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In July of 2024, a report surfaced that the U.S. Army had paid $11 million to the United Football League (UFL), which is partially owned by Dwayne Johnson. Those millions were supposed to be used by The Rock and the UFL as part of a massive recruiting campaign for the Army.
In that same report, it was stated that the Army was trying to recoup $6 million of the $11 million because the UFL recruiting campaign failed miserably.
In fact, according to the Army’s analysis, it failed to land a single new recruit and may have actually ended up costing the Army 38 new recruits by misallocating those financial resources.
Now, six months later, the U.S. Army says it has resolved the disastrous $11 million recruitment campaign it had with The Rock and his United Football League.
“We have great relationships still with the Army, you know, General George and Colonel Butler and that whole team,” UFL president Russ Brandon told Front Office Sports in a new interview. “I think we worked through all that and I think we’re all in a good place.”
Front Office Sports also reports that Army marketing spokesperson Laura DeFrancisco claims there never was any dispute between them and the UFL. She also claims the UFL partnership did not have a negative impact on recruiting. Though she did add that the Army does have a marketing deal with the UFL for the 2025 season.
“The Army was not ever trying to get money back from the UFL,” she said. “This was a contract—an entity is paid for services rendered upon completion of a contract, not before.”
DeFrancisco instead claims that the Army had only been “in the process of working with the UFL to determine the final cost” of their marketing deal with the UFL. They then came to an agreement that gave the Army a fair market value for what the UFL had provided. The Army had expected The Rock to promote their deal five times on his social media accounts, but he only made two posts.
Last July, a spokesperson for Gen. George, Col. Dave Butler told Military.com, “In terms of The Rock, it’s unfortunate he was pulled away at a time when we expected him to be present with us to create content for his social media channels. But we’re working with the UFL to rebalance the contract. The Rock remains a good partner to the Army.”