The 24 quarterbacks of the United Football League were expected to report to their teams’ training camps Monday, Front Office Sports reported, after staging a holdout of sorts over the weekend.
As the UFL heads into its second season following a merger between the USFL and XFL, the quarterbacks were reportedly frustrated by a raise over last year’s $55,000 base salary they called “negligible.”
They collectively decided not to attend a QBs-only training camp Thursday through Sunday in Arlington, Texas.
Per Sports Business Journal last week, the quarterbacks were also seeking year-round health insurance.
“The proposal our Players Association received on Thursday was unacceptable and insulting,” they wrote in the letter addressed to UFL president Russ Brandon and executive vice president Daryl Johnston. “We — all of the quarterbacks in the UFL — have collectively decided not to attend the UFL quarterback training camp this weekend in Arlington, Texas, in protest of that proposal and the message that is sent to us as players.”
Monday was the start of training camp for all eight teams. The regular season begins on March 28.
Fox owns a 50 percent stake in the UFL. The other 50 percent is controlled by the XFL Properties LLC headed by Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson and backed by RedBird Capital Partners.
–Field Level Media
