After the Superbowl last season between the Eagles versus Chiefs, that concluded the NFL season with Patrick Mahomes and Kansas City prevailing, we had bonus football. Many people become footballed out after the NFL season wraps up. Some people still have their football juices flowing and we had two Spring leagues to indulge in. The XFL launched their third attempt to established themselves. The XFL played right after the Superbowl and finished regular season this go around. They had a post-season and an actual champion. This was unlike in 2020 when the XFL only lasted half way through their season in the second attempt. The season was cancelled due to the pandemic. The 1980’s USFL league was resurrected in 2022. The second stint of the USFL was successful completing two full seasons and declared a winner in both post-seasons. The USFL and XFL entwined for a few weeks which gave the football fan’s a double load of games in those weeks. The USFL finishes both seasons around the 4th of July. Like a Spring football buffet and watching the gridiron almost all year round. Now the XFL and USFL will merge into one league next Spring, on March 30th, and transform into the UFL. Something like in the Transformers with the Construct-icons transforming into Devastator in one league with all the talent, bells and whistles.

The USFL and XFL had 8 teams in their leagues last year. Many thought the merger would suddenly double the one league to 16 teams, which is not the case. Each league will enter 4 of their teams and like the last few years of Spring Football, it will be an 8 team league. The XFL had each team play their home games in their own respective city last season and in 2020. The USFL first season in 2022 all games were played in Birmingham. Then the playoffs were played in Canton, Ohio at the Football Hall of Fame. Last year the USFL had 4 hub cities they played home games at, with two teams sharing one town. Then the playoffs were still played at the Football Hall of fame. Out of the 8 teams that have made the cut, only one team did not really have their own fan base. Both leagues had a team in Houston. The Gamblers of the USFL will get the nod over the Roughnecks of the XFL. The Gamblers played their home games last year in Memphis.

The Michigan Panthers, Birmingham Stallions, Memphis Showboats, and Houston Gamblers will be the 4 USFL teams. The Panthers, Stallions, and Showboats played games in their own town last season. The Stallions played in front of the home crowd in both seasons and built up a nice fan base. The Showboats have only played one season so far as they debuted last year and replaced the Tampa Bay Bandits who played one season in 2022. The Stallions have won both USFL championships since the league has come back from the grave. The merger kept both leagues champions as the Arlington Renegades, who won it all in the XFL, have made the list.

The St. Louis Battle Hawks, Arlington Renegades, San Antonio Brahmas, and the DC Defenders will be the 4 XFL teams coming back. Since the Rams of the NFL left St. Louis and moved back to LA, they’ve been starving for a football team. The Battle Hawks fans may be one of the best Spring football fan bases of all-time because they pack that stadium every week. The Beer Snake returns in DC which was another great fan base in the XFL. Then there’s San Antonio, who used to have a USFL team in the 1980’s called the Gunslingers.

San Antonio has the Alamo Dome where they can support a football team. The city of San Antonio has been very supportive of their Commanders of the AAFL American Alliance Football league which was another Spring league to bite the dust. They also supported their Brahmas last year as well. Then the Renegades gives this league multiple Texas teams in its first season merging this into the UFL.

What happens to the other 8 teams that did not make the cut for this original merger plan? The USFL teams not making the cut are the Pittsburgh Maulers, Philadelphia Stars, New Orleans Breakers, and the New Jersey Generals.

The Stars and Maulers were losers to Birmingham in the Championship the last two seasons in the NFL. None of these four teams have played in front of their own home crowd. The Stars were the Stallions of the 1980’s USFL dominating the league. All four teams including the Tampa Bay Bandits are on pause right now. You can also figure other USFL teams from the 1980’s that were not yet used are still on pause. Some of these teams we may be seeing sooner rather than later.

The XFL teams that are not making the cut are the Houston Roughnecks, Orlando Guardians, Vegas Vipers, and the Seattle Sea Dragons. The Roughnecks have one of the better XFL logos in the league. Another oil rig logo to bite the dust like the Houston Oilers who moved to Tennessee to become the Titans in the NFL. The Vipers played at a minor league baseball field as they really did not draw a fan base. The Guardians in Orlando were a terrible team that did not create a huge support system in the Sunshine State. I thought the Seattle organization did very well. Maybe the merger is not quite ready for teams on the west coast. Like the USFL teams, all the XFL teams not in use could be activated in the future.

It was Fox Sports that relaunched the USFL. The Red Bird Capital partners that feature “The Rock,” Dwayne Johnson and Dany Garcia purchased Vince McMahon’s XFL when it went bankrupt after the unfinished 2020 season. The Federal regulators approved the merger and the name of the new league being called the UFL United Football League. Obviously there’s more news to come out about this new league as the USFL and the XFL had some different rules in their own leagues. Which networks will be doing the broadcasting of these games? We know Fox Sports will be one of them. With 8 teams, most likely 4 teams will make post-season play. Most of these Spring leagues had two games on Saturday and two games on Sunday. The 8 teams coming back I imagine will keep the players they already have under contract. The rest of the players from the teams not merging at this time. Will they be free agents or will their be a draft for them? Each league has done drafts before each season to add younger players to fill in the roster. Players undrafted. Plus players that could not stick on NFL rosters. Will the same coaches be leading the teams picked for the merger? Lots of stuff before March to iron out. I did like watching two different leagues. Some of the football was watered down though. This new league will have better competition as rosters will be stacked with tons of talent. If both leagues did not merge, I know down the line one of the leagues would have folded up shop. Maybe both leagues would have folded up running independently. Now they can consolidate their funds and build up some of these markets. They already have a few markets that have done well with fannies in the seats. More to come on the latest merger of XFL and USFL transforming into the Devastator of the football world.