Michigan Matters - Talk of USFL Football, Freep Film Festival & Politics
(CBS DETROIT) - It was talk about the return of the United States Football League (USFL) as the Michigan Panthers prepare to take to Ford Field on April 30, the Freep Film Festival, and a little politics that dominated the conversation during taping of CBS Detroit's Michigan Matters.
Daryl Johnston, newly-appointed president of the USFL which is starting its second season as a spring time football league, is returning 40 years after the Panthers won the inaugural season of the USFL back in the early 1980s. The league folded after two seasons.
Johnston talked with Carol Cain, Senior Producer/Host, about why he thinks the league, which has new ownership, will succeed this time with a new game plan.
Then Kathy Kieliszewski, Senior News Director of the Detroit Free Press and Artistic Director of the Freep Film Festival, talked about the festival which opens next week and is celebrating its 10th anniversary. She discussed how the spring time film festival has grown into a signature event for Metro Detroit, buoyed by films and documentaries with many having ties to the region.
It is being held April 26-30. Award-winning actor Laurence Fishburne will also travel to Detroit to attend the festival as he is involved with two films being featured.
And the roundtable of Rochester Hills Mayor Bryan Barnett, Ilitch Enterprises CEO Denise Ilitch and Susy Avery, former chair of the Michigan Republican Party, talked about tidings in Lansing. Among topics discussed was an effort to change laws so Michigan's public universities could sell alcohol at college football, basketball and hockey games.
Speaking of football, Ilitch shared an interesting story about her late father, Mike Ilitch, who invested in the Arena Football League in the late 1980s, and how it ended with a $200,000 blazer.
And the roundtable talked about Donald Trump, who owned the USFL New Jersey Generals during the early 1980s, and how his prospects are looking today as he forges ahead in his presidential bid for 2024.
And they also talked about Joe Biden and his re-election efforts.
Watch Michigan Matters at 8 a.m. Sunday on CBS Detroit.