OK, so one league with eight teams merges with another league with eight teams and the result is … one eight-team league?
That’s the new reality of spring professional football now that the USFL and XFL have blended parts of their families to form the United Football League.
The UFL – not to be confused with the original UFL (1961-64) or the second UFL (2009-12) – is comprised of four XFL survivors (Arlington Renegades, DC Defenders, San Antonio Brahmas and St. Louis Battlehawks) and four former USFL clubs (Birmingham Stallions, Houston, Memphis Showboats and Michigan Panthers). Houston – known as the Gamblers during its two USFL years – has rebranded as the Roughnecks, which played in both the 2020 and 2023 XFL. They’ll be led by Curtis Johnson, who was the head coach of the Gamblers last season.
Skip Holtz (Stallions), Mike Nolan (Panthers), Bob Stoops (Renegades), Reggie Barlow (Defenders) and Anthony Becht (Battlehawks) return to their respective teams this spring. Wade Phillips, who coached the Roughnecks last year, has moved to San Antonio.
John DeFilippo coached the USFL New Orleans Breakers in 2023 and has taken over as boss of the Showboats.
Fox and ESPN will be the primary broadcast partners.
Arlington, the defending XFL champion, will play the two-time defending USFL champion Birmingham to kick-off the inaugural season on March 30. No site has been officially announced but speculation is that the game will be contested in Arlington, where league headquarters are located.
Training camp opens there on February 24.
Birmingham, Houston, Memphis and Michigan will play in the USFL Division, with Arlington, DC, San Antonio and St. Louis populating the XFL Division.
Gone from the USFL contingent are the New Jersey Generals, Breakers, Philadelphia Stars and Pittsburgh Maulers, while the XFL shuttered the Orlando Guardians, Seattle Sea Dragons and Vegas Vipers.
This merger, as it turns out, is really a combination of contracted leagues. Russ Brandon (former President and CEO of the XFL) will be the President and CEO of the UFL, while Daryl Johnston (former USFL President of Football Operations) will assume a similar role with the new venture.
Dany Garcia and Dwayne Johnson broke the news on FOX on New Year’s Eve, and unveiled a logo that was obviously inspired by the 2023 XFL logo. That leads me to believe the UFL will have more of an XFL “feel.”
That seems even more true if Arlington follows the hybrid hub model utilized by XFL 3.0. The Washington Post reports that’ll be the case, with teams practicing and living in the area throughout the regular season.
Teams will travel to their home and road games – well, Arlington will already be home – but the other seven teams will have to fly or drive to their host stadiums.
Think of it as a situation where the kids spend all week at their boarding school but get to see their parents on the weekend.
It’s better than the USFL hub situation, but not as good as a home team having, you know, an actual home.
“From day one, our mission has been to expand the game of football and be a league of opportunity, culture and innovation,” Johnson said. “As we come together to create the UFL, we can build something powerful, exciting and very cool for football fans – a spring league with lasting impact for all the players with a dream to play pro football and the ‘hardest workers in the room’ mentality to make their dreams come true.”
Added Garcia, “This new venture is possible because of a shared visionary mindset, a profound passion for the game, and first-hand experience living and creating the opportunities that football makes possible. As a unified spring league, we are able to deepen our commitment to unlocking and surpassing the dreams of our players, coaches, staff and fans. This league represents continued legacy and evolution, and we look forward to building the universe of spring football.”
While all of us who enjoy alternative football are glad it’ll return for a third consecutive year, I was hoping more than eight clubs would tee it up next spring.
I didn’t necessarily expect a 16-team league, but I thought surely there’d be 12. Eliminate the redundancies (Houston Gamblers and Roughnecks) and weed out a couple of the clubs that generated little fan interest, sure. But now 2024 basically just takes us back to 2022 where players were fighting for roughly 400 roster spots instead of the 800 available in 2023.
This’ll result in a higher concentration of talent on each club, of course, but it also means less opportunities for guys who want to keep playing for pay.
From a fan standpoint, the USFL cuts make the most sense. Despite branding themselves New Jersey, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Houston and New Orleans, the Generals, Stars, Maulers, Gamblers and Breakers never once played in those cities.
It’s hard to feel a sense of loss when you lose something you never really had.
I do feel for the folks who supported Orlando, Seattle and Vegas in XFL, but I think the biggest loser in the merger might be Canton.
Tom Benson Hall of Fame Stadium hosted the USFL playoffs and championship in 2022, and last year the city was also the home base for the Generals and Maulers.
The league asked a lot of the fans in northeast Ohio to come out and support teams that weren’t theirs, and now they’re left with nothing.
As for the biggest winner, that would be the Canadian Football League. While there is only roster room for 20 international players per club, the CFL now has eight less teams south of its border to compete with.
Naturally, my hope – and the hope of fellow spring football supporters – is that the UFL takes root, expands, survives and ultimately thrives.
To do that, it’ll need to widen its footprint by entering more major markets (New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, for example); identify roughly 20,000 host city fans willing to show up for games week in and week out; and become a TV product that draws eyes long after the novelty of “offseason” football wears off.
To that end, here’s wishing not just one Happy New Year to the United Football League – but many happy years to come.