The UFL is a month away from its second season, a pretty significant step for the spring football league. After years of startup leagues quickly folding, the league—a merger of the second iterations of the XFL and USFL—found some decent success in '24, with 1.6 million viewers tuning in for last year's championship game between the Birmingham Stallions and San Antonio Brahmas on Fox.
Of course, a nascent football league only goes as far as its quarterback play, and the 24 quarterbacks set to play for the UFL's eight teams this spring held out of the league's QB minicamp in Arlington, Texas this week.
The UFL and the league's players association have been embroiled in a contract dispute since December after the league's most recent proposal only called for trivial pay bumps from last year's base salary of $55,000.
Last week, in a letter to UFL president Russ Brandon and executive vice president Daryl Johnston, the league's 24 quarterbacks vowed to sit out of the minicamp.
“We have been playing close attention to this offseason's collective bargaining negotiations," the letter reads. The proposal our Players Association received on Thursday was unacceptable and insulting. We—all of the quarterbacks in the UFL—have collectively decided not to attend the UFL quarterback training camp this weekend in Arlington, Texas, in protest of that proposal and the message that is sent to us as players.”
Here is an exclusive copy of the letter that was sent from the #UFL quarterbacks to executives last Saturday, on February 22nd.
— James Larsen (@JamesLarsenPFN) February 27, 2025
Players are still reporting to Training Camp today & this weekend as originally planned. https://t.co/puDsOAEbpt pic.twitter.com/ia7TJmRMw0
The league's quarterbacks include former XFL championship game MVP and 2024 UFL passing leader Luis Perez (Arlington Renegades) and a host of names that are likely familiar to college football fans, including Anthony Brown (Houston Roughnecks), Matt Corral (Stallions), Danny Etling (Michigan Panthers), Jarrett Guarantano (San Antonio Brahmas), Kellen Mond (San Antonio Brahmas) and Jordan Ta'amu (DC Defenders).
“The United Football League continues to negotiate in good faith with the players union to finalize a collective bargaining agreement, which will be beneficial both to the players and the league," the league said in a statement obtained by Sports Business Journal.
The league is set to open full training camp on Monday, March 3, with the league scheduled to begin play on March 28.
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This article was originally published on www.si.com as Every Single Quarterback in UFL Held Out of Camp Amid League Labor Dispute.
