I used to follow it a bit, and watch it back when ESPN had games on at like 2 am (1980s-90s). Interesting stuff, especially to see how the extra player and wider field changed strategy. If they went to 4 downs instead of 3, I think I might prefer CFL rules to NFL ones.
Damn. I typed “stadia,” then started to change it to “stadiums,” then made a mental note to check for the proper word, then got too angry at the UFL website to remember to do that. 
Check it out though, Bright. Looking at the quote you took from my post, why did I pluralize and put “words”? It should just be “word.” This Guavere or whatever (can’t remember actual name and don’t wanna click back) Law is a pain in the ass!!
Are you ready for some football?
I guess you can watch online…
Thanks Bearflag. Has anyone tried this? I installed the Microsoft Silverlight app that it needs, then closed and reopened browser, and just lookin’ at a black screen. No go in Firefox or Net Explorer.
I’m watching now with Firefox. I didn’t install anything.
Once the pregame black screen clock went to 0:00 I did refresh and it came on.
Sometimes adblock will stop videos. Disable adblock?
Never mind, working now. Holy shit, these uniforms are horrible. Ugh.
I stepped out for a while. How’s the game?
Sure, I watch CFL. There’s a few of us here on the SDMB that like it. In my case, I grew up with it (hey, I’m Canadian, after all). Owing to the rules, there is very little room for experimentation or error in CFL, which makes it exciting and a challenging game to play. Note that we always played Canadian rules when I was younger, so I can speak from a little experience both as a player and as a fan.
I enjoy the CFL, as well, even though I live in the States. I was in high school in the early 80s when we first got cable TV, and that was before ESPN had contracts with any of the major US pro sports; they carried the CFL, as well as Australian Rules football.
In the past few years, Comcast Sports Net here in Chicago started running day-after re-runs of CBC broadcasts of CFL games, so I’ve been watching again, and really enjoying it. (I even have an Edmonton Eskimos cap!)
Just turuned this California-Las Vegas game on. Oh, yes, those are ugly uniforms. And the refs look like Jiffy Lube managers.
Judging solely on the quantity of names I recognized on the four teams’ rosters, I’d put my money on Vegas winning the UFL Championship.
BTW, hardly any of the players smiled for their picture, adding to the mug-shot feel of the roster pages.
doublepost
Update: Jim Haslett’s Florida Tuskers have dominated the UFL’s inaugural season, sitting at 5-0 with one game left to play against the 2-3 California Redwoods. They’ll play Las Vegas in the championship game on November 27.
Tuskers QB Brooks Bollinger (formerly of the Jets and Vikings and probably some other NFL training camp rosters) has completed 68.7% of his passes for 1305 yards, with 13 touchdowns and 2 picks. He leads the league in every passing category, basically. JP Losman, playing for Las Vegas, has just shy of 1200 yards, with 9 scores and 2 picks.
Cory Ross, an undrafted free agent who spent three seasons on the Ravens roster, leads the league in rushing with 98 carries for 417 yards, with 4 rushing touchdowns. There are a bunch of vaguely-to-fairly familiar names at the top of the rushing list, in fact: DeDe Dorsey, Tatum Bell, Marcel Shipp, Michael Pittman (!) and LaBrandon Toefield, who should be familiar to Colts, Broncos, Cardinals, Cardinals/Bucs and Jaguars fans, respectively.
The receiving leaders list is predictably less familiar: pretty much the only guys who saw significant playing time in the NFL are Samie Parker, who spent three or four years as one of the dozens of wide receivers to suck for the Chiefs over the last decade, and Doug Gabriel, best known for being Daunte Culpepper’s favorite target in college and for catching 40-odd passes from Tom Brady during that one year when the Patriots had really horrible wideouts. David Kircus, briefly the best-known white wide receiver in the NFL while playing for the Lions and Broncos, is second on the yardage list.
Things are a bit better on the defensive side:
Teddy Lehman, once an unspectacular-but-not-horrible middle linebacker for the Lions leads the league in tackles. Dontarrious Thomas, who spent 5 years on the Vikings roster, is second in tackles, and Bengals jailbird* Odell Thurman is fifth.
Patrick Chukwurah and Rams second-round bust Claude Wroten are both near the top of the sacks list. Once-great Simeon Rice has one sack for… whatever the New York team is called.
There are some other interesting names - Ricky Manning, Jr., who was a really good nickelback for the Panthers and Bears; Fakhir Brown, longtime starter for the awful Saints and Rams secondaries; Dexter Jackson, MVP of the 2003 Super Bowl and six- or seven-year starter for the Buccaneers at free safety; Isaiah Trufant, brother of Seahawks first-round corner Marcus; long time Jaguars third-string quarterback Quinn Gray; Jermaine Wiggins, who was a fantasy star at tight end in 2004; Tony Parrish, who was one of the best safeties in the league with San Francisco years and years ago; Todd Sauerbrun, the Broncos’ alcoholic punter; and Cory Lekkerkerker, who is on this list because… his name is interesting.
Other notes of interest: the Tuskers’ offensive coordinator is Jay Gruden, oft-drunk brother of Jon Gruden and former head coach of the Orlando Predators Arena League team. Former Bengals defensive coordinator Chuck Bresnahan is the linebackers coach.
*Most redundant phrase ever.
I saw a single play on TV. I noticed a game was on, flipped to it to see a return man drop a kickoff.
On my cable system, Versus is next to the Golf Channel, so I skip by it often. I saw a couple of games, and eventually realized that the broadcast did everything in it’s power to avoid showing the people in the stands - every shot was a tight one of the action on the field.
I stuck with one game for a while to see a crowd shot, and realized that there were dozens of people in a stadium built for tens of thousands. Every time I saw it televised I watched until I saw a crowd shot, and I don’t think there were ever more than one or two thousand people in attendance. A rookie league baseball team in Montana draws better than that.
Why do people keep thinking that a second football league can be sucessful?
Their average attendance is something like 5,000.
Because there are a lot of rich guys who want to own teams and that can’t get into the NFL, and because there is some precedent. The AFL did quite well, and the USFL did okay until they got stupid.
That. The key is not trying to compete with the NFL, and not overhyping things. The problem with second leagues is that they want to be uber-visible, and that means lots and lots of promotion.
Well, if you promote the shit out of your product, people are naturally going to assume that it’s good, and the people that tune in will be expecting to see good football. When they don’t… you fold.
The UFL is doing something much smarter: no promotion at all. If the football is good, people will go. If it isn’t… well, the tickets are dirt cheap, so people will still go.
The one issue I have with the league’s implementation is the team location. San Francisco and New York are hardly underserved markets, although both locations are good in a football sense because there are lots of undrafted college players and former NFL guys living in both areas.
Las Vegas and Orlando, on the other hand, are hugely underserved, and Orlando in particular is probably the best place in the country to find unemployed pro football players.