I’m just gonna go ahead and tell you that your new favorite UFL team is the Hartford Colonials. The Colonials started life as the winless (and nigh unwatchable) New York Sentinels last season—under the inept leadership of Ted Cotrell, formerly Defensive Coordinator of the San Diego Chargers. Honestly, I was both surprised and dismayed when Cotrell was hired for the Sentinels, and in that regard, well, last year’s winless season was exactly what you’d expect out of a guy whose last tenure was also a colossal failure. Last season the Sentinels were so bad that I ended up canceling my plans to take my kids to one of their games because I didn’t want my kids’ first experience with live football to be a total blowout. That ain’t the way to show your kids the beauty of the game.
Thankfully, this season the Colonials have a new Head Coach and GM. In the spartan UFL, that’s dual position held by a single man, Chris Palmer, a CT native as well as a former Cleveland Browns head coach and the Giants’ quarterback’s position coach. Eh. I’ve never heard of anyone else from the staff besides Tony Sporano, the son of the Miami Dolphins’ head coach.
More on the coaching staff:
As far as the players go, the Colonials just announced their “protected” list, the list of the 20 players with whom the team has some kind of initial exclusivity over contract extensions from last season. The most famous looks to be Safety Tra Battle. In looking through the news, I see that Battle visited the Tennessee Titans recently, presumably as part of the team’s “emergency call” list off-season update. A lot of the successful UFL players wound up getting called up last season via emergency call lists when mid-season injuries left contenders a little short. In fact, it’s because of the existence of these kinds of call lists that the UFL plays its games in the Fall rather than in the Spring. Playing in the Fall gives UFL players the best chance to see some regular, big-League action later in the year.
Anway, I’ve not heard of anyone else on the team besides Battle, but it looks like there are a couple of former Houston Texans:
If you’re wondering, the Colonials play at UConn’s Rentschler Field, probably to somewhere around 5,000 spectators if last year’s attendance is any guide. Colonials season tickets are $100 for 5 games. Since the stadium is about 45 minutes from my house, I may well buy some, but it depends on the schedule. Fridays and Weekend nights I would do. More Thursday night games I won’t.
Some games are also televised on Versus and via the Internet on HDNet and the UFL’s official site. I watched a couple of the games on Versus last year, including the very entertaining UFL Championship Game, and most of the games were watchable, but there were a few blowouts. Still, I think that the key to having a good fan experience is having someone to root for. At least I’ve given you that here.
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