United Football League - Premiere Season 2009

Have you ever heard of the new pro football league the UFL? If not, that's okay, a lot of people haven't. The United Football League is a new start-up league that had it's "Premiere" first season this year. It was a short season with a small amount of teams, and very little marketing. The UFL commissioner likened this season to a dress-rehearsal before the full launch next season.

There were four teams playing a 6 game schedule each for the premiere season. The teams being: Florida Tuskers (mainly stationed in Orlando), New York Sentinels (who played in NY and a game in Hartford), California Redwoods (San Francisco, San Jose), and the Las Vegas Locomotives.

Being a football fan in Las Vegas, I'll take any professional football I can get. I'll admit that at first, the team name Locomotives or "Locos" for short, striked me as pretty lame. But the name has grown on me a lot. The UFL got big name coaches, and a lot of players with NFL experience. Jim Fassell (ex-NY Giants head coach) was named the coach for the Vegas team. JP Losman (ex-Buffalo Bill) was named the Locomotives starting quarterback. The other teams had some familiar names and faces too.

After finding out about the league a few weeks before the inaugural game, I decided I'd follow the games and see how I liked them. The first game was the California Redwoods playing at Las Vegas. The game was fun to watch, and the Locomotives won the game 30-17.

Over the course of the short season, I became a fan of the local team and of the league in general. A friend from work, and I went to a Locos game against the NY Sentinels at Sam Boyd Stadium (which is the UNLV Rebels' stadium, but the Locos play there too). We were offered a VIP treatment from the league, and there were a lot of perks. We got to hangout on-field pre-game, they gave us concession vouchers, and we both got two free shirts and hats. Not to mention that we creamed the Sentinels 41-7.

At the end of the 6 game season, the top two teams met at the Championship at Sam Boyd Stadium in Las Vegas. The final standings were as follows: NY Sentinels 0-6, CA Redwoods 2-4, LV Locomotives 4-2, FL Tuskers 6-0.

Florida had beat Vegas twice during the season, but they barely won the second game. That score was 27-24. A lot of people thought Florida was gonna sweep the perfect season at the championship game, set for the Friday after Thanksgiving, Nov. 27th.


My brother-in-law and I went to the championship game, and we had a ton of fun. The first 3 quarters were mostly a battle of defenses. But the 4th quarter was intense. And by the end of regulation, the score was 17-17. Overtime! Unfortunately, I had to be at work right after the game, so we were forced to leave before overtime for me to make it to work on time. Overtime in the UFL is different than the NFL due to the rule that both teams get a possession. A couple plays into Floridas first OT possession, their QB Brooks Bollinger threw an interception that set up Loco Graham Gano's Championship winning field goal. Las Vegas, with the home crowd behind them, pulled off the upset.




Now that the season is over, we wait for year two. The good news, is that year two is already guaranteed unlike the XFL, which folded days after their championship game. Two expansion teams will be added for season 2. New York might relocate to Hartford due to poor attendance. The UFL is trying to stay away from markets with an NFL team. Places high on the expansion list are Portland, San Antonio or Austin, Salt Lake City, and Omaha. We also get to look forward to color/uniform changes (each team used the same style uni and color palette), and local presence (which was lacking in season 1 due to LV/CA practicing in Arizona and NY/FL practicing in Florida). The league made it through the first year by not spending too many millions that were unnecessary. But the marketing should get better in year two, as well as team individuality.

Whatever happens, you can count on me being in the stands cheering the Locos on!

-Joseph