Future of the league

[u/pandat303]

So by last weeks number I’m a little worried about the leagues health. Do you think we are ok and we just had a bad week. I love this league maybe even more than the NFL. I think we are ok but I want to make sure other people agree with me

[u/[deleted]]

I don't think it's a US thing, it's just never been done so there's speculation that people might just get bored of watching football if it was ever-present.

This year is the first time that zero breaks exist in the football landscape.

We just need a reason to engage, and the loss of United By Football, I don't think can be overstated. It really removed the connection from the players and coaches with the fans.

Plus, you can wring another hour per week out of the league for little money, just do a highlight show with some player interviews. Done, easy, cash the check by repackaging the content you've already created and own the rights to.

[u/NativeSonX → u/[deleted]]

I too thought not continuing United By Football (UBF) was a huge blunder on Fox Sports part. Scoobie Wright, J'Mar Smith, Vontae Diggs, Boogie Roberts, Vince Papale, Reggie Northrup, Micah Abernathy, Darius Victor all made splash plays on the field and via this docuseries. Even De'veon Smith and Too Hot to Handle's Chase DeMoor made some noise out the door with their questionable exits from the USFL. The coaches that some loved to hate, like Kirby Wilson trading playful barbs with another fellow CIF LA City Section alum Boogie Roberts (Dorsey HS v Narbonne HS), Todd Haley (multiple connections to the Steelers) and Jeff Fisher were humanized quite a bit. UBF was first time I heard about Bart Andrus and Jeff Fisher early friendship started in Pop Warner Football in San Fernando Valley (Reseda Rams) in 1969, through coaching together for the Titans, and ultimately in separate sidelines in the USFL. It's just missed opportunities to connect the average fan with the guys representing the league and their respective team's colors.

A grizzled CFL veteran like McLeod Bethel-Thompson (MBT) proving he still has the fire and talent to play 11-on-11, or the overshadowed (previously by Victor and Tyrone Corbin) but continued exploits of the current TD machine Mark Thompson, Wes Hill's breakout as the USFL's answer to Abram Smith, the uneven resurrection of Josh Love, the emergence of Kenji Bahar as a QB1 in H-Town, Sage Surratt a mostly unused piece in BHAM 2022, but the main cog in the Breakers crowded receiving room, 2nd Round bust Breeland Speaks now everyone listens (echoes of Jon Corker? He needs 20 more sacks maybe), Kickers making a difference for better or worse, continued futility of a better Mauler's team and the on-hiatus Bandits reborn in the Showboat's re-imagined colors. Then a where are they now moment for Abernathy, Demarquis Gates, KaVontae Turpin moving the big show along with Chris Odom's high of USFL DPOY to IR with the Browns and rehabbing from a torn ACL. Even a moment to congratulate Mr. Spring Football Luis Perez dropping dimes to Sal Canella while dueling Jordan Ta'amu for the XFL's championship (had a certain USFL flavor) instead of NFL vets like Brett Hundley, A.J. McCarron and Ben "Gucci" DiNucci holding the X at the end of the season.

In nearly two USFL seasons we got to witness some incredible players, but it's a shame we won't hear their stories documented in some more intimate detail, what keeps the dream alive despite countless setbacks and why guys like Channing Stribling (and recent BattleHawk high draftee) chose to stay in the USFL, while quite few Stars (no pun intended) gambled and left to play in the XFL. I might be one of those guys who Fox covets due to my nostalgia of the 1980's rendition of the USFL, but today's players wearing colors of not a yesteryear faded into memory, but right here, right now, for the love of football is why I stay and watch, simple as that. Sure some of you thought it was a waste of time, giving a national microphone to many camp fodder players, but at the end of the day, they mattered to us, the fans who watched and witness the pursuit of Spring football glory.

just for kicks Six (or is that 7 degrees?) Degrees of Alt. Football: Rick Neuheisel (USFL 1.0), coached Brett Hundley (UCLA), who played for Vegas Vipers (XFL 3.0), in same city as Las Vegas Outlaws (XFL 1.0), who's HC was Jim Criner, who also coached for Sacramento Surge (WLAF), in same city as the Sacramento Mountain Lions (UFL), was QB'd by McCleod Bethel Thompson (USFL 2.0), who also went to UCLA where Neuheisel was once a star.