RICHMOND, Va. — Football has been part of 23-year-old Tyrese Williams's life for as long as he can remember.
"It’s powerful," said Williams. "Football means a lot."
The Varina High School alum still runs drills on his old field, the same place he was named an All-American receiver his senior year.
"Very grateful to be here," he explained. "Many memories.”
Williams dreamed of playing at the next level, but that wasn’t in the cards — until earlier this year.
"When I heard about the UFL, I took the opportunity," he noted.
UFL stands for the United Football League, an arena football league that was allegedly coming to Richmond to start games in early spring.
“I used to watch the Richmond Roughriders, and I used to go to the games multiple times," Williams explained. "So it really felt good."
Williams signed up online for the Richmond Iron Horses tryouts in late January.
"Every player had to pay $75 for the tryout," he said.
It was money well spent, Williams thought. After the tryout, he learned he was one of the approximately 40 players who had been selected to join the team.
"I felt overwhelmed," Williams expressed.
Williams said he and his teammates were promised $50,000 a year, as well as meals and housing from UFL Commissioner Joe McClendon.
"Some people got housing for this from Roanoke, some from Georgia, I believe Maryland," he explained. "A lot of out-of-state people."
Henrico County Football Coach Douglas Joyner III was selected as the Iron Horses's head coach.
"Money is second hand, but to be able to continue to keep playing football after high school, after college, it's a dream," said Joyner. "I was hired under contract. It was a dream job, you know, you grow up coaching football, either you want a big job at the high school level, or at the college level. To sort of have this opportunity, it was a dream come true."
Joyner's team was set, and training camp was scheduled to start with the first game April 1. The schedule included teams from 14 cities across the country, including the Virginia Beach Destroyers, Charleston Pirates and Houston Big Horns.
"We had the fullest roster," Joyner noted. "We had 36 guys plus coming in to training camp because we recruited. People trusted in us to give them this opportunity.”
The Richmond Iron Horses website even offered fans the chance to buy season tickets and merchandise.
But suddenly, the season started getting pushed back.
"We started catching him in stuff," explained Joyner. "You start saying we're playing here, and then I call all the coaches and start calling the facilities. We're not on the books, but on the website says we're playing here. Then we call the equipment facility. They say we don't have an order for your league."
From April to May, there was still no start date. The website even changed and started requesting $1,000 for players interested in joining the team’s training camp, which still hadn’t been scheduled.
Assistant coach and Chesterfield doctor Tom Scioscia thought not having a venue could be the cause of the holdup, so he worked with the Chesterfield Development Authority to secure the Chesterfield County Technical Center as a field.
He also helped McClendon and the team get a $1,000 donation from Allen, Allen, Allen & Allen law firm.
"We are just doing everything we can to try to get these kids on the field because they need it," said Scioscia.
By May, these coaches said they came to the realization that the season was never going to start.
"It's a whole hoax," said Joyner. "It's a fraud. It’s called you fooling me league, that’s what it is."
"There's kids that signed with us who were in the XFL," Scioscia explained. "There's kids that signed with us who could have played in any league around, but they signed with us and me."
Joyner and Scioscia said Joe McCendon stopped answering their phone calls, and neither of them have received a paycheck.
Joyner's contract — which CBS 6 obtained a copy of — shows he was promised $65,000 a year.
"No money has never touched my hands," said Joyner.
The players said they also haven’t received a dime.
"They're calling for food and money, and then last night, one of the players, you know, he's having a mental crisis," Scioscia noted. "He's living out of his car, and I told him to go to the emergency room.”
"I definitely got my hopes up, and yeah, this wasn't right." said Williams. “That kind of crushed my dreams."
We reached out to McClendon after he posted an update on the UFL website saying, “Team scrimmages will replace regular season games for the 2023 season." The update continued, “2023 single-game and season ticket reimbursements and transfers will begin immediately, with the UFL hoping to have all ticket buyers reimbursed or transferred over to 2024 within the next four to six weeks.”
But McClendon changed his number and also did not respond to our emails.
"You can't keep shattering people's dreams like this without expecting some type of repercussion to happen from it," Joyner stated.
According to published reports, this isn’t the first time McClendon has been accused of having trouble getting a football league off the ground.
In 2021, our CBS affiliate in Fort Wayne, Indiana reported on the failed launch of the National Gridiron League, of which McClendon was chairman and founder.
One of the head coaches told the station that hotel rooms were not paid for, coaches were not paid, and flights were not booked, leaving some players stranded.
“I hope it ends here because you can't keep playing with people like this," said Joyner.
“I just hope that he gets, you know, caught and justice is served," Williams noted.
Williams said he’s still hopeful Richmond will have an arena football league again someday.
"Hopefully something in Richmond will come like that," he explained, "Or they can make that a thing because that will make the city look great."
Until then, he’s focused on training the next generation of players, helping them get a shot at the next level, playing the game he loves.
Coach Joyner says he and some of the other coaches from the UFL teams across the country are currently working on a lawsuit. CBS 6 will continue to stay on top of this story.
