Johnston, Holtz talk up UFL

Daryl Johnson has high hopes for the United Football League.

United Football League executive vice president of football operations Daryl Johnston has worked with the Alliance of American Football, XFL 2.0, and the modern United States Football League. That means he’s seen the good, the bad and the ugly of alternative football leagues.

Those experiences and his wealth of gridiron knowledge position him well in helping the UFL embark on its maiden voyage. But now the hard work begins – attempting to make professional spring football sustainable for the long haul.

Scott Adamson writes stuff. Follow him on Threads @sladamson1960 and Adamsonmedia on Facebook.

“The biggest thing is who is supporting us on the financial side,” explained the UFL executive, who – along with Birmingham Stallions head coach Skip Holtz – talked to the media earlier on Thursday before taking part in a meet-and-greet with fans at Protective Stadium. “We all know what Fox brought to the table with the USFL … football built Fox Sports. We knew they were committed to professional football and they were also able to help in areas where we could reduce our costs.

“On the (XFL) side, they had great support from RedBird Capital, and when you talk about the ability to market and promote, I don’t think you can have anyone better than Dwayne Johnson and Dany Garcia. They’re the face and the voice of your league.”

After seeing the USFL through two seasons, Johnston explained how the merger with that league and the XFL came about.

“I was alerted to it in late summer, about six weeks into the process,” Johnston said. “Everybody up top had to figure out this was something that could happen before bringing everybody else in. The hardest part for us was staying on two parallel tracks in case it didn’t go through.

“So, while we were making arrangements for the potential merger, we were also focused on season three (of the USFL) in case this falls apart in the 24th hour. And the leagues did things differently, so we had to try to find common ground and blend best practices.”

Holtz said he started hearing rumors not long after his Stallions wrapped up their second consecutive USFL championship.

“After we won the championship everybody kind of dispersed, and I got a phone call and was told (a merger was a possibility),” Holtz said. “And of course, I had a chance to work for Northwestern starting in August, but even then, I was still trying to follow the calendar and see what was going on.”

The two leagues conducted business quite differently. The USFL was TV first, and its hub model (all eight teams in Birmingham in 2022 and teams housed in Birmingham, Memphis, Detroit and Canton in 2023) often resulted in extremely low attendance when fans didn’t have a “home team” rooting interest.

The XFL’s hybrid hub had players on all eight of its teams live and train in Arlington, Texas, during the week, and travel to host cities for games.

The hybrid hub will be used in year one of the UFL.

“It was hard,” Johnston said about the change. “You get close to people, and we had to let a lot of good people go. But the good news is there’s a merger, we retained some very good people, and it gives us the best opportunity for success long-term. The bad news is we found out there’d be attrition across the board, going from what was two leagues of eight teams each to one league with eight teams, and those were difficult decisions to make.”

The original USFL didn’t reach the level of the National Football League, but it was close enough during its three-year run from 1983-85. It featured multiple Heisman Trophy winners and several future Hall of Famers – and wasn’t afraid of raiding the NFL for talent. In fact, by the time it played its final season, a handful of its teams could’ve likely been competitive in the senior circuit.

But since then, springs have been devoted to developmental circuits, from the World League of American Football to three incarnations of the XFL, the AAF, and the 2022-23 USFL that was designed to send players to the big league, not take them away.

Birmingham, the Houston Roughnecks, Memphis Showboats and Michigan Panthers make up the USFL Conference of the UFL, with the Arlington Renegades, D.C. Defenders, San Antonio Brahmas and St. Louis Battlehawks representing the XFL Conference.

The Stallions and Renegades – defending champions of their “old” leagues, will lift the lid on the UFL on March 30 at Choctaw Stadium (noon CDT, Fox).

St. Louis and Michigan wrap up the Saturday doubleheader at Ford Field at 3 p.m. on Fox.

On Sunday, March 31, D.C. and San Antonio square off at the Alamodome (11 a.m., ESPN) and Memphis meets Houston at Rice Stadium (2 p.m., ESPN).

“I really like how we kind of get to preserve the history of both leagues because we have the USFL and XFL conferences,” Holtz said. “We’ll play everybody in our division twice and we’ll play everybody from the XFL Conference once. So that’s gonna be exciting.”

Johnston said the USFL and XFL competition will live on in the joint venture.

“We’re proud of what we did in the USFL, and they should be proud of what they did in season one of the XFL,” Johnston said. “But these coaches and players are competitive, and at the end of the season whichever team from the old league wins the championship, they’re gonna brag about it.”

Each club plays a 10-game schedule, meaning there’ll be 40 regular season contests, two conference title games and the UFL Championship, which will be played Sunday, June 16.

All games will be televised on either Fox, ABC, ESPN, ESPN 2 or FS1.

“The competition is going to be much better,” Holtz said. “We’re going from 800 players playing spring football to 400 playing spring football, so every team is going to be better. For so long when it came to spring football, people had one foot in and one foot out, not knowing if it would survive.

“I think when you look at everybody involved in the UFL, this has a chance to grow and get really strong.”

Catching Beaver fever

OK, so let’s talk about the Alabama Beavers, shall we?

I realize those of us who are spring pro football enthusiasts are focused on the debut of the United Football League March 30, and there’ll be plenty of time to write more about the USFL/XFL blended family in weeks to come.

Scott Adamson writes stuff. Follow him on Threads @sladamson1960 and Adamsonmedia on Facebook.

Rest assured, I will.

But, as someone whose ears always perk up when I hear “professional football” and “Alabama” share the same sentence, I have to weigh in on the franchise in the fledgling International Football Alliance.

In case you didn’t know, the IFA is a circuit that aims to feature both Mexican and American clubs, and plans to start play in 2025.

The proposed 10-team lineup for the inaugural season consists of the Beavers, Cancun Sharks, Dallas Pioneros, Gulf Coast Tarpons, Las Vegas Kings, Portland (nickname pending), Rebelión Tarahumara, Tampa Bay Tornadoes, Tequileros de Jalisco, and another locale that has yet to be announced.

As is the case with flying cars, calorie-free cheesecake and a real-world Batman, I like the concept. They’ve even taken a page from the Canadian Football League in that there are roster ratios. For example, each IFA team can have no more than 20 American players, while the balance (53 players in all, 40 activated on game day) must be international (Mexican, European, etc.).

Money-wise, the IFA website states that salaries would be determined by each team but the league standard is $400 per game, per player, and $1,500 per game for quarterbacks.

Based on a 10-game season, that’s $4,000 for a non-QB while a signal caller would pull down $15,000 at the minimum.

Apologies for getting off-topic … just wanted to provide some background.

Anyway, the first mystery yet to be solved is where the team will play its home games.

I would assume Huntsville and Montgomery are the top candidates.

Why?

Because they are, in order, the first and second largest cities in the state. The Beavers are holding tryouts in Mobile on March 3, but the last line of the news release says the team will not be based out of the Port City.

I’ll take the Beavers at their word, while also reserving the right to view it as a misdirection play. We’ll have to see, I guess.

Of course, before I found out there would be tryouts in south Alabama, I looked to the source of all knowledge – Wikipedia – in an effort to find out which city, town or region in the state has the most beavers.

Actually, beavers can be found in all 67 counties, proving the animals are, indeed, busy.

That means any city could be in the running. Hang around somewhere in Alabama long enough, and you’re bound to run into a beaver.

As for Birmingham, it’s a highly unlikely locale. With the modern Stallions entering their third year, the Magic City appears set for spring football.

That club isn’t exactly shattering attendance records, so I can’t imagine The Ham supporting two clubs playing in the same offseason.

Still … the Stallions lease Protective Stadium, so Legion Field would be open. Something to think about if you like thinking about such things.

At any rate, let’s get back to the main point.

Why would you make “Beavers” your team’s sobriquet?

When I hear the nick, I think of the Oregon State Beavers and the Montreal Beavers (a franchise in the original United Football League which, incidently, was coached by Birmingham Vulcans boss Marvin Bass).

No place in Alabama prompts me to say to myself, “You know what … if a sports franchise is ever located here, they should be called the Beavers.”

In my mind, there are many better names for the team. When I think of Huntsville, I think of rockets. When I think of Montgomery, I think of a woman named Rhonda I met while visiting there several years ago.

She was nice and smelled of patchouli.

I doubt the name “Alabama Rhondas” would resonate with any fan other than me. “Alabama Rockets,” or “Alabama Capitals” might, though.

But look – just because the team is called the Beavers doesn’t mean I won’t support them.

I will.

As you might know, the 1995 Birmingham Barracudas were near and dear to my heart and I still miss having a CFL team in my backyard. I bought hats, T-shirts and all manner of memorabilia even though I thought (and still think) Barracudas was a terrible nickname to give a team located in central Alabama.

However, since there’s already a Beavers logo (a vicious brown critter with orange teeth and black trim) and team officials have settled on the name, I’m going to make the best of it.

“Dam them, Beavers … DAM THEM!” as well as “Pelt them, Beavers, PELT THEM!” would be cool cheers. Stallions fans yell, “Giddy Up!” whenever Birmingham makes a first down, and Beaver faithful could do something similar, like, “Slap that tail!” or “Dig it!”

Several professional sports teams have some sort of fan-involved gimmick to open each game, so I’d suggest selecting a ticket holder to fling a hatchet – known as the Beaver Cleaver – at a target featuring the opposing team’s logo.

Sadly, only the ancient among us would get that reference, so maybe that’s not a great marketing tool in the mid-2020s.

All kidding aside, I wish the IFA and Beavers luck because they’ll certainly need every bit they can conjure. With the UFL now the center of the spring football universe, there is little room for challengers. The graveyard of failed sports startups is a large one.

But dark horses do win races, so I’ll give them a chance.

And if they do actually make it to the playing field in 2025, I promise to buy a hat and T-shirt – and fully embrace “Beaver Fever.”

The rivalry continues

I have a confession to make.

When it was announced that the United Football League would be divided into the USFL and XFL divisions, I rolled my eyes.

Scott Adamson writes stuff. Follow him on Threads @sladamson1960 and Adamsonmedia on Facebook.

I had really, really hoped both those brands would be retired.

As a true believer in USFL Prime, I didn’t like seeing the initialism revived in 2022 and slapped on a league that had nothing in common with the original other than team nicknames. And I’ve never understood the fascination with the XFL identity.

But you know what?

It makes sense for the maiden voyage of the UFL. Last year I watched fans of each league claim the circuit they followed was better, even though they had no way to prove it.

Now they can – sorta.

“I think it’s gonna be exciting,” said Birmingham Stallions boss Skip Holtz, who was in Birmingham earlier this month to preview his third season coaching spring pro football. “I mean, there’s been a lot of talk about the UFL. Not only is it gonna be the kickoff of the merger, but there’s also been a lot of debate and argument.

“Which was the better league? ‘Well, I think the USFL was better,’ and then someone else says, ‘I think the XFL was better.’ Well, we’re gonna have an opportunity to go head-to-head to start this thing out.”

Holtz guided Birmingham to championships in both seasons of the modern USFL, while the Arlington Renegades went from a 4-6 regular season team to league titlists in XFL 3.0’s 2023 season.

On March 30, the teams will lift the lid on the UFL at Choctaw Stadium, with the winner claiming braggin’ rights. Both champions will return plenty of familiar faces, and both have bolstered their rosters through free agent signings and dispersal drafts.

Division teams will play each other twice, and fill out a 10-game regular season slate with one game against each of the four teams in the opposite division.

Birmingham, the Houston Roughnecks, Memphis Showboats and Michigan Panthers make up the USFL Division, with Arlington, the DC Defenders, San Antonio Brahmas and St. Louis Battlehawks repping the XFL Division.

Thus, USFL and XFL devotees can spend two and a half months comparing pigskin sizes and know that the championship game will feature a rep from the “old” leagues. *

* The Houston Roughnecks were an XFL team in 2023, but are in the USFL Division in 2024 because they assumed the staff and player rights of the USFL Houston Gamblers. So, if the Roughnecks win the crown, it’ll count as a USFL “victory.”

“I think this is a first step to really solidifying spring pro football, and I applaud everybody involved,” Holtz said. “Fox, ABC, ESPN, the Rock (Dwayne Johnson), Dany Garcia, RedBird Capital … I mean, everybody that has been involved in making this happen. I think this is a great move. I think normally when you have mergers of this magnitude there’s  like a three-year process, and we’ve got this thing ready to go this spring.”

In terms of the product on the field, it should be really good. The USFL has shown for two seasons and the XFL, one, that there are plenty of players who can play at the pro level and play well. With only eight teams, every roster will be loaded with NFL near-misses – as well as guys who might be able to move up.

And with the “spring wars” over and each team playing home games in their home stadiums thanks to the hybrid-hub, there is greater incentive for more fans to buy tickets.

That’s not a problem for the Battlehawks – who averaged 35,104 fans during the 2023 XFL season – but it was an issue in other cities.

Average per game XFL attendance was 14,443 – and that was bolstered by St. Louis’ impressive support. The next best draw in the third reboot of the XFL was the Brahmas, who pulled in 14,983 fans per game.

In the USFL, the Stallions would occasionally flirt with 18,000 or so fans, but often drew several thousand less. Memphis reportedly averaged around 15,000 last year and Michigan, 10,000. No one knows for sure because the USFL wouldn’t release attendance figures.

“When you look at this new league, one thing that the XFL did was an excellent job of really supporting those programs,” Holtz said. “We want to make (47,100-seat Protective Stadium in Birmingham) the one place that everybody in the country says, ‘We don’t want to go there because they have a distinct home field advantage because of the way this community comes out supports this football team.’”

And while gate receipts will be important to the survival of the UFL, TV viewers will remain the primary gauge of success.

Last year the broadcast partners of the USFL – Fox, FS1 and NBC – pretended the XFL didn’t exist.

On XFL telecasts on ABC and ESPN, nary a word was uttered about the USFL.

Such pettiness no longer serves a purpose, and the result is more awareness across the airwaves.

“I think there’s a need for spring football for two reasons,” Holtz explained. “It’s one of the most popular sports in the country right now and to be able to have football year-round for people to support, to watch, to cheer for, to experience, is important.

“But I also think there’s a need for it because these young men are getting opportunities that wouldn’t be here if not for the UFL. You’re going to have a bunch of players that are going to have this opportunity to get on the field and showcase their talents and hopefully get another crack at the NFL.”

I don’t know which former league the first champion of the United Football League will come from, but I do hope in 2025 the USFL-XFL rivalry is laid to rest.

By year two of the UFL, it’ll be time to build for the future and leave a divided past behind.