's an additional element to that because we own the leap. We can control the culture. We get to be very. Very agile. Okay. So when I read this or heard it. I instantly was taken back to 2001. And I'm like, wait a second. What you're gonna find ways of. Introducing players different. What w E style. Because a lot of it, the way she words it, it. Almost sounds gimmicky. It sounds like it's like WWE. Slash XFL 2001. We're gonna have the people run on the field or like the rock. Opening up or Vincent van or whatnot. It almost sounds. That type of gimmicky and I'm like, wait a second. I know you were part or claimed she was part of the league in 2001. I don't know. I still don't understand that because she's never clarified that. Of what she was part of. I know she said it numerous times. I think she said it to you. In Arlington. She said it at the town hall. Think she said at this event too. And I'm like, I don't remember them being part of this league. Unless it was with Dwayne and he was the WW superstar, but I'm like, I don't remember them having any role in that, but I am a little concerned with that comment. Because it just sounds gimmicky with the. 365. We're gonna have these players. What are they gonna do film a reality TV show of them dating people during the summer. Or when off time, because that's what you start thinking about. Reality TV. Is you go to all these, like, Terrible reality, TV, Jersey shore. Like. I, it almost sounds like with the USFL was gonna be doing with the. Their show, they did that show was all right. It wasn't the best. It was too short in my opinion, weekly, but I'm like, What do you do during the off season? Are these people contracted throughout the entire year where you follow them? Are they. Movie stars. It, it sounds. Too gimmicky to me. And I, I know we kind of heard that before. But it was more of like, we're gonna give this great content when you think of that, you're thinking. NFL films. You're thinking. Hard knocks, things like that. You're not thinking like we're gonna be with these players 365 for what? Are they gonna want that? I, I don't, I, I think United by football. Also proved that I don't know what market there is or audience there is for like, Additional additional again, you're gonna get the hardcore, you're gonna get the people that are, you know, Twitter. I, I don't, I don't know what United by football's rating were. I know that that the one week I tried to watch it. The episode, it was like the episode from the week before had been uploaded twice or the one, it wasn't like, it wasn't the full episode. Like it was, it was only 15 minutes of the 45 minute thing. And I'm like, This I, the fact that this has not been changed and like, cuz it was like three days later. Tells me that not one person that's trying to watch this and like reached out, been like, Hey, did you guys know that? Like, I just don't know this. I would just, I would do anything for just a tweet. Like, Hey guys, you know, just reminder, pick up your season tickets. Like, it just feels like Andrew Murray was on here. If feels like there paralyzed with. Okay. It's all gotta be perfect. And we can't deal with blackout and we have this and we've Gott on in this day. And then, you know, the Zula that, that announcement's coming this day. So we have to separate and I, I commented on Greg Park's article last night. I said, football is the ultimate team sport. The, the marking of this league, can I be tied to one? Individual schedule exactly. Yep, exactly. Because if you're tying it to Dwayne or even Dan's schedule. We're we're never gonna get anywhere. And if he does show up in WWE come survivor series next month. We're gonna start hyping the rock up for WWE. We're not gonna be hyping up XFL in that. It just, I, I. I wish, like I said earlier, I wish they would just. Drop. I, I understand the celebrity status of both of them. But just let Russ Brandon let these team coaches. Because the coaches themselves. Have enough celebrity slash. Background or name value? Should I say. That we all know them. Like I, I talking to my uncle yesterday, he knew all the XFL coaches from other areas. Prior to that. I'm like, these are household names. Let them run the show. What Anthony Beck run the XFL. Because, you know, for a fact when we were in Arizona and then after that Anthony Beck was. Amazing hyping up and it's almost like someone told him to calm down. Which sucks. Cause I like, I, I loved his. Like energy and maybe it, it, it maybe it's that, that whole thing we knew when we were at the showcase of them talking about how they had to be tight lipped. I wanna just talk, I just wanna, and maybe that's what it is still is. They wanted just promote the battle Hockeys they wanna promote these teams, but they can't. You rather than outta time, the last quote I had here and that we'll do the rust band and stuff. We get outta here. I appreciate this has been, yes, no problem. They're talking about, talking about, you know, competing with the NFL and all that Cardinal you know this from Jerry. Is there a legitimate need in the marketplace for this? There's no legitimate need in the marketplace to compete with the NFL. The NFL is the ultimate, you know, Dean. However, there's a need for developmental organization for player development. you goes when of the things I learned, sir, faith three, play players. I NFL team. I'm like, I'm sure he so tired of hearing the rock. Talk about this. It's like Dwayne, we got it. You were a player 54, but he said, So you asked yourself, is there value proposition? We actually put, we could actually put an NFL quality product on the field, but make it more entertaining. That is a tremendous, like, Proclamation to take an NFL quality product. I think I said, unless he's talking like Thursday night football, you know, Broncos, Colts, like I think most people would say the NFL entertainment value is pretty high. Yeah. I, I mean, I've watched the NFL since I can remember as a kid and I'm like, That doesn't even make sense to me. Because, okay. We can get quality NFL played. That's perfectly fine. I, I hope any league, including the USFL has that. But to sit there and say that you're gonna be at a higher entertainment level. Again, it still sounds gimmicky. To like the 2001 season. Which is kind of scary, cuz I, I, as a 13, 14 year old kid, that was the greatest thing on. Show on earth, especially being a wrestling fan. Nowadays, I look back and I've watched those games. And I cringe. I cringe even letting my kids around on tell the TV when they're showing half the stuff they do, because I'm like, oh, this is, this is terrible, but I was allowed to watch this. This is. So I, I get it, but I, I think that's a weird statement and it almost feels like he is like, Really out of touch. Or has been sold on something that like, Is not there. I, I have had conversations with people that have said that. Certain people that I'm not saying Jared Carnell was part of that, but certain people that might have unrealistic expectations, like what the ceiling is of this, of this endeavor. Right. You know, like, you know, I maybe like when I started this podcast, I'm like, I, man, I'm gonna get like you, all these folks subscribers have, like, you kind of realize there's a base level of people, you know, like you kind of gotta know your audience. Last thing I wanna talk about today, and this was, I wanted to start with this. This was, this is the most fascinating thing, but obviously we gotta go kind of chronologically here. Listener max thought this was fake. When I posted about this XFL email that came out, he goes that, that he's like, can I get that? Can you forward that to me? Like, I think that is a, that is a scam. XFL from XFL. Thank you for your ongoing support of the XFL. AEL I read over the past year, I have watched the EXIF NFL go from a vision to reality. As we built a roadmap for the league and teams and determined how we want to play and present the game to our fans. The future is now, and the Exels paving the way forward for the game and how you are. Fans looks, experience it over the next few weeks. Over the, I can't even talk over the next few weeks. You will see an UNPRI unprecedented series of exciting announcements. As we close in on kickoff in February 20, 20, 23, as a loyal fan, you'll have a front row seat to its beginning and the glimpse into the future of our league. Our passion for the game and our fans is real. We're glad you're on board. Thank you for your ongoing support of the XL. I look forward to seeing you in the stance best. Rest Brandon Exel president. So I'll tell you the email went to my spam folder. I have it set up where I get any XFL emails is coming right. Inbox. I don't know what they sent this from. It did not go to my inbox. It went to the spam. And the only reason I found it is because. Every couple hours, I would type XFL in my search bar in Google. Gmail to see if the XFL Las Vegas stuff popped in. Cuz they've, they're weird about that. And I just was like, what XFL? And then I looked at it and I, I, I agree with max. It was the weirdest thing I've ever read. And then I was like, Is this a spit? Did someone like. Spam my inbox from like my YouTube channel, because this looks weird. And then I. I was like, let me click the links. Stupid me. I should have never clicked links in a. Email, it went to spam, but did the same thing did the same, went to, I was like, maybe the shop is back open. No, it's still coming soon. Like, yeah, this is legit. And then I looked and. From what I heard from other fans. A lot of people didn't even get that. And that, and I, it's funny because I, this is how outta touch XFL is with their communication. I have five different inboxes signed up to the huddle. To different things, because I was getting some, somewhere, getting stuff other where. Now it is a hit or miss. I have the, the one. Email address. I com I committed to just XFL. I'm getting nothing towards, not even this email. So I'm like, what is this? So I thought it was fake too, and it it's a weird announcement. It's weird. All the, the announcements coming up and that's fine. Please let us know. So we're not sitting here, but you better. Deliver now, it just, it was so weird. I, I would've thought they would've posted it on the website just where they kind posted stuff on there. And it was just so weird. It really felt like, and I think it was Andrew Murray and our group chat was like, this has basically like, Hey XO, F's Twitter, like shut the F up. Like, we're really tired of. Like hearing, like we got it coming. It just felt weird. I mean, Why didn't this come before the town, Hall's back with the hurricane stuff. Like why, if we were gonna be doing all this stuff back then, like, Why did this come? I totally did the same thing you did. I, I clicked all the links and made sure. The thing to me, and it still feels like. We are like, this is what we are presenting to you. And that is fine if you are starting the rock football league, but it's the same with the USFL when you buy existing property. You have fan bases, attached and person, you know, all these things attached, like. I did the episode months ago, like, what do you want from the ex extra fellow? Because no one from the XFL, like, it, it, it's just constantly like here, like we wanna give you and it's like, what do I want? Like I made the relationship, like, ask me when I want. Can you please, can someone ask me what I want? And not just, this is what we have. Decided that we are gonna present to you. Exactly. And. That's where it's just, it it's bizarre. And. To add onto your point about this email. The XFL just created a PR department. On Twitter that has made some announcements. Where is this? Why is this not posted? Even on there? That's why it, like max said, it seemed like it was fake. And who really knows if did someone actually send something out? They shouldn't have, cuz we know that's happened before with the league. But I, I don't know. I, it just seems weird to me. And I do wonder though, with the delay in logos and team names, Is, are they taking the fans' feedback on Twitter? That all three of those team names were trash to an extent I, I. I I'm fine with all of them at this point. I've slept on it way too long now. So I'm like, I'm fine. But I wonder if they took that in to some consideration or like, Let's go back to the drawing board. People didn't like this and that. That's why they leaked it. Let's see where the temperature is for. People and we know that they'll find it. They know, they know us. I know that I have, I mean, I, I think now just cuz. So when the XFL, when that, because it's yeah, XFL underscore PR when they tweeted the, like the kicker names and like the people, they were gonna be at the showcase this weekend. Before that I wasn't convinced that that wasn't the fake account, like until, until they like the official exit Alberta, because. You would think like it would be verified. USFL when they launched, like their stuff was verified. Us F L coms was verified. Like I'm, I'm now that they've had the other stuff come out and whatever, but I really wasn't convinced that that wasn't fake for long, for a couple weeks there. If I'm not MIS mistake, when they first pull, there were something on the. Website, they posted like one of the announcements that on the bottom. I think it did say like follow us on like PR. I think it was on the website. I could be wrong about that. It may actually be thinking about the USFL, but I, I swear, I had saw some correlation on like, oh, okay. That's legit. So, but yeah, you're right. Why would you not. Have set up it's Dwayne, you can't have him contact someone at Twitter and be like, Hey, can you verify this account? Because we're gonna need this. And. Whatnot, but I, I, I have no idea. I think we have, I didn't want to complain the whole time, but I do always feel cathartic coming on here, cuz I do think we live and I think fans and you know, we talk online and the fans, but I do think like, It it very cathartic to have some of this out. You know, I was, it was like the therapy session we had with Mike a couple weeks ago. Anything else from you before I let you go? I think this was a standup performance. I appreciate it. Oh, no problem. Thank you. And I, yeah, I, I agree. I think we, as the. Being fans and being in this media world is just a completely different thing. And I. Honestly, would've never. Eight months ago, figured I'd be in this. I'd be more a fan, but I, I can see where it's, it's frustrating to all of us and. I hope that when they do drop the information and we get everything we want, I hope we're still not. To all of the XFL fans out there. Let's not like then, well, why, why is this this way? Why is this this way? Let's just get to the season. Let's play some football. Hopefully . The. What really did and kind of put the, all this in my head this week about, you know, cuz I'm like, okay, what's the theme of the episode? Whether are we doing. It. And Greg parks' article when he said. Gain the rock have now owned XFL 20, 23, you know, whatever 3.0. Longer than Vince McMan. Like their runway is longer than vis McMan had back in, you know, 20 or 2018 going into 20 I'm like. That is astounding. Mm-hmm it's astounding. And you don't think about that. No you and you don't because you're sitting there like, oh, Be and, and maybe it's pandemic, whatever, cuz we all know time just seems like it's. Flying by, I, I still, some days I'm like, wait, it's going into 20, 23. Wait, what? But yeah, when I, I think it was. When they the anniversary or when they bought it and someone said some I'm looking at that, like, wait, what? And then of course we all know we had the CFO. CFL delay talks or whatnot, but. I, yeah, this is. It's mind blowing to me. It's been this long and I'm like, please just get the season going so we can. We can get out of this time, period, cuz it's, it's just dreading. Yeah, this has been a dark time. I think the CFO, the CFO talks, that was kind of the peak of, of everything that we had had so far. Now we are definitely down in the rollercoaster and hoping that this, but like, Last comment for me. If, if everything comes to pass, you know, our, our savior Russ, Brandon here, who I do love if we start getting stuff next week, I mean, they gotta have something every week. I mean, this is like, we there's, I, in the description for this podcast, it's like, you know, low, you know, logos names. Stadium playoff schedule TV schedule. Did it, I mean, It's going to be exciting, but I would've liked to be able to have that over 12 months, but I guess we'll do it in two so well, and that's, that was just my thing with, we were all excited after that town hall in Arlington and the announcement the next day. And it, it really seemed. Like we were in for a few months of like just nonstop stuff. And then it's like, And, and we're heading into November and this is where we're still at. So, I don't know. yeah. Brandon, thank you for your time. Check out Brandon's YouTube channel comeback, period. I appreciate you coming on and sharing your thoughts and it's good to Back here again. Roy S. Johnson. How are you doing? I'm doing great. How about yourself? We're good. I'm excited. You've been outta town. You published this, you know, interesting article, lots of facts and figures on a.com talking about. You know, us FFLs effect in Birmingham season one and the cost and all that stuff. I guess just first off, you know, we had you for the kickoff now, we're, you know, we we've seen the whole season. Worth it. What did you, what did you make of the hub season one? So, let me give you a little background. On me to, to give you and. Your viewers and listeners a sense of, of where I came from and producing this kinds of story. Back in the late nineties, I was a, a contributor to fortune magazine, looking at a lot of things, but including sports business and embarked up upon a project at try to find out what the economic impact of Michael. Jordan was on, you know, the, on the nation. And we did a, a, a real nerdish breakdown. Of all of the areas from attendance to television ratings. To, to the burgeoning. Sports video industry. Sneakers, of course with Nike brought in a couple of economists. And came up with this, this formula. That attributed him with having a $4 billion economic impact. On this nation. So I drew up on that experience. To try to answer this question. About whether they made a profit and, and, you know, Things like this don't make a profit. Per se that is, you know, if you understand. How cities work. And how events like this were work. It's not as if. They, they are looking to make an immediate profit. It's not like a business where you're gonna use, spend this much. You get some sales and you make a profit. It works that to that degree. A little bit, but not overall. You invest to grow your sales taxes to grow lodging taxes in all of that. So it's not a simple formula. So what I sought to do here. Was look at the, the, the, the, what happened with spending. During the 13, almost three months. That the USFL was here from moments they checked in to the moment they left, which is right before the world games. Looked at spending looked at how it impacted taxes. During that during the first. During that three months that they were here. And of course not attributing all of any growth. Or anything that was less to the USFL. But coming up with a, a formula that would attribute some of it to the, to the us F L. Effect. So that's my background. I'm a bit of a nerd. Decided to, to ask the city. The county for its. Lodging in sales taxes. During the March, April, may, and June. When the us F L was here, I asked for spending data from Fox in terms of how much they spent, who they spent it with. And I must all that together in a pot and, and came up with this story. That essentially says yes, it absolutely. Was worth it, worth it for those four months. And worth it in the sense that it showed. People outside of Birmingham. A part things about this city that a lot of people just didn't know, they're the intangible. Effect of 80. Commercial breaks during. Broadcast the intangible effect of seeing. Football in a 45,000 state. Stadium a new stadium that might make the NFL say, Hey, maybe we can host a preseason game. There bring, bring the saints and the Falcons here for a preseason game. So. It showed the world. Parts of Birmingham that maybe the world was, had not previously seen. And from an economic standpoint, Absolutely do believe that it was worth doing the, the $3 million that the city. And county invested were, were a pitance compared to, I think what ultimately. Reign down from both Fox. Coaches players spending that was done. To local vendors to local restaurants. And then as I mentioned, the it boost in sales and logic taxes was clearly tangible. Well, and this is good. This is interesting because. Obviously USFL. Now they've said publicly, you know, they want to expand and do more hubs, right. Because, you know, they're. There there's negative effects, having all the cities in one team and the home field advantage and fans, all that kind of stuff. But you know, it, them looking at, you know, new Orleans or Detroit or wherever, they're kind of look, I. Knowing that they've had now how the positive business model, at least the first go round, because you know, I've heard both sides. I heard Oprah Iham gave him a sweetheart deal. They could have never found this anywhere else. But now here, you're saying that. The, the positives outweighed what the city had to pay to have 'em come in. Yeah. I don't know what a sweetheart deal means. I mean, the, the, the, I don't, you know, when, when somebody says that I'm like, well, what do, what do you mean. Articulate that. So the, the convention and visitors bureau. Subsidize the cost to 2 million, basically the USFL got to use the stadium. For free the stadium itself, but they paid for. All of the square footage for locker rooms for training rooms. For all, there's a lot of space, convention space they use, they paid for almost 30,000, 30, 9,000 in a hotel. Rooms night at $150. A night, they paid vendors from caterers to attorneys to, you know, medical. Doctors to, to. Assist all the, all the teams. So I'm trying to figure out where the sweetheart. Where the sweetheart part of it is, I mean, yes, they, they played, they didn't pay rent for the games at the, at protective stadium, but certainly paid for a lot of other things. It was no, it just, what I mean was it was conveyed to me from others. I've talked with that, like, Fox was all in on this because of everything they got and it, they. People did not know. And we still don't know cuz you know, hubs haven't been announced for, you know, as I'm watch it be recorded tomorrow. But you know, I, they didn't know if they would be able to replicate this in another place just because there was a confluence of so many things with the stadium and the city and everyone wanting to do that. That was more where it meant was like, Hey, could. They do this in three other cities. I don't know. Right, right. Well, I mean, look there, there was certainly a, a convergence of. Opportunity with the hotels being right across the street. From the stadium and being a brand new stadium, having the opportunity to, to play in it. I know that the head of Fox was watching construction on. Sort of the overhead cam. During construction. So, you know, it was an opportunity to drive the shiny new car and they took advantage of it. As someone that, you know, obviously lives there. We were there for the first weekend, you know, a lot was made. Okay. The Birmingham games, they're getting fans, the other games. I, they, you know, if we could go back, I think you and I both thought higher fans for the non Birmingham games, but what did you make of all that? And just the overall. Like experience of having the hub there and, and the, the non Birmingham ness of the teams. Non Birmingham ness. Let me. I mean, clearly Birmingham, the Birmingham. St. Drew a significant crowd for every game, which. To a degree was, was surprising. I mean, there's a lot of equity in that name. Here in Birmingham and fans who remembered. This stallions from the previous USFL incarnation. Came out and generations who weren't here. A lot of young people, a lot of kids. So there was a lot of fervor around. The stallions and almost zero. Around the other teams, knowing that. Fans in the seats was not part of the economic formula. For this, for this model. I didn't put too much stake into it, you know, that they, they that's probably what they expected. I mean, it would, it have made a difference if they had. 3000 People in a 45. Thousand seat stadium or a thousand probably would . I mean, from a, from a visual standpoint, it would've made. That much difference. So the, the, what made this model unique was that it was not dependent. At least it's what Fox said. On revenue derived from ticket sales, which is unique in sports. I mean, most. Teams and entities require. Ticket sales to be a significant part of their revenue model. They were basing theirs on, on television ratings and being able to sell those ratings to. To advertisers and having programming out there in the spring. And what is the most popular sport in America? At a time when no, when, you know, they, they worked, they didn't have a lot of competition. So knowing that, that. That ticket revenue sales was not a significant. Factor for Fox. I didn't pay too much attention to it. And, and again, what would've made a difference if there were 2,500 to 3000 people, as opposed to a thousand or, or 500 or 50, Which were maybe been for sun, get some games. But, but if the. If Fox is pitched to. Birmingham was, Hey, we're gonna have. 20,000 People at every game. Because we're using this for free, but you like, you have all those restaurants, like you sell all the restaurants there and you're paying for parking and we're paying for all this stuff. Like. Then the games where there was only 500 people there. They're not getting, I mean, I, I just curious what those discussions were. Yeah. They, I don't think anybody promised 20,000. Per game, certainly the. Birmingham Jefferson civic center. Which owns an operates the stadium. Received parking. Revenue and concession. Revenue. So clearly there wasn't a lot. There, but there were, you know, you kept, everybody was kind of making predictions and projections. Now, at least they know. And I did have in the story, how much was actually. Made at least with the B JCC reported. To us in terms of what was made. From concessions and parking. And they also made a significant amount though from rental. Of of, of convention space. For all of the things that the USCL needed in order to operate. Yeah, you just have here, they got a net game of 165,000, like you said, you're not even looking. Like the numbers don't even, it's more the visibility of everything. I mean, it's like you said, it's not. Making the profit, like I don't I know all about that hosting this podcast. Right? You do it more for kind that kind of get notoriety and visibility on the city and everything else that they can offer, but you felt like, and that worthwhile for all the, the wrestling back and forth that they did with the city, cuz. You said it wasn't like the easiest process to kind of negotiate cuz of the. Shareholders in Birmingham. So dance to the first part of your question, even looking at the numbers. It made sense that in every significant category sales revenue. Tax revenue. And lo lodging taxe is what I meant. And plus there is a $3 per night. Hotel fee on top of the taxes that goes. Directly to the city of Birmingham for the, for the months of March. April may and June pretty much across the board. Those took a significant jump for the city. And for the county. Right. So, and I didn't even attribute all of that. To the USFL. I only attribute 10% of that. To the USFL being here, trying to be ultra conservative. I wasn't gonna say, oh, well, here's, you know, that that $4 million. Boost over year, over year from 2021 is all attributed to the us develop. No, that's not how that works. So only attributed 10%, 10% of that to the USFL. So. Even if you just crunched the numbers. There's there. There was a clear boost. In the months that the us F L was in Birmingham to both sales tax. Lodging tax, of course, the $3. Per night hotel charge. That that would at least. Make you comfortable saying, okay. You know, it was worth that 500,000. That the city of bur or you know, that the city of Birmingham put in the 500,000. That the county commission put in and the 2 million that the convention and bureaus. Convention and visitor bureau put in, it seems like they got their money back. You said you ended the article here and you gave some people fright because you know, the listeners that sent this over everything, you know, now that the season behind the Fox officials know that comparison shopping made naive to believe that other cities aren't striving to make themselves more attractive than Birmingham. What, what, what was your thought process behind including. That. And what do you make about price shopping for the USFL? So for, for Fox, they clearly wanna go. Where they get the best deal. And. S they, they are getting, you know, bids from other cities. So if, and I'm just making this, this up, whatever they get here in Birmingham, then they have to go back to city officials. So the way it works is that the B JCC, which owns the stadium. Lets Fox know how much it's gonna cost. Them to put on X number of games. Then Fox goes to the city of Birmingham. To the Jefferson county commission. And to the convention and BU visitors bureau and asked them. To help support that. That cost, knowing that. Fox, at least according to its own data. Is going to drop 10 million or X million dollars. Into the local economy in various. Spending ways. So if it, if that number is smaller, In another city that they get from, if that number is smaller than the one they get from the B JCC, it's smaller in another city, it makes it easier for the local government to subsidize that, then absolutely. They'll go. They'll go elsewhere. So that's what I meant by it. Adding that because it's uncertain right now. It's all in flu the discussions. Are being had and who knows how many teams. Could end up in Birmingham is I think I mentioned it could be, could be one. It could be. Two, it could be four it's seems. Fairly clear that they want to at least have a Northern. Hub. So that would cut the number of teams. In half, if they were to do one hub in the north and one hub in the south, but if they get. Opportunities from other cities who knows they may split. The hubs and have two and two. It would be interesting, the numbers that way. Cuz Birmingham, like you said, Everybody's here. All the staff share all the players you're here. We have catering, we have meetings, we have training, we have all that stuff, you know, splitting it up. It is, it's splitting that revenue to the cities, you know, in half or in a third or whatever it. It's not necessarily. I mean, it's more advantageous, I think for Fox to have the two hubs in the doesn't necessarily for two cities, you would think it would be more beneficial for one city to host them all like Birmingham did. I think it was always part of the plan to expand. We know this was like, this was an model. That allowed Fox to mitigate some of its risks in the first. Couple of seasons. It was a smart. Model one relatively unique. In sports. So I don't, I don't think anyone's surprised that. In year two, three, and four. There would be fewer teams in what city, cuz you do wanna build up a fan base. I mean, ultimately you do want. To have your stadiums with fans. Supporting that team and mitigating, you know, everything being a home court advantage or home field advantage for one team. So this is not surprising. It was always part of the plan. The, the hub model was just used so that they could get a, a sense of what their actually run rate was. What, what were they. Working with in a way to minimize costs. Like you mentioned, by having everybody in one city. In terms of, and I, cuz I keep hearing back and forth like, okay, Fox, we got a three year plan in Birmingham. Now you're saying maybe they're back to negotiated again. Like what is the status of like, did it all reset after year one there with negotiation or where we at. I think it was always gonna reset. After a year one, what, what I reported was that they had a hundred, that Fox had a 150 million commitment. To the league. I don't think they made that specific commitment to. Birmingham. So. Again, this is not a surprise that. Year two discussions were being had about moving to. At least some of the teams to another city. You could certainly view that as a sin of success. They're like, okay, we we've got how to run this now. Let's let's create another hub, at least one other hub. To, to be able to do this so that we can. Take advantage of other television markets. As as well. So I don't think the three year commitment was to. Birmingham per se. Certainly not in, in writing. But they like it here. I think there will be a presence here. It certainly depends on how the negotiation's go. And I haven't heard anything lately, but certainly I'll get back on that. So we've had a lot of. Different types of news events going on here. So I'll get back to that soon. I mean, obviously a lot of at big players, she Fox and, you know, Fox sports, and we have every executive in the world, like. I surprised that everything really did kind of go as well as it did. I mean, just because it's such a, I only say that because launching a football league and eight teams and all this, I mean, it is a huge undertaking. Like, are you surprised it kind of worked out as well as it seemed to have? I'm always surprised. I, yeah. I mean, between that and the world game. The events in this city. Have pretty much gone off with, without any major. Major issues that the operations were relatively smooth. People got around. The, the teams and, and coaches and staff got around to the places that they needed to, to be. And again, it was convenient to have the hotel right across the street. From the practice facility, not from the operations facility, from a training room where they were, you know, where they were being fed and also right across the street from the stadium where they were playing. So. Was I surprised. I mean, you get Fox sports, you get a lot of. Entities that are used to doing these kinds of things. So in that sense, I'm not surprised, but whenever you do something for the first time, And, and there's not a, a sort of a major. Fall off or a major glitch in something. Yeah. You know, you always tend to be a little surprised. A lot of pleasant stuff. Yeah. Well pleasantly no. And that's, and I only mean that cuz not cuz it, it just, you know, here we're tracking XFL and they have their own challenges and launching a football league. I mean it's very Divi, you know, understatement is very difficult to do something like this. I'll obviously include your article in the YouTube this week, but what was the biggest and kind of my last question today, I guess, biggest just takeaway that you had of all the number of crunching and data and everything that you uncover, like biggest takeaway or something that made maybe our listeners would be like, oh, wow, that was. Really, you know, I mean, there, there, there a ton of work went into this. My hope was to try to impart information to people. When they began to assess, assess whether something. Was worth doing to think. Beyond, perhaps. Their natural parameters and how to measure that. To see how the money flows always. They, they always say bottle the money, right? See how the money flows from in investments like this, we are in the, you know, current conversations. There's a proposed 50 million amphitheater. To be built in, in Birmingham, right. You know, around the corner from protective stadium. There's a lot of support, but there are some people like, well, they should do this with the money and do that with, with the money. And to that maybe don't have a full sense of what the impact. Of having these facilities. Would be on a city like Birmingham, a city that's growing. There's no question that in college sports, There's an arms race, right? There's a facilities, arms, race. And if you're gonna recruit the best players, the best talent. They're gonna have to, able to walk into your facility, into your weight room, into your training room and go, wow. This is nice. If you're gonna track the best artists, if you're gonna track the NFL, if you're gonna track the NBA, if you're gonna attract, you know, you know, top. Talent in sports and entertainment, they're gonna have to come to your city and go, oh, wow. This is nice. So you have to invest in that if you want that talent to come here. And it's just part of the growing pains that Birmingham is going through. So in part, I just wanted to help. People to think beyond maybe their experiences. And how to measure the Pulte, the investment impact of something like this. Are you excited for season two? I'm excited to see what they decided to do. Right. And how, how they're gonna, how the model's gonna play out for Birmingham. It's fascinating. And I know that you, and obviously you're all in the Birmingham with the us well, but comparing everything to the XFL and these two competing leagues and just how they're doing all this stuff is fascinating. Cuz you couldn't have two different, different opinions of, of how they're looking to do this. And it just speaker curious to see what ends up, you know, What have I there's there's I guess there's maybe an unlimited number of players out there, but that, that is probably the most intriguing aspect. About year two for the USFL and year one for the XFL. Belt is, is there a market for both? And we will certainly find out the, the Fox model. Ownership model. We pretty much know it's all owned by Fox. The XX XFL model is different. So we'll see. I mean, there's more pressure on one than, than, than another to. To generate certain revenues. So that that's where the game is. That's the game within the game to see how the two entities. Will endure beyond, beyond. 2023, whether there's which one is, is the, is the last league standing or will do they both stand? Do they merge? There'll be a lot of questions for us to come back and talk about. Over the next couple of years. I'm trying to remember the last time I had this gentleman on at pat Steinberg here, cfo.ca. Among many other projects and things now, how are you doing, sir? I'm good. It's good to be back. Yeah, you got a good sounding set up here. I'm excited. Yeah, I know the, the it's been it's a long time. I, I was using this setup and the microphone was backwards and then I figured out, oh, that's why I'm getting all that echo. Cause I got all this soundproofing up. I'm like, why? Why is isn't it work? And oh, cuz I'm talking into the back of the microphone. That'll do it. So now we're. All now we're all situated. Let's go. I wanted to bring you on. Weird CFL week, obviously games this weekend playoffs kind of set. But obviously, you know, Nathan RO is at a big story or the biggest story right now and kind the plane here against pec this weekend. I mean, honestly, it's, it's kind of the only. Compelling or super compelling story. I, I, you know, what the writers do and, and how they finish their year is gonna be interesting too, just because it's been such an absolute debacle down the stretch, but. Yeah, I think, I think by far the most compelling story. Of week 21 is Nathan Rourke because. This, this sets up like in, in, in where I'm at in Calgary, like this sets up a, a fascinating finish to the year, because if RO goes out. And he looks like the Nathan Rourke that. Was lightening up the league before he sustained that list. Frank fracture midway through the season. Then all of a sudden this west division semi-final takes on a completely different vibe. Because I would've said. If, if, if it's not Rourke playing and this is no knock on VA, cuz Vernon Adams has done a nice job of coming in and stabilizing. But I mean, I think even on the road, the stamp Peters would've been favored to, to go in there and win. And now if Rourke looks like himself and if he looks fully recovered, it's, it's lookout. If you're the red and white, because. That, that guy, that guy is the biggest game changer the CFO has seen. In in more than a decade, I would suggest like this guy, this, this is a bonafide. No questions asked superstar. And if you are, if you are the lions, getting him back is, is the best case scenario. Even if he's, you know, even if he's at, you know, 90, 85%, getting him back is, is important and getting reps in against the bombers and getting reps in before. Before the game matters for real. I think that's pretty crucial too. I mean in the strategy. Makes sense. Right. I mean, Winnipeg's really not playing for anything. Let's get work in at least I think Rick said a quarter, let's kind of get his feet wet before it really matters. Right. That, that. Gels with what you think they should do. Yeah, absolutely. I, it, it kind of felt like. If, if his conditioning was back up to speed, and if the injury was healed to the point that he's not gonna have be in danger of, of. Reinsuring himself then getting him, the reps is the way to go. And I, I think that's exactly why they're doing this because they realize how tough a test they've got. Look, the, the lions won two of three. From the stamp Peters this year, but they want both the games at McMan. When the stamps went to BC place in Vancouver. That was, that was a, a, an absolute route. And so if, if you're the lions you're saying, okay, getting RO back in a dome, that's, that's a significant piece of news. So yeah, I think, I think getting those reps in is the main reason they're doing this and, and you can totally see why. Any concern, timeline wise, weren't coming back. I mean, you know, they always said this was a possibility. I kinda, I said, I'm not one to talk down at the BC social media team, but obviously here he is, you know, we 21 back out on the field. Yeah. And, and it's funny because I. They said Rourke said right from the get go. That he was gonna come back there. There's a chance he comes back. That was right when they announced that news and it was devastating news. And I give the lion's credit for being able to hang in and still lock up second. In the west division, like that's, especially with how well Calgary played in the second half of the season. You gotta give BC a lot of credit for how they were able to stick with this. But yeah, they, they said right from the get go that he is gonna be out long term. We don't know exactly how long, but the whole is that he does return at some point before. The end of the season and, and they got their wish. And so it actually, it actually turns out to be a really positive. I, I think. The the, the week 21 set up for BC, even though the game doesn't mean anything. If they're able to get RO some reps, if they're able to get lucky Whitehead, some reps, and it looks like he might be back, he's been a full participant and we'll see if Brian Burnham goes, but the fact that they might be getting lucky back and they are getting Rourke back and they's a pretty, it looks like a pretty decent chance. That that Burnham could play the playoff game. Things are trending in a really positive direction for the lions here. I wanna talk playoff matchups here, but before we move off just BC and regular season, can we grade Vernon Adams and how he did here through the second half of the season? I would say for the situation that he was put into and. Knowing that he was coming into a brand new. Situation and a brand new playbook and their season was kind of hanging in the balance. For him to go out and complete decent amount of his passes and, and throw more touchdowns than interceptions. He wasn't spectacular. But he stabilized things and they needed. When, when O'Connor went down. And they, so when, when RO goes down, And then Michael O'Connor goes down. You're like, what are they gonna do? And Pipkin was not it. So. I, I actually give him pretty high grades. I'd give him B plus type that like, just. Based on, based on the situation they were in. With their superstar quarterback being on the shelf. And their other Canadian quarterback who is number two on the depth chart. He gets hurt in his first game and Pipkin. Was was not moving the offense very well for, for him to come in and do what he did. I, I, I give VA a lot of credit, so. Yeah, I, I think I, I, I would give him B plus something in that range, just because the, the, the most important thing is that he stepped in and stabilized things for BC, which was the biggest thing that they needed. They needed to kind of tread water for a little bit and. They needed to just finish out the season and put themselves in a spot where they could. Have a chance still to lock up home field in the first round and lock up that home date in the west division semi. So I, I, I give Vernon a lot of credit and, and. It's no disrespect to him that they're putting Roarke back in, but I mean, you're putting RO in over any, I don't know what team wouldn't put Roarke in. Like he's the, he's the best player in the Canadian football league when, when he is healthy. And so. Yeah, obviously, priority number one. Was getting Nathan Rourke back in, if you can. And we'll see, we'll see how it goes against the bombers. We'll see if, if he's up to speed, we'll see if he's able to get outta their healthy knock on wood. That happens because. That's that's huge for the league. And I think Vernon's gonna be a good teammate about it. And you take a look at his last last three or four games. He really seemed to settle in the accuracy, went way up through one interception in his last four starts. And I, I get Vernon a lot of credit for being a able to step in and do what he, he did. I just, thank God. I just terrified if, if work's not playing this, I just, and I know Vernon, like you said, you're respectable numbers and everything. I just felt like it, it was like BC was at three miles ahead in the marathon and anyone else in they've just kept pace and enough here and now they, that ROS back, like, it never felt like. I don't know. I never felt confident going into any BC matchup except maybe the red blacks year when RO was out. Right. Yeah. And, and it's true. Because I, I think that I think VA. Has the, he has the ability to be very ineffective in a game and he's got he's, he's always got that propensity to kind of just have a night where. He's getting too run happy and things aren't materializing for him. So he looks at two reads and then all of a sudden he pulls it down and he is going so I, I, and, and, and I would've been with you. And again, I feel bad for knocking Vernon because he was, he was so good and, and so important for them. And did. Exactly what they needed. They brought him in to be a stop gap. Until Nathan could come back. But I just, I, I. I wouldn't have, I wouldn't feel anywhere near. As confident in the lions, especially knowing who they're going up against. And the fact that they're playing in a dome kind of evens things a little bit, the stamp theaters played some really good football down the stretch and. The way that they're playing and the way that they're coached in some of the championship pedigree on that team. I, I just, I feel far more comfortable. In that being a really close game. Than I, I would've, if VA was starting. Yeah. So the move to that, you know, obviously Calgary coming in, I'm thrilled. I mean, I can't imagine. We'll be there. I, my wedding season wraps up here perfectly timed. This weekend. CFO is the worst time of year for me to try to watch anything on the weekend, try to attend anything and then also do my actual job, but we'll be up there on the sixth, you know, Calgary coming in. Gotta be the more exciting of the two playoff games. Camps. I, I think so. And, and you know, the other, one's not a bad matchup because the, the, when you, when you look at, when you look at the, when you look at the east division game, I still think it's gonna be a fun game. And I still think there's lots of intrigue and, you know, the way Hamilton's playing and. Hamilton's championship pedigree. I, I don't think you can write them off going into Montreal. And, and giving them a real test. But I do think BC Calgary kind of has the more. Sex appeal, if you will. I do think that's the matchup that, that you probably go in and say, Okay. That's got the potential for fireworks. Look at the two games that they played when Rourke was healthy, they were dynamite. They were both played at McMan and they both involved. BC comebacks, but they were really good football games and, and Rourke was outstanding. The stamps had some good moments. So if we can get something like that, it's why that third game was so damn disappointing because it was so bad. And so if, if you can, if you can get anything close to the first two games that we saw between Calgary and BC and the regular season in this playoff game, then I think that we're in for a real treat. I, I guess there there's, there's more like just. Interesting storylines that intrigue me going into the east division semi, as opposed to the actual what it could be. On the field, because it's just the way Jake Mayer is playing for Calgary. And having Rourke back and having some of the explosive receivers that each team has. You got the two best running backs in the Canadian football league going head-to-head and Butler and Carrie you've got, you've got Beton and you've got Malik, Henry, and you've got lucky Whitehead and Brian Burnham like Dominique Grimes is head this. Ridiculous season that this, this has got the star power. Hamilton's got the redemption storyline and Montreal's kind of been this steady group all year long. And it's kind of been the redemption year for, for Trevor Harris. But. Yeah, I think the, the, the better game. Will probably be the one out west. Yeah, I, well, I guess we'll get to the east here in a second. I. I with Jake or not Jake, Jake's over with Jake. May. Taking over right. People confident in him coming in. Obviously Calgary knew they had, you know, the backup here, you know, in Saskatchewan it's like the world's collapsing now we've don't know what we're doing, but, you know, Calgary knew that we had Jake. Has Jake stepped in, do you feel as good as you did with him? Cuz people were really high on him when he started and it, I don't know how people feel today. I think that the feel is still pretty positive for mayor. He came in and. I mean, you take a look at the numbers. They, they may not be super. Explosive numbers and, and there, the, the interception. Total's probably a little higher than they'd like, we're talking about a guy who's above 70%. What is he's just under 75%. On his completion rate and he he's, he's one football games. He moves the ball really well for them. And when you've got a guy Caine, Carrie. You don't need. Your quarterback to be finishing drives with touchdown passes because you've got. Go look at Kaine Carrie's numbers. Not only is he the best running back statistically in the CFL, he please played two less games. And that's why he's, that's why he is run away with the rushing title as it stands right now. But. Tan rushing touchdowns, the guy, the guy's automatic when you're inside the fives. So instead of having to, instead of having to rely on a couple of short passes or something like that, because you're not as confident in your run game, the stamp Peters can just pound the ball to carry. And, and so that may be. Drives down the Jake Mayer touchdown total, but you're looking at 13 and seven for touchdown interceptions. You're looking at. Just under 75% completion. He moves the ball really nicely. They've won more than they've lost at a pretty good clip with, with him at the helm. And it just wasn't happening with bold Levi. And I'm the biggest bold Levi guy. He's, he's one of the athletes that, that I've gotten to know the Mo in, in, in my career. And, and doing what I do. I've got nothing but immense respect for the guy, but it just wasn't happening. It wasn't the, the, the ball wasn't moving. And the passing wasn't as accurate. And the offense wasn't as explosive. And Carrie wasn't as explosive because the passing game. Wasn't as dynamic. So I think, I think mayor. Even down the stretch has done. Exactly what the stamp Peters and stamp Peters fans hope he would. And they were, there was kind of a clamoring for it. Like you take a look last year when Jake Mayer had to step in and we had no idea who this guy even was, he steps in. And he plays really well for him. So they knew he was here. And Dave Dickenson, the head coach has been a huge fan the entire way through. And so when it was time, it was time. And, and they, they didn't hesitate. I thought it was actually a little early in, in. I was like, I would've given bowl one more week, but they made the right call and, and Dave has a better pulse on his football team than I do. So, so he made the right call. And, and it's worked out really well. Must be nice. I mean, here we have the CFO, the whole world is trying to find their next quarterback. And here, you know, Calgary goes from one superstar to another, like that's a hard life they have over there. Oh, I mean, the, the good thing about the stamp Peters is that. They find quarterbacks. They, they have had. I, I don't know if there's a team in the CFO that has churned out star quarterbacks, quite like this team. Like this team did, I mean, or has done. I mean, you go back all the way to the nineties and, and floaty and Garcia and, and Henry Burris and bully I Mitchell and drew Tate, and, and now, and now Jake may, they've got, when you've got a core quarterback at your president of football, op operations and. A quarterback is your head coach. And you used to have a quarterback as your offensive coordinator in, in Ryan Denwitty before he left to be the head coach in Toronto. Now they just got a good eye for the position. They, they know what fits their. Other names who were a little bit more, a little bit more recognizable around the CFO that came into training camp that year, but they liked him. They had. Identified him. And I don't think that he was given a spot, but I think that because. Dave knew enough about him and, and Huff knew about him enough about him, that you could, you could. See him getting now you look back, you can see why he got that spot, even though nobody really knew much about him. So it, it is, it is a position of strength and I mean, the stamps have been one of the better player personnel. Groups in the, in the Canadian football league. And, and I mean, let's be honest, they've been the best player personnel group over the last two decades. I don't know if there's a team that recruits and finds players and turns over players and replaces stars who leave better than the Calgary stamp Peters do. I mean, the bombers are starting to put themselves in that category. But the stamps have been doing it for two decades as, as the class of the league in that regard. There's any of this matter when. BC or Calgary loses to win the peg. the following weekend here on the playoffs. Well, okay. So I do think the bombers are. Far and away the best team in the CFO. But, and this is we're, we're grading this on a sliding scale, right? I think that they are more vulnerable. This year than they have been the last two years, obviously in 2019. They were red off and they rose Zach Calis and that defense to a dominant great cup win. And then last year they were the best team wired, a wire. And they had to come from behind and win a thriller, but they win their second consecutive. They bring the band back. And they just, they've looked a little bit more vulnerable at times this year there have been stretches and it's it's again, we're great. This is nitpicking. The, the best team that's bordering on being the first dynasty in the CFO. Since the, since, since Edmondson in the 1980s, that's how good this, this bombers team has been. But, you know, Calera has made more. Bad decisions or interesting decisions than we're used to, especially in games against Calgary. The defense hasn't been. As dominant this year at different times than they have been. And with guys like Willie, Jefferson and Adam, big hill. And, and the group that they have defensively. I think that they are the type of guys that. I don't wanna say that they will flip a switch, but they know when to bring it, bring it and, and they know. Regular season, you're bringing it, but they know how to be. At peak come playoff time. And I do think they will be, I think CALS will be. I think that receiving group will be, I do think the bombers at IG field are the team that should win, but let's be like, let's, let's not forget that SAS pushed him hard last year in the west final. And. And made it difficult. Like they were what the bombers were trailing in the third quarter, going into the fourth quarter. If I remember correctly and then put it together to the best fourth quarter team I've ever seen. And, and that, that makes them that much more dangerous, but I guess I feel they're just slightly more vulnerable. Than they have been the last two years. Doesn't make them actually vulnerable, just more vulnerable in, in. The, or, or by their standards. That was again, that Saskatchewan, they had like turned the ball over or when the pig turned, the, they had six. Turnovers is like a Saskatchewan still loses the game after winning the turnover, battle six to one or whatever it was. I think that Winnipeg has got something going on. There they're ridiculous. Yeah, this, this, this has been one of the coolest building stories. I can remember because it was a slow build to get to where they were. And the bombers had to bombers had to be bad for a little while. Then they had to dive into free agency and, and find some. Find some really good players, but even then they had to. Still build and they had to go on a acquire, Zach Cal outta nowhere. Nobody thought CALS was gonna return to form. And now he's the best player or the best quarterback in the CFO. At least the best healthy quarterback in the CFL. And, and it's been, it's been a pretty amazing run. And the fact that they've been able to, I know that, you know, lard didn't stay. And Andrew Harris left and, and Darvan Adams left. Like they're definitely. Is a, there's a turnover, right? There's there's always gonna be a championship turnover. When you've got guys that are gonna get raises on other teams, but they've brought that core back. Time and time and time again. And when you're talking about a core. Of CALS. And big hill and Jefferson and Stanley Brian and that offensive line it's just, and, and that head coach. It's it's a pretty, and this could be the last ride. Like there's a lot of people who are wondering on the outside, if, if this is the last ride for the bombers and you know, maybe, maybe a couple of guys decide to go in different directions or decide to, to hang in the up at this. I don't know if that's gonna be the case. I could see. It either way, but this is, this is gonna be a fun. This is gonna be a fun post season for Winnipeg. Just to make sure we touched on the east division here. I, I know you said, you know, football-wise maybe not intrigued in a lot of storylines. I, I know that it ultimately ended up with the, the game last week with the Ettes that the like returner was out bounds and they had the Rouge and all that, but it. Wasn't lost to me that, you know, a team that fired everybody, all these penalties all year. Have 13 men on the field, you know, for the last thing, whatever I, what did you make of the losing now? They're, you know, they gotta defend and with east division and with Hamilton, what do you make of this whole mishmash on the east? Well, Toronto's been the best team in the east all year. And basically it was, it was happenstance. That Montreal still had a chance to win the east. Because they just happened to play Toronto. In their final two games of the regular season, then they just happened to be two games back and by beating Toronto. Two games in a row, they would've won the season series. So it was, it was very fortunate timing that they, that the east division was still on the line going into the final two games of the year, but really. If you take a look at the consistency, Montreal's been a little bit more up down and, and Toronto's been a little bit more steady. Hasn't been perfect for the Argos. And I don't know if, if you look at Toronto and say they do anything spectacular. But they do, they do a lot of things just really well they're they, they they've got. An offense that moves it. Well, they've got good play makers. They've got a defense that bends, but doesn't break. They, they're not incredible. In any one statistical category necessarily. But they just, they win football games and they, they have done that consistently to the point that I don't think it's just some. Statistical anomaly that they keep winning games. They, they have been a team that has been able to when, when you are a consistently good. Team in this league and you've got other teams that have great highs, but they, they don't necessarily have the consistency. You're gonna win a lot of games in, in the CFO. And that's exactly. That's exactly what we've seen with the Argos. So. I, I, I still think, I still think Toronto is the team to beat in the east division. But what do I make of the, the mishmash in the east? Well, Montreal, never really never really kind of cemented themselves and said, we're here. They've always just kind of been there and, and they've been good. They've won. They've had some signature wins and, and Trevor Harris has had a, a really nice year, kind of a resurgent year at quarterback for them. They were able to, let's not forget. They lost their best player on like what the, the second se of the year when William Stanback went down and that was devastating. And. They've been able to make up for that. And, and while they're run game, hasn't been. As, as effective or as dynamic, they've still been a pretty decent team move in the football. And again, they've got some, they've got some play makers, defensively, but. It it, the team, the watch to me is still. The tiger cats because. All along, they've been. The entire way through. They've been the most disappointing team. In the CFO until they get it together. And it it's kind of like. Every year, they leave it a little bit later. So 2019, they were hands down the best team in the CFO. And, and they set a franchise record for 15 wins and, and they, they were outstanding. Then last year. In 2021, they just, eh, they're kind of like they're, they're just flirting with 500. And then they figure it out in the back half of the season and they go to the great cup again this year, they leave it way too late. But they are able because the riders. Just forgot how to win football games. The riders haven't won a game since August. And so the fact that the riders went. Downhill as quickly and rapidly as they did. Opened the door for Hamilton to win, what three or four games or four or five games and all of a sudden eliminate Saskatchewan, despite that being a pretty big gap in, in the first half of the season. So I just, I look at the, the, the amount or the number of players on that tiger cats team that have gone deep before that have been in the last. Two gray cups that have lost in those last two gray cups. And I still think they're the team that fascinates me the most going into the post season. Because I don't think it's crazy to think that Dan Evans could have a couple of good games. If, if, if, if Dan's good to go. I, I, I don't think it's crazy to think that Dan Evans could have a couple of crazy good games and all of a sudden they're back in the, the gray cup and that defense when they're on that secondary and that D-line when they're on, they can be dominant. So for them to pick up wins again, And I hate saying this, but they're not powerhouses. Montreal's not a powerhouse. Toronto's not a powerhouse. It'll, it'll be a home game for Hamilton. If they make it to the east final against the Argos. Because, because there's gonna be more people traveling from Hamilton to watch the game than there are gonna be Argos fans there. Anyway, I, I don't think it's crazy to think that a well below 500 team could make it to the gray cup. And if they're there again, I mean a third time, they're gonna lose a third time in a row. I just, they're the team that fascinates me the most. And I think there's a little, I might have a little inherent bias there just because. I've been such a they're the team that I've, I've, I've been a big booster of the tiger cats for a long time. So I, I still think there's a little bit of, Hey, they're good. And I, I wanna be right. That they're good, but I, I am fascinated by them. I really am. If ham Hamiltons comes in again, then, you know, if the Argo win the east and then. Or Hamilton comes in and cuz remember that was last year, right? That was when they had the big fights and everything. And they had like the scuffles with the, I mean that was. Kind of chaos and an arcade. The, at the end of that game, that would be quite the scene to have Hamilton come in there again. Yeah. I mean, They, they really, they really do not like one another. It's a, it's a, it's a really solid rivalry. And it's, it's one where I think, I think when. When they play in the playoffs, especially because you're not gonna have a concrete SAS match up. There's not gonna be Calgary. Edmonton, Calgary. BC is building though that they, they do not like each other and they, they had a little tussle and, and cam judge got a himself to suspended because of it. So that's another. Interesting storyline to the west division semi, but. Yeah, I, I, I do like the fact that Hamilton and Toronto. Are potentially on a collision course once again, because they play really good games against one another. And they, I mean, they're what, they're, they're nine they're 45 minutes away from one another. One's a bedroom community of the other, even though Hamiltonians, don't like being called that they're they're, they're, they're just outside the GTA. And so yeah, if, if, if that's the way it goes is gonna be a lot of blocking yellow at BMO field and I that's gonna be, I, I could absolutely see Hamilton winning a game. Over the Argos and, and, you know, the owls are a group that. When they're on, they can be really tough to beat. But when they're not, they're kind of just a mediocre football team. Last question before I let you guys really appreciate your time. Day, CFO came out today. Talking about the Atlantic touched on Atlantic and the 12 million. Yeah. And. Then I think we had Ambros was talking expansion stuff again, and we were still talking forward down, which I saw as low, which I was a little annoyed about, but like, we're still talking about, but what did you make of the touchdown Atlantic and all the money and interest and all that kind of stuff? Well, I love it because. The league, the league needs 10 teams. I think, I think it just, it makes more sense. And. You can be in a, you can be in a more. Nationwide or you can have more nationwide appeal. If you do that, there's, there's a lot of people who live in the Atlantic. It's it's each province doesn't have as many people as some of the others do, but as a whole, the Atlantic that, that Atlantic part of the country. The best people and there's a lot of them out there. And it's just, I, I, I think it would be great for the league. It's just at this point. They, I, I still need to see the actual infrastructure. To make it work and to be playing in, in small stadiums and, and, and look, it looked awesome on TV. What they did this year and it was a cool little novelty thing, but. You know, you can't have, you can't have the Arizona coyotes playing in a college. Arena for too long. And I just don't think the, the, the, the CFO is, is going to be viable in expanding to the Atlantic provinces, whether it's new Brunswick or, or Nova Scotia or wherever they might go until they, until they can. And it doesn't need to be a 40,000 seat stadium. But they gotta have a viable spot to play. Like Halifax. Halifax would be an unbelievable. CFL city, but they don't have. The they don't, they don't have the large scale professional sports. Infrastructure. So until that's built or until it's built in Moncton or, or some another of the, the larger centers in Atlanta, Canada, I just, I don't see it being a right away thing. So. I think they should still keep going back there. And, and maybe it turns into a thing where they do two games a year, as opposed to doing one game. And maybe they take it to a couple of different spots and they've got different options to have smaller scale games there. And they've got, I think, passionate fans who would come out to see it and, and you can kind of turn it into an NFL London type thing, but. Until there is until there's that. Actual infrastructure and that stadium. That can house it full time and, and make it a viable franchise for the league. It it, I, I don't know. I don't know if I see it being a, an immediate expansion thing. I hope I'm wrong on that. Maybe they've, maybe they've got some plan that, that I don't know about and, and where they can make it viable. And then that's awesome if they do, and, and I love to be wrong, but just on the outside. It made an economic impact and I think it can continue to make an economic impact. I just don't know if you can have a team hosting. Nine home, regular season games a year there at this point. No. I think that, like you said, the NFL London thing is the perfect example. You know, let's do that a couple one, but at least like, we have to keep doing that though, you know? Cuz like it's not. Nine teams or 10 teams like you, you know, you can work towards that. Like you said, over the years, like, let's start trying to build up more of that than just like, okay. That was fun. And, and let's check it out again in a couple years or whatever. Yeah. And I mean, if, and if they were to commit to doing it every year, I think that that would, and, and you'd have to, you'd probably have to get a corporate sponsor on board to do that. And you'd have to get an, an arrangement probably with one place to do it. But if you could get, if you could get in an agreement for, you know, When, when, when the Buffalo bills did their thing in Toronto for the, for a little while, and they played a few regular season games, a few preseason games. In Toronto, something like that, where, and, and make 'em all regular season games, but, and, and spread it out a little bit, you know, sometimes. Sometimes you bring some Western teams out there. Sometimes you bring some, you bring Toronto where you bring Hamilton, you bring Montreal. I, I just, I think that it's a great way to showcase. The CFO product to a part of the country that doesn't have it. And I think a part of the country that is. He's starved for bigger time sports than they've got. Really passionate sports fans. I think it, I think it has the potential in that setting right now to work. And that the more you do that, the more that it lays the groundwork plants, the seeds. To maybe be able to actually have a franchise there full time one day, even if it is. Still four, five or six years away. Well, that's exciting, pat. I appreciate you coming on. That's good to catch up. I thought this was a good spot play. I felt preview. Speaking of the. Arizona coyotes. I did see that photo today. They were showing like the visitor's locker room at that, but I need some other time. I need your hockey mind to explain to me how the, my Seattle crack and we beat the, the sabers, like five one the other night. Now we're tied with the connects. I don't really on understand what the crack at I going on, but that's probably for another podcast. 82 Games, man. It's the weird, like the stupidest sport to bet on in the regular season. The national hockey league, because you're gonna be wrong a lot. Because the sometimes bad teams just win, even when they shouldn't. And by the way, the Arizona coyotes thing, it's the national hockey league and they're dressing behind curtains. Come on. this is good. Well, I'll let you go here. Brady is at the, All right. And all I'm all good. I'm all. Yeah, I'll have record. So direct your branding for the alumni academy as well for the, yeah, for the NFL alumni and of V academy. So you could just, you could say either one, perfect. All. Right. All right. Well, Charlie, we finally got this set up here. We have Charlie boots, the director of branding for the NFL alumni academy. How are you doing, sir? Doing great read. We've been talking online for a Bitman with everything coming together. Great to finally be on your show. So this is good. So you've been in Arlington and, you know, dealing with a lot of this stuff. Now, I think you're back haul now, but. We're we're in season two now, right. Of the NFL alumni academy. How is everything going thus far? It's going great. So this is, this is the third year we've done it. The first year we've had all positions represented. It's been really cool. Stud athletes too. I've been blown away by the quality you're right now. I'm not in Dallas. I'll be back next week. But session one, just wrapped section two, just opened by the end of camp, we would've had four total sessions each having 60 athletes, 240, totally trained by the, but man, I've been blown away down there. Well, and you know, big names, exciting names that we had Brian hell on last week, you know, from you guys talking. Quality of players coming through. You said they're studs. Oh my God. If you look at our roster and session one 90. Percent of the players were on NFL teams a matter of weeks ago, you know? So these guys were on training camps and you know how it is like it comes down to a numbers game. You could have 80 guys on a roster during training camp. Then you get to the, you know, cut day, boom, 53 man roster hits. And it's not like, it's not like, oh, this guy wasn't good. Or this guy was at it's that we've had two veterans at this position for five, six years. So there's just no room for the guy. And it, you know, it always drove me. It always drove me crazy, realizing the guys that were the best at all levels of their life. Think of the best high school athlete you ever seen. Some of the best college athletes you've ever seen. And then they don't, they just don't get the chance. And it comes down to numbers. So leagues popping up like this and some of the leagues that you cover and. Opportunities like this. They mean the world to me, that. You're talking. Yeah. A lot of guys had come off and I have a question here. One of our listeners max kinda help me, you know, brainstorm some stuff as well. Mm-hmm so session one, a lot of, you know, Cut NFL guys. Is there gonna be outreach to get maybe guys that weren't on the NFL rosters before. How are you guys spreading that net and attracting people for the future sessions? Yeah. So session two just started and there's, you know, I don't know. Maybe I can send you a roster or something like that, but one of the guys on the roster now he was on the Cowboys a couple weeks ago. Like now see the cool thing about the NFL alumni academy is it's not just former player coaching the guys on the field, which it is. But you also have front office guys deemed Dalton, our executive director, he's working the phone. Every day, he's calling that he's on the phone with the GMs. I don't know how the guy sleeps at night cuz he, or if he sleeps at night, but he's on the phone with GMs all day that guy's like Mike Tyson. On the phone, working the phones, the Scouts. I, I see these emails going through and it's, it's incredible. So yeah, there are guys that were just on NFL teams. That are coming here to sharpen their skills. And then there are guys that were on practice squads. They're coming here to sharpen their skills and go back, you know, more complete athletes. And then are you guys, is there outreach beyond that, right. To people maybe trying to find like those hidden gems or whatever they haven't. Are you, how does that work with agents? You know, are they reaching out or how does that communication go with guys that weren't just with the NFL? So, and if you're, if you're a, an athlete watching this, that's interesting. In the academy, too. Alumni academy. Dot com all the applications come in through there. So a lot of players applied through there. I, I mean, I know you do some CFL coverage too. We got some guys there that were just on CFO squads. So all the applications come through that portal and the reviewed by our coaches and our Scouts. We also have. Teams like, like the XF L some of the quarterbacks that they signed, they're their training, incredible, incredible arms, like X, F, L fans. And I know a lot of your fans are pumped for the XFL. Be be ready for good quality football, man. They're they're not playing around with what they're putting together. Yeah. How is that working with some of these guys, the, the XFL or potential quarterbacks that they're training also then in the academy, how does that work? Yeah. So the XFL, the quarterbacks they're, they're sending, cuz the quarterbacks are going to be the XFL quarterback. Then our talent pool players that do not go to the NFL. Are gonna become the XFL talent pool at the end of the season, they'll have guaranteed contracts with the XFL. So. That's gonna be, that's gonna be real cool to see man. How did. How did this partnership all come together? I mean, you know, big announcement with, with the NFL, I mean, months ago now, but. Who kind of mastermind this whole thing. Well, this whole program, the NFL alumni academy started, like I told two years ago and can't know high. And it was really the brain child of Dean Dalton. And Brian class Meyer and Brian KLOS Meyer don't shoot me up. so, and, and the NFL alumni, you know, executives now, it's really cool. We've got a new CEO in place, so it's like, everything's growing, like it's taking it's man. It's, it's gone to a new level. We were only training the past two years running back's linemen edge rush. So to see now this, the expansion of this thing, and this was the, this is what the Bayview was supposed to be, but the timing was perfect. The XFL was coming around. They heard about how good we were doing the past two years. You've had over 30, 40 guys. Returned to the NFL. And then, and then the USFL, I mean, if you were following the USFL, we had tons of talent there. We had Daven BALLE, which was one of the biggest. Biggest stars for the breakers. You know, the, the Jersey generals often the whole offensive line was pretty much from the academy and, and they were a powerhouse. So. You know, we were starting to show the successes there. And, and some NFL pro success, but now the timing of the XFL, this deal, these. Opportunities the, the folks on their team. Between Danny Garcia, the Dwayne Johnson. Doug Waley. Great team. With some of the XL coaches being involved in the academy as well. Was that intentionally set up? Is that coincidence? Man it's been, it is actually been really cool to see. So the we're we're currently training outta the ballpark in Arlington, which was the Texas Rangers old stadium. The. First week, it was cool out of NFL, you know, NFL, alumni staff. As we too happens now, the XFL staff's kind of trickling in, you know? And like, so the XFL coaches and Scouts, they're walking the sidelines, they're seeing things. So some of our guys that are actual coaches in the academy. Will be doing work with the X FFL. The XFL will also have, you know, totally separate. You saw some of the names you guys been talking about, the coaching staff, those guys will be. Are there scouting and starting to get a, get a look at these players because I know, I know a lot of the talk on your page is been in about, Hey, when's the X FFL. Draft this and that. So, so they're, they're starting to get their ducks in a row. Yeah, lots and lots of impatient fans, the patient leader, they said. There were talked about maybe doing a TV show with the academy, the alumni academy filming like a last chance you or whatever, any thoughts on that and moving forward with that. Where we are we're producing. Now you see an image on the screen here from a. We got, you know, BU you gotta see the footage. Maybe I'll send you some, maybe you guys will be seeing some footage right now on the show. And images of camp, but yeah, we got some great stuff and I think. What I'd love to see. I'd love I, this, this whole thing going on deserves to be a full blown show on a major streaming platform. Because these stories, dude, like it's 60 men, right? Every session, 60 men, it's not just 60 men right here on the screen. You got two guys. Right. But we got lives. We got families, we got stories our lives. And when you start to hear some of the, these guys stories. You you, they become like family and you start really rooting for these guys. In terms of the XFL and the IFL partnership and that I coming out, I think officially two weeks ago now, has that helped kind of get an IFL guys into the academy? Or how is that working? You know, I, we were and running when I saw that was an announce, so I don't know much about that, the deal and I don't, I don't know which guy. I don't know. I couldn't answer that honestly right now, which guys are there, but I saw, I saw the partnership and I saw everything they're doing. They really are just, they want the talent base as we've seen these secondary football leagues come around. And I think the question is always, what's the quality of the game. That's in a keep fans watching. And I think they're gonna come, come the closest, if not nail it with the quality of the athletes. Well, no, and that is it. It's it's a, and we were talking you offline before we hit, like. I don't think that's anybody's concern. Right. I do think like the, the level of quality here, you know, with all the showcases and all the Scouts and all the coaches and the academy, everything else, I mean, I think the, the quality of football would be astounding. It's, you know, it's some of the other things that are surrounding it that are questionable, but just how cool. Is that to see like the extra steps being taken by this iteration of the extra felt to do that extra leg work on the football side. Yeah, it's incredible. And then you look at where, where these guys are coming out of, like at training camp, you have, we have Olympic strength coaches with, you know, with chip Smith. We got Chuck Smith, Dr. Rush. Who's trained Aaron, Donald mad, max Crosby on the Raiders. He's there teaching all already rushing. We got, you know, the recovery for these. Guys is better than some NFL facilities with elevate health. Got the hyperbaric chambers in there. And the it's just, it's a second to none thing going on. And I'm, it's just excites me for the world of football. In terms of, you know, obviously now having the mouthpiece of like the rock and Danny Garcia and everybody helping to kind of promote this, obviously how that be helpful in kind of increasing the exposure right. Of the academy. But what other things are you guys looking to do to, to kind of increase that? Where in the. Awareness. Well right now for us, the awareness is gonna come from the quality that we put out. So, you know, we're the everything's acumen and please guys, you know, follow us on social media, all over NFL alumni and NFL alumni academy to see all the action. But. For us, our work speaks when an NFL team brings on one of our guys. And they say to us, wow. We added a weapon. We added a solid guy to our roster. That's that's our real proving grounds. And then it's gonna be, I mean, watching the us F L was cool. Seeing our guys out there. Watching the XFL and how many guys we put into that league is going to be incredible. And you guys. You guys are to see some talent. I am curious that how, and through you and everyone that kind of works with the players are I'm curious how that pitch is. Right? Cause obviously. Everyone wants to go to the NFL. It's the same. We cover the CFO. Everyone wants to go to the NFL first and foremost, but then you're like, Hey, there's these other options? Like, how is that pitch for the guys in the academy? Cuz it's like, Hey, you wanna get to the NFL, but you can also do the FFL potentially. Like how does that work? And how is that? Like, how do they take that? I think it was really cool. I was talking to Doug Waley he's then becoming on the. NFL alumni lounge. It was really cool to hear him say. The way that this whole thing is, and the, what he hopes the at film is. Is that it's either gonna be a Slingshot. Which represents going back to the league. Or it's gonna be a soft land. You look at yourself, a lot of these guys. You're talking from 22 years old to like 25 to 27. You know, some of these guys. So they're at a place in life where it's, if they were just cut from an NFL team. Or if they were on practice squad, whatever the case was. They're looking for an opportunity and we're looking to create opportunities. Look, if a guy, if a guy's ambitions are the NFL and he doesn't get back to the NFL and he lands in the XFL, it's not a bad place to land. You're gonna showcase yourself. You're gonna get it ton of tape. And, and with a guy like the, you know, with. The rock and Danny Garcia, the way that they see things, it's not just gonna be a football league. I see these guys. Will have some media opportunities. They'll start to build some fan bases of their own. And it goes so much further than the field, but I think most importantly as an athlete, you wanna get that tape. And whether it's it's in the XFL, which is not gonna, you know, the XFL, I dunno if we could talk any numbers or anything. Like, I don't know if they're official numbers, but from everything I've heard, these are gonna be respectable contracts and these guys are gonna be making. Decent money. You think if you are facing the opportunity? Well, Do I now seek my teeth into a career. Do I go get, finish my degree if I didn't. Or can I continue to play professional football that I love? You know, there's nothing gonna come close to that feeling. It is cool. And I, I think that that is kind of the next step for these alt leagues. We obviously cover fan control football as well, and that's, you know, on Twitch and streaming, but their big thing was. You know, like they don't pay the best, but it was like, Hey, we're gonna give our players a chance to, you know, shine and, you know, have YouTube shows and have Twitch shows and have channels and kind have all that stuff. Like kind of like you said, build that brand, figure out what you wanna do after football. I just think that's cool. I think that's the next step for all these leagues is figuring out what, you know. Whether it's the NFL or otherwise, whether do we do after your playing, because you know, there's a lot less. Absolutely. There's a lot left and, and it's, you know, you don't know which way the guys are gonna go. There's been, you know, it was cool. One of the players is talking to me at camp and he said, he said, I never even thought about coaching. He said, and being around here, I could see myself wanting to get into professional coaching. So it's like sometimes just being. Around the game, man. It's the best thing for your mind, body and soul. Any other kind of behind the scenes stuff coming out, max said here, you had an interview with Chuck Smith and you mentioned him earlier, any of that stuff coming out or anything else that people can check out in terms of, you know, more like you said, stories going on there. Yeah, absolutely. We're gonna be keeping you guys updated the next few weeks, return the NFL alumni lounge into the academy tape. So you're gonna be hearing from coaches. You'll you'll hear from Doug Waley. Like I said, XFL, he'll really dive into the XFL, you know, meet and potatoes of that relationship. But as it goes, we'll be hitting you guys with player features on the NFL alumni academy, social media. Coach interviews, player interviews, and I'm sure you'll be keeping 'em up to date here too, as well in the mark cast. Our best finally, just what you know, we've got through session one. Now we're into that, like, you know, the players that are involved in this. How did they react to everything? I mean, I know it's expanded this year more, you know, more positions, everything else, like how did the players take it and what were their experiences like? The craziest thing for me, Reid was that. Watching from day one, right? I think I got there the second or third day of session one and I was there till the end of the session. Watching these guys. So you, you, I mean, I thought it was just gonna be like, almost like nobody will, you know, like I'm here for myself cause really it's a short time. And you're there to prove yourself to get to the league or get good tape for the XFL. So the guys that were there. A family environment quickly formed, but. Man the practice field, it was like an NFL training camp. It got chippy. It got high throttle, like. Dudes were leaving it all out there. I mean, the picture you're in the stadium baseball field now. Transformed. It's huge. And they look up there's cameras. Every every angle of the field there's cameras. And that stuff. One of the coolest things, anybody watching this, one of the coolest things we're most proud of at the academy. We have a state of the art portal that only the NFL franchises and the XFL have access to. And we, every day, that's cut our video team down there and big shout out to Nick at the NFL alumni have our video team is incredible. They're chopping every guy's video. So if you're on, if you're on there right now, you click who you want. Okay. Linebacker, boom. You got up close video of him, how he is in the pockets. You got, you got I in the sky angles. It's really cool stuff, man. That, that's what I was most blown away by. Well, and as someone that, that has a, you know, I do video for in like my real job, it's an incredible feed and, and hearing and thinking about the technology that goes into that is really cool just anyway about it. But I do think that that's really fascinating how that all works for you guys right after practice week. So like, as a guy that knows video right after practice, Position breakdown, you know, end the play started playing end place it freaking cool. Anything else you wanna share today? I really appreciate it. I think this is good addition this week in the show, especially following, you know, talking with Brian Hill last week. Anything else you wanna share? No, I just love the support. You know, if, if leagues like this are gonna succeed, if we're gonna create more opportunities, things like this are what we need. Your passion is something that's like, you, you can't make it up. It's real. It's gen. And that's what, that's what the love is at all these players have for the game. That's the love we all have for this game. So if football is a community, it's a big, it's a big family from coast to coast, you know what I mean? And, and it's just really cool to see the support, see more opportunities. And for, for all you fans of the XFL and the NFL watching keep an eye on the NFL alumni academy, cuz there's a ton of talent coming out. I think it's exciting and, you know, USFL, they they've got their stuff XL. I think all these little intra, I can never say that word, but whatever, all the little tidbit that they all. That they all do. I I've called the alumni academy. Like it's kinda like survivor redemption island, you know, like you could cut from the NFL and then you kind of go in there and work your craft. You know, build your fire, come back. So I think it's exciting and whether it's end NFL or XFL, I think it's a pretty cool story to have. Hey, and if it's survivor island, what's that. NBC ABC that's big network. So that's what we're talking about and that these stories do deserve to be seen on that level. And you know what, you know what I think we need to do one day. I think, so this is the first program XFL program, and I gotta packet air cards here. One day, we're gonna have to do an opening. Read on your show, we gotta do an XFL car back opening. You gotta, you gotta love Exel stuff there you were before that there's the passion there. I mean, are you, are, are you big time? Jazz, excep, just even aside from the NFL stuff. Yeah. And you know, I might be, I, I don't know. Where I fall in that realm, I was, I've always been really into that kind of stuff. But, but yeah, I think, I, I think, you know, I was a kid, one of the first XFL came out as, were you. And it was like, it was this cool thing where it was, it was different. It's totally different. I know they don't like to associate. Cuz they're not associated, but you know, the coolest thing for me is I seen a picture of the other day. I'll text you. It's the rock walking out on the first XFL game and like, oh one. Right. And he's there to get the crowd engaged and he's working the mic and it's so cool to think this guy's now the owner. But has taken it and it, you know, the cartoon side of it's gone and now we're in 2022 and is going to just be high quality football and like it it's cool. I do love the XFL brand and it's cool to see it still live. No, it was exciting. I mean, we were down even just as someone I've watched, you know, wrestling my whole life and being able, I was down in Arlington for the, the hub announcement, being able to ask Danny and, you know, Dwayne questions and stuff. It's like, this is wild to think like where, you know, I was 10 years old watch watching the, and that. And who would the thought it's the small world, but. It's certainly excited. So you were there at, at Texas live across the street? No, so I . So I had for the, they did the city announcements on the Sunday and then Monday they did the, the Arlington announcement and the rock, and then were there. I had a wedding. Sunday night walked out of my wedding onto a red eye and showed up at chalk time. And there, it was fun. It was good, but I got the interview, the rock. I was like, Hey man, it's so cool. But you know, it's you gotta kind of shoot your shot. Yeah. It was exciting. No, your support, your support, I mean has been awesome, dude. And I, and I look forward to keeping in touch with the show and I look forward to keeping up with the show as it. Well, Charlie boots here, director of Brandy really appreciate your time. Exciting stuff. Thank you again. Hey, you want a sports back for everybody? Sure. Here's the sports back first game guys. No fear. I'm a met fan. First game ever played ballpark at Arlington New York Mets. Texas Rangers one who's being built. Boom. That's exciting.

Episode 115 - So What IS the XFL Doing Then?

Well, here we go. We have coach Ron Mackey here. Very excited, YouTube superstar, breaking down all this stuff. How are you doing, sir? I'm doing great, man. How are you? I'm good. I appreciate it. I was saying, you know, trying to find and sort source people. I'm always excited when I'm post to teaser, so-and-so's coming up and I get people. Messaging me. I'm very excited for this interview. So no pressure, but people are looking forward to this. Oh, well, Hey, no pressure here either. I can. I love talking football. I could talk football until. You know, the cows come home as they stay down here in the south. So I'm excited. Well, this is good. So we'll do general XFL stuff. And then we have max help me come up with some questions here, talking we're. Kind of, you know, we're in this dead spot right now. I think we're getting the XFL team name. So first week in November now we've just had more emails get sent out here kind of as I'm recording today. But. Previewing kind of what we're gonna look for with some of these head coaches and offenses and stuff. First off. You know, thoughts on you from you looking at extra 20, 23. I mean, some of the coaches that are involved, gene Jones, Jim has stuff like that. What is striking you from kind of this collection? The people they have. One, I am excited just that it's back when, right before. The disease that will not be named or the virus does not be named. I went down to Houston and I was actually got to walk on the sidelines, go to practice for the roughnecks. I met June Jones as a hero of mine. AJ Smith was his water receiver coach. And I know AJ at, I was thrilled that it's back because the. XFL is kind of embracing those guys that have. Quote, unquote fringe, offense and defenses. I have no idea by the way, why I have my son's plastic wrench right here. So I'm gonna put that down. And it's, it's a chance for. Ideas to go and to see if they actually work. A lot of people have some ideas and they're like, I don't think that'll work in the NFL, or if you're gonna try that, you're gonna have to try it at a, an off brand college, not one of the power FAS, but the XFL. They're like, no, you can here, you do it. And you're using. You know, a really, really good athletes to do it. So that is I, I can't wait. And anytime I can see June Jones, coach football in the run and shoot, and he runs it. So, well, I'm like, I'm there. That's my man. I'm gonna watch the, the heck out of it. Well, it's exciting. And you know, some of the questions and max helped me come up with some of this too, is. Just we're spring football. It's a different mindset too. You're coming in. It's much shorter ramp up. Right. We're trying to get everywhere. I mean, we saw USFL, I think it was two and a half weeks of training camp going into the season. I mean, you're just running different schemes, right? Yeah. And that's all also a good thing because then you can kind of see which schemes when you. Simplify. It actually work a lot. That's why usually the run and shoot. When they were, when June was down there during the last time, the XFL, they had the same amount of time, but they were able to get so many. Reps in for a couple of reasons. One, he. Embraced virtual reality, which I, I, I love, and I, I know a lot of the high tier. Power five schools in college use it, but he was actually able to do it. So they were getting mental reps, right? When they got off the field. To get that. And then two. You really have to simplify it. So can your stuff that you're calling both offensively and defensively? Work about 80% of the time, because usually. In those longer, the NFL college and stuff like that, they have such a, you know, training camps and then. Mini camps and they can put a whole bunch of stuff in. But the, the XFL is forcing to go, okay, what's your bread and butter. And are you going to actually stick with it? Are you gonna try to expand the playbook that every coach has to fight? Because we just see a new play and we're like, oh, I wanna try that. So I've I love it. So we have a kind of broken down here, the coordinators coming in, kind of the schemes. They normally run. We have run and shoe, right? You said AJ Smith gonna be down in Houston. June Jones in Seattle and then air raid, you know, Chuck along and Jonathan Hayes with the, the Arlington, the Dallas, whatever team spread RPO in, in DC, Dwayne Taylor, he says here, we're still kind of know what's ski. Kind of. When you saw these coordinators be brought in, you know, ag Smith returned the June Jones, not being the head coach now being the offensive coordinator for my Seattle team. Presumably the sea dragons is what we have, but like, What do you thoughts on the, just the, the group they have assembled? I, I love it, honestly. And I'm kind of curious how AJ's gonna do. Compared to what June does. Cause AJ would have when he paired up with June. See when AJ. And if you're watching AJ freaking love you, man. And congrats again on the wedding. He, when he goes by himself, he threw the ball. He, he kind of tailors himself after John Jenkins. Like if I could go an entire game, Without running. I would, and I love that. And I, with all the different offenses, I know the football purist are gonna hate it because a lot of them are spread, throw it out, RPOs type type stuff, and they hate that. They want, you know, get all. 11 Bodies in the box and just pound it. No. So I'm, I'm. Excited to see what new wrinkles they're putting out, because these guys are really the purest of their offense that most of them. Created the offense themselves, or are one step removed from the person that created it. And the same thing goes for the defense. Like I'm excited that the Wade Phillips is in it, right. That our, I read that. Yeah, I I'm excited that he finally, they hired him back after being the scapegoat of the super bowl. Excuse me and seeing what he is doing. Defensively. Like it's a melting pot of really smart coaches. That have, that are getting unshackled and letting their imagination run wild. And as a football fan and as a, a coach. I cannot wait to see what they do. We've had a lot on here and we had Eric GOCO on, you know, former right DPP at 2020. There's doing all this talk about, is there enough talent or is there enough bodies? And obviously you have the quarterback and then the offensive line is. Issues with that, does that cause them to have to run different schemes, have different plans, just how hard it is to get enough guys that are good enough to play. It, it does, but. These coaches are so like entrenched in their offensive philosophy that they will maybe stray just a little bit from it, but they're gonna keep their overall philosophy of what they believe in. And they, because when you run these kind of offenses, you're kind of. A little bit mental where you think you can make anybody, your offense is so good. You could just plug and play. And the offense will produce because the offense attacks every area of the field and the defense can't cover it all. It's just, can I teach them? In a certain amount of time and then it goes back into, well, what are my bread and butter plays? And we'll just rep those over and over again. And hopefully the quarterback and the offensive line, understand what they're trying to do. And with enough reps, it'll get good and they'll be scoring a crap ton of points. So we got some questions here. We've seen it easier for the excep LFI teams to install an error raid or run in shoe or a spread in limited timeframe. We talked about this the five week training. What about like a, you know, air raid or run and shoot makes it easier to prepare, you know, the shorter timeframe. Because there's not that many plays with the air raid. It's really a hand when you get down to it, it's just a handful of plays. You go, okay, these plays right here. I'm gonna get great at, we're gonna, it's kinda like the triple option. I don't care if the other team knows it. We have repped it so much and, and practice and throughout the season. That we are experts at it. Whereas the opposing team, they only have two to three days to rep everything. And then the second aspect of that, and this ties into the run and shoot, and the air raid gives some ability inside the routes is that it's based on what the defense does. So it doesn't matter what the defense is doing, whatever they do. There's a counter to it in real time. So the structure that run and shoot is a lot more of that than the air raid. Like the air raid has certain players that can, are within the play, but the run shoot the pure run and shoot it's EV all four receivers. Can make breaks based on the leverage of what the defensive back is doing or the safeties of the linebackers. And when you can get everybody on the same page, There's nothing that can stop it. And when you. Go all in on that. That's the only thing you're practicing. A lot of other coaches when they run spread RPOs or things like that, they dabble in different things. They're like, oh, what was that play? Tennessee's running. Let's let's try that. Or what's, what's Alabama doing a and then's start adding plays. And that takes away time from. Their core plays. And that's one of the faults of people that run like pro or stuff like that. Cuz you're always tinkering. And in the NFL and a college, you have enough time for that, but in the XFL, you really don't have that time. So you have to. Have an amount of plays and that is where the air raid and the run and shoot philosophy is like, Hey. 5 6, 7 Plays max, and we'll give freedom within it. And then we're just working on the fonder details. Talking about, you know, simplifying, we have question here about, you know, the shorten and play clock back in 2020, you know, and presumably, you know, we're still waiting on the rule book and all that, but the increased tempo, how does that relate to running these schemes and, and, you know, necessity, more ads, agile kind of people and, and the play call clock. With now I'm not a, I'm not an expert. I wouldn't even say I'm an expert in offense, but on defense. That their, they have to make wordier calls. To, to be able to check for everything that the offense is doing. Where with the offense they could kind of get one word plays in. And go really fast and you can just a quick little signal. Like I know for one of the air raids is just. This and that that's like blue 92, and then everybody knows what they're doing. They can hurry up, get to the line of scrimmage and just go off like that. Where. Defense is a, they still have one word calls is defense, their base checks. But going so fast and if you rep it over and over again, the defense always has to react to what the offense is doing. So that gives a little bit of time. Between the calls that the all feds has an advantage. And when you're hurrying up, that really does wonders. If you don't believe me. Watch Tennessee, like they've been in that system now for two, I think three years, two or three years. I can't remember off the top of my head. So when they go super fast, even now, Defenses are still struggling. Look at Alabama, they gave up the most points. In Saban's history because they're going fast. And then also that allows offenses. Once they go fast to kind of dictate the tempo and we can go fast, fast, fast, oh, psych, we can go on two this time or we can check with me. Or something like that. So you're always keeping the defense on its toes. And I know defensive coaches hate that, but. You know, suck a defense offense. Offense. I don't, I wouldn't think IGA. So my college football is a little lacky, but that, that goal post and everything was the most insane thing I've ever seen in my life. Yes, it was awesome. It was such a good game that my wife who doesn't normally watch. Football was watch the whole game. And then yesterday, no loss. She sat down and was like, Hey, so who does see play this week? I, I, I wanna see him play. I, I really like their style. And if my wife who hates football and only puts up with me, so she can be with me, likes the, that kind of tempo and that all that scoring. I don't, I don't understand why people get mad at that. . Are you surprised he has a question? How mummy or Jean Jones tried to take advantage of the double forward? Pass more? And kind of implementing that in back in 2020. A little bit, a little bit. I don't think they had enough time. Like if, if it went on maybe the next year, cuz I I've talked to Hal, I know Hal. And I know he's a tinkerer he likes in the off season. Seeing. Okay. What are the airway plays and how can we put a little wrinkle to that? And I'm sure if he had more time, they would've put that in. I when. When the USFL, cuz they had like this kind of a double forward pass too. And their thing this year, I, the, the famous Landry Jones and like where it got bated back and he threw it again. They're like there was, I mean that was one of the most, I think one of the most popular crowd moments offa 20, 20. I wish they would've. We seen more of that. I completely agree. I like that. There, the XFL is willing to take a risk on certain things. Like I love their kickoff idea. I thought that was brilliant. And I know that's a big thing. In at least a high school area where, how can we eliminate, you know, Stupid injuries and things like that. And that right there is unbelievable. I don't know why. More, I don't know why the NFL are more colleges, maybe the lower tier colleges or high school. Isn't trying that. Because it works and the XFL is embracing, Hey, we gotta be different. How can we be a little bit different so that. It creates excitement and people want to come out and people wanna watch. Well, and you still have, they, you know, Al Michaels and it's a touchback, like every, I mean, in the NFL, even now, they make fun of it. It's like, if you, if you know, it's an issue, I mean, SFL moved back to kickoff, but they still had the guys running into each other. It just seems like, okay, now we're giving them more runway kind, hit harder. And I'm gonna be honest as a former player and I'll play. Played in college for a year before I tore my arm up. I hated. Kickoff and kickoff return. I mean, I hated it because if I was on kickoff return, I had to take the blow. Cuz I I'm not fast enough, our athletic enough to actually run with the ball. I had to block the big guys. And then on the flip side, Running all the way down there. Just to get there. If it's a kickoff, you know, all the coaches, like, even if it's a touch back, go all the way to the end zone, I gotta run 60 yards and then come back and now I have to play a series. On defense. That's that? That sucks. So if anything, we can do to. You know, not have to do the injuries and keep the. Players fresh. So that. Let's let's call a SPTO spade football kind of gets attack. And when bad things happen like too, or something like that with the injury. So if we can kind of. Negate the injuries and still keep it violent enough where everyone's like, ah, love football. I don't see why we aren't doing that. You saw, you hear about Bob stoops and how back in 2020. Not they had quarterback issues and having injuries and Landry Jones. It says if sideline, if injury sideline, their preferred options to quarterback again, how can Bob stoops and Chuck long Jonathan Hayes better adapt. If they have a quarterback that might be lacking in the arm strength than running some of the, their skis. You can implement more screens. And everything like that. But remember, if you go in with the philosophy you are thinking like this offense. Can work with anybody. A lot of fans and everything are like, oh, if they can't do it, they've gotta go to a run heavy formation. Well, if you've been practicing passing or. Up tempo or things like that, make it a sudden. Change, even if you don't have, like, I know the, the, the Cowboys made a sudden change when Dak went out instead of from pass heavy to run heavy, but you really don't have that in the XFL per se, that those many good players, you kind of just gotta suck it up and maybe. Screens quick plays some more runs, but it's really difficult to go from a pass first kind of philosophy to, oh crap. Let's go more to a run first because those are different styles, different philosophy, different players. Now you have to teach 'em different things. Like for instance, in the, in the air raid, you maybe only have three. Runs. And then all of a sudden you're saying, oh, we don't have the quarterbacks. So now let's put in 23 new more runs and then you don't have the time to do that. And you have to. Focus more time on it. And then if you do get good at running. Well, that hurt your passing game. So what happens when you do have to pass? And the players are rusty because they're not running the passing route. So they're not used to, they're not catching as many balls in the practice and they start dropping it. Then people complain about that. So it's a, it's a, a catch 22. And usually if you believe in something you're just gonna. Ride or die with it. Camp Phillips. We track him obviously and up in, in, you know, CFO. Now it's not camp Phillips dominating XFL with his route running ability, despite not having combine numbers, jumping off the page because of choice, routes being so key. Is it easier for run shoot teams to take advantage of great route runners that may aren't it elite athletes, but you know, run better. Yeah. And, and it's an equalizer cuz if you don't have the athletic ability, but it's, you have you're a lot. More have a higher football IQ. You can read it. And, and again, the run and shoot is if they go this way, I go that way. So it really doesn't matter which way the defense is playing. So that gives you the benefit of, oh, I know where I'm going, based on where you were at. So you were never gonna be right. Som if I have precise, right. Route running a ability and I. Can cut on a dime and I can read the defense, right. I will always be open. So it doesn't matter if. You're a four, two speed. And I'm a four, four. I'm making the decision before you, so I'll still have an advantage. Now. It may not be a home run ball, but if I can make 10 yards, 15, 20, and just keep moving down the field, I'm always gonna have the advantage. Talking about bringing in quarterbacks that maybe aren't used to like a run in shoot. What's the most challenging aspect of kind of picking that up. Reading the defense. And making the being on the same page with your wide receiver, that is the biggest thing. But if you think about it, that kind of goes back to. Backyard football. It, we never drew, we just drew up plays. And then if it didn't work, they start scrambling and going everywhere. And then, you know, oh, okay. I know he's going this way. And so you need to get a lot of reps. That's the major key. And I go back to the virtual reality. That's where it's huge because you can, the way it is now, I'm sure it's at advance in the past two years, but. They were literally filming. Practice. And then that right after practice, they would upload it, put the goggles on, and then you were coaching and getting mental reps. And then they would go back out. And the beautiful thing with this is you're running the same place you were yesterday. So not only did you get reps in practice, you get reps after practice mentally. So now, you know, oh, okay, well, if this guy does this again, then I'm going this way. And you're getting reps after reps. So the tide all in it's it's, if you're not used to it, which not many people are. You have to get the reps, but the beautiful thing is. Choice routes are, are starting to spread everywhere. Like a lot of colleges run it and a lot of NFL teams run it. So they do have an aspect. Of different kind of routes breaking off depending on what the defense is. So I don't think that leap is as bad as it was in previous years. He's got hear about PJ Walker. I mean, first off, you know, congrats, PJ getting another start again. Are you. I guess not surprised, but with, you know, thoughts that PJ and the extra fell 20, 20, you know, stand out. So they're still holdovers in the NFL. No, no. When I saw him at practice before the games, I was like, oh my God, this guy is amazing. And this is why I'm thankful for the XFL is because just like in college, some high school kids fall through the cracks and a, in a college, scoops them up and he's a player. It when you're a, when you're a guy. And he's been a guy everywhere he's been and high school and college and everything like that. You're still gonna be a guy. And when you give someone with, with really good abilities. The freedom to kind of quote unquote freestyle in an offense and pick it up. A beautiful things happen. And. I, you can see who the players really are. And I just, I, I really like it as a, as a coach. Seeing players get another chance to prove themselves. Against, you know, maybe. Bottom lover, bottom level tier. Guys compared to the NFL that were just right there on the cusp, but then get it because. They didn't have a shot. So now they have film be like, Hey, I'm, I'm going to goods. These guys who did play in the NFL for a little bit, or on practice squads or something like that, I can hold my own. And when teams see that, they're like, oh, okay. We kind of made a mistake with, let's bring this person in. Yeah, we, on this episode, I'm talking with one of the NFL alumni guys, Brian Hills out there trying to, you know, get back in. And he said the same thing. Like, you know, even if he's on a practice squad, He might opt in to do the XFL, cuz you know, they have this whole, you know, pipeline here going into the XFL, just because being able to get that game tape and being able to show and versus kind of sitting on the practice squad, even though, even though the pay and everything, it's hard. Yeah, because also when you're on the private squad, you wanna show out. But you don't wanna show out and like hurt a star player or hurt a start or something like that, because then you, you get blackballed or you, you get pooped on and you could go now you can be like, Hey, I'm going to get, start against starter. See what I can do. I can also do this on your, your squad and, you know, it's. It really helps when you have film to show it instead of individual. Cause sometimes people are all world beaters and drills, then you put 'em in a game situation and they just blank out. And so now you have film. Speaking the PJ. He was talking about how, you know, PJ's so mobile right out of the pocket, kind of scrambled doing all that. Pairing that with a run and shoot quarterback, like how much more lethal is that in having someone that with his disability, let it's nasty because it's the run and shoot, like you have the ability to pull the ball and run. So now defensively think about it. You have to go against a, up to boat to team with that's that drained you meant mentally and physically. Your wide receivers can break off routes. So you have to be sharp and hopefully, you know, try to stay squared up as much as possible. Then you add in the element of a running quarterback who then you have to worry about the, the zone option or some kind of option. In that, and it's a, it's a pain in the part of my French asked. To, to have to do that because. You know, if you start dropping everybody back well, that's, that's how they, they passed a run. So if you start dropping back eight, you only got three and you got two good run running backs or. You know, quarterback and a runback back there. How you gonna stop that you really can't. So you have to pick your poison and have it. Any offense that has an athletic quarterback. You, you gain an advantage, another advantage over the defense. I try to read ahead here and kind of figure this. I was just kind read this out, cause I'm like, how can I phrase this in my own words, excep L revise and eligible man downfield rules. All line, can't be more than three yards downfield until pastor throws a ball, pass the line and scrimmage in 2020 to make it easier to officiate and easier to execute RPOs. Did you notice that when you saw it, is that a rule you'd like see implemented at other levels? Well, that's, that's how it is at the high school level. And, and in college. So I know defensive coaches hate this and there are some blatant, like I, in the NFL, I saw one or maybe it was in college football. I think it was Ole miss. They ran a. Quarterback design run and they leaked the wi the running back out on the wheel. And they hit him now. They had an offensive lineman, like eight yards down the field. And it should have been a pill me, but you also have to take it from the risk point of view. You're going fast. There's 11 bodies out there. You're trying to keep up with everything. And offense is always kind of above defense in certain areas. It's very difficult to call. Right there. So I'm all for any rule change that helps the offense because I'm an offensive guy. . I say, go for it. In my experience, I've only. Been called for a guy down the field with that rule one time. And that was on my quarterback's fault. Not the offensive line's fault. So it's a nice rule in theory, but it'll hardly ever get called, which is good because that means more points. Well, but that's, I mean, even they were saying, even in the USFL, I mean, they're trying to call and not call certain things. It's like, we just kind of gotta, we gotta get this going here. We gotta call a bit more. Yeah. I mean, I would say, just call it refs, if you think it it's a guy down the field call it, but it, again, the beauty of RPOs and stuff like that. Is the offensive line. Doesn't know what's gonna be a pass. They think it's just a run. So. Even if they don't know what how's a rough gonna know that it also a play is designed to be a pass as well. So he's right here looking at the box. And then there's a guy three yards, and then all of a sudden the ball's. Behind them being thrown. It's very difficult. I wish they would give the refs. A little bit of leeway because a lot of people yell at it, but jets put yourself in his position. That is a difficult call to make, to know, oh, Where is that at? Oh, is that three yards or four yards? Now, if it's 10 yards down the field. Yeah. You can't make it that blatant, but. Come on talking, you know, we have the draft here coming up, presumably here in November 16th, 17th. Someone like June Jones or AJ, when they're putting their teams together, different players are gonna be looking for the draft with their scheme versus other coaches. Yeah. Yeah, they are. They're probably going to try to get. The best. Usually I would rank it. I think it's quarterbacks than some offensive line. Cuz if you don't have an offensive line, For any offense, it is very difficult. To run it and then probably. Wide receivers. I know them that like wide receivers. I, I don't know this. If I could tell the future, I would not be here. I would've invested all into Amazon and. Right there with Jeff Bezos on his yacht. But I would say running back's probably. Pretty low on the draft pecking order for them. What are you most excited to see from them coming back? And I know we talked in the, the quality and everything else are coming into this year with the coaches, but. Specifically those two and anyone else you're excited to see. The wrinkles. I, I, I'm not gonna give away the play, but AJ has a beautiful play. That's a counter to the 60 go, the go route. And I've never seen it before. And a, when I was, there was like, AJ was like, Hey, make sure you watch this play right. They like, he would signal it to me on the sidelines, like watch this one. And it was a thing of beauty. So the little wrinkles they were adding. Into their offense to make a. Already deadly offense, deadlier and, and make it harder on the defense. That's what I'm looking for. And then also I'd love hearing the play calls. Like I think that's the best thing right there was when we could hear them. Say the play on. And I was like that. The Leo me where I'm like, Hey, I know that I know that play right there. That's what I like. And then when you can hear that, you can and watch it. And if I don't know the play, I can be like, oh, that's a counter to this main play that they have. That's really smart. That's really special. I cannot wait to see more of that. Well, I think it's cool. And, you know, educating the football fans. I know Sam Schwartzstein now is with like Amazon running, all that stuff. For them. I just think it's cool. That whole philosophy of we wanna make football fans smarter and we want people to learn something they didn't know. Exactly. It's a all thelocal way and let us know the ins and outs because when you're passionate about something, you wanna know everything about it. And I know that a lot of fans. It it's easier to talk to 'em now because they have a little baseline knowledge of what it is. And I, that gets you more interested because you're not like, oh my team. X is running X, Y, and Z. And I know what happened or when I'm watching it, I can say, oh, that defensive guy blew it up because. It was a power and the guard didn't missed this block. So now I don't have to scream, block somebody. I can actually understand what the schemes and concepts are going on. Yeah. It's, I'm very much, you know, the casual person, you know, so I feel like I've learned this much as anyone kind of doing all this stuff, just cuz this is, this is not my background in any sort of football or athletics at all, but I'm sure you, you enjoy it like, oh, okay. I understand that. Or if you hear this same play call. Three or four times you'd be, oh, I know a play's coming. And then you can see if it actually happens. And it's kind of like, if you are, if you like movies or you have your favorite director, so then you kind of see. Different shots he makes throughout his films. Like, what's his thing. So for instance, like how mummy, when he calls 92, you're like, oh, I know that's mesh. Is it? And then if he tags something to that, you're like 92 wheel. You're like, oh, okay. I know it's mesh, but now he's added a little wrinkle of, to it so I can file that away for the next time. I see it. And then also. The cool thing is you can see those plays. And those kind of calls kind of. Show up then and other aspects of sport, like the NFL. Or college you're like, oh, I saw that here. I know what that play is. That's really cool. And you can see how the game. And ideas and concepts move from level to level. And they're all the same. But with little tweaks and that gets you more excited. And I really do believe that when you know about it, it builds the love for the game and that ultimately you just want the game of football to spread everywhere, which it's doing right now. Anything else so far, I let you go. I really appreciate this. I mean, I did. In terms of like USFL, did that exist on your radar here going into year two now where we've got competing all. Okay. Why was that? I've always had a soft spot for the XFL because it, the very first year I was right coming into college and the crazy things that they were doing and the name tags. I still remember. He hate me. Like the, that that's awesome. How they did the coin tos and stuff. And I'm a huge rock fan. So for him to be step in and be like, Hey, we're gonna bring this back. And I really enjoyed what was going on in the last time it was out there. And then I was kind of p****d at COVID hit. And cut that short. So just to see them come back and to see. Again, the, the purest, the people that actually built these offenses, being able to run it. And given the freedom to run it, how they envisioned it makes me really excited for this. And plus, you know, if I could get football all year long, I'm 100% happy. I, I. There's when I get in like a seasonal depression, once the NFL and college stops like, oh God, I gotta watch baseball. Now. I hate baseball. No offense to anybody that likes baseball, but now it's like, oh, okay, well, I got the super bowls over with, but now the XFL is coming up shortly. So I cannot wait for that last question for me, you know, any of these. Guys that stand out. Right. You know, like AJ Smith river, who do you see maybe getting on more of the NFL radar here. If they really Excel this season? Honestly it AJ he's, he's a really smart dude that, that knows this stuff. He's, he's worked with a lot, a lot of the legends, so he knows that he's adding his little wrinkles into it. I really, it, I would be surprised that within the next five years, if he's not in, in some capacity in the NFL doing his thing, That would be exciting. It would cuz now I'll go, Hey AJ, let come to an NFL part. . Well, I really appreciate your time today. This was good. I think, I think we did good. I think I asked all the questions I was supposed to really appreciate your time. And hopefully here, you know, So I really appreciate you as is this gonna to catch up and see how you're doing too? So. Definitely. Yeah. Pretty excited, man. Good. See you again. It's good. Well, we'll be . Well with, with the Seattle sea dragons, we'll be, we'll be rocking here. Come, did you hear all the leaks? It's the, yeah, the all the, well, it's all the leak stuff, but it's like, yeah, the, the sea dragons. Oh, boy, man. I know. Oh, that's weird, but this should just kept the original, but, well, I we've had many, many livecasts here when people talking about it. It's funny. Well, this is very exciting, long time friend. Third time on came on our Thanksgiving. Episode a couple years ago. And then was the actually co-host with me on one of the most viewed episodes we ever had, which was. When the XFL CFO mergers talked here, we have a, or nest LA CHIO here, former XFL dragons member. How are you doing, sir? Doing good. Doing good. Enjoying every single day and just getting ready for what's to come. This is exciting. So Ernesto we're getting ready for the specialist showcase here, coming up on Sunday. In Sandy Diego, right? Is that what's going on? And so we thought it was good here. Catch up with Ernesto. See what's going on. Kind of preview that. Talk about the need to have specialist showcases and everything else. First off. How's your life what's going on in what you working on right now? Life's good. You know, living in the good, old, pretty warm. Arizona getting used to that. And. Enjoying sweating every single day, but your brain and making sure my focus is that where I need to be in order to get ready for anything that's coming. And just been playing arena football the last two years. So back in that whole mess of . Of MindSpring when it comes to kicking and small go posts and synthetic footballs, you know, it just feels good and refreshing to be getting a chance to get back to the XFL. Yeah. What did you just, I was, well, I'm thinking about, what did you think announced here last, I guess this week officially announced the X F L's partnership with the IFL and just knowing that guys. It's gotta be kind of cool for guys, you know, in that league and being able to, to move around. And what do you think about that? I think it's a great opportunity for the IFL itself because it legitimate is the league a little bit more, you know, they always want like TV deals, but, you know, arena football has gone down a little bit, but now coming back up with the IFL and more teams and, and just the play, there's more parody and the league. But having this, this merger with, or partnership with the X FFL, it just established itself a little bit better and more, more athletes are gonna become, being able to come in through there and not have to worry about making these big jumps or having to figure out whether the next you knows steps to get to each league with the stages. I mean, I was one of the few guys that from the IFL in 2019 to jump up to the exit fell and that was big in itself, but I figured gonna see a much more influx of players. Moving up to the exit, fail and vice versa with, or. Also go to the NFL. So it's great for all the leagues. Itself, can you, and as someone that's kind of been a part of all this. Obviously, you know, in the hierarchy, right. X FFL will put up, but in terms of like jumping and pay scales and stuff, how does it, how does the IFL compare to what we presume is gonna be the XFL pay structure this year? Oh, that's it's dramatic. It's nine day . Okay. It just every organization in the IFL is, you know, structurally different. With veterans and, and rookies. I mean it to be a veteran in the indoor football league, it takes about four years. To get established as a veteran and most guys don't even last that long. One of very few guys that have been, oh my God. Now going 10 years. You're. It's it's really pretty tough there, but each team is structurally different in how they wanna pay as far as the XFL. I mean, if you wanna look at it in basic terms, like, you know, You know, nuts and bolts compared to, you know, Being paid thousands and thousands of dollars and not having to worry about things. So, you know, You know, you have to kind of have second jobs here and there in the IFL and make things work. Just because every team is different. You know, some teams like the Rattlers. As an organization that take care of its player with housing. And, and food and whatnot. And so, you know, a lot of these young guys have to learn to grow up pretty quickly and know how to money. You know how to manage their money in that case. But when the XFL, I mean, it's dramatically, I did hear at the XFL might be paying less than the last time when I was there, but you don't really ever know until you're actually. There, the league starts up and then everything is kind of put out there. In terms of the transition for you from, you know, kicking in the arena game, then, you know, going to the XFL, what, what was that transition like? Well, it was easier to kick in the exit file just because of the fact that the goalpost is bigger. The ball was leather, easier to control. The only thing you do have to battle with was the environment in the spring. That was big compared to what the NFL goes through in the fall. The spring is, I think is much more brutal with the winds and the snow and just different environments all over the country. That was a little bit difficult, but as far as, I mean, it was a sigh of relief when I left the arena leaks because it just was bigger and easier. Now the misconception was that a lot of us, a lot of people think that the arena kickers cannot play outdoors. For some guys who are in like Iowa or South Dakota where they can't kick, but inside all year long, you know, and they come outside. There's a transition there, but. For some of the west coast, like for me in Arizona. Or in San Diego, I was always kicking outside. So I never really lost a step. And it was just easy at that sense, because I, I think everyone has that, that misconception about the arena kickers, but it, if the kicker's training. Consistently they make it work. I think it's a lot difficult to kick an arena and control a football. That's not leather. So XFL we're doing, we kind of did the six preliminary showcases. We went to the Arizona one down there that they had. Now they're doing the specialist showcase here and they're doing a supplemental one on, on Saturday. And then, you know, it's kind of a whole weekend here to kind of round out before the draft. What did you think knowing they were doing these showcases, doing the specialist one specifically for you guys. I think it's good. Because it gives a chance with specialist snappers, punters and the kickers, which I also think they should add returners cause returners are also specialists. So that way you can get a chance and see what they can do. But I think it's great because it gives much more of a sense loop location. Also just looking at us. And being able to just focus on us because when you put specialists with other positions, Sometimes we get lost in the whole combine and most of the time we're put at the end. And most of the time everyone's kind of checked out that, seeing what we wanna see and doesn't give us a chance. Whereas these combines it's a lot more. Specific the timing and certain things that we have to do in placements because in the XFL compared to the NFL, Especially on, I'm gonna talk about kickoffs. We can't kick the ball in the end zone. Like we see in the NFL. We're backed up to the 30 yard line, which is a lot farther kick and we have to be much more strategic and more skillful in placing the ball to the right to the left. A lot of kickers are pretty one dimensional. They're all trying to kick these long balls and, and they start to tell people like, oh, can you do an on-site kick? Or can you place the ball? Can you be surprised how one-dimensional some people are? So the skill's gonna be much more in interesting. Sometimes, you know, there there's a lot of this controversy of how many guys are in these combines, you know, but. Is what it is. It's a great platform for a lot of us specialists from young to a lot more veteran experience. And just being able to showcase what we can do. I like it as well. Cuz I do think, you know, and. With spring football, limited roster. Sometimes I think special teams kind of gets that short shift. Right. We dealt with that in the USFL. You know, we had Matt mangle, one of our friends, you know, he punch was trying to like punt and kick and then there was issues cuz then they, you know, we didn't have enough players to play the positions to kind of double. Right. We're doubling up where now the USFL, you know, it did expand their roster later in the season to kind of remedy that a little bit, but I like. We're a special teams is, you know, third of the game. So important, especially in spring football where you're probably kicking a lot more field goals. Sometimes it it's nice to feel like we're getting that, that it has that same priority in them doing the showcase for you guys. Yeah. I mean, again like that, I know Matt mingle personally, I just saw him actually. In Monday, no Friday last week. And you know, we always discussing a lot of us who are combo guys. I was a kicker that can punt in college. I did it all throughout high school and in college. And I've always been able to at least do it at the same time. And you know, a lot of teams are still asking for combo guys. But for this combine, a lot of kickers don't pun of punters. Don't kick. For those that can do all three disciplines. It's difficult because at the same time you are taking up a roster spot, as opposed for someone who specializes in that position. You know, I think as a kicker, I'm going in there as, as showing that I can fund to show them that I can do it. I still think that in the NFL, there's a reason why you have a puncher and a kicker. That can just specialize in that and really be good at it. I think you kind of hurt. The game a little bit by having combo guys and not being good at one or the other. And when we saw that a lot in the USFL, some, I saw a lot of punters who. I know can kick, but I know that we're not as accurate and it kind of hurts the, the stock when they're trying to move up to the NFL. I think that's, you gotta be very careful. And be very sure of what you can do that way. It doesn't hurt your stock phone, people in the higher leagues. Come look at you. No, I totally agree. And I mean, that it's the same, you know, like I do wedding videography and you know, there's some companies who do both and it's like, well, don't you do? It's like, There's pros and cons. You know, you hire a photographer, you hire video, you have people that can do both, but like you said, there's always. There's always one priority on that. You're either a punter that can also kick or, you know, you're a kicker that can also punt and interesting that way. So as. A, you know, you were with the 20, 20 dragons here at, you said hopeful coming back to the XFL. And I know that they were kind of doing. Like the 2020 guys were able to come in, but you're saying they want the specialists at this showcase so that all the coaching staffs can kind of see cuz everyone's gonna be there, which I think is pretty cool. Yeah, we're curious to see, I'm hoping all the coaches are gonna be there and maybe the higher ups, just to see the. Just to see what we specialists go through on a consistent basis, because I think we get lost. In, in the whole, all we, all these memes and jokes about specialists, you know, we just do so little, the you'd be surprised. Some of these guys who, who work at the craft day in and day out, the, the ability of what they can do and the, the small little, like inches that you have to be in placements and rotations. And then. You know, just in the different environment. I think San Diego's a great place to do it. We will be at a high school field, so you're gonna have to figure out, you know, smaller goal posts and stuff. And you know, a lot of us. Have, or a lot of the guys have never kicked with an XFL ball. I was lucky to not sell mine away or throw mine away. I had two left and, you know, I I've been offered quite a lot of money for, to to, to. I wanna use it. I'm like, you know, we just don't know what's gonna be happening. They say they're gonna yet let us use exit footballs, but we'll find out, I mean on Sunday, but that's, that's another factor we have to put in, but seeing all the coaches are gonna be there that way they can put a face and the name and all its stuff. And we'll see what happens. I mean, a. Lot of us would like to go respectively back to our teams, but there's other teams in the market fishing around and see what they can get. I just, you were saying before about. You know, the, just the prior, the kickers do so little and kinda all that stuff. Like I hate. The disrespect that like, cuz I watch a lot of NFL and especially now like just this week, NFL people they're meeting, you know, all the owners are doing their fall meeting. And they're talking about how happy they are. That the G game margin is so close, right? Cause all the teams and the parody and you want all that. And so many more of the games are coming down to kickers. Right? And, and field goals. We just saw Monday, the chargers, the guy had like pulled his hamstring middle of the game. He's kicking on like, And then still after the game, they're still talking to say, I'm like, wow. You know, the kickers I'm like, they just won the game. Like, can we please like normalize kind of that. It really frustrates me. I, I think, I think in the past a lot has been done where some people, some of the specialists play into the role. Too much where, you know, I did so much throughout my career building my body, making tackles. I mean, I just came off at 22. Tackle season in arena, just wanting to do those things, just to show that we are athletes as well. But, you know, I think a lot of the people just, you know, if everyone could do it, you'd be seeing everyone do it. And I think a lot of people that bash on specialists is because, you know, they just can't do it. We see all these times in halftime shows or during the, the game for people like, oh, okay. Feel the win this my people like, oh, I can do that. And selling, you know, they shake it. They, you know, it goes onto the goalpost. But, you know, it's one of those things that it, it comes with it and people now. Gambling and betting on games and they're, you know, we kickers are ruining the spread. You know, a lot of people never happy to, to lose money on us. And when these closed games, I, as a specialist love it. But a lot of people, I, I I've come across. They're just like, you know, they hate us because we're ruining the spread and hurting things. In fact, I was a victim to that in 2020. When just kicking a field goal against St. Louis. You know, law. I got a lot of messages, not a lot of hate messages because I ruin the spread. So I'll never forget that St. Louis. Love the fans, but. So speaking of, so heading into. The the special, you know, the showcase and everything else. What kind of things, you know, if, if, if we, if you were gonna be there, like if I was gonna be there, watch it. What kinds of do you just kick you do the kickoff? Like what do they kind of drills? So they have you guys run through. So there's a structure for the, the snappers. They usually always start for, they do in L drill. They do a speed work. They do their snap and. For the snappers, they have to do their short snap viewable snaps, and they're graded on, you know, the laces. So the laces at 12 o'clock it might be three points, one o'clock two points, three o'clock one point that's how. That's how much it makes it easier for them that when they, when the holder catches it and the laces are at 12 o'clock, they just place the ball. They don't have to do any turn rotation. As well as the timing of how. The snappers, get the ball to this punter. It's a timing there for the punters. They're gonna be. The rules are different. Obviously the exit fail they're gonna be going right left. Certain distances and, and where they can place the ball for kickers. We'll be doing kickoffs first, which will go to right. And two left trying to put that ball between the five and the goal line, not too close to the goal. It's a penalty, but in the corners. In the firm of 30, then we go into field goals. We'll do about eight field goals from certain distances. And from after that, for the kickers that can't punt, they will do do pun at the end, which will have like four punts. So it's very specific and certain ranges cause you wanna see what the range is and how. How these kickers and punters can do. If they have a bad kick, can they recover? Or vice versa when they're doing perfect. They just have to be. Perfect all the way. And they can just the last one. And most importantly, for guest kickers, we're taught. Your most important kicks are your first kick and your last kick. Cause they're gonna be focusing on those. They wanna see the flight, they wanna see the pop. And, and how you handle the certain situations. We just hate as kickers at we're put at the end of the day, which the weather can sometimes play into effect sometimes depending on where you're at, if it's 12 o'clock now and you got a right to left, when it's pretty hard, you gotta play things. So it's, it's long more difficult in that sense. But it's very structured the way it is and you just gotta make sure you're mentally locked in all day. Cuz they would want us to always check in early and then you probably have to be sitting around for about six, seven hours waiting, waiting, and waiting and waiting. So, how do you prepare that? What have you been doing? Like you said, you got to California early to kind of acclimate, which is, you know, Interesting, right. I mean, a lot of this goes into this, so what, how are you preparing, cuz I know that you're someone that's always kind of set up, ready to go. First Dean, your health and your hydration and your diet at the same time. You know, even on in Arizona, it's a different atmosphere here and a different, you know, I had to drive out here and everything and just get ready and just make sure I'm hydrated. It's kind of like no different than a golfer going out to the field. In your swings through and making sure that you don't kick too much. But you're making you're, you're actually in for quality. Over quantity and making sure that all of the kicks that you do hit are some quality kicks that you're proud of and you can move on the next day. I think we're a lot of young guys can next messed up is that if you're having a rough day, they keep on kicking. You start developing bad habits and you gotta learn how to walk away. You missed that one kick look in the game. You're not gonna get it again. You gotta learn how to walk away, adjust and making sure that if it, it has to bother you. If, if a kick that you hit doesn't bother you. You're in the wrong profession, cuz it's, you can strive for that. You gotta make sure you're striving for. Consistency every single day, seeing how your body is feeling that certain day, cuz your body feels differently. Maybe you'll hit kickoffs great one day, but then two days later, your body, your limit, you might be tired. You have to fatigue. And you won't be, you gotta make sure you have. In the kicking world, I call an, a ball B ball C ball, an a ball is the ball that we see consistently the rate rotation, a B ball. You're like, you know, I'm not feeling that great, but I can still get away with this. And sometimes if you're sick, I've had games where you're sick. You're like, you know, I, I'm gonna try you do whatever I can to get that ball through. But you wanna show on your warmups in these combines? Cuz a lot of good coaches will watch your warmups. They'll be like, Hey, I see him hit the ball. Right. See that ball jumping off his foot. In fact, that's how Seattle they, they told me they watched my warmup and they're like, that's our guy. You just gotta get to the workout. But that was our guy. And that's what they told me. They, those are good coaches. They're watching how you react and how you're going through your routine. Just in terms of, you know, High pressure kicks game, you know, game altering kicks. You know, we talked earlier changes about that. Like mentally, how do you prepare for that? Because it's, it's so weird where we could play this, you know, 60 minute football game, the last 10 seconds, you know, it all comes down to how, how do you, you prepare for that and kind of knowing that you, you know, one swing of the foot kind. Of will change, you know, the outcome of the game. I think by practicing it mentally. I mean, I, I used to read a book by the famous soccer player. And he's the lay down. About 20 or 30 minutes before he left to the stadium and he would go through the scenarios of each kick that he wanted to go through. So that he had already relived it. So I do that mentally. Making sure I've kicked that kick many times. And I'm proud of what I can do on there so that when I'm getting that situation, I've already been there. I've already done it. And to not make sure cuz you know, I think practices are a lot more difficult and pressuring because the coaches and everyone of your peers are watching you. Game day should be just a glorified practice and just having fun out there. So that's the way I like to go approaching myself. And, you know, people think that the fans and all that stuff make a big difference, know a good, kicker's like a golfer. We block everything now. I sometimes don't even know my, what my holder told me, you know? Cause I'm just so. Can how. How do you, and I know we've talked about this before, you know, just cuz it's been the, this long runway here we've had ahead of the XFL here in the 2022 and now 2023, like. How do you stay motivated and prepared? And you're always like upbeat and like focused and locked. I mean, I just, it's remarkable to me, you know, someone like you, so steady kind of in that, how do you maintain that? That's a great question, cuz that's, everyone's different about it, but I think it's all, it all comes down to who you surround yourself with. And the things that you bring into your life with the motivational. Speakers and reading and making sure that, you know, you wake up every day and, you know, tell yourself that you're very blessed to be playing this game. As long as I have. And, you know, I, I mean, If I didn't love this game. I wouldn't be doing it for this long because. There's something to be said about maybe someone throwing the perfect pass, catching that perfect ball. In that great ball when you're kicking, it's very euphoric. It's one of those things that, you know, you learn from a young age, this what I want to do for, you know, the rest of my life for a long, long time. And I'm glad that I'm still able to love doing that because it is there for me kicking, working out it is therapy going out there. I mean me just sitting around and working on cars, which I love to do. Don't get me wrong. It's a good hobby. But there's something to be said, just going out there. Unfortunately, as you get older, the body tells you, Hey, you can't do this three days in a row anymore. You gotta watch out what you're doing. And again, I go back to just making sure you surround yourself with people that you know, still believe in you and there's, you're gonna have a lot of people throughout your career. That are just gonna come and go. They're gonna come and go. But you know, the real ones will always be there. The motivates you. And they won't question what you're doing, but as long as you're. Showing the commitment showing that you're making these steps, cuz there's gonna be steps backwards, but sometimes you take a step back. You gotta take St. Two steps forward. Well, I am very excited for you. I appreciate you coming on. Really. Like I said before, really excited. They're doing this specialist showcase. We have a lot of friends of the show, you know, you, Matt mangle, others that, you know, my heart goes to this special team. So now's, you know, that's where my, my friends are at the show, but. I think it's great. Like you said, you know, all new coaching staffs in here, they wanna see everybody. I think they're gonna be impressed with you and your work ethic and everything else. Brian Hill here coming fresh off of the practice field here with the NFL alumni academy. How are you doing today, sir? I'm good. How are you? I'm good. So fresh off just first off. How is your day today? How is everything going? What were you doing today? Oh, we had a good day. Ran individual, you know, drills. And then I think we all got together and ran team today. We go team Mondays, Wednesdays, and one oh ones, Tuesdays and Thursdays. So you're in session one here of the alumni academy. How long have you D been down there in Arlington? Oh, this is our third week in our last week. So we did three weeks. And how, how general thoughts, how do you feel like it's been. It is a grind, honestly, you know, we came in, we go hard on the field. We go home. Eat. And then we come right back and we're either in the classroom or working out with tips. So. It is all day nonstop, but grind for three weeks, honestly. Can you talk about the quality of the staff they have there working with you and the, the guys helping you out. Well, we got. All X, NFL coaches, you feel me? They either coached an NFL or played in the NFL. Stole the quality of the staff is. The quality we want you put, we all want to get back to the NFL or get a chance in NFL and. These are best guys to give us that chance. Do you feel like they're able to point out things that maybe you weren't able to see yourself and kind of get that outside perspective? Oh, yeah, they definitely, especially the running backs we have. Coach Mo Williams. He used to play running backs. So. He's playing running back. He actually gives us some of his, you feel me? Some of his little tricks and. Niches that he used to remember some concepts or. Tricks that he use and some of these situations to help us out in our game. So we've been kind of tracking the alumni academy, right? This is they've expanded this year and bringing in all the positions, like, how did you find out about all this? Was it your agent? Did they reach out? Did you reach out? Like, how did you how'd you find, find yourself here? My agent told me about it, so I. Reached out to him and they accepted the inviting. Came out first week, cuz yeah, it is. It's like it's an application and you have to be selected. What was your agent? What did they tell you to sell you on coming out and doing this? Basically it is gonna be some. Envelope, some guys who played in NFL trying to get back in and it's gonna be coaches who coached in NFL before. And basically we gonna be working with each other to help each other, get back in the NFL. If, if you weren't doing the alumni academy right now, what would you, would you just be working on your own training or what would, where would you be at otherwise? I'd probably be still in BC. But instead of CFO waiting on my chance to play on practice squad. Cause that's where I was this year. Just waiting. For my chance to play for a injury on practice squad. So I felt like when this opportunity came. That this sound better than we know don't want to get injured. Yeah, I saw you spent time up there in BC. That's my that's America's CT. I call them, we cover, I cover the BC lions as well. So a tremendous year there. But. When you found out about this, like excitement, I mean, totally open arms coming in and taking part in this practice or the, the academy. I was definitely excited. You know, NFL teams always wanna know if you're in shape, they don't wanna waste their time with a work workouts. So. Just doing this program and for them to be able to look and see how I'm running, how I'm moving, how I'm catching a ball. And decide from that film, you know, do I wanna bring him in for a workout or not? That's better than nothing. Yeah, cuz we've watched it. They've had a bunch of zooms with, you know, people involved in, you know, Creating the academy. And like you said, You bring these guys in otherwise, and then maybe they're not in shape. Maybe they're not ready to go here. They're able to see your tape every day. Know that you're, you know, And, and know the coaches you're working with. Talk about the benefits of having that. Like I said, Is is hard to like take a chance on the guy. You know, you wanna make sure you're not wasting your time when you. Create your list of guys you want to bring in to your facility to work out. So this whole thing here, like. Like I said, it's a grind. And if you completed this, it's hard for you not to be in shape, honestly. So. They know you in shape, dealing with chip every day. And to see how you are moving on the field. They can literally just look at the portal and see what you did every day. All three weeks here, obviously, you know, first and foremost here, we wanna get through the academy, trying to get back to the NFL, right. Fell is partnered with the alumni academy, right? So, you know, you get through the season now that you, you know, graduate here and move through. Would you be interested in partaking in the extra L. Here come February. If, if something doesn't line up in the NFL this year. Oh, yeah. And even if something does line up in the NFL, say I get signed to the practice squad. If I don't have an opportunity to get. Game film in the NFL. I'm still going to come off a practice squad after league's done. And. Playing XFL because I have good numbers when I played in the league. I had good take when I played, but. It's how have I played lately? You feel me? They wanna see how I'm running the ball now. Because I, I talk with a lot of the players, I here about that. They're right. You and you get on, even if you're brought in, you know, during the summer training camps, like you might get three touches in two days and then it's like, okay, like we're moving on or whatever. I it's so hard talking about the importance. If you were to go to the XFL, getting that game tape, getting those reps and. You know, plus, you know, high profile, right. You know, you got ESPN and the rock. I mean, that can't hurt. Yeah. I mean, the game tape tells it all, like that's what Scouts use. They, they know what you run already. They know how much you weigh already. They wanna see how you play. So the more game tape you could put out there, the, that just gives the Scouts on each team, more film to work with, and the more opportunity for you to get. In their head of people they wanna bring in. What are your thoughts on the ex pathologist in general here as kind of it's coming back and where it's going to be kind of the, you know, alongside the NFL and they've announced a lot of these working together, partnerships, what do you think of it? I mean, I think it is good for business. We in America, we love football. Is that gap of time right after the super bowl. Until a spring game, somewhere that you literally get no football. So I think. That the fans are gonna take up to it. Well, like they did last time, so we just gotta. Go out and perform and. The rest to take care of itself. So, if you were to go back to a training camp, now, all the work you've done with the running backs, you know, all that stuff and, and conditioning, everything else you've gone through. Where do you think you've grown the most? Because of the work that you've done at the academy, where you get back to it, NFL camp. Of course the conditioning, like I said, if you stay in here, you are gonna be conditioned, but I've just been working on the little things, catching, making sure my path protection. My hands are tight, just all the technical things, because. Once you go full speed. You want all that stuff to be muscle memory, honestly. One of the zooms I heard too. They were talking about kind of coaching you guys just to be professional athletes, just in terms of how to approach the game mentally and, you know, personality wise, too, right? Not just on the field. Have you felt that, that they're trying to kind of grow you guys as do men? And I just thought there was an interesting take that. They were kind of looking at it that way too. Oh yeah. They do things like. Like after we go on a field or after we work out, we come back into classroom and actually watch the film. Of our day, that day. So it's. More than really trying to make it so that it is like your in season now. So you, if you get picked up by a team, you won't just be thrown in and not know what's going on. You feel me in terms of. Were you to do the XL portal? Have they talked to you guys about that? Like how that would work or how you would get signed on to that? A, any of any details of that process? No, honestly, they tell us. We gotta guarantee spot in camp for coming to this. That's really the only information we get as far as the XFL, but that's gotta feel good knowing that you have that fallback plan and a good, you know, it's like a, it's a good fall. I mean that other one that even you, those words, but it's a good alternative. Oh, yeah. It's definitely something that. Is worth it makes it three weeks worth it. Just knowing you have a spot in camp. To come out and try to prove yourself and win a spot. I just got a couple more questions. So I have a listener. One of our listeners max helped me write up some of these. What's next for you now coming out, session one, right? You said, you know, in the third week here, You know, doing stuff through the holidays or what's kind of your plan here now that we're kind of mid-October. I just wanna make sure I stay. In this football playing s**t that I'm in right now. I left Canada. So I was in still in good shape being in season. Came here and stayed and said, I just want to go back home. Work out and wait for any workouts from the league. And if that doesn't come. Obviously you guys in camp in Dallas. What CFO camp was that hard? I didn't do CFL camp. I came. After doing the regular season. That's why I was on practice squad. Just wait my opportunity. Last question here. He had, he played with Josh Allen at Wyoming. He just wanted to know kind of thoughts and any thoughts about that and seeing, you know, he's had a crazy year here in leaping over a defenders and everything else. Oh yeah. He's not gonna stop that. No matter how many, how much people tell him to slide, but. That's a great guy, man. He's one of my closest friends, honestly. Love playing with 'em hated when he got hurt my sophomore year. And that's why I was really. On his head about diving and. Hurtling over people with trucking people. I, my junior year is just because I didn't wanna lose 'em again. I saw they, I, in Buffalo, they put something over when the, the street intersections and they have this big cut out of him, like leaping over the sign bus. And so I thought that's great. I like the Buffalo. I think that's a good. And it just, any lessons you learned from playing with John at Y any lessons you learned from college that you're taking. On your time now. The biggest lessons from Josh is always the fight. You feel me? That's just the player. He is. He's always trying to win the game. No matter if we're up big, we're down big. He's trying to go make a big play. So that aggressiveness on him. Like we both click that way. Like we always aggressive on the field. We always trying to go score. Well, Ryan, I really appreciate your time. Wish you luck here. I, you know, Selfishly, I hope to see you in the XFL, but obviously, you know, Well, I, when I reached out to Rob vanstone here that come on, I think this is like the four time. Certainly didn't. I mean, I, I knew it would be a good Newsweek. It's always a good CFL Newsweek. I certainly didn't expect this week coming out the rougher riders. So Rob, thank you so much for coming and that, what about those? Rough two years now. What are your, what are your, I thought it was gonna be a slow week too. I, I, it was a really busy. 10 Or 12 days. And, and I finally saw an opportunity to take a few days of decompress. I had a couple of days off cuz I'd worked right through the brighter, bi-week covering all sorts of local stuff and, and had a great time doing that, but it was just crazy, crazy, crazy. So I finally had a couple of days with the riders back and our football rider. Murray McCormick back from a week's all week off. I thought, okay. I can put my feet up. And the, those days, Tuesday and Wednesday were the days that the Cody fit Charo thing went nuts. And I did have a nice bike ride yesterday, but it's just, it's, it's been an unexpectedly. Crazy week. I thought it was gonna be a. A pretty tranquil one heading into a game. Against Calgary cuz the rough riders, fate is pretty much decided and they're, there didn't seem to be a lot of build up to that game. And now for better or worse, there is. So, I mean, you know, co came out the Mason fine. Okay. He's starting. We had earlier this season, you know, Cody got bench during the game and, but you know, it was a that, and then B kind of the, you know, the comments and everything that Cody had afterwards. So what what's struck you the most from kind of the whole. Events that transpired this week. Well, first off, first of all, I was surprised by it. I just didn't see it coming. When I look back. It doesn't seem as shocking given a couple of days to ponder it as it initially seemed to be. Because, and I've been very staunchly. A very staunch defender of Cody, but. It reached the point where the offense, I just seemed like it was it wasn't gonna get any better. It might might be getting worse. They just seem to have sort of been in this rut where. The offense is what the offense is going to be. So. I think there's a case for doing what they did as, as I, as I consider it more fully. I, I wonder, I think, and through no fault to Cody Erdos I think what what's happened here is. Any deficiencies that you're seeing from Cody are, are symptomatic of playing behind a really bad offensive line. And I think we're starting Mason, fine. Might give the rough rider. Riders, some maybe, maybe some more hope is that he doesn't have the accumulative baggage of playing, having played behind that offensive line all year. So he's not going to be a shell shocked and is wary as Cody Gerardo had every reason to be. And maybe the lack of history behind that offensive line will allow him to perform in a manner. That's more confident. Because he just doesn't, he doesn't have the. Necessarily the reason to be as suspicious at the lack of past protection that there's been. So. It just, it struck me that they were in a rut with Cody where every game they're gonna put 'em out there and he is a sitting duck and I think he's done everything. Possible to, to, to move that offense. It's just an offense that can't move. And, and I think it's, I think it's left some scars as a result. So. Do I think there's a compelling case to do it. No, but I think there is a case. I'm not sure it was a case that they really. Went outta their way to make, but I think there is a case Calgary's bench boldly by Mitchell. So who's, who's whose job as a quarterback in the CFO should be sacred. If Cody, if by Mitchell, with his credentials, isn't playing. I think. Anybody's in a precarious situation. If should they encounter a slump? Just, yeah. Speaking of that, cuz that was always interesting. And I've seen a lot of comments online, you know, obviously Bo. Beau bench has really. Kept pretty quiet. Right? Hey, you know, we're, we're, we're along for the ride. We're doing this, whatever Jake needs and here, Cody. You know immediately. Well, I think my time here and, you know, Saskatchewan is done and, you know, I, at least this is the end of this chapter, very different tones. What did you make of the comments that Cody had? Not surprising, cuz Cody's always been a very honest guy and a very heart, honest sleeve type of guy. And. And he also said. All the, all the same type of things that Bo Levi Mitchell said, there were some, a lot of soundbites extracted from his interview. But if you look into the whole listen to the entire interview, he multiple times. Pointed out, he's gonna be the best backup he can be in he's fully supportive of Mason, et cetera, etcetera, et cetera. So he said all the things that bully Levi Mitchell said. But there was that little extra. Thrown in, and also it's a different juncture of the season where this happens. You're it would've been his final home game. And now he's not even playing that. So I think we're much closer to the end and the writing is. Is on the wall for him, you know, it's not on, it's not unthinkable that, especially the way Calgary's offense played last week. It's not unthinkable that at some point, Dave Dickinson might say, okay, we need the proverbial spark. Let's put bully Levi Mitchell back in there was, there was more runway ahead of him on that season. I think therefore, less of an incentive to apply. Kind of a, take a final bowel, whereas here it's just much closer. Much closer to the end and he he's made such an investment here. They've made such an investment in him. And it just. There's for him to say anything else would've been. Would've been surprising actually, because it just it's obviously it for the Cody Frager era, even though he's still wearing number seven, installed dressing for presumably a couple of more football games. Yeah. So speaking of that and you know, with, with the math and everything, you know, I remember preseason they're like, I think I've, I've said this show out here before, but like, you know, Saskatchewan, they need to break the salary cap to make sure that like they're in the great cup and all this. I mean, now we're not even, I mean, we're the world where basically. Hands are tied, right. It's kind of Hamilton. And I mean, talk me through. Their chances of you kind of seeing the breakup. Well, I, I think I have a better chance of winning Mr. Olympia. That might be. The silly way of putting it. Hopefully that doesn't give anybody any nightmares. What's basically gotta happen is, is that the rough rider have to win one more game than the Hamilton Tigercat over the remaining two weeks of the season, the rider off Calgary, back to back home in away, and the Hamilton tiger cats have Ottawa back to back home in away. If Hamilton wins its from remaining two game Hamilton is the only. Player in this game that, that. That controls its own destiny. If Hamilton wins its remaining two games, it's over the magic number. Is basically two for Hamilton to clench any, any number of rough rider losses and Hamilton victories. Adding up to two. And Hamilton gets third place. So it's I saw a, a number on cfl.ca. Doing the math on this and it's apparently 4%. A 4% likelihood of the rough riders making the playoffs now. One little qualifier here is. If the BC lions went on Friday night and they should, they should win. Suddenly they clench. Second Calgary. Clinton is third. And the last two games for Calgary don't mean anything. So if that's the case, how does that alter the dynamic of those two games against Calgary? Calgary's playing for something. The writers might see a much different Calgary team than one that's just in, let's get to the playoffs mode. Let's just get through this and get to the playoffs mode. So if there's suddenly. Introduced into the equation, a disincentive for Calgary to play. Full out with their best people. Does that turn that 4% into maybe 10% or 15%? Cuz I'm looking. Yeah. So cuz BC plays Friday, so then Calgary would know by SA they right. What was going on with that? Yeah. You, but I, I mean, you would think BC, but I, I wouldn't put it past them to find a way to kind of muck this up and well, It's still a BC team that doesn't have Nathan RO. Rourke and they've been kind of. Unpredictable in offense, even post Nathan work, they can have a big game or they can be awful. So. In Edmonton, you never really know it. That's a strange team. They. They're not very good, but every now and then they, they bite somebody and a Chris Jones defense can. Can be potent at times. Yeah. I wouldn't put it past BC to give Edmonds in their first home victory here after 17, 17 would not be, wouldn't not be odd. That would be, I, I do wanna get your thoughts on Vernon in BC, but in, you know, just kind of putting a pin in the rough riders, like. Obviously something is changing in the off season here. Right? Whether it's, you know, May comes back or wholesale coaching changes to me. What do you see happening there? Kind of after the season? No matter what happens. I wonder if we've already seen the first domino. And maybe we've seen the last domino. If Mason fine comes in and plays a couple of great games. Then they can say, well, look, we've made this call. It obviously worked. And we have the quarterbacking situation resolved. Does that, does that buy them all some time? I wrote a call 'em earlier this week. In defense of Jeremy O Dan, the general manager and Craig Dickinson, the head coach saying they both should return. It wasn't a glowing endorsement of them, but what I wrote was. Their body of work here, the good far exceeds the bad. Now two and nine is a really ugly stretch and with a great cup being played here this year, it's an especially ugly stretch. But at one point they had a stretch where they were on a 26 and nine role through July 8th. So it is what's happened recently, negate everything that happened previously. And I also pointed to the wind when AEG blue bombers, this an example under general manager, Kyle Walters and head coach Mike Oche their first year they went seven and 11 and they started five and one that year. And then the elevator cable snapped on, not this similarly to what's happened here. And then the next year they were five and 13. So they. Were two and 12 and 24, the first two years, the easy decision there would've been to, to have them walk the plank. Well, look at Winnipeg. Now they're a model franchise now, just because that happened or didn't happen, there doesn't mean it's going to happen here, but it, I think it's a cautionary note about perhaps being too reactionary. Do I see the rough riders going down that path? I don't think so. I think. Somebody in the hierarchy, won't be back this next year. Maybe multiple people. I look back to 2015 when the rough riders made a move at midseason they were, oh, and nine Craig Reynolds was then in his first season as, as president and CEO and a lot of people after they went, oh, and nine expected Corey Chamberlain, they had coach to be fired and sure enough, he was. They expected him to be fired by Brenda Tamon, who was a general manager, but Craig Reynolds went one step further and, and Ash can Brendan Tamon as well. And that was a regime that was a year and a half for season and a half away from winning a great cup. This season, this team under this regime, hasn't been to the great cup. So, if you look at that, where they have set the bar. And if you look at Craig Reynolds precedent for dealing with a situation where teams had a terrible season. It starts with and does not absolve the general manager. So if he looks at what he's done previously, I think that decision's almost made for him. I don't see them going. That deeply, I think. Craig Dickinson. The head coach is probably in far more danger of losing his job than Jeremy Oday. And I think Craig Dickenson's been dealt in extraordinarily bad hand by the general manager because the talent simply isn't there. Well, and that's even Cody and his, you know, that presser was saying. You know, and so in football, you know, it's this team sport, but it is so easy. Just like, okay, we're changing the quarterback. Like we can't, we can't change the whole offensive line here, you know, in week 20 or whatever. Like we can change that. And, and it's, you know, that give a spark, it's always that, you know, phrase that's done, but it does. You know, I mean, but the quarterbacks, the high profile position, you know, you get paid a lot, but then you're also expendable there. When, you know, you need to change. Yeah. And that's the nature of the position. And we've seen again, we saw it in Calgary this year. And it's. With that the, the remuneration is nice. But with that, there is the accompanying pressure and the accompanying expectations. And perhaps the encompassing. An inherent unfairness of it all, you know, with that. Profile and with that position comes the compensation, but I think there's also an inordinate degree of expectations and pressure. And, and when that doesn't happen. You, I think the college Levi Mitchell's salary, wasn't a deterrent in terms of the Calgary stamp Peters, deciding that Jake Mayer would, would play ahead of him. And I don't. I don't see that that's really that different here, except for the fact that Calgary's having a pretty good year in the rough writers are. Not . Yeah, but they're kind of like, do you, you know, gray cup sold out Regina? You know, I've heard and people say, well, like once you, if the rough riders are really out of it, maybe a lot of those tickets wind up on the secondary market, right. Maybe people bought 'em, you know, thinking like, do you see that? Do you see any issue with it being there? And if the rider are not even in the playoffs or anything else. I think there might be a situation where for, okay. For 10 bucks you can get four great cup tickets and a free car wash. I think . Those those things might be worth of a worth. Comparable to that a Bitcoin, the way this, if this keeps going, cuz I'm sure a lot of people, especially buoyed by recollections of 2013. And, and perhaps feeling a bit more pressure to buy tickets because in 2013 there were 44,710 people at Taylor field. This year, the capacity will be 33, 30, 3000 in change. So, and as a result, there's been an elevation of the ticket prices. I think people. Stepped up thinking, especially given the fact that the refers been in the last two west finals, that this is a team that was poised to take the next step. Not off a cliff the way it seems to be now. So. I think there may be a real flood of. Of tickets coming up. Quickly, you know, buy one, get 20 free, that type of arrangement. Well, cuz I, you know, we bought, I applied for other credential stuff, but just, you know, if we're buying the tickets, I'm like, I wanna at least have a seat at the show here if we don't get, if we get either or whatever. But I mean, they were, I was surprised, especially considering. Hamilton last year, I thought they were more and it, you know, holds a lot more people there. I was just surprised at the market for the tickets when they went on sale. Yeah, it's I did, I didn't look at the prices, but somebody actually told me about them. One day. I was like, Ooh. You know, I remember going into, going to great cups. I went to great cup, my first grade cup and with my mom in 1976. And. I don't think that I don't think the ticket price was even 20 bucks. But I remember looking at that ticket price and saying, Ooh, what's a lot of money for a football game, but we've got, we've spent in, we spent exponentially more to get on a plane and go stay in a hotel to, to go to that game. So that's, that's, that's just the way it's. It's landed now, the. The thing is if Winnipeg gets to the game, I think that could maybe. Solve the empty seat and the, and the dumping of tickets problem, cuz I'm sure there'll be a lot of bombers fans, very happy to make the five and a half hour. Drive to Regina to, to claim those seats that people don't want them. If Winnipeg isn't in the great cup. Well, I guess it's not too, not too difficult for Calgarian to get here either. So. But I, I think that Winnipeg market could be the one that's a savior in terms of the riders not having to emulate. Say the golden global war. Awards and higher seat fillers, just so that it doesn't look. Ridiculous. When the, when the crams pound the crowd. Speaking of Calgary and, you know, Jake, you know, we Bebo Jake's hot, has struggled a little bit here. I mean, obviously they're riding with him. What do you make of his performance? Kind of here through the end of the season? I like, I was a impressed with it for the most part against Hamilton last week. I certainly. Wasn't the three interceptions, the, the pick six to Leonard that really changed that game around. I was. Starting to wonder if Dave Dickens would put Bo Levi Mitchell in at some point. And I know during the telecast, that question was Bandi about two. Yeah, I wouldn't, I wouldn't be completely surprised. You know that bully, I met to see bully by Mitchell, have another. Have another go at it. Jake Mayer's been, I think solid. I don't think it's been exceptional. And if you look at the recent performance, I'm not sure that that makes him. Untouchable in terms of his status as the number one quarterback and. You know, it'd be. I'm also interested to see how Calgary approaches these final two games. If they don't mean anything to them, do you see bully? I Mitchell playing here instead of Jake Mayer. And, and if Bo gets hot, does that change the equation a bit? I I just to, to me, I, I, I just. Think, you know, Cody bajado said, said yesterday or, or on Wednesday that. You know that this chapter's pretty much closed and he is right, but there may be a chapter or two or even a prologue in the, or an epilogue in the Bo Levi Mitchell in Calgary saga. Yeah. Where do you, I mean, because I've heard in, you know, Bo off season trades and now obviously Cody, where do you. Where would you see them lined up? Or what do you think is kind of next in the future for both of them? Yeah, I think the most likely destination for bull Levi Mitchell is Saskatchewan. And. I mean, he almost signed here in 2019 as a free agent before. Eventually re-upping with Calgary. And, and I think of the rough riders looking at from an optic standpoint and a. Publicity standpoint and a performance standpoint. I mean, that's. I suppose that's the guy to go and get. Now, if you look at coding for Geraldo's performance, statistically, compared to. Bully by Mitchell over the last two seasons. Cody's outperformed him. And he's done that despite playing behind a porous offensive line, whereas Calgary's only allowed 13 sacks all year. The rough riders can allow, are capable, allowing 13 sacks in a. In in, in, in the two games against Calgary. So despite the fact that the protection level of protection isn't even remotely comparable Cody Gerardo still been being able to do a better job than Bo Levi Mitchell. But I, when you look at the quarterbacking market in the Canadian football league, and I think the need for the rough riders to send a, a message, I. I don't think there's a real, really, a lot of doubt that Bo Levi Mitchell is the one that they're going to go and try to get. And if they don't. What, who else is in there unless out there, unless, unless Mason fine has such a knockout final two games that they're erecting a statue. In his honor. Sometime, you know, in November. Well, that's the thing. I mean, I just don't think like, You know, Calgary knew what they had with Jake. Right behind the, like they knew, okay, we're ready. We'd seen it. Like, I don't think you just have a backup that you just like. Oh, I mean, like you said, there's a chance he ends up being transcendent, whatever it comes out, but. I think you kind of know who Mason fine is at this point. Like I just, like you said, don't expect him to come in and light the world on fire. I mean, maybe he's better than Cody cuz. Like you said, you know, mentality wise and not being scarred by, you know, kind of getting his ass beat all season. But I don't think you just have an, as they don't have an ACE in their hole the same way. I feel like Calgary did. Okay, exactly. I mean, if, if, if Mason fine, was that intriguing? A pro a prospect. There were ample opportunities to play him earlier this year, especially when Cody was visibly. Injured and immobile and, and I think. I, they, they decided, you know, a couple of months ago to put Mason fine in and give Cody arrest. I don't think there would've been anybody squawking as saying it's a bad, bad idea. Even after the game where the rough writers lost 28 to 10 to BC and, and Cody was benched near the end of the first half. And, and Mason fine, came in and did. Okay. I don't think there would've been a lot of swaping of the next week. Mason, fine is starting a quarterback because the of offense had already hit the skids by then. And, and Mason fine. Did look more comfortable behind that offensive line than did Cody. Again, we go back to the accumulated baggage theory. That I mentioned earlier, but. Now it's almost like. Closing the barn door after the horses have escaped. And, but I'm not sure they have the horses. Any torture and analogy. What would more frustrating offense to watch this year? Saskatchewan Denver book Denver. Broco . Sorry. Yeah, no, that is, oh, why? As. As someone and I I've tweeted as someone. That has lived with Russell Wilson. As the see quarterback for 10 years, like. Welcome to the world, everybody. Like we have been dealing with this for a decade. Like I see this, you know, he's, you know, tweeting the videos out. I'm like, this is, this is known. This is nothing new. If you lived in Seattle, we've just talked away in the Pacific Northwestern. Northwest. Oh yeah. Story to interject, but I'm a, I'm an art and bro was fan and I am. I am feeling like Cody Gerda in the pocket right now, trying to watch the Denver, bro. It's it's awful. Couple quick wrap fire here before I let you go. Thoughts on. My BC lions, American CFO team here. I mean, I know we're like, we're trying to clench second. I don't, I have no confidence at all in this beating anybody. If it really matters. Just, you know, without Nathan to savior you're coming in. I mean, what do you make of us and Vernon and everything else? Vernon of the Adams is interesting. He can throw. He can have an amazing game or he can struggle. It just seems it's almost a Trevor Harris type situation. He can have this great game where he can be awful. There's not a lot of. Middle ground with Vernon Adams, Jr. If you get Vernon Adams Jr. On the right day. When he's really dialing it. I think that's a quarterback who can. Take you to a take you a long way, but you just don't know. The interesting thing there is what is, what is a time table for Nathan Rourke? If he's back for the playoffs. Does that change things? Is he so rusty that. There is that he doesn't have the benefit of a period of REA climatization. Does that. Change things, but if Nathan RO can step in and be Nathan Rourke, That not only changes. I think the, the outlook for the BC lies, but it might change the. Power structure during the playoffs in the west division, in the, in the west division playoffs in the league. I just that's agar. Well, it is. And I, I have like PTSD, cuz we were gonna go, we were gonna go up last year at Calgary was gonna be in town and there were issues with like COVID and having all the paperwork. Right. So we weren't able to go. So I ended up coming back to Seattle waste of the whole weekend and that I watched BC Lu to. Calgary like 30 to nine or something there at the, that home in my fear is this year, like at BC, if we're hosting the, you know, the west, whatever, and you know, Calgary's coming in, I just think I'm gonna go up there. I'm gonna try to do a live show and they're, we're gonna get our asses speed. I just don't feel like I just, my call confidence level on BBC is for very low right now. Yeah. I, I still think that there's something to be said for BC team that is on the verge of clenching second place, despite losing their quarterback in August. Somehow they've been able to tape it together. And so I'm not sure you're liable to be as. As feeling as hollow as you did a year ago. Now you, unless you're remembering the, how you follow, you felt watching Russell Wilson last year. I, I think that's a pretty solid team. I don't think they're gonna, they're going to let you down in that regard. And if Nathan RO is back, you may. You may be paid back for what you endure a year ago. Finally here in the east. Hamilton Toronto. I mean, what, what the heck is going on and who are we gonna see here face when the peg, the breakup oh my goodness. I, I remember seeing a fight between. What was it? Was it Larry Holmes was fighting in his well into his forties. He was fighting some. Fellow agent pug. And it was like, Somebody's gonna win this fight, but who cares? And I, I wonder if the same applies to the east. It just, it seems to me that whoever comes out of the east, Unless it's a, unless it's a Western team that gets hot and the likelihood of that is pretty low. I think whoever comes out of the east is, is. Remember sunny and Cher there's share megastar there's sunny bono. Well, I think the east, the east team is sunny bono next to Cher. I think it's gonna be a. I think the real great cup will probably be the west final. Yeah. And I think that it's, it feels even more like a buzz saw than last year with Hamilton. I mean, if it really does feel like they're walking right into the didn't sunny hit a tree, is that miscolored wasn't the people hit the tree. Is that like, it feels like they're hitting the tree here. Yeah. That's so it's. It just does not seem. I mean, Toronto's in first place out, out there and McWell Bethel Thompson. I just remember what I saw in the playoffs last year and thinking, why is he back this year? May, maybe he gets hot, but I just don't see it from the Argos. I don't see it from. From Montreal. I just don't see it from Hamilton. I think that's just a. That's a. That's. That's a coordination for whoever comes outta the west division this year. It, it speaks to what we've heard on here. A lot this year of the quarterback issues right now, where you basically have Claro that just signed the mega million dollar deal. Right. And then Nathan Rourke and then kind of everybody else, it does feel like it's this smorgasboard there. It really does. All right, Rob, I will let you go. Thank you so much. And we'll be seeing you here in, in vagina here in the, in the little less of the month. I hope that playoff trip goes better for you than last year's.

Episode 114 - Back to the XFL's Future

Well, this has been a long time coming. I think my initial email was sent out during the roughneck XFL, NFL kind of debacle back. So if you wanted time date that, oh, we have Brian Michael Cooper here, former a team president of XFL 2020 RTX. How are you doing, sir? I'm doing well. I'm doing well. Thanks for thanks for thanks for having me. So I first off just timely. I have my Houston roughneck, my PJ Walker Jersey. On thoughts on PJ getting another start in Carolina here, just with all the bigger of it. Very exciting. PJ deserves it. He's. Worked incredibly hard. He's a great guy and really pulling for him. And I know he is gonna do well. He won his last start, you know, so. I dissipate big things from him. All a Sunday I'm defeated in professional play via the extra fellow NFL. Did you think here in October? 13 20 22, you would still be talking about the XFL 2020. Yeah, I'd hope so. I mean, it was a, it was a great product. And I think that we. It did, they did some, we did some great things and I'm excited to see what they're gonna do in 23. So I think that I, I would hope so. I think spring football is fantastic. I think that there's definitely a market for it. And so I had hoped that yeah, we would be. How, how aware are you of what's happening now with, you know, Danny and the rock and Redbird? Not not much, you know, you know, look, I'm still obviously a fan, so I want to keep up and see how things are going. And, you know, I'm glad that they're gonna be back here in Houston. And I'm just, you know, I'm hopeful that, that, that they're gonna be able to pick up where, you know, we're where XFL, you know, 20, 20 left off. I know that's gonna be a big ha a big lift, but. I'm excited to see what they do. Well, that's the thing. I mean, you guys, everyone guys, girls, everyone involved 20, 20, you know, and I wasn't even involved in the media side at that point, but left a lot here, you know, a set of high bar for, for this new regime coming in. Like, are you just. Surprised that, you know, five weeks of gameplay, you know, fans are still so fervent over the XFL here, you know, two and a half years later. Yeah. You know, I think it's best to, I think it's, you know, what's, what's interesting about them, you know, you said five weeks of gameplay, but really right. It was. You know, almost a year or two years of prep, right. You know, both two years to. You know where, you know, Oliver and Sam and those guys were working through building out the gameplay, which was so, you know, so fundamental. And so, you know, really, you know, transformative, I mean, how they were doing kickoffs and overtime. And doing all those things and that thing that took time. And then I think getting everybody into our various markets, you know, building the teams and the franchise, I mean, building, that's not franchises, but building the, the, the various teams in their, in their Goodwill and the community that also took time. Right. And so I think that the fans recognize that the teams had. Been in market for as long as they had been. And it, it culminated with getting on the field. Right. That's, you know, I always think that the, the off season's always the harder part than, than in season. Right. You, you know, selling tickets and getting sponsorships and all those things and doing all that. Work behind the scenes so that the game itself looks smooth and crisp and professional. How I'm curious and I see your helmet behind you as well. That's great. How. Did you, how did you get involved or, you know, interested? How did that relationship curious how you got involved as a team president? Doug. I was practicing law in both new Denver and Houston. I was a partner at a law firm, LA based law firm at the time. And I got a call from a, a recruiter had indicated that there was a, a potential opening for team president position in Houston. And had conversations there. I knew that Oliver was involved in it at that point. And I thought, you know, that this is something, definitely take a look at. And just had some great conversations, had great conversations at the league office in Connecticut. And then, you know, I was excited to obviously get back into it. I'd been president of a team before and. I was excited to get the opportunity again. And it, it built from there and, you know, got to come back to Houston, the city I love as well. And it was. Just a, a wonderful opportunity to work in a great city with great people. Were you surprised at how well Houston took to an exit franchise and obviously once the season started and you know, five and oh, and all that and Jean, but I mean, are, were you surprised at how kind of fervent the fan base was? You know, Houston's a great sports city. So I wasn't, I thought that, you know, the Houston's fans are very, very loyal. They're very knowledgeable. They, if, you know, they're very reciprocal. If you are supportive of them in the community, they will be supportive of you. And I think that's half the, you know, that's, that's the, that's the. The, the opportunity and challenge that teams face. But when they do that, they, they rewarded greatly with, with a lot of great fans. And you know, this is one of the best sports cities in the country. I think, you know, you, you know, you really have some, some really passionate fans. And so I was. I was excited about coming back to Houston. I wasn't surprised that we would have a, you know, that the fan, that Houstonians are, are great sports fans and I expected them to be. You know, supportive of us and they were, and we, you know, and part of it is being in the community and getting out there and making sure you're supportive of them as well. Yeah. And I wanna get into that, cuz that's kind of why, especially I wanted to pick your brain today is obviously, you know, we have the new XFL and you know, we're, we're going back to the markets and you're trying to kind of avoid what the USFL with the hub and all that and trying to figure out, you know, what was it that you guys did? And 2020. That that, you know, resonated so much. Right. And, and even the, you know, in Seattle here, and I have my dragons and all that stuff in, in term, and I've one of our listeners max kind of, he helped me come up with some of these questions here, but how, when, when you have some people in Houston, you're trying to sell this idea right before the. League. I mean, now we know what XFL is like, was that challenging to, to sell just that core idea to fans, to kinda get them to buy in. Well, yeah, I think in everything right. That's new. And when you're starting, you're starting up, you've got to, you know, it's it building out. The Goodwill is always critical. I always talk about the Dallas Cowboys, for example, I mean, in 1960, The Dallas Cowboys were an expansion team and they weren't even the only pro football team in their market. Right. There was a team called the Dallas Texans and ultimately became the Kansas city chiefs. And so that brand took time, right? The Dallas Cowboys weren't created overnight, the Dallas Cowboys were created over. You know, 60 years, you know, in the first five or six years they were losing franchise. And then ultimately they started winning in the late sixties and, and started getting the super bowls, you know, kind of, kind of was able to. Hop on the, the confluence of television in the seventies and boom Americans' team was born, but that took time. And I, I think it's always important to remember how. Long, it takes in the, in the, kind of the effort it takes to build out a brand. And so. Certainly the challenges are when you're coming into that market, getting fans to understand who you are, what you're doing. Why you're gonna be there. Those are critical components that, that all teams must face. And certainly, you know, the XFL. You know, we had to do that as well. We had to make sure that we were, you know, that people understood what we were doing and how we were doing it in order to build out that brand and build out Goodwill. A lot's been made. And even from us, you know, we look at what happened in 20, you know, 2018 to 2020, and that timeline. Now here. Right. You know? We we are, are still waiting on team names, right? Like stuff has been leaked. The city's leaked. We kind of found out that in July, it feels like a more truncated timeline. Right? Where you guys, we, we have the cities. Like I think a year, whatever out. And then August. Are you surprised now here? And I know hurricane Ian, I think kind of affected part of this, but we're, mid-October. Still waiting to kind of figure out what the brands and identities are for these cities. You know, I, you know, I think, look, they've got an incredible task in front of them. There's certain, no doubt about that. And just in the sense of, I think that they're, you know, I think they're working hard towards getting what I need to be. Certainly look it's, but it's, it's, it's an it's, it's a, it's a large task. Right. You know, getting out, making sure. That you're getting to the fans, getting those names out there. If there's new names, getting those new logos and new and new dynamics out there. But, you know, you know, building a league. You know, takes, starts and stops. Right? And so I definitely won't, you know, I won't Monday morning quarterback, anything that that's happening right now. I think that they're. You know, I know what it's like to be in the middle of that stuff. So I'm sure that they're all working. You know, extra hard in order to get, get what I need to be. And I think that they understand that too. And so I, I feel that they're, you know, they're cognizant of the timetable that they've got in front of them as well. And so, you know, I'm I'm hopeful that they're, they're moving. They're moving to that. That same, that same spot. Do you, I just, you know, cuz like you said, you've been involved before as a team president kind of knowing. What you're walking into. I've always just curious, like, because this isn't like a, this isn't black Adam, right? This isn't Z, this is we're, we're building an entire league. It's just very different than anything that kind of current ownership has dump done before. Like it's, transitting now across. I think there's some things that translated in. Other things that may be it's different when you're trying to get that buy-in from sports fans. Yeah. I mean, look, it, it, we come back, it always comes back to Goodwill. Right? I mean, it just takes time to build a, a sports brand, you know? And, and you've got to. You know, you gotta have a level of patience. Right. You've got to also say, look, you know, you've gotta set, you know, reasonable targets. I remember first year we were, you know, we were, someone had come up to us and said, oh, you gonna put 40,000 people in the stadium, you know, and this was may of 2019 and I'm like, we're gonna put 16,000 in state. We're gonna fill lower bowl of. PCU U stadium. We're not gonna fill the entire brain. We're not gonna do that. And that, you know, having that and having that goal and having the fans understand that goal is important. Cuz then, then you could come back and say, look, we hit our target. And then some and we, and we build for, for year two. And I think that's part of the process here is that, you know, recognizing, Hey, this is what we're expecting to do in year one. Here's what we're expecting to do in year two. And the key is really keeping it going. Right. I think that's what's fans are concerned. The question we got a lot. Was, you know, are you gonna, you know, fans are gonna invest their, their love and their loyalty into a product that they wanna make sure is gonna still be there. Right. And so, you know, it, it, it nothing hurts you more that when. You know the fans, you know, when, unfortunately when we had to shut down cause the COVID right. Because the fans were obviously right there, they were, you know, they were willing to wait until 21. They were. And I think that, you know, That's you know, when they give up that kind of loyalty. You know, it takes some time to get it back. Right. It takes some time to come back to somebody and say, okay, we are gonna be here. And so I think above all else, you really gotta focus on, Hey, we're going to be here, you know, next year in the year after that. And year after that, cuz that's where you that's when fans, fans are gonna give you that when they say, okay, I know I'm coming back next year or know I'm coming back to you after that. And when they don't feel that way or they're concerned about it, then they're. Gonna take more of a wait and see approach where they're like. Let me see what happened. And so that's a huge challenge for any new team. The most fascinating thing to me with all of this, we obviously have us FFL, right? They, you know, work, we have that lineage, right? We're trying to you, we have that fan base. We have to, we wanna do our own thing, but we have to appease that. Then we have X FFL, you know, we wanna buy the lead, you know, we're buying this. We wanna kind of get all. That good will, but then we very much have like our own vision of what we wanna do. It's fascinating kind of how to balance that out. Right? Like we want these fans. Yeah, I wanna buy the house, but then I'm knocking everything down and kind of setting up walls different. Right? I mean, how do you just thoughts on that? And like how, how to balance that, you know, everybody puts and let's put their own stamp on things. I mean, there's, that's just, there's no doubt about that. Right. And that's, that's important. There's things that are gonna be important. You have to five people together, right? And they're gonna give you five different, you know, Ideas of what they see happening. The goal is, you know, if you can build a consensus and say, Hey, look, this is the path. And here's what we wanna go forward. I, I, I, I guess I share some concern that, you know, there's things, you know, you know, do you just say, Hey, look, is, do we just come in and flip a, a switch and just keep it going as it was? Certainly that's. Not, you know, there were certain things that they wanted to do differently and that's fine. I mean, they that's, they felt. This was gonna propel them product even for more forward. That's great. You know, in doing that now you gotta get out there and build the brand. And so that's, that's just the biggest concern is getting out and building that brand. How important in, you know, I have the question here, you occur in St. Louis. And I know we did in Seattle having kind of the local, like popup events or whatever, and obviously Houston have the training camps and all that as well. But how important was that to, to get into this visibility with everyone in the, in the local towns? Incredibly important. I mean, you know, we had, we got out to high school football. Kirk did a fantastic job of getting out to high school football in St. Louis. They, you know, they had, they, they were out at just about every game. We tried to, you know, follow that model as well. And we were out at every high school football game, youth football it's critically and important. You really? Those. Touchpoints. I can't speak enough to why those touchpoints are, are necessary because one, it also shows continuity and it shows again that reciprocity, I talked about being in the community and you know, when they see you out there, And they can, they say, okay. Wow. Okay. I saw a rough next tent, you know, at the game or I saw, you know, it's just, they're little things that have to happen, but over time they, they. They began to really snowball into something much larger. And I think that that's it's, it's it it's, it's huge, you know, it just, again, it's the, it's the little blocking and tackling behind the scenes that, that really can move the needle a lot for building Goodwill in the, the community. Yeah. I mean, I'm a wedding videographer in my, you know, when I'm not wearing this Jersey. And we, I was, I was in a event show like showing, you know, Hey, come hire me. And there, the Seattle dragons were there hand, you know, they have their own booth and their table, like we're their things were, were those leagues. Suggested was that you, I mean, how did that, how did, and, and obviously it was different for each team, but how did you come up with those? So I think it's a combination of both. Like, we had a fantastic marketing group at the league level as well. And I think, you know, they, they, they all, and they're, and they're still doing great stuff now. I think. It was, you know, but it's also, it's knowing the league, knowing the league and them knowing the market. Right. And I think that having people with boots on ground in the market and making sure you're getting out to those various. Events again, it's just those touch points that are just critical to making sure, you know, to make out to making sales. I mean, It's it's it, it all adds up down the road. And so the, you know, the, the league obviously was very supportive of us getting out there and doing that and making sure that we showed that presence. And, and again, it's a lot of those stuff that goes unsung really. I mean, though, are the, the salespeople. Are generally the, the backbone of your, of your organization. And they're rarely seen right. Again, the, usually the coach and the team. Is out front and that's what you see the product on the field, but you don't see the people behind the scenes. Who are out at these events, you know, on the weekends, you know, working long hours, you know, Making these touchpoint with the, with the community and in every level, not just that the XFL level, but you know, MLB MBA, you know, they're all doing it. And it's all critical to the success of that franchise. Talking. Obviously 20, 20 everyone. There were in Houston, Seattle, whatever. Now where this pseudo. We're based out, you know, we're based outta Arlington and we have some of the people there, like, do you think having. More more remote is, is going to allow for greater flexibility in terms of like being able to, to work around and figure out, or was there benefits to having all the teams set up in locally? Based kind of in the markets in terms of doing the things like you said, Well, you know, look, I'm hoping that, you know, at some point that they'll, that the teams will obviously be in markets. I know that they're, you know, just stairstep process on building out. So I get that that's, that's, that's just logistics and it makes a lot of sense for them to, they need, you know, to get this started the way they're doing. I think it's some point old ultimately, and I think they're gonna get there. We're ultimately they will have. A greater presence in the market. I think that having, you know, being in the community is critical. It, you know, and they know that I'm not, I'm not saying anything that's, that's not understood by, by anyone who's who's been in this space is that you've gotta be there. But certainly look there, there there's ways where you can be a little bit more, you know, Innovative on how you're, how you're managing that. But I ultimately expect him to be in the markets in the, on the full-time basis. I mean, I would be surprised that they aren't, it may not happen a year one, but I assume in subsequent years that they will. Continue to, to get closer to the, you know, to making sure they've got people in this market. All the time and they're, you know, are, and in kind of a home base in the various markets. The the feedback and, you know, obviously we talk a lot more, I'm sure. Online, it's something, you know, Is any way healthy to be, but you know, we, everyone had qualms USFL, it felt like. You know, they just, Hey, we're gonna put football on TV. That's enough, right? Like we're gonna market a little bit, but you know, people understand okay. Four downs. Okay. It's whatever we're gonna play that. Exa fail. It feels like, well, so it didn't work for the USFL cuz they weren't in the markets. So if we, we put the team in the market like, then, then that's enough. And like it's still like, it doesn't feel like either of these leagues is connecting with what you guys did by back and 2020 of like, no, but then you have to like sell and. Sell and sell and sell. I mean, I can't tell you how many emails I send to, you know, clients following up. I'm sure. You know, getting you on the podcast, but like, it's that third step that it doesn't feel like either of these leagues is getting yet. Look, I, you know, I, I, I, I hear you on that. I think that it's it's but I think that it's, it's a question of timing and patience. I think that ultimately it it'll be done and needs to be done. I think that. It just takes time, right? It take that, that, that component. Just takes a very long time to do I think, in a perfect world. Right. You know, I think when people are mapping out new leagues, new teams, whatnot, you know, you really are looking at an 18 to 24 month time table, right. Where you are in market. And then you're slowly building up the, you know, the, the, the events and then you, you're adding more to that. You're adding more to that. You're staffing up, you know, the sheriff, the sheer. Need to staff up. We staffed up from zero to almost 30 staffers in roughly 11 months. I mean, that's a, that's a breakneck pace. And so even just a mirror administrative task of just building out your team. Is gonna take time. So I think that, you know, as they're, you know, as they're, they're doing it. All these things are kind of happening at the same time now. And it ultimately, I think, you know, the, the concern is, well, are they, you know, they, are they gonna get to that point where they're, they're getting those touch points? I think they will. I think at this point right now, they're still obviously still working through trying to get everybody in place. And so. It it's gonna be, you know, it's, it is a, it's a tough. Task they're going to, they're gonna get to it, but I, I would, I would preach patients on, on that as well. And I think, you know, With new entities, new leagues, new teams. It just, you just gotta set aside time to start building out those, you know, building the foundation, the groundwork so that the, you know, so that the house is stable. And that's just about the stuff that's happening behind the scenes that, that really. It just, it's very. Time consuming and, and somewhat, you know, I don't wanna say invisible, but certainly not front facing that. Hopefully it's all getting done. It's hard. And I, I hear that, you know, preach patients and, you know, but these are fans. Like I said, I didn't do any of this stuff until, until the rock and Danny and all that, you know, I, I was a fan I've podcasted now at think a hundred. This will be episode one for 14, having never watched and. XFL game played. So, I mean, I, I know about patients, but you know, we're sitting here mid-October. And it is, I think it's frustrating for, for fans that have been, I, I think they're gonna get new fans obviously and the rocks reach and all that stuff. But I think for fans that were there in the past, I do feel like. You're preaching to this, you know, like, okay, we've been now it's month, two it's month, four it's month, 26. Now, like we kind of have been patient. Yeah, no, that's quite enough. I mean like that's, I think that people wanna see the people wanna see the, the product up there. There's no doubt about that. And I think that that's like in, you know, being able, you know, part of it's communication as well. Right. Making sure that there's, you know, that there, Hey, this is what's happening and here's the plan. That also helps the fan base as well, I think, but I think like there's passionate fans out there and that's good. In fact, the fans wanna see, you know, I think what, what concerns us all in the sports business would be if there's no discussion, right. And there's discussion. And when the discussion stops, that's when you should get concerned. And so I think for now, I think that, you know, I, you know, I. I don't wanna make short shift of the idea that people haven't been patient on, on finding out things. But I think ultimately hopefully there's gonna be that connection between whatever prep work that's being done and meeting the meeting, the, the, the, the need and the, and the, and that expectations. I think of that fan base. So. Were you surprised the character of the XFL 2020 fan, like, was that different than what you would think would be an NFL fan or having that spring football fan base? No, you know what I think we were, you know, my, my thought was always this I I'm I'm I was one that was. Reluctant to fall into like the, okay, here's your target guy, you know, 18 to 30, 18 to 49 year old male. I, I said, you know, when someone would ask me, you know, what was our targeted fan? I said, everyone, I, I really believe that I wanted to expand, you know, our process to include. You know, underrepresented groups that don't go to games. You know, when I was in the, with Rio Grande valley in, in the Vipers, we had a program for senior citizens, you know, and we brought in winter Texans to our games. To, you know, and the goal was, you know, and that was one of my targets. When I went down there, I was like, look, we want to expand our market to bring in these winter Texans and winter Texans are, are people who I don't, if you're familiar with the Rio grand valley, but they, they come in for the, for the, for the winter months for, usually from the upper Northwest. And they. Stay in the valley for, you know, four or five months. And we're like, that's a great target market. They're looking for something to do. And so I think when looking at the XFL fan, I think the goal was to kind of expand. To, you know, to targeted group state, quite frankly, don't, you know, aren't necessarily represented as well. And, and, and that's how you build out your fan base and your, you know, the say, Hey, look, we want, you know, the goal is to have as, as many folks in the building as possible, the build a community and a inclusive and environment in the state. That says, Hey, we're all coming together on Saturday or Sunday to watch a football game. And I think. So that's how, that's how we approached going after our fans. And I think I, I felt like that was a, a successful model for us to do that. And it took like, it takes time. Again, all those things take time. But I think that in, in doing that, you know, you're really trying to expand that, that base out and, and, and get as many folks I wanted as many folks in the building, obviously as possible. But I also wanted those who may not necessarily have thought, Hey, I'm gonna go to game, comes to, they comes to a game and then you. You you show 'em a good time. They have a great experience and you got a fan for life. A couple of our hair. I'll let you get out. I know your time is valuable. I really appreciate it. Surprised. And this, the question is talking about. Easier or not getting fans with essentially located stadiums, right? Like obviously Houston. But more than that, were you surprised that, you know, New York and LA both that have non century located, but then also kind of the waning fan bases from 2020, were you surprised that they pulled out of LA and New York? At least his first go round. You know, I mean, I, I certainly really can't speak for them, but I'm a little surprised. I think, I think both LA and New York were doing well. I think that the issue is it's how you present it. Right? New York was playing in an NFL stadium, right? They, they were, they were averaging 18 19,000 fans, but in a 71,000 seat stadium, You know, it's kind of what MLS went through in the first few years at MLS was in late nineties where they were playing in these huge stadiums, MLS ultimately moved into soccer specific 20 to 25,000 seat stadiums, where it looked fantastic. Right. And a lot of it's perception. You know, LA, you know, was well, was doing, was doing well. So, I mean, I don't want to, you know, I can't speak to why they, you know, I felt like LA and New York were doing okay. I think New York would've benefited quite frankly. I don't think there's anybody that disagrees that New York should've moved into the red bulls stadium, Berg example. They should have played in a smaller stadium, you know, Being in MetLife made. No, you know, was just, you know, sure. It's an NFL stadium. It's great. But you know, 71, you know, again, putting 18,000 people into 71,000 sea, stadium's not gonna look good. 18,000 people in a 22,000 seat stadium looks fantastic. It, so. I think that that's, that was part, part of it as well, but I felt like they were doing. LA and New York were doing pretty well. And then, you know, everything you've done, you know, success as a career, all this. You know, talk about just the pride of being involved in 2020. And just knowing here, like, you know, the, the enthusiasm that you helped build, you know, almost we're getting on, you know, two and a half, three years ago now, like now, you know, prevails, did today and here and, and was, you know, and, and Danny, the Garcia and rock everyone buying all this. But, I mean, knowing that you were part of that and, and being a part of that ground structure of this. No, it's all. And look, it's always great. It's always gonna be great memories, all you know, and I think that, you know, lot got to work with a lot of great people at the league and team level. I mean, all the team presidents that were. Involved back in, in 2020, they were all fantastic at what they did. They did, you know, they were really. You know, great people to get to know, and to work in the markets and figure out best practices. We had some really innovative people at the league level. Who really did some fantastic things on, you know, we, we had partnerships with elevate on ticket sales and some, you know, we did some innovative things there. And so, and then the gameplay itself, right. Was, you know, you know, the reimagining football, the way they did, you know, and Sam and his team mean building out the rules that quite frankly, Are rules that I would, you know, I always anticipated that the kickoff rule would ultimately be accepted by every level of football down the road. I still think it may, because I, I think it, it, it's such a great safety measure. So I'm, you know, I'm always gonna have bond and great memories of, of the X, F L, and I'm really excited to see. You know, and I think that that excitement is, is still manifested here where people who are still eager to see what's gonna happen in 23, which is great. And I think that I'm one of those folks to see. I'm excited to see them get back on the field too. Well, Ryan, I really appreciate this. I know it was a long time coming, a lot of emails and messages back, but I really appreciate it. I know you're busy guy, Well, it's good to see Jeff Hamilton to get on here last time. I think I saw you. We were at the gray cup now. I have. Tickets purchased. We've got our. Hotel, everything I think I even have where we're doing our live show here, coming up in November. How are you doing? Good man. Yeah, absolutely. It was the great cup. The last time we talked, which was, which was a terrific terrific week in Hamilton and I'm expecting probably a colder. Weekend Regina to be sure. I mean, I think it was like plus 15 degrees. Celsius for the Canadians out there. You're gonna have to do the, you know, the Fahrenheit. Change on, on your end, but the, but yeah, this, this year, I think it's, it's gonna be an awesome time because we all know how big, big Saskatchewan is into the three down game, but it's gonna be a cold one for sure. Yeah, no, I'm excited. I was talking with our friend Gerald Davis. He goes, well, you need to be careful because it's going to, you know, snowy either. I'm talking to Dorothy about it. She's like snow, but I think, yeah, very scared. yeah. Coming up Georgia. Church, lots to talk to today, you know, were weak. God, what is it now? 19 of the season? What the hell of a week are we. Somewhere around there. We're getting down to the last week. So there's three more weeks remaining. In the season. So the bombers have two more games. Some teams have three, but, but less than a month before it gets for real. So, what is your Jeff Hamilton? What is your biggest takeaway here, storyline? That you're kind of tracking this week and then obviously there's some other stuff we'll run down. You know what there's still like. I, the, the number one storyline this weekend I'd argue for the last few weekends is the. Free fall of the Saskatchewan rough riders, right? I mean, they're, they're lost last week. Ultimately took their own, you know, their own influence on their or their own, you know, they no longer have they no longer control their DEC destiny anymore, which wasn't the case until last weekend. So. That being the Hamilton tiger cats with the losses. I think it's like five straight in a row, at least for, for Saskatchewan right now. So Hamilton who's also pretty dismal. They have an opportunity to catch up. Because sketch one's fighting for that east crossover. And so if anyone who doesn't know kind of the rules with the crossover doesn't season series, doesn't matter when with a crossover and ha did the, the tie always goes to the team and there respected divisions. So the way it's worth out now is Hamilton can ultimately. Punch their ticket here. And it puts a lot of pressure on a Saskatchewan team. That's hosting the gray cup. This year and very well. Possible way more possible than it's ever been. Might not even be in the playoffs so that that's the storyline I'm looking at. And the other one of course is who's gonna take second place in the west. That's not gonna be determined this weekend. It's a fight between BC and. And, and Calgary, but that's still to be determined in, in the west division. So those are the two focuses, I'd say, yeah, I wanna we'll get to BC cuz I am like, my life is a rollercoaster at then. But in terms of Saskatchewan, I, it is like you, I think you said free fall. I mean, are we expecting like wholesale changes? In that organization here in the off season. So winning cures. All right. So I mean, I, I already think there's definitely gonna be a reflection in the off season, regardless, just because of how this season's gone. It's been a storyline really? Since train camp. They're. They're lack of talent, if you will, or execution or are combination of both on the offensive line, that's been an issue and it's been particularly. Confusing given that Jeremy O. Day, their general manager. Is an X O lineman in the, in, in the CFO. And would. Know, damn well that you build your team around that front five. So that's kind of been the issue, but the reality is, is the way if they keep training the way they keep trending and. If they don't make the playoffs, I don't know how you don't have wholesale change. I mean, this, this, you know, this has been, you know, under head coach, Craig Dickinson, whether it, you know, and, and if anyone who's been following this league, I mean, it hasn't just been the losses it's been, it's been the. Incidents that have propped up over and over and over again. It's just been a new thing, whether it's Garrett Marino and his suspensions and, and. Ultimately his release from the team to, you know, duke Williams, getting suspended for games, throwing helmets at against, it was just a lack of discipline and structure on that team. Lack of leadership. On that team. And when you compound that with the fact that they, they may not make the playoffs. I don't know how you go in the next season. With the same people in leadership, whether it's a, whether it's a full. You know, cleaning of the house or, or it's a, you know, Someone's gonna fall on the sword. It's just gonna be how many people, if, if, if, and when they, they don't make the playoffs. Yeah, it's just, I was started with our friend, Tim Banes last week on hear about it. It's just like, I, I, all I read is negativity coming out of, you know, anything involving the rough riders. If it's Cody is upset or, you know, Craig yelled at the players and then apologize, like it just, it always seems like something's going on. I just can't figure out. Why of, of any of the nine teams. And I mean, there's certainly not the worst, but now they, they seem to be trending down to that direction. It just seems like there's so much hostility there with everything going on. Well, you know what it is? Read it's it's. This is the most arrogant organization in the CFO, right? They're the only ones like you have the Winnipeg blue bombers, for instance. Right. You know, my, my backyard here, the team that I cover. They're back to back champions. Okay. Their access is, is, is, is, be, is among the best in the league. You know, you can get players and all those things, the attitude of the bombers is that, you know, we need. And I'm talking, obviously selfishly here on, on this respect for media. Which is ultimately the voice for the fans, right? I mean, we, we work essentially for, for the people that follow the sports. So. You know, we have complete access there, there, there, isn't an arrogance that we, you know, you need us more than, than, than we need you. And that only exists side argue in Saskatchewan. So, I mean, we all know Saskatchewan's, you know, the bombers like to call them, you know, like to say that Winnipeg has the, the best in loudest fans. And, and there's certainly a debate there for sure. And I, I would argue they do. I mean, they are, they are leading the CFO right now in attendance, and that's been the byproduct of being a winning team for years, cuz it always used to be Saskatchewan essentially win or lose. And so it's just it's everything. And I mean, it comes top downs from. From Craig Reynolds and, and just, just the attitude they have. I mean, I, I I've been saying this for a long time and it's, I'm not trying to beat up on these guys, but that's just the way they work. I mean, they, they just have this. Have this attitude that they don't need anyone else, but themselves and the product will sell itself. And, and, you know, this comes after a 20, 20 season that was completely wiped up to COVID. So this, this didn't fix that, that attitude. And so that's kind of the, they just been an unlikeable team. I mean, that's really what it comes down to. And. You know, and, and when, when you add losses on top of that, you start seeing the rider, faithful, who, you know, have, are among, you know, with Winnipeg and other clubs, the best fans in the league, you see apathy coming in and you see them turning on, on their organization. So it's just, you know, free fall mess, whatever you want to. Classify it as it's kind of, they're just everything and, and everything seems to be going wrong over there. And in Regina, I mean, you know, and they're like, you know, candid team, right. It's kind like the Dallas Cowboys. So you have a little bit of that arrogance. It's like, what have you done? I will say, just echoing. And I'm obviously not nearly as deep into as you guys, but I've never, I'm think I've never had a rough rider player on the podcast where I never went. That is, you know, Very amenable to me being like, Hey, I'm, you know, American here can, can we figure out something? And, and I would echo that. And I finally have just kind of, you know, there's certain teams I go with more just cuz it seems to be easier to accommodate. Oh, they worse than the, any they're worse than the NHL and other pro leagues. I mean least like, I mean that attitude exists in other leagues, but. They're not necessarily, always wrong, you know, whereas this one's just a clear, yeah, it's tough. I mean, Like I said, I don't want to, you know, spend a ton of time beating up on these guys, but they really, you know, I mean, it's hard to say they don't deserve. What they're getting right now in a lot of respects. And it's just, and again, it's, it's, you know, whether it's most recently, I mean, the bi-week right, like the week that they weren't supposed to take an L while they took a massive one with one of the players, having a, you know, a charge with the DUI, it's just, they just, they can't seem to escape. Issues on or off the field. And, and that's really been, you know, the story of their entire season, really beginning since, you know, training camp when they had a bunch of guys tear ACL or sorry, Achilles, you know, I'm not laughing at that. That's the worst thing ever, but they had like four or five of them, you know, during pre-workouts it's like guys. Were so it's just, maybe that was an omen for what was to come. And it's just, yeah, it hasn't been, let's just say it, hasn't gone to plan over and rider. Last question on them, you know, Cody or I. Cody dared next year. I mean, are we, are we all in on that? Cuz I just, I see more dramas surrounding him than almost any quarterback in the league. Yeah, I don't think so. Like, I don't think you can go back to, I mean, I certainly think that. They haven't put the pieces around him, you know, as I mentioned off the top, I mean, that offensive line has been porous for, for the entire season. And even with Dan Clark now back at center, I mean, they haven't, they're not all that much better. And so. That's really been the problem area. And you know, you can't say they haven't. Surrounded him with receivers. They're, you know, I think you could argue, could have made the argument that they had the best receiver group in the CFO. And so. You know, and guys like Shaq Evans and duke Williams and, you know, Keyan, Shafer baker, he's having a great season, Kyron Moore. I mean, some of those guys have been out with injury, but so you have, you know, with the old line, with the poor oline, I think you do have a bit of a, not mixed excuse, but you have a little bit of one. For Cody Frager, but it's just been, you know, I think what we're looking at here and I hate to say it because, you know, I'm not trying to beat up on Matt Nichols, but he kind of seems like the Matt Nichols of Regina. Right? I mean, he, you know, everyone looks at, you know, as completion percentage, I think he's upwards seven, you know, 70, 71%. Which is a good number, but he's not, he's not like Zach Claro and Nathan Rourke trying to fit it into tight windows. He's not stretching the field. A lot of it is a lot of it's, you know, passes behind the line of scrimmage. Easy kind of, you know, screen passes or, you know, kind of ding and donking offense is what they call it. So you're gonna rack up a lot of completions. You're just not racking up necessarily a to of yards. And so we have seen flashes of Cody Fujio, you know, of, of that 2019 sea season when he was a west can for. Mop, but we haven't seen nearly enough of it. And when you factor in that, he's got knee injuries now and he's getting older, right? I mean, the injuries are adding up. He's no longer that mobile. Threat that he was a few years ago. So, you know, it's, it's great to have the win loss record that he has for the last couple of years, but you know, maybe this is indicative of, of kind of what you get. This is your ceiling with him. And I just don't see him being enough. With, especially with the pieces around him to be a winning football team. So whether, you know, whether Bowie Levi, Mitchell ends up there next year, which has been kind of the, you know, the talk over the last few weeks, and he's been replaced by Jake Mayer and Calgary or, or some somebody else. You know, as I mentioned, I think the fans are turning on 'em and I mean, look. I can relate to some of the, the stuff postgame with, you know, I like when players talk about their mental health, I like when players discuss the challenges of dealing with social media and, you know, and a pro league and all those things, but it's just too, it's far too often comes across as excuses from Cody where it's just, like's a new thing every week. Like it's, you know, I it's just like, he's a Paul apologizing for saying. Things or he is, he's angry about certain stuff or he is, you know, he is bothered by this it's like win games then, you know what I mean? Like that's ultimately gonna cure all and you know, I don't think it falls on Cody Fujio, but I think if you are. Looking at this season. And if it keeps going again, the way it's been going, I don't know how you, you know, the changes. Aren't just gonna be. In in the front office, they're gonna be on the field. And if you can get a more reliable and, and more proven quarterback there, that might change a lot. But. Yeah, we just really haven't seen any kind of dominance or any level of dominance from that offense or Cody throughout the year. Yeah, I was just worried you get bow in there and then it's like both of the old and kind of beat up. Like, I mean, I think that that would be certainly exciting then, like I said, as you said, you know, that's kind of been the rumors that, you know, people kind of like, you know, Hey, wouldn't this be cool if with ever, but that's kind of a scary proposition too, and then having Bo in his, as beat down there. Well, and that's the other thing, right? He's been battling injuries. I, you know, I'd like to think that, and this is the interesting part, right? Because I think it believe I'm Mitchell doesn't get replaced this year. There's a, a way better chance that he. Retires that he moves on to maybe a broadcasting career. I think, you know, for a guy as proud as he has, and as a career is. As, as great as he's had in this league. I don't think you want to end things as the number two. Like I, you know, like, I don't think you want to, I, I don't think he will. So I do see a way better chance how he could come, you know, it could come to the seat to season end and who knows what happened down this stretch here, right? Jake Mayer could get, get hurt and he could have his Swan song or. His opportunity to kind of take over that number one and maybe decides to leave. But I see, you know, you talk to a lot of professional athletes and they don't wanna leave. On somebody else's terms. And if there's an opportunity for him in the off season, I believe there will. I don't think it's just limited to Saskatchewan either. You know, and he's ready and willing to put in that off season of work. We all know how, you know. Well, we don't know personally, but you can imagine how grueling that is to get ready for a, you know, for a football season, if he's willing to do that, I think he'll have the options. And so the fact that he's been relegated to the number two and, and may not finish this and may and Mo most likely finishes the season there. I see a bit more of a, of a chance if you will, for. Him to, to return and whether that's Saskatchewan or replacing Cody or somewhere else, but to your original question, I think Cody's job. If it keeps trending this way. You know, he ultimately probably won't be understander for next season. Sticking in the west. Team America, CFO team and the BC lions here. I. As they stand right now. I mean, I know Nathan RO we saw like, are the BC alliances, a good football team right now? It's a good question. Like I think they are, I mean, they have gone through a little bit of, you know, I think they went through a lot of question marks. I think a lot of teams thought that this club would derail when, when Nathan RO got injured. Right. I think there was a, a lot of people say, okay, well this, you know, second, there's no way they're getting second place. Surely. Calgary's gonna catch up. I mean, they beat Calgary. I think with Vernon Adams for one of those games. And so. So, you know, so it's like they have one games and then they lose two Toronto. Who lost the week before and only scored two points. It's like the, the CFO is so weird. So to answer your question, I think, yeah, I think the BC lions are a good team. Are they a great team? Probably not. I mean, they're a really good team under, under Nathan Rourke, as we saw through the first eight, nine weeks. But I don't know if Vernon, like, here's the thing with Vernon Adams. Like, like it's been his entire career. He's a talented guy, but it's like, he either has an incredible game or an incredibly awful game. It's just like you got, you kind of get. One of like, you never really is like he not really a game manager, he's either gonna win you the game and run around and, and extend plays with his legs and, and throw for 300 something yards or he's gonna, or he is gonna get exposed and, and have a, you know, a bunch of turnovers and it's not great. So I feel, I, I really, it really does kind of feel like boomer bust. With him behind center. So look, I, I think. You know, BC is a good team. They have a, you know, they have a good defense or special teams has improved. It's not, certainly not. I wouldn't even say middle of the pack, but it has improved. Their defense is solid. You know, they have been banged up. I mean, lucky Whitehead and Brian Burnham were both out. So those are two key weapons, but they do have other weapons that have come, you know? And they're they're, if you look at the last few weeks, I think their run game hasn't improved. I think they're gonna be dangerous, but I just, you know, unless Nathan roar, who's, who's throwing. Now this past week, he's not running, which is an important distinction, but he is throwing. I don't know if they're gonna be all that dangerous and, and I come playoffs without him. And I, and I do think that when, when it comes to the west final on November 13th, we're gonna see, we're probably gonna see Calgary moving on. To play Winnipeg for that shot at making the great cut. Well, that's the thing. And I, you know, I love Vernon and, you know, from Washington and you know, he's down the street from where I am here. I'm like I said, you know, if you can't, if he can't come in and just light the world on fire here with everything. And I obviously now they, you know, lucky and in the injuries and stuff, but. You know those first couple weeks, I'm like, I don't know what his, what his future is. After the season, like if you come in here, we have this hall of fame, like wide receiver core and all this stuff. Like, I don't know what what's next for Vernon after this season. Well, you know what I mean? There's, there's no doubt about it. I mean, this is a guy who spent the off season, you know, flying a bunch of, I mean, let's remember he was with Montreal to start the year, right. So he was in the off season, flying down receivers. Putting on his own like little mini camp and just showing how much he wanted to be, you know, a big piece of the success for, for Montreal this year. And I mean, How long did it take for not only him to lose his starting job to Trevor Harris, but Kahari Jones to get fired. And so. I think he's, I think he went into this season with a ton of promise, but I think a guy like Vernon Adams is always proving, you know, he belongs in this has to prove he, I'm not saying that doesn't apply to everybody. Of course, that applies to everybody. But I just don't think with Vernon Adams, you know what you're getting can consist enough. Enough. And so, you know, I mean, I don't think Vernon Adams is gonna start, you know, not gonna have a, a place in the CFO next season. You could very well be a starter somewhere else. Heck you could go back to Montreal, maybe, you know, depending on what happens with Trevor Harrison, whatever, it's probably on unlikely it's in, they traded him. But I do think. He's still very much in the mix, but I think what you can't debate and what is certainly clear is he's certainly auditioning for his next job. I mean, it might be in, it might be in Vancouver. I mean, if Nathan Rourke gets, you know, he's gonna, the CFO has that NFL window. If he gets interest there, he can leave, you know, and, and I imagine he will leave with enough interest. I think the injury plays, you know, I think that maybe. At very, at the very worst, I think it delays it another year and he comes back to the lines. And in that case, well, Vernon and Adams is probably not gonna be playing, you know, probably not gonna be wanting a spot there behind Nathan Rourke. I mean, he, he might be interested that might be his only option, but I certainly think Vernon Adams is, is odd auditioning to all the team that are looking. To maybe have a change at quarterback over these next few weeks and perhaps into the playoffs. If work doesn't come back. It's just hard. I just feel like at this point, like you, like you said, you don't know what Vernon is, you know, cuz it's kind of boomer bust, but like we know what that is now. I don't know sometimes with the CFO and NFL too, but like, you know, like we rotate these guys. It's like, okay, well maybe if we put them in this position, like, but like you kind of just know at this point, like. You know, I'm I have Carson, we, since my quarterback right now, like we knew what Carson was coming into the season like this. I mean, there's still surprise here that it is very similar to Vernon where it's either like boomer bus, you know, kills the game. But I just, I worry, you know, with Vernon now, and he's gonna be one of those, like our people that's just floating around for the next couple years. Well, yeah, I mean, I think, I think, you know, I look at it too and. I don't know, this is how I kind of classify it all. Is that like, okay. So Vernon Adams essentially had a really good year in Montreal a couple years ago. Right. They had that 10 and eight year. It was like, okay. You know, they're made the playoffs, they're back into the playoffs. He's the guy. You know, he kind of bought himself a couple seasons in the CFO. Cody Fujio comes in in 2019 after Zach Claros gets hurt. Three plays into that season. Has a great year for them. And then, you know, you can't look at if so doesn't have a starting spot last year. I don't think he can look at and be disappointed in the CFO because he literally bought himself a few years. So, you know, whether that applies to. You know, Vernon Adams for what, what his future might be or any other quarterback for that matter. I, I, I do think, you know, you're right, because I think that there is enough. Out on, on a guy like Verna to know what you're getting, which is that boomer bus. But at the same time, you know, this is a league that recycles quarterbacks far too often, they maybe should, and, and don't give. Opportunities to, to guys as quick as, as maybe they should, maybe that changes with, you know, what we saw with Nathan Rourke, right? I mean, I think a lot of people, myself included had the BC lions finishing near the bottom of the west standings and missing the playoffs because they were willing to give that much rope to a new, and you. Know, a relatively inexperienced quarterback. So, you know, I, I, I really do think that's kind of, you know, I'm gonna look at it now. I mean, the quarterbacks, the system, the quarterback system in C L I would, you know, I don't want to go out there and be hyper ball and say it's an all time low because that's the, that's a accounts for a lot of. A lot of history there, but it's not all that great when you look at it. I mean, you know, the fact that that Zach Claro is, is, or that they're even, there's a debate that Nathan Rourke might win most outstanding player in the CFO. I kind of think tells you everything you need to know. Now, Nathan Rourke was absolute, incredible. There's no doubt that what he did in the, you know, I think it was nine games. You know, five talk performers of the week. Like that's a, you know, he was awesome. But nobody has really distanced themselves. From that race beyond a Zach Clara. There's no other quarterback you can really look at. I mean, we look at, you know, over into the east in McCloud, Bethel Thompson, like yeah. Like his numbers are decent, but for a lot of the times he's got Chuck the ball, right. I mean, he's playing from behind some time, you know, for a lot of the time and, and that's just kind of his game, but you look. At Dan Evans and Hamilton, and he hasn't really worked out, Jeremiah am a solely is injured and, you know, in game four and, and in Ottawa. So it's just, it's just, yeah, it's not really a great QB breeding situation right now, but even, and I got kind of caught in a thread this week. I mean, even, and NFL quarterback play isn't. I mean, like, there are, there's the elite, right? I mean, you Allen Mo homes, but like, There's a lot of mediocre quarterback play across the board, across the board. And now we have, you know, I was saying today on pat McAfee, like. NFL expanding to, you know, Europe in 2025. And you're like, holy God. I mean, there's, you know, and then we've got XFL and UFL, I mean, you know, we're coming for some of those, you know, whatever quarterbacks. So, I mean, there's just, it it's, it is a very big dilemma. That's not just facing the, see if, but like you said, this very prevalent this year with a quarterback play there. Well, the obvious difference being too is there's plus there's 30 plus teams right in the NFL. There's nine teams in the CFO. Yes. So there's, there's really only nine positions at quarter starting quarterback positions. So you'd like to think there would be, you know, a bit better, better stuff there, but yeah, certainly. I mean, it's not you unique to the CFO. I mean, You can look at a, a handful of teams and in the NFL too, like, you know, there's no such thing as tanking in the CFO. There's no such thing as, as a building year in this, like there is, there is, but building years in the CFO is not the same way you'd view building year and, and the NFL or in the, and the NHL or NBA. Right? Like, it's just, you know, So you, you kind of expect to, you know, I think the expectations in each, in every, every CFL city are significantly higher. On average than what you would see necessarily in the NFL. I mean, there's a lot of fan bases that go into this year. Cheering for a higher draft pick, right? Knowing it's gonna be a rough year and ultimately is a rough year. And that's based on either your quarterback. Isn't good. You got a veteran guy who, you know, hasn't really proven himself and doesn't give a lot of a confidence or you've handed the reigns to a young guy who needs experience. Right. I, you know, a high draft pick who you hope comes. Out and lights the league on fire, but more often than not needs, you know, a, a season or two of seasoning. And the team's opted to go with that guy, you know, to get, to get to where they hope you will be in a year or two time. Oh, and like you said, the CFL. In the NFL, you can disappear and be one of 32. And like, we're just gonna rebuild over here in Jacksonville for a couple weeks. Totally. Yeah. CFL, like you said. And you know, and that gets into the whole debate of you games and, or the games player like CFL. You can't hide bad games week. I mean, that's, you got four games every week. Like one of 'em might be a stinker. You got, yeah, I go, it goes back and forth, but that I don't wanna keep you too long before I let you go. Argonauts in the east, like, are, are we seeing. You know, Toronto, I, I know Al let's say, he said, can Clint this weekend, you against the red blacks? Like what, what do you see in the east kind of a brief thoughts? You know, I thought this past week, Not this one coming up this past week was a crucial one for Montreal. You know, they were on their heels and then they lost. And so I think that kind of with, I think it's seven and. Nine and whatever, there's, there's a couple different there, there they're. Now I think Toronto is gonna walk their way to top of the east. With, with what, you know, after Montreal all losing to Ottawa last week, I think that kind of, there was a lot of momentum for the allots after winning a, you know, a few games in a row. And you had, you had Danny macho stealing Geno Smith's line of about, about, you know, they wrote a soft, but we didn't write them. Back, which I thought was ridiculous when it came, you know, two weeks after gen Smith said it for a team that was under 500, I, you know, vault thing. So they were building momentum. I, I even written in my weekly column, I do a CFO rundown column that like, you know, don't look now, but the Montreal are creeping up to, to threaten the, to. Threaten the, to try and organize for top spot in the east. And then the week plays out Toronto beats, a good BC team. And, and aloes loses to a bad. Ottawa team. So that's where I think this was one in loss in this week. I do think Toronto ends up wrapping up the east. Maybe not this weekend. I don't know if they can, I'd have to look at it. Maybe they can with a victory in a Montreal loss that would make sense. But I definitely think this is Toronto's to lose, which I don't think they will. Well, and coming off the red blacks and, you know, we fire all LA police. Like we have all this stuff and we bringing in, you know, the interim coach and then yeah. To have Ottawa, I was cuz it was, I, we did not have, we did not have a holiday on Monday. So I was working, but I was watching the game on score on my five. I thought, oh, Gary stern. I felt really bad for Gary that day, friend of the show here for, you know, that that was a bad block, right? Well, it was and I mean it, and what, you know, it's, it's kind of like you off you don't, you often see it in Hawk, right? When a coach gets fired, you get that bump. Up, right. Like you get that coach lost bump. You don't necessarily see it. In, in football as. As noticeably, but clearly Bobby dice taking over his head coach, there lit a fire. I mean, they did the whole post game videos afterwards. There was a lot of excitement there and, you know, I thought it was odd to hear like, you know, GM Sean Burke, like after, after firing, you know, Lao and, and bringing and, and bringing Dyson as the head coach say that, like this change, hopefully the players can play more freely. And I, I thought that was an odd. Comment because, I mean, I'm sure, you know, nothing's worse than losing, right. You know, as great as win, you know, nothing's better than winning. Well, nothing's worse than losing, coming into the, to, to the stadium, you know, every day for practice and whatever. So maybe there was a looseness to it, but I don't even see it that way. I see it as guys. Fighting for jobs next season. And, and whether, whether it was a coach's bump or whether it was, you know, maybe guys feeling they needed to impress here down the final stretch. Certainly a bad loss for Gary and a bad loss for a Montreal team that looked like they were on the brink of at least competing for first, but probably are gonna look at that loss as the reason why they don't. Last question for you today. I appreciate your time coming on here and taking the extended. I the Winnipeg opt in you're right. Bidding the host of great cup in 2024 or 2025. Interesting. Cuz I know that Omar Doman over in be, you know, Vancouver, you know, there're really apt. And I said, well, we'll we'll road trip up from Seattle if that's the case. But I thoughts on that and I mean, obviously it makes sense to roading everything. Around, but getting the gray cut back to Manitoba. Well, it used to kind of be. What it used to be is they would do it as almost kind of like a. A cookie in some ways. Right. So when, so when, when, when MLSC. Maple leaf sports entertainment, bought the Argonauts or took over the Argonauts. They got to host the great cup. That year, right? Because it's the big revenue. Generator right. You, you, you know, that's the big, you know, that's when everyone makes money and so you can turn a profit, right. It's like, okay. You bought this team, CFO gave it to Toronto so they could get some money back, cuz they were gonna lose, you know, Argos lose money every year. So. It used to be kind of that, that way, right? Like what team, what, what's the next team that hasn't been able to benefit from this. They kind of are the next ones up. That's changed. So now just to improve the bottom line teams need to. Commit or sorry, put together a proposal. You're literally buying the game. And so the CFO becomes, you know, they start, they start selling off the rights to the game. And it really is the best deal. So if you're Winnipeg and you think that you're gonna get, you know, what, if you're gonna make a ton of money and, you know, yada, yada, you're gonna, you're gonna be, you're gonna spend more money to bid on that game and the CFO will get more money. Right. Cause it's an upfront fee whenever that will be. And so it was news news, kind of an just in Winnipeg news. Was announced yesterday that the, the provincial government's willing to commit something like 5.5 million. Dollars to the city to host it so that, you know, that's big news. That's, that's just not just news of the support from the province, but, but news that the bombers are actively. Pursuing that 20, 24, 20, 25, I think whatever it is, you know, game, which goes east, west, east, west. So you just gotta do the math to figure that out, but. The the reality is, is like not only is Winnipeg interested, but this is, this is big money that the, the province is willing. To give them to boost what will ultimately be a proposal and the CFO will decide. You know, which, which is, which is best for them and which is best bang for buck. Well, no, and I think that makes sense, like you said, it it's kinda like in the states, you know, whoever gets like the new football stadium. You getting a super bowl in a couple years, right? WrestleMania, same thing. Like, they'll go to like, oh, Vegas has a new, you know, stadium, like we'll go or whatever. So, you know, you're trying to like, yeah, we just spent, you know, 2 billion or whatever on the stadium. Totally. Let's get some stuff and it, but that makes sense. And that's also, I think good, cuz that seems like a lot of money to be. You know, helping to bid to, to raise. I mean, that seems to be boosting the stakes of the gray cup now. I think so like, and so that, that, that that's great point, right? It's not just the bottom. Line for the CFO that's improving. Right? Cause like I said, you should just be handed off. There would be a certain, I think it was just a certain. Price that was set that you had to pay for it. It wasn't, it didn't change, you know, to paint on who was bidding or who wanted it or whatever. And so, yeah, so not only will it help, I think the health of the league and, and, and the money that they obtained, but it also puts a little bit of competition in place. It starts saying, well, what are your plans? Who have you? You know, what what's it gonna look like? And so the league can look at it, not just from a monetary monetary standpoint, but who's gonna put on the. Best show who's, who's willing to commit the most. To, to have, you know, to showcase the biggest game in the league. And so I, yeah, to your point, I definitely think it adds, it adds to not just, again, not just the bottom line for the league, but to the actual event, you know, in and of itself. Should we know who the gray cup halftime is this year yet. Should we know that? Doesn't that seem like we should know. Should we not know it yet? Is it not public? I don't think it is. Do you know who it is? And I, I don't, I don't know who it is. I, I don't know who it is. I mean, it was, it was, it was pretty good. Last year was. The art last year and, and they had the lumen years there as no, you know, as a kind of surprise thing. So. Personally, I'm a big Lumineers guy. So I think the bar's been the bar's been set, but I feel like it was like, I feel almost like. Every time, every time they, they come up with like a new choice. It's always, it's always, it's always aimed at like, they either pick something for the younger generation and the older generations get mad or they pick something for the older generation and the argument is, well, why aren't you, why aren't you, why aren't you pleasing the. Why aren't you appeasing the, the younger generation. So I, I don't know. Usually they do. Sometimes they do a. Sometimes they do a. You know, it's in Regina this year. So it might be someone from there. I don't know how many, you know, I don't know if that limits probably limits a little bit of their options, but I don't know who the halftime show is right now, but I'm assuming, or I'm, I'm assuming it needs to be. Be pretty quick. Here's the other thing the show sold out. Yeah. So it doesn't, doesn't, it doesn't doesn't really matter who the host is. I mean, you're not, you know, I don't think, I don't think you're gonna lose any tickets from any they're already sold. So they're already spoken for, so whether it's, you know, maybe they come out in the end now take guys' saving money. We're not doing anybody. So. Doubt that will happen, but it's been a high bar over the last few years. Well, yeah, I do think last year it was like, oh crap. We really need like with COVID and everything and Hamilton, like, okay, like, let's get the AELs, let's get the loop. Like we gotta really sell this where I don't think this year yeah. Sold out and, and I don't think they have had any concern about Regina cell. Yeah. And. I'm trying to think if I've heard any rumors. I certainly am not holding out on you. I would have no problem. Sharing. I would've no problem sharing that scoop if that was the, you know, if I had it, but I can't seem to think of can't even seem to think of rumors at this point. So I might, my guess is. My guess is they know it'd be, it'd be a whole other story if they had no idea. With, you know, you know, bit more than a month or whatever remaining before that game, but whoever it is, I'm sure it'll be a good time in the week will be a blast. So I'm looking forward to seeing you down there and everybody else.

Episode 113 - Is It Time to Panic XFL Fans?

Well, I'm joined today again by the professor, Andrew Murray back again, guest scheduling. Issues a little bit. I appreciate Andy coming on, but I think we've workshop something good to talk about today. Remember a big time guest next week. XFL fans, Andrew Murray, how are you doing? I'm good. Two things. One I'm getting used to the professor title and two. I liken myself to be someone in the bullpen. You know, if you need like a really pitcher and you need me to come out and like throw, I don't know, junk ball pitches, I'm totally ready for it. So . And both are both your pods and my Mariners have both, you know, made to the postseason. That's exciting. First time ever first time ever. So this is kinda, so we're talking my working theory today and we're gonna go through all this. And then Andy also has this article talking about the IFL team owners. XFL pipeline. That whole thing. My working theory is that the XFL is going to be the best. Played football league of all time. Best scouted, best coached. We have all the DPPs. We have everything in the world. Attendance. I'm worried about, I'm worried about local fan interests. Like I think we're, we're halfway. There where the S FFL may be, had a little bit, you know, rush training camps. We kind got some players together. And then we also maybe bundled some of the, you know, local stuff. I think the XFL we will be well played. I just don't know if we will be well observed. Are, are you going to go to down this journey with me, Andy? I'll try my best. I'll hold your handle on the way too, if you need to. that's good. So we have, I have the timelines here. We're gonna go together. USFL 20, 20 timeline, XFL, and all that. I don't like being a timeline guy. But I do think it's good to at least like, Where are we in the timeframe of the world here? Like X, many days out from, you know, kickoff back in 2020, kinda what were we doing? I don't like the like, well, they did the draft in February, so that means they have to do the drafts. I just like knowing, like where are we relative for that? But to start this whole conversation, I tweeted last night. At like 5:30 PM. I said, is it time to panic XFL fans? And that's all I said, yes or no, almost 400 votes in this we record 50.7% saying yes, 49.3% saying, no. What do you make of that? That nearly 50% of the XFL diehards that. Followed me on Twitter are panicking right now. I think people are information hungry. And when you don't get information to people in a certain timeframe, Then the initial response is to say what the hell is going on. And I think that might be some of the reaction from a number of people. Now, I, I know that we've been going on and banging on about teams and logos for. I don't know, it feels like an eternity now, cuz like it's been such a long roadmap back to this. I mean. Gosh, what Dwayne mentioned this, Dwayne Johnson mentioned this in what December of last year on that NBC program. So that's. 10 Months ago. So and he said it was gonna come out in like January, February earlier this year. So yeah, it's been a, it's been a moment. I think, I think the thing that adds to it is the fact that like, We think we know. Or at least have enough information or Intel to, to think that we know the names and the logos, and we've had information beforehand. Again, I think it's the whole thing about their, this not being. Completely a clean slate. So it's kind of this idea of, well, We think we have enough information. Why does it seem like they don't seem like they have enough information or it like, kind of almost like. That the general public is more. On it than the actual people who are in charge of it. But again, That's just speculation. I it's, it's a weird situation, cuz it's not like before where it was just nothing that we didn't know anything and then they were released afterwards. So I don't know. It, it, I mean, this is, this is unchartered waters am my opinion. And, you know, and when I tweeted this and obviously, you know, and like max and others, max helped me come move with the timeline kind of checking on the dates. You know, he said, Like people just worried about the logos. Like that is not my concern. My concern is not that we don't know the logo, you know, the team names. Remember we thought we were gonna know, two weeks ago, you were on, we did the whole, you know, how are they gonna announce everything next week? I understand a hurricane Ian and all that, that. Concern is, this is checkpoint one of like 87 on the checklist. So we, we still haven't even, we we're not even on the list right now, you know, we gotta do the names, we gotta do, you know, some sort of event. I mean, do we have to do the, the meat greets again? Do we have to do that? Or we doing the. December kind of training camp showcase on local market. Like whatever you're gonna do, this is step one of whatever, you know,in the uniforms and the draft, we don't have the social media.You know, we're still hiring, setting up all of that stuff. Like that's where I get concerned is it's not okay.We don't know our team names October. Like, that's fine. It's this is,they're still many things to go. I wore my Dragon's Jersey to the Mariner clenching game last forFriday, you know, Cal Raleigh walk off home, run there.That was great. I got a lot of people. Hey, cool. Dragons Jersey.Like what's going on with that? I'm like, oh, it's,it's coming back February 18th. Really? Like I didn't. So like, There's still like it, it exists, right. This mindset,people understand, but I just.I don't know. I don't know if the tweet from the rock is gonna turn this on the sameway.Well, well, I mean, that's the thing, like, I guess it's like, where's the information coming from, and it seems like.The continuous theme and we'll get into this later on, too,with the IFL stuff, it's like, Where we learn this stuff is never from the league directly itself.First. It always seems to be.Amongst other people now it's obviously we're in a media group. So of course we talk to each other about this stuff all the time, but even. I mean, there are just some like random sources or random things that I find out about stuff where I'm like, I'm not sure if I should know about this or if they should have told me about this first, directly, like, this is odd that I found about it in this certain way. Like, look, I know not every league is the same as far as like. Every PR person's gonna be the first to tell you something or every. Direct message from a team is gonna be able to disclose information like there's reporters. You know, we have reporters for a reason. They're gonna be able to get the scoop on something before it becomes public knowledge, but it just seems odd with some of the things that we've learned about, or like how people have got about getting that information or how that. Information has come from like secondary sources and not from. Directly from the XFL. It's just, you know, it's, it's like crickets, but we're almost like. How do I put it? It's like you talking to those people at the game is like you trying to be the cricket whisperer. Like you're being like, Hey, this is what's going on. I think this is what they're saying, but I'm not sure. Like, it's kind of like you're translating for them. So that maybe is also part of the. Maybe kind of confusion right now. As to why there hasn't been much information from the league. Well, and I understand it, you know, the controlling, the flow of information. It's the same. I. I was hoping this would feel better. After they have the Arlington announced that we've talked about all that in the showcases and all that. Okay. They're gonna open up all this stuff. I get the same vibes now. USFL and XFL in terms of like league negotiations. I understand that it's a mindset, but it, you know, even when we were doing like the team. You know, the, whatever it was going to be that was canceled because of Ian and the, and the team names and the, you know, Rob rod Woodson, and, you know, I'm corresponding, I'm like, Okay. I, I, I'm trying to, like, I know things here and I'm trying to figure out like how you guys would best. Like, and then, you know, the response is always like, well then we just, then they just don't respond. And you're like, okay, well, We've just had kind of a crackdown on like, this is how we would like everybody to act. I understand that, but then now also it's like, well then, but just, we're not gonna respond sometimes if we don't want, and I get that, I mean, I get that. You're trying to control, but I just. That to me is the overwhelming right now feeling. And it it's hard when, like you said, I feel like we know. More than a lot of the people in league. In certain levels of league management. Sometimes I think that you and I probably know as much or more, depending on who you're talking to of what timelines are, and it gets frustrated when you're just trying to get like a simple answer out and about like, what would you like me to say about this? Yeah. And I, I, I think that whole brand control thing is what. Makes it, so at times, maybe a little bit frustrating in terms of just trying to get. Our into the message out or trying to get, just trying to pass information along, because there's so much like. Awareness and so much. Focus on trying to keep everything tight knit and trying to not let anything get out whatsoever because. You know, we know people who are. Vultures for information. People who've like gone out and done things like, you know, Break through the passwords of the Excel shop and be able to get like teen team names or team city names or. Colors or whatever, be able to find out something that way, or someone finding some random clip of some person talking somewhere and saying, Hey, what's this about? And I mean, That happens all the time, because there are people who are information hungry. But look, there's always gonna be people like that. I mean, there's always. People who are gonna want more, even though you've given them something and people are gonna speculate and people are going to search, some people are going to maybe go through. Maybe not. Ethical ways of getting information, but that's, what's gonna happen. Like there's gonna be people who are gonna want to know more. And so I think as a league and as a representative of your league, all you can do is really say, Hey, this is what we believe in. This is what we're going for. And you can't. Really spend too much time being concerned on how people are gonna take that information. Every single word that you say, you just, at some point you, that just, it almost creates paralysis, right? Like you just want to delete. Believe like, oh my God. What, what happens if I say that this way? And it's like, Then do it better the next time, or like just work out in the next time. The NFL makes so many mistakes. As far as handling their players, their information. I see them get criticized all the time about stuff. And at some point they just have an agenda that they just sort of motor passed. If they get enough feedback or criticism. Sure they might tweak it in the future, but they, I don't think they spend too much time, any sleepless nights thinking, oh my God. I said, This one word this way in this one, tweet. I like the paralysis. What did apples was it Phil S Schiller said when they got rid of the, the, the headphone Jack on the iPhone. Courage gotta have courage. We gotta move more there. it is. Hard and I had something else I was gonna say, and then I got caught on my joke there, but I, I just. Oh, that's what I was gonna say. So. To me. And I understand that, you know, Danny, the rock Redbird. Everybody, you know, tremendous success track record. Conversations now that I had a year ago, year and a half ago with people. Talking about like Danny, the rock actually owning the league, running the league, Redbird, all these things like. It's so different than I'm. We have a new flavor of Zoe here's the tweet go buy it. I, we have a new Mont is out like, go tweet it. You know, the rock will like, oh, Troy, Aikman's got a new beer. I'm drinking the warm beer and like, okay, go buy that. Back the XFL. It is more like the DC thing. It it's such like, and, and even DC is way more mainstream. When we have like black Adam and wonder woman, like this is the niche of the niche and league building and getting people to invest in that, like, I just, I, I think this is so different than anything they've worked on before, in terms of like, The cost, like the investment of the consumer is so much higher in the XFL, like, okay, we're gonna go watch the thing and invest and like, learn about these players. Like what's going on. Same with the USFL, right? We're we're getting people in versus just, well, I gotta go to the seven 11, I'm gonna go buy a em, Montey flavor. And, and that that's, that is my level of commitment in this brand. Yeah. People are deep in the reads when it comes to like what information they want, what research they're doing, not, not those reads . The other reads are E E D , but you are literally a read deep in the reads too. Like, I mean, you talk about all kinds of different things. People. Message me all the time information about like, This person is talking about this, or, Hey, look out for this. Like people are on it. And I think that's the thing that. Maybe I, I'm not sure if it hasn't connected or if it's not something that I think. Is in the same spectrum that. Danny Garcia and Dwayne Johnson deal with most of the time. Like these are not, I don't think these are the same kinds of people. In the DC universe. The, the Zo universe or whatever, or like clothing lines or all that stuff. These people. Want information, they wanna be connected and they wanna be. Integrated into it, especially when it comes to their community. This is something that I think. The obsession factor of it is something that I'm not sure. That they're used to, and I'm not saying they can't deal with it. I'm just saying like they can't. I think it's just something that they don't think about. So. Heavily because they have all these other projects that I think of on a baseline level of, of operating. But, you know, but someone like, say, for example, all of our luck last time, I mean, he understood how passionate people were, how integrated people were, how much people wanted it. And I think. Sometimes, unless you're there, unless you're on the ground level and you're interacting with those people. Consistently. I don't know if. You can see that for yourself. So I don't know. I'm not sure if that's exactly what. They got, when, for example, when you down, went down to Texas to Dallas, I'm not sure if that was enough for them to understand that or see that at that time, that is Danny and, and Dwayne, but I just wonder if. Like eventually they're gonna have to see like, There needs to be more like people are just gonna want more attention or want more. Just more like investment or at least seemingly more investment in what's going on, or at least somebody has to, because this is just how it is. Like people. Are obsessed and they're always gonna be obsessed. It is funny. I just speaking of people, looking for information and all that stuff, I was gonna talk before I had posted, you know, we had the quarterbacks allocated and all that stuff. And, you know, I had the list and the mic came out with the article that was about like, You know, ride Willis is, you know, allocated to like St. Louis or I can't even remember where all the ones are at this point. We talked about last week, but. I was in the Facebook group yesterday and someone was commenting on. Just the post that just had the list and not the teams. And they're like, Read, like, what can you, like, what can you tell us about the, you know, we want informa, I I'm like. Mike wrote like a 1500, whatever, a hundred word article, like, like. Go read that like you get, I will say like people there are, are. Information hungry. You know, you have your article today out there. Mike's got his, I know Anthony just had one come out, Greg parks over at board. Do the whole rundown. Earlier this week, I believe of like you, what you should know about these quarterbacks. Like there is information out there. It is funny to me sometimes like Michael say, oh yeah, Bri, I, I I've had it. That it was going to be that Orlando guardians for like three months and no one even read it in my article and I'm like, Hey it. So it just, there is information out there. If you. Go to seek it. And I don't want to feel like. Oh, that was the other thing I don't wanna feel like this is just like a cry session today, but I do feel like. You know, after the delay in all that, now the rocks on like the big black Adam tour, it's like, Okay. Excell takes the back seat again. It is kind of what it feels like a little bit, like as long as we don't have like a Mont at the. Release or Azo to promote or black Adam or project rock or what, you know, under arm, like, okay, so, okay. This is number seven now. Like, okay. Then we we're clear again. And it does feel like. They have this planned Ian and all that happen. And now like we've missed the window. And it does feel like they're, it's like just, just play the video out and like, let's move on. Like you need not everything can be, we just gotta go. We gotta go. It's October here. Yeah, no, and that's the thing. It can't be seventh fiddle in the minds of the people who follow the league. It can't like it has to be something that is seen as a priority. And I think that's what people are waiting for. You know, we talked about. The turning on of the car, right? The Ferrari starting the Ferrari. Mike Mitchell's made that allegory before we've talked about that allegory. Well, I'm starting to think now. It's like, it's like they have 10 different cars. In the garage and occasionally they bring out the. The red Ferrari. That is the XFL, but it's like, they almost do it as if like, Out of, I don't know, obligation or they just wanna do donuts in the driveway. And then they're like, all right, we can put it back in now that's enough for today. Like you can't like that's, that's not exactly going to appease the fans of that, that model. It's gonna be like, you have to do a little bit more. So. My question is I'm wondering, going forward. Do they get someone who is going to be more. Be able to do that role and be more pronounced, like. That was the thing that I took from the XFL last time is that Vince MCAH, wasn't really the cheerleader. I mean, he popped in once in a while to say, Hey, good to see this thing going well, and then popped back out. I can remember like one tweet from him during the season. I think it was week one. And then I didn't really hear from him the rest of the way it was all, all over luck. Like he was the guy that. Wasn't forward face. He was the guy I saying, I am representing this league. This is what I believe in. And this is what we should invest in. I wonder if they're gonna tag somebody to do that for them moving forward. Because again, they they're busy people. They have a lot of things to do, but someone. Has to be the showcase. Mystro someone has to be able to showcase all this stuff. And if they don't. Consistently as much as the fans want, then I don't know if they're gonna be able to be satisfied. So I wonder if they. Maybe give that role to somebody down the road. I'm not sure. Yeah. Like, you know, I thought that was gonna be best Brandon and I don't know if he's got a lot of the other obligations going on. I think he is a good focal point for that, but. I agree. I just, it it's like, you know, I have, I wear many different hats, like. You know, and I might have 15 different wa you don't know how you don't wanna know how many watching commanders hats I have, but like today I have like one woman wear this one, cuz I haven't worn this one in the while. Right. But you know, could be another three months before I decide to wear this one. So timeline here, long promise. And then we'll do the, if L stuff. So we, as we record, we are 135 days away from kickoff, which is either daunting or not, depending on how you look at that. I remember when Paul and I, and I was like, we will record 47 more episodes of this show before. So we are, are 135 days away. So for the us F. And the draft is 41 days away. Presumably on November 16th. USFL back in 2022. They first unveiled their names. They did the calling coward segment November 22nd, 2021. 145 Days away from kickoff. So just, we're just like, you know, we're freaking out like, you know, blood is in the water here, so this, and I mean, you take this from what you want. I, you know how I feel, but like maybe you say we'll read, this is not a big deal. So, so the names 145 days away from kickoff, and then we had the uniforms, you know, where everyone's talking about the uniforms that was 58 days away from kickoff. And then we had the draft 53 days away. So we, you know, we got names. Then uniforms then draft. 53 Days away from kickoff, April 16th, and then we'll do the XFL. But knowing that, so we are sit 135 as we record. We didn't even get USFL names till 145 days out. True. And we didn't get scheduled until like the last moment. In fact, I remember one of the things I was waiting on. So. Vigorously was the tickets to go to the, to the games, cuz I was waiting for the actual schedule, which was like, what. Less than two months before the games actually kicked off. And I think. Yeah, we didn't have the draft until. What was that February? Was it, it was February of. 20 The USL draft was February 22nd. Yeah. And then they had the supplemental the next day, the 23rd. Yeah. As I remember doing that, the supplemental draft stream with you, and I think. That you know, so that was. Sometime before it wasn't that much, like it wasn't way in the future, for example. So yeah, the USFL kind of rolled it out the same way and I think that's the. I think maybe that's also part of it too, is that. Maybe we were talking it up to the point where we said, well, the XFL has a different vision. They're gonna be more on it. They're not gonna just say it all last at last minute, or just release it on Twitter. And they're gonna be more proactive. And then here we are with a timeline getting closer and closer. We're thinking at seeing. Well, okay. Maybe not maybe that it's actually going to be closer to the season after all. So I think that's also maybe trying to like readjust our expectations as well. So that might be part of it. I. Like my whole thing in this, I know you asked your. Twitter followers. If they were panicking. My feeling over, this is not panic. It's mild confusion. Like that would be my feeling at the moment. But again, Like, if this is what they think. Is the best way. I suppose. It's just odd that there's all this information that's supposedly out there and then it's not being disclosed formally. So, but that timeline is interesting in that it's. A lot closer than. People realized from before, like the one, the original Exel timeline was actually pretty close. And this one we're still, I mean, I guess. By comparison, I guess we're still. Far out from it. Yeah. I, I have so March. Seventh I have from Fox, March 7th. Daniel Miller over at Fox 29. Here I have. That was when the full schedule was released. So that was five weeks before kickoff, right? Cuz the kickoff for Guysville was April 16th. So March 7th. So anyway, played in perspective that way. So we go to the XFL here, XFL member of February, a 2020 kickoff. So we. First had the names unveiled. And I will always remember watching this day, cuz I, I watched this live stream and then I went and filmed one of the best. It was like on a Tuesday. The best, one of the best weddings I've ever felt August 21st, 2019. That was when we saw all the, you know, the dragons coming from the sea and all that stuff. Hundred 71 days from kickoff. So that was maybe that was August. Then we for the. Different for the Excel. And I forgot this, cuz remember I wasn't in the media back then we had the draft before the uniforms, cuz everyone's talking here like, well they got it. Like we gotta get the team names and then we have to have the uniforms cuz like what are they gonna do? They're gonna go up on stage. They're gonna be wearing like the EXOS Seattle shirt. While at the XFL draft was October. 15Th and 16th, that was the hundred. And. 16 Days from kickoff. They announced that a week before they did the draft, they said next week, we're, we're bringing the draft. And then they had the uniforms on December. Third 2019, which was 67 days from kickoff. And then obviously the kickoff in February. So knowing that 171 days for names. Draft one 16 out and then the uniforms. I, I, that surpri, I just totally forgot that. Did you forget that we got the uniform second? I did, honestly, I was. Not completely remembering when those came out. So, and that's also, again, that's a big thing. The uniforms are, think, I think one of the biggest things for us right now, because there's some of the cha colors are changing. Some of the logos are changing and some of the team names are changing. So which means that the uniforms are changing. And so I think the fact that that information hasn't been disclosed yet again, Is why we're in such a tizzy right now, at least a lot of people are. I'm not personally, but I think. The idea of when they're supposed to come out again, it's like the announcement time. You said that the draft last time was announced a week ahead of time. But we've already known this November 16th date for at least a month or two, like for quite well, supposedly. Right. But we, but it seems like it's out there again. This is the whole thing, right? It's information that is supposedly out there. Our already that's not being. Discussed, formally by the league. I, I would have to go more back and see like, okay, when did people supposedly know about this? Or when was this like, kind of semi-public knowledge, but not really, you know, like, I, I, I also wanna know, like, how was the league? The league is being covered. I think D differently the, than it was last time. I think that's also a big part of it as well. Like what. What ways did, or what did people know about last time that they knew about then and knew about now? Again, it's all about context, right? I mean, we've gone the, the while this is like, again, it's a. Ramp up to it. It's a different ramp. Than last time. And it's a very different ramp for a lot of different reasons. Well, we, we have evolved as a species here in football in the last, I mean, that's what you just, I mean, and I understand, and I get that the XFL, we don't wanna be compared to 2020. We don't want all that stuff. Like. All football fans. Have lived through so much now. And that was even in, in, in USFL terms when they were like, we're going to Birmingham and you're like, gotta keep in mind. People in Birmingham been through this before might be a little hesitant to buy in year one, you know? Right. And mean, I think I, you USFL and Birmingham season two could only be. Better right. In terms of like, Hey, this is coming back now. Like we know this was a thing, but. It's like, they, they do not exist in the bubble and even, and it was weird. Like, even if you go back to that Arlington, the interviews where it was Danny and the, in the rock, and then Russ Brandon at the Arlington press conference, and they, you know, everyone's asking like, So like, why now? Like why, or, and they're like, well, like we feel like. This is the right time. And we just feel like there's a, I, it it's the same. I mean, it felt like the same verbiage just been used, you know, for the last 20 years with this kind of thing. And like, I just, I don't know if, if any of this. Like all the knowledge that we have accumulated in the Al football world over the last, even just three years with spring league and fan to football and the arena and CFO and all that stuff. And ex FFL and USFL, like. I wonder how much of that did they pick up? In terms of like, whether we learning from cuz it does feel like it's a lot of the same mistakes. At least that I'm seeing right now. I think. They're talking to the right people. As far as business relations go like they're, they're not leaving any stones unturned. Again, I talked, I talked a little bit with Mike Mitchell yesterday about this and you know, it's kind of like, I mean, they talked to the CFL people. They've talked to IFL people. I'm not sure how much they've talked to S F L people. I'm not sure about that. I'm sure they've had some discussions, but , I know, I know it's dirty. It's a, it's a dirty word. It's a dirty phrase, but like, I think. They have at least tried to. Check and see in different areas and explore different options. And from that point of view, that's great. If logistically you're talking to all these different leagues. That's great. I think that's that's that can only help you. Obviously they have their partnership with the NFL. Alumni academy, you know, that that's important too, but. As far as like, again, Knowing the pulse of the people who follow it, it's very different. Right. And I think, again, it's the idea of, of just getting information out there and I think. You, I think you alluded to this before the allegory of you saying like USFL is like came in with football, like let's play football. This is all, all it needs to happen. Like at some point maybe. As a league, you kind of have to ask yourself like, okay, What is the right time? Like what is the right time for. Everyone like this is the right time for us, or is this the right time for everyone else? What is the right time to get all this information out? And at some point, I think people just want football, like some people at some point it's just a. Primordial thing that people just want to have in front of them. It, it's not all about speculation. I mean, speculation is a big part of it, obviously like speculation for is what drives the NFL media every single year in the off season. But at some point too, you have to do just have the product out there and just say, okay, this is what's gonna happen. For all, you know, like things we've talked about with the us F L and some of the faults of like how they, they maybe present the idea. They've played a season, they have a product. They have examples. They have evidence. We, we have like something to work with concretely. The XFL does not have that at this moment. At least this iteration of it. We have the iteration from two years ago, but again, That that to me seems. As time goes on, just seems more and more distant. And more and more different than what it was before. And I think again, That's something that I think. Has not come to grips with, with a lot of people, is that. I don't think this is gonna be the same and a lot of ways there are some similarities for sure, but I don't think it's gonna be the same league. It, it just, you know, We've lived through all this. And I understand, and, you know, actually felt like, you know, this is. We too week. Yeah. I gotta show every week. Like we're doing, yeah, I understand. This is the, you, this is the I'm Atlas pushing the, the globe up the hill or whatever that is, but. Like, remember when they were like, okay, we're gonna push back a year. And like, Mike's talking like, and I don't blame Mike for this, but like, and might like, yeah. You know, like they're gonna, we like a year build up and like behind the scenes shows and we're filming all this stuff and they're gonna have a, all this. And I'm like, I don't even know if we need all that, but like, that's cool. Like, okay. I guess we'll build this up and we'll have profiles and we'll talk about like, I mean, we're 135 days out. Like, I mean, it's fine that we didn't get any of that. I don't feel like. We are getting that now. And I feel like. Whatever plan was. Or, or maybe we don't wanna do as much right now. Like I said, I think the football side of this topnotch, we have the best, like. God knows we have the best Scouts and we're running the showcase and where, and we're having the specialist showcase and we're having the. Supplemental showcase and we're doing, you know, we're gonna have three drafts and we're gonna have in the training. I, I think football is gonna be outstanding. I just worry about. This feeling like. Us F L in cities, but still not having the same. Like it's like, it's just, it's never gonna be 2020 and that's fine. And I didn't wanna be the Homer for a long time, but now I do understand kind of where people are, are feeling that frustration. Well, it's like perfectionism, you know, it's like wanting to be absolutely fantastically 100% perfect, no blemishes, all that brand control. And I think that's the kind of thing that stops you from doing things like that stops you from actually just getting your product out there. Right? I mean, that's. The reason why, for example, someone like me, hasn't really gotten like YouTube videos out. I've always wanted to do more YouTube videos, but I'm like, so. Like worried about like, okay, how would I present it? What's the idea what's going on behind it. Some people just do it and then they figure it out as they go along. And I think that's some leagues are like that. Some, some Al football league are more like, well, you know what? We have a general idea and we have a like general admission statement. Will continue to expand as we go along. We'll figure it out. I mean, look, you know, Again, we'll get into this a little bit later, but like the IFL, for example, you know, they keep expanding, like they're gonna have a 16th team next year. They're adding another team. They keep adding more teams. They keep or bringing teams back into the fold. They brought the team back into San Diego this year who had taken. Three years off and they just keep continuing to expand, you know, and that's for them. It's like, they're just trying to build their brand. I think for the XFL, it's the same way in that. They wanna build their brand, but they're so concerned about it being absolutely. Perfect. Like before anyone can say anything about it and if it's not, then it's not worth releasing it. I think again, The word I used earlier paralysis. It just feels like absolute paralysis. If it's not exactly the way they want it to be. And again, at some point. You just have to get something out there to be able to generate some sort of content or interest, or just be able to tell people. What you're about, because otherwise you're gonna have people like in the Mariners game asking you with your dragons Jersey on like, Hey, what's going on here? Exactly. I thought they were coming back, you know, because then there's just sort of. Again, general confusion as to what's happening. I always really surprised how many comments I had on that. Like you never know, like, cuz I wear a lot of dumb stuff. You never know what I have a couple more comments on this and then we can, if you have anything else or we can do the IFL stuff. Seeing the uniforms came out after the draft. I do think we need to set our expectations correctly. I do think this time, like I think whether it's the end of October, whatever we get, you know, team logos. Names maybe then the, maybe we don't get the uniforms again until December. I don't think that the uniforms and the like, that's all one thing I think that can come later. I don't think we necessarily need to get. Logos then uniforms then draft in that order. The other thing here, and I have the dates of just some of these locally events, cuz that's again, that's where my thing is because the FFLs business model is so predicated right now. But in seats, Danny, you know, we're, we're playing the games in the cities. We're not gonna have the same issue that the us F L had. Kind of activating those stand. So remember we had the summer showcases, so, you know, like we had the one in Seattle that was June 22nd, 2019. I wasn't able to go to that when I had a wedding, but that was kind of the first little activation of that. And then we had a, a local event August 28th in Seattle. So that was a week. After the dragons was announced, we did that at. Like in the lesions field bar, down by the stadium, like right across the street. That's where we had Jim Zorn was there. We had the media people were there. I can't remember. I think Ryan Gusteson was there the team president at the time. So that was kind of the first, you know, segment of that. So. You know, we're, we're pushing this now. So that that's for my, you know, my concern is like, how quick do these events roll out? Cuz then you also had events September 16th in St. Louis. 10 10 In New York, 10, 17 in DC, in Dallas, and then Dallas even had another one in November 7th. And those were like hundred 45 days out in St. Louis, 121 days out in New York. And they were getting nine, three days out in Dallas for that second one. But you kind of see the. Range there, but a lot of these events St. Louis did like a whole series of 'em kind of like a high school. I think max was telling me, but. You see a little bit more of the rollout there. Thoughts on that. Yeah, again, it depends on like the pacing of the rollout or how. How gradual it's gonna be. I think. Like you said, going back to the uniform and the logos and the colors. I get the feeling. It's just gonna be at all one thing. Now, it's not gonna be this like, well, you know, here here's four logos of this team of these teams. Let's do four logos next week. I don't think that's gonna happen. I, I think. Not like, for example, how the us be did it on calling coward show. It's gonna be like, I think it's just gonna be banged, but it's gonna be a presentation, right? It's gonna be like a whole formal. Announcement. And again, it's all the scheduling things. Again, it's almost like it's based around the schedules of. Danny and Dwayne Lord, it's like, okay, well, they're both available at the same time. And they can do this thing at the same time in this place, then everything can come out and it's almost like waiting for constellations to align. At some point, it just feels like it's, it's aligning the stars. And, you know, I, I am. Wondering what would've been announced if hurricane union did not come through because. Danny was in Florida. She was gonna go to that Orlando event. It seemed like. Something was going to be announced in some way, shape or form. So. I am wondering what it was exactly. And I don't know if we'll ever find out. I am curious though, what exactly was supposed to come through that way? Because again, It's almost like that kind of was a stop gap for what was gonna happen because it did. It did at least time wa timeline wise. Line up with what rod Woodson was talking about on pat MCs show of those logos and those team team names coming out. A week after that, that was literally gonna be a week after that. So I don't know. How that affected it, but again, it almost feels like. Once the comment passes. It's like we have to wait for the next one to show up. And I guess, I guess that's gonna be maybe this New York event that's gonna be at the end of the month. But. Who knows. Yeah. And just say so, and we had tweeted that out. Let me pull that up too. Just cuz that is kind of when I'm basing this on. Max had sent it over to me. Oh, that was where I applied for the CFO. Stuff. Where is. This is wonderful podcasting. I'll look it up here. It just, it feels to me like there's a finite number of things that. Anyone could do. Oh, here we go. So from Dan primi. Axios our inaugural deal marketing event will take place at the Altman building in New York city. On October 26th, guests include mark Cuban. Whatever Danny and Jerry will be there. Also the chairman. Of ESPN sports and conduct. James Pitaro will be there. So this is our. It's it's like invite only, but it's a. The BFD is an Axiom. We used to describe things for our big Dan Patrick's BFD section of Axios pro raw data newsletter has obviously used spotlight the biggest deal of the day. So it seems like it's, it's kind of a sports marking. Jared Carnell is what of the guest speakers along with mark. Cuban, like I said, Danny Garcia. So. The presumption with, with max and I was, this is happening in October 26. I would place. Whatever is going to come before that, because they're not gonna show up at the end of October, still not having anything announced for the XFL. Is that, is that a bed or a wager because it just sounds like it. Wow. Yeah. But anyway, but back to my results talk. You know, like when I do my business, I run the wedding business. Right. And I do like, I do blogs and I post videos and I go film. And then I do like, I do like a wedding vendor podcast. And I do, I used to do like a wedding planning podcast. And that, you know, you're always trying to figure out like, what is the limit of like things I can do. And, and then I have, like, I had a newsletter for a long time and I finally decided like, that was the step too far. Like I just didn't have, like, I had five days a week and I could do Monday. I, I could do blog and then Tuesday I could edit and like Wednesday and you kind of get to a point I'm not. Saying like Danny and the rock, like you're gonna jump ship on the XFL. Like I'm not saying anything crazy like that, but it is. There's just a finite of like scheduling opportunities. Like you said, of like when these constellations arrive and I just, it, it does feel like the XFL is like the eighth thing on a seven day week. And like, we just, Ugh, like we really wanted to get in this week, like maybe in February when we have that, that extra day of them month, like, Maybe we can do it then, you know, I meant, well, it's like, it's almost like convention planning, like, like they're gonna be at like some convention for some specific date at some point during the year that you can go and then ask about their projects where you can be like, so what is going on here? And then Danny can be a like, oh, I'm glad you had asked. And it's like, well, I really wanted to ask like three months ago, But, you know, thanks. it's. It just, yeah, it does just feels like, so. So calculated in how that information comes out and when it's supposed to be disclosed. But again, like you said, at some point. When does the schedule become too overwhelming to the point where maybe. They start to disseminate this information somewhere else. Like give it to someone else, say like, Hey, can you handle this part? And like, put this out in this day and this way, if we trust you enough, can you do that? Because again, they have a million other things going on, you know, and. It's like, I know they want to have brand synergy and all that. Like I get it. It's extremely important for them. I think you can still do that. You just don't have to necessarily be like the primary presenters and doing it on a grand stage every single time that you wanted do it. I think there's a other way you can go about doing it. As opposed to just waiting for everything to be perfect. At one time, because like, you know, the Texas live event, like that was great. That was really fun. That was wonderful. But I just wonder how long. Was that in the works or how like long did they plan doing that? And if it was someone else, would they have done it differently or put it in somewhere else or just in like, Hey, here's the city that we already heard about. You heard about it, like in April, I'm gonna tell you about it in may, you know, instead of like waiting until the end of July to say it. Well, I just, I, I think the same could be accomplished from Iraq in his workout room tweeting. Like he did, you know, R IP queen Elizabeth or whatever. Like I think the same thing could be like, Hey guys, got some exciting news here, exe team names, you know, coming your way. And then we. I, I, I, I don't, yeah, I don't need, I don't need Dwayne on the stage somewhere. Any other thoughts on the timeline? I wanna talk about your IFL article before I let you go. Yeah. I mean, look, I, I, I totally get the frustration. I get the anxiety over getting all this information. I think at the end of the day, It's going to come out one way or another. But I think it's just more of like, It's about how do you connect with the fans? How do you connect with the media? How do you connect with everybody involved here? And I think maybe there just needs to be more. Not there. It doesn't have to be like, Complete transparency of what's going on, but just a little bit in the know of, okay. Here's what's going on. Here's what we're working on. Here's what we, we really wanna tell you this, but we can't, as opposed to radio silence, I think that's what drives people. Absolutely batty is when there's just no, nothing to being said. Whensoever and. We're kind of left in the dark a little bit. That's all they they're a fan friendly league. Andrew, I don't know what I can tell you. They're they're the most fan friendly? I, I did feel like. Yeah, Wednesday as we record this, Doug Whaley was over in, you know, the NFLs doing the London stuff and you know, they're playing at that. Toing him. I can never say the stadium, but they're playing in the Packers and giants are playing there this weekend. And they're like, oh, Doug whales over here in the U UK, like scouting town, like we said, You know, talent knows about I'm like this is whoever runs the XFL Twitter page. Like. Big big middle finger to like, Everybody cuz I'm like, it's just very unaware. It's just very unaware. I'm not saying that that's not important and Doug or we doing all that, but it did just feel like. And I, I tweeted just a child screaming in horror. I'm like, they do not understand like their. And again, it's 2%. We don't need those 2%, but that's the 2%, the people that are wearing your dragons jerseys out to Mariner games to get people talking about it. So we have it here. Courtesy and I love so much about this. So Andy has a story of external and you have IFL team under hints at player pipeline to the XFL and all time code this to segment this out, cuz this is exciting news this week. I love that the team owner. Of a IFL team and that they they're the green bay blizzard and they have, which is just, I hate green bay just cuz of bear Rogers. But, and they have a podcast called strictly B ness, just the most astounding thing to me. What can you tell me that? Kathy Tran. Team owner of the IFLS green bay blizzard said on the podcast. Yeah. So. I found out about this yesterday, this. This Catholic triangular division, the owner of the green bay blizzard and the IFL. Who has this not weekly podcast, but semi frequent podcast. Announces on it. A couple days ago that the IFL. Has been in talks with the XFL about potentially allowing their players to. Be released from their contracts to go play in the XFL. She just announces this. She says, it's going to be formally announced on the website at some point on the IFLS website. In sometime in the future. And. I just found it fascinating that this. Another like player pipeline information, which just seems like, again, pretty pertinent information for a lot of people, especially for those who are super hardcore and following some of these players, like. Rashad Ross, right? He's from the DC defenders. He played. In the IFL this past season, and he's been going on and on and on about how he wants to rejoin the XFL, which I'm sure he was gonna do regardless anyways, but this, you know, this, another potential opening for players to come into the XFL. So she. Talked about that. And then she also mentioned that they're gonna be like, Combines, and there are gonna be coaches from both the IFL and the XFL involved. Jointly at some point as well. And that information is also could be on the website. And kind of went on about the mission statement. She also talked about things like the. The owners in the league were talking about reviving the arena football league. At some point they were, that was in discussion, but. They may have put that aside for the, for the moment and instead have decided to focus. Their resources on putting. More partnership partnership with the XFL. And they said, they said that they were considering both the XFL and the USFL and the ultimately went with the exit L in terms of doing this partnership. So kind of similar to what maybe the ex, the NFL alumni academy was doing. And I just found it really fascinating that we found out about this on this podcast. This podcast channel with 144 subscribers. And this podcast itself, having 80 viewers, like this is really, really deep down there. You had to like go and find this. If you really wanted to know this, I got a tip from somebody that I had met previously, that this was going, that this was being said, and I, I just was fascinated that it was coming straight from this owner, from this league. And I thought that would be very interesting, the publish about, because I mean, again, it's, it's more player resources, it's more of a player pool. It's more talent for the XFL to draw from. A couple things. Yeah. So yeah. Owner of the, of the team, not the league. Right? So Kathy Tran, whatever. Yeah. It has 94 views today. So presumably your article is ticking that out from the 80. It does not surprise me that one of the only three comments on the video is one of the cohos of the us of L podcast, Jack co or Zach comment. Can you gimme more details about why you didn't wanna go with the us fellow over the XFL? Like Zach, you don't. Okay. Like we're, it's. USFL will survive. You're in free agency right now. Like, don't worry about it. But. Again, with interesting to me about it is the not because I believe in your article, you said before, They could always jump to the NFL or the CFO, but adding the XFL into that mix. Is interesting because that like, that's the thing with like fro football, even like a lot of these guys signing into the arena leagues. You want to have that out and you want to know like, Hey, we're, you know, whatever happens, like I'm not locked into this for the year. Like I can make a jump and adding the XFL to that. Like you said, in terms of the time of year and probably the ownership there. You and maybe the USFL said, Hey, we don't wanna, you know, we're protecting our players and we don't wanna go vice versa. But I think the XFL, even when we talked with was at Woodson in Arizona, said like, we are going be very. Player friendly in terms of like releasing players from our now that you know, needs to be said. And I'm sure at some point, Mike Mitchell will have like the leaked player contract. Like he did the us F I can't wait for that. Like the leaked, you know, Mike Mitchell breaking that down by, but. It does feel like excep just in general. Is trying to be, again, leads to be said, but trying to be more open with their players. Jumping ship if they need to versus the USFL that went back and added. Clauses in their contract to make it be less. Accessible . Yeah. Right. Exactly. Well, in terms of just giving players more options, more opportunities, more. Chances now this is a, this could be seen as like a lateral move, I guess, cuz it is an alternative league. I. Say what you want about the IFL in terms of their notoriety and all that. It is a lateral move from the standpoint of it being an alternative football league. So. That is something that is important for people to keep in mind. I, I think it's, I think it's interesting that you have more alignment here, which is the key word here that I also wanted to focus on because. I think it's fascinating here we are 15 months ago. Debating about, okay. How is the, the XFL going to align with the CFL? What kinds of things need to change? What are the rules? What are the players gonna do? What are the coaches gonna do? What is, what are the, you know, league owners? What, what's the idea? How are they gonna be able to put this all together? How they gonna have alignment? Obviously not much really came of it. And here they are. Actually having the word alignment used by one of the team owners, from the IFL saying we use the felt that it was best to align with the XFL. It's like, oh, okay, here we are finally, like, it just took, it was like a very long merry-go-round, but here we are. We're finally at like this alignment. Sort of cohesion between leagues that probably should have been working together from the first place, but it is interesting that. Again, as I was talking about with Mike Mitchell last night is just like, the XFL is just continuing to like knock on all these doors. It's like this kind of door to door salesman of like, Hey, we have this thing. Do you wanna get involved with it? And. I, I think it's, again, from a business standpoint, them getting involved with this makes a lot of sense, as far as like giving more options to these players, being able to move back and forth. Between the XL and the IFL, they can view that if they wish. And the thing that I really like to also is the quote from. From Kathy trier about. This idea, like she said, in, in the podcast, I'm gonna quote this year. She says, quote, at the end of the day, this is what these pro leagues are all about. We take seriously athlete and the athlete should take themselves seriously about getting to the next level. Like they're very much based on how she was talking about in this podcast. She's very focused on the same thing of just having more opportunities, more ideas for these players. Like maybe that's more money, maybe it's a different league. Maybe it's a different country. Maybe it's it's whatever it needs to be for these players, which at the end of the day is something that. At least I think us and all the people in the media can at least say we fight for is just having other options for these players to go with. Kathy toin strictly Blizz us here, nothing, but so according to rookie road.com arena football, IFL players make on average 37,470 per season. I don't know if that's like updated for. I mean a copyright 20, 22. So like, XFL average is gonna be 45, obviously QB, you know, salaries above that. So like, Obviously less, but the, you know, I mean, it is a job. It would be a jump to go from the, I fell to the arena league, but it's it. They're within the same. I think they're probably within the same, you know, sport in terms of like, okay, whether we getting like the rookie, whatever player's at. I wanna say, just speaking of alignment and all this stuff before we go. Having lived through the XFL now for. 26 Months. I think Brett said, Brett, that runs a Facebook group. I hope Brett's listening this deeply into this Brett really enjoyed Mike niche and I going off on the XFL last week, but. Having lived through the XFL for 26 months. I absolutely see why the CFO talks did not go anywhere because I'm sure they're and I'm sure both sides. And they were like, I'm sure they're like, Words is we're playing like, we're that? You know what I mean? Like, can you Ima like knowing what we know about the XFL, like, okay, we're, we're protecting this and we have this and we've gotta get, you know, Dwayne's gotta fly to Dubai and then we gotta bring it back. And we gotta do like I, Matt, Randy in there're we're just like, we got it. Like, we've been doing this for. You know, 108 years. Like we don't. I mean, can you imagine this like go, just knowing now what we know. I was not even able to imagine at the time, like I felt like I was trying, I felt like I was crazy. Like I was doing a Rubik's cube and someone had taken like the colored stickers and like switched them around, so that would never be able to solve it. And I was just like, how does this work? And I had convers, I had like legit conversations with other people about it who were like mildly interested in the idea. And both of us were just like, I'm not sure how this is gonna work, unless someone fundamentally like. Restructures their entire model of how they do the games and play the games and the players, and like everything, everything structurally has to change from one side in order for it to work, but it it's just, it is. So fascinating that like an idea like that came into the fold, but also we did see the other end of it, of how people react to it, which was. Not always the most cordial, but it was really interesting how. That went about. I, I have no idea. I I don't and yeah, in hindsight, I don't know if it would ever worked. Again, I don't know if that would've ever worked at any way, shape or form, but again, Dwayne and Danny thought that there was something there. I think it was more, I really think at the end of the day, it was more of just kind of sharing. Business knowledge and ideas, and it was not ever going to get to that point, but I think, but I think it was just used as. An excuse to sort of exchange. Ideas and information. Yeah, I just, I don't know. I, I, I. I support and I, I want all of this, but I, I think the quote from Mike Mitchell, when the CFO talks dissolved was like, The XFL presented them with ideas. And they kept presenting them with more ideas. And the CFO just said, no, I think it was, I think it was the line. Mike correct me if I'm wrong. Yeah. I'm sure they're like, and then we're gonna do this and we're gonna do this and we're this. And they're like, Bro, like with we, we gotta kick off here in June. Like we're, we're going. I, I don't know. I, I would. Someday I will sell finance the 30 for 30 of the failed Exel talks. That is, that is my honor. We need to get Dwayne and Danny like more op you know, I think in like five years, whether this XFL even exists or not, like, that's what I want. I want the deep dive. The 30 for 30. I will sell financ at we'll talk with Farhan. We'll talk with you. We'll talk with I'll come up. We'll do the whole thing. It'll be fascinating. Yeah, we'll call Dave nailer. JBAs all those guys. I would love. I would love to have every single one of them talk about it. Cuz there there's. It, I mean, it was a four month process. You know, it was a, it was a legit process. It, it was deep, deep in there. I, I really would've loved to, to get that. And I'll, I'll be one of the first to fund it, by the way I will, I will put something my capital into that. I, I want that. Well, there we go. So well shift today, like I said, big guests next week. I appreciate Andy coming on. Maybe that guest will resurface too. That's the thing like. I just I'm swamped in. We edits right now. So I appreciate it. I'm like I don't have time to reach out to, you know, 27 more people and try to get someone. So I appreciate Andy, but thought this was a fruitful conversation today. I think this is one of Andy's best performances on here. I thought two weeks or three weeks ago. And I, whenever you were on was great as well. I really appreciate that. And. People make sure I'll link the article for the IFL on the, on the YouTube, and then make sure you keep checking out Andy's work and everyone else over at the hubs and XFL board, the newsroom and everything else. So. Mm-hmm that's it. Anything else, Andy? I'll let you go. No, I I'm ready to go back to the bench. So . Well with your Padres play Mariners play tomorrow or Friday as you listen, my Padres play tomorrow about five 30, I believe on Friday. And that will be against the Mets. So they're gonna have to go win in New York. So we'll see what happens, but Hey man, this is exciting for both of our like, cannot believe that both. Of our teams are at the same time. I never thought it would happen. Well, I'm excited today. We have two time grey cup champion, CFL hall of Famer, namesake of the corn of sure. John Cornish here. How are you doing, sir? Doing very well. Thanks for having me. I appreciate it. I, I think I reached out to our mutual friend, Jim Molen months ago, preseason. I said, Hey, I wanna get. John on talk a little CFO. We finally connected. I really appreciate it. How are you doing? How, how are your thoughts on the CFO season thus far? You know, I thought that sort of. Early mid season. That was a peak CFO. All the time. I would say, you know, quarterbacks were in the groove. We had the Nathan Rourke, you know, dominating with BC. Winnipeg just doing the thing they've been doing the, for the last few years. You know, and then things have changed. You know, I think we've seen sort of a resurgent Montreal. At Toronto, you know, Stella on top of the east, but it's a tenuous lead. My favorite team this season, outside the stamps. Of course. Hamilton, but they just haven't had it together. So it's a, it's been a very exciting league. I'm looking forward to. The playoffs will be fun, but next year it feels like there's the people sort of know who the quarterbacks are and. I, I think it'll be a next. Really good next few years. Well, you know, it was weird in, in the last season was kind of herky jerky and coming off, and then even coming into this season, we have this, you know, the CVAs and all that stuff. What the hell happened to Toronto this week against, it seems a like, Dominant team in the east got smacked around by the stamps, right? What'd you make of Toronto? I think Toronto got to learn what it's like to come. West and play a team in the west. It's easy to, you know, Go into Toronto, you know, like home field advantage at. At their field doesn't necessarily. Exist. I mean, you need loads of fans there and they've done the better and better job of filling up their stadium. But, you know, there's always been a little bit of power. Differential between the east and the west. And I think they certainly got to see it last night. I mean, obviously. Without their certain running back in, in Harris, but you know, You can't have that many turnovers in the game, you know, like there are special teams wasn't too hot either. And that leads to losses. It's just weird. I just could never tell, like week to week, I, I could never put money on the CFO. I know the big single game sport, you know, we're really trying pretty much that. Cause like you say, you know, we have trauma coming out. Was it two points? At one point I was working last night, but you know, horrendous school and it just seems like. I mean, even BC, like feels like that. We're going to the playoffs some weeks feels like we're not, I just, there's not, not a lot of consistency week to week here. Well, and, and that's, that's one of the things we're dealing with young quarterbacks, you know, The cloud Beth Thompson. He's he's been the upcoming guy, like I've, I've liked him as a quarterback for a long time. He just had a bad game and that happens sometimes. And it's not the first time I've seen Toronto come into Calgary and lane egg. Are you, are you a MBT guy? Yeah. You like, no, like, I I've like him forever. I've been waiting for him to like really, you know, punch through that, that last ceiling and, and truly become a, a CFO. Great. But you know, when we look at the state line, From yesterday. I, you know, I, I, I wanna get excited about the guy, but he threw 50% passing yesterday, you know, less than 200 yards, like, and, and with such a past happy team. Like Toronto, it has to be better than that. You know, we talked a lot here on the show and your level quarterbacking. Obviously we had CALS and war kind of as that exceptional level. And the, it really is just a drop off after that. I mean, even Bo this season with the stamps, and now we're going with Jake Mayer, who, who seems to certainly be the future. There are, you can concerned. Future quarterbacking in the league. And, you know, can as guys continue, you know, going south and maybe the CFO not having as much choice. You know, it's, it's always something that's that's discussed, but the reality is we had a lot of quarterback injuries at the start of the season, right. We, we lost Jeremiah Mazuli off the bat. You know, Dan Evans, the guy that got in his team to the great cup the last few years. Where, where did he go? Where's the guy that we remember. Who's this guy that's playing this year. And then actually more recently, we've seen that day in Evans. So. Cross the league. I think quarterbacking, you know, there's, there's some, let's say surprises. I know our buckle. There's a lot more expected from him off the bat. I think he's settled in quite a bit in, in Ottawa. But the, the reality is like the. Those first few games were not kind to our quarterbacks. And there's been some reshuffling injuries. Long-term injuries. Sort of now I feel like that people are certain settled in get comfortable. I watch actually have a break yesterday, watched Edmonton now break the streak for the longest. You know, north American, whatever this sports home, whatever thoughts on, on that and, and everything going on there. Yo Montreal, you know, Trevor Harris he's been playing better and better. And I think he's. He's always been the great quarterback. He just, you know, a little bit of inconsistency there is held him back. You know, he is brought his team to great club multiple times. But let's, let's talk about Taylor. Kurts right. Like here's a guy that, you know, just like Jake Mayer is sought to be. A, a sort of steady Eddie kind of player. That game yesterday. Was, it was mind blowing for me now in the last. Nine minutes of the game, we saw a complete flip Edmonton was in scoring. Distance, like there were nine, 10 yards away from the goal line. Throw a pick goes all the way back. So a complete reversal score of 1817 for Edmonton. About to go up another seven points. No, now they're down. Six points. And then they have a bunch more turnovers. Like they had three turnovers in eight minutes, and that's not the sign of a team that knows how to win. And that's what we look for. You know, it's when you look at a team like Winnipeg, right. For that from re they got the right players. In the right spots, they have just. Continually been able to, you know, overcome that, observe adversity at the end of the game. And come away with the win. We didn't see that from Edmonton in any game this year. And it's because you know, that level of flux that they've experienced up there in terms of their roster. Having guys come in like. Almost 50%, 70% of the roster. Gone the people that started the season and are not there anymore. You need consistency. You need people that are like, sort of those institutional guys that are, oh yeah. We, we were winning, you know, back in 2015, 2016, those guys aren't here anymore. So this new Edmonton team definitely needs to find it identity. Yeah, I tweeted, I said that Edmonton, sure. Doesn't wanna win at home when they, when they have the pick six. And I said, You know, they just have the big Cornelius extension. I said, Edmonton's gonna be asking for other money back on this one. That was I, because I've defended him. Cuz we watched him play a little bit in the XFL before he came up. Yeah, the cer certainly, but we have, who was the, the rookie quarterback in Edmonton. He was injured for a little bit there. Straightforward. Forward Trey Ford. I really think Trey's the next next generation of guys. The he ha had what a quarter. Maybe of play early in the season, they went with Cornelius, but. I think tray forward has that perfect combination of speed. Accuracy with his throws, maybe a little bit too aggressive in terms of guys, if you're a quarterback of the CFO. Don't go try to run like a running back. You will not work out well for you. No, it seems it really. Scramble happy. And then, like I said, yeah, Taking hits, maybe unnecessary hits. I mean, I'm someone that, you know, we just saw a trail Lance here in, in San Francisco do that here a couple weeks ago. And I Don some, I, I, there's a way to be mobile and push the pile. And I think Fujio has been guilty of that to sometimes I'm like, I'm just going all the way. I'm, I'm just gonna push my way through. It's like, it is okay to kind of. Slide or step out if you need to. Oh yeah. And that's what we saw BC doing. Yesterday, like, or the other day, like BC had such a good game, you saw their quarterbacks doing amazing things. Vernon Adams made, he had a few nicer runs and then had the very end. Just nice little slide guys. This is if I, I. A running back of the CFO. I would go down sometimes. Okay. I'm gonna get tackled and. That that's one of the things I, I, I try to talk with when they talk with players like existing professionals. Guys, sometimes it just gotta go down. Don't try to do all this crazy fancy dance stuff. You're gonna get yourself hurt. You know, the, the longer you dance around, the more people are gonna roll in there. But I think, I think BC's actually been impressive. Of course, when you came against the red blacks, But a guy like Vernon Adams. That was great trade. But I I've always loved Antonio Pipkin and having him sort of as a change of pace quarterback going in there, get some runs. He had nice long quarterback sneak. Let's call it in the last game. It's nice to have sort of that level of. Of sort of, you know, who's gonna come at us and, and I know they, they certainly benefited, I, I would say almost a resurgent James Butler. I know maybe he got nicked up early there, but like, you know, you start off the season, you know, with an incredible. Game four touchdowns and then just sort of fade out. And now he's been, I think they've been putting them to better use. I actually really like James Butler outta the backfield. He's really good receiver. And then of course you, you gotta, my wife's favorite, favorite member of the team, lucky Whitehead. She, she always says like, you know, the guys in the CFO that have the dreads, they have a different level. OFTU like, they like she's sick. Right. So, you know, sick, you grow your hair. So, you know, I, I love seeing what lucky Whitehead play. I know. I actually think BC has the best offensive. Roster hands down than CFO. Well, I agree with that as well. And I, you know, they're my team. I called them America CFO team here on the podcast, cuz we're broadcasting outta Seattle. But. I we, we played like such trash last week, right? Against Calgary. You know, so, okay. We beat up and I wanna talk about law police here in the me, but you know, we beat up OWA. I'm like, who cares? Because we're never gonna win. When it matters. Yeah, we can beat Edmonton and we can be Ottawa. We can beat Toronto. Like we can't beat Winnipeg. I mean, Calgary. It seems like they have our number. I mean, what do you make of BC here now having clenched to playoff spot. I was really hoping BC would give up here. Something here. I know when we talk about the last few weeks of the schedule, We're looking at a, a sort of, you know, Spread to the finish. I mean, you got Montreal in Toronto in the east. You got, you know, sort of win pigs or locked up, but then we have BC and the St. Peters that number two spot is uncertain across the lake. And that's, that's what we, we wanna see at the end of the year. I think. When we talk about, you know, BC, like I, I think I level of. Who are they today? And we've talked about it earlier in the podcast. You know, sometimes your quarterback is, is the guy that determines that. And, and I know Bernie Adams is. A younger guy, he's still, you know, you know, how am I gonna get mentally prepared for this game? And then you saw what they did when they came to Calgary two weeks ago. Right. They came away with a win in Calgary of, and we gave up two against BC in Calgary. Of course he, first one was with Nathan RO. Roarke. I think we're looking at the BBC team that is probably starting to, okay guys, we don't go out. Nathan here. What are we gonna do to, to make sure we get the second place in, in, in the west? And you know, like no red bloods have certainly had this struggles that I know the common around Nick. Arbuckle through 75%, like he's maybe back to where he was expected to be. But I think the biggest thing with, with OD was we need to see. Some level of like, will. And want to win. Like when we see, look at their defensive, like sort of performance, like who, who, who, who's their guy, Patrick levels like a DB. Like it just, they don't have that, that. That guy that's gonna, you know, bring everything together on their defense. And I. I'm not sure if it's a roster moves a quarterback coaching moves or whatever they need to do, but there's. And if something needs to give on that team and we haven't seen sort of that. Just just like Evan to, we gotta see them do something before the end of the season. The law of public, you know, Paula police here getting, let go, not even get to finish the season out, surprised on that front. And then also like, is that enough here? Is there more wholesale changes needed? I think it's a start. I mean, obviously there are seasons probably. Done. It was, it was unfortunate. Like Paula, I thought he he's a great CFO. Commentator a good offensive coordinator. But as we've seen, when he comes into the head coach role, you know, teams, haven't seen too much success in, in that. So. He might be sort of rotating back down. To that offensive coordinator position. I mean, that, that certainly worked out for him. But, you know, being in the, the head coach chair might not be the, the thing. I'm not sure, like, you know, when it comes to the roster, They've had, like I said, the, that flex at quarterback, you know, like getting guy injured here, you know, Having to rotate, you know, trade like that. That's not the thing you wanna see in terms of consistency. A quarterback is the leader of the team in the CFO. And if you don't have that guy, you aren't doing anything else. And I, I think certainly am. Maybe Nick's the guy, but we, we have to see him be protected and we have to see odd was defense, you know, just, just show up or, or come. It start to exist even. It's just hard. I, you know, we've been told a lot, you know, CFO and quarterbacking, you know, takes a couple years, right. I mean, you see a freak, like Nathan Rorick come in, kind of set the world up, but you know, like Cornelius maybe kind of getting a bit, then you have someone like our buckle, like how many, I don't know how many. Like chances we're doing and we're moving him and we're moving people around. I just, it, it feels like that carousel sometimes. Yeah. I mean, most certainly like let's talk about NICAR buckle, Calgary step peers. Bo goes down, Nicks, the guy. Carries us through on in 2018 season. You know, against this thesis season 2019, he's playing most of the games, right? He had, he had 2000 yards in 2019, right. Great play. Then he goes to Toronto. Get to seven games. Starts off the season here in Edmonton. Five games there. Not looking too good. They ate the receptionists. . For two touchdowns. And then in Ottawa, sort of actually seeing that same level of pick to touchdown ratio. Not a good look for, for Nick Arbuckle, but like, I think, you know, I was talking about him the other day. Is, was he the benefit of the Calgary stem Peter system? Or, or is a, does he still have something there that, that he is missing? We certainly seen Dan Evans this year, like, oh, this isn't the Dan Evans we saw in, in years past where where's that one? I think that these guys do have potential, but like you said, We need to see a level of consistency that we haven't seen from these quarterbacks before we start looking elsewhere. And, and just going back to another point you made earlier. I think the CFO is, is very attractive to, to young quarterbacks. We see a lot of quarterbacks coming to camp. They have opportunities and stuff. But, you know, how can we make the CFO sort of more known. To to the down south, cuz I know a lot of those guys they'll, they'll go NFL to make some money. You know, I don't think there's a, I'm more unviable position than the backup quarterback, but then you see a guy like Boldy by Mitchell who came up here because he wanted to be the best he wanted to set some record and the same with. Dave Dickson. We've seen great quarterbacks up here. And I, but when I think back to when I played around the 2011 air, we had, you know, Henry burs. Anthony Cavil Ricky Ray. Right. Like, you know, Travis Lule. You know, the great, great quarterbacks. I would love to see more of that. So two things. So first the be him, you know, obviously being benched, I've seen all the, okay. Are we train bow after the season? What are we doing? I mean, Jake. Certainly seems to be the future there. He was on our show pre whatever this season, whenever timeframe that was like thoughts on Bo and everything happened. And now with your old team, Yeah, Bo's a good friend, but I, the. If I was just to theorize as a. A long tenure. So I have, I have more tenure than Dave Dickinson. Finagle on the stamp Peters. I am still technically an employee of the Calgary stamp Peters. Right? You as, as game day, ambassador a job I've almost done. As long as I played. I've seen people come and go. Bo was one of those guys. I, I would say differs from, let's say Henry burs dropped from Reynolds, where they had a person, you know, and apparent. Come into the rules, Bo I think. We'll see a situation just like San Francisco with Guo. Carlo where you have a quarterback that could go elsewhere. Or you just. Take a low pay cut, stick around and. You know, you probably add another two, three years to your career in a place and you don't have to uplift your family and do all this crazy stuff. I think there was an expectation for Bo. That, you know, sort of those, you know, 2019. Injury, you know, 2020 like that he would recover from those. And, and I think we're at a place now. Where does he need that time to additionally heal his shoulder? Like, like having some answers around that would probably be helpful for, for Bo to know, know what his next steps are. A couple quick questions. I wanna hold you too long. I appreciate your time on here. With Jake, how bullish are you on his prospects going forward? I mean, he played good last year and. Kind of relief, whatever bow. And he was out now, obviously taking over this year. Yeah, you know, I, I wanna see Jake. The grow, continue to grow. Like he. He's been very steady at he this season. And I think that's, that's important that St. Peters don't need somebody to go out there and be a world breaker. Right? Like that's not, that's not what's required, but we do need somebody that's gonna be consistent. You know, I think we talk about Jake, may, you know, you know, across the two BBC games. Basically had the same state line, but you know, and the, in, in the most recent one, the, with the win, you didn't have any touchdowns in the loss. You had three touchdowns. So, so what's, what's sort of Jake Meyer, like. What can we expect from him? I mean, this last game, we had two picks. You know, just some, probably growing. Pains there. I think he has the arm. You know, under Dave and the Huff's tutelage, he has the, the, the football knowledge. I'm looking forward to him continuing to grow and having a, an opportunity to start next year and sort of preparing for a season with that in mind, and then seeing how he grows from there. It's just exciting. I mean, we taught quarterback everything here at Calgary's going from one, you know, all star hall of fame quarterback here and now. And. We're set up again where all these other teams are like, what the hell's going on. Okay. We're trading for, you know, day in Evans again, or whatever. It just must be nice to be Calgary right now. Well, it's always been nice to be Calgary 17. Years we've made it to a playoff. Spot longest, second longest streak in the CFO. And I think that's. That's a Testament to the guys, you know, in, in our front office. Coach's office, you know, making sure the next guy up is ready. We're finding the, the third guy up. So we have the next guy ready, like. Like there's, there's something to be said for the level of consistency. The Calgary step Peters have experienced. And I think we are uniquely positioned in the CFO because we have had. That this retaining of the institutional knowledge that has made us so good for, for long period of time. And we, you know, we recently brought in the, a guy I played with at 2007, Jay McNeil could be our vice president. We're thinking about what have, when Huffman wants to retire. Okay. We move him in, you know, maybe to give. Dave, some GM responsibilities. These things are processes that we are preparing for over long periods of time. And I think it's. It, it really is a, a, it's an honor to be part of the Congress dad Peters. You know, when we look across the CFO and you know, it tumultuous ownership relationships, and, you know, you know, like coaching, staff, turnover, those kinds of things, and mean. I've been hanging out with the same guys. I know some guys would left to go to Toronto or other spots that it's truly been. An honor to be part of the Congress St. Peters. Yeah, I hated as a VC fan. I hated it. I wish you guys would just have it fall apart and have a dumpster fire there. We talked earlier before I let you go, you know, Try to attract more fans in the south. You know, south of the border, right. Obviously us broadcasting from America and doing our part on, on this side of the border. I mean, where do you see the CFO's place here and like moving forward, what would you like to see? I mean, there's always all these conversations about, you know, growing the game and everything else. Yeah. So, you know, I think it's starts out home, you know, it CFO. Actually gets really good traction in the states. You talk about ESPN too. Like it's football guys. It's exciting football. The product on the field is good. Especially when you have guys like Rourke, his brother's gonna be coming to the league. Right. Like, we're gonna see the, the, the APAC of great Canadian quarterbacks and that's, that's where I truly feel the future of the CFO is yeah. Relying on these guys down south. No, let's, let's use the guys that were born here, but we, when we talk about the Canadian population, we talk about the. CFO's demographics. The people in the seats at games, it's two different things. We need our demographics to reflect the Canadian GRA demographic. We are the Canadian football league. We can't, we can't survive. If we cater to a diminishing 50% of the population, right. You know, if all of our fans brought their kids, To the games, we would still see a shrinking population. Cuz we, we have this whole subset of people that don't, haven't been reached out to, you know, how, how many, how many CFO. Stars are showing up at, you know, DWAI celebrations. And, you know, various, you know, Chinese cultural celebrations, like. We need to be out in the community and sharing the story of the Calgary or the Congress St. Peters. You know, the BC lion. That's one thing I've always loved about the CFO. These guys are all community service oriented. But how can we reoriented that? So it's like the broader community rather than the existing partners that we have. And I think that's, that's the biggest thing that outreach, I was say like every Canadian immigrant should get Tuesday to see to tickets dare guaranteed. Right. So that starts at home. When you talk about marketing sales. Right. We're we're talking about 50 to 60% soul. Right? So when we talk about marketing sales, we're talking about sponsorships, people in seats like that, that whole shebang, right? The CFO is. Doing well, I mean, people watch it. But it's such an exciting experience to be out of the game. So I, I think there's, there's a few things going on, need more people in the seats. Or international coverage is growing. I think there's value in that, but I think the number one thing is, you know, when I watch AFL, so I'm talking about Australian football. They Phillips seats, right? That's their game. They might not have as, as easily exported at NFL there, but it's certainly there. We have to re gender that love for the game here in Canada first. And then. Oh, these Canadians love their game. All tune in and watching to see what's happening. That's sort of the, the follow up to that. Yeah, it's hard. I mean, I, and I know. Having dealt with fans and there, whatever there's a. A sense of like this isn't good enough. Sometimes I get from CFO. I get, so we feel like, like we're all good. All summer. Then NFL starts. It's like, oh, well this stupid game. Like I would just be more proud of it. I think CFO draws incredibly well having tracked like USFL ratings here in the states. With, you know, how much larger our population is in terms of the ratings. Some of those games got being comparable to CFL games with, you know, much smaller. I would just be proud of that. I see a lot. It was all good all summer here until about fall. And it's like, oh, this I poo poo. We don't need, I's like, no, just be proud. This C like let's focus on that. And not kind of drawing these comparisons. Yeah. I, I I've always thought the comparisons are. Like guys, like Australia football league is a different game. Like these, these games all have their nuances. And when you look at the CFO and how a game sort of play out, right. It doesn't matter what the score is. The last three minutes are gonna be anybody's game. As we saw it. Even you, this front of game, we had Toronto. Was is 14 too. In the LA fourth quarter that. That could have been determined in the last minute. Right? So it like the excitement, the energy. That takes place at the game. It's incredible. I have had. Like sort of, you know, top to down knowledge of, of what a game actually looks like. And it's not just this little window. Of of people on the field. It's experiential. I think we have a lot of great things to share. And, and, and hopefully we can continue to make the outreach. So, you know, people actually. Understand. Yeah. It's such a Canadian thing to do. It's like, oh yeah, you know, we like our CFO, but you know, here's the NFL that guys like, they're two different things. Stop trading them. Like they're oh, I'm only gonna watch this football like that. I love football. I watch college football. I watch CFO football. I watch NFL football. I mean, everybody has, you know, limited amounts of time, but I think there's, there's a place for each one of those games. Well, we'll get you. Well, I am thrilled today. We have Tim Banes. I can't remember if you've coming on once already this season, but I think this is a fourth time appearance from the Ottawa sun. How are you doing, sir? Four times I think so like really the pays gotta get better. Fourth time. What what's going on? Like I got nothing better to do in Ottawa. I spent the morning I was talking, I applied for my CFO gray cup credentials. I've been talking with Darrell Davis, finding the perfect spot in Regina. To, you know, do our live show. I am assuming that the Ottawa red blacks will not be at the gray couple. You be at the gray cup. What they're not gonna be. They've cut. Oh three wins. Okay. Yeah. Well, They're gonna run a table, win their last four games. They're gonna end up seven and 11 and the craziest thing ever is gonna happen. A seven and 11 team was gonna win the great up. You heard it here first. Okay. Maybe not. Okay. Okay. Well, Will I be at the gray cup? Yes, it's. It's the, it's a, it's a national party. Of course. I'm gonna be there. I, I had a call today and then, well, email and then a call and then email. I got a pretty good spot here. I'm I'm working on getting set up at, so I think you guys will be happy here for the live show, but. I I, so starting out, obviously you cover Ottawa. I, I was really curious, thinking about this, knowing you were coming out like. Is it better to be like, did Jeff Hamilton of the world, we cover win the peg. They win all the time. It's boring. Or do you prefer the grind of this covering the Ottawa REDX can week out. Well, if to be Jeff Hamilton, it had to be like five foot, two. I'd have to grow a beard and I'd have to get really angry and cantankerous all the time. I, I don't know. I mean, certainly it's better when you're covering a winning football team. Because there's it. It's not a pressure. But there's, there's an. Maybe an anxiety that goes with covering a team that's not doing well because. You try not to be negative all the time. It's tough not to be negative when things are going so wrong, but I think when you write negative stuff all the time, when you're there, there's so bad and the coach should be fired. And if that's the angle every day, you get caught up in it and, and you're just overwhelmed with the negativity. So. I've just tried to, I, I, I call a spade spade and when they're bad, I have to say that. But I try to stay away from that every day and try to focus more on the players and maybe their lives. Than what's going on in the football field. Cause it ain't been pretty. So obviously, you know, P police, I mean, I even last season, I mean, not, not a great outing this year. Were you surprised at coming down here? You know, I mean the loss to BC, it's not even the end of the season yet. Yeah. I mean, it's just, it, a lot of things that happen are surprising this year we saw. We saw what happened. There were three and 15. Under coach Rick Campbell in 2019, 2021 new head coach, Paul app, least three and 11. And new general manager comes in and there are a lot of there're wholesale changes. A lot of new players brought in. And it'd be pretty hard to argue, like on paper. There there's. They certainly. The changes, they made their significantly better. O of a roster than they were year ago, but the results didn't come and you can make an argument. That certainly, I, I think they've been, there have been probably three games now where they had no, there was no way they were going to win, but competitive in a lot of games and could have come out of weeks. One, they could have come out two and oh, Certainly they were a better team in week one. Against Winnipeg and then lost the second game, a game. They could have won. And there's a lot it could have, should have would is. And unfortunately, Could have what it should is. Don't win your football games. You gotta go out and play a full football game and borrowing all the old cliches. But you're really, really need. A lot of things to go right for you. And, and at the end of the day, Some of the decisions that were made by the head coach. Combined with a lack of success. Costs Paul LA police's job. I can't remember because I know, and obviously with the red blacks going into last year with the GM and all that, so, you know, it's been very tumultuous the last two. And I can't remember if it was like on rod Peterson show or something talking. You know, when you have a team, a lot of issues, it's way easier. Like get rid of the GM, get rid of the, like, you know, you can, you can get rid of one coach versus like we got 18 players or whatever we gotta figure out. Like, do you feel like that was the case here? And the mean then bringing in the interim head coach? I mean, is that really like an upgrade? I mean, I know. We're just making due till the end of the season. Is there a better option than Paul poli out there? I guess we're gonna find out, I mean, at some point this is a move. Certainly the team thought about when things were going wrong and beginning of the season, they lost their story. Starting quarterback, Ima solely in week four, but they really started the, this the season off as well as they played a at time. The results weren't showing. So this was something the red blacks have been mulling. For a long period of time. They want a couple games and all of a sudden, okay. Things are better. I think the danger, especially with social media is certainly a lot of fans were calling for the, the, the coach to be fired. A long, long time ago. And I think there's a danger in, I don't want to downplay the importance of a fan base, but it's a danger in all of a sudden, well, the, the fans are calling for us, the fire, the head coach. We better. Because if you look at the history of sports, Anytime a team goes through a slump. Fans are calling for the coaches Aster, like let's, it's the coach, it's the coach. And if you also look back in history, At the number of, of that happening number of times that's happened and teams have rebounded have come back under that coach. I mean you can't, it, it can't be a gut reaction to, to what the outcry from your fan base. In, in this case, it was much more, the team was patient. They waited and waited. And finally the, the shoe dropped and, and, and it was enough. Enough is enough. And I think we saw, I mean, there. Maybe at a certain point when things aren't going right. The coach loses that trust within the dressing room. And, and you can't, you've gotta have the players, players don't have to like you or love you. But they sure better respect you. And I'm not sure that was there. There was a total buy-in on that anymore. Well, is that a vibe you got from? I mean, from that's interesting. The, they, they had lost faith in Paul. I think anytime a team is losing there's frustration. So the, the frustration's gotta be directed at something. I, I, I think it, wasn't only with the head coach there, there, there's just, again, when a team is not doing well, it's a team sport. I'm not sure there are fingers being pointed. But I think there's just, there's just a, a boiling over of frustration. And, and ultimately, I guess you gotta point the anger at someone. And, and the head coach in this case was. Bore the brunt of it. It is interesting talking about you, you know, bringing up social media and found out less to me, the whole first part of our episode did they is talking about, you know, X FFL and, you know, Fran Sam frustration for different measures. Right. And obviously this is, you know, real jobs to people getting like, oh, but it is that fine line of like the whole thing nowadays. Like we're so accessible in social media and we're, you know, we want the fans and especially the CFO that's built on like our and our fans. And it's your thing. And all that meant. To, to have to, you know, accept that. But then, like you said, analytically, look at the situation and say, how do we want the best handle this for the team? Yeah. I, I find a, as much as I, I try to stay active on social media. I post my stories there because I want people to read the coverage, want people following me? But in general, and it's not just a red, black thing or a CFL thing. I mean, it's really. It in large part, I find Twitter, especially like a, it's a cesspool of negativity. And especially when things are going wrong, it's everybody, everybody's looking to point fingers. And I'm not saying when you're a losing football team that you don't deserve. People and angry fan base. I think you do. But I can tell you that as, as a fan of, of several teams, Including the Toronto maple Leafs who haven't wanna Stanley cup since 1967, I don't seek out social media to go and, and Fent out my frustration. Are there frustrations? Sure. But am I gonna go out and start lashing out? I, I, I just find, I don't know how people do it because again, I, I would just get so worked up. It, it would just make my, my, I think it's just bad for your mental health. If that's what you're doing is you're spending your time on social media, lashing out at different people or, or different things. I just don't think that's a positive way or constructive way to spend your day. And I think it, it, some people that's what some. People have become, they're just, that's where they spend their day. And it's full of negativity. So. Let's hope that the, the new Ottawa red blacks. Bring some positive energy about. Because, I mean, at this point we could use anything positive. So obviously Bob di is taking over, he was a special teams, right coordinator. And that generally, I think makes sense. Right? You bring in someone, you know, familiar with kinda all the different players, you know, Interim after the season. Any idea where they go from here. I mean, obviously way too early, but like I said, you know, you get rid of a lot of police. I mean it, is there a long list of people signing up to like, I wanna coach the red blacks right now? Well, I think there will be, I think first we'll see how Bob dice does. I mean, he, he's a former head coach. And I can assure you the players. We talk about respect and love. There's a long line of players that love playing for coach Bob dice, talking to linebacker, Avery Williams today. And he talked about, first of all, he said, he's the kind of guy you'd run a 40 yard dashboard in a 30 yard room. And the other quote was from Bob dice. He said a few years ago, Bob dice told him, he says we wanna be the type, not the type of team that eats with utensils. We wanna eat with our hands. So basically he he's looking for that work ethic. And, and I think there's a lot of, as I said, respect and love. So if things go well, I mean, Bob dice is a guy that really should be in, in serious. Contention, if he wants the job and potentially could be the next head coach. Having said that I'm sure there are a lot of people. Around the league who are in coordinator positions. That would really like an opportunity to be a head coach. So I think the one thing you will see. And I'm pretty sure of this is you will not see the next head coach. Also be slash offensive coordinator. The two jobs need to be distinct. And I think that was one of the things. With Paula police. I think it was overwhelming. To have both positions and I, I, I think you need to pay attention to each one. So I'm pretty sure there will be an offensive coordinator next year. And the head coach will not be. Also doing those duties. Last question for the REDX and I do wanna get your thoughts on kind of, because I'm curious your thoughts on these other matchups. You know, was it four games left? I mean, are we. Just kind of getting by here. I mean, and letting him go, you know, Before the end of the season also seems weird. Right? We go through all this. I mean, any thoughts just on that and the timing and before the end of the season and, and what they're gonna do here at the last little bit. I think it, it had just become with, with LPO. I think it had just become too much. I mean, there was. Again, I think you wanna see what you've got and you wanna see the players performing to the full potential. And I guess that the, that the thought was that you weren't gonna see that. And let's see what happens. If we put a new voice in the room, I, I, if there's a new voice for the players to listen to, so it's almost like, what have we got to lose? And I think as long as they were in contention, we talk about the crazy. East division where I it's possible a team was six wins possible. Or seven wins. Could get into the playoffs. So. I think as long as the thought was, we're still alive. Paul poli at least as offensive coordinator is the best guy we have to call the plays. They did not wanna pull the plug, but I, but. But I think, yeah, the, the BC game really. Showed that they're not on a par with some teams right now. They, they just were in my mind were never in that game. And we'll see, they've got four games coming up. Two against Montreal, two against Hamilton. If you're gonna win four games, it, it, it's probably best to be against these opponents. So, you know, go out and play the games. Let's see what happens. They, they beat Montreal last time they were in Montreal. Let's see what happens on Monday. Speaking of BC curious your thoughts of me America CFL team here at like. I mean, yeah, we come in, we beat, you know, we beat up the red blacks with every, that doesn't do anything for me, cuz we just got our, you know, asses handed to us by Calgary, you know we're and I know Vernon looked. Decent in the first game did not look good. The second I was filming the wedding and I was, I literally was filming the toast of the wedding and I had my phone on and I'm watching. Vernon Adam throwing completions, but thoughts on, you know, the Toronto matchup, anything with BC, any thoughts on the Mather in general? I think you've got a problem. like, Like the CFO. I know, I know. I know you love the CFO, but wow. Wow. Is there some kind CFO anonymous or something to hear you of this. I I, but with the BC lions, I mean, I think they're expecting Nathan Rourke back. We, we see what Nathan Rourke really means to the team. And certainly they're gonna miss Brian Burnham as well. So. Get healthy and there's a lot of time. They've got another month left in the season. If they can get Nathan work back and Brian Burnham, and there is as good as anybody in the league, you, but you just see what Rourke and his development as a quarterback has been to that team. And it it's just. Nothing against Vernon Adams, but you see a big difference. So we, we, we saw a big difference when, when work was behind a center, for sure. Vernon in BC, better than expected, worse than expected. Again, he's only what, three weeks, three weeks into the system. I don't know that I had expectations. I think Vernon Adams is a pretty good quarterback. And he's, he's probably a better option. Than than what they had. You just need Vernon Adams to be kind of a caretaker again, if you expect. And I don't know the timeline, if you expect Nathan Rourke. Back in three weeks or a month, you just need Vernon Adams to go in and keep them in games. And, you know, it may not be a first place finish. Just finish in second or third. And that gives you a chance you gotta finish in a playoff spot to have a chance. So this could be setting up. You just need Vernon Adams to come in. And man not make big mistakes. I just hate it cuz we lost a win. Like we had everything in the world and we got our asses handed to us by Winnipeg. So I just I'm like, what the hell is, are we doing? Heres well, it's all regular. Season, as we've seen in the CFO, it's all about the playoffs. Okay. There's still time. Don't don't throw yourself off a bridge. Like it's okay. it's okay. So we have red flags, Montreal. Oh, cuz that's that's Canadian Thanksgiving right on the 10th. Is that what's going on? Yes. Okay. It is. So hopefully they don't, they don't serve up a Turkey in that game. Like man, like play, hopefully it's a good game. I mean, I'm spending my Thanksgiving Monday and Montreal there'd be no Turkey for me. Like. You know, maybe a sandwich or something at the game. But I'm looking forward to it. I, I wanna see what this team can bring to the table. And how they do, how they finish out this stretch because. Three three. Eleven's not very good. And I don't know if you can finish. What you need to finish to, you know, just at least show. Some spark, I mean, the, I, you need to win two or three games down the stretch. And I guess it starts Monday and we'll hope. Hopefully we can see some signs of life from an offense that really. Over the past three years in Otta wise, it's the main source of frustration. For fans while other than the fact that they've lost 21 of 22 games at home, which is almost it's unthinkable, I'm not even sure how that's possible. But, but the fact that the offense. They seem to be behind 10, nothing before, you know, before the offense shows any signs of life. So I, I think they need to. They really need to find signs of life and they need to show signs of life early in the game, rather than waiting till they're 10 or 14 points behind. Yeah. I mean, speaking, you know that Edmonton here now on the road again, watch Edmonton come in and blow the doors off. Win the peg here after, after. Well, they, again, they're not gonna win at home, so they might just like the red blocks. They're. They're I, I can't, I can't explain it. How can you be so bad at home? And then, then occasionally on the road win. Like, isn't it a advantage to play in front of home fans? It is right. I was watching, I did, I, I had a little bit of a break on Saturday and I was watching that and, you know, I let Cornelius, he played in the XFL and I, I get, I know he is not the biggest Edmonton. I don't think all Edmonton people overwhelmingly loved Taylor. Cornelius. I thought, man, they're gonna ask for their money. Back after this extension, cuz it's like, they just like, they, they hate winning at home. I mean there's no other way around it. I mean, Victor queen must be just begging to Senate against the law. Remember as well that the pieces of paper that these guys sign extensions on her contracts with really aren't worth that much because the, the, usually they're not guaranteed contracts. Sometimes these guys get a. Little bit of a bonus, but if they wanted to, they could walk away from Taylor or Cornelius next year, before the contract ever kicked in. So, you know, with Edmonton, you never know that it it's the shiny new toy. What do they find in the off season? I think Taylor can, Cornelius can be a, a decent enough CFO quarterback. How many? Really? How many good CFO quarter? How many good quarterbacks are there in the CFO right now? How many franchise quarterbacks are in the CFO right now? Wella and it was, I can't remember. It was posted today on Twitter and Facebook. It was former like CFO head coach talking about like the din and Don and how it's like killing the CFO. And I go, well, absolutely. And there go, oh, what about Zach? Cal? I go, that's one of nine. I mean, RO Rourke's out. But otherwise it's, it's seven or eight teams that didn't conduct down the field. I mean, there's really not a lot of big play makers right now. I mean, that's the, every person I talked to every week on the podcast, talks about the lack of CFO quarterback play right now. Yeah, Zach, it's pretty hard to argue against a guy. Who's 1, 2, 3, great cops. It doesn't matter how they get it done. If you're winning great cups, doing what you're doing, keep doing it. Thoughts on Saskatchewan here before we get outta here. I mean, you know, Ty cats seem to have a little bit of life. Everyone hates Cody. All I see every week is Dickinson yelling at players and then a apologizing for it. Like, I, I, I mean, I don't understand this whole and I'll be. In eye then maybe I'll understand more with feet on the ground. Like, I don't understand this whole team and, and media surrounding the Saskatchewan, others. I don't know how to explain it. . I don't know. I mean, that's a team that, again, you'll look at. And, and maybe they should be better. And, and the quarterback takes a lot of flack from the fan base. That he was a guy that a couple years ago, I thought he was gonna be the next big thing. I really, really thought Cody Fujio was going to be like, like one of the best CFO quarterbacks. He hasn't risen to that level. And if anything is maybe taken a step or two back. I don't see him enough. I don't know why. But I, again, I thought he was a guy with a great amount of potential. It'll be an interesting off season for Saskatchewan for sure. We'll see what happens with the coaching staff, but, but quarterback wise, do they move on and we keep hearing boldly by Mitchell. It's gonna be, it's still a ways away, but it's gonna be an interesting CFO off season in terms of, I, I think there's gonna be. Interesting turnover maybe on, on some coaching staffs and, and certainly some players changing places. Yeah. Do, do you really see a wholesale changes in, in Saskatchewan here? If they don't make a run? I don't know, it's it, it's a football team that if they play, I mean, especially if they don't make the playoffs. What do you do? I, I, I, I think he's a good head coach. I think he's a good coach, but. I don't know how patient, the ownership. I, I don't know how patient, the, the people above. The coach are so. I don't know. It's all about it. It's a, what have you done for me lately game? And sometimes good coaches don't have jobs. It just always, just like I said, there's so much drama out of there and you have the Marino staff and you have all this discipline and it just. It just, I don't know. It just felt like they've just carried a lot of like baggage all year. And like I said, every story I read about, you know, is Rob Vanstone, you know, Yelling at this RA riders or the, you know, Dickinson apologizing for yelling at the rough Fri. I could just always seems like I just am not seeing that. And with everything that like BC has gone through this year, I just, I don't see those stories. I don't see those stories with much Montreal with all of their stuff. And this craziest it's been like only seems like. It's Regina that's coming out of well in Ottawa. Yeah. I mean, I guess now, but I mean, you're more ATT tuned into that probably. I mean, you're the, you know, saying that the locker room and Paul had lost the locker room with all that. I mean, it just, and maybe it's just the circles. I see that get posted in the line. Just, I, I feel like every, every week I'm seeing like negativity coming out of, for a team. That is doing better than a lot of the teams in the CFO. Right. Right. You're only allowed to have drama if you're either are the rough writers or a team that used to be called the rough writers, like it's restricted to rough writers. One word of like how create I'm so happy. We've moved beyond that. They're are still some fans that would like Ottawa's team to be the rough rider. Riders with two, two word rough riders, not one word, rough riders. Yeah. So like, yeah, that the CFO, well, we, we can name two teams. They can have the same nickname. So. Imagine imagine like two Vik, the, the two Vikings be the Minnesota Vikings and the something else Vikings in the NFL, like two different teams spell them differently though. Change it up. Yeah, it's pretty crazy. V I K I N there's sure, sure. Change it up. I hate, I do hate the red blacks. I, I don't like that franchise. Like I, you don't like the franchise or the name. I don't like the name and the whole identity of that. I don't you, do you like, do you like the people who cover the team anyway? Yes. I, I like that. No, I like every, I like the player. I like sure. I like, I mean, I like LBO. I like Tim. Baes, you know, the covers all that, but I, but I don't, I mean, and I don't know, Jenna, a long time. Let me get your take on this. So we have, this is, you'd be curious. Do so XFL. Right? We're getting ready. We're we're leaking all the names, right? The names that are coming back. What is your take on the leaked rumored name of the San Antonio franchise of the EXL V and the San Antonio. Braas after, you know, the rock, you know, the rock, the Brahma bowl. The San Antonio Braas what do you think of that? Well, Let me think. I, I hadn't heard that. You know what? Yeah, I hadn't heard, but. I'm a big rock fan. I've got like a bunch project rock at where I, I have sweatshirts. So I, I sorta like it. The bromus. I like it. Why is it? Are they taking a lot of criticism already? Yes. Yes. Yes. A lot of C what you want the, to be, what are they go? We gonna call them the lions or like any. Other one of, but some people don't like, like the name red blacks, or like what's a red, black, we don't have to be a red, black. Sometimes it's about branding like red, black, it's a wide open palette. It can be anything. You've the, it's the colors, the colors of Ottawa. I've always been red and black. So people are like, well, that's a stupid name, the red blacks. I like the Braas. I can picture the ball bull snorting. And you know what? I'm gonna get the sweatshirt. If they, if they're called the Braas, I'm getting myself a bromus sweatshirt I'm board. All right, Tim. I'll I'll help you. We'll get you a Broma. Are, are, are you, are you against it? There there's so there's been a couple changes, right? So the, and this is all, so they basically, they leaked everything on the shop like two weeks ago, and then they P you know, we found it. And so the world went down. So it's the Seattle. Sea dragons, not the dragons. It's Seattle. Yeah. Which I don't, I mean, to Seahawks and I don't, I'm not, I'm not losing sleep over that. But their relocated in a couple of teams. And then the, the new, the only new team they're doing is, is the Braas, which one of our listeners max is called. So it'll be the San Antonio, Dwayne Johnsons. That will be the name of that franchise. it just seems too cute by half. It seems a little too cute by half, but like, Hey, we need a trademark. Hey, rock. You own this? Like, can we use this in one of the teams? Like. It, it, it is been getting not overwhelmingly positive reaction. Well, there's you again? You're you're a negative social media comments. I'm I'm actually on board with it now more I think about it, the more I think about it. Yeah. I'm okay with it. Well, we'll get you some brass merchandise when it comes out. Tim, any other thoughts? I really appreciate it. I will be seeing you here in a little over a month's time. We'll get all that figured out. Anything else before we let you go today? No, I'm just, you talk about great cop and I think. Obviously the NFL is a great game. The super bowl is a great experience. But I don't think there's any weak, like breakup week, especially the, you know, the Thursday, Friday. Saturday leading into it. It is such a, a, a, I think from a fan's perspective. Such a fan event where. I don't know that the same aura is around the super bowl where fans from different teams. Are getting together and it's like a big love in, I think what super bowl like these guys. Raiders fans are getting fired up and ready to fight people. They're not putting their arms around fans from Packer's fans and say, Hey great. You later, I'll buy you a beer. Which is what the great cup is. So maybe. Ah, we're just more of a loving country. I guess we can, we can get along for a few days and then I'm gonna hate you the rest of the year, cuz you're cheering for the stamp Peters or you're cheering for the bombers. I don't know, I look forward to great cup, always do always a great experience and, and I think the. The jockeying to get there. I, I know you're kind of like, oh, what's gonna happen for the rest of the season. It's gonna be interesting, I think. And, and I think the, I think it will be. The play us will be interesting. And what's going on in the east as bad as a couple of those teams have been, could start to heat up in the next month as well. It's one of the great things about the CFO, I guess it's just unpredictable. I, I will say. And as someone that, you know, I enjoy the NFL, I, I do. Like with, with the X AFL is trying to do in terms of like fan with tickets and the USFL and the CFO. Like, I will never, in my lifetime attend a Superbowl. Right. Like ever it doesn't matter, like as much as I would. I mean, Even if, even if the Washington commanders rally behind Carson Wentz, make it to the, like, I'm never going to that. And, and I think that's where the NFL has lost. In, they don't care cuz they're making the billion dollars outta, but it's not accessible to like normal. I think super bowl is it's a, it's a bunch of parties going on, but they're all high priced and it's who, you know, to get in. It's not it's is it a fan experience? The game itself. Great experience. Great. Have time show to a lot of stuff going on. Great day, but the stuff leading in it's a lot of. High price, tickets and stuff. And I, I think you've gotta be a, you got your corporations buying the tickets. Or your company's getting the tickets or. Or it, it's not for the average Joe. And I think the CFO. I is the average person out there. The people, yeah. You know, who're working the nine to five jobs and it's just average people. Having a good time in general. So I think again, probably the three days leading in to great cup. It's it's pretty fun. And I managed to. Kind of juggle my job. And, and go out and still. Hang out a little bit. Enjoy. Enjoy the good time. We're here for a good time. Not a long time right here. We gonna, well, I, I got my hotel room booked today. I think we'll be squared away. I'll be coming off of, I believe, covering the XL draft in Arlington that Wednesday. So it could be a very eventful week for re and then I'll be excited that follow it up and, and free is my ass off. In, in vagina for the gray cup. Should I, should I warn the Regina police that you're on the way? Is there, are there any outstanding warrants or anything? No. I know. Hopefully our, we did. I tell we had the land dispute last year when we tried the, in there with the border. So I think hopefully this year, they'll all be clear that by the time we get, well, you look at, look at you. You're recognizable personality.

Episode 112 - An Alt-Football Therapy Session With Mike Mitchell

Well, we're in therapy session today, the episode this week and, and alt football therapy session, we have Dr. Mitchell here at Mike Mitchell. How are you doing? I'm doing very well Reid. Thanks for having me on. I just first off. I, we could start in a multitude of directions, crazy week quarterbacks coming out, team names. Not logos team names coming out. I wanna point that out. Everything else. Where do you wanna stop down and start this crazy conversation? We got so much to cover. So I'm, I'm assuming people are not listening to this. To hear me talk about the Argos and the CFO season, which is going great by the way, we'll get into that another day, but Argos and Leos are gonna play in a couple weeks, so I'm sure we'll have some. Some trash talk going on between the both of us when Vernon Adams straps it up. Against the Argos in Toronto, but anyhow, but yeah, we could start wherever you'd like Reed, you know, there's so much to cover right now. Obviously I released an article. Today, this will air on Friday. On the XFL quarterbacks, the assignments that I've heard through sourcing. Where these quarterbacks are gonna be landing. We, we know the first nine. That's not to assume that other quarterbacks weren't at the QV summit with Jordan Palmer. And that they're just not in these videos. But we can, we can cover that. That's a fascinating topic because, you know, we, we focus on team names, colors, uniforms, all that fun stuff that people like to. Hone in on when these leagues come out, it's like the most, one of the more exciting things for fans to focus in on. But at the end of the day, the players that play in the league are gonna determine how good the XFL is and, you know, it's all starts and ends with quarterback positions. Yeah. So let's start there I guess. And then we'll go back, cuz that just came out. And you said you have an article coming out with the team names. We'll stop down on that. I mean, obviously we that's been the topic of, you know, topic due du Azure for a while, but. Jordan Palmer Monday night, you know, max sends me, you gotta, you gotta go on, you gotta go on this Instagram. And I assume this is all kosher, cuz I would imagine they would have deleted this or taken it down. Right. But you know, we had this sweeping showing the nine quarterbacks that on the cow, you know, we OU that all week. Kind of figured out who all was a part of that. I thought it was funny that I had a friend of the show. Brian Scott, I had mailed him. The football assign as a giveaway item and he goes, Hey, re I'm gonna be out of town for a little while. I'll get the ball with you when you go back, go, oh, there's Brian. Brian's sitting on the couch and Jordan Palmer. So. You've released the, the nine quarterbacks now, you know, we've figured it all out all week. You have the information, talk me through the nine quarterbacks. Do we have currently? And, and what the situation is with them being like assigned or allocated to the team teams. Right. So it's a fascinating process that's going on right now between the XFL and their players and the players have been communicating with. So I've seen some reports out there. Shout out to XFL. Analysts. Who's been putting out reports about letters of intent. I've heard a templates for standard contracts will be given out to players that they're not legal documents yet. So, so I don't know for sure who's signed and who hasn't in terms of who's locked in with the league. But we know the names Jowan pass former Louisville prayer review quarterback, from what I've heard, he's going to be assigned to the San Antonio franchise with Hines ward and Jamie, a Elizondo, you know, who was part of the XFL back in 2020 with Tampa, C coaches? Well, with, with D DC. With Reggie Barlow and his crew. This is an exciting player. Derek king, former Miami hurricane star, Houston Cougar's guy. Five nine undersized, very Kyler Murray ask, ironically, you know, broke a lot of the records, Kyler Murray he had in Texas there. So Kyler Murray. So, so he's gonna be assigned to DC. Brandon silvers. Everybody knows him. Obviously Seattle fame, Seattle dragons fame there. Memphis. Express played in the spring league with the conquerors, which is kind of the tie in for him because the Houston offensive coordinators, AJ Smith, and that's where silvers. Is going to be assigned. And then there is a fascinating young quarterback, Stephen Montez from Colorado, the Colorado standout. He's gonna be heading to Seattle. This is a very talented young kid. He spent the last two years in the NFL with the Detroit lions on their practice squad with Washington spent on and off the practice squad there. So him in Seattle with June Jones is the offensive coordinator. I can't think of very few places. You know, I can, it's difficult to find a, a better spot than that, that we're Monte could end up. He's the type of player that could end up quickly back in the NFL. He has all the prototypical tools size. Good mobile arm strength. He just needs playing time. So that's a good landing spot for him. You got Jalen McClendon kind of a unique name in the bunch here. He's been he's was part of the XFL back in 2020. So it's no surprise with LA. So it's no surprise that Joey Clinton skills whos the director player personnel with law Vegas. Would have an interest in bringing McClendon on very raw prospect. You know, he. From what I heard, you know, recently participated in hub football and he impressed a lot of the Scouts. There, there are CFO teams that are interested in him as well. He's got good size arm strength was with the Ravens for a little spell when he came outta school. So he's an interesting guy, a lot of these kind connection, you know, you know, coaches, AJ Smith with Brandon. Silvers Joey Klink scales with Jalen McClendon. Of course there's drew Plitt. A ball state quarterback. Who's a true, genuine rookie. And the word is that he'll be assigned to Arlington with Bob stoops staff there with Jonathan Hayes and otherwise Chuck long as well. Who's a co-op, it's a coordinator there Plitt its a fascinating guy, had a very strong preseason with the Cincinnati Bengals. Didn't get a lot of plan time, but came on against the cards with six of six or 76. Yards and a touchdown played a little bit against the giants, but he's a fascinating young talent who kind of late bloomer in ball, state improved every year he was there. So him and Arlington's fascinating, then there are two more Ryan Willis, another name, more familiar with in the alt league universe. TSL MVP back in 2021, playing for how mummy and the lineman he's headed towards St. Louis, which is fascinating there. With NFL quarterback, former NFL quarterback, Bruce, Greg. Kowski the offensive coordinator there with the battle Hawks. And then of course, you've got FSU Hampton quarterback, Deandre, Fran wa a lot of alt league guys, especially the hardcores know who he is. Talented guy or Orlando product, Orlando native. Headed towards Orlando. It's fascinating. This group, now it's a smart move on. A lot of these young players parts. To get in on the ground floor with the XFL XFL 3.0, to get first off work, you don't even need an XFL to exist. To, to wanna work with Jordan Palmer. You know, the list goes on and on who he's worked with. Josh Allen credits. Jordan Palmer heavily. With his turnaround. You know, he initially started out as a 50%, 58% passer and the national football league. And he changed his mechanics through helping Jordan Palmer and biometrics. And Alan is a, you know, there are very few people that can hold a candle to him on the entire plane. As for far as quarterback goes right now, he's in a super elite class. We know that. Joe burrows, the Patrick Mahomes, all those guys. So if I'm a young quarterback and I'm a fringe guy who doesn't have an opportunity to play and I'm raw, and I, I want to improve my game. I wanna work with Jordan Palmer and the fact that he's the director of quarterback of development for our professionally, with the XFL. That's a nice spot for a lot of these young guys. So they got a little bit of a head start, the K caveat to all this, these eight names we're hearing. And I didn't mention the, the sexy one right now. Brian Scott. The caveat to this is that this is the early stages. So there's no guarantee that these names. Will be starters. You have to figure a couple of these guys. You have a pretty good shot at it. But especially when you come in as early as they have, and start working with Palmer already. But the XFL is currently in negotiations with quarterbacks. There are a lot of cor free agent quarterbacks that are on the fence, waiting for NFL opportunities and weighing their options of whether or not they should take a chance or take the plunge and going to the XFL. So some people might be extremely ectatic with these name, cuz they love the, a lot of these guys they're. Like diamonds in the rough. Some people might be a little bit underwhelmed because they're not familiar. But I would say, you know, there's a lot of time between now and January. With the XFL, having drafts plural. And that January one's gonna be fascinating right before training camp that I would say, this is not the end of it, but when, when the smoke clears is gonna be 24 XFL, quarter X, maybe a little more. But at the bare minimum 24 XFL quarterbacks, three per team, eight teams. And we're gonna see some UN interesting names when that January period comes. Players from the USFL with expiring contracts, 1231. And, and then of course, NFL players that are on practice squads right now that don't sign futures deals. That happens in January when the NFL season ends immediately. And then there are players right now that are on the fence. The FFL has talked to players like Garrett, Gilbert, and Blake bords and players like that. And those guys are weighing Gilbert recently worked out for NFL team. So those players are weighing whether or not to just hang back and see. If they can get another NFL spot, some of them it's a pride thing. Like a Blake BS. I'm not so sure he wants to go play in XFL. He'd love. He asked for his release from the saints a few months back because things got crowded there when they brought in Andy Dalton. So he wants to be in a li situation where if he's not the starter, he's a least the legit number two with a. Chance to start, I would argue. And I'm a fan of Blake's. He's got a call following. I would argue that the X FFL is his best chance to actually get on the field and start. And, you know, and do, do a number for like a better time to do well and all that. And he'd be a major star. So there are a lot of guys on young guys on the fence, Cole, Kelly, ake glass. I'm I'm missing a few guys off the top of my head right now, but those are the types of players that definitely. Interests me if we're looking towards. Developing the next generation of quarterbacks, which is something that XFL president Russ, Brandon has harped in on when the league hired Jordan Palmer. Yeah. And obviously we'll the Brian Scott. We'll talk about that in a second, cuz I think that's a different scenario. I have my board apes football club on. It's cool to see, you know, we're talking with Ray Austin on the show today, but. Gare Fran SW you know, Maide name with the, you know, the glacier boys and, and the boy apes they're in Fager football. The thing to point out, like you said, Eight players here, you know, plus Brian and I, but you have eight players that we're not saying like, okay, these are assigned, they're ready to go. These you starting quarterbacks because I do think exit L 2020 ran into some issues with that where like, Hey, we're gonna pay brand silvers all this month. And then like, oh, we. Maybe we should have gone with BJ Daniels or whatever. And obviously, you know, you had like Heineke as the backup in St. Louis. Like, I think we've learned now, like, let's bring these guys in, they're still going to be on the team, but we're not saying these are your eight starting quarterbacks and that's a excellent point. Read anybody who followed the FFL close three years ago now in 20. 19 Is they remember the assigned quarter X being announced, but they also kind of forget that there were other assigned quarterbacks that joined the party late. Josh Johnson, Taylor Heineke etcetera, chase Litton, you know, but, but however, there were new quarterbacks that joined later and that's one of the, the prime primary reasons. The primary reason. That the draft was pushed from October with the last timeline in 2019 to no mid-November to give more time for those fringe players to join. If Taylor, he. But if he had joined. Earlier he would've definitely been starting. So a lot, getting a jump early is a smart move for a lot of his quarterbacks. But, yeah, we're definitely gonna see new names. Cause we saw them three years ago and the timeline they'd set up November and then with the uniqueness of the SFL situation in January. That creates an opening. So we don't know yet that these guys they're obviously. They're requested by the team. So directors of player personnel, these teams have a strong interest in them. I've heard things about, he's not, we didn't see him at the QB summit, at least not in an IG video, but I've heard things about Cole McDonald with Seattle. Tied into June Jones. I've heard Akiel glass in Las Vegas. Their offensive coordinator is supposed to be Dwayne Taylor. Glasses. So we'll see a lot of guys like glass and Kelly. They have agents that are telling 'em, Hey, let's wait this out. Let's look at all of our options. Let's weigh them. And then we'll think about it. And I think you mentioned something there about salaries. I'm not trying to say this in any way to denigrate or, or belittle or the quality of these quarterbacks here. But when you tend to lean more. Towards younger guys who are like fringe guys who don't have a lot of NFL opportunities waiting them. You have to figure that they're not gonna be paid as high. You know, the XFL in 2020 went a little overboard, some would argue paying guys like Landry Jones and Matt McGloin close to million dollar E each. So that was a lot of money for those guys. I understood why they did that. And, you know, stoops is connection to Landry and all that. And then McGloin got recommended by Andy Reed, the chiefs, and those guys are NFL guys with NFL experience. And the league could actually, when you think about it, when you look at all the quarterbacks, this situation, I would prefer some variety and some. Established veterans doesn't always work out, but you'd like to have a few guys on these rosters that whatever, be a Ryan Finley or whomever it is Gary Gilbert. Guys who have some level of NFL experience because even if they don't start, which I would assume guys like Gilbert would, but even if they don't, it's great for these young quarterbacks to be in the same room with someone who is actually been in the NFL, started games, et cetera, et cetera. So it's good. It's good. You know it a lot of times, and I've followed these leagues my whole life, these alt leagues. A lot of times you have guys that are penciled in. As the starter and then the season starts and you go, holy cow. I remember with the roughnecks, a lot of people thought Connor cook was gonna be the guy and they even did Fox commercials. And then PJ Walker. We know what happened there. I remember with the original XFL where the LA extreme, the first overall pick in the draft was Scott Milovich, you know, the coach and the former CFL guy, all that. And Tommy Maddox ended up usurping him. And becoming an MVP and then, and NFL comeback player of the year led the Steelers to playoff all that good stuff. So even though we see some names, now there might be on, on the flip side, there might be some young guys that surprise us, whatever Derek king and end up being superstars. And there might be some, you know, veterans that show up a little bit later to the party that that appear maybe to not be the, the guy to take over when the season starts spins out, they play in training camp and impress their coaches and all that. So it's fun times. It's fun thing. These are fun things to speculate and talk about. Well, and I think, I can't remember if this was when we were talking then, you know, in one of the group chats or whatever, but. Players that are a part of this now. Right. If, if we're getting ready to be scientific, the XFL, you know, There's other potential quarterbacks waiting on calls on injury, waiting on calls. You know, Theyre on practical. Like these are the guys that are available. Now that are saying, yeah, I can go to Laguna or I think that's where it is. Cuz Brandon silvers, you know, I think it was. AJ's girlfriend or whatever, tweeted out the father was silvers. And we're like, okay, well he's obviously there, like. These are guys not that you don't have anything going on right now, but these are the guys who are saying like, Hey, like this is we're choosing this. This is my next spec. Option where some of these other players might still be holding that like, Hey, I can get a call here. If someone goes down or we need to get elevated up or whatever. Right. It's a smart play. Exactly. It's a smart play, but a lot of these young quarterbacks, like get in on the ground floor, get a jump start. And, you know, you're not in profitable, you're not guaranteed a starting spot. And we'll see how many of these guys actually end up starting by the time February rolls around. But I would want him, if I was a young quarterback out there, I'm a JLA McClendon. Any of these guys, I want to go work with Jordan Palmer and get in on it. So, and then, you know, some of these guys have connections to the coaching steps. It helps a guy like Brandon. I know it's not the second sexiest it to some of the, I was a Brandon silvers guy in the AAF. And was happy with the, a XFL, got him in, in the, in 2020. And, and it just didn't work out. You know, Mike Riley, the offensive coordinator left before the season to deal with family issues. Things got kind of jumbled there with Z didn't work out, Daniel's fit better. So who knows. And Silver's played well in TSL with AJ Smith, which is why he's there. So you wanna like. I don't know. Do I think silvers is gonna start day one? I have my doubts, but it doesn't hurt that he already knows the offensive system has worked with AJ Smith before. And so that helps. And he's working with Jordan Palmer. You never know Jordan Palmer could tweak his throwing motion and that could be something that would, it happened with Josh Allen, Josh Allen. I put videos in my articles, but Josh Allen saying, I changed my entire throwing motion because of Jordan Palmer. And now look at him. I mean, the. Right. Like I said before, there's very few players on the entire planet as good as he is. So anyway, but that's, that's where we are. So yeah, these young guys. They're coming in and they're getting an opportunity and the existence of leagues, like this is so great for these guys, cuz they have really, they have nowhere else to play. American pro football, where they can actually get an opportunity to get snaps and reps. You know, if you're a guy who's on a fringe or a practice squad guy, you almost never, Kurt Bankert was gonna be. He's a guy who's a young veteran. Who's you know, his snaps in the NFL. Very good college player snaps in the NFLs and knee downs. That's it. He doesn't have any passes. So, and now he signed with the Niners. They have injuries there with trade lands and everything else. And I know that he was one of the quarterbacks and obviously he publicized it, that he was talking to the XFL. So banker would've been one of these guys and maybe still could be, who knows what happens if the Niners let him go and all that kind of stuff, what happens, but it time Jan rolls around. But there's a lot of quarterbacks. Like Kurt banker who were talented were very good in college, but. You know, unless heaven and earth are moved and everybody gets hurt. They're not gonna get an opportunity to play. So obviously, and then I will, we'll get it to Brian Scott here. The. Immediate question is okay. Compare this to the us FFL, right? Whether we think of the talent quality. And like we said, you know, this is just the first list of many. You know, these guys could never step foot on the field. Right? You just have branded silvers in there. Maybe it's a favor. Maybe AJ's like, Hey, let's bring him in. You know, he can kind of help lead the locker room. Right. A little, you know, the locker room here, what we're kind of going through all this stuff, you know, it's good to have some older, like what's, what's, Silver's doing right now. Right. You know, I mean, right. You know, a not in a, I mean, I'm I podcast valley, so it's fine. But. In terms of the quality of B's a plus Scott. You know, versus the USFL now, like what do you. Are these, what do you make of it? I liked some of the SFO quarterbacks out there. And so we saw like Louis Perez veteran played well. Unfortunately, he ended up with the rans before she was cut fairly quickly there. And then, you know, you got the cost loaders and all those guys, and they had Clayton thons and all that, you know, unfortunately none of the us FFO quarterbacks are currently on NFL rosters. So I dunno if that tells you something there, maybe chase cook could have had an op case. Cook could have had an opportunity if you didn't get injured in the championship game there. So there there's quite a. Few of the, you know, right now it's so early, such an early. Sample, I think what the XFL is going towards, which is kind of fascinating. And I think it was tipped off when they hired Jordan Palmer. Is there, it doesn't appear to me that they're looking for veteran name guys or guys who been around five, six years. That kind of thing that have kind of like their NFL window is closed, which a lot of the players, I don't wanna be disrespectful at all. Cause I like a lot of the UFO players, but, and you Neil Stratton me dis point, which is a pretty strong one. A lot of the players that played the. NFL in the USFL had the NFL window closed on them completely. And a lot of times that happens in these leagues. A lot of the guys who end up in these leagues, they've had that door shut on them for a couple seasons, two, three years, and then they go, okay, I'll do this. You know, I'm not going back to the NFL. Let me just give this a shot. And that's what happens with a lot of these. Players. And I think the XF fell is looking for. Young players that still. Steven Montez has all the physical tools to be back on an NFL roster. So he has the size. He has the speed. He has all that. He just needs playing time and development and working with Jordan Palmer and June Jones. Eventually that's gonna help him. Hopefully gets blame time and reps. So I think the XLS taken a different strategy, or that's not to say there won't add a Gar Gilberg or maybe a Blake BS or a Brett Hunley or Deshaun Kaiser. Any of those guys, you know, some young veterans who have NFL experience. But I think the XFL is going more towards the. The the next generation of quarterbacks, the guys who can do still have an upside. To be fixtures in the NFL and to just to be fixtures in the pro football landscape to be stars for 10 years and beyond. So we'll see if that strategy pays off. I would argue that you need a little bit more balance. And that if you're starting eight rookie quarterbacks, essentially. You're running the risk of having a lot of players struggle cuz rookie quarterbacks struggle. So we'll see, we'll see, you know, you'd like to have a few veterans, but. It's fascinating until we see the full list of XFL guys. We can't really weigh it. All these leagues since I've been following them. And it's like this in the NFL too. There's a few elite guys. There's bottom end, guys, that kind of suck. And then there's like middle, middle of the run. And we see that in a CFO, 19 league, there's like a few super elite guys, a couple Ks and a couple of struggling guys on the bottom end. And I saw that infl 2020. I saw that in the, I saw that in the U USFL. And so, and it's come even in the NFL. So where, where there's like the super, super elite and then the bottom end. There's a lot of young guys that Justin feels that Zach Wilson's these guys struggling to try to find their way. So. We'll see what it, what the picture looks like when we get to January, when the smoke clears. That's why I'm hesitant to just jump and judge their quarterbacks because there's honestly right now, because I know, because I wrote an article about the 20 potential X FFL quarterbacks. I know they've all been to discussions and to negotiations with. The league. That's why I wrote the article. And so I know there's a lot of guys right now on the fence. And so I'd love to see a car. Like if we're going next generation, I would love to see Carson strong ake glass. Cole Kelly, big six foot seven quarterback there. So there there's a lot of like young talent. That's not gonna get a chance to play in the NFL that I would love to see get an opportunity in the XFL to develop. So that's the exciting part, you know, like if they, if the XFL to tomorrow announced might Glen and. Glennon was one of the quarterbacks. He has NFL experience. He started. He, he would bring some veteran leadership to the room. I'm sure he is a good guy, but there's nothing sexy. About my Glen and whatsoever. It's a little bit more sexy. Derek king for EA he's five 90 short and everything like that, but he's like, so such a Playmaker fast, he could be really fun in that DC offense. That's more exciting. The upside of what he can become. Then Mike Glenn and we kind of know who he is. He probably be a serviceable guy, but there's no fun in that. It's interesting. When you're talking about the quarterbacks and this relates to all the different, you know, players for both of these leagues, you know, our mutual friend, Emory hunt when he was on a couple weeks ago. Talking about like, not. Entirely, but how both of these leagues USFL XL should really be targeting different people. Like you said, you know, with, with the time of year they're playing. Us L it's guys that, like you said, their windows. Closed. They're not worried about hopping into a camp here come June, July. I mean, you know, you get a Kiante chirp in that works out XFL. You know where they're playing February, you get these guys right off and then they get back in the next year. Same with the quarterback. Someone takes off come April. You get signed, go back in the next year. I think. Like you said both these leagues should be setting their identity slightly different. Right. Obviously we're trying to get the best talent, but there are, I think players better suited for either of these leagues. And I, I agree. And I, I like the idea of thinking outside the box. Because when, when a lot of, a lot of times there are guy, the Kyla Murray types. I'm not, he's an anomaly. Right. But I don't know if he's five, eight, five, seven standing on a phone book. I dunno if people use phone books anymore, but . But there are players like that, that get ignored. And I know this sounds crazy. I've been following the NFL my whole life, right about the New York jets, all that stuff. But the NFL misses on players. They their players that I know a lot of people are like, wow. And there's no doubt the national football, league's the best of the best cream of the crop. The best top 1% of football players end up in that league. No doubt about it, but the NFL misses on players because. They overlook guys because of certain what schools they came from, their size, their speed, their weight, all that, and the XFL, the us FFL. They need to think outside the box. Now we listen to rod Woodson on the pat McAfee show and, and they talked about what type of quarterbacks these lead should have. And the group there was talking about mobile. Quarterbacks and, and you need a mobile quarterback and yeah, you can, you can lean in that direction with a lot of these guys, king Fransua, all these guys who have that kind of mob, exciting mobility, and that you can mold into a great passers and all that. So they, they have to think outside the box, you have to the NFL. Misses too, when it comes to quarter X, they overrate guys over hype guys and overlook guys, and you see that happen all the time. So it's the X F L's job to find those players and us L's job. To find those players that have been overlooked, that haven't gotten a fair opportunity and to give 'em a chance to overlook the fact that a quarterback's five, eight or five seven, or what the, whatever the case may be there and just give 'em a shot to play. King's not in the NFL right now because people don't, they don't wanna play. Extremely short guy, quarterback. Quarterback's maybe a little bit inconsistent as a passer and they don't have time to work on his refine. His mechanics IFL kind of does. So they can, they can do that. So you, you, you, you hit the areas where, where the NFL's missing. That's how I would put it. I know that there all the coaches are out there talking about developing players for the NFL. I think it's finding NFL, NFL quality players that aren't in the NFL. And that that's how you present a great professional football league. Circling back now, Brian Scott, you know, a long time friend of the show, a fan favorite. Everyone loves him and. This was interesting, cuz you know, I had corresponded with Brian and you know, it's a, Hey. You know, might have some options here. We don't know, you know, I think that's fair to at least, you know, he's sitting on Jordan Palmer's couch and you're like, I thought that would be a really interesting play, right? Kind of the first shot across the bow. You know, here's someone that performed really well in the us F L and then got injured and I know case cook. Yes. Did really well. I, I think Brian, Scott is probably a better quarterback than case cook, right? I mean, I think we can say it that way, even though case. You know, I mean, made to the championship game, but. Seeing Brian on the couch kind of knowing his contract status. Right. You know, in terms of being one of the first year USFL, what did you make of it with seeing Brian Scott there, knowing that he's in the mix. I thought it was bold brazen. You know, it's kind of like Brian, it fits Brian Scott's personality and the way he plays on the field, he's for people who haven't seen him play, he's got a lot of swagger. Minds me a lot of like Brett Farve and those types of quarterbacks, gun Slinger types. Extremely confident. And I think it's a smart plan. This part, you know, he messaged me a few minutes ago before I won't get into what he said to me, but he messaged me a few minutes ago here. It's hard not to like him, you know, it's hard not to, to root for him. And I think my opinion on it is that, you know, if he. Wink wink signs with the XFL. I would, I would assume that he's definitely a candidate to start on one of these teams and he might have his choice. I think he's the kind of guy, like maybe a lot of the mainstream doesn't know who he is. But he just needs a full on opportunity. It's unfortunately what happened to me? USFL getting hurt. But I think he's got a lot of talent. A lot of Moxi. I know people out there like from pro football focus and Ian Hart was a guest on your show. He was impressed with, he had never seen Brian Scott before, and he was impressed with him. He was like one of the guys, he was touting. And then unfortunately he got hurt. He was just, when you watch him play, it's hard not to like his game. So I, and him being a part of this, it's a smart play on Brian's part. Cuz Brian has the tools, little cup of coffee, you know, working out for the cults and trying to make those RO NFL rosters and all that. Brian has the talent where like there's upside still with him. He's not an old guy at all, but there's a chance if you work with a Jordan Palmer and then if you are superstar the film you shine on ABC and E ESPN, there's a chance he cause we're right now, the wind's not opens for him to go in the NFL. It is what it is, but it could be. So, so I, I would, it's a great play on his part, regardless of what his contractual situation is currently. So, I mean, that's a little bit, there's not, not a lot I can get into in terms of all that, but I think we kind of know the story and I've written about the 1231 thing and all that. So it's just fascinating to see a current. U S FFL player working out with the ex FFLs director of quarterback development. Yeah, and I, you know, I've had, I'm sure. One, you know, one 80th of the number of people that have talked to you, you know, players and stuff. But, you know, I have a couple guys ask me like, What you, what do you think got the XFL call in? Got the, you know, like what do you think? And I'm like, We know what the USFL is. I know what this is. I know what season two's gonna be. They do two hubs, whatever. Like, I know what this is going to be like. I same, like you're saying with these guys and we're bringing them the NFL retreads, or do you want to take the upset, like. And I'm not, this isn't even being the X of a homework. I would take the upside of whatever the hell this XFL thing is gonna be right now. I know that they seem to be spending. An exorbitant amount of money, but I, I would try, I would, if they're calling, I would try that, you know, and, and. I I understand and, you know, burden the hands as we're two in the Bush and that whole situation, but like, I'm saying, you know, if you have someone calling, I would at least give it a shot because God knows, you know, you know what you're going back to otherwise. And I do think like, Like, let's say Brian's here, whatever. And then let's say they do, Hey, Brian, doesn't work out. You don't think us fellow is gonna be like, Hey, okay, welcome back. Like, I mean, they're not so in a heartbeat. Yeah. So I, I think that I would gamble at bold strategy cotton. Yeah. No, absolutely. And you know, and it's, it's great that these players have these options, you know, usually. I guess I could to give PE usually I give you and you give me peaks behind the curtain in private. And then like, but you mentioned something there that like sparked something with me on Monday. You and I were on the phone talking when the Jordan Palmer thing broke. And then as soon as I got off the phone with you, I got, I was on the phone with an agent who represents a, a few different players in the USFL. And was actually going over XFL specifics with me, whether or not their players should choose the USFL. And you gotta sit there when these options you have to consider. One of this, one of this agent's players signed on with the us F L in the last few days. And what you have to weigh is. Opportunity. So if, like, if you're a kicker, a punter right now, you're looking at the XFL specialist showcase and you're, you know, you're looking at the coaching staffs and you're wondering, these guys are probably gonna sign NFL cuts. Am I even gonna have a chance, but if the Mallers have an opening at kicker punter, And that it's right there for you. Go grab it now. So you have to weigh it, you know, in terms of like what works best for you have to study rosters, see what connections you have to coaching staff. So, but it's great that these players. Have these choices. I know a lot of prominent USFL players. That are waiting until the new year until the clock strikes 12 midnight. For their and never, you know, that are just. Already, you know, we saw 10 USFL assistants. Join the XFL. You know, from the gamblers, from the stallions, all that it's fair to speculate. That players that they coach in the USFL are just. Ready to scratch the itch and rejoin their coach in the other league, whether that'd be Dishman with the general who was at the generals. Who's now at Las Vegas. And otherwise, so these players have options. These coaches have options. It's a good thing how long this lasts. We'll see. But for the time being, we got to viable pro football leagues in the spring. I wanna get to team names and all that here real quick. Before we transition. Can we put to bed, you know, we, we haven't had you on, since we had the, you know, like you said, the 10 USFL coordinators, all that stuff go over there and everything I see online is, oh, well the FFL, they just paid them so much money. They're just buying all this talent up. Right. Did, can we put to bed the. Most of these coaches probably moved for lateral moves, lesser moves. Like it wasn't like the XFL was like, well, how much do we need to pay to get. Dish men or like, I mean, can we, can we put to bed that theory before we move on? Yeah, the XFL was in breaking the bank for these assistance. I'm not saying that there, maybe they're not getting a little bit more money than did in the USFL, the Christ Dishman, Jonathan Hial has all these guys, but the reason why the assistants made the lateral moves that you mentioned Tim Lewis, otherwise. The reason why they did it is because they prefer the XFL. They prefer the setup. Tim Lewis wants to go back and work with Jay Hayes. And so, and they're working together in Arlington there, they prefer the league setup. They prefer the organization of it, the timeline, all that they chose the XFL because they think it's a better opportunity and they believe. That it's gonna be a better leak. So we'll see how that goes. We saw Larry fedora. Who left the USFL after the season. It was quite interesting when the U S F L season ended, he made the comment that, Hey, we're going into a bunch of hubs and it's gonna be great next year. We're gonna be like a real football league with home games and road games, and it's gonna be great. Couple months pass and he says, I'm out, you know, I'm gonna deal with family stuff. I wanna be closer to family. That's cool. Respect that all the way. But then about five seconds after he says that, he says, well, maybe if they, you know, go to their local markets, I'll come back. So wait a minute. Do you leave because of an emergency at, did you leave? Because you know, the setup's not for you that tells. You if that coach was leaving as a head coach. Because he, you know, and he's saying that if they change the setup, I'll come back that tells you that he left cuz of the setup. Right? So there's a lot of these coaches that, you know, Guys from the stallions on a good staff would hold an excellent team. Obviously won the championship. They jump ship to the XFL. A lot of these coaches. The Chris Dishman of the world wanna work with rod Woodson and Darren P Darren Perry. And be on that staff and have those connections there. And they worked in the XFL back in 20. So they have connections back there, personnel guys, and otherwise, so. A lot of the assistance and the players. In FL you know, wanted to be part of the XFL was hoping that it would return before. 2022 And a 2023. So ended up going to USFL for the time being, and just waited out until the XFL comes back in business. So. None of these guys are being paid hundreds of thousands of dollars to jump ships that they could coach running backs and the other league. Just not happening. All right. So we done a half hour team or, you know, quarterback all that, and then we're gonna split. We're gonna do half hour on this cuz then we got commissioner Ray, Austin gonna be stopped by. You know, leaked logo or not logo leaked, leaked team names. Came out, you know, via the website and newsroom and then hub and board and everyone, you know, this whole thing, an, I yelled at SFA online and that looks like I'm gonna have to eat Crow. And that's fine. I mean, I just, I came home a little talks from a one Republic concert. I'm like, wait, wait, what is this happening here? Like sometimes. I just look at, you know, I'm sure you do, like what is going on? Like the sea dragons, all that. We discussed it all last week, but obviously XL teams all returning except for the Seattle. Sea dragons. And then we have the Vipers going to Vegas. We have this all in theory, the guardians going to Orlando and then the. Braas in San Antonio. What, what was your instant reaction to kind of seeing all the team names leaked? You know, I got hit from every different direction. I, you know, everybody messaging me saying, oh my God, the website showed up a bunch of names. I'm like, oh boy, what? Whoa, what, what it. And then you see sea dragons and all this stuff. So, you know, I know like, you know, some people can to it as breaking a story. But like, you've gotta give credit to the guys, like the maxes, the J Henrys, these guys, I don't know if these leagues understand. These guys spent day and night doing research. And trying to find, I mean, in some cases, guys are trying to crack codes on websites. They're going to all these different websites and, and, and YouTube channels. And trademark sites and all this globally to try to find information. And try to find hidden videos and all this. So that's what happened here. It's not a breaking story by a new service that talked to sources. Or even like fun speculation it's fans that noticed cuz once rod Woodson said. Next week, we're gonna get the names, our names, the coolest, all that. As that was like a call out to the, to the Jake Henry's of the world and all these guys. Okay. Start searching. And so the check this trademark sites check the website and that's what happened here. Check the website, all of a sudden, look at this XFL shop. It's got the names. So, yeah, a lot of hysteria came after that. And I expect hysteria either way when the names are revealed. Because it's so subjective. And then, so with names and uniforms and all that. So it, I'm not surprised because as I've reported for months, five of the names are returning. The five cities are returning with the exception of Dallas is now Arlington, and Seattle's now the sea dragons to me. Depending on what kind of logo you use for a sea dragons? I don't think it's that big of a deal. I wouldn't have added it. I don't think it's necessary to call them the sea dragons, but maybe the logo changed my mind. It'll be really cool looking. I don't know, but people are still gonna call short and call 'em the dragons. Just like people shorten the Seahawks call. 'em the Hawks. You know, so it's like, so it's not, you know, it's not a, like a, a deal breaker for me whatsoever. The fascinating part is the three new cities. You know, it's, that's where the argument begins. I think because we all, we would've went crazy. If the battle Hawks didn't come back. If the defenders all these cool brands didn't come back. So it comes down to. And at nausea and people have discussed. Las Vegas Vipers and. Bringing back two of the brands can be questioned and the, the loan brand, that's a brand new one. Is something that is obviously something Dwayne Johnson wants. The question is whether the public wants that. Yeah, the, as I, I will give max credit to the day, you know, the it's the San Antonio, Dwayne Johnsons. I mean, that is, that is the team. I just. With the websites with the shop. The logo before. Like, I honestly can't believe like we're still doing this. Like we don't have a backup server that like, What this tells me. Is like you don't I, and I, I guess I just don't get it. Like I was thinking about this, the other at Mike sermon, I'm like, Here you have. We have, you know, Danny Garcia, Duane Johnson. We are premiering black Adam. Part of this DC universe, comic book fans, biggest hardcore fan base in the world. Like we, we die hard. Like we're searching all this stuff. We're okay. Who's gonna make the, are you okay? What's the extra scene. This is that, but with a football and like the fact that they don't get that people are going to be like checking the website. And now we're hiring the website director the day after the shop is taken down with I'm like, do you not? And, and I. Like I get it. And I get that this is a job to some people and they're, you know, I, I wrote here, but like, I, I, I constantly feel like in, in, in covering this new version of the XFL, that like, I'm the loser that cares too much. Right. And a lot of our fans are the losers that care too much. And I don't like that. Like, I want you like you, I would wish they would just embrace the, that more of like, we are like the die hard. We're gonna get the casuals. We're going to get the rock Instagram, but like let's facilitate the, you know, the hardcore people that have kept this going. And, you know, we've talked offline a lot of the interactions the last couple weeks. Have not felt like that. They like, we are truly embracing these people that are like, Carrying this, you know, brand with us. I'm with you re and I totally get people's like anger, frustration, impatience. All that. It's all valid. And it seems like with the XFL, you know, they haven't. We, they haven't presented the product yet, so we can't judge it until they do so, but it feels like the last two years, since they've owned the league, there's been a lot of stops. Starts restarts. And if you mishaps in between not earth shattering or deal break, but we saw what the XFL logo. That, you know, kind of like accidentally showed up on YouTube. Rod Woodson, you know, whether or not he like in football terms had a false start here. And kind of like jump the gun or not. You have to still run the next play. You, no matter what the down and distance is. So I feel like, you know, it's kind of fascinating that rod Woodson went on rich eyes and pat McAfee, too. Extremely popular shows. And the league did not piggyback it. They didn't retweet it. They didn't share it on social media. They didn't say yep. That's right rod next week. Next Wednesday. No tease, no buildup. None of that. And you have to question and it makes you wonder. Whether or not, you know, their plans were like, Sped up a little bit. And then you have to question the presentation and the rollout, how they're doing that, how they're handling it. And then it's goes without saying that the names and the colors and the logos and uniforms are all gonna have divisive opinions. They're gonna be some people who love this stuff. Some people that don't, some people think they, I'm not, there's a PG show, so I'm not gonna curse, but some people think they Ft up. So these screwed up. So, you know, it's. So that that's coming, but it's how you do it. It's how you roll it out. And I gotta say like, you know, the. They're the, the big problem with the XFL and even the USFL is they're trying to live up to the league that we saw in 2020. And so I'm not saying that it wasn't without issues, the XFL in 2020, but the way they presented their league rolled things out. The, the social media, all that. They did a, they did a tremendous job and there's some people within the league right now that were a part of XFL in 2020. But right now it's not feeling that way. You know that they have now, maybe that can change, that perception can change, but these mishaps website mishaps and, you know, coaches coming out and saying memes are coming next week. And then. Kind of like not taking the right steps, if you were planning on doing it Wednesday, which some of my sources have told me that some have said they weren't planning. So there's a lot of mixed messaging, cuz there's a lot of coaches and people work within the league that don't know what upper management is doing. Which is cuz that's usually how it happens. But if you were planning this past Wednesday to be the, the day. That names are released then waiting till the day before. After a guy just went on a national show. You could easily say. Retweet rod Woodson say. You know, next week in seven days time, you'll see the team names, the colors logos, maybe. And then there we are, but you know, waiting a day before. You know, and even if that was the strategy, I have to question it. There are people out there that thought maybe the, because live events were scheduled that only like three or four. That they're gonna introduce four names this week and then four names next week. That kind of thing. We'll see maybe the hurricane's a good thing. Maybe they'll present it in a better way. Roll it out in a better way. They're gonna be judged by their actions. And, you know, so, and they're gonna be held to a high standard because of the league that last came. They don't like that. The office doesn't like hearing that, but I'm sorry. And then the USFL office, doesn't like hearing that too. Because of the way, the XFL 20, 20 engaged with their fan base and through social media and through all that stuff. And then, so they were critiqued on. Their lack of doing those things. So, so that, that's kind of like where we stand. So there's a lot of frustration. Look, I expect the team names to be. It's how you do it. Everyone expects these name, these teams have names. Everyone expects these players to have uniforms. They're not gonna be naked in February. They're not gonna play on the field naked. That we all know there's gonna be a TV schedule and team schedules and Las Vegas is gonna play somewhere. They're still talking to Allegiant. Hopefully that gets finalized. We'll see how that goes. Hopefully they don't play in Arlington, which I'm not hearing that's the case, but. At you had Kevin Seaford on a few months back and he talked about how difficult it is to line up venue deals. Well, here we are. That's the last one of the, the bunch they need to check off. So anyhow, but I get the frustration it's valid. And all these things are coming. It's not. The fact that they're not coming. It's the fact on how. We're arriving at the destination, you know, in life and not just in football and sports in this analogy. The journey is just as fun, sometimes even more fun than the destination. So if there were teasing these things playing 'em up nicely, I think back to 2019, when the XFL released parts of each logo. And told you next week, we're gonna reveal the logos. People were sitting there looking at a little square, figuring out if it's a spider or tarantula, what kind of a creature is this? So, I mean, it was maybe a little silly, but still fun. That's the like fun part about it is like the speculation, the journey and all that. So, Hopefully when these things come and I don't, let's be honest, Reid when they do reveal these names and stuff and the colors and all that. You, I, others are gonna be critical. So some people are gonna like 'em, some people are not, some people are gonna say, why'd you do that to the defender's shield. So we were gonna say, why didn't you keep the sword in the wings with the battle Hawks? Why did you put this in there? So there's gonna be plenty of that, but that's commonplace, but. But there are a lot of people that care about this league. And surprisingly enough, two years later. And so we, they, you know, it's a. The, the league has to reward their loyal followers and make it fun. You know, not aggravating. Make it fun. I mean, I would almost excuse them if they released the names on purpose by accident, wink, wink on the website and a couple. And they had a couple of fake names to throw people off just to get people talking. But I get the sense based on. Previous evidence. That's not what they did here. So it is what it is here we are. Yeah. Is like you said, none of this feels fun. Like at all, like, it feels like. We are, we are cloaking dagger this whole time. We're making this Hollywood movie. We don't like we're this fan friendly league. We don't wanna be. And totally justifiable. I understand you that we don't wanna have events while people are in Florida are suffering. Totally understand by that. I'm just like, This is just like another one of these things. Right. It's just another, but, and, and like you said, I understand it. Okay. We don't like being judged by the XFL 2020, like. Then start the rock football league or start something like you are, are buying in and inheriting and feel like this is good enough will to purchase this league and bring this stuff along. Like you said, I, when they had this Seattle event that was supposed to be. You know, I was talking to van van was one of obviously had season tickets and all the different markets. And I said, Hey van, like, did you, did you get an email? Like, is there a Seattle event coming? And he's like, yeah, like didn't, didn't you get your, you know, not even media, just like, did you get your season ticket holder email? And I'm like, No. And like that is a problem. Like we had six tickets in the front, in, in the front row of the 50 yard line at cent link field. How, how were none of like, none of us got E like none of my six friends that we were all season ticket holders. I, this just seems weird to me that like, we're doing these events, but then like, Their secretive and we're sending out the invites. We don't want people to know, and then they get shared and then we're mad cuz people are like, it just, none of it feels fun. And I just don't understand like why I don't, I never get why this has to be so difficult. And, you know, it's, this I'll get in trouble for this one. It's not the first time I've been yelled at or had arguments with people within the league. There's some level of leadership, you know, there, like certain divisions have to be policed. I understand they're still hiring people. And they're still working on that, but you can't have mishaps like the websites, not the first time the, it happened with the logo and the YouTube and all that. And video being released. So you, you, a lot of these mistakes they're having, they're worse than actually. Making people wait for the names to be released is to like, Do it this way. We're finding out about a quarterbacks and team names. By mistake, you know, by kind of like at, not in intentional or great planning or a brilliant rollout strategy. I wouldn't put, I wouldn't classify any of this as that. So by accident, we know the quarterbacks. I mean, I've known a few of them and couldn't say anything for a while. And I wrote about 'em a month ago. I put their names in an article. About what quarterbacks the league was targeting and gonna sign and looking towards having. But still never, nevertheless. You know, so they're gonna be held up against they're held up against, you know, and they have a lot of people from the XPhone 2020, they're gonna be held against a different standard if this was just a brand, even if they had changed the name to a rock football league, which, which you're almost doing that, but have wanted of the teams called the bros. My might as well, have a boss, black Adams and few others while. You're at it, but, and don't get me wrong. Look, I'll say this. The Broma bull is a, was a cool tattoo on the rock was a cool nickname. It's actually, you know, through under armor project, rock, all that stuff. Those are pretty badass looking shirts and athletic gear and hoodies. So the logo's pretty dope. Yeah, exactly. The logo's dope. I'm not saying it's not, and maybe it'll grow on me. Maybe the uniforms will be so badass that like, what the hell, where the bro is. It just feels a little weird to name him after your one of your team owners, but it is what it is. It's his league. Right. He can do that if you want. So I suppose. But yeah, a lot of these, a lot of these missteps are not great. I have, I. Strangely enough. I have faith in this that they're gonna present a very cool league. But faith is one thing, but you also have to see these things in play. So. Until it's like judging anything in sports, you know, they have to produce the players. They have to produce good football. They have to produce. So go time is kind of here, but not really. I mean, they go to, because they they're still kind of planning seeds behind the scenes before they actually go full force. When they release the team names. You would figure that you'd have your social media teams all set and ready to go. XFL guardians, XFL defenders they'd have videos from the coaches talking about the team name and the colors and what it represents and this, that, and the other. We can't wait to show you the uniforms, their comments soon. We can't wait to draft the players. All this. So they need to start ramping that up. You know, if they're gonna reveal team names and logos colors, they need to do that. And they need to start making steps. I understand it's hard to get attention during the NFL season, but that's what happens when you have a league that's coming out in February and you have drafts during the fall and all that. It's part of the trade off. And I understand the strategy behind doing it in the middle of the week. And you have partnerships with ESPN. So maybe the rock and Danny plan on doing stuff with ESPN during the middle of the week. And I think there's, some people felt that way about hurricane Ian. Why things were canceled this past week because maybe Danny Garcia was planning on doing some traveling and doing all that. But anyway, it is what it is. But they're gonna need, they're gonna need to produce, they're gonna be held to a higher standard. I know people who are outside, who don't follow the twice failed league. Kind of scoff at that, but they don't understand how good of a league the XFL was, how well it was run. And so, and the quality of their play, cuz they have almost 20 players still in the NFL, three seasons later. So there goes that argument. And then, so, so, and then, and how they connected with their fan base. It's how you connect. So it's how you engage. It's so transparency has been a little bit of an issue, even amongst players and agents who reach out to someone like me, who's a writer and trying to figure out how they can get into the FFL, what the salaries are and all that that's shouldn't have, ah, I'm just a guy, right? I shouldn't be sitting here like. Talking to agents for two hours, about what training kept salaries are. So the transparency. And all that is like a little bit of a weakness. With this league and, and they're gonna do need to do a better job of rolling things out the way things were set up last week, in my opinion. With just a few live events. And maybe a day before you're gonna tease it. That's not how I'd wanna release. Any team brand or team or identities. That's not how I would do it, you know, and I'm not, and I'm not seven bucks. I'm not, I'm nowhere near. But I'll tell you, that's the thing. Rock comes from the Vincent man school. You have something you promote. I can't curse here. You promote the hell out of it. And so you promote it to the point where you to the, where you're annoy people. So. I, I think there's certain things they need to do a better job of, and that maybe these leagues are sensitive. Don't like the scrutiny, but Hey, I can only judge you by your actions. So thus far action and some of the inaction lot of stops and starts with this. New ownership group. Look at the CFO business. So there are people out there that are passionate about this and that are upset. That's good that people care. Because that people care, but you don't wanna get to the point where people stop caring. And you, you know, they're gonna they're it's up to them. How they roll this out, how they properly do this, how they get their organization together. Maybe in a few months from now, we'll look back at this and laugh. And in the moment, maybe a lot of people were overreacting, maybe. But, but you know, they can, they can rectify a lot of this stuff by, by producing action-wise. Well, and just, and haven't thought, but. And even with the events, like, okay, we're scheduling them. We don't have a, we don't have a location. We're changing the times. I know we got into it in our private messaging. I think having. A fan event. At 11:00 AM on the weekday. I understand coaches and everyone, we have schedules and maybe some like, That is insanity to me. They're like, wow, it's 11:00 AM on a Wednesday. Like, come on out. It's like, I work from home and I can't even, I, I just, but I, I, Todd would max a lot, you know, we are our friend and. You know, I, I, we live in all this, right. I on this every day and this is, you know, what we do. And like, I understand that we are like the, the, the minority of minority of whatever, and they get casual fans and we don't care. These nerds are digging into like, we didn't even care. And, you know, max told me, well, they know that they have us. No. Matter what? Right? Because like when the draft comes, we're all in it. And I said, Yeah, they're gonna have the hardcore fans in spite of everything that they're doing. Not because spite of what they're doing, that we are carry the log. I don't feel like any, I. I, you know, I, I think that the town hall brought a lot of Goodwill, but I don't think a lot of actions over the last two years have been encouraging. If you were someone that was like, I already have my money spent on this. And I wanna see, you know, how this is gonna pan out. You know, the live events were an awkward thing too, because what if the league didn't announce their team names this week? There would've been a lot of disappointing people who like either took off from work or decided, Hey, let me head on over there during my lunch break or whatever the case may be. It's like, just the way I get it. You know, anytime you schedule week, week, there's a lot of different factors involved. Anytime you schedule weekday events during the day, during the middle of the day, whatever the case may be. It's tough on the people who need to show up. You're not guaranteed to get people who have to work and do things. And then it's tough on the people who have to show up and represent the leak, whatever it be personnel, whether. It be, you know, director, player, personnel, or coaches, whatever. So lining that all up. It's not an easy thing. Scheduling, travel back and forth, all that. So. I, you know, the way that was set up it just to me, the live events didn't seem like they were gonna be, I hate to put it this way. Anything special? So, and then, but because of the rod Woodson reveal, a lot of people assumed. These maybe could be like grand announcement events. Activation events I've heard. So, you know, So, and, and then to have 'em at only three locations, if you're announcing your eight team names, that seems a little bit, you know, like that's not. You know, so I, you know, I get the criticism. I totally do. I think some people. Have agendas who are criticizing the league. And then are just looking for, need to pick on that's, why they only get like one or two likes on social media, because they're saying nonsense. Meanwhile, two years ago they were sleeping in defenders, blankets and pillows. So, so, you know, there's that. But , but. Little shot fired there, but, but I think that there, the criticism by the people who do care and wanna see this succeed, Always valid custom. I can't say use the customers always. Right. Analogy, but they're almost always right. So, so you have to listen to your fan base and you have to understand, like, you know, like the people that have been patient and loyal, been waiting. You, you just do do right by them. So, you know, nobody's look, people are gonna be upset when the names are revealed. I I'm a New York guardians guy. I don't think you should be taking that brand outta New York. I don't think it makes sense. I loved it in New York. I loved the colors. I love the goth theme. I love the guardians of Gotham. All that stuff. I thought it was cool. That was a nice, like a dark cool gritty theme and to move it over to Orlando, which is like, I would say besides hurricane Ian and all that is the opposite of that. So. Anyhow, but, but there's certain things that I'm upset about as a fan, but that's a personal thing. The, the names and the colors at the end of the day, I hopefully the uniforms are cool and everything. It's not gonna be a back breaker to me, but I think how you treat your fans, how you engage with them, how you make them in anticipate and how you make them excited about your league. And. Your product is important. That's something that the exon 2020 succeeded with. That's something that this new group I know they talked about con content creation centers and connecting fans of players. And all that proof's gonna be in the pudding when they eventually lay everything out. It feels like right now they're not a hundred percent. Full go yet. And it's been like that for a while now. And people are anxiously waiting for them to. Turn it on press go, go turn the Kei condition, start moving forward. And then cuz once they do, it's gonna be nonstop because there's so much news coming our way. Got no choice. But the draft players announce the TV, schedule the TV announcers, lay out their rule. All this stuff. So. Uniforms, everything else. So play the games. So there's gonna be a lot coming our way, but you know, this little period in between hasn't been perfect. I, I try to share audio there and I ended up sharing the screen. Hopefully I didn't diviv any confidential information. I have one voicemail specifically for you, and then we gotta get outta here. Cause I have very Austin. I think I have this shared correctly. This is a voicemail from Janet. Remember, you cannot always leave voicemails in. You got two minutes to hit this mic and then we'll get outta here. Hey, it's Jen. Quick notes on the expo guardians. Curious if they're going to maybe ditch the Gargo or logo and maybe go with something along the lines of space force, guardians. I only think about that because they're going to be in Florida. That's where the Kennedy space station is. And then the green color. Is the. Logo uniform gonna have military ties. So just curious what the market has thought about that. Hi. I also know, I think mark had like guardians of the galaxy are redo that. I mean, thoughts on, on that. And then we gotta get outta here. I think that's an excellent question by Jenna. I have seen that suggested on social media, both what you just mentioned with Mark Perry and both fans mentioning people talking about aquatic kind of thing, Aquaman and all that. I, I think. They have to, I, because I, you can't go with that. Like I was mentioning a few minutes ago, you can't go with that dark gritty theme in Orlando. And you need to change it up. If you just copying and pasting the New York guardian thing and just shipping it over. To Orlando, it's a bad move. You have to kind of create your own little mark there, even if you're using the same name at which that might create problems, by the way, with the Fugazi MLB team in Cleveland there, the fake guardians. So we might see something happen there, hopefully in not but anyhow, but. I love using the term for gazey. Anyhow, Jenna. Love the question. I think it's a very good point. I think the league has to do that. They have to put their, they, it needs to fit more the theme of Orlando, sunshine, state, all that. And if there is in fact green involved, then it would lend itself more to a, a different type of guardian. Then the one that the. XFL New York guardian, which is a team by the way that Denny Garcia had interest in purchasing. Gar Danny has the co the chairwoman has ties to the Florida area. So maybe I'm, shouldn't be shocked that the Rock's getting his own team with the Braas and, and Danny's getting her own team with the guardians, but I do think they need to tweak Janet. Duke's a big factor. In the current XFL, she was obviously a big factor with the New York guardians. I do think. I would've personally gone with a totally different brand. I personally, would've done that. You can make it work. So I'll wait and see how they present it. But to me, they're always gonna be the there's a fake guardians in a major league baseball right now. And the Orlando guardians to me are gonna be the fake guardians. So I'll accept it. I love to Rob buck, love that mark. Awesome. But I'm look, it seems like there's gonna be a couple of teams. I'll probably rooted against. When the, I'm not supposed to say that as a media member, but, but . But there's gonna be a lot of players that I like of these teams. It's gonna take a while to get used to some of this stuff. So we'll see how it goes, but yeah, they have to change the theme. They can't run with. The the same dark gritty theme. That was attached to New York. That would, my opinion was perfect. Well, Mike, we'll have to get you on again. We'll see here, you know, try the time it with the announcements, we're doing the best. I thought this was a good therapy session today. It really appreciate your time and all the work you're doing. I know everyone really appreciates it. Yeah. Thank you very much for Reid. Same to you. You do such a tremendous job for this community. Keeping everybody press of things. And I know this has become a daily minute by minute part of your life, The trial dates. Right. Perfect. All right, let's do this here. Well, I have my board apes football club Jersey on that was gifted by wanted the listeners to the show. We have the commissioner, a fan till football, right, Austin. How are you doing, sir? Man. I am awesome. I am always awesome, man. I'm a part of fan control so you can not, not be awesome. Right? . Well, that's good that we, we have a long history. Yeah. We have Patrick D's back on many years ago. It feels like at this point talking, you know, through all the coming outta the 2020, and now you guys are entering into, you know, starting tryouts everything's for season three. How are you feeling about the state of FLL football? I mean, I couldn't be higher on how. Awesome. The, the season went, the players that we had. I mean, It, it was, it was everything I would've expected coming out of the pandemic, you know? Atlanta was awesome. They were great for us and with us, the whole ride. We've made some really great connections. We've got players that came in, moved on and doing other things. Now, some playing in other leagues, some playing in the, in the NFL. So. I, I, I look at that as the commissioner. And having, and biggest thing is like having no, no serious issues or injuries. So as, as the commissioner, man, I, I look at that as a success last year. It was a funniest thing. So we cover all the different leagues. Right. We cover, you know, the XFL us. And I remember before. OA was kicking off and USFL. Like they were still trying to figure out the rule book and people were like, Is this even gonna happen? Like what's happening. And meanwhile, I look at Patrick's Twitter. You guys are building your entire arena and like setting up and you're like, well, like we don't even like, we're, we're changing the whole game on this. I thought. It is, it is really ballsy, but everything you guys have ever tried to set out to do, I do feel like you've been successful. It's 10 years, man. We, we were me and grant was just on a call just a minute ago with an investor. We were like, man, we've been doing this for 10 years. Like it don't even seem like it. And the, the amount of growth and the amount of friendships relationships from. Our, our company to even fans like we've, we've, you know, we've, we've got fans working for us now. Like how dope is that? Like, I, I couldn't be happier being a part of this organization cuz it's. We've got some of the, probably smartest people around it. And I, I love like when we put something out or we leak something out. We can cuz we know what we're doing, you know what I'm saying? We know what we're doing in the backend. And I think even our fans are starting to get it, you know? So we got our show, the fat control show in like an hour and a half. And the fans know we gonna give em a little bit and then they're gonna be like all that's some enough for now. We know they they're out there working. And that's, and that's how it is. It takes the, the amount of time that it takes all the things that people forget. All that we're doing that. It's a pro sport league on top of technology on top of this distribution. You know, conglomerate we're building it's it's it's incredible. And now we're going into. Fan control hoops, man, we're going into a whole nother sport now. And. People, always all my friends and all my old, my former teammates are always asking me like, man, what are you gonna do in the XFL? In the competition? I'm like, Where's no competition. We're not competing with any of those, those leagues. And we are fan control sports. We will, we will have. Multiple sports in the next five years that people can pick and choose what they want their fan control experience to be. Well, I do. And I just, so I just got off my XFL interview. We had, you know, Mike Mitchell on this week talking all the, you know, the leagues and all that. XFL right now feels really not fun to me. Right? Like we're tr we're like. Controlling this, and we've got Danny and Dwayne. And like, whether we like. Where you guys, it always has felt. Way more, like you said, we're bringing like Kyle and people bringing on to work for us. And we're having the show every week and we're talking with our eyes. It just feels like, I think you guys get the niche. That spraying an alt football is. And it's like, we're gonna dive into that and embrace those fans versus like, well, we, we are maybe a step above like that. I think, I, I think when people see the ex, you know, Any of these, these leagues? Yeah, I think the blueprint has is, is not changed. It's the same blueprint going into, you know, different Mo multiple. Demographic multiple locations, having teams in different, smaller cities that possibly are not in NFL cities or college, big cities, and it's the same blueprint. And it's just like, you know, We, we we've always seen ourselves as sport in a box, and we've always seen ourselves as. Fan engaging. And we, the, the ultimate core of our product is what fans, fans, period. That is the gasoline that makes this thing work. So when the, these we'll never change the, the dynamic of the sport from football, basketball, whatever we bring, we just, we're just intensifying. Testifying it with technology period. And, and at the same time asking, literally asking our opinions and, and, and the comments and suggestions from our fans. So we can build the right league, man. I, I promise you when we did the. It was the fan replay. I don't know if you remember the first fan replay. That s**t blew my mind. It, it was like the way it happened, how it happened and people don't even realize like me and me and me and D are in the booth. Where Greg right. Soaring grant are running around trying to figure it out. Right. Cause we was in the pandemic, so we couldn't go down. We, everybody was in our own little bubbles and it was just like, what do we do? We're texting and on the, on the, on the stream. And it's just like, f**k, let's just let the fans do it. And we didn't even have it. It wasn't even built out yet. And Steve Atler, our, our tech, our tech team was just like, all right, we can do it. Let's do it. And literally did that right then right there. And now that was one of my favorite. That's like one of my favorite moments. Of fair control. So yeah. Well, and I do think with the nature of the twits and the livestream, and it, it does feel like these events right. Were, were, you know, having these double headers or the games we're bringing everyone. Like it does feel like you kind live through that evening. You know, I remember a season one and you know, you've got Morea on the, there. Or Sherman and maybe saying stuff they're not supposed to be saying, but it, it feels like it's part of this experience that. You know, you're able to chat in and call in and do, I just, it feels like it's these temple events every weekend. It's I, I kept telling everybody, listen, we need, we see, we need to stop calling this week one and week two. We need to call this episode three in episode four, because. We we had, we didn't even know what was gonna happen every week. Right? Like we would, we'd get on a call and it's like, yo. Antonio brown was coming this week. Oh, what? Alright, what do we do? Oh, And, and it was literally like that majority of the year, so we never knew what was gonna happen, which made it great for us. Made it great for the fans. It, it really made and a great experience. For the fans inside their, the venue. I think a lot of our fans just like most, you know, pro sports. Maybe one or 2%, actually get a chance to watch a, a, of their football team in an actual stadium. You know, when you come to fan control, it's completely different. And I, I, I wish every fan had the ability to come and see. How that venue is and how interactive it is. It's just, and, and again, you got Antonio brown and Johnny Menzel and you know, all these people just walking around, having fun and just. Just being engaged with the fans. It's just, it just takes all the walls down from professional sports. If you think about professional sports as executives, wall. Players wall fans. Wall, you know what I'm saying? We, up in the suites, I'm sitting with the board eight dudes in the glacier boy guys with Devon cooking. And Marshon over that. Like, it's, it's an experience that can't be duplicated. Like we've done it. How big was it for you guys to be able to get into your own arena? I can't remember what the, the name of it, you know, your, the venue for season two, right. I assume carried on for there, but to get, you know, obviously season one COVID and all that, and there were just restrictions that could be how cool was it to be able to kind of, you know, sell. Seats bring fans in and, and have all that engagement. Well, number one. Fans in seats have never been our business model. Right. So we didn't, it wasn't about having a ton of fans being at our venue. We wanted. The fans that came to our venue to feel important, to feel valued, feel like a different experience. So we wanted to build it like that. And so when we had the pandemic, we was at. If and in arena, if, if energy arena, yeah, it was big. And it was just, you know, it was the same s**t. Everybody all spread out and all that. And we couldn't have had fans in there if we would've, it would've been the same thing. And so we've always had this idea, literally. We've always said, man, we, we gonna get this arena. We wanted to be like, y'all you ever see the movie? Real steel with, with few Jackman. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. And like when they were, when, when they was trying to get to the championship, he was boxing at all these other places. And he was going to these dungeon ass places where there was still tech, very tech and innovative, but it was kind run rustic. We always said, that's what we wanted. And so when, when the pump, when formula yards came up, we was like, It was like, this is it there. It was like, perfect. Plus they, they shot so many movies there from, you know, the divergent and, and. Bad boys game of the game. What's the one where they, they were looking for food. They're fight for food, a hunger games, hunger games. They were, they, all those movies were, were like shot there. And when you walk in, you're like, oh yeah. Okay. I guess see it. And it was just so the. This like. Oh, like it was this, this, this rustic. Like, like Armageddon, you know, meets innovation place. And it was, it was literally the, it was perfect for us. So obviously now coming into season three, you know, you went from four to eight, we're running back eight teams again this year. Is that the plan? Maybe oh, that's excited. Look, we always got, we we're we're gonna always think about expanding that that's always gonna be the, you know, the, the, you know, the top of our, our head. So we always want. New fans, old fans. Always having those rivalries. So we'll definitely be expanding to new teams, but again, we're working on, on different sports as well. Oops. Hoops right now, man, you guys are gonna be, so when you guys see. What we are doing. I cannot wait. We, I just got some video from D's earlier. What we all did. Earlier this morning, bananas it's bananas. Well, and I like it. Am I? And I don't know, like, I've heard there's a long room or baseball too. Like, I don't know. What's all official, whatever yet, but a lot of these, I, to me, I will enjoy watching them as cuz I'm so into football and I might be a little bit more of a traditionalist from like, ah, I don't know. You know, I think I'm softening, but you know, like, I don't know if I love to fit down or river, but I do think some of these I'm like, I can just watch it. Like I go watch hockey games. I'm just like, that's great. Or like go watch basketball. So I do think I like the L E D board. I like all that and incorporated in like the powerups and all that stuff. Yeah. Yeah. I think, I think that's what makes, you know, Again, we, we don't change the, the, the, the, the, the, the pureness of football, basketball, you know, hoops still the same, the, the, the, the, the, the, the court still the same, but we want to gameify for our fans so that you, you feel like you, this is an actual video game. So, and just speaking of that, man, we. The, I think the thing that we did so well, the fans did so well, you know, Us as a football ops did really well was find really good talent. And, and if you think about anything and everything that we did, nobody would've watched our games. If the talent wasn't good, let's just be real. And so now that we are going into basketball, we're gonna have that same. Same mindset. If you think about the people that were bringing on from Ryan Blake. NBA scout. And you got, you got Mike Bebe, you got, you got, you got, you know, Baron and we've got some others that we not, we're not gonna announcing yet, but we are trying to do the same thing with put, like we did with football, surround our sales with good talent, bring in, you know, other talent that's been there and done that. And you mix that together, man, you gotta, you gotta really pure quality. Sporting experience to watch. Speaking of just talent and obviously, you know, not talking too much other leagues, but you, you have someone like Kavante Turpin, right? Part of you guys then goes on, you know, success plays in Europe, plays in the USFL now is, you know, killing it for the Cowboys. Right. Really the only USFL guy in know were injuries and stuff, but the stuck to, I mean, how. Cool. Is it to, to know that you guys were part of that and helping to kind of find some of this talent? It, it is. My biggest. Like it chokes me up. Cause I know. You're always trying to tell that story and all. And if you tell that story to all the players and. You, you sound like you're, it's not real right. And, and you always talking about, Hey man, you get, you gotta work your way. You gotta do whatever it takes. You gotta play in these other league. You gotta go make. Ate. You always say those things. And then the end of the season, nobody gets a call then they're like, well, what the hell. Well, then we've been in business for three years. Pretty much two. Seasons underneath our belt and we've already got three NFL players that have been on NFL rosters. Like to me, that's one of the biggest things that I love about what we do that we're giving guys an, an another chance. One, but. There is something that we've done and people don't know when we were in the pandemic, we couldn't get to guys. And I know it was tough for guys being in the hotel. So. We really focus on the more than the athlete brand. Like really. Trying to put players in a position to, to do a football's not football was I only played in the league for a few years. You know what I'm saying? It, at some point in your life is going to change. Make this place a platform that you can go, go and do something else from it. And we've gotten some guys we've gotten some success stories doing that. And now. Going into season three and season four and beyond now we really wanna focus on that. So we have a, a program called whole athlete that we're going to focus on helping players, not only in making it to the league, but also if there entrepreneurs, actors. Content creators, whatever that is in our wheelhouse, we want to help those guys succeed. How going into season three here, how are you guys looking to, to make the next step up in terms of what you guys are putting out? Putting out as you meaning a player? Well, you know, I, I mean, I said you going from four to eighteens, but you know, last year it was like, we're in the arena, we've got the teams and we've got NFTs and we've got, you know, new owners and all that stuff. Like what, what's the next, that's a great, that's a great. Question. One thing. I, I don't know. I know a lot of you, you know, the web three space is gonna be big for us. We are really focused. I'm just being very, very blunt. We're we're really focusing on that web three space. Bringing the, the, the real life and utility together, you know, we, we always called ourselves URL and IRL bringing those two together. Where, and I think that's the space that we feel comfortable in. Look, do we know where that's at right now? I don't think anybody really does. Everybody's really still trying to figure it out, but the fact that we are actually in that space right now, Really, really it excites me because I know that we're at the edge of technology. And that, and also that we, you know, we want to, we wanna focus on maybe possibly having our own, you know, token out there and all those things. Having our own, we want this place, our league to be a community, whether it's through, through networking com you, you buy in being an owner, you being a coach or scout, you picking the T the, the, the, the, the music. Whatever it is. We just want to have, be able to do that. So. I think we, I think we did a great job as a, as a foundation. I think we just want to grow off of that. I think the thing that a lot of startups do, and we even had this issue. Growing too fast or growing too much or growing in too many different directions and said, you know, we, we, I, I can honestly say we have a really great group of people that are keeping us, you know, stationary and saying, Hey, let's focus on this before we go too big. You know, let's, let's, let's go from, you know, forward to eight, eight to. 10, you know, then BA same thing with basketball, same thing with baseball and just grow this, grow into this instead of just, you know, Completely pushing the unicorn, pushing the envelope. That's I wanna take too much of your time at moving forward here. And then we have tryout dates and stuff. Like what are the next kind of steps you're heading into season three. Yeah. So tryout dates are crazy, cuz we're doing something that's never been done and I'm still kind of freaking out about it. But. Since football is going to be. Colliding with basketball, we're going to, you know, Once basketball be finishing football will be beginning. So we still gotta stay at on point and stay. Without with a recruiting and scouting. So we're doing something never been done for. We're doing our football, tryouts and basketball tryouts in the same city in the same weekend. So Saturday will be football. Sunday will be basketball. And we'll be on our first city. We'll be Chicago. November the 30th. Oh, excuse me, October the 30th. And Houston will be November the 13th. Los Angeles, December the 11th and Atlanta will be our last one, January the eighth. And again, we'll, we're looking for. You know, football and basketball athletes. So Friday, excuse me, Saturday will be the football ops. And then Sunday we'll have our basketball ops there. And at least I know with fan control, you're doing where you, you can earn a spot onto one of the roster or one of the training camps, right. Through the, if you're through the tryout. Yeah. So we had a, we had a really, that was that, that was a really good segment with NBC. We allowed the last roster's spot to be picked. For the football teams and it, it was, it was awesome. And actually two of our, two of those players did really well in the, in the league that year. So we're gonna do the same thing with basketball. Once we start getting the, the players, the amount of players that we want to wanna look at with will have that one. You know, when the draft goes, we'll have those groups. Of players that, you know, some, some of the, you know, fans say, man, I like him. I, I like his height. I like his way he shoots. I like, he seems like a leader we're gonna put tho put that same type of segment out. For the fans to make that last decision. Well, right. I really appreciate your time today coming on and that Brian and the team and everyone setting us up. So thank you so much. I, I think a lot of the fans are excited and especially obviously with the, with the other sports happening, but I do think that you guys have really carved out a, a, a niche here in the, in the almost it's cool. I mean, We've been there since the beginning kind of tracking it along. And so I think it's a pretty cool space. You guys have. I think it is. I think we, and I think that's the, the cool thing is I, I love hearing it from you guys because. You guys are gonna tell us what we're doing wrong, which is great. So it's just like, , it's perfect. It's a perfect business. Well, Ray Austin commissioner, fro football. Thank you so much. Hope to you have you on here again in years to years to come. I appreciate it. Yeah, man. And anybody hasn't seen his, his content with his wedding stuff. Good. I was, I was like, let me let at this man, dude, you're you're. Your content is dope, bro. I love it, dude. Well, I, every allows me. Yeah. Doing the way that, because everyone's like, why the hell can this guy be around all day in the interview all day? I'm like, cuz I work weekends and I work a lot during the summer. So then my, my whole schedule and the fall and winter is set to, to talk about this because that's cause I scroll, I really kind. All right. Well, I'm trying to think. I think it's been about a year since we had this guest on Scott Radley with the spectator calmness and host, obviously radio show. How are you doing, sir? I am doing great. In that year. We actually bumped into each other at the great cup. It was. Standing in line to get media credentials. There was, there was read all, you know, Very professional made it, made it happen. PVA there a lot of doubts that were, and we're back, you know, we have our flights booked for Regina, so we'll be there. And I don't know if the BC lions will be there, but we'll certainly be there having a film with my wife. How. You know, Hamilton, the last we, you know, When you were on the show, Hamilton on top of the world, right back to back. Great up appearances now. Struggling on the bi-week thoughts on Hamilton struggling this year, struggling. You're a kind, you are the kindest guy struggling. Oh man. Struggling is the nice you you're you're a really nice guy. They have been awful. And I mean, they have had their moments that win against Winnipeg was. You looked and you said, you know what, two weeks ago, three weeks ago. Wow, maybe this is the moment. This is, this is, you know, it's all been. But now all of a sudden something got figured out. And now they're gonna just roll. And even though they're. What were they at the time? Three and nine. I think what I'm just looking it up right now. They're four and 10. So there are three and nine, something like that. And then. No team in any league that is three and nine, should even be talking about a possibility of playoffs. We can talk about this in a second about the CFO's playoff situation, but nonetheless, somehow you think, you know, here we go, they figured it out. They've Winnipeg was the magical Elixer and they are gonna roll into the playoffs now. And they're gonna be. You know, playing like this, they're gonna beat Toronto. They're going to. Get to the great guy and then. No then last week, they're back at their. Usual for this year anyway, their usual stuff. It's it's I think TYCA fans are. Well, they all look like me now because they've pulled out whatever hair they had trying to figure this team out. I mean, it's just a, I don't know. I, when. End of last season coming in and they go, okay, we're getting rid of Ole you. We, Dan Evans is our guy. I like Dan Evans. Is it the Dan Evans fault or is it just that they can't protect him and there's too much other stuff going on. Well, let's be honest. Dame Evans has not been great a lot of this year. And Y you know, the, there, there's part of this story that I, I do wonder about, and I look I'm, I'm just blowing smoke at this point, but there are certain. Athletes in any sport, whether it's a goalie hockey or a quarterback in football, whatever who somehow sometimes do better when there is a. Clear competition when they know their job. Is not theirs. And I don't know if Dean Evans is that guy, but when Misso was here last year, Dan Evans when he got the chance to come in was great. And you take miss only now out of the mix. And there's nobody else in Hamilton that you look at right now and say, that guy for sure is the guy who will take Dana Evan's job away. And. I don't know if that's got anything to do with it, but there are athletes for whom that's real. And I, and I wondered about that at times this year, cuz Dan Evans has not looked like the same guy. That was in when miss Oli was hurt. And a lot of it seems to be decisions and bad throws. And I mean, physically, I don't, I mean, he is had some injuries, but physically, I think he's. We haven't heard anything that says that he's had a shoulder problem or an elbow problem or anything. It, it, it seems to be. Mostly there. And so that that's been a problem, but there, there are obviously other other factors, but clearly Evans is not the same quarterback. He was last year. Is this something going into the off season that we're, are we revamping, you know, coaching staffs there and stuff. I mean, we saw Montreal so quick to kind of pull the plug or, and I know there was a lot of, you know, circumstances with that, but like, is it, do, do we see any, you know, large scale changes after the season? There have been those who did say when Kahari Jones. Got let go for Montreal and landed in Hamilton as an advisor that, oh, here's the. Future coach in waiting now getting into the system. I I would be, oh, look, I'll be shocked if Orlando Steinhower. Was let go there. There's no way they're firing him. And, and with reason, I mean, The TACAS have been a crappy, I mean, Terrible second half team this year. And some of that comes to coaching and adjustments and things like that. They've been. They've been horrible the second half, but I also don't think like a lot of people. You forget how to coach overnight? I don't think that Orlando Steinhower. Got the team to a bunch of great cups and then woke up at the beginning of this year and went. I don't know what I'm doing. I mean, he still is a good coach. He's made some mistakes. I'm sure. If you asked him. He would say there's things that he would've done differently, but. I don't see any likelihood that our long, unless he pulls the plug himself and, you know, goes to a. College team in the states or something. I don't see any way. He's not back here next year. I just, I, I that's. That to me is implausible. So they're gonna work it. I think with him still here. And just try to revamp whatever. I mean, his right this season feels like. Right. I mean, are they for, for sure eliminated the other man. I know the CFO play lost. It's like everyone can kind of, no, it's tough. So here's the situation Toronto. They can't catch Toronto now. Montreal. They're two wins behind, but Montreal has the tiebreaker. So really they're three wins behind. So to get them, you're going to have to win at least three of your last four. Assuming Montreal loses all of their last games. And your real. Thing here is to try and get two more wins in Saskatchewan and prevent the crossover and then squeak your way in that way. But that really means that it's gonna come down to the next game when Ham's in place, Saskatchewan. If Saskatchewan wins that game. It is all, but mathematically over Hamilton. It is not mathematically and must have been game, but for all intents and purposes, this is a must win game. You can't let Saskatchewan beat you. If you really want to prevent that crossover. It is interesting. You see some of the, now that all this, the playoff clenching and all that. And it's like, well, if, if Ottawa, you know, ran the table and they won the next aid. And so, and you're like, Okay. I mean, but realistically, so headed into the off season, I mean, what does Hamilton do then? You know, cuz here to, to make it to the gray copy of back to back, you know, not win now. Feeling like the season is the last, I just don't know what the fan baser is looking for. End with the great cup coming back here next year. Yeah. That's I mean, we're already, we've already got ads playing commercials, playing, selling great cup tickets. They have to figure it out. And I don't know, maybe. Maybe you. Inside the coach's office and the manager's office and everything else, you sit there and you say, you know, that play there changes this game and that cha play changes this game. And. Maybe we're really not that far away from where we were last year and an injury here. What, maybe you do that? And, and look, they were. In overtime in the great cup last year away from winning the championship. So they were a good team last year. Maybe you bank on. Winnipeg not being the same next year. Now I know they're not in the same division, but you start going through and you say, okay, well that team's not gonna be as good and this Ottawa's still gonna be bad and we can still make the play. I don't know what you do. But they, they. Have some work to do because we saw last year you were there. Having the home team in the great cup. Changes it entirely. Entirely and having Hamilton in last year's great cup. Made that work at a time when it really shouldn't because of COVID. We just had cuz you know, CFO announced obviously this week gray cup sold out. And I was tweeting about it. And one of our listeners said, well, yeah, it's sold out until, you know, Saskatchewan's out of it. And then let's see how many of those tickets opened up. Maybe I'm which it it's a good point because right now I didn't even think about that. That, you know, the rough rider are still. Conceivably could, I don't see them making it, but they could still conceivably make it. I mean, what do you make of. That kind of just. Not collapsed of a season, but really the rough riders, all I hear with is drama, negativity surrounding them. And you know, the coach and everything else there, Saskatchewan might be in a terrific place right now, honestly. I mean, Ideally, of course they'd wanna be in first place, but if you are coming out of the west, which is by far the superior division, If you're the crossover team. Yeah. You come here and you have to play Montreal in Montreal. Saskatchewan can beat Montreal. I, I wouldn't be, you know, that would not be a massive upset for that to happen at all. In fact, they'd probably be favored even if it was in Montreal. Then you've gotta play the Argos. Yeah. You're still in Toronto. You're still in the east, but. Does anyone think Saskatchewan couldn't beat the Argos. And now you're in the great cup at home. I mean, they have chosen. Not chosen Saskatchewan has actually put themselves in a way easier path to get to the gray cup than they would've. If they had finished one position higher, if they're in third. I'm with you. There's no chance they're beating Winnipeg. There's no chance. They're probably beating BC. Probably no chance. They're beating Calgary. They're out in all likelihood, I would think. But you come through the east. I think Saskatchewan has a very good chance of getting to the great cup gate at home. If they played my trial, that they'd have to deal with the horn. So that might be, that might sway. That might be that home field advantage there in Montreal. Now. Well, I mean, look, it, would, you wonder would much Montreal is not Montreal the way it was during the Anthony Calvio years, do you think, does Montreal even sell out for a playoff game? If it's the, if it's not the division championship, if it's the first round game. Maybe they do maybe. But again, I would, if I was Saskatchewan and I had a choice, if I'm Saskatchewan, I say, okay, I can play against BC in BC. Which I think is a way better team than Montreal, or I can play Montreal in Montreal. I'm taking Montreal. And then if I have to play against Winnipeg to get to the great cup or against the Argos to get to the great cup I'm taking the Argos a hundred days out of a hundred. I would not, you know, that, that gray cup being sold out in Regina, I, I don't think all those fans are idiots. I think they may actually be holding onto those tickets cuz there is a reasonable chance they're playing in that game. That's exciting. Speaking of, you know, great cup and all this, you know, BC Alliance, you know, our team America's CFO team, as I call them like, you know, clenched. Right. I got the big tweet, you know, we clenched because audible lost. I think on Saturday I had a wedding and I was filming the wedding. And watching the game on my phone while we were filming toast. I have one of those things that like holds my phone up to my it's very not for, but I'm watching the game and I've never felt. Like less good about clenching a playoff win. Watching the horrendous game that we had against Calgary. Like thoughts on BC Vernon came in, it was like iffy kind of that first week, but we got it done. And now I do feel like it's full collapse. So I remember the last time we talked about a year ago. Was around the time that Nathan Rourke was getting his first look by the BC lines. If I remember his name came up in our conversation, people can go back and. Find the thing, but I think we talked about Nathan Rourke. And I certainly in a million years, I'm not gonna claim that. I thought Nathan Rourke would be. What he was at the start of this year. I mean, he was way better than I thought he was going to be. If Nathan RO was still playing for BC right now and wasn't hurt. I don't know that I'm. Saying Winnipeg is an overwhelming favorite to win the west. He was that good? And it was, it was stunning to me that he was as good as he was good for him. I mean, happy for the Canadian kid and all the rest. It's a great story. And, and at one time I think that they not at one time say Rourke could be maybe ready for the playoffs. I'm I'm not, I'm not. Banking on that. And even if you come back at this point, you've missed so much time or you're really gonna be able to pick up where you left off. But no, I don't. I'm with you. I, I don't, I think BC. Any team now that has to go through Winnipeg has got a, to in Winnipeg. In the winter with all that stuff. That's a tough way to get back to the great cup. I just, you know, it, it it's SADS me, you know, Vernon Adams, big fan favorite, you know, he's been on the show lives in Washington, you know, from Washington, all this. And like, it just felt like everything was there for it's really work out and like, you know, they went on the road coming, but now it's like, we've had like three, four weeks for practice. We're at home, we're doing everything. And like, it was just such a future game. I just, you know, I just finally had to turn it on and we were, we were work, but. Is that the Vernon that kind of everyone expected, or did you think he would maybe be better in this, you know, elevated position here with a lot of talent around him? How many games has he had with BC? I can't remember was that his first start is that, so they won on the road Calgary and he played. You know, it was good. I mean, he had a couple issues and the big flip where he ran outta the balances up, but then this week it was like, I felt like I was watching the commanders again where it's like, we, we go scoreless in the first half. I mean, it was very, very scary. Yeah, I look, it, it takes time for guys to. I don't know, I'm not writing off burden Adams at this point yet. Cuz I mean, he's, he had some good moments with Montreal too, but I, I just, I think. Again, you're gonna have to be in the west. You're gonna have to be. Great to beat Winnipeg. I think, especially when you get to the Playhouse and like, I, I, I don't know what happened in that Hamilton game. I, I, they say that they took Hamilton seriously and they say that they, you know, prepared all the rest. Did they, I mean, did, did Winnipeg come into Hamilton? Looking at the two records, cuz at that point, don't forget, Hamilton was actually in last place in the east. So you've got the first and the last place did they come in and go? This is our easy week and get caught off guard cuz Hamilton played the best game of their life. And Winnipeg played a bit of a stinker. I don't think you're catching Winnipeg flat again. The rest of this season and rolling into the playoffs and knowing they could go. Three in a row. And I mean, I think Edmonton, Edmonton, would've been the last team to win three in a row. I'm guessing. I'm thinking. I can't even remember. I haven't looked it up. I, I guess. You've got a chance to do something amazing. I don't think you're catching Edmonton flat again, all season. Seasoned. So you're just, if that is. If that was the best Vernon Adams at this point, you're gonna get. You got problems. If there's room for growth there. Maybe, but you're gonna have to be really good, but let's go if I can. I don't wanna steal your no. Leading here, but I do wanna mention something. I said. The fact that we have a four in 10 Hamilton tie cats team. Cat's team. And I don't wanna get beat up by all the Hamilton fans, but a four 10 Hamilton team and a three and 10 Ottawa team. That are both still potentially in contention to get a playoff spot. Is an outrageous. Indictment of the CFO's current playoff system. It really is. And this is why I been arguing. And I know people say, you can't say this sacri, we don't need an east and west anymore. We need a one. Division leap east and west was terrific. When the only things that tied this country together were the railway and CBC. That's not the case anymore. It's a small, it's a big, small country, a small, big country, whichever way you wanna do it with the internet and everything else. I don't think that there is a single CFL fan that if we ended up with a. BC Winnipeg gray cup would go. Oh crap. I'm not watching that. Cuz it's two teams from the west. Screw that I'm from the east. I won't, no, no. One's gonna say that. Just as honestly, truthfully, if Toronto and Hamilton one year ended up in the gray cup game. What people in the west say, oh, I refuse to watch that if they were the two clearly best teams, I refuse to watch that. Because they're two from the east. I don't believe that. And I think it's, I think it's a, it's outrageous that Edmonton right now is dead in the water. Because they stink, but. They're dead in the water. And yet Hamilton and Ottawa that are the same as them are still battling potentially for a playoff spot. And I also think, and again, here's where people do lose their minds at, when I say this. There is a phrase and it's even an advertising campaign. And the CFO, it says the CFO season doesn't really begin until labor day. Why is that a point of pride? Why am I, am I an idiot fan then if I buy a ticket for a game in early August, because the game doesn't really matter. If I'm, if I was oh, and eight. On labor day in the east, I could still make the playoffs. That's not right. I'm now I don't, I'm not comparing to the NFL, but I was listening to analysts. Talk about. The, who are they talking about? The Raiders. Or one of the teams that was, oh, and three Raiders is their season already done. And I'm like, wait a second. You're all in three. And they're already saying that your season is over and meanwhile we're three in 10 or four in 10. Ah, you're very much in the mix. Just win one or two games and you're. Something's gotta be fixed, cuz that's it just seems. Wrong that anybody could get in. Imagine if one of these teams. Gets up and gets even with Saskatchewan and gets the cross. So Saskatchewan doesn't win another game. Hamilton or Ottawa gets to six wins. Your six and 12 and you go through and you win the great cup. That's wrong. I'm sorry. That's wrong. Oh, but they, I think CFL fans look at this like, oh, it's so interesting. You know, Winnipeg sucks forever, you know, and then they got the spark at the end or Hamilton or whatever. I mean, You know, and with the NFL expanding now to 17 weeks, I mean, it's becoming. Closer to the, you know, obviously CFO is still longer and more game stuff, but like it, it's not that dissimilar of, Hey, you know, one, one team's playing for six months and one team's playing for two months or whatever. I mean, it's. Expanding that out. I, I agree with you in the, you know, even like with hockey and baseball, you get all these like, oh, it's the west coast world series or whatever. Like you get these things all the time where we have the different, you know, divisions within the, you know, like that's gonna happen. That's gonna happen. But here here's another example. Right? So. Let's say Montreal, doesn't win another game this year. While they're gonna, somebody's gonna have to, well, let's say somehow Saskatchewan finishes fourth in the west. But they have a better record than Montreal as the second best team in the east. That's happened before. Saskatchewan still has to be the visiting team. And come to Montreal. So Montreal, despite having a worse record, somehow, just because of geography ends up with the home game and we've seen this happen. So. One division right now. Let's look at the one division you've got Winnipeg and BC would get buys in the first round. And then you've got three versus. Six and four versus five. Now you've got. If you don't wait till labor day for the season to start, and you do what Winnipeg did and you pile up the wins, you get a benefit from that. A real, tangible benefit. And as I say, I just, I just don't believe anymore that the east west thing matters that significantly to fans. I would much rather see the two top teams. Wherever they're from end up in the great cup period. Well, I knows almost a joke. Just where the four east, I it's been so bad, you know, that there's never been an Eastern crossover. Never. Yeah. Never. I, you know, I. I don't know. I, I feel like you and, and many have come on here and said that, or I've read, or I just don't understand, like, The rationale behind, or, you know, what's holding that right. Is that, you know, born the governor's thing. And they're like, wow, we don't really want to jeopardize, you know, being able to like, you know, we get paid more if we host, like, I don't wanna, I mean, that's gotta be part of it, right. Well, if you're the, if you're the east Eastern team teams, And as I say, there's never been an Eastern crossover. And for whatever reason, that is the Western division almost always is superior. If you're the Eastern teams, do you wanna vote to potentially put yourself in a position where. Your teams are not making the playoffs or you don't get that home game. Like is, if, if you were to vote today, And Montreal was, and we were to go to that. And so to, to vote today to implement immediately, is Montreal gonna vote to give up their potential home playoff game? No, not in a million years. So I, I, but I think. I just, as I say, I think that the league. Some will argue, some will say no, no, the league's got plenty of credibility. It's got a hundred and whatever years of credibility, which it does. But I think that it, it's not a credible playoff situation sometimes when you're. Playing around with things that give home field to teams that don't deserve it, or put teams in that don't deserve it, or create matchups that are. Way more difficult just because you're in a different conference you should benefit for doing well during the season. Well, especially, you know, the disparity of, you know, playing climates and a lot of these home stadiums, right? It's very Winnipeg home game is very different than, you know, Toronto home game. Absolutely. No kidding Saskatchewan. I mean, I wasn't there, but I remember watching the last breakup when Hamilton played in Saskatchewan. In 2013, I think it was. Watching that and talking to people who were there. There was in no, in no one's mind. Was there a thought that Hamilton had a chance to win that game? The environment, the whole thing everybody knew from the moment that ball was kicked off, Saskatchewan was winning that game and they did. They smoked them. The, there is an, there's a huge advantage to some of these things. And so you think that, again, going back to my example, if we, if we end up with Montreal and Saskatchewan tide, And they have the crossover and Saskatchewan has to come to Montreal. You think Saskatchewan? Doesn't lose out. By the fact that they're playing in Montreal, not just because they're playing in Montreal, but because they don't have that home field advantage, it's huge. It's huge rounding. Now the conversation before I let you go, you know, talking. West right. Winnipeg king of the world over there. It's almost kind of boring at this point, right? Calgary coming up strong. Do you see Calgary as maybe that number? I don't even care what the, the records say, but I mean, do you see Calgary as, as the second best team in, in the west right now? Probably probably, but let me ask you, you, I mean, as a BC fan has Winnipeg achieved. Yankees, maybe rents on, have they achieved that status yet? That they've won so much that everybody hates them. Yeah, the feeling, do you think? So I hate when yeah, my wife, because I don't, yeah. I don't know that they've reached that yet, but they're, they're probably getting close if they haven't already that, you know. Okay. You've won enough. We're done with you. We'd like anybody to be. I don't know if they're there you yet. Cuz everyone like Zach Kros. Michael Shay, unless you're in Hamilton, he seems okay to people. I don't know. I just, as, you know, everyone here knows we are new, you know, new covering the CFO and being part of this. And I don't know a world where Winnipeg, exact Claire, like you everyone's talking like, oh, well, Claris, wasn't even that good. You know, when you came in and it was laid in the season, like I missed, I, you know, exactly is the king of the CS. As far as my whole life. Purview here. So, yeah. And, and he's, and the part of the problem is as far as turning them into the Darth VAERS of the CFO is. Zach is a nice guy. Like he comes across as a good guy. He's a tough guy to really hate. There could be guys on that team that you don't like so much. And as I say, certainly Hamilton fans. Going back along into history, have a real hate for Miha, but that's got nothing to do with his coaching in Winnipeg. Yeah. You know, I, I don't know if they've reached that yet, but they win again this year. One of two things happens either. You suddenly have a generation of people that go, you know, we haven't seen one of these dynasties in a long time. It's kind of fun to see a team do this, or. Everybody is like somebody please beat Winnipeg, knock them off their perch. We're tired of Winnipeg. Well, it's, it just, it says a lot that, I mean, even with RO and everything and all that, I mean, we still lost to win AEG. I mean, when the BC Alliance back at their peak, Still lost. So that, that tells you that, you know, I, I, I would be scared. RO Vernon or other, you know, Michael O'Connor in there. I would be scared going to win the peg in anyway, right now. I I, so I am so disappointed this year that RO got hurt because I, I think that he was. Writing and not, and you're the BC fan, not as a fan. He was writing such an amazing story about Canadian football. And I think he, the way he was playing, assuming he was incrementally getting better. He had a chance to do something that was. I hate the word, but magical. I mean, it really, I don't know what other word you could use for a Canadian quarterback in a league that has struggled to find good Canadian quarterbacks. He, he was setting up something spectacular and it was like, when he got hurt, I was like, Ugh. Well, maybe next year, if he doesn't get hurt, maybe. I mean, maybe he comes back and he is, but you know, the one other question, and I don't know, do people in BC ask, does Nathan Rourke when he is healthy? If he comes back and does this again. Is there an NFL team that says, Hey, you know what? He played college in the states. Maybe we missed them. Is there an NFL team that says come down and throw the ball and see how it goes? I wouldn't be shocked. It was funny. I was looking because as an American CFO fan, incredibly difficult to get merchandised. And so I go on the BC lion store and I'm trying to buy other hats. They're like, everything's sold out. Like I assume you kind of just gotta be at the stadium and buy it kind of thing. Something like, even 'em I'm like, Hey God, like, you know, trying to buy some stuff and. They're like, oh, we're just, you know, with named the rogue, it's just so popular. Right now with like, we just don't even have any of this merchandise. I'm like, I, I would curious what the merch sales are right now after the last couple weeks. I'm just saying that I think they were riding the high there and now it's, it's certainly disappointing, but I, Nathan was walking on the fields. So, I mean, you certainly around. It, it it's, as I say, I, I, he, he is a guy who I've gotten to know Russ Jackson over the years, local guy, greatest Canadian quarterback ever. And we started, I think it was way too early way. Premature. Nonetheless, we started hearing. The name, Russ Jackson. Rumbled out there a little bit with what Nathan was doing. And as I say, I think that's an unfair thing to Nathan Rourke to start dropping Russ Jackson's name in yet you're in your first year as a starter that that's. That's too much, too fast, but. It had been that long since there had been a Canadian quarterback who was a real true legitimate star in this league, and that's what he was doing. And, and. I really hope that even at the NFL does come calling. I hope we get a full year somewhere. Of Nathan Rourke before that happened. So we get to see what he could do. Cause I think he could be that good. Well, Scott, I really appreciate your time today. I promise we won't hopefully keep it a year since we bring you back on every great competition. Yeah, yeah. Every great cop. I we'll see. I, I don't. You, will you be making the Trek out or not? If Hamilton being out of the great cup mic colleagues, Steve Milton will. Probably be going and. You know what I mean? Look you say with Hamilton, Hamilton's not out yet. I realized that that may sound like I. Have been dropped on my head once too many times, but that's, you know, There is still a chance it's like dumb and dumber that you're saying there's a ch there's a chance. I don't think so, but there's a chance. We'll see. My wife knows Steve Milton is the man with the beautiful hair, which neither of us have. So that helped me because we'll connect with Steve. At some point, Steve, I did a thing that looked alike with Steve. A while back. I sent him this Steve and Estelle Getty from the golden girls.

Episode 111 - XFL + NFL Alumni Academy = NFL Golden Ticket

Well, I think my nickname, I think for this next guest here, I think I'm gonna start calling you the professor Andrew Murray. I think that's a good like internet, right? Nickname kind of coming on. We're gonna get school today on the alumni academy in a little bit, first it exciting news here, talking to Andrew Murray. How are you doing? Good. I thought that was because of my. Perpetual glasses wearing self. I thought that's where you were getting it from. . Well, it's good. So Andrew's done a deep dive here. We're talking, you know, the theme this week is I think I called it. XFL plus NFL alumni academy equals NFL golden ticket. We have Charlie bunker, whatever from what's his last name from Willie Wonka, the chocolate factory with his golden ticket. No. I think that, I think that is his last name. Charlie bunker. There you go. That, but first we have so exciting news coming out. Courtesy of rod Woodson, co to the Las Vegas franchise on the pat McAfee show, pat McAfee, how they really heavy. Alt football day yesterday. He had Todd Haley on the us have found out pat, quit stealing our guest pat, but we had Rob Woodson on talking. You know, you were in the chat. We were all kind of in the chat. When all this came down, rod said they were. Pat was asking rod, Hey, tell us, like, what's your team? And Rod's like, well, I'm coaching the. Las Vegas franchise, cuz he really, I mean, you know, we don't wanna have any spoilers, but he, he did leak and it seemed like the league was okay with it. Cuz Anthony Beck retweeted it, that rod said names are coming out next week. What did you make of that timing and this announcement. Yeah, his hesitation was very similar to when coach Anthony Beck. Couldn't really tell you guys at the Arizona workouts about the city names, but he really wanted to, like, he was like, just on the tip of his tongue of wanting to say St. Louis. So obviously all these guys are very. Gregarious. And they always want to like, really want to say something about all this, but they just can't. And so I think. For him, it shows me the enthusiasm that he has about the product. And I mean, look, wherever it's gonna be done, it's gonna be done. If it's gonna be pat McAfee's show. If it's gonna be on your show, if it's gonna be on, I don't know, some radio program and. Fairbanks Alaska. I don't know, but like, they're going to do it some way, shape or form. So it's just interesting that kind of like different angles they've had and, you know, pat, McAfee's not the worst one because he's had these alt football. Conversations people talking about them. He's talk, he's at least mentioned it in the sphere. Of relevance and not all sports programming on the national level obviously has done that. We've seen that time and time again. So for him to do it, I think to have someone like Rodan was actually great. I think that was a perfect opportunity to do it. Well, and that's all that, you know, I cuz immediately I'm like, okay, was rod supposed to talk about this? Cuz we had the. The full XL roster details come out last week. I think a lot of the people time-wise expected that to be the team names. And then for, you know, whatever reasons maybe happened behind the scenes with personnel at exit F okay. We we've decided now we're gonna get the team. The. Full coaching staffs out there. Right. Let's list all the, you know, coordinators, all that stuff. Now we're gonna do this, but I did think like, oh, was he supposed to talk about this? Cuz we had the Larry. Larry Dean or whatever, what was. That this, this spoiled the cities and all that. So I did kind of worry about that, but then I saw back retweeted it and stuff, and I thought, well, Rob Woodson on the XO personnel page. So I guess he's okay with having said this so far. Yeah, no, I, I agree. I don't think they wanted to have another. So super small podcast. League like they did last time, which was just kind of just so under the radar, how, how long was that podcast up? By the way, the, was that about like two or three weeks? Before I got discovered. That was wow. Yeah. When the, it was in July, right. When the spoiled cities came out, I, I think it, it had about six views on it. I think it had been for, yeah, literally two or three weeks max discovered that. And then next thing you know. Yeah. But it down, I mean immediately, no, this is good. I think. Pad's a good forum. I don't know. You know, I think pat would be a great platform next week to have the team names come out on. If you wanted to do it that way, I like them leaning. Into not just doing ESPN stuff. I that's been my criticisms with the USFL all along is we, we just exist on Fs one. If you don't have Fs one, you don't know what this is. I like this. I mean, I think pat, you know, he had 50,000 whatever live viewer on the stream. I mean, it's a great. Platform that way. And like you said, it fits more into that alt space. You know, pat has worked and carved his way to. Advocate himself as kind of part of the sports media that I think is important to, to not exist in, in just kind of the major platforms that are out there. Absolutely. Yeah. And that's, that's really been his biggest calling card. Right? Not being on a major network, not being on ESPN, not being on Fs one, not being. On cable television, he's been able to do it by himself and do it on a platform like YouTube, for example. So. You know, I, I think that might be where. They could go with these announcements next week. Right. They might just stick to like an online platform and then. There was the information about the. Coaches having potential dinner. Reservations next Wednesday and being able to announce all of those the next week. So maybe they do the announcement earlier in the day. Online, and then there's sort of a more official announcement or sort of a coordination for it later in the day in individual cities with the individual coaches. As part of like, kind of a, a fan experience or at least an inclusive fan experience, which I imagine. Some people in our group and people that we know are probably already trying to make reservations for if they can find out. So have you heard anything about Seattle's end of it at all? Well, I was just Bri mention that, so yeah, so courtesy and I tweeted this last night. Courtesy David PDO, Pato, viz, P D O V E S E. He shared in, and it was sent over to me that he was part of the huddle. That's the, the new XFL there online, you know, fill out our surveys and stuff. It's not, they need, we gotta get click on. I mean, I don't think that's the most impressive part that I've seen, but so the XFL would like to thank you for, for being one of the initial members of our team, fan C communities, the huddle as said, Thank you. We'd like to invite you and a guest who happy hour with coach Woodson on Wednesday, September 28th at 5:00 PM near the strip, you know, in Vegas. Venue TBD. So yeah. Makes me think like, we're still, we're kind of figuring this out right now. If you are able to attend police respond to this email in the next 24 hours, so we can provide you with more details XL team. So like you said, so that's coming out Wednesday. We, we are kind of. Operating that Wednesday is going to be the XFL announcement days in general, just because, you know, Monday is coming off the weekend and you have Monday night football and stuff Tuesday, and then Thursday we're getting ready. Wednesdays. A good spot. Like you said, coach backed, tweeted out. Yeah. Where's should I? Where should I make's reservation? Like I wanna go hang out, but. No, I haven't have not heard anything from Haslet have not heard anything from, you know, the Bob stoops of the world. But back to is a little bit more. Active. I would see him being a little more pro active in that. Jim Haslet has been very quiet with everything in Seattle. I think scheduling preventing him from being at the Arizona showcase, but. Not all the coaches are equal in terms of like, Hey, I'm gonna actually use social media here. I've noticed that too. Yeah. I mean, obviously backed woods in Wade Phillips, he's been pretty active on Twitter as well. He's really been out there. I he's always been like that, but he really likes to be. Engaged with fans. I. You know, obviously I think in a perfect world, we'd like to see that involvement from all eight of them and just see that on, on concert repeat, but also they all be different kinds of lies, different styles of how they approach social media in terms of band engagement and what ways they sort of. Keep themselves symbiotic with the league. So, you know, Yes, I think I would like all of them to be involved in some way, shape or form. I don't know if that's necessarily gonna happen. I'm not sure if it's something that's like a. A mandate from the league. For example, if they're gonna say, Hey, you have to. Do this much social engagement. For this period of time, I don't think that's necessarily how it's gonna work, but. I mean, look, that's the whole. Stance of the league, right? It's fan engagement. It's keeping fans involved. It's keeping them in the loop. So. I think for certain franchises that might be easier than others. It's a matter of getting people. Like the are like the 10 franchise involved with Bob stoops. You mentioned getting. People involved. In Vegas with Woodson, which he seems like he's doing. Jim Haslet with Seattle, Seattle. Is he gonna be more proactive when the season gets closer? I don't know, but so far we kind of have front runners as far as who people are. That really want to be able to get that message out. Well, it's interesting. So when I worked at my last news station, before I quit to kind of do, you know, my weddings and stuff, That was kind of right when the advent of Twitter. Really started, right? Because we were out doing news and you know, I was a videographer and we're out at, it was a corporate mandate. They said, we're, we're giving you guys these accounts. You have to use them. You have to tweet, you know, X number of times, like maybe we have to do that with some of these X coaches. They said like, this is part of your job description. We need you to use. Utilize this, we need you to send in stuff cuz you know, we're all sitting there and I wasn't. I think I was 25, 26, but you know, you had guys that were 40, 45. Who'd been at the station a long time and they're like, I'm not dealing with this. Like, this is not an interest to me, but obviously paramount to building that fan engagement or, you know, in the case of news, you know, getting the, that like instant, Hey, we're tweeting the car accident or whatever the heck where was going on. But may, maybe you have to do that with some of these coaches. Cause because some have been really good and I mean, Rob Woodson, I thought came across really likable on the pat McAfee show. I thought that was a good spot for him. So getting more of that to just the non. Non sterile stuff that we're seeing a lot with the USFL. I like seeing a little bit more in the wild. Yeah, definitely. And rod seemed like he was very amicable with you guys at the Arizona workout as well. That's something that I also highlighted, but you know, I wanna see more from Terrell Buckley. I wanna see more from Reggie Barlow. Hines ward. I wanna see it. Like I said, I would just love to see more from all of them. In general and just kind of see them all continue to be more inclusive and sort of be. Able to carry the mantle. And like you said, it, yeah, it's, it's maybe. Older cut cloth or people who have already been to the business so many times that just are like, I don't wanna do this. I wanna have to deal with this. I mean, it's kind of like in college football, for example, when you start to realize that some coaches are having to deal with this whole end I thing and trying to recruit people in a different way than they've been used to. For their entire careers that suddenly they have to like, Change their philosophy. And. All of a sudden it's just almost too much or they just can't keep up or whatever. It's just, it's an inconvenience. So I just wonder if there's a way for. The league to be able to. Inspire or at least encourage these individuals to kind of. Hold up their, into the bargain as far as promotion. What I do like about this though, cuz I, I I'm worried like what this looks like next week. Like I'm worried, like what is the team unveils? Is that, you know, I actually really kinda liked what the USFL did last year. We had the team names, but then when we did the uniforms and it was, you know, one every hour from, I think it was 8:00 AM till 4:00 PM or whatever, cuz they, they. with all they do things I could, they, and Pacific time they refuse to kind of adjust. At least the XL seems to be hit like 10:00 AM Pacific. I like that. You even a am Pacific is fine, but I like that. Like the one every hour kind of making it B something you live with all day, like. Do we get a pressed release? Do we get a video? The XFL before? Remember they had. I think it was just a video that came on. It was like a Facebook live and they played and they had like the dragon swim over and all that stuff. So. Maybe you can do that. Maybe you can do, you know, the virtual, whatever. And then, like you said, we've got Rob Woodson in Vegas. Potentially backed in, in St. Louis. I like immediately getting in, like, we're, we're getting on the ground now. Like we have to start promoting these local markets because I'll tell you no one. Didn't see, like, my neighbor knows that the drags are coming back. Cuz he sees me with my hat on the like no one knows that these things are coming back right now. I think that's being taken for granted. I just, I think so too. I mean, look, yes. Are you gonna have fans who buy tickets? Yes. But are you gonna have fans engaged locally? You have to be able to get that groundwork done. And, and like you said, it's, it's, I think part of it again is how much information the general public has. And all we know is deep cities. We don't have. We haven't gotten the most crucial information, which we're presumably getting next week, but then after that, are you gonna be able to see more engagement? I really think it's, it's not gonna be really. Full head of steam until the draft comes until like people know, okay, who's on my team. Like, who am I supposed to care about? Why, why should I care about this player or about this coach or about this situation? That's when I think it's really going to be more. Like it's more reality for people that's when they can really start to build a hype. And that won't be until mid-November. That'll be, you know, so, oh, so if we get, and then I we'll talk team names, then we'll get to, I'm not, you know, so September, so the 28th, right? So we get team names next week, presumably Wednesday, the 28th. Then then you get uniforms, presumably right? In October we have draft November training camps December, right then January. So, I mean, you're hitting tempo events there, which is what I've been concerned about with the FL returning in season two is the, like how many tempo events do we have to, to like really, okay. We're rallying. Everyone around here. Like, I just think like what things could I do a live show for like, well, a uniforms on Bailin or whatever, you know, teen names, but like how many things, so does that timeline make sense? Uniform, you know, nicknames next week, team names, colors, uniforms, October before the draft? I think so. Yeah. I mean, you have to have the full identity rolled out before you. Be able to say, instead of saying like, X player is going to be playing in St. Louis and he will be wearing. This color. Okay. But what's his uniform wheel look like? Can I start to visualize, can you start to like Photoshop people into the uniforms? That's why people love to do right. They're always like, oh, I can see what they look like. You know, before they even start playing, you need to at least have that on the table or at least be able to get people to like, kind of visualize it. If you don't give someone. If you don't give people something to visualize, they won't be able to really. Engage themselves fully with it, or be able to just sort of daydream about what they could potentially see on the field. Months down the road. So yes, absolutely. I think that is. All needs to be unveiled by the time the draft rolls around in order to really get people involved in it. I, I still can't get used to baker Mayfield than the Panther uniform. Like I still, that still feels like a bad Photoshop to me. Every time I see, like I'm watching the highlights, I'm like, this is not real. yeah, that, that, one's pretty weird. I'm trying to think. There's gotta be someone else. There's there's always, there's always just like one weird combo where I'm just like, why in the world? How in that, how did that person end up there? I mean, like that was me and Brady, like Tom Brady, his first year in Tampa bay. It's just like, this is so weird. Not singing in Patriot colors. It was, I've gotten more used to it now, but at first it was. Just a very odd sign. And even that even still I'm still, my brain is just like, 5% Off when I look at 'em. But. Most of that's been colored in now by like the last three years. I've seen people post online XFL uniform. Re reveals like at the draft, like the player comes out. Like, I hate that idea. Let's keep it separate. Like, is it let's build like uniform unveils. That's a major, that's a major tempo. At least for the hardcore fans. I know how many casuals get off on, on that, but that was it. That was a Mo I, I remember I was filming an event. At, I had to fly down to Vegas to film an event at the, the circle thing, the Ferris wheel for like a corporate gig. And I'm literally sitting there on my phone, like refreshing. Thel site like to try to get the uniforms. I mean, it was a big deal back then. And, and I think that, you know, obviously they do it right. They, and, and I, I presume they will. It will, it will also be an event this time. Yeah, no, that's dropping way too much info at once. Like that's, that's. That's something that I think we've we've. I think us media members have realized that like, this is not a league that is going to info dump us. Like that's not how it's gonna work. It's going to be slow. Methodical trickle. And I know that's frustrating for the fans. It's frustrating for. For everyone, because there was so much that was already laid before and there's like, yeah, there's a presumption as to how many people are coming back and how many teams are coming back. But we don't fully know yet. It's it's like. It's I, I don't know what the correct analogy is, but it's like almost half knowing and half not knowing at the same time. And I think that's why. This like, sort of in between nebulous that people are stuck in right now is maybe why it's so frustrating. If we didn't know anything, if we had never seen this league before, I think the curiosity factor would be more. Rewarded or at least it would be more acceptable. Like with USFL last year, I didn't know who the teams were gonna be. Like, could it be old trademarks? Sure. Could it be like. Play old players getting involved and being in team managements. Management's maybe like, I don't know, but I wasn't really sure. And so there wasn't anything to base it off of, as opposed to the XFL, which we all kind of assumed we could base it off something. And now we're just sort of like. Just continuing to be in this holding pattern that we've been in for. Two and a half years. Well, it's also, and it begs the question, you know, cuz obviously I don't wanna get your opinion on, you know, which names return here, you before we turn the page to the alumni, but. Like even when they announced the USFL stuff, like I. I still don't have the biggest identity with a lot of these teams. Right. Like the breakers a little bit. Right. And slow. And, and, and I know that, you know, like they're social was pretty good, at least in terms of like meme kind of after the games, but it's weird. With, and, you know, and I say this as an external fan, it's weird that so much has been held like dire from five weeks of play and whatever, from these XL teams where. You know, like if the Vipers come back, if they don't, I'm just kind of like, whatever, like, I don't, I wouldn't care. They're like, what if the Dragon's so I'm like, I don't. I don't really care. I mean, I would still cover the league, even if Seattle didn't have a team, cuz that was, you know, we've been discussing long enough where we didn't know if Seattle was coming back or whatever, but I just it's it's weird how. Hung up on this, the XL people are when I don't really sense that saying like I'm a Philadelphia stars pride. Guy, you know, with, with, with the us fellow, am I missing something? No, I don't think you are. And I think that's, well, it's two reasons. One it's because fans were actually able to show up, right? Like fans were like, Hey, I put my money into this thing. I'm invested in it. I mean, look at your friend van. I mean, look at all the things he's put together and surrounding the, that team, he, I mean, he has a, his own like. Custom rain jacket. He's he's been in front row the entire time. Like he he's put his capital investment when you put your money into something. Yeah. You're gonna be invested in it and you hope it sticks around. With the UFL. I mean, there were barely any fans there. Then one was really engaged with it, except for, I guess the Birmingham contingency that was about it. And so, yeah, you're not having as much capital or, or like your time, maybe not even your time invested it into it. So that's kind of part of it as well. And also has to go with like team identity as far as, you know, What was the offense? Like what was the defense? Like what players really stood out. And I'm not saying the us L didn't have that either. I will say, like, for example, the Philadelphia stars, I really thought their offense was really exciting. I like Bart Andrews. I like case cookies. I like Brian, Scott. I wanna see that again. I can latch onto that. I can see that. I'm not sure if I feel that way about the other franchises, but like the, at least, you know, the XFL had that kind of identity with every team. Whether they performed well or not is another, you know, a whole nother thing, but like there was an identity and there was time and there was money invested. I think that's why people are so. Anxious and so antsy about it because they're like, was that thing that I put all my time into like two and a half years ago. Is it gonna pay off? Or something like that. I think that's why I do think it's also like how we just remember it being like, have you ever seen, it was like when legend of Zelda, like Arine of time, it was like when they re-release that on like the three DS or whatever. And it was like, this is what you remember the intent. 64 Version looking like cuz the 10, four version actually looks like trash. And so mm-hmm, , it's kind of like we, we just remember these things. Like we, you know, XFL had, you know, wild cats had issues and the Vipers had issues and we head quarterback carousel and in Tampa, and we had, you know, what was Quentin flowers fighting with? Mark mark Truman, man, these are all, this is deep pull for me right now, but you know, but we have all this stuff going on. And I think like we just remember this so much more Rosalie than, than even maybe it was. And it is that like when you're a kid and you remember playing Mario and like what you think it looked like, and it didn't really look like that at all. It was kind of. In your mind? Yeah. I mean, there was some franchises that were like trending downward. I mean, the renegades were in trouble. Like the like Landro Jones was out. They had no quarterback. If that season went on, I don't know how that would've ended for them. Wildcats. I mean, like we kept expecting the Wildcats that kind of get back into it and their offense was sort of starting to pick up steam. I don't know if they would've finished the season. Well, the Vipers, the Vipers were what, one in four. I mean, they were almost in the tank. Like they , but I've seen so many random Viper jerseys, like that is the most like in the wild. Jersey I've seen of any of the XFL teams. I don't know why, but I always see some random Viper Jersey here and there. And it really just kind of the funnels me, cuz I'm like that team wasn't really, I mean, they had a lot of talent, but they didn't really do anything. And like, I didn't really, they had one of the lower Fanna attendants in the league. I I, that one always. Kind of puzzles me, but that's the thing though. It's just, like you said, like operative times, just people latch onto this thing and they're like, this was fantastic. This was great. And it was, that's always gonna be great. You can't say anything else, other otherwise. And then something new comes along and they're like, ah, that's not the same thing. You know, it's not even close to this. And I mean, it's this you're right. It's nostalgia. Like people really get nostalgic about these things, even, even if it wasn't that great to begin with sometimes. So FA final question before we get on, I just got an email today. It looks like. The DC defender's trademark, they're running into some issues with. Maintaining the copyright for all sorts of different items. Cuz they have to, you know, like we have, we have the mark trademark in case you were curious, but we have the mark tray mark for like, you know, digital downloads and podcasts and stuff. But like the extra NFL, you know, they obviously have like clothing and like hats is a different thing. And then they have like, You know, TV related to sports and streaming, all that kind of stuff. And it looked like they were running into certain issues with the DC trademark, with the defenders, you know, could that have to do with the. Well, who would that have to do with, can I always get confused with the guardians? Why would, why would the DC, well, that's a, we don't need to get down that road unless you have something to say, but I always get confused guardians and defenders, but. Defenders, presumably returning. Where do you, where do you stick of a, I posted the Twitter poll yesterday. Where do you stick of eight with how many franchises are gonna return here next week? I think your poll said five to six was one of the options, correct? It was three to four. So it was one to 3, 4, 5 say seven, eight, correct? That was, yeah. How I did that. Yeah. Yeah. yeah, I can count too. I have. Okay. So I think I had about. Five names. So I'm, I need to go off the top of my head. So it was, it was Arlington renegades. It was DC defenders. It was the Seattle dragons. The Houston roughnecks. Well, they'll actually know it. Can't be roughneck, sorry, because of the lawsuit. That's so that's three. You have the, so, okay. The Vipers is interesting because I, well, based on the colors, we think it's good to be the Vipers, right? Because now I know the colors haven't been officially announced, but they had that STLE of all the coach announcements on the XFL page and we kind of speculate all that colors were returning. Oh, that color's different. So the, the bright green was still there. So. I think the Vipers will stay. If it changes, I wouldn't be surprised, but that I'm gonna go. I'm gonna, okay. So that's four. Right. And then. As far as the other teams go, I mean, I guess let's see. So the St. Louis Battle Hawk. So that's five. That's five that I feel pretty. Pretty confident will come back. It's kind of teetering. It could be for, could be five, but I think five come back and I think three of them are gonna be new. So I, I think it's gonna be Houston. It's gonna be San Antonio. And I guess presumably it's gonna, well, obviously Las Vegas. Yeah. So, so I'd say five. Is like the max of number. Those are gonna return and I could be four. I curious. I mean, I, I would think they, they keep the roughnecks, right? They change the logo. Right. I mean, do, do you see that? Where if they keep, we keep the Houston franchise and just change the logo. Like I really haven't done too much team name speculation. I tried to not do, but this is good. Now this is the week. I think we are fair to speculate now the week before I didn't wanna do this six months ago, but did they keep Houston and just change the logo to. The I, you know, I don't even know whether it would be. Man. I really, I, I liked the old logo that looked like the Oilers. I, I really enjoyed that. Unfortunately, they can't use that, which is not even so did the NFL like, well, then they should, the Titan should have kept it. Then that's, that's my art argument. But, but I get it. They can keep that and case for further use and, you know, Property ownership. I get it. But. I think they're just gonna go a wholesale change. I think they're gonna change everything about Houston. I, I think they're gonna change logo and name. Yeah, I know that sounds controversial, but I think they're gonna go like wholesale change and I hope the roughneck fans are ready for that. Cuz I know that's now that's, that's the one team that was really great in the league, right? Like they they're fine. And oh, PJ Walker was. Great. The offense was great. So on, on, so on, so that might be a little rough. No pun intended for people to get used to, but I think that might have a wholesale change and I wouldn't be surprised. As far as like some of the other teams like Las Vegas, I, I, I know Outlaws has been out there cuz that's like an old trademark that's been floating out. There could be. I also wonder if the league is gonna do more like the AAF did where it's kind of like. They did themes as a. According to like what the, the team was and where it was stationed. Like, you know, for example, The San Diego fleet because of the Naval presence that, well, you can't do the commanders, but the San Antonio commanders, because of the military ties and also like there's history, as far as that goes. And then other things like kind of having that sort of tied into everything. I, I think they're just gonna go like more generic name, like they're going animal or person. Or something like not, I don't think they're gonna go like history so much. I think it's just gonna be, it's gonna be more like the USFL. I think it's gonna be more like those names. I guess I forgot to mention too. Rod would sit on Pat's McAfee show said that the team name was dangerous. I believe was the quote he used. And it sounds like they have the uniforms all done. I mean, obviously they'll. Not unveil them next week. I do not imagine, but it sounded like he goes, oh yeah, ours look the coolest or, I mean, they've at least been able to see like mockups and stuff. A lot that stuff, I don't know with the team names. I mean, I'm wearing my Washington commander's hat. Like. I think you get over it. Very quickly. I was someone that really liked the Washington football team name. I did not want them to move off that now I have my commanders. I I'm all in on. I mean, it, it, it's funny how quickly that moves on with like the new merchandise comes out and you're like, oh, that's really cool. Like, I want that. So I think people move on. I, I like the. Outlaws. I see something like. I don't see the gambling. They want, people have said like the black jacks or the ACEs or whatever. I mean, I, I, to me, you own the Outlaws trademark from back in oh one. I would bring that back. I do see the Vipers moving to Orlando. That would be what I would do. I don't see that. I don't know why, you know, maybe you wanna rewrite something there, but you do that. And then obviously the Santa Antonio, we've seen like the road runner there, there's a lot of ones that have been used before. I see the people in San Antonio. I haven't seen anything too fresh with the San Antonio ones. Okay. But these, see the, the road runners thing is funny because. UT S a plays in the same dome and they already use Roadrunners. So that'd be really confusing for people like, Hey, there's a road runners game, like it's spring. Why are the road runners playing? Like they play in the fall? What are you talking about? That would be, that would I, that would be too confusing. I don't, they're not gonna do that. I think. It's hard to say, like, I don't know if you could get like, Like, well, I, I don't think any Texas team is allowed to use the trademark, like Cowboys, for example, that's probably a no-go, especially, you know, if you're anywhere near Jerry land. For Orlando. I mean, I've seen like things like. The orcas or like, The, the Gators, which again is already flare to trademark. Like you have to be, that's the thing. You kind of start to run outta trademarks as far as like things in the area that people already identify with. So you have to be careful about that as well. It's it's really, it's really tricky. To say, I honestly, I've been trying to rack my brain. I just haven't really been able to settle onto team name. I'm not to be honest, like it's, it's hard for me to like, articulate, like what's. I'm not a PR person, so I'm not sure like or marketing person, so I'm not sure what a good trademark is per se. There's just things that I see. And I like, like, I can tell you, for example, No offense Reed, but like when commanders came out, I was just like, Hmm, I don't know about that. Like, I'm not feeling it, but that's, that's more of like an initial reaction thing. Right. So. I guess anything that sort of stays to any sort of identity in the area. Would be great, but if it's just gonna be some generic name, like, you know, like, it'd be cool if you had something like the battle Hawk, cuz you're wondering what the heck's battle Hawk like, let me ask you, would you go for something that's not confusing, but like a term that's somebody doesn't know and they have to fake it out. Like, would you be okay with that? Well, yeah, and I was actually, I, I was talking with listener max yesterday. Yeah. The, when the battle Hawks came out, that was not a widely. Received name. And it's funny now that that is the most beloved name now of the original exile names. Cause that was not. You know, it, it's good to trademark. You can protect those trademarks. If you, if you come up with something that, I mean, what is a mark cast? I don't know, but it's something that we, we talk about. On the show. So it it's funny. I'm looking here. I did not podcast the AAF, but I do love these names. I'd be Atlanta legends, Birmingham, iron, Memphis. Express Orlando, Apollos, Arizona, hot shots, salt lake stallions. Obviously we couldn't use that anymore. Cuz of you San Antonio commanders and the San Diego fleet. Like I like, I like the AAF names. I think those were, were pretty strong. And like you said, related to the, to the air that they're in the kind and the city and all that stuff. Yeah, no, I, I really did. I, I really identified. I remember when I went to fleet games and people were wearing like Naval ships on their ha heads, like they made like foam hats, they made homemade hats out of them. I was like, that's clever. I like that. And it's, again, it, it, it ties to them military. The military ties of the, of the area. And then I, I literally like the Apollos, obviously because of space travel and the, the NAS programming and all that. It was really cool that they had like, Apollos there. That was really awesome. I, I think they had. The other, well, I think the other one I liked, I liked the Memphis express for some reason. I think that was really cool. They, they, they really did have some cool logos, cool team colors. Team names, but it just, you know, obviously it didn't last, but I thought, I thought the branding itself for each individual team was actually pretty good for a startup league. I really liked it. And so. Again, if the EXFO wants to go towards history. That's fine if they don't. You know, it's probably gonna just be some like generic name. All right. So go with that. Any other thoughts on team names, any other rod Woodsons of the world before we move on to our deep dive in the alumni academy in the time I have left booked with you today. The only thing I'll say is I think. My, my guess, like I said, is they're gonna go more towards like the individual presentations for like YouTube. Like they're gonna have like a YouTube video probably for like each team. Next week is, would be like my guess. And then they're gonna do like the formal presentation at the dinner later on that night. So I think that's probably, it's gonna be like, An all day event kind of. So they're gonna go from like morning. Presentation to everyone drop the news online. And then later in the evening go to like the dinner and the coordination that that's. That's how I see it playing out, but we'll see, give us a time. I want to do a watch along. I want to do a stream along. I wanna be a part of this. So act, you know, let us know. Is 7:00 AM Pacific, whatever time I wanted to be a part of this. Yeah. The night one that I'd be like when they have the uniforms. And then we had like the YouTube videos, like Brendan silvers, like running in with Kenneth, with, I can't remember who he was with our running back got hurt that never played, but yeah, like Brandon silvers running in with his dragon jerseys. So I, obviously we won't get the uniforms, but I think having Beck walked in to like, G that's Anthony Beck's music. Like have him come in, like that'd be hot, but is, I'll tell you. We don't have a venue for the Vegas. We don't have a venue for Vegas' plane. We don't have a venue for the event next week. Like, woo. We gotta, we gotta be, you know, we gotta have two years here. We gotta let's get going on this. Let's figure out where are we going to, are we going to couple WABA like, what is we doing to Vegas? I wanna have my trip planned. Yeah. That's, I'm glad you brought that up. Yeah. The Vegas venue thing is weird. I, I'm not sure why that hasn't been sold yet. That's like the time is ticking on that one, especially if they're trying, especially if they're trying to get people involved in buying tickets, like obviously St. Louis is doing fine. But the, the Vegas thing really needs to be settled. Like people need to know, okay. Am I gonna be in SAMO stadium? Am I gonna be in an Allegion stadium? Which 1:00 AM I gonna be in? I don't know, because we, this needs to be settled. I I'm, I'm a little, not concerned, but I'm just, I'm like wondering why that hasn't been settled yet. Especially, and because what that was announced over a month ago, Like that, that it's been some time. There's something, there's something up with that. Yeah. July 24th was the official announcement. So yeah, that's two months ago that we've been sort of waiting on like, okay. What's the situation of Vegas. like, if I wanna know, I, I wanna know what's going on there too. As, as, as everyone else. Yep. All right. So before, and this kind of got lost in all the news. I mean, we've been tracking the NFL alumni academy and all that stuff. And the big announcements from the XFL back a few months ago, I think it was back in April, they made the initial announcement about their partnership. Got lost in the news last week. Like, they'll do this sometimes. Like I want the ITL people like Neil and everyone they're like, we need to schedule these zooms cuz the last one they had about the player pay structure. That came out right after the cities. Like it was the Monday. After it was during the Arlington press conference. Like that night they had this, like, we need to schedule these better, cuz again, we like too many messages. People can't follow. Now we had at last week, following the coaching announcements. A, it was like a zoom call and it was. With Dean Dalton, who is like, he's the founder of the academy in the Neil Stratton of inside the league. They're talking about how the partnership's gonna work, what the alumni academy is, you know, in general now moving into year three, what's going on. So Andy is doing the deep dive of a along the with listener Mac helped out fill out. Some details as well, initial thoughts. And then we'll talk through some of the details about like how this is gonna help players get back to the NFL. Yeah, I wanna give a big shout out to max levy at max Scouts on Twitter. He has been really helpful. He put together a Google doc for me. He had a lot of info plan down. He he's been really good in this collaboration. I'm still working on some, some details and kind of get getting more of like a finer art article out about it. But he he's been. Really helpful. So shout out to him, but my initial thoughts on this it's very well structured. I think there's just, it's very explicit. It's very. Detailed, as far as what the players are gonna be provided, where they're gonna be, what they're doing, who the coaches are that are involved. Some of the coaches being XFL coaches already. That are gonna be involved with this. And then other people who are maybe more familiar names, such as, for example, like Anthony Munos hall of fame. Offensive Lyman. He's gonna be involved. Mike Tyson, former head coach of the Minnesota Vikings. Who was on Jay's podcast. We've talked about him before. We've also had. A couple other people, Ted Catrell. Defensive coordinator. He was the coordinator for the. Then San Diego chargers. And so we, we got some familiar names. It just like, I, my initial thought is it's very well structured and there was a lot of details. It didn't leave a ton of questions as far as like the, the setup for these guys. And so I really like that this was so well thought out or at least detailed in this way. And it's good to have this information, especially more so again, for the agents and for the players who want to be involved with this. Yeah. So I'm gonna link the YouTube link on the podcast this week. I will tell you when I was rewatching it this morning, kind of get ready for this. The 122 views on the YouTube link is not indicative of a high viewership in terms of like. We have fans that like, want news and how is this gonna work? And we have players, right? Like how can I get involved? And we're sending out, Hey, can you, can you retweet my, you know, my demo tape, my player highlight reel, all this stuff. Like this is like real, tangible stuff. Happy in the long side, like I would watch this zoom link. I would. Check this out. I would figure out what this is. I would apply to be a part of this academy. Charlie, the, the. He's like the PR guy for that was part of the video as well, talking about that, but basically. They, they started the alumni academy back in 2020 during the COVID year, the first two years. Limited in terms of the number of positions. Now they're expanding it out to all, all position groups, right. And it's. Running alongside the NFL season, starting in October, they've moved headquarters. From Catton Ohio at the pro football hall, which is interesting, like they were doing construction and stuff there. I don't know if that got delayed. They're gonna be about a mile down the road from Chatta stadium. To ADM. And so moving. Through kind of the XFL pre-season the NFL current season. And then kind of funneling players. Into the NFL out. Like I said, it's kind of like the survivor redemption island, like, okay. We're, we're, we're out. We're we're, you know, we're filling in the ranks and then. Once the NFL season concludes and, and these, the, you know, the. Alumni academy sessions. And cuz I think there's like five or six along the way, you know, from October to January. Then those players are gonna be able to opt into the XFL. Presumably work through the season and then try to get their way, like I said, redemption islands was survivor back into the NFL. Does that vibe am I, did I say anything outta the turn? No, you didn't. I, I think the, the whole thing about it is that there's like, Like, I like the fact that they move more in the hub setting, which is kind of like what we were talking about before. Right. They kind of became part of the hub. And the whole thing is to like cut costs and all that. So they're gonna be staying at fed. They were gonna be staying, I think, of the Sheridan hotel about a mile away, as you mentioned. So the survivor island analogy is kind of interesting, but I, I think it's just the fact that like, I, again, the guys who are not floating on a practice squad, not. Floating into the ether, just being out there, let's know where to go. I think that the fact that they have kind of another. Safe space, I guess. I'm not sure if that's the right word for it, but like another place for them to go in order to be able to kind of like get reps, get training, get. Get coaching, being able to keep themselves up to speed, not have to do any homework workouts, not have to. Be able to keep this up on their own. They're able to kind of go somewhere and they're able to kind of house. Themselves and be able to. Be in some sort of functioning capacity, as far as keeping up their training and their regimen and all that. So they can stay in football shape again, that's the biggest thing, right? Like staying in shape. For football, if they need to be called to duty, or if they need to be assigned to a team or whatever they could be in that cycle already, that's kind of the biggest idea. And, and again, doing that in the off season. Of the NFL is a huge part of it too. So not just. Being like, all right. Well, I guess I'll just have to wait till OTAs roll around again. Before, before I get training again. No, you can actually be. In a training spot before that all that happens. Yeah. So the, you know, the a and number one goal of the alumni academy, right. Is. Facilitating the need that the NFL teams have all season for, you know, new, healthy players. People get hurt, things happen, you know? Okay. Next man up, we're calling up people. So the alumni academy, you know, keeping people like you say, game shape. Practicing. I also liked that they were talking, we're gonna work with the players kind of to develop their deficiencies. Right. So maybe. If someone made some poor choices. Like off the field, like, Hey, maybe we can kind of coach them up that way. Kind of work them through, like, what does it look like to be a professional athlete? You're someone that needs to work on, you know, strength or conditioning or route running like. What's build up these, I think it's also interesting. We had Steve Guerra on the show like a month ago, maybe now with breakaway data. Talking about that as well that they're going to use, you know, their data. Like maybe this player is great in. In seven of eight tangibles or six, like what can, what are the things that we can spotlight to kind of build that up? So the alumni academy, you know, it's going to exist alongside the NFL all through the season. But then the secondary goal of that is if you did not get picked up to an NFL camp, if you completed the academy, right. Cuz it's, they have to, you apply, they choose to bring you in and then you may get the way through, I guess, you know, you could get cut, right? But if you, if you may get through and you graduate with the academy in your session, then you will be eligible. To go onto the XL roster, which. Comparison to the USFL, I think is a more favorable timeline to get back into that, you know, early summer, you know, training camps and OTAs and all that with the NFL. Yeah. And also there's, there's different sessions that people can also get involved with as well. There's different times just to read off some of them from this year. So for example, from October 3rd to October 21st, October 24th to November 11th, November 14th to December 2nd, and then December 4th to December 23rd. So there's also different like sessions that people could be involved with as well. So there's just like different timelines for people to be involved. Interestingly enough, I'm not sure if you wanna get into this right now, but about. The timeline as far as like, Players from other leagues can also get involved with as well. That's also in something that I noticed as well. It said that CFO players for example, were eligible to be able to join after the CFL season concludes, which will be in late November. And then. The other one, which also has a bit of semantics around too, is us still fall players. Now this depends on it. It says that USFL players that opted into that, that two year contract deal that they, they signed. Earlier this year that they at least are allowed to be invited. To the sessions or to the, to the camps, but they don't necessarily, it, obviously they may not be able to actually participate or, or. Whichever the semantics are with their contract, but they're at least odd to be invited. So as far as timing options go, yes, this is much more variable. And it's something that is more. Available to people, even if they're like different leagues or if they're trying to get more reps or if they're just starting to seek more training. As we've talked about at nauseam, the whole deal with them being able to be. Able to kind of glide into. The summer programming for the NFL. If they're trying to get involved with that is obviously much more favorable in this setting than it is versus. You know, say the USFL where you're playing a full season and then suddenly training camp roles around you've already taken. Basically a full season's worth of, of. Physical punishment. So this is also something to look into and consider as well, as far as the timing goes for all of this other logistical. Ness. Well, I like being able, like you say, you know, part their participating, you know, in, in like seven on seven practice, the tape is being shared. With the, you know, with the NFL camps, the NFL, they have access. They add like the, basically all three, two NFL teams have the ability to log in, see who's available. See who's playing, be able to see, you know, their tape. I, I. This excuse me, as I'm coughing you just as someone involved in like, Media and like distribution of like, I just think it would be fascinating, like be a part of that. Like, you know, we're getting these tapes, we're putting, we're building these databases, you know, all the, you know, the, the teams are gonna be able to do that. The interesting thing is so obviously it's tuition, right? It's like an alumni academy. So you're, you know, paying to be a part of this. And this is max sent over some clarifications of as well. Dues are only paid when the player is getting paid. So like, if you're, if you're on a practice squad, if you're inactive, if you're in the XFL and you're not active, you're not paying the dues. It, it seems like a really friendly way. That way. If you're in the XFL, I believe the X FFL will I pay out. The tuition, like from partial of your paycheck, and then you're able to take home a lot of it. So it's, it's, I mean, obviously you're paying, you're being a part of it, but it's really set up in a way that. You know, it's like, I, I I'm, I'm taking an advanced degree online. They go pay 70 grand and then hope that here I get a job, you know, I'm gonna go back to school, get my bachelor's in commuters, computer science, then hope I can figure something out. Like it, it it's very. Player friendly, both whether you're in the NFL or the XFL in terms of like not paying, if you're sitting at home, not getting paid, you're only paying now, you know, when you're actually taking home money. Exactly. Yeah, no, they're, they're being more proactive in terms of having all of that in consideration for. Like people who aren't involved or people who are not able to. Pay out everything that they need to in order to get all their resources there. So I think for that matter, It's very good that they can have that option for them. And. Also in terms of like the services that are provided, like for example, meals will be provided for Monday through Friday, three meals a day. There'll be a personal chef. The only thing I think that are like external costs for the players are. Traveling and. Weekend meals. Those are the only things that they're gonna also have to expand. Expand on their own. So. That's also a park for the players as well. And so that, that kind of. Cost the cost for the players is not so. Immense for them to be involved in this whole operation. And it's something that's more rewarding to. Them. And obviously the league, if they were able to move on and be able to be in the league itself in the XFL and be able to move on into that. Into that field. So that's something. That I think in my opinion seems like a win-win. For both sides. Oh, it really makes sense. And I mean, my question is, you know, this exists and I'm, you know, trying to do the timelines of out in my head, you know, this exists alongside. Survivor. It really is like survivor. I mean, if you watch the last couple seasons of survivor before 40, and then I fell off, but I'd, we have people. We're playing the game on the island and then we, you get sent to the other island. You're trying to work your way back onto the island, but. Them existing through the NFL season, through January. And then it, it does feel like then. It is the X AFL's role in their partnership here to carry these players along, you know, give them the actual game tape maybe that they weren't able to get during the NFL season. I'm curious, you know, without bad mouth in the us L's timeline too much, but you know, it does feel like. I didn't like this year, USFL guys playing 12 weeks of, you know, competitive football and then immediately walking down to an NFL camp the next week. I like the XFL we're done in April. We can kind of take a month, start getting into OTAs, do some workouts, things like that. And then ramp up into training camp. It just feels a little safer than like I'm playing football 11 months out of the year. Yeah, no. As far as player safety goes, obviously that's a huge. Point of it. And I don't think, I think in my opinion, outlook, you can argue about skill level. You can argue about opportunities and all that. I do think the fatigue level for a lot of these players, Going in from the USFL was a huge factor. As far as being them being able to just perform. I mean, I hate to say it, but it really sucks. You know, that obviously that Chris Odom got hurt. And his short time with the, with the Cleveland Browns, but like that's might have been built up fatigue from the season. He was great. He was relatively healthy. He had performed in an extraordinarily high level. With his team and suddenly here he is. Coming off the gambler's roster and going into the, into the NFL. And he gets heard in camp and he might've had a look. He might've had a chance to make it if he had stayed healthy. I don't know, but I think, you know, that general fatigue is just something that is gonna get to eventually. And it's something that you can't. Really avoid if you don't have. The proper amount of time off in between different seasons. I mean, look, NFL football is a brutal game. It is an absolutely brutal game and it's something that while it's good to have training and be able to keep conditioning up, there's a difference between that and just going full speed and being a being in involved in a game we to. Week, and then suddenly jumping into a full blown training camp. You know, that's just two different variables that I, I think is. It's sometimes maybe hard to wrap, wrap your head around because when you're not doing it every single day or doing it every single week, it's hard to imagine just taking that much physical punishment on a weekly basis. And then having to engage yourself into it further. And less than a month. So I think that's, that's really the biggest thing again, is the timeline, the timeline for all these guys to. Be able to keep themselves in shape, but not have to take any sort of huge physical. Tolls before they're allowed to show off their skill sets in a bigger arena. Max has a note here too, for a, so if you, obviously, if you go to the practice squad, For the NFL you're paying anywhere from 21 to 34,000, you know, cuz you're obviously getting paid more in the NFL. If you're in, if you go to the exit fell, your tuition only ends up being 13,000 presuming you don't end up getting signed to the NFL. What they, 18 months the exit fell will handle 30% net payments for them. And they'll only be taken out. Like we said, when the player is active. So again is, it really does feel like. Not that 13 gray isn't is not anything, but you know, when, when you're getting paid and you, you figure like that's a portion here. Okay. I'm getting paid 55 from the FFL. And then, you know, pro-rated part of that too, you know, it all, they're trying to work it out. I mean, it's not free to kind of run the, these camps and train and, and kind of. Do all that stuff, I will say. Having seen, and we have not seen XFL 20, 23 yet NFL signings, but we saw XFL 2020 through COVID signings stick with the NFL. UFL go into the NFL. I don't think the USFL timeline works. Like I, I will say that we're very laid in the podcast here, but I don't. We have Rick Sara on a couple weeks ago. And I, I, I don't think it works. I think 1, 1, 1 guy, you know, people injured, fatigue. I don't know. I mean, am I outta school there? I mean, it's just, it's really tough, especially if you play through the playoffs, right? If you play those extra two weeks going into the season, it's just not enough time for people to have time off. Like it's really, really taxing on the players. And also again, like these guys are playing in the middle of the summer, like they're playing. In July, if you get that far into the season or even just late June and that's, it's so hot in the deep south, especially in, you're playing at Birmingham at that time of a year. I mean, that just will take a lot out of you in order to be able to perform at your highest level and then go into summer training camps. I, I agree like this timeline. Like, might it be good for as far as like some players to. Play out of different leagues. Maybe like if you're going say you're going from, I guess if you're going from the CFO to the USFL. Sure. I, I suppose so. Or if you're going from. The end of the NFL season, you get cut for some reason, then you need more reps or something then yeah, that would be work, but it doesn't work the other way around. Like, it's hard for people who play in the USFL to get involve. Involved in the NFL. It's hard for them to like, you know, jump from the SFL to the CFO. I mean, CFO teams signed players all the time, but just having that accumulated time again, of like resting doesn't really work out it. Whereas the, again, like if you're playing earlier in the year, You can have time between that and CFO season. If you wanna make that jump, you have time between that and the NFL season. You have. You have opportunities to do that, even I think even like the European football league, like you have time, if you really wanted to jump over there for some reason, like you would have some more time for that than you would if you like started in the SFL season. So yeah, it's, I mean, like all these there's a bunch of different leagues are, have different timelines, but if we're really looking hard core at like the two. Mainstream leagues in the us. Yeah, the us developed had a disadvantage because of where it's stationed, when it plays the weather conditions that it plays under. And. The ability for the players again, to be able to recover the timeline. Unfortunately doesn't make sense. Is it really patriotic that they can have like a championship game on July 4th? Yeah, it's great. That's awesome. You know, that's fun. Unfortunately. It doesn't work out for everyone. I know for sure. Works out for the players. It doesn't didn't really work out for me. I know it didn't work out for you as far as going to the championship game that weekend, there were kind of other things going on. So it was a little, little difficult in that way too. Well, I, we should, should base say success of the timeline that of league on. If we. Attend the championship game, but yeah, I will say, I think Emory hunt, it was on a couple weeks ago. Really said it best that. XFL it it, and especially with this alumni academy. Is really set up the bounce back and forth. And I going right back to the NFL or maybe something didn't work out or the roster didn't work out. It got cut USFL. Their timeline is a little bit said a little bit more set up for like that. I'm Kyle floater. Slowder bounced around for five, six practice squads. Not really sure what I'm doing at this point. Like, let me go play some more football, try to get some game tape, try to develop that. I think it's it's. Too specific types of players in those leagues. And I guess that's important to remember when we're discussing this, but I don't think it's a, and a player in each league. I think both of these leagues, especially with this partnership and the timeline are set for slightly different players. That're appealing to. I agree so, well, let me ask you this read then. Should. Do you think that. These leagues should, should lean themselves into different styles. Of what kind of players they need. Cause for example, if the XFL is just gonna be developing players for the NFL, which they clearly seem like they are completely gun-ho doing, if they want to just be. Like a, like a developmental, not an official developmental league, but you know, a defacto developmental league. For players that are going off to the NFL, if they want players to move on, then should the USFL just lean more into say like the CFL level where it's like, look, these are our players, these where they are, you identify with them. They're involved with. The community. I know they're not in their own stadiums yet, or their own cities, but like if, if they wanna go forward like and survive, do they wanna be more like we have these players, these are who they are, this is our identity. And you will recognize these players you're in and you're out. Like, do you think they should go more that way? Cuz if it's. Not gonna work out from a development standpoint for these players, the going back to the NFL. Maybe they could go the other way. What do you think. Yeah, I'll answer this. And then we'll, I'll head you out here in a minute. I, I don't think. Both leagues can exist with look how many players we signed this year? Look how many players we sign. Like, I don't think that that can be your calling card. I do. I think the, I think the USFL should focus more on. We are the, the TNA back when TNA competed with WWE, it's like, okay, we're not quite. Not quite the number one, a tier, but we've got our stars. You know, them, you come and watch them like CFOs slightly different. We're not here in every day. Hey, see, this X, 15 guys got signed off CFO rosters to the NFL. I mean, obviously that happens, right. Put players move, but I think. And I don't like the XFL. Having that identity don't get me wrong. I don't like the XFL having the identity of like, we want to streamline players to the, to the NFL at all costs. I don't like that either. I prefer the model of, yeah. Okay. We're gonna lose five or six guys maybe, but we got, you know, we got 10 really good guys on every team you want. Like. They're just slightly below the level that you're looking at, but it's still gonna be, you know, Competitive quality entertaining football, but yeah, I do think both leagues need to develop different identities. Well, I mean, based on how many people this year have been imploring, these CFL to. Raise the cap or at least change it so much that Nathan RO could stick around. That tells me one thing. They really like to keep their guys around. So like that's, that's, I mean, that's the thing, they know who their talented players are. There's like identities. Like if I made just go like slightly off, off the path, the here, like the CFO of. Already started to think about like, oh, you know, there's Jake may or on Calgary. I have him to look forward to in the future. I have maybe Trey Ford and Edmonton, or even like, you know, Taylor, Cornelius Taylor Cornelius signed up this week and now he's gonna be down the road. Like I'm already starting to think about like, okay, who are these players? I'm gonna be in from familiar with. Long term in this league. And that's something that players that. Fans think about all the time. Why do you think fans buy jerseys of, of players? Right. They are like, this guy is on my team. I'm going to be invested in him in this team. That's what I think about when I buy jerseys, I think about who is this guy? Who are they gonna be involved with? And how long are they gonna be here? Like, that's something I think about. So again, that's and that's part of fan engagement. Well, we'll see if, what the FFL, how. They kind of maneuver around that, or if they're just gonna sell like jerseys with numbers on them, like college teams do, which I've also done too. But if they're just gonna go that route, for example, they're not gonna have team, you know, player names, templated on the back of their jerseys. If they're just trying to, you know, jettison them out in like three months, you know, that's, Well, I think this is a third time appearance on the show. Now we have Jason Gregor. I said, I gotta get you on before I watch my crack in, have another, you know, hopefully not as disappointing to see, but I think, I think we have some good moves there. Yeah, don't be bad. Don't be better read. Don't win. If a few more. I'm not sure they'll be play better, but they'll be better. Yeah, hard to be worse. We have Jason Gregory here. Jason Gregory's show talking CFO, little USFL today with the Garrett Marino. How are you doing, sir? I'm doing excellent, man. It's perfect. Time of year. There's so much sports going on. It's it's like drinking out of a fire hose. If you're a sports guy. I love it. Yeah. I think my wife is now understanding like, okay, now we have CFO on Friday and then we have , you know, and then we go on, oh, double Heather, Monday night football up first off, just cuz am I, I hope sincerely. This is. Dated by the time we talk about it, but it came out Sunday night via his Twitter. That of course has blocked all of us that have talked naysay about him. But Gary Marino, former, you know, Saskatchewan rough writer, let go, basically Randy and Brosy said, we don't want you in the league anymore. Has announced that via his Twitter, he signed with the USFL. Panthers ahead of their April season two thoughts on Garrett Marino. I mean, obviously we didn't talk to you about his suspension and release, and then now him going to another league. Well, you know, Garrett Marino is a chief shot artist. I, I, I think that was fair to say. At the same time. It doesn't mean that like he never killed anybody. He didn't Mame anybody. So does that mean he should never be able to play football again? I, I'm not a real big canceled culture that people should be done forever. It's really easy to say that I'm not bad guy. So we'll see how we play. Like he never really seemed to. Learn, although I will say like the last hit he delivered. If that hit would've been the first one, no one even talks about it. Right. So I think we always, you always have to take the entire picture into context. The last one came. They're like, well, this guy's not learning. I'm like, well, I actually thought he was learning. Cuz the last hit wasn't even physical. It was like, sure. It was a little bit late, but my goodness. On on the scale of one to 10 for, for a real hard hit. That was, that was not very hard. Right. So. I understand why another league would sign. And when he, when he plays, he's a good player. And so, you know, maybe, maybe he'll have learned. And I'll say this. If he goes down there and plays really well, as far as, you know, not doing anything stupid. Someone would probably take a chance because the only thing that he did wrong. Was he couldn't control himself at times for some sheep shots. He definitely, you know, Theis ones. I was pretty ugly, no question. But the last one he did was. I, I honestly didn't really have an issue with the last one. Like, I, I think it was more of a reputation than anything else, but if, if we just take that hit on its own. Separate it's barely even talked about. Right. But it was a culmination of things. So I understood why the CFO did what they did. But I can also understand why someone's giving them a chance of play. No, I mean, that was the thing, cuz obviously it went viral and you know, one of the TYCA fans like share the video, you know, it's like 150,000 views on that. And like I got a lot of people on my side, same thing like you, well that wasn't that bad of a him like, yeah, but this like, it's such a totality of it and it's injury. Ole and going in the longest suspension and coming back, targeting lucky Whitehead with a helmet to helmet. I mean, so it's how there just surprising that. I dunno. I just feel like there's so many other players out there we could sign, but I, I guess, like you said, is he worth the headache? Well, but is he a headache? Like how many of the fans of that, of, of his new team. Really followed him in the CFL some, but you know what? Hey, bad boys sell. Sometimes let's be honest, Reid. So if, if all of a sudden people are like, oh geez, I gotta go. You know, if you have some blood thirsty fans, like, Hey, let's go see what he does. Right. Sometimes, Hey, some will say there's no such thing as bad press, right? So if you get a controversial player who, like I said, This guy, when you consider. What some people have done and got back on the football field. Hello. Dashaun Watson, then let, let's be a little bit more. I too often we, we wanna be all just, you know, people love to stand in their pulp. Oh yeah. He should be done forever. I'm like, oh my goodness. If you'd never done anything stupid in your life, like again, he didn't kill any anyone. He's cheap shot. Right. Bad concussion. He got kicked outta the league. That's pretty severe punishment for goodness sakes. Right? It's pretty severe. So now we'll see if you learn from. Speaking of, you know, you said Ambros came out, right. Basically told the other teams, I'm not gonna like ratify this. If you try to sign them, I mean, basically blackball them. Were you, were you happy cuz then we're gonna talk here about Ambrosie maybe not stepping up yet or as we record this, but happy that Ambrosie took those steps. Steps. I could see why he did it. I'd be curious though, like I said again, if you know, if he goes down, the Marino now plays really well in this other league for a bit. Does does another team look and say, Hey, wait a sec. Right? Like this guy's, you know, some guy lied. About, you know, his being VA vaccinated or not. He got back in the league, right? Like you can forgive people if, if they show remorse. Right. Gosh, showed remorse. I have no problem with it. So if, if you, if you show remorse, Then I, I don't really have an issue. His actions will be not night, not words he has to show remorse. With his actions on the field. So, yeah, I, I understood why I'm Brosy did it like it's Hey, we cut him, Saskatchewan cut him. And the league said he is done for this year. I don't think it's worthy of a lifetime ban here. Let's be realistic. And I want, we'll get tomb Brosy with the whole lions and Calgary bra, but Vernon Adams, right. I've obviously BCB my team and tracking him and everything. And I didn't felt like he, I didn't feel like he played transcendently right on. I guess it was Saturday. And my day struck confused with we, whatever, but like, Him coming into BC, trying to write that ship with Nathan work and all that. How do you think he did. He did all right, right. Like it sure shows you just how good Nathan RO was. Right. Like, I, I think that's abundantly clear that maybe, maybe we even took it, you know, Kinda underplay, just how good he was and important for them. And, you know, obviously that that's a huge win, huge win for the lions over. Over Calgary. Right? Cause a lot of people thought BC was reeling a little bit. So Vernon Adams is another like quarterbacks, a tough position to play and you know, could Vernon Adams, I'm not saying he'll do it in BC, but could Vernon Adams become. A poor man's Anthony Calvio in the sense that I think some people forget Anthony Calvio man took how many years. Right. He got trade, he got moved. He wasn't happy. And then finally, you know, he became one of the greatest quarterbacks, the greatest passing quarterback league's ever seen. Right. So. You know, I, I'm not ready to write off Vernon Adams yet at all. And I'm, I'm not overly stunned that, that he put forth a good effort because he's shown that in the past he's capable of it. Do you think BC still has a chance to be competitive now? Well, it definitely helps. There's there's no question, right. Hey, Winnipeg got spanked by Hamilton. Now we'll see if that was just an asterisks of a team that's won for fun almost for three years. And maybe it was just like a sloppy affair for them. Right? Like I kind of saw that game coming for Winnipeg. Not that they would get blown out that bad and by Hamilton. So let me be a bundled clear. I thought maybe they were due, you know, for a loss. But, you know, it's the CFO man and, and really. I've seen lots of years where the team that's hot in the final month of the season is the team that goes all the way to the great cup. So, you know what a BC can gain some confidence and, you know, Vernon Adams, I don't think is gonna play at the level. Of Rourke because like, he was just all world, man, but. Can he, can he just be competent? I think he can. And what he did was. He really kind of helped cover up. I don't think BC's all line is great. And so you, you need a guy with some scrambling ability like that. So I, I think he gives him a chance to be competitive. No question. It's just hard. Like I love Vernon. I mean, he lives like 20 minutes from us here in Seattle and, or, you know, is from here and like, It it's like, I, I feel like watching him, like watching Carson wins now with commanders where he just tries to do so much, right. Like. Vernon. I just saw a lot of like, okay. You to see on his face. Like, I would've taken that throwback. Like I should have it. Shouldn't have done that. Shouldn't have held on the ball too long. I just, I, I hope he learns, but it's really hard to hop into a new system here and learn kind of two thirds the way Susan season. Well, yeah. And you consider like Vernon Adams has made what, like in his career, like I know he is been around a long time. Right. Since I think it was 2016, we're gonna have to look that up read, but I think it was 2016. But like, I think he's only made 500 pass completions in his life, in the C. Right. You know, he is, had some injuries and such. So when I look at Vernon, I, you think about that five that's basically like one season. Right. If, if you put it all together, yeah. He's been around, but it's only had 500 pass attempts. In his career, maybe just, maybe he's above that now, but I know he was hovering around that. So. I, I think, I still think there's time for him to, to show and, you know, 500 pass attempts. Isn't a lot to find some consistency in your game. So he's still gonna have a few throws that, you know, kind of make you go. Hmm. But that, you know, it's, it's a much better off option than what they have. Like there was such a mash of drop off. From RO to the backups, NBC, at least with Vernon Adams, I think it closes that gap. Yeah, 69 games. 2016. So. Throw for 700, 2 99 yards. So yeah, I mean, it's there at least completed, he's completed 500 passes. He's attempted more. Okay. My bet. Yeah, but they were. Yeah, but I mean, even the announcer on they're like, it's not like he's been, like you said, he's been around the long time, but it's not like he's screw grizzled by veteran. Like you said, that. You and then no, not at all. So I, Hey, it gives BC a chance, man. It makes the, they just beat Calgary. That was a huge game for them. So it makes the race entertaining in terms of this brawl. And like I saw you, it was when they were even coming off the field you saw when it was the, you know, the field goal kick. And I was recording video, like yeah, yelling onto Twitter by this swimming and you. Could see in the background, all this scuffle was going on, you know, a as we've record Tuesday, Ambros, hasn't come out. You know, I think Neil McElvoy said they're still waiting to hear from the league, what they wanna do, but thoughts on that and the brawl and everything else. Well kind of seems pretty, pretty easy. I I'm curious. Maybe they're waiting to see if there's footage of the outside the stadium. Brawl that I know all the talk that went on now, if it was just now here's the thing though. The word brawl gets thrown out. A little too, especially in baseball. Let's just be honest here. How many times got, oh, there's a brawl and they come outta their dugouts and two guys are pushing each other. That's not a brawl, but no, I had heard the word brawl being used. Outside the stadium. I haven't seen any footage of it. Haven't heard anything. So did that, was it just a lot of bravado and pushing and swearing and stuff, you know, either way that's not great. Of course. So. I, I would hope like you look in, in the NFL, Mike Evans. NFL comes down really quickly. Like we, we saw what happened on the field. That, that part we know. So yeah, I, I would, I'm kind of surprised that when we're recording this on Tuesday, that nothing's come down. Just yet, right? Like you want this decision made as early as possible. So, you know, what, if, if there is suspensions, the teams can, can adjust accordingly. You know, when guys taking all the number one reps all week and then find out on Friday, oh, you're not playing. It's just hard. And, and I think that, you know, I I've seen like in Danny Austin, the world, like, oh, there no way, this is so egregious. And the BC riders, like, it feels like the, the reporting's very colored by which team kind of their. Whoever is covering that of what, who is like actually at fault here. I can't really get a clear picture. Yeah. Like, well, both sides are at fault right now. Who knows what was said? Like that's always the hardest one. Like, you know, We're we're the, you know, the slurs and stuff. Was it set? I don't know. I, you know, people more, more in tune than me are gonna know whether or not that's true. I'm sure that's what they're looking at. But. You know, and bare minimum you, you know, now maybe they don't wanna rush a, we're gonna make a decision. Well, What are you waiting for? Either you have the footage from outside the stadium or you don't. It's pretty simple. Right? So get the footage you should already, you should, you should been able to get the footage the next day. Like we're living in 2022, man. Reid. It's not like we gotta get dialup internet here and, mm. And try to send the, the, the stuff to arose, like what the hell's going on. Let's just make it decision and move on. In terms of other teams in the west, right. Obviously Elk's coming off the. Unexpected victory, right? That's a win of the year for them. You kidding me? What do you make of the Alex? And I wanna get your thoughts on the rough riders. Well, you know, I didn't, I didn't, Hey, I thought the Elks at the start of the year, I thought they could win six games. So they're, they got a chance to, to do that. It is hard to turn things around. Quick, Chris Jones. Didn't do it in Saskatchewan. Very few guys do it. The Elks didn't have a very good team, right? It wasn't like his predecessor GM left them with the cupboards. Over full. They were bare. Right. They were bare. They, they, you know, that. That was not a good tenure for the elk. So. You can't just fix that and just be like, oh, let's bring it. Cuz you see it. Chris Jones there. Well, two reasons why they've played. Like, it seems like 190 players already and I know that's hyperbole, but you know what I mean? Injuries played a factor, getting Morgan back in the middle of their defense is huge for them. Right? There's no question about that. The trade, obviously he's added, like they got a lot. Now Saskatchewan's old. Line's a disaster read. Like if you and I lined up, we might be able to get to the court quarterback. I'm not saying we'd sack up mean we won't be able to get to the quarterback the way they're blocking. Right. Now in Saskatchewan. So you know, the elk to get all that pressure with the three man front. Good for them. But geez, if I'm Regina, I'm Saskatchewan, I'm like, what the hell is happening to us. But. You know, the elk, you know, even without their best receiver, you know, they've got some Playmaker brown at least gives them a pulse outta the running back. He's pretty dangerous, but they gotta figure out their special teams, how to get a pot punt blocked every game. Like, are you kidding me? I guys are a ridiculous. So they, they still got some more it's and I had. Coach Jones on my show and he says, it's inexplicable to me. How we can win up. We'd be that much better of a team on the road. Like even their preseason win was on the road, their four and four on the road. Right. And usually you shouldn't be, you know, you're gonna struggle on the road and they haven't won at home in three years and now we're getting into October. Again, and that was the last time they won in 2019. And I know there was a year with no football, but still they got the Montreal. Allos I'm gonna say this Reid. From an organizational standpoint. That's the biggest game they've had in a long time. They got their, you can't cuz winning on the road is great. But your fans aren't paying. To be there for that. Right. They're watching they're loyal. They might go out to the bar and have a beer. Sure. But you know, when you track a three hour window in your cable package for a month, what does that equate to like a dollar. 50 Cents. Right? So there's, there's no vested. Like time and effort to watch your team win on the road. They go to the games all the time. They're actually tailgating outside Commonwealth. Now it's, you know, that part's good. The crowds are smaller, but those who are there having fun, but they need a damn win. So I'll say that. I think that is the biggest game in the, for the organization. Like Victor, we. Like tip, I wouldn't say, Hey, we're going four and oh again, that's a rookie present. Don't do that. But they get that win. It it'll be a massive. Aid to their, to their ticket sales, because people don't want to go to the games if they're always losing. Speaking of outlets, right? So they've coming up. So we got to the next right against this week. Hamilton play Montreal. I've seen a lot of chirping online, Gary stern right now, yelling at caretaker, bobs, kind of doing all that stuff. What do you make of the Gary stern of it all and the all lets. And all the craziness right now. It's kind of funny when you watch your grandfathers yelling at each other, right? Like. Well, what are we, is this, is this the old Angelo Moscow remember? Well as a BC line guy now, I'm sure you remember that classic great CUPA clip, right. With the cane they're fighting and, you know, bringing back their memory. And I was like, it was funny, but it was almost like, dude, like, you're my great grandpa. You're not supposed to be doing that. So I. Yeah. I don't know, like it's, it's good for the league. I guess in essence, I, I don't know if it's really doing much. You'd probably have to ask the people in Montreal. I, I think they liked that he, Gary comes across as maybe. You know, he's like a fan, right? So yeah, he spouts off on Twitter, which I guess is means he's a real fan. But, you know, this is fun. Sure. I, I'm not a fun sponge. I have no problem with it, but you know, Hamilton, you know, Hamilton finally showed. Showed up for the first time, maybe all year to cuz a lot of people had Hamilton as winning the east at the start of the season. Up until last week's win against wi Winnipeg. They were. Easily the biggest disappointment in the league. That, to me, it's not even a question, right? Like no one thought Ottawa would be that good. Right. Even if you say they've underperformed, not close to the level of Hamilton, so. Now I'm kind of curious, right? Like you you've got race in, in the, in the least I like to call it as far as the, the playoffs spot goes because Hamilton is what they're one win back of, of Montreal. Now, right now, Montreal has a game in hand, but yeah, if Hamilton wins that game, the they're tied with wins down the stretch. So. Yeah, it's a huge game. And you know what, if, if Bob and and Gary wanna want to go after it, Great. I, I mean, certainly is more a compelling game now than it was a week ago with him. Right. IAnd yeah. And you know what? Hey, that's. Now some don't like it. And, and, and trust me, I'm one who I've been a proponent of. We should have one division of six in the CFO. I think that's way better. Right, but, but even if you had one division of six, There would still be playoff races. That's what people forget. Right? Like you'd still have Hamilton and Montreal. Battling for the six spot and, and Saskatchewan isn't out of the woodwork by any stretch of imagination, you know, they can't block to save their life. Right? What are they? Two and seven in their last nine games. Like they're, they're going the wrong way. So even if you had a division of six, we'd still have a playoff race, it'd be no different. You just wouldn't have potentially. You know, the, the team with the, the fifth best record getting home field advantage in the first round. I saw like, Stan's come out this week, like Argonauts have like a 60% chance make it a gray cup, even higher than Winnipeg. I mean, what do you make of the Argos in the east? And kind of that, I mean, They keep winning. I mean, I kind of seems, I don't know. It just doesn't seem like anyone's that high on Toronto. Well, no, but it just shows you. Now that that's all a statistical projection, but it's accurate in the sense that the best team in the league still has a harder path to get to the great cup. Because of the current playoff format and you shouldn't have that. Right. Like, and this is not a one off, this has happened year after year after year. And so if you change it to make it the top six and don't gimme the, oh, they're waiting for a 10th organization. Guess what? They were talking about the 10th organization when I had hair read. Right. And that's long time ago. So. Trust me. I, I don't have any hair. I look great without hair, but the league doesn't look good without a 10th team wanting to be talked about for over a decade. So I, I don't wanna wait for that anymore. A a one team nine, you know what? It would force those other teams to improve simple. And I think that'd be better. Yeah. I always hear this crossover and the west and the crossover, but they, I mean, it's a near impossible to kind of be able to, it just makes it so much harder to go that route. Right. Well, you gotta win two road games in a row. That's a fact. Right. And you know, if it's BC, for instance, you're going three time zones, right? Like it, it's still an advantage to have home field advantage in the playoffs. Like that's just a fact like people are, well, if it was so easy, like that's such a, that's such a haul argument to you. Well, no one's ever done it. So you're saying because the fourth best team in the west. Can't make it to the great cup that the format's good. Think about it. It's the fourth best. We're not ask, like with a third of the second do it. It's the fourth best team in that division. So I shouldn't expect them to go win two games on the road, but the fact that the second place team, and in some cases, even the first place team have a losing. Record and they get home field advantage. Like it's kind of a joke. So, and. Sadly, I don't think it's gonna change, but the, the CFO will be better off to change it. It's a simple change. You can still have an inbound schedule. The NFL has an inbound schedule, right? No, no one, no one expects you to have a perfectly balanced schedule. And I get it because of travel. So the west would play each other more. And so that in itself could still be in a slight advantage for the Eastern teams. Speaking of great cup, you know, Saskatchewan, we were talking about them earlier, like, yeah, I remember preseason they're talking like Saskatchewan needs to like break the salary cap, whatever it is to make sure they get to the great cup. And now it's like, we don't even know, you know, if the, I mean, what do you, what do you make in like the fact that everyone hates Ko? Did everyone. That like we all Boohoo and the world's against us. All rider fans are passionate and sometimes passion can. Can be misguided, right? Like it. This code vio, you know, I, I saw coach Dickinson say, Hey, you know what part of it's on the line, part of it's on the quarterback getting outta the pocket too quick. I'm like, well, yeah, of course. He's, he's got happy feet right now because on every play he could get his ass handed to him right now. So, so it's a combination, but like there're, blockings terrible. So like gotta get. Better and until they do, I can't blame the quarterback. Because he's running for his life on every second snap and he is not completely accurate. Does, could he play better? Sure. But how much better can he play? Right? Like Saskatchewan's got some issues there. It is disappointing in a year where they're hosting the great cup, but a anybody who, who falls the CFO and you fall for a long time. Getting in when you host is very rare, right? So the odds of it happening were pretty low to begin with. You, you're not gonna break the salary gap. That's not gonna benefit you at all. So. I, it it's been a disappointing season for Saskatchewan, but the season's not over yet. And, but they gotta find like their way here, because like, what if. You know, Hamilton beats Montreal right now, they're, they're close, right. That, that lowers the chance of a, of a crossover. Right. And, and, and, you know, and even the Elks. Crazy enough. Aren't mathematically out of it the way Saskatchewan's played, like could Edmonton beat Montreal conceivably, right? Could they beat BC without Rourke conceivably? So, you know, we'll see now Edmonton to win three outta four home game. After you've lost. An a CFL record while they've tied the CFL record for 14 consecutive home losses. That that might be asking a little bit too much, right? Like, I don't think anybody in Edmonton thinks the elk could win three outta four home games other than their pres Victor queen. Who's Mr. Paso. So I get it. I just, I don't hear any other team as much as like, they just there's so mean and likes, especially the coding. And like, I just, the soundbites he comes. I mean, even last I, this isn't a new thing. I mean, he was pissy last year. Yeah, . Yeah, that probably doesn't help as cause. But at the same time, you know what, he's entitled to his opinion. I'm not, I'm not gonna, I, I'm not coding for Jaro. I'm not listening to it. I like, I don't know if he's walking down the street in Regina, is he he getting cat called? I don't know if he, like, if, if he is. Now probably might wanna rethink your life. Like you can dislike a player that, but you know, dislike him for what he is on the field. If he's walking down the street, his wife and kids, you might wanna zip it. Right. Like, you know, what are you doing? That's so great in your life. I've never really understood that one, but Hey, rider fans are, are hugely passionate. They show up, they support their team. They got a right to be upset. Right. But I'll say this to them. Okay. So get rid of Cody. Fujio who you bringing in, in that's bed. I know, I think it's just a bad week. He had this baby and a baby Luca rightio that comes out and then just, I don't know. I felt it was the highs and lows of the world for crazy. For Cody, for driving last week. Yeah. Yeah. Like sometimes like Cody, your probably knocking, gonna get the fan more on your side. Taking that approach. It's always better to say, you know what? I gotta play better. Right. You know what? Now I got a new baby here. Fay, maybe that'll be the cha I gotta play better. We gotta it's okay to say we gotta block better. Right. You know, I gotta stay in the pocket. I gotta throw better. There's lots of things, but you know, to. It it's ne it never ends well. When you, you wanna go after your own fan base, it just never does. Well, I, there was a soundbite, I think it was Justin Fields following the green bay, their loss on Sunday, where he was like, well, I guarantee it's harder for the people in our locker room because the fans aren't doing anything. I was like, that's, that was, that's a wonderful way to kind of ingratiate yourself though. That's true though. I know. I know. Yeah. But I, I sure sometimes, you know, some people don't like the truth. Right. But he he's. Right. Like he does say, Hey, you guys think you're upset as fans. Yeah, I get your upset, but you don't think we're more upset. Like I gotta live with it's my job, right? Like I, you go home, you have your kids, you have your job. You're doing whatever. I go home. I look in the mirror and all I'm seeing is why can't we win? So he's right. But yet you've, you've gotta get a, a little smarter and how you approach it for sure. Yeah. It is the way about that. Any other before, let you go, any other kind of store Alliance tracking anything. I mean, when the peg gets almost boring to talk about just how dominant, I mean, except for obviously the upset, but like anything else you're tracking here as we approach week 16, the, we, well, I'm very curious to see was this, this, the step stepping off point for the Hamilton tiger cat, right? As, as we. Talked about earlier in the show, like the, you know, the tire cats, the biggest disappointment, a, a lot of people still look at that lineup and say they should be better. So is this the, the, the bolt of confidence? And if it is. Read. They would not be the first team that suddenly gets hot in September and rolls right through to November. Now I gotta see more weeks before, before I believe it. Of course. And then they, Hey, the rematch of Calgary and BC. Like that was a really entertaining game this past week. Now they're at home at, at BC place. And. You know what, you know, the Rourke. Injury, I think took some of the air outta the excitement of, of lion's fans, but. I think lions fans are renewed a little bit excitement in, in that market and your team reads. So, you know, Vernon Adams, I think gives them a little bit of hope of all of a sudden they beat the stamps again. You know, that's 10 wins. Like they're they're 10 and three. Like they're a legit contender for sure. Well, I just, I mean, if that feels as heated as any rivalry right now, especially following this brawl and everything else going on, I mean, it means it's gonna be awesome. Like, and that's the other thing they're facing off against each other. And I know we're recording this on Tuesday. But having hear nothing yet, like it just, is it just me or is that odd? Well, but also, I mean, it's one thing to, to talk crap and whatever soccer punch, whatever, but then knowing you gotta have 'em come back into your building the next week. I mean, the timing of it is very interested. Yeah. And, and please, I don't want this. You should hype this game up. I don't want the lead to come out. We're gonna be watching you guys closely now. Hey, I don't want anybody to go to, to go full circle here. I don't want any player to go Garrett Marino in that game by any stretching imagination by a little bit of heightened Downy is never a bad thing. To sell for a regular season game. Well, yeah, it does seem like. There there's a way to lean into it. I, like I said, it is not going Garrett Marino style, but of like, Hey man, this is a really hot, I mean, look at all the traction. I mean, bucks and saints hate each other. I mean the NFL and they know that and they, they pitched that and Brady screaming on this sideline and throwing this stuff around. And I mean, that was wild. Oh, you know what they, they actually I'll say, Hey, after I thought was kind of a dreadful week, one in the NFL week, two was really good in the NFL. There was some unreal comebacks, like great karma for the Browns, like suck the Browns. Okay. Kind. I think a can say that, like what a joke, but anyway, Hey, what about tah and, and give the dolphins a PR team on their social media, tah and O I like that. I thought that was quite good, but six touchdown passes hill and water. Like, that's an exciting offense to, to watch now. I can't stand the owner, but the actually for force me to give up cheering for the dolphins. So once they. Sell then I'll probably cheer for them again, but that was an exciting game. What about the Raiders? Epic collapse? Like there's lots of good storylines in the NFL. They that Mike MC Daniel had the best soundbite where he was like, you know, after week one, I thought, man, it'd be really cool to see us play under some adversity. And he's like, I think my player took me a little too, literally there when we went down by. Whatever it was 30 points. So it was good. Oh, it was great. It was like, that was like some three monumental comebacks late in games or at the end of the third quarter and a halftime. It's crazy. I just, before we go, I do hate the, now that the NFL season started all the, like the CFL Twitter of like, What about the NFL or like there's all this chirping back and forth. And I'm like, I, I. You can exist. I can watch CFO, saing, whatever. It's just killer to me. I, I don't understand. You to me, you you've gotta be insecure as a fan. To have to mock the other fan, like the other league. Like if you're a diehard, CFL fan, be proud of what you are. It, it, it shows it doesn't help your cause when you have to insult the other league to make your league look better, that doesn't work. Right? Like the, the. NFL can be good. They're gonna have some crap games. They're gonna have some great games. The CFO can be good. They're gonna have some crap games, right? Like, you know, Chado Joe Sinco. Hey. Anybody with a pulse. That's why I always laughed at all these people who were like, oh, on NCAA team would beat the CFO. I'm like, I talked to every CFO player. Like you joking. They would absolutely murder them. They wouldn't even be close, like not even close the best NCAA team would get their ass handed to them by a CFL team. That is a fact talk to anybody who played at a high level NCAA program. And then it played in this, the CFL it's not even close. So, so number one, number two, like why not have more football excitement? Like, I love it right now. Like I gotta highlights going all over the place. Like the, you know, the storyline in Calgary, BC, the, the epic upset for Hamilton, the L Saskatchewan game was highly entertaining, right? Like the. Are down 10, nothing. You're like, oh, they're gonna get pounded. Then they score 17 straight and then they're up. Geez. They might win. And then they give up 10 points in the final five minutes and then they need a field goal. Like that was great back and forth, you know, the NFL had it. So to me, I'm like, you're a football fan reader, respect at the that's what I like. Like, I I'm a fan of football. I like it. There's there's pros and cons of both leagues, but you don't have to bad mouth. The other one, it only makes it only makes your league. I don't think it helps your league as much as you think it does. Jason. I appreciate your time today. I'm I'm all in now on hockey too. I mean, we have our first season last year with the crack and I watched all the playoffs and Edmonton's collapse and all that stuff. Very exciting. So I'm, I'm really excited for that as well. My wife hates it, but now we have sports all year round, so it's good. Yeah. You you'll like Joques di. Strands, excuse me, Bjork strand, the newest member. He'll he he'll give you a legit score like Seattle. There's still not, I don't think will be a playoff team, but at least their top six has a little bit of pop. Right. It's kinda like in, in a football analogy. If you know, if you don't have a competitive line, you don't have much of a chance. If, if you at least don't have some guys who can score goals, you can't score, you can't win in hockey. So they're not there yet. They don't have elite guys. They don't have an elite quarterback. They don't have an elite top six, but they've got like some serviceable, top six guys. Guy. Yeah, we, we get it down there. We can kind of get it in, but we don't have someone that's gonna win in like a face off. I feel like we need to, well, they, they, they don't have like a Matthews or a MC David or a dry settle, McKinnon type of guy. Right? Like you, you, you need the big, it's no different than if football, right? Like. Yeah. Outside of the, the box and, and maybe Baltimore, you know, it Trent D in those guys, like you rarely win. Without an elite quarterback in the NFL and even in the CFO, right? Well, I believe this is our first ever. Repeat CFO guest on, which is exciting from the America's CFL team, the BC lions. We have Andrew Pearson on courtesy of Matt baker and the team over there. I appreciate it. How are you doing, sir? I'm doing well. Thank you for having us, having me back on looking, looking forward to the chat. I'm doing well, you know, we. We, we just played Calgary. It was, it was a dog fight. Went to the last. Last the ending there again. So. Yeah, we play them again. Looking forward to, to another. To another good game. Well, and you had a standup performance in the game. We'll talk about that. That's part of the reason you're on. First off the last time you were on, you know, mid-March I think we looked up March 15th. The world looked very different. We were previewing the season we were talking like, is Nathan work even gonna be able to throw football, then you Nathan York, since the world on fire, everything else, obviously we know everything now with, you know, my boy VA coming on. The lions are nine and three. What is life like for you? What's it been like the last six months? Kind of, since we talked. Well, I just wanna point out when we talked last too, I talked up Nate a little, I talked him up pretty big there. So, you know, you know, its hard work, everything I said, you know, definitely came through and I was really happy for him. Unfortunately, like you mentioned, you know, injuries and football do happen. He's around the facilities working hard. Like, you know, like you'll always does. So we're hoping for speedy recovery and it looks like. He's he's recovering well. And you know, my heart goes out to him and, and, and everything. So, but that being said, you know, we're, we're, we're moving forward with, with, like you said, VA. Vernon Adams, a great guy. And yeah, he's he's he had a, he had a great game ice game. Got the ball out quick. Calgary throws a lot of stuff at us. He that's a really, really good, well coached defense with, with a lot of players while I play makers. So we had to be on our game. And I think, you know, VA VA did a standup job for, for his first official start with the whole, the whole week. He was preparing as a starter. So, you know, we got comfortable with him. We obviously have stuff that we, we have to clean up on going into this game. We watched this film and there's stuff that we want to clean up on. But overall, you know, you know, it's exciting. He's, he's a Playmaker. He gets a ball out quick and, and he, and he gets the ball to Playmaker around. You know, we have got a lot, a lot of studs around us and the, in the backfield it's James Butler. And then in, in the receiving core, With Locke, Burno, hatch rhymes, Kato. So, you know, he, he's doing a great job so far and our job's not done though. Like I mentioned earlier, you know, it was a great game last game, but that's in the past, so we gotta move forward. Just, you know, and I'm thinking like storylines of the season, and obviously it's crazy. Stuff's gone on the Montreal and you BC and, you know, Ottawa and everything, but mm-hmm, , I just emotionally it has been a whirlwind for you guys in the team and the squad up the, in NBC kind of over, over the season, mean just. Emotionally kind of mental wellbeing. How's everything going? I mean, obviously Nate and everyone's, you know, happy, healthy, but just how are you holding up on the team? Yeah. I mean, you, you try to tell yourself, you know, as, as positional groups, you try to control what you can control. You know, we've we. We try to do a good job of the next man, not mentality, which is, you know, what. With what happened with me this last week with, with silk ch going down. And, and me stepping up. So, you know, we gotta be ready and that's football. Like you hate to say it. You don't wanna be here saying that. You want everything to be perfect. You want everyone to be healthy and everything like that. It's a long season. There's lots of good guys lining up against you that you know, that everyone's trying to make a living. So. Stuff like this happens and unfortunately you need to prepare. For the worst and you know, a lot of guys get their shot and. So, you know, emotionally, everything, you know, you gotta control you control, you know, you feel for the guys when they go down. Cause you never like to see it, but. We have a job to do. And, and, and, and that's the, that's the truth of the matter. And so we just gotta keep logging along and. And yeah. How is, you know, when, when you guys do CFO all the time, the home and home, you know, obviously you're in Calgary last week coming in. Yep. Do we like that? Does that make things more challenging? Do what, what do you, what do you make of that? Yeah, I, the CFO season, you know, I just got done CA say in control what you can control, but they are here. You're kinda comment on this, but. You know, we have a tough season schedule with, you know, the three buys being in the first half of the. The the schedule here. So we have a bit of a, a grind here from the last, by pretty much after labor day here in Canada and until the end of the season. So. You know, it's, it's a long one. But, you know, so you, you play these games like, you know, back to back and then in, in a, in a tough west, Conference right now. So we're playing a lot of west teams, but. You know, that's, that's what you want. It makes it interesting for the, the fans too, because all the, all these teams are competing for a, a playoff spot. So. Yeah. I mean, it is what it is. But yeah, I mean, The good thing is we're, we're at home the next two days in the next two games. So that's, that's, that's nice if we get to, you know, not travel as much and. It's a lot traveling around and, and staying in hotels and whatnot and, and try to get back to kind of a routine here. So. That's good. So we play, you know, back to, I think, back to back and then we play Toronto after that. So. Go back east. So looking forward to the next, next, the ending of the season here, and hopefully, you know, get a good spot in the playoffs. Yeah, the bi-week were crazy. I mean, you look at some of 'em and like when Iteg didn't have one, it seems like forever. And then BC had 'em all. And I mean, I, I get there's no, probably real fairway to kind of work that out, but it is. Do wish that maybe, you know, I I've been told the season starts after labor day when we're playing straight through from labor day to November. Yeah. Little challenge. It. Yeah, but it is where it is. You know, you just gotta, you know, I'm not here to, I'm not here to make schedules. I'm here to, to block the guy in front of me. So. And win football games. That's what I, I try to focus on. . So you had the opportunity, you know, both of these Calgary games so far have been, must watch, right? Obviously the big, you know, the big comeback one, I can't remember whatever week that was. And then the overtime, this one. Yeah. You had the big chance to step up right. This week, play like you were saying before a little bit out position. Talk me through that. And how, how was that for you? Yeah. I mean the last two years. In 2021. And then this year, you know, I've been in a position of like a six man kind of backup. Up position where, you know, I always had to prepare in case someone goes down to jump in there. And, and that didn't change going to this year. You know, we got, we, our, our offensive line has been. Has been doing a fantastic job up front. The front five there. So, you know, when, when. Soak went down against Montreal. He finished the game cuz he's, he's a fighter. So. He, he finished the game up there, but you know, after the game there's something wrong there. So he, he had to take the week off. And it was my time to step up and, you know, I, I. Was preparing to start, you know, for the last two weeks. So going into this game, You know, it was just my opportunity to finally. Step up and show what I've been working for and working at, you know, back in 18, when I. Jumped in as a, as a rookie center. To make, you know, kind of a similar spot, either timing. Where we were trying to make a playoff push and, you know, we end up, you know, making the playoffs and it didn't work out in our favor, in the playoffs in 18. At the similar position. So I've been here, I've done this. And the good thing is, is that we had a great game plan, coach, miss SIM, Jordan, miss SIM here had a great game plan going in and, and the guys executed. I was just one of them. One of them out there, you know? So. Happy happy to get my opportunity and happy that I executed on it. Yeah. Had a big, you know, blocking opportunity, the extra point over time. Yeah. I, I trying to remember, I think one of the first overtime this season, and I can't remember at least that I've kind of watched live. Yeah. It, it was the one Saturday I've had off with weddings since I think may. So I was actually able to sit. There's probably a couple people that in your position. Yeah. Absolutely. I know a lot of my buddies feeling the same thing well, I was he, yeah. I, I was thrilled. I was able to say them, watch it. I mean, obviously coming down to overtime and all of that, but it felt good. I mean, obviously you guys, you know, trying to figure it out and with Nathan and then you got, you know, Michael Connor in there, and then you got Pipkin and then now with ver. You know, now that I'm presumably right. We have a game plan going forward. I mean, how, how does that feel for you all in the, in the team, in the locker room, in that way? Yeah. I mean, you know, like, like I alluded to earlier, it is next man up, but you do at the quarterback position. You, you do like, you know, Having a guy that you can look for, like, you know, kind of. Continuity in the sense that like, you know, snap count cadence. Little things like that. Like where is you gonna be in the pocket? Does he, you know, Where is his drops, little things like that, you know, the, the. the, the offensive linemen kind of carry above, but you know, the people that are watching probably don't think too too much about, but. Little things like that, you know, do go a long way. So, you know, having some continuity going forward and, and those reps just, you know, the same people in there are, are, or the same person should I say in the bag field? It does help. So, you know, it's exciting. And, and like, I, I alluded to earlier and he he's a Playmaker too, so it's good football watching him, you know? Sling the rock. And then also, you know, once in a while kind of do do a, do a flip or two, I, I kind of told him off the game too. I was like, Hey, how about we. Have we simmered down on me. . The hurdles and the, that stuff, but Hey, he's a Playmaker and he's going out there to try to get that first down and, and, and win us the game. So you can't, you can't knock the guy for, you know, trying to get that first down and whatnot. So. No. I, I know Vernon, my hearts skip to beat when I saw him go up over end. And I said it was kind of like, I think it was in any given Sunday and where the guy he gets hit. And does the flip into the end zone. Yeah. Right. Like. Yeah. Yeah. And then they, they put in slow motion to our social media team that does an awesome job here. I saw the video after too. He, so I showed BA cause he's, he's not really active on, so socials during the season. And I, I showed him, I was like, this is what, this was what it looked like from that angle. Cause you know, you know, when you're playing, there's, there's a hundred things going on. You're not really. Get the opportunity to sit back and have some popcorn and watch. Watch someone do a flip or nothing. So. But yeah, I know he he's. All right, so thank God. . Yeah. So, you know yeah. The big block Butler kind of the overtime touch on all that. Yeah. Like you said you stepping up having to, you know, fill in like that when you come then after the game, like, what is the reaction like for you, you know, and do you get from the coaches and everybody else? I mean, first and foremost, we, we, we got the job done, you know, I I've been doing this for a while. So you know, that like, After the game you, you don't wanna get too, too high on like your performance, because you know, you're gonna turn the flip, flip the film on, and then. All that, that didn't look like it did in the game. Oh, I maybe should have done this and stuff like that. But you know, at the end of the day you got the job done. So that's that's first and foremost, did we get the win? Then we can go back and say, okay, what can we tune up? And, and obviously my performance wasn't perfect. I, I missed on a, a stunt. With rows and lemon there in the middle that, you know, I immediately was, was really angry about. But other than that, I thought I played really well. So little things here and there that we can tune up a as a group that, you know, we, we left some points up there, but. Overall, like I mentioned earlier, it's a, it's a good group up there in, in Calgary. Well, coached good Playmaker. So getting a win in, in McMan. Never easy to do so right after the game. Happy got the win over time. We had, we had like 70 plays. So I was, I was pretty gas there for. For, you know, a couple short yards running the rock a lot, which, you know, helps us out too. Cause we get to go forward a little bit more. So. But overall, you know, happy, happy. I got my shot. Happy that I, I picked up some blitz is that weren't easy. Stunts going against Justin Rose. Never. Never easy. So, you know, I was happy. I was, I was, I was ecstatic and, and, and the film didn't look as bad as I thought it might've been. So . So obviously, you know, this week, you know, standings wise, huge rather than BC win state clench, obviously, you know, we've won the series against Calgary, but you know, division rival and you wanna have the victory on that also just heated in general will just leave it at that. Right. Probably a little bit more of a heated match up here. Coming into the week, following the, the game last week, like. What are you guys? What, what's the words from you guys? You were at practice today, you know, preparing what what's going through because obviously it's gonna be hot. Yeah, I mean, I think it's a, I think to the outside world, it's a little harder that in here. I will say, you know, Football is an emotional sport. You're right in the face with people, you know, So, you know, stuff happens. So. You know, we're not, we're, we're not gonna change much. We, we, we have to clean up, like I mentioned, we have to clean up some little things here and there. That could be. You know, we have the right play calls for certain things that if we called something else, we have to be prepared for, for certain situations. And, you know, we just, we just need to execute at the same level that we did for the last two games, cuz that was a, that was enough to win. So. You know, that being said, we know that they're gonna throw some different stuff at us on offense. And with the incident too, judge going down. So who knows what's gonna happen? And. Right now we're just kind of trying to. You know, clean up the stuff that we didn't do well, keep doing the stuff that we did do well and then prepare for stuff that they might throw at us. As, and, and yeah, I mean, That's that's kind of the name of the game point. You play someone back to back. Yeah, that's what it's just crazy to me. Like it. As the season's gone on and you know, the standings getting solidified now either we cover us FFL and you know, obviously XL coming back XL. Yeah. Try trying to always tell people about the CFL. I'm like just how big some of these divisional matchups are. And like, this is just coming down the line and, you know, with Vernon, just story storylines, especially the season have been really exciting. To cover right from just the outside kind of, you know, yeah. Google eye. Absolutely. That's what you want. and you guys being in the transition. So I don't know, just, just tremendously exciting. And I'm just glad that I can follow BC in that way. Anything else if far, let you go. I mean, I know it's a big week and lots of prep and I, like you said, not a lot of rest coming off the, the awake game last week. No. I mean, I think, you know, I think that's that's it it's just. Repairing, hopefully it's good football. We, we always appreciate all of the lines organization, all that you do for us and, and our fans supporting us this year. It's been, it's been unbelievable. We're looking forward to playing back home. So, so we're gonna get BC place bump in there. And, and yeah, looking forward to it. It's gonna be exciting tracking. I wanna get, if, Well, I'm thrilled today off the buy. We have another of our, we get a lot of illustrious guests from the Montreal. Ow outlets. Joining this. We have Mike Moore here. How are you doing sir? Doing pretty well, man. Got be here. Good. So coming off the buy here, big game on Ottawa. How, how is the 2022. CLC isn't going for you thus far. It's going pretty well. You mean lots of ups and downs, but you know, that's just football and I'm glad just to be playing. Feeling getting some momentum here as we approach. So that half of the season, how are you guys feeling in the locker room? Yeah, man. In the locker room, we're feeling we're very close in the locker room. Everybody's really cool with each other. I really, I really enjoy being in this locker room and everybody's always checking up on each other. This is one of the good locker rooms that I've been a part of. You've spent a lot of time in the CFO, bounced around to a bunch of different teams. So what do you, what do you make of the CFO lifestyle and the community and the game? What, what do you like about being playing up in Canada? Just playing up in Canada. It's just something different, man. I've been here for, you know, been here for probably about six years now. But definitely, definitely a experience. Got to enjoy a lot of things out here had my kids out here who are, were in officially Canadian too. So yeah, I like, I like being out here. It's definitely a different experience than I enjoy. How many kids you guys have. I had three boys. Okay. Congratulations. How, how old are they? I have a five year old, a three year old and a newborn. Who is it? I can't remember who it was if it was Darren bombing or Jim O someone was on our show and they were talking that that's the long term play of the CFOs. We attract all these players up to Canada. And then I get 'em yeah. Get them. And they, they have, we have more Canadians that way. And that's how it works. Did you, did you meet your partner up at Canada? So no met my wife actually in college, met her in college and we yeah. Had been together since this. Did she like the Canadian lifestyle? She definitely doesn't like the moving around, but I mean, she definitely likes, you know, once she, once we find like a good place. She definitely enjoys wherever we're at. So she enjoys that part, but the moving around is definitely not fun though. What do you like about at Montreal? Just being in the city, man. It's it is really, it's really cool. Just being out here in the city, being able, just to get to anywhere you want, like in a quick, quick beat. Happened on the train going downtown, going to get some food with the guys, maybe. Always a festival going on or something like that. So it's definitely, it is definitely a great place to be. Yeah. You know, it's hard. I mean, not all, I don't think all CFO cities or areas are necessarily equal, you know, coming from Edmonton and you know, it's a little bit colder up there. Right? A little bit, little, little more rural. Wow. What'd you say? I said, oh, it's definitely cold, man. That's probably one of the coldest places in the world. You guys have a big game because Edmonton, I think week after next thoughts about returning and facing your old squad. Yeah, man. I mean, you know, you don't hone, I'd never hold any garages against any team for anything that's ever happened to me. So I don't, I'm not that type of guy, but he's definitely cool just to go against those guys. Cause you know, I'm used to against those guys and practice every day, so it's cool just to actually get to play. Versus verse. Allots your second second in the east. What are you making? Of, you know, I'm BC is my team. I that's kind of our championship, the podcast, but mantra my team of the east. What do you make of the east standings and, and how you guys are facing right now? Man, everything. You just gotta take one game at a time. We always talk about that in the locker room. Always talk about that with our, in our team meetings, we just gotta, we can't look at ahead. We can't look too far down the season. Think about what we, what we gotta win and what, how can we work this out to get to the playoffs here, there, but he's gotta take each game and just like we're, we're just trying to get, this is. The next game to get to the playoffs. So just take this next game and go as go all out and win this game. Feeling like a little more settled now during the season, right? Obviously coaching changes, everything else happening. Do you guys feel like. We're the good spot now. Yeah. I mean, definitely. It's good. We're we got a little groove now. Got a little momentum now with each other. We've been with each other for a little while now, so it's definitely, definitely a lot more comfortable in the, around now with each other. So I think we definitely got a little groove going. What do you, how'd your bi-week last week? You said you went home a little bit. What do you do when you're not, you know, going crazy on the football field? Well, my son, he actually, my oldest son, he just started playing football himself. So when I went home, That was pretty much I was on daddy duties with dad just taking him to football practice. I was the dad out there just watching, had my little chair, just watching him play football. It's just, it's one of the most funnest things, man. So is he playing then? Is it Canadian rules? No. So he's back. So right now, oh, the back end. Okay. So, yeah, he's, he's in Maryland right now and they're, he's playing full. Shoulder pads, helmet, full tackle football right now. That's good. But you got, you teach him a little bit of the three downs, make sure that, you know, he knows kind of both sides of the field. And then you said bringing your family up. I mean, do they like coming up and, and seeing you Canada? Oh, yeah, he definitely love come visit out here. When they, when we, especially out here in Montreal, there's so much to do. Take my, take my kids over to six flags, take my kids downtown. Just let 'em all enjoy that. Take my wife out to eat out here. It's definitely, this is a lot, lot of, lot of enjoy, a lot of enjoyable things. Do. Something people don't know about you. What, what have we got. Well, probably like my close friends know, but like, most people don't know about me. Like I'm a huge animate guy. I love anime. I'm always, if I'm not watching football or watching like a movie or something, I'm probably watching like a show. What kind of animate do you like? I mean, dragon ball Z is always the goat, but I mean, you can ITO some one punch mass. A one piece. I, I can keep going, man. I got, I got a lot. It's good, but it's good to fill in a little bit of the character, you know, cuz I mean, it's, I just think, especially with the CFO and, and fans love to get to know you guys, right? It's such a more of a community experience. Do you enjoy that aspect of the CFO and feeling like you have that fan interaction? Yeah, man, definitely enjoy it. That was one thing I was saying what, what didn't feel that like, I didn't really get to feel that last year. Cause you know what a lot of the COVID restrictions. So I mean now getting to get to do that now is like very enjoyable, even more cuz you, cause you haven't gotta do it so long. Well, Mike, I appreciate you taking time, you know, coming off the, by here. Rapid fire questions. Good luck. Like I said, against Ottawa. Any thoughts headed into the matchup before I let you go. Nah, man, like I said before, we're just taking this one game at a time and this is the next game up and whatever next next we got, we're gonna try to go all out, try to get, it's gonna be a more defensive line in mantra.

Episode 110 - The XFL Is Assembled!

Well, I could talk to this guest about my recent SmackDown appearance that I went to last Friday, but I think we should probably talk some XFL today. We have Greg parks of Exel board. How are you doing, sir? I'm doing great read. Thanks for having me. Well, Greg is a lifesaver. You know, I was sitting there this week, I'm producing this show. I got great CFL guests. And I'm like, well, first off, like Monday, I'm like, we need XL stuff to talk about. Cuz there have been, you know, rumored and we're getting team names. Are we getting whatever? And then they goodness, XFL and announced all their coaching staff, the. Full staff's Tuesday. I reached out to Greg. I said, Greg, I really need someone to talk about this this week. Greg said, I'm literally riding an article right now for Exel board, which I'll link on the show notes I tweeted out. And so we're gonna go through that today, Greg, how are you doing with just general thoughts now that we have some Exel in the news? It's great to have something to talk about. I know I've said that before, and so I, I, we're not quite outta the woods yet in terms of. The lulls that we'll have between now and January and February. But we're getting closer. We're getting closer to, you know, we'll have the, the. Team names and logos and jerseys and all of that will be revealed. We got the draft being built. We've got the NFL alumni academy building there. You know, team basically that they're gonna be training, which is gonna be of interest to X FFL fans and the league itself. And then, you know, the draft in November, which is just two months away. And so. The days of having those long walls, I think are, are coming to an end here very soon. Yeah. So the theme I'm going with this week, I think I'm, I'll record my stuff tomorrow, but I think the X FFL is assembled. Now this is end game. We have captain America, right? Dr. Strange has come out of the void. We have everybody, we have a equipment managers. We have video managers, code defense coordinators. I mean, we have everything that you could ever want. Big takeaways. I mean, we have, you know, obviously 10 coaches. I, I was corrected today. We have 10 coaches defecting from the USFL, and then I believe a lot of staff as well. I had listener van call me and say, you know, it's more than just the 10 coaches. You know, the 10 USFL we have Jen, we, you know, as the first female, you know, linebackers coach, right? What were the big kind of takeaways for you? And then you've done a great job, you know, listing all the teams. We'll do kind of your standout coaches for me, each of those that you have listed, but just kind of general takeaways that you have. It was sort of similar to my. Takeaway when I saw the head coaches being named, which was. At first, it was a little underwhelming. And then once you dig into it a little more and you understand the reasoning, why. The light bulb sort of goes on. And so, you know, I saw some names that were familiar certainly for the coaching staffs. And then you see some names that. Aren't familiar, but the more you dig into who these people are and the connections they have. It is really interesting. And that's really what my column was about, is looking at each staff and seeing what those connections were to each other, to the head coach, to. The city that they're coaching in because there are a lot of those as well. And it was, it was really fascinating, kind of pull it, all of those threads. And then you have some coaches that just don't seem to fit at all that, you know, you have one or two coaches per. Per team where it's like, how did they come up with this guy almost, you know, Small college or, you know, hadn't been coaching in years. And, you know, I think it was just a matter of. And I think one of the coaches. Mentioned this, I don't know if it was in the. XFL Twitter, Q and a with the coaches or, or somewhere along the way that they were having just coaches call them. And, and it be interested in joining a staff and that might've just house. Some of the, these staffs came together, was a coach just cold called a coach. And or whatever connections behind the scenes took place that eventually brought them out. But. It is also interesting. To see how the stats were assembled. What was emphasized in terms of, I mean, you know, you look at Reggie Barlow staff in DC, heavily influenced by H B, C U schools. And then you have, you know, the, the gym Haslet staff, the offensive staff is almost all June Jones, Jones Lieutenant. So you can kind of tell Haslet is sort of giving the offensive reigns to June Jones and, and rightly so, probably. And then you have others where, you know, there are really deep connections. Between the head coaches and, and some of the assistant coaches, you connect other dots. And so that was really fun for me to go through each one of those and really dig into. The background of these assistants who are named this week. As you're given this insightful answer, YouTube listeners on, I got a new webcam. My webcam went walking there for a minute, but I swear. I was listening along. I think we got it lockdown that was like tracking my hands as I was going crazy there. But no, yeah. Something. So, yeah, we got, we got it. Locked down. Ready to go. We're big time professional now, but. It's interesting. I, I, I like this and, and we've talked in the past, I think when you've been on and others, you know, the. Second chance you write 54th, man, whatever of the, it felt relates a lot to these coaches too. And it's a lot of people that wouldn't be getting, you know, men and women now that would not be getting maybe the same opportunities in other places from, for me. I mean, I'm not the biggest, like Xs in OS seem. Seems these are, are fleshed out full staffs for each of these teams. Very surprising that way, just as in opposed to the USFL where it was, you know, we had one DPP for the whole league here, you know, all these teams have team operations, team personnel on all that kind of stuff. In terms of the scope that the XFL was hiring. For year one, eight teams. How do you feel that each of these is like totally fleshed out as much as you could be? There's still some blanks to be filled. I think on some of these staffs, you know, we still had rod Woodson whose offensive coordinator was not announced. Although, you know, Mike Mitchell has had the scoop on that for a while now. We'll probably just wait until after the college season, for that to be announced, you've got teams that don't have special teams, coaches. Which could simply mean that. You know, the special teams coaches may be hired later on. Or certain, and this happens at the college level where there's a limit on the number of assistance they can have. Certain aspects of special teams are split up amongst. The rest of the coaches on staff, you have. For example, the running backs coach take the punt return team, the wide receivers coach take the kickoff team and, and things like that. So you may not have a dedicated, special teams coach necessarily. I think there was one coach that, that did not have a defensive backs coach. One team didn't have a defensive line coach. And again, those could be shared by the defensive coordinators. Who have those particular specialties in their background? But it could simply be that those positions just aren't filled yet and could be filled over the coming weeks and months. We still have. A bit of time before training camp in January. That's really, I think you'd like to have your staff locked down probably for the draft in November. Certainly if you are a, a team and you're drafting. Defensive backs. For example, you'd like to have a defensive back coach. You know, helping you to choose. You know what he's looking for in, in defensive acts. And maybe that's more of a defensive coordinator thing, but there is still room. I think to add on some of these teams, some teams have tennis, assistant coaches, some teams only have six or seven. So you do wonder, even though the word finalized was used. By the XFL in their press release. You wonder how final these staffs really are. Yeah. And I know that obviously there's been a lot of listener and viewer frustration, you know, wanting team names, wanting those rolled out. I mean, I know we've lamented and. Marketing in the local markets and things like that. I think that all very much holds true, but I do think, you know, it it's either a and then B or, or B, and then a, in terms of getting these announcements out, obviously these needed to be put out in place. I imagine they've been in place for a little while now, finally being announced this week. And so, you know, it's not going to be the XFL Seattles so like, we'll get there when we get there. But I do think. Having these in place as early as they are letting these coaches all work together, like you said, approach to draft in that way, I think is very important in terms of. I just, they're really going all in on this better. Be the highest quality of football that we've seen in an adult football league. Just with all of these hands. I'm really curious to see what the gameplay looks like as we hit the field. Yeah, this, these are definitely serious coaching staffs. I mean, there are a couple, as I mentioned, outta left field hires. From, you know, high schools or lower colleges, but those are not the norm for these staffs. I mean, these are. Staffed by. Longtime NFL assistants by longtime college assistant. Assistance. So yeah, this, I think it, it, it. Compares favorably, I would say to XFL 20, 20 staffs. I don't think that there's a lot different from that. Obviously the USFL has taken. Some of the coaches who otherwise would've been in the XFL, you mentioned the 10 that moved over to the XFL, but there are still some in the USFL that. May have, if not for the SFL been on XFL coaching staffs. So, yeah, I think given what was out there and what was available to them, These were pretty well built staffs. Thoughts of am. I wanna pull up the list, thoughts of the defectors from the XFL or from the USFL. And then I wanna, I wanna talk through these teams in specific. I know that Mike had the list here. Any thoughts on that? I mean, just generally speaking it, it is interesting because I think Chris Dishman was the first one. Who we found out was leaving the USFL to move to the XFL. And then there was another one. A coordinator who was gonna be rod Woodson's defensive coordinator in Las Vegas. So we knew of two. And my thinking was. Okay. There might be one or two more just because we know that USFL coaching contracts are a little different than SFL player contracts, where the coaches have more freedom to move about. But 10 was. You know, honestly, shocking to me. I, I was, I was surprised. The number was that high. And I don't know what to chalk that up to. I don't know if the XFL is truly offering significantly more. I don't know. You know, maybe I know a couple of 'em went to, to XFL. Arlington is the prestige of being on a Bob stoop staff, maybe too, too hard to pass up. Maybe it's the time of year fit. These coaches a lot better at this time in their lives. The, the XFL schedule in terms of when it's being played. So there are a lot of potential factors. As to why, but it did take me by surprise that so many coaches are leaving. What is really, you know, Say what you will about the USFL, but they got through year one. And they're headed toward year two and there's something to be said for that stability. Especially if you're a coach where stability is not the norm, you know, if you look at some of these. Coaching histories for some of these. Guys it is extensive and it is broad and it is across the United States. So stability you would think would count for something. And they're taking a shot on a league that although it's very different, this time has failed twice and has not gotten through a first season. So that does make you wonder. In terms of that number of, of defectors. Yeah, I'm looking on here. Well, and you also, we have Larry fedora today, one of the eight, you know, us L head coaches. And announcing that he was stepping away from the league returning to spend time with this family. I think he might have another job, but I didn't there wasn't put out from the us develop coms, but he basically said in his exit kind of interview that we're the we're were the USFL when they were they to move to, to city where he could maybe. Coach in the city, he would think about returning, but right now he had no interest in returning to Birmingham with the hub, which is interesting. Yeah. And you do wonder what these coaches were told about that were they told, Hey, come on in. We're gonna do a hub for one year, but then we're gonna move. To the cities in year two, and then somewhere along the way that plan changed. And they're like, Nope, we're gonna stick for the hubs. And then coaches like Larry fedora, maybe some of the coaches who defected to the XFL were like, yeah, I'm not, I'm not on board with that. So I obviously, you know, the, the official reason. Is spending more time with his family, which could be the ultimate reason. And maybe the hub thing was just sort of a side reason. But you do wonder if that may have played a role in some of these coaches moving over. Yeah. So we have the list here. Mike tweeted, and the look at this, I got a quote tweet on EXL newsroom. That's exciting. I moving up in the world here. We got Mike posted. Two defensive coordinators, Corey Chamberlain, or chamber Chamberlain, like you said, Going to San Antonio via Birmingham, Tim Lewis, going to Arlington via Houston. Chris Dishman, Las Vegas via New Jersey. John Heinbach Arlington via Birmingham. Bill Johnson. Houston via Birmingham, other Birmingham coaches, which, you know, they had kind of the cushiest gig. They had the, you know, the people in the stands over there. Greg McMan, Houston via Houston. Ty Warren Orlando via Houston, Mark Schneider. Orlando V Houston. I saw a lot of that too, that Kevin Selin basically has to rebuild his entire staff. Small Paul Spier, San Antonio bay, new Orleans, and then pat Perlis St. Louis via Tampa bay. So, you know, SMA across the team, sir. And the other thing that was interesting to me is I believe. All of these moves were lateral moves. I don't think anyone moved from the USFL to the XFL. For a higher level job, there was no position coach. Leaving to become coordinator or anything like that. In fact, It was Tim Lewis going from defensive coordinator now to co defensive coordinator. I believe. So that in is maybe a half step down. So it is interesting. I mean, you can't use the reason that while they're going to a better job in terms of title. They're going, they're making lateral moves here, which is another aspect of it that I think we need to bring up. Yeah and conversations I had today, I don't, for the most part don't believe Ella's vastly overpay. Overpaying to get some of these people. I think that it is more. Hey, I wanna go to the XFL. Right or wrong FFL rock, Danny Garcia, seven bucks, whatever. Like I wanna be there. I think that, that, like you said, a lot of lateral moves and I don't think we're, you know, we're paying $500,000 to get, you know, any of these guys over here to take some of these coordinated positions. Yeah, I think you're right. I, I, I would be hard pressed to imagine the pay is. So significantly different that you would want to. Completely uproot your life and family to move, to, to make a lateral move to another spring leak. You know, maybe you do that. If you're moving to a major college or to the NFL, but to another spring league. I, I, I just find it hard to believe that the, the difference in pay. Would really cause that. It's really good to be interesting player. And personalized for all of this us of LMX develop and just. It's it's, it is fascinating to me. And I think it's great that we're getting the AAF XFL that we never really got, but to see this happen and, and like you said, tors championship, it's like the Monday night wars now of, of spring football. I really like it. oh my gosh. That's Tim Lewis's music, right? No, he's gonna take someone comes down and takes like the USFL game ball puts it in the tracks and they're like, no. Oh gosh. Alright, so let's go down your list cuz you actually did. And I wanna give some people, some tangible information that you have on here, cuz you did this great article. I'll link it down to YouTube. If I haven't by this point, I'm sure someone will have yelled at me that I haven't done that. And so we have the XML R Arlington head coach, Bob stoops. You have a standout. Spotlight for each of these teams. You have that for bill Sheridan. Why is bill Sheridan a get for Arlington? And are there any other big. Notable names that you know, for the Arlington team. Well, a lot of Bob stoops is staff is returning actually from XFL 2020. Some of it is from the Dallas team. Some of it, as you mentioned, Jonathan, Heinbach coming over from Tampa. So some of it is, is from elsewhere. I think bill Sheridan is the only one. Who's not a returning from XFL 2020. And I'm Wisconsin badgers fan. So that name stood out to me right away. Because he was hired to coach inside linebackers at Wisconsin for this year. With the, the shuffling of their staff. And obviously Wisconsin, if you follow college football, they have one of the best defenses in the nation. And have, since Jim Leonard took over his defensive coordinator, so he would've been. Playing a big part in that. Unfortunately, there was some. Recruiting violations that came up, that he was attached to while at air force. That forced Wisconsin to let him go. He, I think he actually resigned. And Wisconsin head coach. Paul Christ was not. Happy that it came to that. I mean, he was not happy to lose bill Sheridan in that way. So, you know, to go from a, a top level defense in college football to. Being a linebackers coach in the XFL is why I thought it was, it was a pretty good get because. You know, I think he would've done some, some really interesting things with a. Young group at Wisconsin. Oh. And I like that. I like that. We have a little bit, you know, plain, dirty, a little bit recruiting, getting in there. I like that. You know, you gotta be, you gotta be aggressive here against the us FFL. We gotta, we gotta, we gotta get the best guy. So I's that one line of thinking too. Absolutely. And then, yeah, Jonathan. Heinbach he's been everywhere. Right? He was various, he's been all the way he was with the CFO. He was the Argonauts. He was with the San Antonio commanders. He's been with every incarnation of the XFL. He was, he was a, he was on the Los Angeles extreme and 2001 as a player. Coached the Tampa bay Vipers in 2020. And now he's back to coach in 2023. And he follows the mark on Twitter. So that makes him at even even a better hire. No, but that was great too. I saw that name and I think he had been rumored against some of these names. I know have been bouncing out for a while, but I know that that was a big, get excited there for that. Interesting to us. Scott SP Scott Spurrier. As well, right. He obviously right related to Steve Spurrier. Am I? Yeah. Am I speaking that turn here? And then Jonathan Hayes, Rick Mueller really stacked. I mean, I think a lot of, like you said, I think a lot of the allure of coach stoops maybe brought a lot of people to that team. And the, the code coordinators for both offense and defense is really fascinating to me. And, and I'm curious as to how that's going to play out and. I mean, if you are the XFL and you are building. A brand that is going to truly be behind the scenes. You could do worse than having. Drama amongst your co-coordinators. So not that I think that's gonna happen. Not that I'm wishing that's gonna happen, but certainly. You do wonder how that's gonna play out Jonathan Hayes and Chuck long and the co offensive coordinators, you know, that is they work together with the battle Hawks. I think that offense is gonna be a, a little different than the hell mummy run offense that. Bob stoops had in Dallas the first time around, and then the co defensive coordinators, which is Jay Hayes, Jonathan's brother and, and Tim Lewis. So that's gonna be one of those things that, you know, when, when this. List came out. One of the things at the top of my. Listed intrigued me was okay. You've got. Two co-coordinators. How is that gonna play out during the season? So that's, that's something to keep our eye on. Yeah. It's kinda like you got the new England Patriots, you know, who's calling the plays bill. Oh, let's going on? Boy. Got Matt Patricia out there with the clipboard. We did ask Bob suits when we were in the VE Arizona showcase. Like I, I think it was Brandon Anderson with XL news. He goes, what, what, you know, offense or whatever you're gonna run. You're gonna be running the, how mommy. He goes, no, we're gonna do, you know, John, John Hayes and what they, what they. Did with St. Louis, I have a feeling, you know, that they were, we're gonna roll that in, like you said, and kind of marry that together with Bob stoops, which should be kind of an interesting, I don't know what that looks like. That'll be good. . Yeah. And they had a good offense in St. Louis. So. High expectations for our LinkedIn. Yeah. So Houston with Wade Phillips, right? You have Greg McMan. When you stand out talking about the most grizzled EXL coaches, having the mix of youth with his standouts from the XL Houston squad. Yeah. And I just think that that mix of youth. And veteran wisdom. I'll say I is what really stands out to me about the Houston staff. You have AJ Smith, who is this sort of boy wonder. Offensive whisper. I guess who's gonna be their offensive coordinator. Peyton party coming from another wide open offense in Houston. I'm speaking of the university of Houston. And then you, you got Andre, Gerard who played for Wade Phillips in Dallas. So a lot of young guys on, on offense. Then you've got Brian Stewart, who is a coordinator for Wade Phillips back in Dallas, bill Johnson. A long time defensive line coach in the, in the NFL, Greg McMan, longtime special teams coach in the NFL. So you've got a couple. Real veterans on that team, but you've also got some up and comers. So I think the balance that Wade Phillips struck. In his staff between that youth. And I mean, he coached for, with Sean McVay. I mean, he. He at his age. Still has that youthful. Countenance about him. And so I think he likes being surrounded by. Young talented. People just like he was with Sean McVay in LA. So that that's gonna be a really fun staff. Yeah, AJ Smith, like you said, lots of eyes on that. Weighed he'll pop up on Twitter every once in a while. I, I, I agree. Co-sign what you're saying, where kind of the old guy, but he's like, I, I can be hip here. I can get some of these cats around me and make it roll. Interesting, you know, moving there, you had Greg McMan, like you said, another coach coming from the USFL. Special teams. Any other takeaways from Houston? You wanna move on to Orlando? Yeah, we could move on to Orlando, which is the, the first real kind of wildcard of, of our list because Terrell Buckley. No head coaching experience, very little assistant coaching experience. So. Who was he gonna draw from? And. He brought a lot of Floridians to the staff. So a lot of people familiar with the area. Maybe that's a good thing. If you are wanting boots on the ground and, and wanting to attract fans who maybe recognize some names, Assistant head coach was, was something that jumped out to me. And if you are. A first time head coach, like Terrell Buckley, who does not have a lot of. You know, he's not, not been a coordinator anywhere or anything like that. You, it's probably a good idea to have someone dedicated to assist you. I mean, we, we know that there are a lot of game day responsibilities. That head coaches have. And if you have someone who could be your right hand, man, to help. Guide you through those or help alleviate some of those issues. That's probably a smart move. That's interesting. Yeah. That's like, again, like the Patriots, it's like I'm assistant to the, whatever, whatever the heck Patricia's name, I'm like the assistant to the offensive. Coordinator, I don't know what the hell his name it's very where the she Matthews backup quarterback making stronger coaches or their 14 seasons. So you're high on Shane Matthews as well. Yeah, that's an interesting one. I mean, he, he was a longtime backup quarterback, but he doesn't have any even college or pro coaching experience. I think most of his or all of his coaching has been at the high school level. So you do wonder what he's gonna bring us, especially knowing that quarterbacks are gonna make or break this league quarterbacks are so. Important. The XFL is really putting a premium they've hired Jordan Palmer to work with quarterbacks during the next few months. So obviously that's going to be a big deal. And so, you know, Aside from offensive and defensive coordinators, perhaps quarterbacks coach is the most important hire. One of these teams can make. So Shane Matthews, who's been around a lot of offenses in the, in the NFL and has been a backup, a lot of different places. So he's got a lot of coaching to draw from in his role. Do you like the Jordan Palmer quarterbacks thing? I don't think we've had your thoughts on that since they've officially announced him working with the quarterbacks. Yeah. I mean, like I said, and, and I've pounded the table about this for a long time, is, is the quarterbacks are going to be the key. To the on-field success of a league, like the XFL. We know that it's hard enough. If you watch week 15, 16, and 17 at the NFL, it's hard enough for. The best league in the, in the world. In terms of attracting talent to put competent quarterbacks out there. And so when you get to a legal, like the XFL or the USFL, you're. You know, you have. Players that are talented, but they have some severe deficiencies to them. That have prevented them from even latching onto NFL rosters or practice squads. So to have someone like Jordan Palmer, who. Is a quarterback guru work with these players. And prepare them as best they can for the regular season, I think is a smart move. Look once the season starts and it's kind of. All up to the players at that point, but the XFL, I think, wants to say we've done what we can. We've done everything. We've exhausted. Every resource we can. To have our players, specifically our quarterbacks prepared to put the best product on the field we can for the fans. Well, you said, especially where you're bringing in, you know, you look at the USFL and the cost, others of the world te move, you know, these, these guys. And I mean, even the CFO, I was talking our CFO guest today. Like, do you have these guys that just are missing a, a couple of things, it to get the whole package together and, and have the good quarterback coaches. On the teams and obviously Jordan Palmer, I think, is incredibly important for that. At Vegas with rod Woodson. This is the big one. Jen Welter. Jen's a long time follower of the mark has Jen is being brought on as the, as he linebackers coach. A big deal is well, right. First female. Well, she was a first female in, in the NFL and now in the, in the alternative football too, right? I mean, Check in a lot of boxes. Yeah. She worked at the AAF actually beforehand. So, but yeah, she's, she's here and. Look, this is, this is Danny Garcia practicing what she preaches, right? Because she's preached. Inclusion she's preached diversity and certainly. Jen Welter fits that mold. Looking at that rod Woodson's staff, you know, heavy on the defensive acts, rod Woodson, former of defensive act himself, his defensive coordinator, Chris Dishman played defensive back in the NFL, obviously defensive backs coach Darren Perry played for a long time. All three of them played for the, in the NFL for a very long. Time. So I would expect if you're a defensive back going to Las Vegas. No excuses for you. I mean, you better, you better play out. And enjoy click sale as well. Coming on that I think was announced some again, it's like, which one of these right now is before you with the Wildcats Raiders, jets and extensive resume there as an executive and as a player. And there you get these guys. So like the Rob Woodson. I don't know if it'll be like the Kirby Wilson stuff. It all, where like Kirby, Wilson's the best running backs coach in the world. But is he, are you able to translate that to, to be a leader of men on the field? That'd be interesting. And, and the bottom line is you don't know until you put them in that position. Right. So, you know, who knows? Rod Woodson could be a dynamic coach who, who wins the championship. He could be like curvy Wilson who maybe falls on his face, but you're not gonna know until you put him in that position. And Jim Nagy, who is the head of the senior bowl, had a tweet. I, I took notice of maybe. Several weeks ago, a month ago is that head coaching is not about Xs and OS head coaches is about being, like you said, a leader of men. And I think when you look at rod Woodson, when you look at Hines ward, when you look at Terrell Buckley, some of these head coaches who don't have. The vast experience coaching that some of these others do. What you can say about them is they do have those dynamic personalities to lead. They have the credentials as a player. So that these players who play for them, they might say, look, he doesn't have a lot of coaching experience, but man, he played in the NFL for a long time. He went to pro bowls. He went to super bowls. You know, I can believe what he's saying. And, and so there's, that's what being a head coach is all about. It's not so much schemes. It's not so much personnel. It's. Can you lead? Can you inspire? Can you. Get the most out of your players. And I think these particular head coaches, while they're short on experience. Are long on that kind of those kind of factors. Hines ward here with San Antonio. I saw a lot of tweets out about you. A lot of the guys on his team, you know, I got Jimmy ZOS of it, friend of the show, Darius bell, obviously on there as well. Thoughts on San Antonio, you Scott Boone is your standout thoughts on the, on the staff. That Hines is assembled. Seems a very CFO, heavy staff. So he, he took some from north of the border, Jamie, a Elizondo, Josh and I wander both who were with the. Tampa bay Vipers in 2020, reprising their roles as offensive coordinator quarterbacks, coach respectively. You have Corey chalin the defensive backs coach who is a former CFO head coach. So it does have a Canadian flavor to this San Antonio team, which is not what I would've predicted, probably for a Hines ward led team, you know, Obviously Joey Porter, the linebackers coach has a connection to the Steelers. With Hines ward and, and Scott Boone was my standout or my spotlight. Coach because he's coaching tight ends, despite the fact that he has never coached tight ends before that I can tell. And there are three other coaches on the staff who have coached tight ends before. So it's just interesting the way the roles fell for this up to particular staff. He was rod. I think it was Rob Woodson when we were in Arizona was like, you know, the exit fellow was about. Maybe finding players, playing them outta position where they normally would be right to get the, I mean, maybe Hines the thing of that as well. Right. We're gonna plug some of these coaches. And there are some coaches who believe that there, I, I think it was the green bay Packers. I'm not sure if it was under Mike McCarthy. But he would, you know, Alex van pelt would be quarterbacks coach one year. Then he would be the running backs coach. I mean, he was constantly shuffling his staff. You know, and it it's helpful because when Alex Vanel eventually becomes offensive coordinator, He's got that experience. His quarterbacks coach. He's got that experience, his running backs coach. He's got that experience running several different position rooms. That's gonna come in handy when he's coordinating an entire offense. So. There, there is a theory. And, and some. Belief to that, that, Hey, let's put these guys in different roles and try 'em out and it's gonna benefit them in the long run. Really. Yeah, the, the coach Elizondo one, I that's interesting, you know, he came off the horrendous year with Edmonton Elks last year. I mean, I know that he was on fire with Vipers before that really how a hard time up in Edmonton was let, oh, after his first season Edmonton, it still struck, struggling this year with Chris Jones return. But. That is interesting. I think maybe he's better focused in that offensive coordinator. And then the, the Corey Chamberlain, I saw that hit the news waves all across the CFO people. Very interested in that. Even rod Peterson, a big C media guy that broke news on his show. I think he led his show with that yesterday. Cuz the news had just come out. At the same time. So, you know, it's a way for the XFL to kind of get the attention that some of these CFL teams as well, some of the CFL media bringing in some of these guys, you know, Absolutely. Yeah, I, so Seattle. Here, obviously this can be my team. This, I think this is a pretty stacked team on paper, Jim Haslet and Jim Jones. Randy Mueller go. You standout Matt fle. Should fly. I'll like, who's your y'all you. This is, this is one of those outta left field hires. So I've never heard his name said before. So let's call him Mattie F the linebacker's coach who comes from Hofstra division three college. And so that's one of those things that, you know, stands out to me when you've got. June Jones coordinator, your offense, who has all the experience in the world. And. His offense is being run by his guys. You know, Dan Morrison, Dennis McKnight, west Swan. They're all attorneys from Houston XFL, 2020. Tie knot was with the DC defenders. And then you got Ron Z who's who's coordinating the defense former university of Florida head coach. And, you know, the defense is kind of interesting because there's not a lot of names there for not a lot of standout names for the. Defensive position coaches. So it'll be interesting to see how, how that works and whether or not that has any effect on the field. Yeah. You figure, especially with, with Haslet Randy Mueller, you know, you have all these guys years of experience. I mean, Randy's been executive in the NFL, I think multiple time executive of the year with that June Jones, you know, it's ly, it's like Bob's stoops. They get the pick of the litter of these guys. So I would definitely. Take note with a lot of the individuals brought in curious your thoughts on coach Beck with St. Louis right first year head coach, as well, talking about that, wanting to get a lot of people around him to help support. I Leroy Glover as one of your standouts thoughts on the St. Louis squad. So. There was a lot of concern when Anthony backed hired to. First time coordinators a as he's going to be a first time head coach with very limited. Coaching pro coaching experience. And I, I think once we look at the position, coaches. Art Valero on offense is, has extensive. NFL experience on defense. You have Dave STLE, the linebackers coach who has extensive experience. So. There is at least one position coach on each side of the ball. Who has a lot of that experience that maybe the coordinators don't. So I think they'll be working closely with the coordinators in, in that respect. And, you know, mentioning Laroy Glover. He's another guy who. Doesn't have a ton of coaching experience, but he's that 10 year plus NFL vet who's made the pro bowl led the sack NFL and sacks in 2000. So he's like a lot of the. Newer coaches. Who they may not have a. Thick coaching resume, but they've, they're a name player who's played in the NFL for a very long time and they know what it takes. Yeah, I'm just looking here. I'm reading through your notes on this, talking with Anthony, but it'd be interesting. Beck's the good one. I think he's. Like you said the spotlight for the league in terms of media, they got him running around like Willie Wonka in St. Louis and taking photos at the, at the arch in something like that. A, because that any thoughts on coach Beck before we go to Barlow. I, I think he's been the most dynamic coach, certainly the most social media friendly coach. And I think that's gonna fit well in St. Louis, that just, that has a fan base that really wants to embrace this team. As we saw in 2020. And I think Beck's gonna be the beneficiary of there, but, but St. Louis by the same token is gonna be the beneficiary of Beck's. Big personality. I mean, he, he does have a. Big personality and I think it's gonna fit very well in St. Louis. I think they're gonna love him. Yeah. It's is good. That was another one. Pat per Perles coming from the USFL offensive line coach. With the CFOs. Well, yeah, I saw there was like six or eight CFO guys that hop ship. I know the, the, the 10 USFL coach Barlow in DC, obviously the big news. I mean, we knew this already, but the Greg Williams as the defensive coordinator, that's the big standout there. I think got lot of eye eyeballs, fun Hutchins at big has been. Very active. I've seen on social media and they're doing some private tryouts in DC. That's gotten some news as well. Jamie sharper is your standout thoughts on the DC squad. So my impression of. This was going to be similar to how. Jim Haslet allowed June Jones to kind of pick his staff on offense. My impression was given that Reggie Barlow, you know, he's been a head coach for a number of years, but at the college level, So I'm thinking, you know, bringing on a coordinator, the level of Greg Williams, who was probably. One of, if not the biggest name coordinator to be hired. He would let Williams kind of have his pick of, of the guys that he's developed over the years. A relationship with defensively. And it doesn't look like that was the case. A lot of the defensive staff is. Made up of former H B, C U coaches, that, that Reggie Barlow would be familiar with similar to how he's built the offensive side of the ball. So it looks like, you know, Barlow had a pretty big say in, in setting up this coaching staff, Jamie sharper, the one that's stands out. The one that's not really from the H B C U, but again, you know, He's a guy who like Leroy Glover doesn't have a lot of coaching experience. But who's won a super bowl. Who's played in the NFL for a number of years and is going to command respect, maybe not through his coaching history, but through his playing history. Do you like how they. Really saw this information. Would you have downed any other way? Do you think this was fine? Press release for filling out? I didn't know, like how much play. The, you know, like the, the athletic trainer and a lot of these, you know, the, the minutiae of it was going get, but I mean, certainly for alt football fans, I mean, you're kind of all in, but thoughts on how they released everything. It's tough because I'm kind of looking at it from the perspective of what I would find. Most fascinating. And that would be all the bells and whistles and make it a big deal and, you know, have a party and, and. Do all that kind of stuff, but. Realistically. The general fan base out there, the football fan who may be, you know, aware of the XFL. Know that the rock and Danny Garcia own it. Maybe even know that it's gonna be on ESPN next year. These names may not mean a whole lot to them. So is it worth it to put all that pump in circumstance? Into an announcement like this, when you can very easily just throw it out on Twitter and on xfl.com and really get. Enough traction that way. So, yeah, ultimately I, I guess I was fine with it. I don't know. What more I would've done to do that. Unless you had like a, a big reveal of all the coaches in the cities. I mean, Anytime you can involve the city. In an announcement that is about that. City's team. I think you, you wanna do that? Just if nothing else, then to remind fans that Hey. You have an XFL team coming here in February. That's gonna start. Playing. We wanna be constantly reminding you. We wanna be constantly. In, in your mind. As you think about sports in general and football. So, I mean, you could've done something like that. Maybe it would've been hard to get everybody together. but yeah, I was ultimately, you know, given the. Other options that were out there and the. Difficulty in pulling some of them off. Or the. The, the small net gain that I think would've been made in some of these, I think ultimately they, they did the right thing. It's my understanding that potentially the, the team names were ready to be released and for whatever reason that they didn't come out. I think I've been told that maybe these staffs have been together for a while. My question is. Like maybe what? That would've looked like differing. I know that they're still hiring in the cities. And I mean, I don't think anyone in Seattle knows that the dragons, I mean, I, I, I have worked in local news here for a long time. I don't, no, anyone's tied about that. So I'm curious, like, If it were the team names, were we having events? Were we doing anything streaming? I'm just curious what that would've looked like. If it was the two of the bigger announcements that was coming. You know, yesterday or Tuesday. I, I think that's worth bringing up because. From my recollection of talking to. I've talked to some people, but. In. When I was at the Florida showcase. The timeline that I believe we were given. Was late September, early October. For coaching staff to be fully revealed. So, this is actually a head of that timeline, and there's not a lot of times we can talk about the XFL in this version being ahead of the timeline that they've set up. So this, I mean, could this be then a replacement for news that was scheduled? About teams and maybe the teams got moved back. So they said, okay. We gotta get some news out there. Let's pull this ahead a few weeks and announce it here while we're still working on. The ins and outs of the team names, logos. What have you. So I, I guess that's possible. But I that's just speculation on my part. That that feels. I've I feel, I, I, I feel that vibe or I vibe with that. Okay. That position. I, I, I think that, that I've kept you over last couple things before I let you go. I really appreciate your extended time tonight. On paper. Dallas looks really strong. Seattle looks really strong who, and obviously we don't know any players. I mean, this is like the earliest of preseason, whatever, but in terms of coaching staffs, who do you put the priorities on that you think to look out for? Yeah, I think absolutely Arlington is, is number one in my book. And I had mentioned in my column, you know, Bob stoops, I thought. On paper put together the strongest staff. In XFL 2020 didn't necessarily translate onto the field, but it looks like. His staff to me is, is the strongest. For 20, 23 as well. You mentioned. You know, largely by virtue of, of June Jones and, and his offensive. Staff Seattle is, is, is up there. You know, I, I think everybody else is kind of in the same boat. You know, Wade Phillips has some interesting names there with a J Smith and Peyton party. I'm kind of interested to see what they do with that offense. There. And, and so. There there's something a little bit different about each one of these teams. And that's what I kind of tried to draw out in my column. How each. Staff was built a little differently than the others. But ultimately I think it's, it's pretty. I don't see one as being whoa. You know, this team is just, you know, hand them the championship trophy now, because no matter what. What players they have, the coaching staff has already won the XFL championship. I don't see any team that stands out that much or, or even. On the other end. It just, I, I look at it and I don't know. I, I don't know how they're gonna make it through the season. There's, there's no teams that look like that. So I think that's a good thing that everybody. Seems to be on the same level, at least at this point. Well, I want, thank you so much for your time today. I can just tell, talking with you the tremendous work that went in, I would encourage, like I said, I'm gonna postal link on the YouTube. You know, the amount of work Greg put in to kind of researching all this. I think this is a really the time where Al football rider shined. Right? Cuz you're able to go through research, all these things. Cause like I said, I don't know necessarily, you know, it's certain names stand out to me, certain names to you, certain names, other people. And so I think. Collecting as many opinions as we can of that. But I think it's a time for Rogers. Like you guys to shine. And I know that a lot of the guys over at new hub are doing the same thing. I know Mike had a big article out about DC, and I know, I believe Anthony is writing for the Santa Antonio team or, sorry. No, that would be Jay and Anthony is one of 'em. Anyway, this is like, I think he's got, I saw his, I saw his column out today. Yeah, this is the time when I would I check out these sites and especially Greg's over here, just cuz it it's got all the teams together and I really appreciate you coming on and walking through cuz it's just a ton of work. So. Yeah, absolutely. A lot of fun again, you know, whenever we have something to talk about, it's a lot of fun to dive into it. So I appreciate you having me well, yeah, I'm just really gonna hold you to that. I gotta figure out my camera keeps tracking around, but otherwise I think we got it going. I'll hold you to that. I appreciate it. I exciting times. Hopefully, I, I don't want the team names and all that to get lost. That's been my concern of now we're in the NFL season and all of that, but this got a lot of traction yesterday. My, you know, my reporting and yours and everyone's going out there. So certainly people are paying attention. So I think this is good. Well, I'm thrilled today. We have rod Smith, you know, CFL on TSN all over the place. Kind of the voice of the CFR right now. I really appreciate you coming on rod. How are you doing? My pleasure. Good to chat with you. This is good. I, you know, I was talking, my wife watches a lot of the games alongside me. I said, it's the guy that you hear call most of the games right now. You're you're. You know, prevalent across the CFR right now. How is it going now, your second year? Kind of back back in the booth, right? It's a lot of fun. I mean, I'm late in my career and I really wanted to do this again for the previous six, seven years. I've been the host of the panel. And Kate Barnes took over there and, and, and it was a chance to call some games. I actually started doing this in the late nineties, and then it evolved into more studio work, but I always loved it. I've I've had a lifelong passion for the league, you know, growing up in Ottawa and this had it's, it's real, it's a fun way to watch. A football game, getting to call him. I, I really like it. So, what have you made of the CFO this year? Obviously last year was a little bit coming off of COVID and everything. A thoughts on the entertainment value of the CFO this year. Well, I'm always a little bit biased with this, but I've really, I've really enjoyed that too. There've been to me. What really makes a game fun to call? Is when there's an element of the unexpected. And when there are comebacks and maybe when the underdog does something that you don't expect as well. I like the excitement. I like close finishes and we've had a lot of drama. We didn't have much this past week, but for the most part. There have been a lot of dramatic games. Endings crazy finishes, things like that. So for the entertainment value, And, and, and I like it more than last year, although I cut last year, some slack because they didn't play it all in 2020. You know, they didn't have proper training camps or pre-season games or anything to get some of the kinks out when they played. And I still found a lot of the games last year. To be enjoyable, but this year more so I'm, it's been a fun season so far. Well, it feels like we're finally just being able to talk football. You know, we had the whole Nathan work stuff and now Vernon and everything, and obviously wanna get your thoughts on that as well. But it does just feel like the, the game is kind of able to take first and, and front of. Mind right now. It is. And as said, there were a lot of things being said about the league last year. And I understand it. I mean, you know, maybe more negative things about the, about the attendance or about the play. Things like that. I, I just think it was a victory to get up and get running again. I was concerned when they didn't play at all in 2020. I understood it. But I really thought it was imperative that they get playing again last year and they did, and it was an exciting finish to the season. And, you know, overall, I think it worked out well under the circumstances that it faced, but you know, you're right. I mean, I. I think it's taken a necessary step in the right direction this year, too. Coming off that 20, 21 season. What storylines are you tracking in your mind? I mean, obviously you BC and I want your thoughts, but what, what to you is the biggest storyline that the CFO right now? Well, the low hanging crude here, the obvious one is Winnipeg. I mean, we haven't seen. This type of potential dynasty in a long time, the Edmonton then known as the Edmonton Eskimos won the great top five straight years. From 1978 through 82. And they had a bunch of hall of Famers, some of the best in Canadian football league history. And we really haven't seen. Well, let's see Toronto in the nineties, they won back to back with Doug floaty, Montreal all went back to back with Anthony Calvio. In oh nine and 10, but we really haven't seen. The type of team that the Winnipeg blue bombers have. In a long, long time. And I'm really curious to see. They're the betting favorite as they should be to win the great cup again. And that'd be for the third straight season. What they can do. It's really remarkable story for those who appreciate and know the history of the Canadian football league. What Winnipeg is doing is pretty extraordinary. Yeah, it really does feel it's almost. Well, I got almost born to watch last year, which is the problem. When you have a dynasty and you have a team that's like so much head and shoulders over anyone else, right. I guess, so, I mean, it comes to, you can, you can say that about a lot of sports too. I I'm I'm, you know, I'm sure if you're a sport, fairly broad interest sports fan. Sometimes it's a bit harder to get as fired up about the one that's always winning. Until after the fact you'll look back at it and maybe there'll be like new England Patriots fans who, or, you know, are fans of football that may not, may have hated the Patriots while they were winning all the time. And you know, when the time comes, maybe even this season, when they're no longer. Even close to competing at the level they once did you, you might have a greater appreciation for what they were able to accomplish, but. You know, I found that, you know, I'm, I'm a little bit older and I, I, I got tired of Muhammad Ali winning all the time, and then later. Once he was trying to. Get his career going again and fought Larry homes. And I remember cheering for Ali then and appreciating all the things that he had done before. But point being. When there's, when there sometimes greatness isn't appreciated in the moment. Sometimes it's not truly appreciated. Until later, and I, I, who knows for people that are tired of the bombers winning all the time, a reminder. When they wanted 2019, it was the first time in just about three decades, 29 years. They had gone without a championship so I can understand them thoroughly enjoying all these moments right now. Speaking of just, I have my, my BC gear on today. I call America's. I call the BC lion America's CFL team. So that's kind, here you go. We've we've branded that. I have a stamp from Randy and bros who said that was okay to call that. What do you make now? We're, you know, we're finally seeing Vernon this week. Right. You know, Rick came out this week. I, I, I was surprised we didn't see Vernon at all with the Pipkin, everything horrendous game last week. What are you making the VA going to BC and everything happening there? Well, I can see why he didn't play to much in Montreal. I, I, I found. It a little bit odd. I think Rick Campbell wanted to give him that chance being back where, you know, he called home for several years. But I, you know, I don't think he knew the playbook yet, and I think he needs those first team reps and needs more time to prepare. Than it just wasn't happening. And so it's probably best that he sat and he watched because it's not like he played much. In the, in all the weeks leading up to it. Since week two, and I think he needs more time to get ready. So, but I, I will say this and I, and I did call that game in Montreal. It is a very different lion's team, obviously. Then the one when Nathan Rourke was leading the way and they've gotta adjust to that. And. Vernon Adams is capable. He is capable of being a good to great quarterback. We saw that in. In 2019 when he threw for almost 4,000 yards and that was not in a full season. He came off the bench after the starter, then Antonio Pipkin got hurt. But he has been plagued by inconsistency and sometimes. You know, moments where his confidence just isn't there. So a change of scenery I think was good for him. But I don't know, they have so much talent there. After two games, they clearly are not the same team without Nathan Rourke. And they've got a couple of. Huge games coming up now for second in the west against the Calgary Stan Peters in the next two weeks. Yeah, I've seen comments like, well, this, I mean, BC, it just proves that BC wasn't even. I said, well, I, I mean, I think, I think when you're starter goes down, I think you can be a great team as anything and, and trying to kind of figure out, I mean, pike is not as suitable replacement to what is like G coming in into this CFL right now. That was Nathan Mor. This year. I mean, it's been, it's, it's hard to go from like that to, to a backup and be like, well, see, clearly it was all Nathan work, but I do think, like you said that the team is good even without work. Oh, that that defense had been terrific. That. They have a lot of talent. They're set of receivers. Is absolutely outstanding. They just have to find a quarterback. That can do some of the things, not even all of the things, but, but some of the things that, that Nathan RO was able to do with them, I mean, just the chemistry that he had on that offense. I will say this though. They have struggled on special teams. They know what their coverage units, their return teams. Are not as strong, they're lower their ranked lower down in the CFO. And when you're winning. Your weaknesses tend to get glossed over. They get exposed more when you start losing games and you start seeing where you could be better. So I think that's one aspect. Special teams, even though they have a great kicker and a great punter too. I still think as they say coverage in return. Need more work. And I think they're well aware of that, but I, I like their, their defense, a lot of the talent that they have. It just. I I'm not, I certainly agree with you this, this is not just Nathan's work. That's the only reason why they're good. It doesn't work that way, but he certainly. Has made a difference on this team that I don't think anyone anticipated. To start the season, how good he was going to be. And yeah, it's a major fall off right now. We'll see what Vernon Adams can do when he has more time to prepare an adjust to BC. Do you we've talked right for the last, I guess two weeks now, since Vernon, you know, since the trade was announced and all that really feels like it sink or swim time for Vernon, like, you know, we've had all the Montreal, I mean, I'm obviously the other tee teens in the basketball. Like we're really setting you up here to go like, It, it really is kind of like put up or shut up time. Yeah, that's a good way to read it. I mean, you're not wrong. Because as said, when, when Nathan RO was there and healthy, It wasn't just him. That's lucky Whitehead. It said it's, it's an offensive line that, that was doing a pretty good job. Protecting him. You know, Brian Burnham injured, but coming back and a, and another spectacular receiver. Dominic rhymes having a career year. Keon Hatcher. I mean, you know, Butler, they, they got a lot of offensive talent. So to put Vernon into that and then talking to him last week and he realizes it too. There's a lot of talent to work with there. And I, I, I think he knows that I, I think the story of his CFO career has been highs and lows. I mean, even week to week, Where you see the potential brilliance of that quarterback and then really struggle the next week. And, and as said, was talked about many times last year, about how his, his confidence level was a bit of a roller coaster too. So riding all those highs and lows, so. Given all of that coming into this situation, I don't disagree this. I think, I think there's a certain amount of pressure on him as far as his career goes to, to prove that he can still. Be among the elite quarterbacks in the Canadian football league. Yeah. I mean, I, I exactly to, to be, to continue to be at that level and not be looked at like, as an Antonio Pipkin or someone that can kind of film in if you need to. Right. You know, Montreal sands Vernon now. Right. We found all the Gary Stearns of it all and everything else, like what have you made of everything happening in Montreal? The last, I guess. Month now it seems like, well, I'm just glad the franchise is still, it's still stable with the ownership financially. That doesn't seem to be an issue right now, even though Gary stern. You know, no longer has his hands on the wheel. It, it was, it was interesting. I mean, if, if nothing else, some people didn't like his, his activity on Twitter, I thought it was entertaining. And never, I've never seen an owner get so actively involved. You know, in social media, the way that he was doing. But, yeah, it's, it's interesting because it is a good team. And, and in a division this year, that everything is still even with the Argos, a couple of games ahead. It's still, I think, up for grabs, but I, is it funny? You asked the question that way, because some of these teams I look at in Toronto and much Montreal would be that way one week to the next, every really don't know what to make of them. Montreal looks like a team. That, when everything is going, could beat anybody and they proved it. They beat Winnipeg in Winnipeg. The only one that the only team to beat the bombers this year. So the awes have a lot of good players. And they do have a, they do have a good team, but there, there have been a few moments too, where they've looked a lot less than that and they need. More consistency down the stretch. I think. Yeah, it's saying, like you said, same with the Argos. I can't figure out that this is a good thing. Yeah. I can't figure them out. Can't figure them out. Do you like McCloud or you a MD MBT guy? I like him. I do. I mean, the, there are a lot of quarterbacks this year. And just like when I was describing with Vernon. Where you see them? Look. Really, really good at times. And then. Then make critical mistakes at times, McLeod himself, when talked about, as he's moving up, the passing charts in the history of the Toronto Argonauts. Has had himself. I'm a 500 quarterback and well, he's above 500 now, but he's not wrong in that assessment. He has been historically that way. And, but you look at his numbers. I think he leads the league in passing yards right now. He has some, he has some very solid numbers as just Trevor Harris. By the way, when you're talking about, you know, Toronto and Montreal, where statistically. The numbers are good. And then you, you look to the one loss column and that's where both of them need. Some improvement. I mean, even though the Argos are seven and five right now, but do I, could I see Toronto winning a great cup with McCloud, Bethel Thompson? Are they capable of doing it? I think they are. I mean, he's shown signs. He's, he's a very strong armed quarterback at the way. He's worked with curly gets and particular. You know, the in Canadian football with the wider field, that wide side out makes better use of that. Receiver in that position than I think any other team in the league does. And because of the strength of his arm and his willingness to make that throw. You know, he. He's had some downs, but I've seen a lot. I've seen too many things. Go well for him to, to have. You know, major doubts about him or anything like that. He he's capable of leading a team back. I've seen him do it a couple of times. So, but I, again though, I think he's another one and he'd admit that too. He needs to be more consistent. It's hard. It's it's you get a lot, it's like the burden, you know, you get these guys and, and I love them and their story and everything and their personalities. And like, I've seen, you know, Macau, you know, talking to the guys in the locker room, right. They post those clips and you're like, God, you just, I, you just need them to be more consistent or across the board. Just, you wish that the. The play is sometimes lived up to kind of who they are as a person. Yeah, he's really an interesting guy. He's a great guy to talk to. made very philosophical. He's very introspective. He's very thoughtful. He reads a lot. He's a very smart guy. He's. I, I always look forward to a chance to chat with him before a game. You see, he's, he'll go off the board sometimes. You know, the metaphors he uses and everything else is he's, he's an interesting guy. And. And as said, I think that, you know, this is the first year that they're fully committed to him. You know, before last year, Nick Arbuckle was around and the year before that James Franklin and, and, you know, it was never at McLeod always seemed to be viewed as the backup. And he's, I think he's embracing the undisputed starters role this year. Yeah, we, I learned of him, you know, in, in the COVID year, he came down and played in the spring league. And that was where we first learned if, cuz obviously we weren't following CFO at that time. I thought that is a crazy guy. Like he's just kind, I he's like pro wrestler a little bit, kind of got that. I called him like a John Bley the that's a pro I don't know if you've fall. But just a little unhinged, but really deep thinking and kind of just interesting cow. I really like that. Speaking of, you know, quarterbacks teams, Jake Mayer, right. Coming on crazy. Now we're talking like Bo Levi, you know, retiring, or like I saw, you know, is he going to the exit fellow or whatever? Like I, but like, what do you make of Calgary now mean clearly to planing BBC here as like the, the, the second most. Dominant team in the west, I would say. And I'm a BC fan. Yeah, I would say so now I think it's coming. They they're tied in winds. BC still is a game in hand. So once you were lost, but I watched the Dan Peters. I was in Edmonton for their game against the Elks and, and that's, that was a one-sided rivalry this year. And it's over. And mayor looks solid. At the very least you he's a very solid quarterback. And I never thought I'd see the day where Bo Levi Mitchell was, was bench that didn't leave in his own terms. So it's, it's an odd site, but mayor has, he's been proving his worth. And, and they're in a solid spot. That's a good team. I mean, Their games against Winnipeg were very competitive, too. A couple of 'em quite close, I believe. And, and. And that's the one team that they, they just, they haven't been able to beat. I mean, they lost that one to the lions when RO was healthy and that was a, they had the second half lead and they couldn't hang on. And that was. That outstanding game in Calgary a few weeks ago, which I think BC won by a point. But right now, Rourke was work at a huge game in that one and, and he's not there. So I certainly think Calgary's, you know, justifiable favor to finish up in second place. Unless, as I say, we start seeing things from Vernon again, that he can rejuvenate that BC offense. Yeah. I mean, is that, is that the game I'm just looking this weekend. I mean, that has to be the game of the weekend. Rightly at St. Peters. I mean, TYCA have just so fallen out. What do you, I, what do you make of the tie cats? Just not. I mean here, you know, I saw them, I was in Hamilton. I mean, they were a couple, you know, wind point changes away from, you know, walking out as a great cup champions. Well, I, I had wondered having seen both Hamilton. And BC play close together. I watched Hamilton in the final game of four. Against the Argos where the quarterback situation was pretty messy with Jamie Newman. There and Jalen Morton coming onto and Dan Evans dressing. But as the third quarterback with a shoulder injury, but it made me wonder why he was dressing. If he couldn't play, I guess they're just, just in case. But it's yeah, it's messy right now. And, and I don't know, because. I really like Dane Evans. I really think he's a talented QB. I wonder how much. It's weighing on his mind. Some of the early season struggles and all the, all the giveaways, the picks thrown, which by the way, were not all his fault. Some were deflected outta his outta receiver's hands and into the, the hands of opposing players. But, you know, he had a couple of those fumbles that were really costly early on one against Calgary, one against Edmonton. Abington. And I think it, I think it, you know, I get the feeling that it shook his confidence. I don't know, but I still think. I still believe he's capable of being a very good quarterback in this league, but. Right now it's not a good situation. At the most important position on the field for the Hamilton tiger cats and, and, and, you know, no pressure, right? You're going up against the Winnipeg blue bombers and the hall of fame game, and the bombers have yet to lose a game on the road this season. It just, I can't figure out, I mean, Hamilton, great, great coaches, great staff, a lot of good talent there. They just really can't seem to figure yeah. Get anything together right now. Yeah. And you know, I'd be cutting the tie cat, some slack as a fan, because look, they were 15 and three. In 2019 when Dan Evans came on. For Jeremiah Maloon they didn't miss a beat. And they went on to win the east and they were the favorites going into the great cup before they ran into that bomber machine. And then the game in Hamilton last year. It went to overtime. I mean, their record wasn't as good in the regular season and they finished in second, but you know, Evans goes, what? 16 for 16 off the bench from Aole in Toronto to win the east. And then they came that close. That close. I think it was Jaylen Alan and Dana, or that, that was Ole, that came on in the breakup. That close to winning it. And instead lost it in OT. So. I I, as I say, I'd cut the Thai cats. This seems in anyway, it's been a brutal year so far. But given what they've done in the last couple of years. I mean, I, I would certainly that, that whole, the coaching staff, the administration, I know I'd be cutting them some slack. In terms of, you know, the code FRA Jaros of the world and Saskatchewan, everything else. Are you, what, what do you tracking there in just your thoughts on kind of what's happening in Regina? Cause you know, they were, I, I remember like preseason it's like, oh, you know, Saskatchewan, they should bump up the sour cap. They should cheat the. Salary cap. I think it was Glen Suder was like, they should go all in. Just to, so that they can host and now it's like, s**t. I don't even know if they're gonna be able to make it to the game. Well, they have a, they have an interesting opportunity still if they, if they do remain. Forth in the west. Because of that crossover. There is an intriguing possibility for a Saskatchewan rough rider fan that maybe the best route. Instead of going through Calgary or going through Winnipeg, maybe the best route to get back home again and host the game is to go through the east. And even though they lost a Toronto twice this year, even though they lost in Montreal. This year, that might be the more favorable path. Not that they're gonna, not that they're going to try to finish fourth. If they have a chance to finish third, I wouldn't suggest that. And who knows given the way BC. Is right now, if they lose a pair to. You know, Saskatchewan beats Edmonton and get to seven wins. And. At BC loses back to back to Calgary. Then, I mean, third still isn't outta the realm of possibility for the rough riders instead of fourth place. But as it stands right now, If they win. If they win against Abington, Edmonton will be officially eliminated. So they'd be that much closer to officially clenching a playoff spot. Assuming there is a crossover because they would still be forth in the west, but. I'm sure people have thought of that possibility. How would fans in Saskatchewan feel about the rough riders up against the blue bombers? For example? In the gray cup, if Saskatchewan can become the first crossover team to get there. Well, and it would be, I was reading, I think it was last night or something that they would then be the away team. And reg like if they won right, if they won the, then they would be win. They pick hosting them and Regina, which would be remarkable. It would be, but the way. Things have gone for the rough riders this season. I, I can't imagine them being upset. If they have to use a visitor's dressing room, it means they get to play in the great cup of their home field. It would be odd, but they'd certainly take that right now. I same question MBT and it, everything else. Are you a Cody guy? I, Cody is, I think. I've said he is the most polarizing. Non polarizing person I've ever seen. Right? Like he's so just like. Vanilla and chill, but then people love to talk about him. Yeah. And it's the same. We, we keep going down this road of talking about quarterbacks. That to me, Are good quarterbacks and at times have great moments. And then have, have other moments where, you know, the fans get on 'em and. And, you know, it's the most pressure packed position I am told. And I have no reason to doubt it being the starting quarterback in Saskatchewan, where the fan base is so rabid and he's felt a lot of that. And he's had a lot of criticism criticism, you know, And I think he's had certain limitations. With the knee brace, not to make excuses for 'em because that that's more about how much he runs compared to. Last year, but. I I do like him. I like his. I like his approach. And, and I do think that they can win with him too. I, I, maybe I seem like the eternalist about all the, the quarterbacks that we talk about that. Show signs of greatness at times, and then signs of being far less than that. But with, with Fujio, I mean, his story is. It's been great since he became the starter. After Zach Claro got hurt. In 2019. And I know he is faced a lot of heat, not just from opposing defenses, but from his own fans this year. But. I still think he's capable of getting it done. Yeah, he, he is the only quarterback in the CFO that has us blocked on Twitter. So I, and I'm not, I, I get a lot, I get rash on there. Yeah, no, you know what, and, and a lot of others I know he's gotten on and Dana Evans too, and it's probably a good, I idea. Get off social media because. You get lots of fans and they're, they're angry and they're critical when things don't go well. And I know if I was in their position, there's no way I'd be on social media. I'd be, that'd be a tough thing to take. I don't. I don't think I'd be doing it. Before I let you go. I have a couple, hi, more philosophical questions here before I let you go overall, like just health of the CFO, state of the league right now. Like, how are you feeling? You know, he came off COVID we've came off the CBAs, you know, we didn't merge with the XFL, which was great. You know, what, how are we feeling now? Just a bird level view. For me. And as I say, I'm probably never the best one to ask about this. Looking at numbers, attendance, the finance, the finances that I really don't know. You know how the league is financially. But I don't, I, I, I tend to involve myself more in the product, on the field. And from that standpoint, You know, despite. You know, the injuries and maybe the lack of, of depth in quarterback play. I still overall. Really like it I'm entertained by it. And, and that matters to me. And I always have been. The attendance is down. Without question and you can't sugar coat that. So that's something that, and I don't know if the pandemic is related to that at all, but I'd love to see improve in the future. I'd love to see. In Toronto, for example, the team. Be marketed better. Because there is a small, but rabbit. Fan base there. Even though the attendance numbers haven't been that great since the move to Bemo field. But overall. I'm probably never the most. Practical person to talk about these things, because I see a league that despite any of the down times, and there have been down times. Has survived and then picked itself up and done very, very well. And so I'm always a believer that way until I hear otherwise. Read until I, until there's evidence of teams in trouble or anything like that. I still enjoy the players and I enjoy the product and the field. And. And, and that's how I see it. So, I mean, I, I see good things right now. Put it that way. Well, it's interesting. I, you know, we tracked like, you know, C TV ratings and attendance and stuff. And then now covering like the USFL and seeing some of their hub at attendants. You're like, wow, I can mean CFL's actually doing really good, but I had a, a tweet this week, cuz obviously we're Seattle. We watched the big Russell Wilson game on Monday. Yeah. And so one of our listeners has said like, how can Seattle. Fill the, you know, a stadium 5:15 PM, you know, Pacific, local time, whatever on a Monday. Right? Because it was crazy like RO Luman field was like absolutely nuts. We were watching at the bar. And I said, you know, because like NFL fans just show up like, you know, CFO, it's like, oh, it's too hot. It's too cold. I gotta go farm. My vacation home I'm at like, there's always all these, I, I just am trying to figure out the mindset of, of, because it got a lot of traction, at least on my Twitter of like the CFO fan. It always seems like there's something that like, well, there was, there was a concert across the street, so I couldn't go. I just always seems like there's some rationale of why, you know, Toronto isn't better or whatever. I'm just curious, your thoughts just coming now that we're seeing NFL crowds and games and stuff again, the season. I don't really know. I, I wouldn't really have an answer for that. And I, I believe me, I've spent a lot of time covering the NFL as well. And also enjoyed the NFL since I was a kid I've, I've loved both leagues and seen them for what the has seen their differences and, and appreciated their differences too. Which is why I was one, for example. You know, all the little discussions about four downs, I've always been against that. It's a three down football against four down football and. And I appreciate the difference, but the NFL is it's. It's, it's an amazing. Popular, you know, machine and it has been for a long, long time, but the CFO has its core of fans. That do like to go to games and don't make excuses for it. But I realized that. There are fewer fans going to games now, but the viewership, as you talked about, Is still strong. So I, I, I still, I still think there are a lot of people that are interested. In watching the CFL, maybe more on television than, than a, than going in person, but I don't really know. What that's necessarily a reflection of. You know, fewer going to games. That's not, as I say, it's something. When I get there and not to make excuses for anything else, I, I just, whatever the crowd happens to be, I concentrate on the game on the field and I enjoy it. I mean, I'm, I'm a fan. I'd go to games. I do go to games. Obviously and, and privileged enough to work them and still enjoy it. So, but yeah, it's, it's when you're comparing things like that. The tailgating and the crowds coming and stadiums full all the time in the national football league. You know, I that's a tougher comparison. The NFL is, is truly unique that way. Last quarter before. Excuse me. If I could talk there, last question before I let you go. Gray cup favorite this year Winnipeg, right? I mean, you look at Winnipeg. What do you see as the matchup and who do you see them facing? Well, I still think they're, you know, preface it this way. It's easy to take Winnipeg. And that would be my pick just because they have been so much better than anyone else at least record wise, but they've had close games. They had, Montreals beaten them. Toronto came down to a missed extra point that would've forced overtime in Toronto. Calgary has played them very tight as well. So, and I've seen too many years, 2016 Calgary. A prohibitive favorite lost to Ottawa. The next year, a prohibitive favorite. Again, the stamp Peters come back and they lost to a nine and nine team in Toronto. Or that was in Ottawa, but against Toronto. So. The great thing about the league is you could have prohibitive favorites who could fall on the, on the biggest day of all. Now having said that, yeah. Winnipeg to me would be the choice. I'll I'll tell you what intrigues me. As a CFL historian is to look up the fact that in the modern day of the Canadian football league, there has never been. A Winnipeg Toronto. Great cup. There has the last one was 1950. The league officially. You know, the, the CFO informed has existed decades before that, but the official branding of the CFO was 1958. And since then, so modern day, there hasn't been one between the bombers and Argos. So. I suppose that would be intriguing when you're talking about the two first place teams right now. Who are justifiable favorites in their divisions. So, but I, but yeah, I mean, how could you not go against Winnipeg right now with the way the bombers are rolling? I like that. I don't think I've seen say, yeah. So in the modern cuz that makes it, yeah, we believe it. We got hammered with all the dates and all the XFL stuff in the hundred eight or now 109, all this stuff, but yeah, modern day CFO. It's like the super bowl era, right? Yeah. In the modern day. I like the, that first place for first, first place. Well, yeah, I was gonna say, and, and the CFO, it wasn't known as the CFO, although a lot of those teams. I mean Winnipeg blue bombers, Toronto to organize existed in the thirties. For example. But yet to your point, like in 1920, the NFL with the bears and Packers and lions and giants, I think formed and. And, but the modern day NFL really with a super bowl era was in the mid 1960s. Right. Yeah. Interesting. I like that. So whether Pega other well, rod, I really appreciate your time coming on and, and, you know, doing all this and then having to go talk about CFO. All weekend, but I really appreciate your time and insight. So thank you so much for stopping by. Thanks. Rick's cool. You've got, you've developed some interest in the Canadian football league. I like it. I, I, I do my best. I do my part and yeah, I, a lot of it gets my turn, but, you know, we have a lot of, Well, this is a blast from the past. I think last time we spoke the ex EFL and us or CFL, all that stuff. Winnipeg was on top of the world. Winnipeg is still on top of the world. Here. We have to Derek Taylor voice of the blue bombers. How are you? You, sir? I'm doing very well. I, I missed the CFO XFL stuff, cuz God did that make people mad, even though we're just talking about talking, that's all it was. We, I could have anyone on and any week and the views would just go through the roof. It was very exciting. It's a little harder right now on the XFL side. This week is good, but some weeks it's harder with the news right now. Yeah, I imagine, I imagine those were, those were interesting times we'll look back on in 20 years and go, oh yeah, that was almost the thing. But here we are. So we have dare Taylor. So I'm. You know, you have now, you know, new. Job new province, new everything. Since we last spoke with you, you were at the blue bomber shop. First of all, just how are you doing Lifewise? How is everything going? It's good. It's good. So I was at Winnipeg for about 14 years earlier in my broadcasting career. So coming back after about eight years away, it was, it was kind of like coming home. There are people I knew, and I knew where all the roads went to. And I mean, I'm a simple man. If I know where the seven 11 is and where the Walmart is, I'm probably going to be comfortable. I had those on lock when I got back in. So no, it's been great. It's been great. And honestly, When the team wins 12 outta 13 games, it's pretty. Easy to talk about them. Yeah. So it's, you know, historic run right now. I have rod Smith also on the show this week, talking with him about kind of when the pegs crazy. What is your big takeaways here as we hit week 15 and it could be when the peg or otherwise. It's just that right now. I mean, the NA rookie injury kind of crippled any regular season drama. We were going to have, right. BC was. Fantastic with work. The Le one game they lost. Was that shootout with the bombers and they. I mean the, the, that, that is going to be. The two quarterback injuries, Nathan Rourke and Jeremiah, Ole, and Ottawa really changed the entire course of the season. And Rourke was going to be M O P BC was going to be. At least second in the west and a real, a real threat in a west final. And. Yeah, sadly that that's, that's it. It's now Winnipeg. And then. Everybody else figured out for yourself. It really does. It seems like last year again, where it did get the little sleepy towards the end of the season. I do think there seems to be more excitement right now, you know, you know, Jake Mayer is, you know, causing excitement in Calgary and everything else. Do you do think it's a, it's a, walk-in when the peg into the great cup of this point. Well, it's, it's a walk into hosting the west final. I think, but I mean, they played sure they beaten Calgary three times this season, but those games were, were not, those games were coin flips in the end. Right. The first game doesn't get to overtime because of a Calgary drop in the ends zone that gets in intercepted and you go, okay, that's a great skill play by. Houston to make interception, but that ball gets caught a lot of times and you're going to overtime and anything can happen. One score game in the next one, one score game in the next one. And what we see over time is one score. Game's have a great deal to do with luck, right? If the, those bounces go again, Winnipeg, and I know that. They're set up to not take the, you know, not take the penalties and make the turnovers. That that lead to lucky situations. But if those things go the other way, if they. Have 2020 ones west final, where they have five turnovers in the first half. And they do that against Calgary. Calgary could win that game for sure. So it, they don't walk into the great cup, but they walk in at this point to me, the west final. Remember that. Yeah. Guy, like they have the five turnover Saskatchewan, like still, and they're like, man, if they could turn the ball over five times and still feed Saskatchewan, like I think they've got before you get shot here. Well, and that's the thing that, that Winnipeg for the last three years has been right. That greatness, that competitive greatness is John wooden wrote about it back in the day. It doesn't guarantee you a gray cup, but it gives you so much latitude in margin for error, you can have six turnovers in a game, five and a half. And I was calling that game on the Saskatchewan side. And I said to my partner, Luke moer, Hey, look, riders have gotten five turnovers in this game. And I really don't feel like they're going to win it. Right. Because that is how great again, it guarantees you nothing. Cal twentys seven 17 was a way better team than Toronto. But here's a hundred yard touchdown to de vere Posey. Here's a hundred yard fumble return, touchdown and Toronto Argonauts. So the 2017 great cup champions. It just, it buys you. Margin for error. That's all it really, really does in the end. So this, we have winter PE against Hamilton. What in your mind, what is wrong with Hamilton or what is going wrong with them? Or what, what is happening there? The biggest one for me is. I've never been on Dana Evans as a quarterback. And. I've taken some flack from his father. I believe it's his father on Twitter for that. But I I've just never seen what other people see in Dan Evans. I see a guy who's unsteady in the pocket and it's been exposed in a couple of gray cups. I see a guy who's passing accuracy as. Fine, but by the way, I move my head. When I say. Fine. You know, it's not great. It's not Ricky Ray or Michael Riley or a CORIs or a Nathan RO this year. It's it's. Fine. There's a lot of about data evidence that I think is fine. His decision making leaves me scratching my head at times. His propensity to turn the ball over. Is absolutely crushing. He had seven fumbles before I blinked. This CFO season and you just can't have that. So there there's so much about it. That that to me was a, was a problem. They lost some receivers. They lost some offensive line that certainly contributes. And then defensively. Injuries were really battering them in the first part of the season. And still today, Simone Lawrence on the six game injured list. That should have been. The the best, the, the best or second best defense in the league. But to me, it's injuries that have kept them from, from rising to that level. Well, it's hard. And you know, with, we were talking the Nathan RO injury and him going down highlights. Really, you know, the spotlight on the, maybe the subpar CFO quarterbacks in general, right. And here we are trying to cover the USFL and the XFL, and we've got all these leagues and trying to get all these quarterbacks. And like, there's just not that many, you know, CFO or otherwise, you know, good quarterbacks to play, but quarterback plays certainly an issue. With, without Roarke and Calis this year. Right. Oh, a hundred percent. We were on our football north podcast. One that we do here and the question was okay, well, at the moment, who's the second best quarterback with RO. Out. It was very clearly Rance with a top two quarterbacks in the league and then just a yawning chasm to whoever's number third. So Jeremiah was solely is out. Would he be the third best quarterback in the league is McCloud Bethel Thompson in Toronto. The third best quarterback in, I was IM still charting Toronto Ottawa. From last week and I, I watched my cloud Bethel Thompson. I go. There's so much here to like, And yet I'm always wanting more. So if you chose M B T I get it. I it's, it's typed. I said, you know what, maybe it's Cody Fujio, he's just being bombarded with pressure this season and injuries to that receiving core that he has not near had the chance to shine that he's had in past seasons. Me. Injury as well, but he's still relatively accurate. He's still. Sort of escapable. Offensive line is just absolutely crushing them. Protection is, is just killing SAS this year. So is it Fujio but the fact that we're having conversation of name six guys, and they might all be the third best quarterback in the league. Just means it's a real drop off from currently colors to. Kind of ever, it might be Jake Mayer, Jake Mayer. Who's nine years old. My might be the second best quarterback playing right now. Yeah, the, the mayor, I, you have the, I like Jake may he's I said off season, I had him and Rourke and I said, I wanted, I'm te I'm putting my wi hit you, my wagon into you guys. You know, I want the young, the young guns here that you're gonna go, you know, you're former, you know, team Brock broadcasting. I'm just looking even last week. I had. A wedding on Saturday. So I missed a lot of the, the, the Winnipeg against Saskatchewan of it all the 54 to 20. What I, what happened in that game? And what is going on with the rough rider is with Cody or without Cody. Yeah, there was whatever it was that led to the, to the riders. It there's some thought, was it food poisoning? Was it just a bug running through the team? I, I think we've kind of settled on. It was a bug running through the team. It was very clear. That if they were crippled by that. Like you, when you watch and you think, okay, well, they didn't have their best receiver in key and shaper baker. They didn't have another, Justin McKinnis was gonna start. They didn't have their top full back. They didn't have a starting halfback. The, their offensive line was shaken up. Guys were taking IVs. Guys were threatening to vomit during the game. I think. This is just a guess, but Josiah St. John started the game and then was not in the game at the end. I feel like maybe that was related. It's, it would be unfair to think that that is a representation of the Saskatchewan rough riders, because to me, and I don't have any insight info in this, but just seeing what was a two point tight game one by a 55 yard field goal one week becomes a 34 point. Waxing the following week. Something had to change. And I just think even. Apart from maybe a handful of guys who have played to me, there were a lot of guys that were punished by whatever was running through that team. So. When I kind of evaluate the bombers and riders two weeks from three weeks from now, I will forget that this, this game happened because it's such. There's no way SAS was anywhere close to. What they, what they truly are on that game. Yeah. I saw Danny Austin in a lot of tweets about like diarrhea and I was like, I, I am missing something right now cuz I was, I was in the wedding. We had lost power in the middle of the cocktail hour, head into reception. So I was fighting a lot of battles at that point versus. Tracking the, you know, the Saskatchewan game on Twitter, I was like, when is happening here? Well, like Edmonton getting absolutely pumped by Calgary. That, that game makes sense. Right? Cause Edmonton's been pumped a few times, Saskatchewan getting. Clubs so badly when they played so tight against Winnipeg, the following week. There, there are external factors. As my, as my radio partner, Doug brown said, I think it's a fluid situation in SaaS and like, Yeah. And I'm not gonna follow up any words on that one. Yeah. It just, it, whatever it was, the September 30th game will be drastically different in my mind. Yeah. So we, we got the bi-week this week for Saskatchewan, you know, BC's going in, you know, with Vernon Adams, starting. Thoughts on that? I mean, I'm, BC's our team. I mean, am I in for a savior here? Is he coming in to save the day? I, I wish that was the case because to me, that's the only move BC had, right. To make, to try to save their season. They have it officially said Rourke is out for the year. I don't believe, but in my mind, Rourke's out for the year because Liz Frank is, is a tough one. So they had to look at this and go, Michael, O'Connor now injured. Antonio Pipkin has some real nice things about him. He moves really well, but his accuracy is just not there. So what can we do? Okay, so Bernard Adams is available. Let's go get Vernon Adams to me. That's the only move they could make. They pay a first job pick to do it. It's it's a smart move. I mean the whole season. The whole year for BC has been really smart of, we have this guy we think can be good at quarterback. He makes a minimum salary, cuz he is, you know, still in his rookie contract. Let's load this team and it worked out great when we realized. RO was mop level player. I thought if he was even average, if he was. Matt Nichols. They were going to be a problem. He was, he was mop and they were absolutely. A problem. So they go get verted Adams. I just in 2019, I think the CFO after 19, I think the CFO. Really wanted Fujio. Vernon Adams east west two young quarterbacks. Young being a relative term, mobile. Arms can lead teams, blah, blah, blah, blah. I, I just have never seen the consistencies from burning Adams that makes me think he can be an elite player in this league. His accuracy is just all over the place. Decision making. There was a game in Calgary last year where he's marching down for the winning drive and he, his final pass. Pulls gen Lewis out of the end zone for what would've been the winning touchdown and it's to catch it like the one. And he go, ah, after you won, hopped that one to Winky earlier. This is, this is what I've. I've seen from you from for a long time of. There's so much to like, but the, the fundamental thing of being accurate and careful with the football. And knowing when and where to make the place. It just, it's not there. It's it's BC shot. I'm glad they shot their shot. I don't think they'll be successful with it, but. If they are, I'm happy to eat my words because. That team is ready to go. If they have even an average guy at quarterback. Well, that's what, so you're saying that you don't think Vernon is even average here Heather than to BC. I think. Ooh, that's a great question. No, like he's got so many above. Average talents, but when you put 'em all together with the rest of the stuff, I, I don't really think so, like, He, his coach had enough them after, what was it? A game in a quarter this year that. That it was done and it was Trevor Harris time. And maybe it was the GM at the time. Who's now the coach that had enough, but I'm just not, I've just not been a believer in, in Vernon Adams in the whole quarterbacking picture. As for a guy who could be a weapon in spot. Sure. But as for the whole quarterback picture, I don't, I've just not, I still not seen it. And Vernon is not new to the CFO. He's been around a long time. Well, that's the, I mean, that is the issue, I think sometimes, and obviously the NFL and everyone suffers from this as well as like we've had these guys now 3, 4, 5 years. Okay. Well, if, if we keep moving them around, like maybe they're finally gonna, I mean, this is a burning, doesn't do it here. I don't know what's gonna happen to 'em. I mean, it might be kind of the. Final nail and whatever that is, cuz you really are set up for success. It really, it really is like this team, like the receivers on this team are crazy. Are crazy like is Brian Burnham. It was a top five receiver in the league, like Brian Burnham, lucky Whitehead, Dominic rhymes, Dominic rhymes, unbelievable. Like the guys they have on the injured list. Lists were making catches over top of the bombers in that week five game. Just big default touchdowns. They have kind of every receiver. You would like you want a little speedster? Sure you want big bodies that can win jump balls. Boom. You want those big bodies who are smart enough to find the holes in zones? Boom, you got, you want Jabon Kato? Who could obliterate dudes? Make those catches across the middle as well. And just generally be, be very cognizant the fact that he is a huge human. With great skills. Love it. And they've got everything. Burnham doesn't drop anything. I think he maybe has one dropped this year. They're set up. They can run the football. They're much better upfront than they were last year. That defense. I don't that defense hasn't been what I thought it was. But boom, Guam people are finally, I think, catching on to the fact that boom Guam is an absolute terror. Off that defense event, David Menard, who was the, what he was the east nominee for most authentic committee last year goes to BC. Every time I flip on a game, he's wrecking people. There are so many good parts. Jordan Williams in the middle can't stop tackling dudes, Ben Maddox, getting reps. That back six is, should be. I, we, I thought they were better than this, but. Man that whole team there's so much to like in that BC team and they just need. That lift back up. And I think, I mean, we're kind of all praying for, for a soft Liz Frank injury and, and maybe here's, oh my God. That's next door music for the west final would be, would be, or one of the west playoff games. We be pretty great. Baby. It does seem like, and, and I see the Facebook groups and everyone, and it does seem like BC is very much written off at this point, which is remarkable considering there's still, you know, I mean, there's still, what is it? However, you know, six weeks. Yeah. I mean, they still have seven games left to play, right? Eight and three. They, they were propelled to the Heights by war. Let's not kid ourselves like near 80% completion rate. He's gonna finish which the best with the best completion rate in a single season, in the history of the Canadian football league. It's I mean, his numbers to expected were, are incredible. This season. Everything about that. So they were lifted to these Heights by Roarke, but. I still think if there is. If there's somebody like if there is even an average quarterback that team could, could do something that team could beat Calgary in my mind. In a west semi-final and with the right balances in Winnipeg, in a west final, could. Could surprise, just have to be getting that average quarterbacking and honestly, well, you don't have all the time in the world, right? Like the season only has seven more games left in it for them. No more buys. So practice time gets a little limited. Will they be at full speed by the playoffs with, with Vernon Adams. I wait to see. But you don't think there was another option. I really, I really don't like. People are wondering, is Boley Levi Mitchell gonna move from Calgary? Is Calgary really gonna move him to a division rival and the team you're like him to play into playoffs. No backups anywhere. Else that I like, I, no, there really isn't like. No, I honestly don't believe there was like, Trade for Jeremiah Maso and hope he's back in time for the playoffs. But yeah, I just don't think there was another move. I always thought it would come from Montreal. I always thought Montreal would be the linchpin. On this season, but I thought it would be Trevor Harris, right? Because he was the backup. When the season started, I thought who's making the move for Harris when a quarterback gets injured. But by that time, Harris was a starter and then it was Vernon Adams. So. That was the only thing they could do. I'm glad they did it. We wait to see how it turns out. Yeah. I was terrified because I remember that they were saying that Trevor might come in this to back up or he would compete with Nathan and I didn't, you know, I didn't want that. I thought I'd rather take the unknown than Michael O'Connor, but now we know that, I mean, obviously injuries there too, but I, I wanted, I would rather take an unknown that could be better. Than the kind of like settling for three out of town or whatever, you know? It's well fair, totally fair. I, I think those receivers could go a long way to making an average quarterback look great. Because they are like, that's. Is that the be, yeah, it's the best receiving court in the league with how, how duke Williams season has gone in SAS? I would've thought maybe SAS, but no, BC's the best receiving core in the league by. As I think about it, a pretty good margin at this point. At Calgary, we talked mayor IVA. I mean, mayor Carrie says you, you see them firmly in number two here on the west. I think with the way it'll shake out. Right? They are, they are behind VC right now, but a couple of head-to-head games. However's a good team. Like. Calvary is four losses this year. Three of them in one score games against Winnipeg. And one of them was to a, a Nathan RO BC lions team. There's no shame in that. Cuz you're busy lumping everybody else. Like that's a good team with a good defense and. Now, with mayor in there, they're running the offense that they wanna run. Reggie Bason looks like, it looks like the guy who went to the green bay Packers for a bit Kaine. Carrie can run on. Anybody, it feels like on, on days. And Kay, the Beton Kamar, Jordan peering didn't really work out. Jordan's now out, but to me, they have more than enough receiving talent as well. There's everything. Plus by the way, the experience of having won double digit game since Christ was a cowboy, like they've just, they have everything in cowboy. So they're. They're a team. I don't really want, you know, calling games for the bombers. I don't really want the bombers to face them in the west final because they are one of. At this moment, one team that can keep Winnipeg from the, from the great kept title in my mind. You know, we had you on last, there was a lot of chaos going on in the world. Seems like CFO is kind of we're leveled now. You're right. We have genius sports, all this kinda stuff. I mean, do you feel like who we've moved past all that we're kind of full steam ahead now doing what the CFFL needs to do. Are there things that they could be working on? I think we're, I think we are full steam ahead. Like we kind of have to be there's there's extended period of labor piece. What is it? Seven years in which. We don't have to talk about that stuff's ever ever again until 20, 28 or nine or whatever. It's. I'm super happy about that. 10 reported good financials, Winnipeg reported. Great financials. Like I, or SAS, I forget which one is the first one to report, but the publicly owned teams have ever reported good financials, community owned teams. So that seems to be super encouraging. There's probably a ton more to be done, but I think for the most part, we're super happy to have football back going. Ahead and having these storylines that were not. Focusing on it for the, for the moment. I'm sure there's more, they could, they could be doing, I still don't. This is my own ignorance. I don't really know what genius sports. Does and where it will event, where it will pay off in the long run. But, I mean, I have no reason to particularly complain about that. I just don't know. I just don't know what it is they do. And that's on me and not anybody else. Yeah there they've made their forays into the gambling space. The clubs are making their forays into the gambling space. The broadcasters are as well. So it, it seems to be moving ahead, but we'll, we'll know more if, if perhaps the Montreal Allo do end up going up for sale at some point. What will, what will emerge as a bitter for Montreal? That might be the, that might be the barometer for, for what's the health of the league at that moment. Were you floored that Gary, that all that kind of happened over the last two weeks? Like it did. Well, like. The I was not I'm definitely, I'm not in favor of anything that gets Gary stern off Twitter. Let's not kid ourselves. I love it. Gary's fantastic. I mean, Might need some capitalization on his tweets, but that's just, that's his nitpicky. I love that an owner's engaged. Right? I love that. A guy who is, who was important and is in charge, I is, is engaged. We, we have owners, we have cloud presidents who aren't going to do that. We have ownership who will reach out a little bit. Bob young in, in Hamilton. Isn't gonna go on Twitter and be like guaranteed win night. Let's go. Amar Doman is doing great things in BC. I, when I walked through BC, we're there for week five. I was super impressed with how BC's going for it. There were billboards everywhere. There was an activation. In front of the Vancouver art gallery or some art gallery in Vancouver with inflatable Lionhead. This is great, but I, I think you need those. You need those owners. They're not. They're not Jerry Jones, but they are Jerry Jones ish in, Hey, what? I'm gonna put myself out here and I'm gonna draw attention and it's gonna be good for my team. And I, I, I love it. So whatever brings more Gary stern into my life and more, what is it, Gary? S 2020 on Twitter. Whatever is Twitter handle is. Hundred percent in favor. Well, I, you know, and I've not, you guys are all a little bit more and I deal with a lot of like the Danny Austins of the world. They're like, you know, I'm a reporter and we're trying to, you know, I am a wedding videographer that does this. Like, I enjoy a little bit more of the theatric of it, right? Like I'm not walking to in and the three piece suits of the press box. Like, I, I. Enjoy kind of the interactions. And I think, I think Gary popped back on last week. So I think he's at least like there's at least a, you know, he's alive there on the raft, but I don't really know what that means for the future, but at least he's back on, I think in some regard. Oh, I anything that brings heat, right? Anything that brings heat, like. These are, these are competitive people from ownership on down to the players. Anything that brings the heat. When, when former bomber Marcus sales. In advance of the week five game called the Winnipeg offense. Vanilla. And then the offense just rung it up on them. You're like, yes, I need all of this. I need this. I'm glad sales said it. He's probably not glad that they absolutely took him to the wood shed. But I mean, we just, anything that brings heat because. Players and teams are kind of conservative with, I don't wanna inflame everybody cuz everybody's good. And it could bite me in the butt, but as a, as a fan and someone who wants this more. More I'll keep saying heat around the league, bring it on anybody who wants to be a part of that. Let's go, here's a microphone let's have at it. And, and let's, let's make this more hotly contested. Let's invent new rivalries. The bombers had one, this, this season where the two great cups, they won the LA the 19 and 20. One, they were wearing their white jerseys and they were both against the Hamilton tiger cats. So when Hamilton came to Winnipeg, We're not wearing our traditional blues. We're gonna wear our whites at home just to let the Thai cats know. Like perfect. Perfect. Let's let's fire it up with anybody. The banjo bowl is a great example of it's not the labor day rematch in Winnipeg. It's the banjo bowl. Because in 2004, whatever it was, Troy west would call it Saskatchewan banjo picking inbreds. Perfect. It just took that game and changed it. So where are more of those? Where's the Montreal OWA superheated rivalry. How can we make that be a thing? How can we spread out the Toronto Hamilton game? So they don't play four times in five weeks and we can savor that a little better stuff like that. What, whatever brings. More spice to these games. And if it's an owner, if it's a GM who wants to mouth off. I gotta a microphone ready to go. Yeah, I did like that. How it was, everyone was bemoaning the Hamilton and Toronto games. And then like, I think the second one they had, it was real exciting. And the CFO camps like, well, see, it's like, okay, well, you got lucky with that one. I think that, I think sometimes lock in turn, turns out, Hey, we around all along. But no, I, I do. I think I, God. Forbid, you have some excitement here talking about this, like, you know, Cody FUO last year yelling at his receivers, you know, I don't have enough people working with, I mean, we need to have a little bit of drama, so I think that's good. And be it'd be great. It may not be great for their individual we workplaces, but for the whole CFL space. Anything we can capitalize on and just any emotion, right? Be it love. Be it hate. Love it. Oh, Derek. I really appreciate it.