AJ McCarron Unsure About Playing for UFL, St. Louis Battlehawks
One of the best storylines in spring football last season was AJ McCarron joining the XFL to play for the St. Louis Battlehawks. McCarron took a pay cut so his sons could watch him play football. That led to his being the leading passer in the league and was widely considered the MVP of the XFL.
After spending the NFL season with the Cincinnati Bengals, McCarron is faced a decision of whether to return to the Battlehawks in the UFL for 2024 or aim for a return to the NFL.
McCarron sat down with Matty Fresh of Springball Boulevard to discuss the merger of the XFL-USFL, what concerns he has about the new league and if he would return.
Below are some key takeaways from the interview.
Takeaways from AJ McCarron Interview
Topics of Discussion
McCarron Concerns Over Player Union, Pay
McCarron voiced concerns over the regarding pay and how contracts would be structured differently in the UFL compared to the XFL last year.
“Everybody works for money, right? Listen, I understand. I love the game. I took a pay cut last year and played in the XFL and was really doing it for my boys, but at the same time, playing well and knowing what you are risking at the same time for the amount of money. The fact that I got back to that point, I would say for the entire league and the guys that have reached out to me, there’s a lot of guys that are worried that basically the pay got cut from a contract standpoint. There’s no win bonus. Things like that.”
McCarron did take time to reach out UFL executives including Russ Brandon, Daryl “Moose” Johnston and Doug Whaley to express concerns and ideas regarding the league. He shared that he wanted each team to have a representative for each team to speak to the executives about ideas on how to improve the league.
McCarron was also concerned the players union that UFL players would have to be part of. USFL players voted to unionize with the Steelworkers prior to the 2023 season, while the XFL players voted against a players union. Now as part of the UFL contract, XFL players have concerns about signing the contracts as they would have to join the union and pay dues.
“I understand they needed to cut costs, but I felt like there was a better way. If us as players weren’t a union with the Steelworkers union, we had a voice from each team and went and spoke to ownership of the UFL ourselves, we would have gotten more out of this.”
Players will be getting a stipend of $1,600 a month, with players reaching out to McCarron about not being able to afford living in the Dallas/Fort Worth area at that rate. Players will also have the option to live in the team hotel, but the cost of that would be over $3,500 a month without any special discounts.
McCarron did mention the league hired a third-party company to help players, but still had concerns with the idea of a union. He felt the USFL players should have been more patient with unionizing, saying the UFL should grow first and have individual owners for each team before unionizing.
Will McCarron Return for 2024 UFL Season?
The interview concluded with what McCarron was going to do for the 2024 season. He had brought up that a decision had not been made and he would make one in the next couple of days.
“I’m still talking with my agent, family, and still deciding what is the best route for me. Listen, I absolutely love St. Louis. There’s only one team I would come back and play for and that’s St. Louis, Coach (Anthony) Becht. He’s an unbelievable head coach.”
Fans will have to wait for a decision from McCarron but will be making a quick decision with training camp for the UFL less than a month away.
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Anthony Miller has been covering professional spring football since 2019 including XFL, USFL, and CFL. He was a local news reporter in Texas before transitioning to sports. Other sites he writes for includes College Football Network and NTZ Network.