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Source: USFL |
The USFL is off to a rough start. We were committed to covering this league, with Pittsburgh having a team, although just in name alone. The Pittsburgh Maulers were an exciting, new professional football team that would don the…purple and orange? Despite not being black and gold, this color scheme actually made sense, staying true to the original league back in the 1980’s. However, it was already not being accepted by some die-hards in Pittsburgh.
Another difficulty of becoming loyal to this new team was
that no game would be played in Pittsburgh for the first season, nor was the
team owned by anyone associated with the city.
Fox Sports owns this entire new league and all games would be played in
Birmingham, Alabama, at least for the first season.
However, professional football in the spring is fun so we were eager to get on board. We previewed the draft, reported on their rule adaptations, and talked about them several times on Saved By the Ball, our newest Pittsburgh sports podcasts.
We did this despite very little information being released by the league itself. They hadn’t even released the player poll prior to the draft, essentially ending any draft speculation that fuels football talk in the offseason. The NFL offseason thrives on draft speculation.
This episode includes Antonio discussing the impressive changes at PNC Park he experienced Tuesday, the @USFLMaulers upcoming opener, @Penguins talk with @LetsTalkPIT, and the weekly hypothetical!#Pirates #Penguins #Maulershttps://t.co/ja9Dn5Z6G4 [https://t.co/bEGJKZ12Sb] pic.twitter.com/x9xDrhP1or
— Gold Lot Sports (@GoldLotSports) April 13, 2022
After the USFL Draft, we reached out through several different
avenues to try and interview any Pittsburgh Maulers’ player or coach. We never received a response. Our goal was simply to promote the league to
more fans and get the word out. Nothing.
Now this isn’t some sour grapes story. We are not the largest media outlet so we
would have been honored by an interview, and certainly did not expect one. Also, it did not stop us from continuing to
cover the league and still have excitement for the upcoming season.
Unfortunately, I don’t think this weekend’s opening games
can be characterized by anything other than underwhelming, and maybe even a
bust. First, starting your league on
Easter weekend turned out not to be a good idea. People have too much going on, prior
commitments, and long-standing traditions that don’t involve watching football
on Easter. I did not see any social media buzz about the games up until the Pittsburgh Maulers game was set to start.
I finally was ready to tune into the Maulers when I noticed
the game was not starting on time. I
didn’t notice this from a tweet nor an Instagram post from the league, but just
the fact that it was 8PM and the game was not on the scheduled channel. I had to Google “Pittsburgh Maulers” to find
that the game was indeed delayed an hour due to weather.
A football game delayed due to weather? I mean it occasionally happens in the NFL,
but we certainly would call it unusual.
This delay was perpetuated by the fact that all the games are played on the
same field throughout the weekend. The
combination of the weather and the amount of football that had been played on
that field caused the surface to be unsafe for the 8PM game. The game was postponed.
The TB - PIT game has been rescheduled for Monday at 7PM ET on FS1.
— USFL (@USFL) April 18, 2022
Fans holding tickets to today’s games can attend by presenting their April 17th ticket. https://t.co/LBjNPajP3a
It is rescheduled for tonight, Monday the 18th at 7PM. Just in time for it to now compete with the Pittsburgh Pirates and Milwaukee Brewers at 7:40 PM. While the Pirates are not the city’s favorite team right now, they will still steal fans away from the Maulers.
Case in point, I have two televisions in my
living room. One is for whatever my wife
wants to watch together and the other is for a muted sports game. I will have the Pirates on the latter
tonight where I would have had the Maulers on last night. I am just one guy, but as the USFL’s target
demo, I can use myself as an example of a lost fan. I can't be the only one.
It's simply a tough start for a league desperate to find
some footing.
Then, this embarrassing and incriminating video came out
about the Maulers and former running back De’Veon Smith. Smith is meeting with Maulers head coach
Kirby Wilson. In the video, Smith is cut
because he was delivered a chicken salad instead of pizza. Seriously, here’s the video below. Watch for yourself.
I'm glad this was captured on video, imagine De'Veon Smith trying to tell this story to someone lol. No one would have believed him. https://t.co/JAiJ6QE6Vt
— gifdsports (@gifdsports) April 18, 2022
The most embarrassing part about this video is it’s not as
if the video was leaked. It was put out
by the league as some sort of “we hold our players to higher standards” type
video during the rain delay last night. It makes Wilson look like a
total fool and the league itself look even worse. It is making its rounds through Twitter today,
and the more views it gets, the worse it is for the USFL.
In a league that already is terrible at reporting relevant
news, has very little buzz around it, and had several issues opening weekend,
this video is not a good look for a league hoping to be taken seriously. We will continue to try and report news of
the Pittsburgh Maulers, when they even give us relevant news to report, but
this league does not appear as if it will last long.
So say you!
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