In the very first USFL, the Philadelphia/Baltimore Stars made it to the championship three times during the 1980’s. The Stars won 2 of them. The USFL shut down for any chances for a three peat for the Stars like many of these spring football leagues that come into our lives like cicadas who hang out for weeks and then die. The Birmingham Stallions won the very first USFL championship in the reboot in 2022. Then the USFL hung around for the second year and the Stallions won it again. Then the USFL merges with the XFL, they call themselves the UFL, and the Stallions won the very first championship in this league on Father’s Day. Head coach Skip Holtz is the mastermind behind this Stallions dynasty who is the son of great college coach Lou who won a National Championship with the Fighting Irish of Notre Dame.

Skip Holtz has coached with his father at the college level for years. Skip took on a head coaching job leaving his father. His last job he was fired at Louisiana Tech in 2021. Holtz first crack at professional football he definitely has some highlights for his new resume. Skip is 32-4 in three seasons with the Stallions. He has won with a different quarterback each season. In the first season it was J’Mar Smith who was still on the Stallions roster this season. Then Alex McGough in 2023 was magnificent as he was MVP of the USFL and now is on the Green Bay Packers roster as one of their back up QB’s. This year they won it with former Cornhusker Adrian Martinez who was the MVP of the first UFL championship game. The first UFL championship also was the debut of Tom Brady as a Fox sports announcer for the upcoming NFL season.

Brady gave the MVP award to Adrian Martinez after the game. Then he was a guest in the Fox broadcasting booth and threw in his two cents of how the game was going at the time. If you are a Brady hater like I am, you may be muting the games he broadcasts on the NFL this coming fall. The first UFL championship was being played in St.Louis so the other former NFL quarterback stole the show over Brady.

Former St. Louis Ram Kurt Warner was well applauded when he was announced before the game kicked off. Warner won a Superbowl with the Rams when they were in St. Louis. The BattleHawks fans showed up to the game despite their team losing to the San Antonio Brahmas in the XFL conference finals. The BattleHawks fans did not fill the stadium when their team played, but the UFL championship was in their city so why not. When Kurt Warner’s name was announced in the pregame festivities, the crowd went wild. The first UFL championship between the Brahmas and the Stallions had 27,396 people in attendance. Obviously the league would have wanted the BattleHawks to make it for a instant full house and to me a better game.

THE GAME

The first half in the first ever UFL championship game was like two boxers just dancing in the ring exchanging a few jabs. It was a sloppy first half. The defenses were playing tough. The two offenses may have been trying to get the butterflies out of their stomachs. Poor Wade Phillips waiting 55 years to get to a professional championship witnessed his quarterback turn into Jay Cutler and it seemed like he did not really want to be there. Chase Garbers twice did a quarterback slide around the first down marker to come up short of converting the third down.

Garbers could have easily made the first down by putting his head down and running to the marker on both those plays that killed potential scoring drives. His play seemed to irritate other players on his own team. Garbers’ body language during this game is the tale of the tape. He was playing like the team was down 40 to 0 in the first quarter. The Brahmas had to burn a time out for Teez Tabor, a defensive back, to change his socks. In Tabor’s defense he did lead the Brahmas defense with ten tackles.The Stallions drew first blood with 40 seconds left in the first half. Adrian Martinez suddenly came to life & hit Gary Jennings for an 8 yard touchdown strike for the first ever score in the UFL championship history.

Martinez then converted the 2 point conversion hitting his other wide receiver Amari Rodgers and at the end of the first half, 8-0 Stallions. In the second half, the Stallions got the ball first. They drove down the field as Martinez capped the drive off with an 11 yard run for a touchdown. Martinez finished the day completing only 13-28 for only 98 passing yards with the touchdown pass. However Martinez scored two rushing touchdowns for the Stallions with 52 yards on the ground. He was awarded MVP of the game. His running back Ricky Person had a nice day on the ground fighting for 102 rushing yards on 13 carries against the number one defense overall in the UFL, the Brahmas. The Stallions defense is a very close number two to the Brahmas defense. On Father’s Day, the Stallions looked like they had the number one defense in the UFL as they pitched a shut out 25-0. Which is the first shut out of the season in the UFL’s first season.

The Stallions’ Kyahva Tezino punched out the ball on Brahmas wide receiver Jontre Kirklin as Birmingham recovered the ball. The Brahmas turnover would lead to another score for the Stallions and put the game out of reach. Tezino played against the Stallions in the 2023 USFL championship as he suited up for the Pittsburgh Maulers then. Maulers would not be one of the teams picked in the merger. The Stallions like all the surviving teams got to draft the players from the teams that did not make the cut. The Stallions added talent to a team already having tons of it.

From the legend of Scooby Wright, the Stallions top line backer from the beginning of the Stallions journey. Injuries the last two seasons have kept him inactive recovering in the Mystery Van. The Stallions have that core in place with moving parts if they need replacements. I’m sure the NFL will pluck some talent away from Skip Holtz this off-season. It will not matter because the Stallions organization will find replacements for those pieces that will fit in those vacated spots on the roster. Holtz seems to get the best out of all his players who put on a Stallions uniform. The UFL is many players’ second chance to get back to the NFL. These players the NFL has failed to develop for whatever reason. Holtz is definitely the quarterback whisperer. The Stallions have that team concept so it is a dynasty that you can’t help but root for. Skippy is definitely King of the spring dance as he has found his calling for at least right now.