Author: Scott Adamson

For as long as I’ve followed tackle football, I’ve heard about quarterback duels.

Truth is, they don’t exist.

I suppose if Birmingham’s Alex McGough and New Orleans’ McLeod Bethel-Thompson had spent Saturday afternoon firing tight spirals at each other’s heads it would’ve qualified, but that’s not how the sport works.

Nope, the QBs were dueling with opposing defenses, not each other.

But a quarterback duet?

That makes more sense.

A duet is simply “a performance by two people,” and a pair of quality USFL quarterbacks shared the synthetic turf stage at Protective Stadium today – although they were slinging instead of singing. Their goal, of course, was to play winning ball for their respective teams while putting on a show for fans in the stands (and potatoes on coaches).

Bethel-Thompson got to stay around for the encore thanks to the Breakers’ 45-31 victory over the Stallions.

Leading up to the South Division matchup between the clubs, I was intrigued by the signal callers’ contrast in styles – and experience.

As I wrote before the USFL ever played a down in 2022, it’s a league that features young Steves instead of Steve Youngs. At 27, McGough (6-3, 214 lbs.) is still a young ‘un in quarterback years (the average age for a National Football League starter is 32). In fact, after a few stints on NFL practice squads (and a brief active roster spot with the Houston Texans), it wasn’t until he suited up for the Stallions that he was able to throw his first official pass as a pro football player.

He also loves to tuck and run, much to the horror of his coach and delight of Birmingham fans (except when he had to exit the game briefly in the first half after taking a particularly hard hit).

Bethel-Thompson (6-4, 220 lbs.) is an anomaly in this league. Not only is the guy 34 years old, has a pair of Grey Cup championships under his belt and played on 10 different teams across the NFL, CFL, United Football League, Arena Football League and USFL, but he’s been making money from the sport he loves for 13 years.

He’s been there, done that, got the scar tissue.

When Bethel-Thompson first started playing for pay, McGough was merely 14 and simply playing to play.

Yet, while there are some notable dissimilarities (the older guy has a magnificent beard, the younger guy has magnificent tattoos, for example) they both want back in the NFL.

And this afternoon, they both played like they were determined to get there.

In the first half McGough had a part in all but 10 of his team’s total offensive yards, going 9-17-1 for 153 yards and a TD.

By day’s end he was 17-26-1 passing for 238 yards and two touchdowns despite taking a pounding in the process.; the total offensive output by his team was only 253 yards

“I thought Alex played a heckuva football game,” Birmingham coach Skip Holtz said. “I think he’s dialed in. Ever since he took over the reins, I think he’s seeing the field and he’s throwing the ball extremely accurate. He made one mental mistake today when he threw the interception but other than that, I don’t know that we can ask a whole lot more out of him.”

Bethel-Thompson was even more impressive over the first two quarters, going 12-18-1 for 183 yards and two TDs.

Once the final horn sounded, he had completed 20 of 28 passes for 283 yards, three touchdowns and an interception.

But man, did he ever have some help.

New Orleans racked up 483 total yards, and running back Wes Hills got 191 of them.

That formed another duet entirely, and allowed QB1 to cheerfully step out of the spotlight for several plays.

“It makes everything easier with a running game,” Bethel-Thompson said. “The pocket’s bigger, and you’re looking at second and five instead of second and 10 or 11, so having a running game like this is like a huge breath of fresh air. The impact on the team is huge, and you can see the result on the scoreboard.”

So, in Saturday’s quarterback duet, not everyone felt happy when the performance ended.

But thanks to a combined five touchdowns and 521 yards, I’ll bet they felt entertained.

From a competition standpoint, the United States Football League is entering its 15th week of competition. However, the Birmingham Stallions and New Orleans Breakers are already making a habit of clashing in big games.

In the new USFL’s debut last year, the two teams were undefeated heading into their Week Three showdown at Protective Stadium.

The Stallions won that one, 22-13, leaving them as the lone unbeaten team left in the USFL.

The eventual champions completed a regular season sweep of the Breakers with a 10-9 victory in Week Eight, but the South Division rivals met once more in the first round of the playoffs in Canton, Ohio.

Skip Holtz’s charges made it three-for-three thanks to a 31-17 victory, one that gave them the chance to play – and beat – the Philadelphia Stars in the USFL title game.

This Saturday’s skirmish at Protective Stadium also features a pair of 2-0 teams, and the fourth overall meeting marks a renewal of what is, so far, the league’s most frequent rivalry.

Holtz thought last year’s Breakers team was good, but suggests this one is different – and maybe even better.

“Offensively, all you have to do is look at (head coach) John DeFilippo, where he’s been and what he’s done, with all the quarterbacks he’s been around and all the places he’s been in the NFL,” Holtz said. “They’re a two or three base tight end set, so they give you a lot of different sets with those guys. They just give you a lot of different looks and they’re very flexible, meaning they’re very hard to get a bead on. They run a lot of different plays out of a lot of different formations. It makes it hard to cover everybody with what they do. They do a great job.

“They’ve got really good players, their quarterback is playing really good for them right now, and I think they’ve got a really good football team. There’s a reason we’re both 2-0.”

The QB matchup features two league leaders. Stallions signal caller Alex McGough tops the USFL in touchdown passes with five (he’s also rushed for one) as well as points produced (36), while Breakers QB McLeod Bethel-Thompson is the air yardage leader with 554.

The Stallions pace the eight-team circuit with 386.5 yards per game as well as 257 passing yards each time out.

New Orleans holds down the top spot in individual receiving yards (Sage Surratt, 206) and kicking points (Matt Coghlin, 24).

“I’ve only played two plays against them due to my injuries, but they do a lot of the same schemes as far as defense,” McGough said. “They have some new players on the D-line, but they’re great players. They have a lot of speed. athleticism, and the linebackers are really, really good sideline to sideline guys.

“So, we’re just trying to go out there and execute our plays against their coverage and run really good routes. I have to make sure I’m very accurate with the football and just execute.”

McGough is coming off a magnificent showing in last Saturday’s 42-2 beatdown of Memphis, hitting 21 of 28 passes for 301 yards and four touchdowns. He played wire-to-wire due to the loss of J’Mar Smith, one of several Stallions taken off the board due to injuries.

“I couldn’t do it alone,” McGough said. “But I think as far as me playing, I thought I played very well. I thought my reads were great. But 10 other guys were doing their jobs and that made it all happen.

“We all fight for each other. Like, I know I’m not playing for myself.”

Wideout Austin Watkins, who caught three balls for 42 yards against the Showboats, agrees.

“We just play together as a team,” he said. “There’s unselfishness with all these guys. We know we need to be just having fun.”

CJ Marable rushed for 68 yards on 16  carries for Birmingham last week but it was ZaQuandre White who made the biggest splash in his first appearance as a Stallion, racking up 72 yards on eight totes and scoring twice. The 6-1, 215-pound University of South Carolina product was on the Miami Dolphins’ practice squad in 2022.

“He’s an incredibly talented individual,” Holtz said. “’Sizzle’ is a word that comes to mind. You know when you watch him run it’s like, ‘Wow, he’s different.’ You don’t have to be a football coach to figure out he’s pretty good. He’s just got to get more comfortable in the offense and be more consistent with what he does.

“So, I’m excited to watch his growth after watching him rush for 1,000 yards in the SEC. You saw what we saw the other night, and last week was the first time he was activated.”

While Birmingham has shown it can score points, its defense has proven it can prevent them. Under defensive coordinator John Chavis, the unit allowed just 10 points in a 27-10 season opening win over New Jersey and kept the Memphis offense off the scoreboard in a 42-2 blowout – losing the shutout on a safety.

Holtz knows Saturday’s opponent also has a formidable resistance.

“(New Orleans) has always had one of the best defenses in this league,” Holtz said. “When you look at the job (defensive coordinator) Jon Tenuta does, it makes you operate under pressure. He tries to dictate the tempo of the game and I’d say these two defenses are very similar. These are two of the better defenses in the league, but they’re also two very pressure-oriented defenses.”

Saturday’s kick-off is set for 11:30 a.m. and the game will be televised on the USA Network.

“The whole battle cry and the challenge we had last week was to try to win a football game with a lot of new faces – with seven starters out after week one,” Holtz said. “That’s a lot. Replacing a large percentage of your football team after week one, that’s tough. But I also think it speaks volumes to the depth that’s been required in the offseason and the great job (general manager) Zach Potter has done and continues to do.

“I’ve made this comment earlier … I think our team is deeper than we were last year as far as talent.”

When the United States Football League ended its 2022 campaign, it became the first professional outdoor spring league to complete a full season since the 2001 XFL. Its return in 2023 means not since the 1991-92 World League of American Football has a springtime play-for-pay circuit featuring North American franchises made it to year two.

Both of those achievements are significant – historically and businesswise.

And now, the third version of the XFL gets to do a bit of bragging, too.

Its 2023 regular season is in the books, and the circuit is two playoff contests and a championship game away from matching its prototype in longevity.

And if it comes back in 2024 – and there’s no reason at the moment to think it won’t – perhaps it’s time we start believing that spring football might actually have a future.

After feeling last year like I was aging out of alternative football, I find myself happily drawn back in. And I think part of it is because the people behind the USFL and XFL stand behind their products.

To make a bridge league (or leagues) between college football and the NFL successful, you have to have money, vision and patience. Both FOX Sports (USFL) and Dany Garcia, Dwayne Johnson and RedBird Capital Partners (XFL) appear to have all three.

Paying bills is a really solid business practice, and their ability to do it gives them more credibility than many leagues that have come before. Teams aren’t folding in the middle of the week, and players don’t worry about their checks bouncing.

And speaking of players, these guys are good. There are those who put some sort of imaginary cap on how much talent is available to stock pro football teams in any given year, but there’s plenty.

“If you’re telling me we don’t have guys who can play (in the NFL), you’re crazy,” St. Louis Battlehawks coach Anthony Becht said following his team’s final game of the season last weekend. “Some of these guys deserve to get another shot. I’ll continue to grind and continue to build this thing, and I hope I lose a lot of players to the next level to be quite frank, because they deserve it.”

Daryl Johnston, president of the USFL, seconds that emotion.

“We had (2022 USFL MVP) KaVontae Turpin sign a three-year deal with the Dallas Cowboys, and multiple players got on 53-man NFL rosters last season,” he said. “And some got to stay on those rosters. That’s what we’re trying to accomplish for these young men, is to change the trajectory of their life by giving them the opportunity to be on one of those 53-man NFL rosters.”

Giving more players and more coaches opportunities to ply their trade is a win-win situation for all involved. You can pick any XFL or USFL contest and see real enthusiasm among the competitors.

In many ways, it’s like watching a college game (and most of these guys aren’t that far removed from college).

Ultimately, though, it comes downs to entertainment.

Do these leagues give fans reasons to watch – and keep watching?

I think they do.

There will always be people who feel compelled to compare non-NFL leagues with the NFL, but to me, that’s a waste of time (and kinda misses the point).

For example, just a few years ago a typical weekend for me involved covering a South Carolina High School League game on Friday, Georgia, Clemson or South Carolina game on Saturday, and Carolina Panthers game on Sunday.

Obviously, you had three vastly different tiers. So, from a talent standpoint, Sunday games topped Saturday games, and Saturday games bested Friday games.

But there were many times the most fun game to watch came on a Friday night in a tiny stadium with rickety bleachers.

Point being, the sustained entertainment value of these leagues is what will ultimately keep them in business or push them out. A big enough audience to get networks the ratings they desire and advertisers the most bang for their buck is key, along with the continuing desire of people to bet on games.

St. Louis is a unicorn in that it drew an average of 35,104 fans to its building this season; attendance for the rest of the teams in both leagues tops out in the teens. I’m guessing that’s the new normal.

But all XFL and USFL games are on television – every single one. And while fans aren’t packing stadiums, they’re becoming quite comfortable plopping on their couches and tuning in. And it’s good that they do, because football is an expensive game to produce. TV viewers have to be convinced the spring version of their favorite sport is more than a novelty because novelties wear off.

(The 2001 XFL averaged more than 23,000 fans per game, but TV ratings on NBC slipped to record lows as the 10-week regular season wound down. Thus, the network decided to bail once the contract was up, so the league folded).

Look, if you have a favorite team in the USFL, you probably think that league is better than the XFL, and vice versa. And there’s nothing wrong with a little trash talk.

Still, more leagues and more teams mean more jobs – not just for the people on the field but those working concessions, maintenance, security, etc.

You can hope your league succeeds without wishing the other fails (which is the equivalent of hoping people lose their jobs). Instead, enjoy all the choices you have.

Do that, and who knows? Maybe – just maybe – professional spring football can become a true success story.