FOX NFL Sunday’s Curt Menefee is set to spearhead the broadcast team for the forthcoming UFL season, as the sports network gears up for comprehensive coverage of this year’s league.
The United Football League (UFL) is returning for its second season, a feat that other football leagues outside of the NFL have found challenging in recent times. Many have folded after just one season, making the UFL’s return a promising sign for the sport’s future.
FOX seems fully committed to the UFL, with Menefee set to commentate their games alongside NFL Draft analyst Joel Klatt. The coverage will also feature former NFL players and analysts including Kevin Kugler, Connor Onion, Mark Sanchez, Robert Smith, Brock Huard, Devin Gardner, Jenny Taft, and Jake Butt.
Last year’s UFL season was the most successful of any league outside the NFL, drawing an audience of 32 million and averaging 800,000 viewers per game.
These viewership figures marked a significant 38 percent increase from the previous year’s USFL title game between the Pittsburgh Maulers and Stallions, which attracted 1.16 million fans on NBC.
There was also an 11 percent rise from the 1.44 million ABC viewers who watched the 2023 XFL Championship game between the Arlington Renegades and D.C. Defenders.
Before the merger in 2023, the XFL and USFL were vying for the same fanbase, viewership, and talent pool. However, their union to form the UFL has already shown encouraging signs of a sustainable future for spring football.
The league’s roster this year is peppered with ex-NFL talent, including former first-round pick DeAndre Baker, second-rounder Greedy Williams, and third-round quarterback Kellen Mond.
Defending champions, the Birmingham Stallions, who clinched three consecutive titles in the USFL and now enter the UFL as the team to beat, have bolstered their squad with notable players such as 2022 draft quarterback Matt Corral, Packers wideout Amari Rodgers, and Seahawks’ Cade Johnson.
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Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson, one of the league’s key owners since the XFL’s inception, is bullish about the UFL’s longevity.
In an interview with ESPN last year, he said: “I think it’s going to work out, we’ve got a real shot with this now that we’ve merged XFL and USFL together to create UFL.
“We found great success last season with the XFL, USFL on their side found some really great success too. As a guy who just loves a game of football, put my hands in the dirt, that was my dream. It never happened for me. But now as life comes full circle, we’re able to create these opportunities.”
