Tag Archives: FS1

Dany Garcia & Dwayne Johnson Reveal United Football League Plans

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Dany Garcia is springing forward with a football merger…

The 55-year-old Cuban American businesswoman, professional bodybuilder and producer and her ex-husband Dwayne Johnson have revealed plans for the United Football League, the new spring pro football league born from the merger of the XFL and USFL.

Dany Garcia, Dwayne Johnson, United Football League, UFLDuring an appearance this morning on Fox’s NFL on Fox, Garcia and Johnson announced that the UFL’s debut season will begin March 30, 2024 with a game between the Arlington Renegades and Birmingham Stallions, the previous champions from each league.

More details are expected soon regarding teams and markets.

Last year was Johnson and Garcia’s only season as co-owners with RedBird Capital Partners of the resurrected XFL, which was competing with the USFL for NFL-offseason eyeballs.

The USFL itself was in its second season of its own revival, operating with a joint broadcast deal with both NBC and Fox, with the latter also holding a minority stake in the league.

A release today noted five UFL partners: former XFL owners Johnson, Garcia and RedBird’s Gerry Cardinale, Fox Sports (led by CEO Erik Shanks) and ESPN (led by chairman Jimmy Pitaro). ESPN was the XFL’s broadcast partner last season.

Russ Brandon, former president and CEO of the XFL, will be president and CEO of the UFL. Daryl Johnston, former USFL President of Football Operations, will lead football ops.

A promo logo suggests games will be played on ABC, ESPN, Fox and FS1.

The XFL and USFL originally announced their intent to merge in September after low-key seasons for each.

The USFL Championship game in July drew about 1.16 million viewers on NBC, while the XFL title game a few weeks later pulled in 1.43 million viewers on ABC.

Rodriguez to Serve as Full-Time Analyst After Signing Multi-Year Deal with Fox Sports

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Alex Rodriguez is miking up…

The 41-year-old Dominican American former New York Yankees slugger has agreed to a multi-year deal to be a full-time analyst for Fox Sports.

Alex Rodriguez

Among other things, A-Rod—a 14-time All-Star and three-time American League Most Valuable Player—will break down the game for some Fox MLB Saturday games, serve as a feature reporter for Fox’s pre-game shows, and appear on FS1’s MLB Whiparound.

“Bringing Alex back was a priority of ours and we are fortunate to have him as a key contributor to our baseball coverage,” says Fox Sports President of Production & Executive Producer John Entz. “His potential is off the charts and he’s been an incredibly quick learner in the world of television. He even understands the complexities of sales units.”

Major League Baseball suspended A-Rod for the 2014 season after it was revealed that he used performance enhancing drugs between 2000 and 2003, and received human growth hormone treatments in 2013.

This is the last year of his decade-long $275 million contract with the Yankees. The team let him go as a player last August, after a prolonged slump, although it remained on the hook for his contract.

But his encyclopedic knowledge of the game made him an impressive analyst in guest stints on-air analyzing the 2015 World Series and the 2016 postseason.

He ended his playing career as the game’s leading grand-slam hitter with 25 in 2,784 games. He’s also the No. 4 home run hitter, with 696, as well as No. 20 in hits with 3,115, and No. 3 in runs batted in with 2,086.

Rodriguez played with the Seattle Mariners and the Texas Rangers prior to joining the Yankees in 2004.