So it’s Thursday night at 9:05 p.m.
The Sens are playing the Isles, the Pens are playing the Flyers and the Caps are taking on the Rangers. In college football, #21 Nebraska is facing #24 Missouri. The Dodgers and Cardinals are in the bottom of the ninth in the NLDS, the Angels and Red Sox are a half-hour away from the first pitch.
But I’m watching the UFL!
Wednesday, when I wrote my story for the Globe about the UFL, one of our editors asked me if there was Canadian TV for the UFL. I said there wasn’t. But it turns out you can watch the UFL on www.ufl-football.com
What a world we live in!
So here it is, the Las Vegas Locomotives and the California Redwoods in the very first UFL game at Sam Boyd Stadium in Las Vegas. Sam Boyd Stadium has a special place in my heart since it was there that I first experienced CFL football on American soil back when Saskatchewan and the Las Vegas Posse went to overtime on July 20, 1994.
So settle in and join me on a short chronology of my first UFL experience.
9:06 pm -- There’s the skyline and the mountains … in just a minute we’ll see the crowd …. Wait, where’s the crowd? There’s nobody there! Even the CFL drew 12,000 fans for their Vegas opener. Oh my, this does not bode well for the UFL.
9:08 pm – Here come the teams out onto the field. And my first thought is … what is it with alternative football leagues and their obsession with teal or lime-green uniforms? Are we sure these aren’t the recycled uniforms of the Sacramento Surge and Orlando Thunder of the old WLAF?
9:10 pm -- It’s the ceremonial coin toss. And they’ve got a special UFL commemorative coin for the moment. Play-by-play announcer Dave Sims just said this coin will be going straight to the Pro Football Hall of Fame after the game. Really? I mean the Pro Football Hall refuses to acknowledge that Warren Moon played in the CFL but it’s got a special place for the coin used during the toss of the first UFL game? To whom should I write about that?
9:11 – I just realized who’s in the booth with Sims. It’s Doug Flutie. Hey, how did the UFL get him? I know Doug is the king of alternative football, having starred in both the USFL and the CFL. But this is a bit of a surprise. And Doug really sounds excited about this game. Which suggests that if Doug can get excited about a game between two teams that have never played a game against anyone, being played in an empty stadium, he can get excited about anything!
9:13 -- Sideline interview time. It’s Kordell Stewart. Geez, you think anyone in Pittsburgh even remembers him because things have been pretty darn good in Steeltown since he left.
9:14 -- They’re asking Jim Fassell about tonight’s game. Fassell is the Locomotives head coach. You may recall he is a former head coach of the New York Giants and late last fall he wrote a letter to Oakland Raiders owner Al Davis asking to become head coach of that team. About the same time he was approached by Argos general manager Adam Rita about taking over the Boatman before they discovered Bart Andrus. So the Raiders turned Fassel down. And then Fassell turned down the Argos. And he ends up in an empty stadium with the Locomotives. I'm honestly not sure which of those three jobs is the best one. Fassell tells us the Locomotives QB J.P Losman was in the locker room until 10:00 p.m. last night. Which makes me wonder: are we sure he wasn't just stuck in a bathroom stall?
