UFL Live - United Football League News and Fan Forum

The Charlotte Observer ran a story on Chris Leak, QB of the NCCA Champion Florida Gators in the 2006 season. His height doomed him to be left out of the NFL Draft, but he has found his way onto the Florida AAFL Team.

“My dream is alive,” Leak said by phone from Florida this week. “This league is going to let me and a lot of other guys have the opportunity to showcase ourselves to the NFL.”

That’s certainly a possibility. The fact that the AAFL plays in the spring will give the NFL Scouts plenty of time to check out the skills.

So once again, I ask, if you were an agent, what would you tell the players you represent? Take the AAFL job or hold out for the UFL where the play is likely to be a bit more and the recognition more national.?

Tags: ufl, aafl, nfl, sports+agent, football, united+football+league

Popularity: 100% [?]

SoCalSportsObserved has a few ideas of what the United Football League team in Los Angeles will be like. He seems pretty happy that Mark Cuban is rumored to be the LA UFL Franchise owner too.

Mark Cuban could be owning a pro football team in LA soon. No, it’s not an NFL team. According to the Las Vegas Review Journal, Cuban is believed to be the person to set to own LA’s team in the United Football League or the UFL. The league will begin play in August, and will likely host games on Friday nights.We don’t have a lot of information yet about the UFL, but I’d expect the talent level to be similar to the old XFL or WFL, and not quite as high as the old USFL. We also have no idea where this Los Angeles team would play, whether it be at the Coliseum, Rose Bowl, Home Depot Center, or somewhere else. Still, it would be a lot of fun to have Cuban owning a team here.

Since the NFL Europe league has collapsed, something the UFL wasn’t counting on, you might be surprised at the type of talent that applies to join the UFL this spring.

Tags: ufl, nfl, usfl, xfl, football, united+football+league, los+angeles, mark+cuban

Popularity: 94% [?]

Sasha at the Professional Cheerleader Blog heard on her radio that Los Angeles has been awarded a United Football League. So it looks like Commissioner Huyghue has spread his campaign of slow leaks to the west coast now.

Speaking of Los Angeles, the fight between USC and the Coliseum Commission continues. USC is angling to gain 100% control of the facility, which might freeze out the UFL should it want to play there.

Tags: ufl, nfl, football, usc, united+football+league, los+angeles, sports

Popularity: 90% [?]

Apparently the United Football League is happy to let news of their first few cities leak out through the press before any big announcement is made. The latest paper to get the inside scoop is the Las Vegas Review Journal.

Sam Boyd Stadium director Daren Libonati said an agreement is close on a two-year deal with options. The team would play on Friday nights.

Libonati said he had two face-to-face meetings with Huyghue in the past two months, most recently about two weeks ago.

“They have been very, very positive conversations, probably the best conversations with all the leagues we’ve had from Day 1, starting back with the Canadian Football League and all the basketball leagues and the XFL,” Libonati said.

Las Vegas was one of the few cities where fan support of the XFL was strong. I lived there when the league auctioned off all the teams surplus merchandise and equipment. It drew quite a crowd.

This article says that the first 8 teams will be announced in January. If so, I hope they mean early January. This slow news leak stuff is driving me crazy.

Tags: nfl, ufl, football, united+football+league, xfl, las+vegas

Popularity: 85% [?]

I’ve been covering the United Football League since it was announced in May of this year and I can tell you all that there is to know about the league. Of course, at this point, that’s not much.

It’s hard to find out many facts about the league. The official website, UFL2008.com, doesn’t reveal much. I’ve had to paste together my picture of the league from various quotes and a few conversations with people who are connected to the league.

I’m patient. I know that good things come to those who wait and very shortly a ton of details about the UFL will be revealed. They’ll have to if they want to keep up with the schedule to start playing in the fall of 2008.

So I’m surprised when someone who makes their living at writing about sports writes off the UFL when so little is known about the league. Take, for instance, John Pruett of the Huntsville Times:

The same thing goes for the eight-team United Football League, which is also supposed to start up next year in Los Angeles, Las Vegas and various other big cities that don’t currently have National Football League franchises.At least the UFL plans to play (on Friday nights) in the fall, the traditional time for NFL and college football. But even if the league works out a TV contract, how many fans across the country will choose to forego [sic] their local high school games - or ESPN’s Friday night college game, for that matter - to watch a pro game played by a bunch of guys who couldn’t make an NFL roster?

When’s the last time he was at a high school game? Except in the parts of the country where High School is huge (parts of Texas mostly) the game is usually attended only by player’s parents and other students. We’re talking about a very small group of fans here in most metropolis areas.

Even then the UFL has announced that they’ll start play 3-4 weeks ahead of the first High School games and end before the High School playoff season begins. This will give the UFL teams some exposure when no other teams are playing (HS, NCAA, or NFL) and make sure they’re not buried in the news when the other leagues are wrapping up.

I also think it’s a little unfair to say that the league is full of NFL rejects until you see who actually makes up the league. I’m thinking the UFL is going to make sure there will be a good mix of players who have previously played in the NFL, perhaps as recently as 2007.

Tags: ufl, aafl, nfl, football, united football league, high school football

Popularity: 60% [?]

A little bit of news from the All American Football League. The lineup of teams for the inaugural season has been finalized. They are: Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Michigan, Tennessee, and Texas.

It appears that the AAFL is happy to see itself as a bit of a minor league for the NFL, at least when it comes to the officials. The NFL’s Vice President of Officiating Mike Pereira will oversee the AAFL’s referee crews. This is a level of partnership I’m sure the NFL won’t be offering to the UFL.

The AAFL announced that the league will hold its first ever training camp in Mobile, Alabama in March, 2008. All six teams will be in attendance.

Looks like the AAFL is on a course to at least one successful season. To me that only means good things for the UFL. A successful spring league proves the point that there is still demand for more professional football.

Tags: aafl, football, ufl, all+nfl, american+football+league, united+football+league

Popularity: 57% [?]

Over at the AOL FANHouse David Warner ponders the fate of Panther’s rookie QB Matt Moore who may get the start this weekend.
 

it looks like Matt Moore, the rookie from Oregon State, will get his opportunity to start. Unless he works miracles in this game, this start will be little more than his preparation for a United Football League career.

Not sure what Warner is trying to say about Moore’s playing ability, but the UFL will be attractive territory for 2nd and 3rd string NFL QBs who might jump at the chance to get play time. However, there are only going to be 8 starting spots in year one. So I’m not sure how much of an affect that’s going to have on the NFL’s ability to retain top talent.

Tags: ufl, football, nfl, united+football+league, quarterback

Popularity: 43% [?]