Hello and welcome aboard the UFO, a newsletter piloted by two deranged UFA fans and former members of the Philadelphia Phoenix front office, Shaggy Shragis and Johnny Goodtimes, and former NY Empire coach Charlie Hoppes. If you enjoy this newsletter, please share it! If you're arriving here w/o having signed up, just click here to sign up. We are totally independent of the league and these views are our own.
We're mixing things up a bit this week. Why? Because we can. So no recaps, no previews, no interviews, no pick 'em, we're simply answering questions. Some of our own, some submitted by some of you (Thank you to all who submitted!) And there are some really good ones. I think this is gonna be a fun edition of the UFO. Which reminds me: we're not running this thing, YOU are. So if there are things you want to see more of, less of, ideas for the future, please let us know. We're letting this thing take shape by feel, and so far it feels pretty good. But the goal is to continually get better, and create something that you're excited to read each week. Please feel free to let us know how we're doing, for better or for worse. Just earlier this week someone told me on Instagram that we had lost all credibility, which I was very flattered by, because I never thought we had any credibility in the first place!
Congrats to Eric, who got 9 out of 11 right last week in our Pick 'Em! We're gonna take this week off with picks, and get back at it next week.
Enjoy, and if you like this newsletter, please tell a friend!!
If you could create an Optimus Prime player, taking the head, hearts, arm, and athleticism of 4 different UFA players to create a superplayer, who would those 4 players be?
CHARLIE: I am going all-early 2020s Empire for this one. Gimme Jack Williams' head, and the way he sees and operates the game. I'll take Jagt's heart and all the relentless cutting and extreme clutchness. I'll go with Ryan Osgar's arm that can hit just about anywhere within 60 yards (and often further) with the highest precision. And then obviously Jeff Babbitt's athleticism. Although if we are Frankensteining, it might be more fun to just put a chip in Babbitt's brain that tells him he is allowed (encouraged?) to throw turnovers and sometimes cut off teammates to get the disc. He's too smart right now for maximum fun. I don't think people know he's got a 70 yard flick and a 50 yard hammer pretty comfortably. UNLEASH IT ALL, JEFF.
JGT: I love how Shaggy just completely disregards the question to form his own entirely different question (Trunk?), and Charlie includes a guy who's no longer even in the league (Osgar). We're off to a rousing start. Mine would be: Jack Williams head, Khalif El-Salaam's heart, Laviolette's's arm, Alex Wilson Holiday's athleticism. Great answers by me, PLUS I get a bonus point for following directions.
If you had an MVP vote, and the MVP voting was today, who would you pick?
SHAGGY: It's close, but I think I'm between Dan De Maree, Nate Goff, or Tobe Decraene. I think I would lean Tobe because he's played twice as many games as the other two.
CHARLIE: This is a tough race certainly, with lots of worthy candidates that could pull away from the pack down the stretch. But I'm voting today, and I'm voting for Allan Laviolette. He's been on a ridiculous heater on a Carolina team that is trying to dig out of an absurd hole. He already has a career-high in completions and completion percentage among his high-touch seasons. He's at 83% on 20 hucks. Maybe it's bad form to vote for a guy on a team that would miss the playoffs if they started today. But if the Flyers storm back to the postseason, I don't think I'll be alone in this vote.
JGT: First of all, before he even got traded to Boston, I had Tobe as my dark horse MVP candidate, so to see him living up to my sky-high expectations is awesome. BUT the reason he's not my pick is because he got traded. I'll explain: For me, MVP doesn't mean best, it means what it says, “Most Valuable”. And because Tobe is playing with guys like Orion Cable and Jeff Babbitt, I think he is GREAT but not as valuable as he would be if he were still on Montreal. If Tobe didn't play on Boston, I still think they'd win the East, though not as impressively as they currently are. Whereas I think if Travis Dunn didn't play on San Diego, they would not have a shot at the playoffs. Don't get me wrong, El-Salaam, Osbournce, and Miller are all terrific players, but Dunn is the straw that stirs that drink. He's my MVP at this stage.
What player who's off to a slow start do you expect to see a strong home stretch from?
SHAGGY: Jacques Nissen (DC) is having arguably the worst season of his career, and he's an interesting counter-case of what happens if you give a player a higher workload. In the NBA, people often say that any player could score if you gave them enough shots, but that's not really true with frisbee. Nissen has been at his best cutting off of Malks as a thrower, and making him the thrower has created an interesting deficit in overall production. I think now that he's had 2/3 of the season to gel as the primary distributor alongside Rowan and Monroe, we'll see more of a return to form down the stretch.
CHARLIE: The DC offense isn't what it has been in past seasons so far this year; they are 11th in the league in hold percentage and 10th in O-line conversion percentage, statistics they've never been worse than 5th in since the pandemic. With some re-shuffling and key pieces departing or being in and out of the lineup, a learning curve was expected. Thomas Edmonds has more turnovers in six games this year than he had in 20 games over the last two years. For years, Edmonds has been one of the most underrated players in the sport, first because he toiled with a Pittsburgh team that didn't quite make it to the top of the sport, and then because he was a critical piece on a team legendary for distributing the load. He's one of the best players of the sport, and he will have a great finish to this year.
JGT: It's no secret that I'm a huge Big Game James fan, It's also no secret that he's had a quiet first half of the season. Between 2022 and 2024, he put up 78 assists and 98 goals. This year, he has a mere 3 and 6. Of course a lot of that can be explained away by the fact he was on the O-line for Philly in those seasons, and is playing D-line for the Wind Chill this year. And his blocks are holding up just fine, with 7 in 5 games played. That said, we'd still expect bigger scoring numbers out of a guy who's so dangerous in and around the end zone. I think this is a comfort thing; new city, new teammates, new system. And while the Wind Chill's system doesn't really produce "stars", I expect his completion percentage, his goals, and his vaunted end-of-quarter heroics to start to increase as the year goes on.
If the season ended today, who would you vote for Rookie of the Year?
SHAGGY: Probably Dan De Maree (Union). All credit to Leo Gordon, but De Maree might win MVP his rookie season. There are plenty of really good contenders for the all rookie spots this year: Jacob Cowan from New York, Sam Grossberg in Philly, Hunter May in Colorado, Arvids Karklins in Toronto, and Max Hanscom in Minnesota to name some of the rookies who've taken off. I just think De Maree is at another level.
CHARLIE: Leo Gordon (Spiders) has been a key--heck, arguably the most critical--piece of a Spiders offense that is a top-3 unit this year, a season after they put up middling numbers at best. He's second on the team in completions and third in both scores and hockey assists despite playing in 6 of the Spiders 8 games. These kinds of stats don't do most anyone justice, but they give a pretty good (if imperfect) snapshot of how impactful Gordon has been to this impressive O-line.
JGT: You know how in Major League Baseball, if you get called up for a cup of coffee in September, you can still be called a “rookie” a year later? I'm going to invoke that same rule for the UFA and say that the one game Rutledge Smith (Flyers) played in 2023 for Carolina doesn't count against him being a rookie this year. He's been sensational this season, with 12 assists, 25 goals, and a 97.8% completion.
Who are some players that won't win or be considered for any major awards (MVP, DPoY, RoTY), but still deserve shoutouts for their noteworthy performances thus far this season? -JomSkylark
SHAGGY: “In contention for awards” is tough, but I can say some players who stick out to me that probably won't crack the voter roles for any of those three awards. James Lewis from Toronto, Jordan Kerr in Salt Lake, Scott Heyman in Philly, Quentin Bonnaud in Montreal, Sam Jonas in New York, Max Hanscom in Min, and the 10 players on Chicago or Boston who won't get mentioned in award races but are integral to their success. If I have to pick one person I think I would choose Justin Burnett, which might be cheating, but I think currently falls outside the DPOY race.
CHARLIE: One of my favorite players this season has been Montreal's Christophe Tremblay-Joncas. At 29 and in his first season on the O-line in his 8th year with the Royal, Tremblay-Joncas has broken all the way out. He's been nothing short of incredible for most of the season, including a 6 assist (including the game-winner), 3 goal, 2 block explosion in the stunning win over the Empire, and 6 more assists, a goal, a block, over 850 total yards and no turns in the blowout win against Philadelphia. He is turning it just a bit too much, with multiple turns in 5 of 8 games. But he's been so good he very well might be the favorite to win an award that's a little less flashy than the ones you mentioned: Most Improved Player.
JGT: We could write this same thing almost every year since 2021, but without Sean Mott, the Philadelphia Phoenix are a bottom five team. With him, they're in playoff contention. This is a team that lost Big Game James, Dima Suvorov, and Max Trifillis, and who hasn't had G-Mart for the past 5 games. A team I picked to go 3-9…and with 4 weeks left to go they are the #2 seed in the East. Yes, Scott Heyman has been electric. Sure the Grossbergs are awesome. But like The Beard with San Diego, Sean Mott is the straw that stirs the drink. He won't win any awards this year, but I can assure you, he doesn't care. He just wants to get Philly to the playoffs. My kinda guy.
Between Chicago, Boston, Austin, and Salt Lake, who do you think is most likely to NOT make it to Championship Weekend?
SHAGGY: Salt Lake. The Shred have barely made it to the top of the division as it is, and they have yet to play a Tobias Brooks-led Summitt team.
CHARLIE: I mean my gut tells me Austin, but I'm so tired of betting against them. They are confusing and maddening and intriguing and annoying and delightful. I'll say Austin just so I have something to throw my hands in the air about in August when they go on another run.
JGT: Chicago. I know Frizputin took this week off for “Questions Week”, but he sent me the following telegraph: Chicago. STOP. Minnesota. STOP. Greatest playoff ever. STOP. Wind Chill in thriller. STOP. Send 20 ruble.
Who are you taking in a hypothetical Las Vegas-Detroit matchup?
SHAGGY: Detroit, and I don't think it would be close. Vegas isn't playing 2025 UFA frisbee, but some weird amalgamation of frisbee from 10 years ago and some other sport I've never heard of. I believe half their players also live in Florida, which I imagine makes practicing difficult. Vegas nearly lost to a Messiah Alumni Ultimate team with the UFO's own Charlie Hoppes playing serious minutes. I'm not sure my college's alumni team would score 5 points against Detroit. Detroit is playing 2025 UFA frisbee, they just aren't very good at it.
CHARLIE: It's Detroit by a lot. I see the vision there, even if they are still really far from realizing it. The depth is not there--there is no critical mass of players who can compete with the top and middle ends of their opponents. But I think they are as good as they've maybe ever been, with hope for improvement in the years to come. Vegas has players that have UFA-talent certainly, and I think a fair number would see the field with other teams. But with Vegas, they are stretched into roles they cannot fill at this level consistently. It's all too much. And while they didn't exactly almost lose to my alumni team in Trouble In Vegas in the pre-season (as Shaggy mentioned), we didn't get blown off the field either, and I personally threw three assists. Troubling.
JGT: In case you hadn't noticed by now, one of my great joys in life is disagreeing with Shaggy, and I'm not about to stop now. That's right. You heard me. I'M TAKING VEGAS. Bighorn Nation, ARE👏🏽 YOU👏🏽 WITH👏🏽 ME?
I'm sorry, but I was the one who came into this season with big dreams for Detroit. I'm the one who picked them to start 3-0. And they made me look like a FOOL. This is my revenge. Bighorns 21-20, and just to add fuel to the fire: they win on a Poulos to Clutton Hail Mary at the buzzer. In your face, Shag!
One team currently set for playoffs you think will fall out of qualifying and one team currently out you think will step up? -Jacob
SHAGGY: The only team currently set for the playoffs that I think will fall out of contention is Philadelphia, which I guess would mean an east team would step up. Probably New York, although it would be exciting to see Montreal or Toronto make a push. But Philly to fall out, New York to step up.
CHARLIE: This is kinda a trap question. Because unless you think the Flyers will come storming back (an awesome team that is just in trouble from the sheer math of the hole they are in), or you think Indy has the juice to leapfrog the Radicals (I do not), you are asking who between Philly and DC will miss the playoffs for New York or Montreal. And honestly? I gave up trying to figure out the East a long time ago. I think Montreal has too tough a road, so now it's who will miss for New York. The Empire are a game back in the loss column and still have a game against Boston. So they could finish 7-5, but 6-6 would be a reasonable guess. DC has two games left against Boston, as well as Montreal and Philly--both losses in their first time around. But I think Philly has the tougher path between them and DC. The Phoenix have Montreal, DC, New York and Boston still on their schedule. Going 2-2 would be a tall order, and a loss to New York and loss to DC by two or more would give their division rival the tie-breaker. I have no idea how these games will shake out. But if the Empire push past one of these two teams, it seems like a better bet for it to be Philly.
JGT: The East is the only division where the playoffs aren't more or less determined (not seeding, but teams). Carolina's hot, but that 2OT loss to the Growlers is the nail in their coffin. So yeah, I think the East will be Boston, DC, and NY, so Philly will be out. (Philly isn't playing this weekend, but will be rooting HARD for Toronto to beat NY tonight.)
Who is the #1 contender and who is the #1 pretender right now? -JomSkylark
SHAGGY: Chicago is the number one contender. They have proven themselves against top tier teams, and have yet to start their rampage through the fluff of the central division. I think Oakland is the #1 pretender. They undoubtedly started the season hot, but Seattle isn't who we thought they were, they got beat pretty badly by Colorado, and an overtime loss to the Shred in Oakland doesn't look great on the resume. No question they make the playoffs, but I'm not sure they can beat either Colorado or Salt Lake once they get there.
CHARLIE: I don't know that I like this question. I suppose people would say either Austin or Salt Lake are pretenders because they have built their division-leading records on the backs of relatively weaker schedules. But they can only play who is in front of them, and they have more than taken care of business so far. They have each only played 2 games against teams .500 or better, but they are 3-1 in those games. Nothing screaming "fraud" to me. And number one contender to me is Boston. They have one of the best or the best roster in the league, and I still don't think they are getting the most out of that roster yet. And they are 7-0. Seems good.
JGT: I agree with Charlie that the #1 contender is Boston. Babbitt. Cable. DeCraene. Three big, athletic guys who are basically unguardable unless you bring in a bulldozer. And the PERFECT compliment to those big dogs in Carapella and Sadok, who are both completing 97% of their passes.
And while this is a huge copout, and ammunition for my haterz, I don't think there are any pretenders. I can honestly see 9 different teams in the UFA taking home the title, and I am confident in saying that this is the first time in UFA history that's the case this late in the season. This year's playoffs are gonna be 🔥🔥🔥. Of the teams currently on top who will have the hardest time getting to Championship Weekend, I'd say Salt Lake, simply because they only have one fewer loss than Colorado or Oakland, and could go from 1-seed to 3-seed. But I absolutely do not think that the word “pretender” applies to them.
Which team has been the most pleasant surprise? -JomSkylark
SHAGGY: Philadelphia has been the most pleasant surprise for me, followed closely by San Diego. Several people (not me!) picked Philadelphia to fall off a cliff with their admittedly big off season departures, but they still own the Toronto matchup, and a win against DC and a tight game against New York has them pushing for the playoffs. I'm not sure they'll make it, but it is well ahead of the bottom five team, AHEM, some folks projected. San Diego is a team I thought would be fine, but not good, and I was wrong about that. They are playing extremely good frisbee, and have one of the most difficult schedules in the league, with six games against 2024 playoff teams (although they also have 4 games against LA).
CHARLIE: I am delighted by the Growlers this year. Despite being an All-UFA selection every year since 2018, Travis Dunn is still deeply underrated by ultimate fans at large. If the UFA eventually gets a wing in the Ultimate Hall of Fame, you can bet Dunn's plaque will be on display. To see him get to lead a playoff contender again after two horrible seasons in San Diego is wonderful. Pair that with the fact Khalif El-Salaam has been nothing short of excellent across both O and D lines, and exciting contributions from fellow vets and youngsters alike, and the Growlers are a League Pass team--must-see tv--in addition to noise makers in the South.
JGT: I gotta go with Montreal. This is a team that went 4-8 last year and lost Tobe DeCraene. Shaggy predicted them to go 2-10 this year, and I didn't offer any pushback to that prediction. But after a predictable 0-3 start, a switch got turned. Since then, they beat NY, DC, Philly, and only lost to Boston by a single point. Yeah, they stunk up the joint against Toronto, but otherwise this team has looked like a legit playoff contender in 4 of their past 5 games.
Which team has been the biggest disappointment? -JomSkylark
SHAGGY: For me, Seattle has been the biggest disappointment and it isn't close. I thought they would build on last season's success, and they have taken a giant leap backwards, particularly defensively. Losing to Oregon was unacceptable, and their only two wins have come against the Vegas Bighorns, who are so far and away the worst team in the league that it barely counts.
CHARLIE: I think while both DC and New York feel confident with how they are set up to push for a playoff spot and then for a title, I don't think either team wanted to be sitting 3.5 or 4 games behind the Glory in Week 9. I still think either team could realistically make a push for Championship Weekend, but so far these have not been the results they expected.
JGT: The Empire. Let's not kid ourselves: the Empire enter each season expecting a championship, and if not for two very fortuitous calls going their way in the final seconds of two different games, they could very well be sitting at 2-7. This is a team that reloaded in the off-season, adding stars like Everest Shapiro and Max Sheppard to a legendary core of Jagt, Williams, Browlene, Davis, Randolph, etc. They were juiced for a Championship run, and currently find themselves behind the 2nd losingest team in UFA history (Philly) in the standings. Not what ANYBODY would have predicted before this season. That said, last week's win over DC could very well be the turning point in their season, and I won't be at all surprised if they hit their peak come playoff time. If so, look out.
What do you think is the league's biggest barrier to growth? -CaVuk
SHAGGY: For starters, I think that ownership across the league routinely chooses savings over exposure, and the result is a decrease in the ability to attract local fans and build a fan base. I'm not blaming them, if I had the choice between spending $10,000 to play in New York City, or $1000 to play in a New Rochelle stadium that seats 8 people, I would probably also choose the New Rochelle stadium. But I am poor, and I don't own a UFA team. The problem is that short term savings means that you lose less money each year, but you also become less likely to make money in the future, money that could go towards paying the players a real wage, or paying for ref training, or standardizing the schedules as teams become more willing to spend on travel, or increasing the production budgets for teams that are struggling to put out an adequate product on their own.
People often point to the Savannah Bananas as a way to make a niche activity hugely popular. I will say that aside from the Bananas playing a sport (Baseball) that is more well known than frisbee, they also spent $10,000,000 on branding, development, and non-traditional marketing over a two year period. I'm not sure you could find a UFA team that has spent $10,000,000 on those three things in their entire franchise history. Starting a successful league from scratch requires a real commitment to losing an atrocious amount of money over a disturbingly long period of time, and most owners around the league aren't willing to do that.
CHARLIE: I do not know enough about the financial standing of either individual teams or the league as a whole to speculate much, but I would guess it's getting more fans in the seats. If teams were pulling in attendance numbers in line with minor league baseball (out of the 11 affiliated leagues, 10 average over 2,000 per game, going up to just over 6,000 in the International League), I would imagine they would be profitable pretty quickly. With profitability comes the potential to invest with less significant risk. Marketing could increase, local tv deals would be more common, and people in the organizations on and off the field would be compensated more competitively. So if there's one thing we can learn from the Sudbury Blueberry Bulldogs, it's that we need bums in seats.
JGT: I could probably write 3-volume book on this topic, but I'll try to keep it brief. There are a number of barriers, a couple of which are covered above. Like Shaggy said, if you're going to invest in a long-shot like a pro sports team, you have to accept that you're going to lose money for a long time. Trying to “win” in bringing both a sport and a league onto a national stage and trying to “break even financially” are two different goals, and to some extent two different forces that pull against each other. And like Charlie said, at the end of the day, you gotta put butts in the seats. Some teams have figured that part out, some haven't.
Another barrier is that the culture of ultimate makes it hard for a pro league to succeed, though I do think that the idea that ultimate had some sort of “purity” that would be tarnished by a pro league is starting to fade away. While there are a lot of great things about “spirit”, as a fan of the sport itself, I want to see it played on a big stage by great athletes at a high level. That said, I get it…I was a hip-hop fan in the 1980s (yes, I'm old), and I remember it felt like being in a cool little exclusive club…once MC Hammer and Vanilla Ice arrived and it became the de facto mainstream form of pop music, it became less special. So I can relate why people are hesitant at the idea of their special thing "blowing up" and going mainstream. I just happen to disagree, for a variety of reasons I'll save for an offseason newsletter.
But that mindset means that people don't really become Johnny Appleseeds for the league…what I mean is, the people who play the sport and should be the biggest endorsers of the sport and league don't really sell them outside of their circle, and expand its scope. So it remains somewhat insular, and it's hard to grow a business that remains as insular as ultimate. I do see that changing, though, with more and more of the UFA teams going out to schools and running summer camps. Youth camps are the way the MLS took soccer from the fringes into the mainstream in America, and I think it's wise of the UFA teams to follow that blueprint.
In light of the controversy at the end of the Empire-Breeze game last weekend, as Jack Williams game-tying pass to Ben Jagt in OT came after the clock hit 0:00, Trevorito asks, “Do you think the league should have refs consult video replays to make certain close calls?”
SHAGGY: This isn't really a controversy: time had clearly expired and for some reason the refs ignored all evidence to the contrary. I think it would be nice to have instant replay, but I'd rather pay refs enough money that they can justify taking time to train as referees, or having a buzzer in the stadium. I can think of several dozen things I think the league should implement before they get to instant replay.
CHARLIE: I don't want to belabor the point Shaggy made. It's not like that was the only very bad call in that game, and it seems like every week we have a new meme-ably bad call. I've said it many times: the next big on-field investment the league makes needs to be in officiating. As Shaggy said, instant replay is far down that list.
JGT: I wouldn't mind instant replay simply for end of quarter clock calls…looking at a play develop AND watch the clock at the same time is a lot ot ask of the refs. And like Shaggy said, I 100% think teams need to require that a buzzer go off when the clock hits zero. I think it's easy to look at the refs and blame them for something like this, but I'm a “Were they put in a position to succeed?" guy, and in this case I don't think they were. If a buzzer had gone off at 0:00, DC wins the game.
Cheers-The UFO
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