Louisville Kings unify but fall short in UFL debut against Birmingham
Chris Redman's Louisville Kings faced the Birmingham Stallions in their United Football League debut and season opener at Lynn Family Stadium.
Quarterback Jason Bean saw some room to his left, pulled the ball down and scampered 10 yards to move the chains for the first time in Lynn Family Stadium history. Public address announcer Dalton Pence set the table for a crowd of 14,034 in Butchertown: “And that’s another ... ” “Kings first down!
” it replied. Sure, tons of people at Friday’s United Football League game between the Louisville Kings and the Birmingham Stallions have participated in a similar call-and-response routine hundreds of times while supporting the Cardinals at L&N Stadium during the fall. But there were plenty of Kentucky Wildcats supporters in attendance Friday, too.
And folks repping the Buffalo Bills, the Chicago Bears, the Cincinnati Bengals, the Cleveland Browns, the Dallas Cowboys, the Green Bay Packers, the Indianapolis Colts, the Miami Dolphins, the New Orleans Saints, the Philadelphia Eagles and the Pittsburgh Steelers. For the first time, these pigskin junkies all agreed on something — it’s great to have spring football in the Derby City, even if the home team came up short, 15-13 to the Birmingham Stallions. “I’ve never been in such a happening spot like this” Connor Baird told The Courier Journal.
Baird is a New York Giants fan from Vansant, Virginia, which sits 255 miles to the east of Lynn Family Stadium. When news broke last October that Louisville was one of three cities joining the eight-team UFL, he thought to himself: “That’s driving distance for a day trip. I’ve got to try to support them.