UFL Players Say League Threatened Release Over Potential Media Day Holdouts

Labor trouble has roiled the two-year-old league.

Stallions running back Ricky Person Jr. celebrates during the team's 27–14 win over the Renegades on March 30, 2024. / Jerome Miron-Imagn Images

The United Football League's players were threatened with release if they boycotted the league's media days Thursday and Friday, according to a Thursday afternoon report from Kevin Seifert of ESPN.

The reported threat—confirmed by three players to Seifert—comes amid significant strife as the UFL's union attempts to negotiate a collective bargaining agreement with the league.

"[The coaches] told us that the league had gotten wind of union organization against the media days," an unnamed player told Seifert, "and that if anyone acted on that, that they would be cut and considered to have acted with conduct detrimental [to the UFL]. We asked coaches after the meeting where this message came from and they said it came straight from [EVP of football operations] Daryl Johnston, who gave this message to all eight coaches."

The reported development follows a boycott of a UFL-sponsored camp by the league's quarterbacks in February, in response to a CBA offer the players called "unacceptable and insulting."

Just 22 days remain until the start of the league's regular season, which will be televised by the ESPN and Fox families of networks.

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