The Biggest Winners—And Losers—in the XFL-USFL Merger
Fit To Speak host and Common Sense Entertainment VP Eugene Obah offers his analysis—and takes a victory lap—on today’s news on the federal government’s approval of the merger
After initial reporting from Axios in September about the impending merger of two spring football leagues, the XFL and the USFL, Sports Business Journal reported Thursday that the merger between the nascent leagues was approved by the U.S. Government, with terms to be finalized and further announcements to be made in due course. What we do know is that Russ Brandon, who serves as CEO of the XFL, will serve in the same capacity in the combined league, which will begin play on Saturday March 30, 2024.
The merger developments have moved through with lightning speed—relatively speaking—in that it seemed, more likely than not from Axios’s reporting, that both leagues would play a season in 2024 (the XFL’s second consecutive season of its third iteration; the USFL’s third consecutive of its second iteration), with the combined league kicking off in 2025, but we know now that it will not be the case. Now, barring any plot twists, this will be the third time that the XFL, in name, will not have a second consecutive season. And for the USFL, the completed second season earlier this summer will be the last—and, I think it is also worth noting that the original ‘80s version of the league will have outlasted the newest iteration by a year, and perhaps would have continued to run if not for somebody who would later become the 45th President of the United States.
It is with this that, in large part, I must take a bit of a victory lap.
I have enumerated on multiple editions of Fit To Speak, from my 2022 commentary on the first season of the USFL, my interview with The Markcast host Reid Johnson, to my commentaries on both leagues after their 2023 seasons ended, that the USFL, as a sports property—a product—is inferior in the intangibles and optics that matter, especially to the casual viewers and younger audiences that are needed for the cause for spring football to be an actual thing in the United States, which, especially for the past four decades, has not been the case.
For this to work, especially from the perspective of non-diehards who are largely fueled by seeing stars on the field, like, say, a Patrick Mahomes or a Jalen Hurts, there has to be energy; the games have to be immersive experiences, and frankly, there was more energy at Jeb Bush rallies. When the XFL and USFL played their respective seasons in 2023 after the USFL had the market to itself the year prior, it only magnified the USFL’s failure as an overall package—in fact, it was the XFL, not the USFL, that had higher demo ratings among those under the age of 50, higher average total viewership, higher social media engagement—it was announced yesterday that the XFL had 1 billion social media impressions—and, most of all, had many more fans filling stadiums, most notably in St. Louis and Washington DC, two of the markets that are expected to survive the merger. Even the Vegas Vipers, which is not expected to survive the merger, and had the worst looking field/venue of any team in either league, had more attendance.
And let us not forget that the most recent USFL Championship, which aired on NBC, could not beat reruns of America’s Funniest Home Videos (also, just as a bit of an aside, I had mentioned on the show a post on X from journalist Mike Mitchell stating NBC’s disappointment in the USFL’s ratings, and, when you consider the averages, especially on NBCUniversal’s cable properties, they would have been better off running Slap Chop infomercials or repeats of ALF).
Given all of this, it is no surprise that Russ Brandon will lead the new league—whatever it is called. You would think, hearing it from some folks in the USFL stan camp, including those who are playing dress-up as journalists, that FOX, which owns the USFL, would rule the roost, and that Daryl “Moose” Johnston would run the new league, which apparently, according to them, would have been a hostile takeover of the XFL with all 8 existing USFL teams and only 4 XFL teams. There was also a lot of wild speculation and “reporting” from, by and large, the USFL stan camp, which include, besides the softest fanbase of any sports league in American history, a motley crew of paid shills, stenographers, trolls and corporate shock jocks in New Jersey that would make Charissa Thompson a Pulitzer Prize winner.
But Moose is not running the league, a fact that was very telling when he was not among the attendees in Washington DC in an image that was originally on Dany Garcia’s Instagram account—Eric Shanks, CEO and Executive Producer of FOX Sports was the only representation for FOX, along with Burke Magnus, President of Content, ESPN, Gerry Cardinale and Mark Dowley of RedBird Capital Partners, and Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, the aforementioned Garcia, and Russ Brandon of the XFL, who, along with RedBird, own the league. When I merely pointed this out—along with the fact there was no NBC representation—in a reply post on X earlier this week, quite a few of the stans provided, via pollution of my mentions, not only a masterclass in emotional instability, but in proving the points I have made for the past year about how untethered to reality much of the base is.
It is notable, besides the fact that these sad saps—whose education was a complete waste of time—choose to exhibit their warped views to the masses, that they parallel much of the political discourse in recent years: not only do they love being loud and wrong, they also wear their stupidity like a badge of honor in public.
As the host of Fit To Speak, my only partisanship is to the truth. The facts do not care about your feelings, and when it comes to delivering the news, nor do I.
Let me be clear that the loss of jobs and opportunities for players and staff will no doubt be, indeed, a loss. It is certainly my hope that many will be absorbed, and, if the league is to be successful, opportunities will be had via future expansion. In totality, based on these developments, this is a win for the cause of spring football in the United States—done properly—and a win for common sense.
But for all the USFL stans, paid shills, shock jocks and hacks who took me on since 2022?
You all lose.
_______
Catch up with the recently completed fourth season of Fit To Speak on our YouTube channel. Subscribe over there so that you can directly support independent content creators, and will be the first to get the second season of Fit To Speak: From The Archives in early 2024. Also consider donating to and/or sharing Crime Redefined’s GoFundMe page, who are crowdfunding an independent investigation into the disappearance of broadcast industry professional and University of Maryland alum Terrence Woods Jr., who has been missing since 2018.