Sparty and Friends, your website for everything UFL…Actually that would be UFLAccess.com, who did a great job of getting the results together from the inaugural UFL Draft, for complete draft results click here. No McShay, no Kiper, no Berman…I might have actually watched this if it were on TV!

We’ve gone over this before, but the UFL (or United Football League) is a new league beginning this fall in four cities across the country, additionally they will play some of their games in out of market towns, like the Las Vegas franchise playing a game in Los Angeles. The idea is to market the league as sort of a psuedo-minor league to the NFL, replacing what was lost when NFL-Europe tanked a few years ago. Games will be played on Thursdays and Fridays, and televised on the Versus network.

Anyways…the “notables” from the draft.

Las Vegas – Sam Boyd Field – Vegas sure is going to be a swell spot for Wendall Bryant to pick himself back up. They should give him the game ball for just making it to the stadium sober.
Adam Archuleta
Wendall Bryant (Suspended by NFL for Substance Abuse)
Gary Stills
Paul Gause  (From Seton Hall…which doesn’t have a football team)
J.P. Losman (protected QB pick)

New York- Citi Field – Playing off the success of Hideki Matsui and to a lesser extent Hideki Irabu, the New York UFL team drafted a guy from Japan…oddly enough he was with the Atlanta Falcons during training camp last year.

“I am very excited to compete at the Falcons’ training camp with other great players,” says Kinoshita. “It is exciting as a Japanese player to compete with American players, and I want to appeal to the fans in Atlanta. At the same time, I want to show the Japanese people how exciting the great game of football is.”

He was released by the Falcons at the end of training camp. No word if Kinoshita-mania has hit Japan yet.
Brian Johnson
Noriaki Kinoshita (I guess this guy is a stud in Japan)
Cecil Sapp
LaBrandon Toefield

Orlando – Citrus Bowl – UFL Orlando decided to load up on the Big 10 talent because everyone knows  a city located about 100 miles from a dominant SEC school are really familar with Big 10 players and their playing style.
Brooks Bollinger
Mike Doss
Chris Perry
Anthony Schlegel
Bo Schobel
Larry Tripplett
Jermaine Wiggins

San Fransisco – AT&T Ball Park – This was probably the worst team of them all, I struggled to find anyone worth mentioning…They’d probably do better just going out and putting a team together from the Castro area.
Obafemi Ayanbadejo
Marcus Fitzgerald (Larry Fitzgerald’s brother)
BJ Sams
Shane Falco – Just kidding, but how shocked would you really be?

That’s about it. It seems like every team except Orlando went for small college guys or recently undrafted free agents who have floated or will float around the NFL like Casper at an orgy. The interesting team is Orlando, who took flyers on guys with questionable histories, which leads to the question, did they take Vick and keep him on the wraps?

From UFLAccess.com’s Live Blog:

7:07 – Interesting. Word is some quarterback’s have been “protected” by the UFL. Which means some news and surprises concerning them simply won’t be available tonight. Intriguing….

7:49 – Access note: The “protected” UFL QB news came courtesy of Tim Rattay. We’ll know soon enough – if we don’t already, that is.

Apparently each team got to pick a quarterback and “protect” (or hide) the pick. It’s now out that J.P. Losman will be playing for the Las Vegas franchise, Tim Rattay has confirmed he will likely be playing in the league (maybe a return to the Bay Area?).

Rumors are floating about the other two lucky sons of guns, names like Ken Dorsey and Quinn Gray have come out…are they the other two protected? I doubt it, when looking at former NFL starters like Losman and Rattay, what would put Dorsey or Gray on the “protected” list over Brooks Bollinger? And if you’re protecting Ken Dorsey and Quinn Gray, shouldn’t you just go ahead and fold now?

Until next time…

Trey is a writer for SpartyandFriends.com, feel free to email him at GatorTrey (at) spartyandfriends (dot) com

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