Why is the US Army suing UFL for $6,000,000? Questions raised at Dwayne Johnson's $11 million deal

The Army partnered with Dwyane Johnson's UFL (a merger between the USFL and XFL) on an $11 million advertising deal. Football and the military often go hand in hand, with the NFL running the Salute to Service and having a flyover almost every single game. This time, they tried to join the two things in a financial endeavor to up recruitment for the military branch. That didn't work.

They are targeting $6 million of that $11 million back in a lawsuit that alleges that the recruiting ads didn't improve recruitment. In fact, the Army believes it may have hindered recruitment. They did not say where they got the $6 million figure.

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Army speaks out on failed Dwayne Johnson collaboration

The collaboration between the Army and Johnson's UFL did not go to plan. It may have even worked against the military, which is in a recruiting crisis.

Laura DeFrancisco, a spokesperson for the Army's marketing, said via Military.com:

"We are in the process of working with the UFL to determine the final cost."

The bulk of this partnership was that there would be Army branding at UFL games as well as social media posts from Johnson. He has almost 400 million followers on Instagram, so the Army thought they could get some good public relations, but they are reporting that there wasn't a single recruitment thanks to their efforts.

Dwayne Johnson's collaboration didn't help the Army

Army staff initially pushed back against the partnership. They said the cost would be too high and the viewership for a non-NFL football league wasn't high enough to justify such a cost. Randy George, Army chief of staff, helped push it through.

Col. Dave Butler, a spokesperson for George, said in a statement:

"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."

Neither Johnson nor the UFL gave a comment when reached out to.