Former Cowboys RB Daryl "Moose" Johnston talked about year 2 of the UFL, and also thinks the Washington-Dallas rivalry isn't quite back just yet.
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00:00So such thing as radio row, but man, is it nuts? I will say
00:04Danny there's one person today that has drawn a bigger crowd than jayden daniels at his activation where everybody gathers around
00:11And it's right now and it's stephen a smith believe it or not about it
00:16That's the only person who's drawn a bigger crowd than jayden daniels today that we've seen where's he at?
00:22Stephen a smith's over there right now doing whatever stephen a smith does
00:26And people are enjoying he's just stephen a smith and up to 11
00:29Yes, he is. Uh, the voice you just heard is daryl moose. Johnston is joining us on grant and danny
00:34Uh thrilled to have him back on the program last time I talked to you
00:37I believe moose you were in dc getting ready for the kickoff of the united football league season, of course
00:43Uh, one of the gentlemen who runs the united football league and it was a great year for the dc defenders
00:49xfl murder with the usfl and the ufl and
00:53Things went very well. I thought for the fan base and the league is uh back and ready for more
00:57Yeah, it was uh, it was a crazy year last year. Um
01:01I think we were what is it saying? We were drinking from the fire hose while we built the airplane
01:06um, so
01:07On the football side. I I think we were very very happy with the product. Um, you know, the season was great
01:13Um, I think one of the areas because the cadence was was so was so challenging
01:18Um, once the merger came together, we weren't officially a league until january 12th
01:23Um, and that wasn't too long before we were kicking off that we we focused all of our energies into the football side of everything
01:29Um, and this year with a normal off season and a normal cadence
01:32We were able to kind of get to the business side and really take a look at
01:35You know exactly what you're looking at right now. I mean that that's the the new website
01:39It was just upgraded a couple of days ago
01:41Uh, we announced our headquarters, which is a huge
01:44Huge component of what we're doing and trying to make the day-to-day experience for our players
01:48To be a little bit more manageable. We're a little bit nomadic in the things we ask them to do
01:52Um, so we we kind of identified a few areas this year that we wanted to get better at we'll continue to do that year
01:57after year
01:58Uh, but but hats off to everybody in year one getting uh,
02:01Getting that league up and running and now year two
02:04Really kind of coming behind that with some really great additions on the business side of the league and and really getting that that component
02:09Into shape. What are the metrics of success?
02:12For you this year just in terms of that part that you're talking about daryl the that whether it's the business side of it
02:17It's easy for you know media folks to say well these are the tv numbers and and and call balls and strikes on that but
02:23For you as someone who's you know, what committed to this thing growing what are metrics for success that you guys are judging against?
02:31Outwardly it would be the competitiveness of the football. Um
02:35You know how many of our guys get an opportunity, you know to chase that that nfl dream when our season ends
02:41And they move towards the nfl season
02:43uh inwardly, um
02:45You know us
02:47generating more revenue
02:48Uh, the ability to to increase attendance across all eight markets
02:54Uh, I I think is something that that we would like to see change this year and being able to have
02:59You know more of a a little bit of a footprint in in each of our home markets with with our business people
03:05Um is hopefully going to help us there
03:07How do we connect in a hub model with our players and our staffs back into the home market?
03:12On a consistent basis where we're generating interest. Um, you know, how are we bringing attention?
03:17You know to what we're doing, um in these home markets so that there's a lot of things inwardly that we're looking at
03:23Um that should have an impact on both the revenue component and the attendance component
03:28Uh, but the most important thing will always be the football, you know making sure that the football
03:32Uh is is extremely competitive. Uh, we're innovative. We press the envelope on technology
03:38Um, we we looked at everything we did last year and and when we get into the rule change component
03:43Um, I I think the big thing, you know that that we talked about
03:47Um is is going back to the kickoff
03:51That the xfl started that the nfl
03:55Embraced last year. I really thought that was going to be a one and done
03:59I think I thought that as a trial year that that kickoff would would not be accepted by nfl fans
04:04Yeah, I think you last year on radio row you you suggested that yeah, you were not a big fan of it, right?
04:09No, i'm not. I I i'm still not I I still like the traditional kickoff
04:14But I I also have to be smart
04:16For our players and if the nfl is going to embrace this this kickoff moving forward
04:21Then it it doesn't make sense for us
04:24to have our guys doing something that's not
04:27Something they're going to be doing at the nfl level
04:28So it just it made sense for us to do that and then after we made that decision
04:33We hear the the information coming out of the nfl that the the lowest concussion rate that they've had
04:38you know in a season since they started tracking it in 2016 and
04:42With that the big change being the kickoff you would think that that played a huge role in that
04:47So it just it makes sense from a health and safety standpoint
04:51It makes it makes sense in a transitional standpoint for our players
04:54So, you know the the one thing that you'll see this year is going to be um, you know, our our kickoff going
05:01Back to what it was in the ufl and very similar to what they're doing in the nfl
05:05But but we've left that up. That's that's kind of the structure now
05:08We gotta we gotta do the you know finalize all the details with that
05:12So we've asked, you know, mike perere and dean blandino, you know, put your spin on this
05:17So we keep the return rate where we were last year. That's the one thing we do want to make sure we do
05:21Is okay if we're going to go this direction
05:23The one thing that we do want to make sure we do is is continue to have that return rate that we've had
05:28You know in the in the league using the traditional kickoffs daryl johnston is with us
05:32The ufl getting ready to come back later this year. I believe right? It's end of march end of march
05:38March 28th friday night. Yeah, so
05:41Can you take us inside whatever you tell us about the scheduling and at one point in time?
05:44I think you guys started right after the xfl before you were together, but you're still february end of march
05:50Now is almost kind of even with baseball kicking off
05:53What's the logic on the schedule or is it about venues or I have no idea what what I don't know
05:58Gotcha. It's one of those things, right? Um until you get into the managerial side
06:02You know, you don't really know the logistics of getting a team to travel or getting a league to travel
06:07um
06:07you know setting up all the practices during the course of the week and the other thing with scheduling is is the venue component and
06:13It's it's very challenging
06:14um, you know, we've got a couple of venues that that are tied into to mls and in
06:20In some of the soccer
06:22Audi is one of them in dc. Uh now you've got you know, the world cup coming to
06:29North america next year and that's going to have an impact on on some of the the venues there
06:34You know the alamodome in san antonio has a traditional cadence with events
06:38That you're always trying to work around and they get the ncaa final four this year
06:42so to watch our people work through the scheduling component with all the different venues across the league and come up with our schedule is
06:49Is one of the more challenging things?
06:51Uh that you get to watch. Um, so yeah when people get a little bit frustrated with the schedule
06:56you know, we we do want to separate ourselves a little bit from
07:00from the nfl, um in that post super bowl, um
07:04Just you know if we talk about more football in the spring and we miss football
07:07Well, let's give them an opportunity to miss football
07:09So we've got to create a gap and then the question is what is what is the best gap and I think?
07:13You know, we we want to get to a point where we we are traditional and it was kind of frustrating for me
07:19You know the nfl used to kick off labor day weekend, right?
07:21It was always labor day weekend that that there was an nfl game, you know
07:24Kind of leading into that end of august beginning of september and now they've kind of moved off a labor day weekend because you know
07:29Ratings were down they were always low
07:31On on uh labor day weekend and they were always high on on christmas weekend
07:35So if you know, let's let's extend the season in and push through the christmas holiday because we get more viewership
07:40On christmas week and then we do on labor day weekend, and so we're looking at lots of things like that
07:44You know
07:44What is the best slot for us to be in based on what the landscape is?
07:48Out there with other sporting options and then also how does that match against our venue availability?
07:54You know to try and create a consistent kickoff date
07:56My favorite thing moose is a long time advocate of these spring leagues and a big fan now of the ufl
08:02I go to all the defenders games
08:04When i'm watching any of these games at home the transparency during reviews. We've talked about this in the past
08:09I don't think the nfl will ever get where you guys are is allowed to where we want to
08:14I think it's stunning and it's amazing though. I'm for people listening at home that don't know. I mean we hear the interaction of the ref
08:22And blendino and the booth wherever he is and you can hear them talking about the spot and is it caught?
08:29I guess number one
08:30Do you think there's ever going to be a time where that would even work at the nfl level from a broadcast standpoint?
08:34but also
08:36Is that as popular with your audience as I would assume it is? I mean, that's the best content
08:41Going in football broadcast right now. Yeah. Yeah
08:44It's been a tough year for the nfl and and it kind of peaked in the aoc championship game
08:50um
08:50You know to the point where the nfl has to come out and make statements that we're not fixing the games for the kansas city chiefs
08:56You know, you got kind of a problem here. Um
08:59it
09:00It's probably not as simple as as we make it out to be and we've got four matchups during the course of the weekend
09:05They're going to have 16
09:06Um, you know, how do you dedicate one person there that you trust?
09:09You got to have you got to have 16 mike per areas and dean blendinos, you know to really get this done
09:14I mean you you got to be
09:16You know in in a deep knowledge of the rulebook and that nfl rulebook is cumbersome. You know ours is is
09:23Not nearly as challenging. Uh, we try to keep it as simple as we can which allows us, you know to be able to do that
09:29But but I I agree with you and and I hear it from a lot of fans too because they just want to know
09:33the why it I may not agree with it, but if I hear the why i'm like
09:38I still don't agree with it. But you know, at least I know what they were thinking
09:42I mean this one kind of comes out and it's like
09:44You see things and if you don't have somebody tell you that you know
09:47Here's why that doesn't work
09:49Uh, is it a shot down the line? It's not truly down the round
09:52There's a little bit of an angle that gives you that even if you were doing something like that
09:55Uh, but but I think I think the nfl could benefit from it. Um, why don't they take video on the sideline?
10:00That's another one, you know, our guys are watching video on the sideline the ncaa took it to their bowl games last year
10:06Um, I don't know what they did this year. I don't know if they implemented it all the way across I would I would doubt
10:11Uh, they did it across the uh, the entire ncaa landscape to clarify you're talking about like watching the ipad
10:16We're watching ipads on the side. Why don't why doesn't that it's still watching, you know, they've got something on the microsoft
10:21Microsoft tablet the surface that they say is similar and I've seen them where they're they're kind of splicing the cutups
10:28Just like you would get you would be handed stills and you would have to put them together
10:32I think they're still coming across as still still right and you're trying to piece it together
10:36Just just let me see where the safety came from. I just want to see where he started and where he ended up
10:41Um, and and our quarterbacks are the ones that they really talk about it
10:44They're like listen, you know, i'm watching it on the sideline the whole time
10:47So then when I watch it together with the coach on monday for the first time i'm already way down the road on on what?
10:52I remember from the game
10:54Um, so then it's you know, I feel like i'm i'm way ahead during the course of the prep week
10:58So I think that's another area where the nfl just allow the video to come down onto the sideline
11:03They're almost johnston with us here on gnd. Uh, speaking of the nfl big one this weekend. There's a super bowl matchup
11:08uh three-peat kansas city or you know kind of this
11:12Rebuilt on the fly philadelphia eagles team. They were in this in one and a handful of years ago
11:16It's almost a totally different roster since then now they were here a couple seasons ago
11:20Toe-to-toe with the same kansas city team. How do you see it going?
11:24I'm, not very good at predicting games. Um, but
11:28I I think this is probably selfish. I have a strong feeling for for philadelphia
11:33By 10
11:35And it's probably because I don't want patrick mahomes to have the ball in his hand at the end of the game
11:40To beat the eagles and win three superbowls in a row which kind of takes away from our three and four years
11:45So there's a lot of selfishness in in my prediction
11:49um
11:50I think it's going to be hard for kansas city to stop saquon
11:53They haven't had a running back rush for over 100 yards against them all season lamar went for 122 in week one
11:58But that's quarterback
12:00Um, the highest number for running back was 88 by joe mixett in the divisional round
12:04So they haven't really you know, they stopped derrick henry
12:07Um, but lamar jackson hurt him if they try to stop saquon that way
12:12can jalen hurt them and it'll be interesting to see but
12:15Um, you know, I I think that that's going to be one of the the key points to watch
12:19Is that philadelphia offensive line versus the kansas city defensive front?
12:23um
12:24I I don't think steve spagnolo gets enough
12:27Credit, you know, here's a guy that that over the last two years has the number one scoring defense in the nfl
12:32Um, it's not about patrick mahomes and explosive plays down the field anymore. It's about patrick mahomes
12:38minimizing his mistakes
12:39allowing the defense to control and dictate to the opponent and then being very
12:44Advantageous when the situations present themselves and he's learned to function
12:47I think it's one of the the cool things comparing him to tom brady
12:50Tom brady won with a number of different style rosters and patrick mahomes has done that
12:55Career at an early age and that's a credit to him
12:57I think one of the biggest things in this game is going to be both of these teams
13:01Are there one and two in 10 plus play possessions?
13:05So 10 plus plays without points 10 plus play scoring drives
13:10Philadelphia is number two in both of those categories. Kansas city is number one in both of those categories
13:14So there's going to be a premium on the possession
13:17And how do you?
13:19How do you adjust your coaching style knowing that going into the game?
13:22I mean we go back to sean payton, right?
13:24I got to steal a possession against the colt so he does the onside kick
13:28Do we see some different things from nick sirianni or andy reed because they understand this could be a game where I only get
13:34Seven possessions the entire game and how do I make sure I maximize those possessions?
13:39I'm, looking at you guys
13:41Back to back and then had a chance to go back to back to back the closest team prior to the chiefs
13:47Frankly in terms of getting to the nfc championship game against san francisco and you outscored him over the final three quarters
13:53Slow start or else who knows 21 nothing after six minutes. Was it really six minutes? Oh gosh
13:58So it was one of those things where it was like brutal start doomedia, but the rest of the game you played your game
14:04Yeah, we can never get inside 10 points. We can never get into a single digit lead. We got close
14:08If you remember there was a very suspect no pass interference call on deon sanders inside the 10 yard line that would have got it to
14:16Seven I think um, and the ref didn't call it
14:21So not that you remember not that I remember that exactly
14:25Before I let you go here
14:27You've been gracious with your time. We appreciate you. We're missing. We didn't ask you about washington is back
14:32It feels like in a big way
14:34um
14:35That rivalry with the cowboys has just kind of been dead and dormant
14:38And now feels like there's a little something cooking between washington and philly after they played in the nfc title game
14:44But my question is do you think it's possible?
14:47With player movement the way that it exists now, and I don't know it's not redskins cowboys, right?
14:53Can that rivalry ever be special again? Or is that time past?
14:58The the it'll always be a rivalry. It's it's just
15:01You know how much of a rivalry is it for it to truly be a rivalry?
15:05There has to be high stakes in the games that are played
15:07It can't just be divisional games during the course of the season. The cowboy redskin rivalry was generated by meaningful games
15:14Um, you know playing in nfc championship games playing in playoff games. Those are the meaningful games
15:19That's why when when we played a lot of us will consider philadelphia our rival more so than washington
15:26Because we had a ton of meaningful games against philadelphia. We we never we never played washington
15:31In the playoffs, but we played philadelphia multiple times in the playoffs
15:35Um, so that they became meaningful games. They were the last team we beat in the nfc east as we started to emerge
15:41Um, so we already had a little bit of angst against philadelphia
15:44then it just takes one time playing in this at the
15:46At the vet. Yeah, and then you become a forged anti-philadelphia eagle player. We know about that
15:54I'm so excited for for the nfc east. Uh, I I miss the days. I mean
15:59Back in the early 90s when it was giants running we were up and coming philadelphia was dominant
16:05Um, I mean we had we had you know, washington was good
16:08I mean we had we had four teams, you know that were really really tough
16:12We beat each other up during the course of the regular season, but we were so battle-tested going into the playoffs
16:17And we didn't blink after playing against some of those divisional games. I mean it was it was great
16:21It was it was awesome. And so
16:23You know with with washington back with philly back
16:27Um the you know, the giants and the cowboys gotta we gotta get it figured out
16:31Um and and get this nfc east division back because I it's so cool, right?
16:35Everybody the nfc north look at this, you know
16:37The best records in the nfl and then it's the nfc east in the championship game. Love it
16:42Well, i'd like it more if if the championship game would have gone different, but I digress you get it
16:46Uh moose, thank you for the time and hey whenever you want to talk ufl this spring, you know where to find. Thank you
16:51Grant, we appreciate you. There's moose johnston, uh with us on radio row in new
16:55Row media row, that's true. There's no such thing as