Welcome to Zomb Phox UFL where I will provide content on the UFL with power rankings, week reviews, rankings, game picks and much more! I also cover any major news regarding the league and will do videos about previous spring leagues like the original USFL, original XFL, AAF, as well as the modern versions of both the USFL and XFL.
i could see some of the brands returning but in different cities, the wfl for ex. the americans and vulcans were birmingham, the vulcans would be out cause tht is just an iconic landmark for the city, but i could see the americans laced in another city same for the thunderbolts of the original xfl, the barracudas from the cfl exansion., {one of the best uniforms ever} could be relocated, ,the oklahoma outlaws,oaklnd invaders,and sherveort steamers and orlando aollos are a few other teams i would return.
The Stallions are a problem for the league. Their dominance probably doesnt help build fan bases in other markets and at the same time, it doesnt seem to be helping to build much of one in Birmingham either (not a ticket buying one anyway). There isnt really many upsides for the league in terms of the Stallions continuing to win. Not only for aforementioned reasons, but a championship team would be a huge boost for others markets. Its kind of being wasted on Birmingham at this point. Sure, their games will get a little more viewers from the other markets but thatll happen for whoever is the best team. I honestly believe if the Stallions win another one next year that the league needs to move on from Holtz even if he wants to stay. Things would be seriously boring at that point for every other market.
I think New Orleans is all but a lock to get a team (Breakers most likely) in the first wave of expansion, but I would love to see the Dragons return to Seattle as well (even though that probably isn't for a few years).
What do y’all think is the Game of the year? I'm picking St. Louis vs. Birmingham Nolan should be #1 on the list, even though I'm a Stallions fan. He did more with less talent. Most coaches wouldn't have accomplished what he did with that team
I personally don't think you can go against Holtz since he has still yet to lose a playoff game and has been able to get new talent (mainly QB) and make it work with ease. I think that game has a great shot at being game of the year since it actually was able to live up to all the hype it had. There are a few other games that were really good like the second Panthers vs Roughnecks game and the second Stallions vs Roughnecks game that are competitors though.
USFL division is kinda boring because there are only 3 true USFL teams in the division. Get rid of the Roughnecks (or put them back into the XFL division), they are an XFL team. Bring back the Ganblers, or the Breakers, Generals, Stars, Maulers, or Bandits. If the Roughnecks were to win the division then the championship game will be 2 XFL teams, and I have no interest in the game
I think it's a tough call, but I would give him another year. I would like to see a change in either the philosophy of how the team is built or get a new GM.
My tier list is Please bring back the Omaha Nighthawks' New Orleans Breakers New jersey Generals Philadelphia stars Pittsburgh maulers Sacramento locos Seattle sea dragons San Diego Fleet Oakland Invaders Might or Doubtful Denver Gold Tampa Bay Bandits Ohio Glory Los Angeles Extreme The D &F tier are teams with no shot
I would love to see the Gold return, but it definitely feels like a long shot for them to be brought back. If they bring back the Invaders I really hope they don't change their logo or uniforms.
You make some good points. A lot of that applies to the NFL as well. AFC West is boring because the Chiefs are gonna win the division. The NFL will get boring if the Chiefs keep winning.
It's still crazy to think that a couple of years ago people hyped up the AFC west as this incredible division when Russ went to Denver, man that aged poorly 😂!!!
Now I didn’t watch the Video but. I think the Stallions winning 3 in a Row and things will get boring thing wouldn’t be as bad if this was considered a completely different Leauge. Now I love that the UFL treats this as a continuation of the USFL and XFL. That also makes the Boring Problem Apparent
I think it would be best for the league to have the Stallions lose at least 3 games next year as the fact that across 3 seasons they have 4 total losses is insane.
@@ZombPhoxUFL I think the Stallions are gonna have a down season. Battlehawks gonna get way better I hope. Memphis too. Michagan is primed to beat them.
Birmingham is an anomaly. I don't understand how you could have such a great team and organization and cannot get at least 15K+ per home game. I know a lot of that is marketing and will likely be addressed. I think the other QB-poor teams should trade for a couple of Birmingham's QBs. QB play is what makes a team go, especially on offense. I watched a whole season of bad QB play (except for Memphis) and thought "Birmingham has TOO many good QBs on their team, how did that happen?". Anyway, I hope all the teams do better in the marketing phase of availing and selling their teams to their cities, it would definitely go a long way.
It really is crazy to see how Birmingham can't get to 15K+, I get the argument of the city having low faith low faith in the team surviving, but the Stallions have now been in Birmingham for three straight years and next year they need to see their attendance improve to prove that it is a good market.
My whole issue with this would be the fact parity is important(ig outside of soccer(more unique sb winners in the past decade than champions league winners in the past 50) And while its fine say the Stallions win 2 maybe 3 more Any more than that without a new champion could be bad sign for the league And while I wouldnt penalize the Stallions I would invest money into helping a couple other teams find good gms/coaches However if expansion is in the works for 2026 Nola(outside of the playoffs) famously gives them fights so them and Michigan should lowkey solve that issue themselves somewhat Now as a side note: The USFL prolly might not be decided per say The way the league works anybody can come out of nowhere so the final spot would be open
And a final note On the 4 losses trend that will fix itself when longer schedules come into play(longer schedule = more games = more film on you= better gameplans against you= more opportunities to lose) Add longer contract lengths to the league and gg If you can keep a core group of say 14 guys offensivly and defensively(like the Stallions unironically have) everyone should start competing better And since the Stallion's biggest edge is unironically the GM with a HC as a secondary concern Spend a couple bucks if it gets to be an issue to get good GMs and coaches Tho Im sure when a nfl franchise hears abt the Stallions GM they may throw a couple bucks at him which also will solve the Stallions somewhat
I see this as a good sign for Birmingham. As a Stallions fan even before they came back along with less than half of the USFL, I had high hopes for them. All of the 2022 games would be in Birmingham, and you knew the Stallions would take advantage of it, which they did. Fast forward to today, the Fearless Horsemen racked up a combined 32-4 record in a 3-year span, including playoff victories and the 3 spring league titles, 2 USFL proper and the 1 UFL. Now there is a buzz going on throughout the city of Birmingham. People in Birmingham want to see a winning team on the field, and they have it. The fanbase builds up. As long as the Stallions continue to win, more fans will show up, more interest will build up. Look at the Chiefs and Patriots of today, the Steelers of the 70's, the Niners of the 80's. The Cowboys. Now their fanbases are enormous. Granted we're talking Spring football, where the weather gets too predictable, fans wouldn't go when it's raining, and Birmingham is in the heart of SEC country where the Crimson Tide and Auburn are Kings of Alabama. That would be understandable to make an excuse for the attendance woes. But why should the Stallions struggle at the gate when they have such a successful product on and off the field? The Stallions have the right personnel running the team, staying consistent throughout the season, and not just meeting but exceeding expectations. It makes running a team in a region where college football is a way of life, a rite of passage if you will, just a walk in the park. And you can't dare to lose sight of what this team is about, which is winning. That should be your marketing angle. Do this, and the Stallions will be around for way more than 3 years.
The marketing definitely needs to include how good the team is, but I think they also need to make true die-hard fans who will stay through thick and thin, as while the numbers were bad in Memphis, no one can say that the fans that were there didn't love the team. Hopefully Birmingham keeps winning (and I think we all expect them to lol) but if they start falling to a .500 we need to see the attendance stay relatively similar to what it is when they are winning, and if we do see that we will see some real success there.
ZP you can't say that Birmingham's attendance is ugly. In my opinion it was great. Basically 10k fans on average with absolutely zero marketing of the UFL in Birmingham. The city of Birmingham only has a population of 192,000 people. The UFL had Birmingham playing at home during Alabama A-Day game and Talladega. Which on those days Tuscaloosa and Talladega would've been the most populated cities in the state.
The issue isn't the number itself, but when you consider how great the team is it becomes a problem. I do agree with the UFL marketing being poor and definitely hurt attendance somewhat, but it's not like Birmingham was doing much better (if at all) in 2023. If the team wasn't so good it is very reasonable to say that the attendance average would've been under 8K, especially when you consider the average attendance was inflated from the 14K number in the McCarron homecoming game. I hope next year the attendance improves with better marketing and better scheduling, but we need to see them hit 10K+ every game to be a true success, as I would not call last year a success with attendance.
I appreciate the take, but there was only good as far as I see it. The “XFL was better quality football” nonsense has disappeared, because folks would look foolish to argue that at this point. USFL was better than or at least just as good as the XFL. As far as future competition, the Panthers may have been the second best team in the league and at least gave the Stallions a run in the playoffs, while the Brahmas did not. The other USFL teams can continue to improve to the Stallions level just like the XFL teams can try to.
The XFL was deeper as far as competitive teams and the USFL had the best team. That was what I always said and I think it played out that way this year.
This just goes to show how good they are at team building and coaching. All they know is winning and they've now completed a three-peat within two leagues. This is by far the most dominant spring football team i've ever seen and one of the most dominant football teams in general
They are definitely something special. Going from QB to QB without almost any problem is incredible. Not to mention the defense which has always been a solid unit no matter who is on it as well.
I wish people wouldnt' stress the SHUTOUT as much as they do. The Brahmas could have scored a FG there, but they were down so much 3 points would have been meaningless EXCEPT to shut the "SHUTOUT' people out. Going for the TD was THE play there if you had any hope of coming back. If they kicked the FG, I would have written "Game Over" in my notebook.
That is true and I agree with them needing to go for the TD over the FG, but the history books will have most people in the future viewing the game as a shutout and won't mention that fact.
I think a lot of teams that recorded shutouts over the course of history did so by putting the other team in a position where a field goal did them no good. But I do understand the sentiment of the original comment.
I definitely agree with that, many shutouts happen because of games being blowouts and the losing team needing a TD to get back into it instead of a FG, but naturally as you alluded to history does not remember you having the option to go for a FG, they remember that you scored 0 points.
They struggled against the xfl conference and only dominated a xfl team once and that was championship but I do agree with u on the usfl conference but I also think Michigan has almost caught up to them so I don’t see them being as good as this year goin forward especially the battlehawks I coach becht os goin to build his team to beat them facts ‼️
I really am worried about the USFL conference next year, hopefully Houston and Memphis have great off-seasons to make it a competitive conference. I do still view that Birmingham was dominate against the XFL for the most part as the SA loss was naturally the exception, but in the DC game Birmingham did everything in their power to lose the game and still won and I think most people agree if they showed up to that game like they did for most of the season they would've won by 10+, with Arlington the game pretty much ended after the end of the first half TD since the second half was a total blowout. St. Louis was a close game, but Birmingham still looked like the better team throughout. I do think that if Becht gets a new OC and can keep a lot of his offensive talent the Battlehawks could be a legit threat to Birmingham in 2025, especially if their defense is as good as it was this past season.
@@ZombPhoxUFL Birmingham did not look like the better team when they played the battlehawks I’m sorry if they never would’ve injured our qb that game was ours and the dc if Barlow makes one or to better decisions they win that game easily I don’t man I guess we see stuff differently because u can look at the games they played the xfl conference n and games they played the usfl conference n it’s a huge difference
@allaroundhustle Nah watching the film they looked like the better team The Hawks were competitive The Stallions were just better And the injury while unnecessary can be argued as a defender tryina get a sack
As a Showboats and Stallions fan here I love seeing a dominating dynasty it might just be me because we are witnessing history that hasn't happened much in our life times winning 3 championships in a row but I can definitely see that it can get predictable and no one wants that I'm just gald the UFL still had amazing ratings which is amazing
What the UFL could look like if all 19 USFL teams came back and all 9 XFL 2020 teams came back. Once again there would be 2 Conferences, the USFL conference and the XFL conference. Each conference would have 14 teams in them with 2 divisions (with 7 teams in them). The USFL conference's 2 divisions would be the North and South divisions. The North division would consist of the Chicago Blitz, Denver Gold, Hartford Federals (formerly the Washington Federals), Michigan Panthers, New Jersey Generals, Philadelphia Stars, and the Pittsburgh Maulers. The south division would be the Austin Gamblers (formerly the Houston Gamblers), Birmingham Stallions, Jacksonville Bulls, Memphis Showboats, New Orleans Breakers, Orlando Warriors (formerly the Orlando Renegades), and the Tampa Bay Bandits. The XFL conference would have the East and West divisions. The East division would consist of the Arlington Renegades, DC Defenders, Houston Roughnecks, Ohio Guardians (formerly the Orlando Guardians, and yes they play in Canton Ohio), Oklahoma Outlaws, San Antonio Brahmas, and the St. Louis Battlehawks. The West division would consist of the Arizona Wranglers, Los Angeles Express, Portland Vipers (formerly the Vegas Vipers), Salt Lake City Gunslingers (formerly the San Antonio Gunslingers), San Diego Wildcats (formerly the LA Wildcats), Seattle Sea Dragons and the Oakland Invaders . The regular season would be a 13-game season
The reality the UFL has the rights to the USFL teams and the XFL 2020 teams. Don't think they have the rights to the XFL 2000, guessing Vince McMahon owns the rights to. Besides it seemed the current XFL avoided the original XFL, unlike the USFL goal was to use the teams from the 80's.
I wanted this list to be of just teams from defunct American leagues. If I make an updated one of these in the future I will probably include American CFL and WLAF teams.
If I were to remake this list in the future I would probably add them, but for this one I wanted to include every defunct team from the leagues I used, but with the CFL and WLAF they have many teams that are still playing.
I would say the difference is that the logos for the ship teams are much more similar to each other than the "lawless" teams (if you stick with the current Renegades logo and not the bandit logo).
Naming those brought back a lot of memories. You missed a couple of BHM teams. The Birmingham Fire from the World League of American Football and the Birmingham Barrcudas of the Canadian Football League. We've had so many teams in BHM come and go - fan support has to be earned by the UFL.
For this tier list I only used teams from the 5 leagues I mentioned since leagues like the CFL and WLAF had teams that weren't in the US and I wanted to include every defunct team from a certain league, but also just teams based in the US. I agree fully with Birmingham needing to have the UFL earn the fans' trust as in so many markets we have seen team/league after team/league leave/fold and we need to see the UFL last to build up trust in their markets.
