Football can be a bit of a weird sport in America. Why? Because of money. When there’s money involved in sports, it can never be about just talent. No matter how talented you are or how good of a player you are, at the end of the day, money speaks louder than anything. Of course, you love the sport, you were probably born to play. And you might be ready to make any sacrifice to find success in the sport you love. However, the sport also needs to love you back, right? Otherwise, where’s the equality? Well, something similar is actually happening in the lesser known world of football. Away from the glam of the NFL lights—Fox owned UFL has found itself in a power struggle with its QBs.

See, two dozen of UFL QBs were supposed to be in Arlington, Texas last week to attend QB training camp. But none of the 24 QBs showed up because of an ongoing wage dispute with the league. Here’s where it all started. Going back to December, the league’s players association and the UFL found themselves in a contract dispute. QBs were reportedly not happy with the league’s trivial pay bump from their last year’s $55,000 base salary.

Just last week, they wrote a letter to UFL president Russ Brandon and VP of football operations Daryl Johnson describing the proposal they received as “unacceptable and insulting.” And in the same letter they further stated, “We have collectively decided not to attend the UFL quarterback training camp this weekend in Arlington, Texas.” Well, some of the names who signed that letter were former XFL Championship game MVP Luis Perez, Jarrett Guarantano of the San Antonio Brahmas, Matt Corral of the Stallions and others. However, newsflash, this strike only lasted till March 3rd.

As per the recent reports coming out of UFL, the players have planned to return to their respective training camps. But the saga is far from over. The UFL, which is entering its second season since merging with the XFL, said in a statement, “The United Football League continues to negotiate in good faith with the players union to finalize a Collective Bargaining Agreement, which will be beneficial both to the players and the league.” Surely they don’t have a shortage of capital, right? A league that is owned by the likes of The Rock, Dany Garcia, RedBird Capital, and Fox has enough to satisfy their player’s wage demands.

And there’s also a huge rise in viewership since the merger happened. Last season, the UFL drew more than 1M viewers to six of their games telecast by FOX. So, the ratings are also going up, which means they have all the reasons to give their players a pay rise. However, no matter what the UFL is bringing in viewership, it’s nothing compared to the NFL. FOX’s Super Bowl LIX success was mammoth in comparison to UFL nights.

FOX redefining Super Bowl telecast

FOX knew it wouldn’t be until 2029 that they would get another shot at hosting the Super Bowl. So, they went all guns blazing in this year’s Super Bowl in New Orleans. Two days after the Super Bowl coverage, Fox announced that their Super Bowl LIX broadcast had generated over $800M with record-breaking viewership. Like on an average, 127.7M people were watching the Chiefs getting manhandled by the Eagles. At one point, in the second quarter, it peaked to 137.7M viewers when the Chiefs had already lost the game. Maybe the whole America tuned in just to watch the Chiefs botch 3-peat on FOX.

Actually, it’s not like only the game pulled in such a record number of viewers. FOX Super Bowl LIX Pregame coverage had an average viewership of 23.4M. So, FOX didn’t just slay with viewership during the game, they also conquered the TV networks with pre-game breakdowns and analysis. Everything they did was top-notch from beginning to the end. Like AI Michaels said, “FOX does things like no one can.” Looking at the records they broke or rewrote in Super Bowl LIX night—we can’t really disagree.

But unfortunately, we will now have to wait till 2029, the next FOX brings Super Bowl telecast on their network. In the meantime, let’s see whether other networks like ESPN, CBS and NBC can even come close to the records FOX made in 2025.