After what is being hailed as some as a positive 2024 season in the United Football League, which was the first year under the XFL and USFL merger.
The UFL is trending in the wrong direction on Tuesday after a report by Steven Beynon of Military.com. saying the U.S. Army was not satisfied with Johnson after he did not fulfill his contract by tweeting about the U.S. Army five times for $1 million. Johnson only made two posts and stopped promoting them in April.
The U.S. Army, which was one of the UFL’s biggest sponsors in 2024, paid the UFL $11 million for the 2024 season. They saw their logo on the field, along with patches of their logo on all eight teams, their name “U.S. Army Command Center” where Dean Blandino and Mike Pereira reviewed plays during games, and had members from the U.S. Army speak during the game sharing their stories about joining them.
To be fair, the U.S. Army investing money into the UFL was not smart. People are not going to join the Army by watching the games no matter how many times they hear it. Military sponsorship has not done well in recent years like the National Guard, who sponsored Dale Earnhardt Jr. years ago paying $88 million and it led to no one joining.
The U.S. Army’s money was not spent well and they are now in buyer’s remorse. In the midst of a historic recruiting crisis, as reported by Beynon, they did not recruit anybody to join the U.S. Army and instead lost 38 enlistments. Now, the U.S. Army is looking to rework the contract and recoup $6 million of the $11 million back, which is a major blow to the UFL.
Before the U.S. Army sponsored the UFL, Beynon reported through the Army Documents, showing that people in the U.S. Army did not want them to partner with the UFL. However, Gen. Randy George green-lighted the sponsorship.
“From the beginning, Army staff warned against a partnership with the UFL — or the XFL and USFL, the two minor football leagues that would eventually form the UFL through a merger. Service officials said the financial burden was way too high and viewership was too low, and even the most optimistic estimation showed the partnership would not yield many recruits.”
Another problem the UFL and the U.S. Army were having was communication in which the Army documents called it “inexperienced” UFL staff causing a breakdown in communication leading to additional work.
For Dwayne Johnson to breach a contract is not good for him or the entire league. This could affect future sponsorship or those who were ready to become sponsors will now think twice before putting pen to a document.
In the 2024 season, Johnson showed up for the first game between the Arlington Renegades and Birmingham Stallions. While he tweeted out about the UFL, he was physically not present for the rest of the season. In addition, his ex-wife and business partner Dany Garcia made a few appearances including presenting the UFL Championship trophy to the Birmingham Stallions in St. Louis.
Not to be political, but Johnson has rubbed a lot of people the wrong way dating back to Johnson endorsing Joe Biden in 2020. Johnson’s businesses were doing well until he endorsed Biden and that is when his businesses started to suffer.
In 2022, his movie Black Adam, despite earning $393.5 million, was not well received by critics, and in 2023, the XFL lost $60 million which led to the USFL and XFL merger.
The UFL cannot afford negative press as they prepare for the 2025 season. They need to address this Johnson situation asap because if he continues to not honor his contract to satisfy the sponsors, the league will be done. If it means that Johnson must relinquish his ownership stake in the UFL, then it needs to happen right away. The UFL also needs to make things right with the U.S. Army. Because if they don’t, we might be talking about another failed spring football league.
