Houston Roughnecks teammates Reuben Foster and Glen Logan got into a debate at practice about which team was better – Foster’s final team at Alabama or Logan’s best team at LSU.

“My ring says one thing: the best ever,” said Logan, a Houston defensive tackle.

“And that’s lies,” Foster shot back. “That’s false. Who done it best? Coach (Nick) Saban.”

A Roughnecks linebacker, Foster was sticking up for the 2016 Alabama team, even though it didn’t win the CFP national championship. After capturing the 2015 crown, the Crimson Tide reached the 2016 championship game with a 14-0 record but lost to Clemson 35-31 when the Tigers scored a touchdown with one second left.

Logan was bragging on LSU’s 2019 team, which went 15-0 and defeated Clemson 42-25 in the CFP national-championship game.

“You get 2016,” Foster said, “and him and his team, Joe Burrow and all of them, against everybody on my team on 2016, man, we going to mop the boys. We going to sweep them, whatever you want to do – clean them, Magic Erase them, whatever you want to do. Windex their ass, whatever.”

Foster earned unanimous All-American recognition in 2016, when he won the Butkus Award as the nation’s best linebacker.

Foster will cross paths with another former Crimson Tide All-American and national award winner when Houston takes on the St. Louis Battlehawks in a United Football League game at 2 p.m. CDT Sunday at the Dome at America’s Center in St. Louis. FOX will televise the game.

AJ McCarron is the the Battlehawks quarterback.

McCarron’s final season at Alabama in 2013, when he was the Maxwell Award winner, also was Foster’s first season with the Crimson Tide.

“Reuben was a great player,” McCarron said on Tuesday. “I tried to get Reuben here last year before he had signed with the, I think it was, the Pittsburgh Maulers in the USFL. I love Reuben. I think he’s a good dude. He’s battled through some things in his personal life, which everybody goes through things. But he’s always been great to me and my family, and I think he’s a hell of a player.”

Both Foster and McCarron were Alabama high school stars – Foster at Auburn and McCarron at St. Paul’s Episcopal in Mobile.

Foster is in his second season of spring football in his return to the game after a knee injury wrecked his NFL career.

The 31st selection in the 2017 NFL Draft, Foster tore the anterior cruciate ligament and lateral collateral ligament in his left knee during an offseason practice with the Washington Redskins on May 20, 2019. He spent two seasons on Washington’s injured reserve before being out of the game in 2021 and 2022.

Foster made a comeback with the USFL’s Maulers in 2023. When the USFL and XFL merged to form the UFL, Pittsburgh was one of the teams that didn’t make the new league, and Foster went to Houston in the dispersal draft.

The league’s highest-scoring team through five games, St. Louis has a 4-1 record. Houston is at 1-4 with the UFL’s least-productive offense. But St. Louis offensive coordinator Bruce Gradkowski said Foster and the Roughnecks defense meant the Battlehawks needed their full attention on Saturday’s game. In Week 7, St. Louis plays the Birmingham Stallions, the league’s only unbeaten team.

“This guy was a top pick,” Gradkowski said. “This guy is a tough player. He’s a good player. He’s one of the best in this league.”

Mark Inabinett is a sports reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter at @AMarkG1.