Where’s the trophy?

Shhhh.

What do you mean? Where’s the trophy?

Shhhh. It’s not here.

Why not?

Shhhh—’cause it’s not this trophy.

Ah. After months of negotiations between rivals determined to bring credibility, legitimacy, and longevity to spring football, the United Football League (UFL) stepped out from its dark rooms Thursday and declared itself the model of sustainability where so many carcasses have laid to rest.

“We always knew it would be the last man standing,” said Darryl Johnston, head of football operations for the new league. “So, this gives us the best chance to exist and sustain.”

To live.

Johnston held the same role with the United States Football League, the Fox Network-owned entity that launched in 2022 with all of its eight teams huddled in Birmingham and playing all games at then-still spankin’ new Protective Stadium. The model made fiscal sense but tossed home-field flowers to the hometown Stallions—the 2.0 Stallions, a reincarnation of the franchise birthed in the inaugural USFL, which lasted just three ego-doomed seasons (’83-’85) before being another bygone product of the 80s.

The Stallions captured that inaugural championship—a title game played in Canton, Ohio, at the Pro Football Hall of Fame because the stadium was pre-scheduled to host a Legion pro soccer game. “Everybody was jealous of [Stallions head coach] Skip [Holtz] in year one,” Johnston said, with Holtz sitting next to him on the stage. “He had 10 home games.”

RELATED: How the USFL came to Birmingham, and almost didn’t

Birmingham repeated last season when four USFL teams encamped in Birmingham and four others played in their respective cities—as the upstart XFL (with minority owner Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson), audaciously stepped on the USFL’s toes and dared it to play last man standing.

This offseason, the two entities worked diligently to find amicable middle ground on myriad fronts. The UFL comprises four teams from each league and will play a hybrid of rules utilized by the respective leagues. Perhaps most significantly, the UFL will utilize the USFL’s kickoff rules. Scoring teams kickoff from the 20-yard line, 15 yards deeper than the National Football League, which altered its kickoffs in recent years in response to the spike in injuries plaguing the league. (XFL kickoffs are launched from a spot similar to the NFL but with the quirky twist of kickoff-team players lining up within five yards of receiving team players to minimize high-speed collisions.)

In the NFL, more than 60% of kickoffs are touchbacks; in the USFL more than 90% of kickoffs were returned.

The USFL stood its ground on kickoffs. “Our injury reports were similar to theirs,” Johnston said. “Plus, it’s more like football.”

Another change: Each team this season will play home games in their respective cities while huddling collectively during the week in Arlington, Texas for practices. Johnston said the league must generate more revenue (sell tickets) while keeping expenses down.

Johnston touted several USFL successes, which have trickled to the UFL’s benefit. Fewer teams (eight overall instead of 16 between the two leagues) means the talent level should be higher and Johnston said more players are seeing the benefit of spring football. “Players are calling us,” he said. “They’re turning down the NFL because they’re betting on themselves.”

Betting they’ll be the next Kavontae Turpin or Brandon Aubrey. After earning USFL MVP honors with the New Jersey Generals in 2022, Turpin, a wide receiver and kick return specialist, signed with the Dallas Cowboys and was named a Pro Bowler in 2022. Aubrey, a former professional soccer player, made 86 percent of FG attempts (32 of 37) and 96 percent of extra points (57 of 59) in two seasons with the Stallions. He also signed with the Cowboys, made 36 of 38 FGs this season, and was named to the Pro Bowl. (Oh, Aubrey also signed a three-year, $2,695,000 contract, with an average annual salary of $898,333.)

“Two-year NFL contracts,” Johnston said, “can be life-changing.”

Flipside of the USFL’s highs was attendance. After a satisfactory debut in Year One, it fell in the second season. “We knew there was skepticism because of the past and we had to earn your trust,” he said, addressing fans in attendance at Protective, “but we didn’t engage with you as much as we had the year before, and for that we apologize.” Indeed, Johnson said, attendance among USFL teams fell below XFL teams. “That’s on us.”

Johnston said NFL coaches and executives he’s encountered “want” and “need” a spring league. That said, “We don’t like to be considered a G League or developmental league. We want to be a standalone professional league that creates an alternative route for guys to get to the NFL.

“So it’s got to be [the NFL] accepting our business model and how we can both benefit. We’re proud of what we’ve built and think we can provide a really good service for what they need.

“Some of it’s easy, some of the medical information we share, some rules they’re considering that we’ve already put in place, the technology we use—that they don’t have video on the sideline, our guys love it. It has to be a good relationship where there’s flow back and forth.

“We’ve got to do what’s right for us.”

One other USFL “loss”—the Stallions’ two USFL championship trophies, which are likely stashed in a closet somewhere at Fox. That didn’t prevent the uber-ebullient Stallions coach Skip Holtz from pumping his chest for the couple of hundred “Giddy up” fans in the audience as he shared the stage with Johnston.

“Only one team,” he said, “has a chance to three-peat.”

The Stallions will open the inaugural UFL season on the road on March 30 against the XFL champion Arlington Renegades.

I’m a member of the National Association of Black Journalists Hall of Fame and a Pulitzer Prize finalist for commentary. My column appears on AL.com, as well as the Lede. Tell me what you think at [email protected], and follow me at twitter.com/roysj, or on Instagram @roysj