It was a historic night for pro football last night. Yes, I am fully aware what season it is.
The United Football League held its second-ever championship game last night at the Dome at America’s Center, the domed stadium in downtown St. Louis that once housed the Greatest Show on Turf, the NFL’s Rams. But that jilted but still football-robust metropolis has become ground zero for spring professional football opportunity, and the fact that their Battlehawks were eliminated last week by the upstart DC Defenders didn’t diminish the enthusiasm for the literally hundreds of fans that flooded the stands last night to see the XFL Division runner-ups take on the second generation USFL Division Michigan Panthers for all the marble.
You may not have noticed what was going on last night unless you were channel flipping as I was (us old school viewers still do that from time to time). But if for no other reason that default on an incredibly slow sports night, ABC actually carried the game in prime time. And honestly, it was worth stopping for.
In football-obsessed environs like Alabama, where the USFL exclusively played its games during its initial COVID-compromised revival season in 2022, it was big enough news for AL.com’s Mark Inabinett to write all of this up:
Not only did quarterback Jordan Ta’amu throw for 390 yards and four touchdowns for DC in the United Football League Championship Game on Saturday night, the Defenders ball-carriers rolled up 190 yards and another four touchdowns on the ground in a record-breaking 58-34 victory over the Michigan Panthers.
The victory made league champions of four players from Alabama high schools and colleges. Gunnar Britton (Auburn) and Tykeem Doss (Aliceville) helped anchor the offensive explosion as the Defenders’ right tackle and left guard, respectively. Wide receiver Seth Williams (Paul Bryant, Auburn) caught a 46-yard pass, one of the six completions by Ta’amu that gained at least 25 yards. Long snapper Trae Barry (Spanish Fort, Jacksonville State) handled the snaps for two field goals. Barry did not have to snap for any punts, as DC scored on its first 10 possessions before running out the clock on the final 1:38 of the game. The Defenders set league single-game records for points and yards (with 580).
And followers of familiar alumni not quite NFL-ready also waxed euphoric, as was the case with Jared Shlensky of ILLINOIS FIGHTING ILLINI ON SPORTS ILLUSTRATED:
Malik Turner saved his best game for last in Saturday’s UFL Championship Game. Unfortunately, the same couldn’t be said for Turner’s Michigan Panthers. Michigan got smoked by the DC Defenders, 58-34, giving up a UFL-record 58 points and 580 yards of total offense.
But enough about the blowout – back to Turner’s breakout. The former Illinois receiver set a UFL record with 168 receiving yards and three receiving touchdowns and tied a UFL playoff record with 10 receptions. Turner did it all: contested receptions, yards after the catch, working over the middle and down the sideline. You name it, Turner had it in his bag Saturday.
The relatively shocking offensive barrage was especially noteworthy for a UFL game. For the most part games have plodded along with frequent field goals, and in a league where no extra points are kicked (you have the option of going for one, two or three-point conversions from as far as 15 yards out on a single post-score play) results rarely cover the over. But these were, at least by UFL terms, two stellar teams.
The fact that the game was played at all is significant. The OG USFL only made it through three seasons in the ’80s, the revived version just two and both the first and third versions of the XFL (2001 and 2023) only had one. So all things considered, having a UFL at all is an accomplishment.
But even more noteworthy was who was getting doused with Gatorade, as THE NEWS AND OBSERVER’s Tolly Carr observed this morning:
Shannon Harris, a former quarterback at Tennessee State University, made history Saturday night by becoming the first HBCU graduate to coach a team to a professional sports championship. Harris led the DC Defenders to a record-breaking 58-34 victory over the Michigan Panthers in the 2025 UFL Championship Game.
And as HBC LEGENDS ON SI’s Kyle Mosley noted, he had only had the job for a short while:
His story is remarkable, as he assumed the interim head coach role after Reggie Barlow vacated the position when he accepted the position of head coach for the Tennessee State Tigers. Earlier this week, the league named… \Harris as the 2025 UFL Buddy Teevens Coach of the Year.
“Yeah, to God be the glory,”… Harris said postgame. “And I’d say these guys here, man, the coaching staff, support staff, I mean, everybody’s been on the same page since day one, since taking over, and, again, we just rattle it around each other, and it continues to just be us, we, and ours, so these guys, I mean, I can’t thank them enough for the effort they put into this, the resiliency that we had throughout the course of the year. We have some great fans back in D.C., we want to do it for them as well, and God is amazing, man, God is amazing, and I’m very grateful.”
The Defenders aren’t the Commanders, and Harris isn’t Coach Prime. But those stories have to start somewhere. And last night in St. Louis, we saw the seeds planted for what eventually blooms in the fall. And don’t be surprised if the names Jordan Ta’amu and Malik Turner might join them.
Courage…