The inaugural UFL Championship is in the rearview mirror. It’s hard to believe, but the first season of the merged USFL-XFL is complete, with everything from these past 12 weeks culminating in another trophy for the Birmingham Stallions.

While we expected this matchup to be a back and forth affair between two heavyweight fighters in the UFL, this was far from the case. After an ugly first half, the USFL’s Birmingham Stallions pulled away, shutting out the XFL’s San Antonio Brahmas 25-0. In the biggest game of the year, only one team truly showed up.

In this piece, we’ll be taking a closer look at what went down this weekend, and how certain factors weren’t particularly ideal for the UFL. It was, no doubt, a tremendous season of spring football. However, things came to an end on a rather uninspired note at The Dome.

UFL Championship Gameplay

First things first, the FOX Broadcast did an excellent job of keeping things professional and tight, even with some awkward moments to begin this football game. The entire first half was sloppy, disorganized football – which was odd to see in such an important affair.

Right off the bat there were plenty of timeouts called, including one for DB Teez Tabor to change his socks (what?), which set the tone for the entire evening. Neither side could find much of a rhythm at all, with lackluster play throughout the first two quarters.

Brahmas QB Chase Garbers was the biggest sore spot of them all. His body language, disengagement, and poor play tainted this game. He showed very little emotion, and quite frankly, looked like he didn’t even want to be there. His lack of effort to make plays, such as giving himself up at multiple times when there were still yards to be earned, was brutal to watch.

On top of that, it was a rough day for Brahmas’ OC A.J. Smith. He’s had a great year, but had zero answers or adjustments for Birmingham’s defense this Sunday. At one point in the game they threw the ball over 10 straight times, with most of those passes at the line of scrimmage as screens. It felt like the team abandoned the run for no reason, which was something they had seen success with all season long. They averaged just 3.9 yards per play on Sunday.

Ultimately, the Birmingham Stallions defense were the ones who stole the show. I absolutely do not want to take away from their performance, as they put together one of the greatest defensive achievements we’ve ever seen in pro football history.

That said, the lack of exciting gameplay was frustrating. Knowing how many casuals were likely tuning in to watch spring football for the first time all year, this display of messy – and at times inept – football, was far from ideal for the league. The UFL has had unbelievable action all year long. Sadly, the Championship simply did not live up to that standard.

Attendance & Atmosphere

The UFL was also rather unlucky with the St. Louis Battlehawks’ loss a week ago. Had the Battlehawks knocked off San Antonio, this crowd would have been much larger, and more engaged, than it was this weekend.

Now, we have to give credit to the St. Louis fans who did show up. While the league reported over 27,000 fans as the official attendance number, and we know that’s not the case, there was a decent crowd in the building.

There was an impressive group of Stallions and Brahmas fans who traveled to this game as well, but the audience was dominated by Battlehawks fans who showed up to support the league in general.

This made for a rather interesting dynamic throughout the game. Battlehawks fans didn’t really know who to cheer for during portions of the matchup, especially in the first half. However, once the scoring got going for Birmingham, the crowd got into it, taking the Stallions the rest of the way.

One aspect of the seating arrangements that was rather interesting – leaving the 300 sections open. Truthfully, there’s not much the league could do regarding this piece, since there were plenty of tickets sold in the lower bowl – and many fans simply decided not to show up since the Battlehawks were MIA. With this in mind, it would have been beneficial to move the folks sitting up in the 300 level down to the lower bowl, as there were plenty of them up there, not visible on FOX’ broadcast. It’s likely that this move wasn’t physically possible on a last minute notice…but it would have been nice.

Between the Battlehawks not playing in the Championship game which was hosted in St. Louis – and, the lackluster gameplay throughout, the UFL’s final outing of the year fell a bit flat. Unfortunately, these issues were practically out of the league’s control. In football, every game isn’t guaranteed to be a thriller. The UFL simply had some bad luck, with the worst performance of the year at the worst possible time, in front of a crowd that lacked much of a spark with their team nowhere to be found.

TV Ratings

Now, to look at some positives, the UFL absolutely crushed the TV Ratings this weekend. The inaugural Championship notched 1.596M viewers on FOX, which is the largest audience of the year. In fact, the UFL topped the numbers for the USFL Championships in 2022 and 2023, alongside the XFL’s 2023 Championship.

Across the board, the TV Ratings have been up by a large margin for the UFL, compared to the USFL and XFL in years past. The strong partnership between FOX Sports and ABC/ESPN has allowed the UFL to reach heights that the leagues simply could not accomplish while remaining separate. Every single postseason game saw over 1M+ in viewership, which is the first time this has occurred in spring football history.

The executives in the league have to be very pleased with how things went on TV this year. Daryl Johnston, VP of Football Operations for the UFL, said to 101 ESPN that the chances of a season two happening are “outstanding”. Clearly, the ownership involved is satisfied with how things are going so far – with the notion that certain areas need to improve in year two and beyond – and they will.

Tom Brady’s Appearance

Tom Brady played a role in the UFL Championship, having recently joined the FOX Sports family as a commentator. Brady ended up making his broadcasting “debut” in the second quarter of this game, and things went relatively smoothly. It was a tad bit awkward at first, but Tom settled in smoothly and had impressive chemistry with Curt Menefee and Joel Klatt.

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Tom also handed out the UFL Championship MVP trophy to Adrian Martinez. To be quite frank, this segment felt a bit odd. Part of it was Brady feeling uncomfortable with champagne spraying all around him, but it certainly seemed like he wasn’t too fond of the celebrations happening on stage. In addition, the St. Louis fans who stuck around for the Trophy Ceremony made sure to boo him loudly as he took the microphone.

Regardless, props to FOX Sports for ensuring that someone with the stature of Tom Brady was present at a game like this. Just having him in attendance helps bring more legitimacy to the league, and utilizing his skill sets for the awards – and the booth appearance – was a great move.

Final Thoughts

One thing was cemented this weekend, and that’s the fact that the Birmingham Stallions are a legitimate dynasty. They’ve now won three straight championships across the USFL and XFL, with no signs of slowing down any time soon.

Overall, the UFL had arguably the most successful season we’ve seen yet in spring football. The TV Ratings were tremendous, and showed stability – and even some growth – throughout the year.

Most importantly, the UFL will look to improve attendance within every market in 2025. Having a full offseason, without any major changes, will help quite a bit. The USFL-XFL merger halted ticket sales for quite a while, which in turn resulted in certain cities underperforming.

At the end of the day, the UFL can say they’ve gotten through season one, and now the focus will shift to season two – and beyond.

What are your thoughts on the UFL Championship from this past weekend? Were you disappointed with the turnout and gameplay, or did you remain entertained? Let us know down in the comments below, or join the conversation on Discord!

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