RedRamage Posted February 28 Share Posted February 28 Schedule: March 30 Saturday vs the St. Louis Battlehawks at 4 p.m. April 7 Sunday vs the Birmingham Stallions at noon April 14 Sunday vs the Houston Roughnecks at noon April 20 Saturday at the San Antonio Brahmas at 7 p.m. April 28 Sunday at the Memphis Showboats at 3 p.m. May 5 Sunday vs the Arlington Renegades at 1 p.m. May 12 Sunday at the D.C. Defenders at noon May 18 Saturday vs the Memphis Showboats at 4 p.m. May 26 Sunday at the Houston Roughnecks at 2:30 p.m. June 1 Saturday at the Birmingham Stallions at noon It's too bad the UFL didn't schedule a game in Detroit on April 28th, Draft Weekend. I think some of the NFL fans in the city for the event might have be lured into attending a UFL game after the draft. But I don't know if Ford Field is being used extensively for any draft festivities and if so maybe they didn't think they'd have time to prepare it for a game on Sunday. I supposed it's also possible that the NFL didn't want any UFL stuff going on in Detroit even the day after their big draft event. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
buddha Posted March 17 Share Posted March 17 beats watching baseball. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MichiganCardinal Posted March 17 Share Posted March 17 @RedRamageyou seem knowledgable about the USFL.... or UFL.... or whatever. How sustainable? Are they about to fold midseason? I have an opportunity to purchase Row 1 season tickets right behind the Panthers bench, and I'm wondering if it's worth it. I'm sure I would go to a game or two. I miss football. But I would also re-sell a few. I just don't want the league to fold on my way to Ford Field lol. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RedRamage Posted March 18 Author Share Posted March 18 13 hours ago, MichiganCardinal said: How sustainable? Are they about to fold midseason? I don't think there's too much danger of a mid-season fold... but this is just one guys opinion. I don't have any inside information. They have TV deals with FOX and ESPN so there's at least some money backing them. From the merger now they're down to just the best 4 teams (from a marketing/sales perspective) from XFL and the USFL, so in theory there shouldn't be a lot of dead weight teams that are financially failing. The stadiums being used are mostly major stadiums as well, which lends some weight to the idea that they aren't a fly by night league playing in Div. III college stadiums. I did make the trip to one game last season at Ford Field (I'm over on the west side of the state) and it was a lot of fun. Not huge attendance my any stretch of the imagination, but it wasn't empty either. It was kinda nice being able to get up close without having to pay through the nose. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RedRamage Posted March 18 Author Share Posted March 18 15 hours ago, GoBlue23 said: Hold up, the USFL is now the UFL and includes teams from the XFL? I have no idea what's going on. As for the season, looks like the Panthers are 7th of the 8 teams as far as odds to win the championship so I'm guessing we shouldn't be expecting too much from them. Yeah as hard as it is to have a Spring League, when you try to have two of 'em that makes it even harder so they merged and took only the most successful teams (financially speaking) from each league. The Panthers have NOT been great on the field. They did make the playoffs last year, but that's only because their division sucked. And that's not like "Oh, this division isn't quite stacking up to the competition." No, it SUCKED. Not a team in the division finished over .500. So no, I don't expect the Panthers to do very well in 2024. Still, it's something kinda fun to follow during the NFL off season and I'll be watching the games if I've got nothing else going on. Hopefully the merged leagues means the Panthers can pick up some more skilled players from the other teams that folded, but I'm not holding my breath or anything. Part of their issue was inconsistent QB play. Once in a while one of their QBs would have a good game, but this would never carry over to the next game. They were often shuffling who the starter was. Coming in this year they are three new QBs... none of have played in a professional game. They've had various stints on NFL practice squads or even occasionally the active roster, but never played a down. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sports_Freak Posted March 30 Share Posted March 30 And the Panthers take the lead.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RandyMarsh Posted March 30 Share Posted March 30 (edited) Dude for the Panthers just DRILLED a 64yd kick to take the lead with 2 seconds left. Why and the hell isn't he in the NFL or better yet on the Lions? edit: K now I know why, they just showed the graphic and this was his first FG attempt since HS, didn't kick at all in college or anywhere else in organized football so he must have just came out of nowhere. If this is a sign of things to come he will be in the NFL next year for sure. Edited March 30 by RandyMarsh 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MichiganCardinal Posted March 30 Share Posted March 30 DO NOT ALLOW THAT MAN TO LEAVE THE BUILDING 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RandyMarsh Posted March 30 Share Posted March 30 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MichiganCardinal Posted March 30 Share Posted March 30 3 minutes ago, RandyMarsh said: Dude for the Panthers just DRILLED a 64yd kick to take the lead with 2 seconds left. Why and the hell isn't he in the NFL or better yet on the Lions? edit: K now I know why, they just showed the graphic and this was his first FG attempt since HS, didn't kick at all in college or anywhere else in organized football so he must have just came out of nowhere. If this is a sign of things to come he will be in the NFL next year for sure. I don’t give a **** if he’s Henry Rowengartner, give the dude a contract Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Motown Bombers Posted March 30 Share Posted March 30 Is Cam Sutton on the Panthers? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sports_Freak Posted March 31 Share Posted March 31 1 hour ago, RandyMarsh said: He actually made it twice. A time-out was called just before he kicked the first one. Kid may be good... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hongbit Posted March 31 Share Posted March 31 14 minutes ago, Sports_Freak said: He actually made it twice. A time-out was called just before he kicked the first one. Kid may be good... Any idea how UFL contracts work. Can NFL teams sign players at any time or do they have any agreement to wait until the end of the season? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MichiganCardinal Posted March 31 Share Posted March 31 8 minutes ago, Hongbit said: Any idea how UFL contracts work. Can NFL teams sign players at any time or do they have any agreement to wait until the end of the season? I'd be surprised if they didn't allow them to break their contract for an NFL deal. Otherwise I expect a strong contingent of the fringe talent they attract would stay at home, stay healthy, and wait to get a call for a private workout. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MichiganCardinal Posted March 31 Share Posted March 31 I wonder if there might be a calculus to possibly keep four special teams players on your active roster instead of the three it is currently. Instead of looking at the roles as field goals, kickoffs, punts, holds, long snaps, what if it could be divided further into long and short field goals. It feels like if you combined Badgley’s XPs with this dude’s distance you’d have a killer NFL kicker. And for the (rare) situations where you have a kicker pull a hammy, you don’t have to put in Suh to kick an extra point. Roster spots are sacred on an NFL roster obviously, but at the same time, you had guys like Antoine Green and Khalil Dorsey who were active for most games but rarely saw the field. Could it be worth keeping one of them on the practice squad for? Probably not. And will never happen. But #OffseasonThoughts. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
holygoat Posted March 31 Share Posted March 31 18 hours ago, Sports_Freak said: He actually made it twice. A time-out was called just before he kicked the first one. Kid may be good... Here's the extended cut with both kicks. Unreal. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RedRamage Posted April 1 Author Share Posted April 1 I wonder if you can be under contract with both organizations? I mean, obviously this would have to be with permission but if I'm the Lions I'd certain be willing to sign the guy to a contract and let him keep kicking with the Panthers for the season. See what happens. Was this a fluke? If so, cut him before preseason and you out what, a few thousand dollars? If it's not a fluke he's getting good practice in "real game" situation and will be ready to compete come training camp. There's not the same level of danger of damage/wear-and-tear on a kicker playing out a season as there would be for other positions. UFL gets some publicity... Lions get a potential player locked up... win-win. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gehringer_2 Posted April 1 Share Posted April 1 2 hours ago, RedRamage said: I wonder if you can be under contract with both organizations? First guess would be that if the UFL contracts didn't give guys rights to sign/jump to NFL deals, they'd have a hard time recruiting players. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RedRamage Posted April 1 Author Share Posted April 1 37 minutes ago, gehringer_2 said: First guess would be that if the UFL contracts didn't give guys rights to sign/jump to NFL deals, they'd have a hard time recruiting players. Right, but I'm saying more like being under contract with BOTH. Like I said above an ideal situation for the Lions is that they sign this guy NOW (so another NFL teams can't) but still let him play with the Panthers. This gives the Lions a chance to see if this guy is for real or just got lucky in "real game" situations. It gives the Panthers publicity too... like: "Hey Detroiters, come see the future kicking star of the Lions!" The UFL season will be done before training camp for the NFL season starts, so he could complete his season with the Panthers then just start training camp with the Lions. Obviously this would be super hard on a regular player, but I suspect a kicker could handle with without issue. There's of course a danger for the Lions (assuming they were the ones who signed him) that he might injure himself, but this is also not as likely for a kicker (at least a kicker not named Gramatica) and getting more history might be worth it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hongbit Posted April 1 Share Posted April 1 My initial thoughts were this too but the reality is that none of these players were signing NFL contracts right now prior to joining the UFL. They didn’t have much negotiating room and the league can set it up how they’d like. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RedRamage Posted April 1 Author Share Posted April 1 3 hours ago, Hongbit said: My initial thoughts were this too but the reality is that none of these players were signing NFL contracts right now prior to joining the UFL. They didn’t have much negotiating room and the league can set it up how they’d like. This would be a really interesting reality show... follow around some fringe NFL guys. See how they make the decision of whether to join the UFL or not. I'd be really curious how a lot of the back of the house stuff works here... what their agents advice... how the leagues (both NFL and UFL) view this stuff. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MichiganCardinal Posted April 1 Share Posted April 1 40 minutes ago, RedRamage said: This would be a really interesting reality show... follow around some fringe NFL guys. See how they make the decision of whether to join the UFL or not. I'd be really curious how a lot of the back of the house stuff works here... what their agents advice... how the leagues (both NFL and UFL) view this stuff. Call it "#53". Start following five six players on different teams in like June or July. The Trinity Benson/Tom Kennedy types of fringe roster players. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sports_Freak Posted April 3 Share Posted April 3 Just get to mid-field and kick it!! 😆 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MichiganCardinal Posted April 7 Share Posted April 7 Kind of impressed by the turnout given they’re competing with a Tigers Opening Weekend game and a Wings playoff push game. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gehringer_2 Posted April 7 Share Posted April 7 53 minutes ago, MichiganCardinal said: Kind of impressed by the turnout given they’re competing with a Tigers Opening Weekend game and a Wings playoff push game. looks like they might have covered the heating bill.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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