The first United Football League championship game proved what a lot of us have thought for a long time – there can be quality professional football played outside the National Football League.

The 20-17 win for the Las Vegas Locos over the Florida Tuskers in overtime provided a great stage for the UFL to show how good its product has gotten in recent weeks. Taking out the last three games played by the putrid New York Sentinels, beginning with Week 4, the margins of victory in UFL games were 7, 3, 6, 7 and 3 points. The closest game in the first three weeks of the season was a 13-point decision.

LAS VEGAS 20, FLORIDA 17 – OVERTIME

The good - Let’s give some love to some defensive players. If Locos running back DeDe Dorsey hadn’t won the game’s Most Valuable Player award, perhaps Vegas defensive end Adrian Awasom (four total tackles, one tackle for loss, a forced fumble, a pass breakup and a sack) should have. For Florida, ex-Ohio State Buckeye Darrion Scott (3.5 total tackles, one pass breakup and two sacks) was a terror all day.

The bad - Florida, which was plus-7 in turnover margin during the regular season, was minus-2 in the biggest game of the season, including the costly interception early in overtime.

The ugly - Other than a couple ticky-tack pass interference calls and Florida wide receiver Marcus Maxwell inadvertently halting the game due to his touchdown celebration in the first quarter, there wasn’t much to complain about in this game.

The bottom line

The first UFL season is in the books. While not everything about the league got better as the season went along, most things did.

And that, along with the continued excitement of the higher-ups in the league and the fact that there will be six teams and a 10-game regular-season in 2010, is the No. 1 thing to take away from the 2009 UFL “Premiere Season.”