Last week FOX rolled out its first set of promos for the upcoming USFL season. The first came during Thursday Night Football, with the other two being rolled out during FOX’s Sunday NFL broadcasts.
With roughly four months until kickoff, we’ve been hearing a lot more from the league with rapid fire announcements. We’ve seen the first USFL hires, all eight team names and logos revealed, and learned that the league has signed a multi-year deal with NBC; all within the span of a month.
The NBC deal was first reported back in October when the USFL first started meeting with reps from Jefferson County and Birmingham, AL to host the 2022 season. Although it hasn’t been confirmed yet, all signs point to yes. The deal mentioned that the USFL was planning to split its broadcasts between FOX, FS1, NBC & USA. With the news official, that’s exactly what happened.
Now that news is rolling, it seems that the USFL has also flipped the marketing switch on as well.
Each promo that aired is 10 seconds long, despite the length there’s a few observations to be made about each, with some possible clues hidden along the way.
First USFL Promo
Did someone order more football? 🏈 pic.twitter.com/eQtFwjgCXM
— USFL (@USFL) December 17, 2021
The first promo gave a lot of fans exactly what they’ve been waiting for, a shot of the USFL game ball. This is assuming that the ball pictured is going to be the same or similar to the one in use in 2022.
Comparing the original USFL game ball to the one shown in the promo you’ll notice a few subtle differences. First, the USFL logo is colorized on the version displayed in the promo, whereas the original used black ink. The other noticeable difference is the addition of the stars near the end of the ball. I really like the direction the league seems to be taking with the game ball. It respects the leagues history, while adding a few subtle touches to make it a bit more modern.
Second USFL Promo
Spring 🤝 Football pic.twitter.com/o0OYUSWxJJ
— USFL (@USFL) December 19, 2021
The second promo was the first of two to debut during FOX Sunday NFL broadcasts. There’s not a lot to pull from this ad, but we do love to see FOX and the USFL embrace spring football as a positive. For so long spring football has had a bad stigma, mainly due to the growing graveyards of leagues that have come and gone.
FOX is looking to change all that with the USFL. At minimum, it looks as if the league is on track to stick around for at least three seasons; which is more than most ever survive.
Third USFL Promo
No more… No more football. pic.twitter.com/wKyAQaYqGc
— USFL (@USFL) December 19, 2021
The third one may have given us the biggest clue or teaser of the bunch. After the text displays, you can hear a clip saying “So, here we go”, which is clearly FOX’s very own Gus Johnson. Many fans also noticed this online, leading to speculation that Johnson will be in the booth for the USFL.
We’ll just need to wait and see on that front, but I think Gus Johnson is a great fit to be the voice of the new USFL. Johnson has been the lead college football play-by-play voice for FOX since 2011. In that role, he is joined by Joel Klatt, who has a little experience calling spring football with TSL and XFL. I think this could be a great team for the USFL booth, and we can only hope that the teaser in the promo is a hint of things to come.
UPDATE: FOX has definitely gone full out to support the new USFL. Since the first round of promos aired for the league we have seen FOX push the USFL in every NFL game they broadcast.
What did you think of the first set of USFL promos? Do you think we’ll see one on NBC’s Sunday Night Football before the NFL season concludes? Let us know your thoughts down in the comments below or join the conversation on Discord.
