The upstart United Football League held it's innagural 'draft' last night and each of the four teams selected the rights to 24 players. Now this doesn't necessarily mean these guys have agreed or committed to playing in the league but it means that if they do decide to enter the UFL, the team that drafted them holds their rights. The league is contacting the players and hopes that they will be able to announce contract signings in the upcoming weeks.

The list of players that were drafted is littered with a handful of noticeable names like Adam Archuleta, Brooks Bollinger, Chris Perry, Jermaine Wiggins, LaBrandon Toefield, Cecil Sapp and Marcus Fitzgerald (Larry's younger brother). There were also several players with Cardinal ties including former first round bust Wendell Bryant, safety Oliver Celestin, defensive end Bo Schobel, linebacker Brandon Moore, quarterback Shane Boyd and I'm sure there are one or two others that I missed. Celestin and Schobel were with the Cardinals as recent as last year during training camp and Celestin actually played in two games with the team before being cut to make room for Stephen Spach. Overall the league didn't make any significant waves like drafting Michael Vick or some other troubled NFL star as many predicted. Former Cardinals receiver David Boston also didn't hear his name called even though he was on the initial list of 'draft hopefuls.'  Each team already had 20 players "protected" (which is what likely became of Boston) before the draft so effectively each of the four teams (New York, Orlando, Las Vegas, and San Francisco) have 44 players assigned to them with an expectation that rosters will be set at 50 for the regular season (six games played over 8 weeks with the Championship Game played the Friday after Thanksgiving).

The league says that the rosters will be tweaked during July and August as players are cut from NFL training camps and they hope to kick off their regular season in October. Their games will be televised on the Versus network but at least former Cardinals coach Dennis Green won't be too far away in San Francisco.