Topic: 🏈 The United Football League (UFL) 2024 Thread 🏈 - page 2. (Read 318 times)

The decision to start the season so late is interesting, last year the XFL started right away after the SB, I suppose the thinking behind it is that not only the organizers want to give some time to the fans to calm down and crave more football action, but also they want fans to forget a little bit about what they watched on the SB and the playoffs as a way to avoid a stark contrast between the NFL and UFL, a comparison the NFL would win for sure.

When I heard that the USFL and XFL were merging I assumed each league would bring 8 teams, for a total of 16.  It's interesting that they chose to reduce to a total of 8.  I guess they weren't sure how much interest they would generate, and decided to keep the expenses manageable at first.

I would love for a secondary league to challenge the NFL and break their monopoly on professional football, but in the past I've found it difficult to get excited about any of the teams or players.  Maybe it's because they often shun the Western US, but that's probably also due to dollars and cents so I get it.  It's also not the best time of year for me to want to sit in front of the TV.  Spring is for mountain biking, hiking, backpacking, and turkey hunting.  Not to mention the EPL starts to get exciting around that time also, and yeah, I'm one of the 12 American EPL fans that exist.

Reserved, for some reason

OK well let's do this. I was hesitant at first but since the start of the NFL season is still 6 months away, I need a new sports-related hobby and I'm willing to be open-minded enough to give the United Football League a chance since this is the inaugural season of a secondary-type of American Football league.

I wanted to open a new thread about it so as to not dilute DireWolf's esteemed, NFL-centric American Football thread with what is likely to be an inferior version of America's most-watched pastime, Hand Egg.

Let's dive right into how the UFL works, which is a newly-formed leagued that merges XFL and USFL teams. It is still "American Football" as the rules are somewhat similar to NFL and all the teams are based in the US.

Here's some basic information about the United Football League:

 - There's 8 teams that will play a 10-game season.
 - The season starts on March 30, with a contest between thee 2023 XFL champions (Arlington Renegades) and the 2023 USFL champions (Birmingham Stallions).
 - The season culminates in a "Super Bowl"-like match on June 16.
 - It is considered to be a "football minor league", which IMO is needed as the NFL doesn't really have that (it just has college football instead).

Here is the structure of the league (4 teams in each conference):

XFL Conference
 - Birmingham Stallions (Birmingham, Alabama)
 - Houston Roughnecks (Houston, Texas)
 - Memphis Showboats (Memphis, Tennessee)
 - Michigan Panthers (Detroit, Michigan)

USFL Conference
 - Arlington Renegades (Arlington, Texas)
 - DC Defenders (Washington D.C.)
 - San Antonio Brahmas (San Antonio, Texas)
 - St. Louis Battlehawks (St. Louis, Missouri)

So if you live in the Midwest or West Coast you're S.O.L., apparently. I'm still gonna find a team to root for.

What are the rules and how are they different from NFL rules?

Hell if I know. Apparently they want it to be a more fast-paced version of the NFL. I will go more into detail about it it in the next post, after I find out... Really not much out there on it at the moment; maybe they haven't nailed everything down yet.

Anyway, gonna try my darndest to make this fun, find a favorite team & perhaps it will even be bet-worthy.

Feel free to chime in if you have some hidden knowledge about the whole thing!

Also keep in mind this is a self-moderated thread and if your posts suck I will probably delete them. Thanks for your understanding.

Resources:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Football_League_(2024)
https://www.espn.com/xfl/story/_/id/39610041/ufl-2024-season-logos-coaches-stadiums-quarterbacks-players-watch
https://www.espn.com/xfl/story/_/id/39578185/ufl-2024-information-xfl-usfl-merger-spring-football-league
https://www.foxsports.com/usfl/teams