On Wednesday, UFL Commissioner Michael Huyghue dismissed as “rumor” our report that he planned to require NFL teams to fork over $150,000 for the ability to sign UFL players after the UFL season ends.
Said Huyghue, "“From Day One, our policy has been the same — once a team’s season ends, any player is free to go to the NFL. We want our players to go to the NFL. I’m not sure where that rumor on the Internet started, but there’s no truth to it.”
As it turns out, there’s a lot of truth to it; Huyghue said so himself on Tuesday.
“Everybody wants something for free,” Huyghue told Paul Doyle of the Hartford Courant, in an item that was first published earlier today. “But you’ve got to value the fact that we brought the guys out here, we put them into playing condition, we absorbed that cost to do it and now they know that guy can play, it’s free scouting, free development. Hey, there ain’t no free lunches. It would be nice to say, ‘We want them’ and have the players available, but guess what? That’s not the way it works. . . . A lot of people are saying, why are you only charging $150,000? . . .
“There might an agent who will say, ‘My guy was on the fringe and he didn’t go [to the NFL] because of the [transfer fee],’” Huyghue added. “Well, maybe your guy isn’t as good as he thinks he is. If the only way they’ll take him is for free, then maybe he isn’t quite ready.”
So let’s summarize. On Tuesday, Huyghue said he plans to charge NFL teams the $150,000 transfer fee after the UFL season ends. On Wednesday, after we reported on the UFL’s intentions and the near-mutiny that occurred, Huyghue acted like we were just making it all up.
Before seeing Doyle’s article, we had sent UFL spokesman Michael Preston a list of questions regarding the transfer-fee controversy. Based on Doyle’s article, we’ll publicly pose one more.
Based on the things Huyghue said Tuesday and the things he said Wednesday, when will Huyghue be submitting his resignation?