UFL Playoff Drama, Caeveon Patton Steps Away, and Coach Pardee Wants to Win!

San Antonio Snap Count:

Week 9 for the UFL is here, and the league's storylines continue to be engaging and controversial. The four playoff teams are set, with St. Louis playing D.C. for the XFL conference championship and Birmingham playing Michigan for the USFL championship. With both Ford and Audi fields having scheduling conflicts, the seeding doesn't matter because the home games will be held in St. Louis and Birmingham. Some fans feel this is a backhanded attempt to ensure St. Louis, the team leading the league in attendance, gets an opportunity to host a home game even if they do not earn home-field advantage based on their final record or playoff seeding.

The UFL announced the Teams and locations for the Conference Championship Games.

It sounds like good business sense: try to get as many fans in the stands as possible in hopes that a championship game broadcast will look suitable for TV and any casual fans who join in to watch. In all honesty, the league rents stadiums that were previously booked for the conference championship weekend; the league had to adjust.

This columnist hopes that one day UFL games will draw enough attendance to force these stadiums to prioritize the UFL over other events.

On to the Brahmas Game this week. Due to stadium scheduling conflicts, we are on the road for the sixth time this season and visiting St. Louis for the second time. It turns out that week 9 will be another on-the-fly game week, but for San Antonio, that is just another Friday.

For instance, fan favorite Caeveon Patton has been released by the team. I reached out to Caeveon for a comment on being released. He said the decision to leave the team early "was a mutual agreement, no hard feelings, I just got to get my neck back right. After week five, I sat out for 2 weeks, and it started to get better. And I played this past week, but it just wasn't where I needed it to be yet." The league did not approve the team's request to place Patton on the injured reserve list. Hence, Patton and the team's general manager, Mark Lillibridge, agreed that parting ways would be best and allow Patton to focus on his recovery.

United Football Media Graphic of Caeveon Patton made by @SABrahmabullpen

Coach Pardee also confirmed this week that, once again, Kellen Mond would be the team's starter due to a hand injury to last week's starter, Kevin Hogan. I had the opportunity to ask Coach Pardee about his goals for the remainder of the season, whether he wanted to try and get some young guys some film, or sell out to try and get the team two more wins as the season draws to a close. He said, "We have had to shake up a lot of things this season due to injury, but expect to see anyone suited up play in the game, and our top priority is to win." 

Kellen Mond has started five of the team's eight games this season.

When asked what motivation the team had to compete in these next two games despite not having any shot at postseason play, he replied, "We are professionals and have a standard to uphold. We are going to play our hearts out despite the adversity of this season. Football comes down to 5 or 6 plays a game, and last week's game was one of the craziest I have been part of. We are not happy with the loss but look forward to the chance to win the next two games." (San Antonio Sports Star, n.d.)

We will see on Friday, 5-23-25, on Fox at 7 PM if the team is motivated to get the win. The UFL is so very competitive, and every team is exceptionally talented, so often the difference between winning and losing comes down to two main things: execution and motivation.

References

San Antonio Sports Star. (n.d.). The Blitz With Jason & Joe. Retrieved from 94.1 San Antonio's Sports Star: https://www.sasportsstar.com/