UFL/NGL/Joe McClendon History
Preamble
You have likely been led to this page because of a media story, social media post, or some other online page where you have written or produced promoting a new football league Joe McClendon is stating will begin on some future date, or you are stated as having involvement with Joe and his league.
This is a notated history of Joe McClendon’s attempts to start various football leagues. Is he a guy who honestly wants to start a football league with “good intentions” and is just unlucky or doesn’t realize he doesn’t have the resources to pull it off? Or is he actively and knowingly deceiving people (players, coaches, staff and other businesses) that he convinces his league will begin playing, but he doesn’t have any intention of doing so? That determination is up to you.
The full research has been done for you below. You can read it and determine if you think your involvement with the league is wise, or your article or reporting should be amended or followed up with something determining whether what you reported was truthful and will likely occur, or if there is reason to be extremely skeptical. If you don’t decide to dig deeper, your stories will most likely be added to the below history of links in the future.
Links to pages with general information
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Gridiron_League_(United_States)
Timeline of events with links to media article and other details
(Note: not a full history, more to be added later on. Also, as time rolls on, many links will go stale, although I will try to get links to Internet Archive copies of the pages as I can)
- First link of any type found mentioning the NGL and Joe McClendon, with an announcement of a (likely dubious) “relationship” with Dicks Sporting Goods.
- Links referenced:
- First wayback machine archive of the NGL website
- Links referenced:
- First articles saying the NGL is launching in 2019 appear
- “The upstart National Gridiron League announced on Aug. 14 the addition of the Indiana Firebirds, who will play their home games at Ford Center beginning in March 2019. The 12-team league was formed last year as a “minor league alternative to the National Football League.”
- Links referenced:
- Articles touting the launch of the 2019 NGL season
- Links referenced:
- NGL cancels their announced 2019 season.
- “It’s a farce,” an ex-employee said, revealing nobody within the 12-team league had received a paycheck since at least November 2018. “[President] Joe McClendon is a dreamer, but his dream was based on a reality. He had good intentions, but he bit off more than he could chew.”
- Links referenced:
- “NGL leaves players stranded”
- Joe “left his employees – players who’ve signed contracts – stranded last weekend when he canceled voluntary minicamps league-wide for reasons unknown. Players had been promised hotel accommodations and told that food would be supplied, but they would need to cover their personal travel costs.
- Links referenced:
- NGL “suspends plans for play”, along with all other sports and events in the wake of COVID.
- Links referenced:
- The NGL purports to play in a “bubble hub” in Fort Wayne, IN for 2021.
- The NGL claims that the City of Fort Wayne ``promised” to supply housing for players. The city and other organizations claimed this wasn’t the case, and no evidence of records of any official agreement were ever made public by the NGL.
- NGL holds a “meeting” at a local Fort Wayne mall, which turns into a “protest” in the food court.
- NGL never played their 2021 “bubble/hub” season.
- Links referenced:
- First indications surface that the NGL has “rebranded” into the moniker “United Football League”, using the 2009-2012 UFL Logo, and “claiming” the history of both the 2009-12 UFL *AND* the 1960s UFL.
- Links referenced:
- Many media articles touting UFL teams and stadiums to be built for the 2023 season
- Links referenced:
- Operators of the mall in OKC express concerns that the UFL is not going to be able to launch at the mall.
- Various articles appear touting apparent coaching hires and other team news.
- UFL delays season openers to begin on Fri, April. 21, instead of the original date of April 1.
- The UFL website posts an article where they claim that “The UFL is entering its seventh season”.
- This doesn’t make sense as a “fact” on a number of levels:
- If one was to count the number of years Joe McClendon has been trying to start a league, this would be the 5th season (2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023)
- If one was to count the number of years that past leagues called the “United Football League” (which this league claims to be “continuing”, but, nobody involved is connected to either past league using the name “United Football League”), this would be the 9th season (1961-64, 2009-2012).
- Most obviously… a league directly connected to this “UFL” and/or helmed by Joe McClendon has never actually played a game, which would make this the 1st season.
- UFL announced “UFL+” streaming service, for $99/yr.
- Links referenced:
- UFL website shows the week 1 start of the league on the schedule page has now been moved to May 13
- Links referenced:
- UFL website shows the week 1 start of the league on the schedule page has now been moved to June 24, shortened to 6 weeks
- Number of home games for teams varies wildly, as if they just chopped off the previous schedule and left the last 6 weeks on the page.
- UFL announces a “player development program”, where some players would pay $1,000 to be “considered” for a UFL team.
- Links referenced:
- UFL announces they are going to have “team scrimmages” instead of actual games in 2023
- Virginia TV station reports on UFL issues with coaches and players.
- There has been no indication that any “team scrimmages” have taken place in the UFL.
- UFLfootball.com claims they are “announcing new team general managers in coming weeks”.
- Apparent issues of possible confusion surrounding names revolving around these entities:
- Another semi-pro level football league HAS been using the “United Football League” name and actually playing games: https://www.facebook.com/THEUNITEDFOOTBALLLEAGUE/ . Unclear whether the “Joe UFL” has used that at all to spread confusion that they are “playing games”.
- Looking up “Joe McClendon III” on Google reveals an apparently better known person in certain circles with the EXACT same name, who is an author and “Performance Specialist”. Whether “UFL Joe” uses this to confuse people that his own background might include things from this other JMIII, it is unknown.
- Rumors abound that the merging XFL/USFL leagues will use the “United Football League” moniker. What that means for the Joe McClendon UFL, and whether the “USXFL” will have to obtain “rights” to use the UFL branding from Joe, will reveal whether Joe ever actually was legally using the UFL name in the first place.
- The USFL/XFL merged league renames to the United Football League (UFL), with no relation to the above UFL/NGL/Joe McClendon III.
- The url uflfootball.com has been down since late December.
- There is no indication that the USFL/XFL/Fox had to purchase anything (IP, naming rights, etc) from the “NGL/UFL”.
- https://www.gongl.com/home - New website announcing the “NGL will play in 2025”. Proclaiming to be “The King of Spring Football” and “America's Premier Spring Football League” despite never playing a game in any incarnation, and having no hard indications that they have solidified ownership, locations or staffs in place. Also repurposing (probably without legit rights) 6 legacy AFL team names.