Tonight on ESPN (8pm) : Who Killed the USFL?

[Just Jack]

Small Potatoes: Who Killed the USFL?

 

In 1983 the upstart United States Football League (USFL) had the audacity to challenge the almighty NFL. The new league did the unthinkable by playing in the spring and plucked three straight Heisman Trophy winners away from the NFL. The 12-team USFL played before crowds that averaged 25,000, and started off with respectable TV ratings. But with success came expansion and new owners, including a certain high profile and impatient real estate baron whose vision was at odds with the league’s founders. Soon, the USFL was reduced to waging a desperate anti-trust lawsuit against the NFL, which yielded an ironic verdict that effectively forced the league out of business. Now, almost a quarter of a century later, Academy Award-nominated and Peabody Award-winning director Mike Tollin, himself once a chronicler of the league, will showcase the remarkable influence of those three years on football history and attempt to answer the question, “Who Killed the USFL?”

[VJ91]

Small Potatoes: Who Killed the USFL?

 

In 1983 the upstart United States Football League (USFL) had the audacity to challenge the almighty NFL. The new league did the unthinkable by playing in the spring and plucked three straight Heisman Trophy winners away from the NFL. The 12-team USFL played before crowds that averaged 25,000, and started off with respectable TV ratings. But with success came expansion and new owners, including a certain high profile and impatient real estate baron whose vision was at odds with the league’s founders. Soon, the USFL was reduced to waging a desperate anti-trust lawsuit against the NFL, which yielded an ironic verdict that effectively forced the league out of business. Now, almost a quarter of a century later, Academy Award-nominated and Peabody Award-winning director Mike Tollin, himself once a chronicler of the league, will showcase the remarkable influence of those three years on football history and attempt to answer the question, “Who Killed the USFL?”

 

I plan to watch the show. I remember Joe Cribbs jumped ship to the USFL, and that really pissed me off, since Cribbs was arguably the best pass catching starting RB in the NFL at that time, and Chuck Knox had just quit the Bills to go to Seattle.

 

It was another "perfect storm" of bad things happening to a damn good Bills football team that came an untimely ankle injury to Joe Ferguson late in the 1980 season, from going to their first SB long before anyone had heard of Jim Kelly or Bruce Smith!

 

And think about that 1980 season. Their defense was number 1 in the NFL, and defense wins championships, right? The team that won the SB that season over an average Eagles team was the Oakland Raiders. Earlier in that very regular season, on a picture perfect fall sunny day in Orchard Park, I watched in total amazement as our Bills blew out those Raiders something like 24-3. One of the best games I watched the Bills play in my 40 plus years of being a Bills fan, and my 20 plus years of being a season ticket holder.

 

But alas, Fergy sprained his ankle on the road against the lousy (but improving with young QB Joe Montana) 49ers to clinch the AFC East, and he basically hobbled his way around the field in a gutsy performance against the dynamic Chargers on the road in the Divisional Playoffs, only to watch his team lose in the final minutes. Enter the wildcard Raiders defeating the Chargers in the AFC Championship, and then blowing out the Eagles in the SB. Just amazing how the Bills luck has worked all these years!!

 

But back to reality. I'm not surprised Trump bullied his fellow USFL owners to the pathetic anti-trust lawsuit they won, and then were rewarded one dollar for all their trouble!!

[Chandler#81]

And think about that 1980 season. Their defense was number 1 in the NFL, and defense wins championships, right? The team that won the SB that season over an average Eagles team was the Oakland Raiders. Earlier in that very regular season, on a picture perfect fall sunny day in Orchard Park, I watched in total amazement as our Bills blew out those Raiders something like 24-3. One of the best games I watched the Bills play in my 40 plus years of being a Bills fan, and my 20 plus years of being a season ticket holder.

 

 

Yeah, but.. In the off season leading to the '80 season, the Raiders and Oilers -the AFC/NFL perennial bridesmaid to the Steelers- pulled off a 'Mega-Trade', swapping their starting, Pro Bowl QB's in an effort to get 'over the hump'. Dante Pastorini had Oakland undefeated coming into the Buffalo game. Early in the first quarter, a Bills pass rush creamed him and he broke his leg. Enter journeyman/Heisman flop Jim Plunkett. He struggled that day as the Bills partied hearty in the sun. But, with the addition of one Chandler#81, turned their fortunes around and beat the Cardiac Kids in northern cold to win the conference championship. I was enthralled with the Bills that year too, but Oakland became a team of destiny and I doubt we'd have survived them, even @ Rich Stadium.

 

FWIW, Pastorini and Stabler were virtually never heard from again.

[Peter]

I plan to watch the show. I remember Joe Cribbs jumped ship to the USFL, and that really pissed me off, since Cribbs was arguably the best pass catching starting RB in the NFL at that time, and Chuck Knox had just quit the Bills to go to Seattle.

 

It was another "perfect storm" of bad things happening to a damn good Bills football team that came an untimely ankle injury to Joe Ferguson late in the 1980 season, from going to their first SB long before anyone had heard of Jim Kelly or Bruce Smith!

 

And think about that 1980 season. Their defense was number 1 in the NFL, and defense wins championships, right? The team that won the SB that season over an average Eagles team was the Oakland Raiders. Earlier in that very regular season, on a picture perfect fall sunny day in Orchard Park, I watched in total amazement as our Bills blew out those Raiders something like 24-3. One of the best games I watched the Bills play in my 40 plus years of being a Bills fan, and my 20 plus years of being a season ticket holder.

 

But alas, Fergy sprained his ankle on the road against the lousy (but improving with young QB Joe Montana) 49ers to clinch the AFC East, and he basically hobbled his way around the field in a gutsy performance against the dynamic Chargers on the road in the Divisional Playoffs, only to watch his team lose in the final minutes. Enter the wildcard Raiders defeating the Chargers in the AFC Championship, and then blowing out the Eagles in the SB. Just amazing how the Bills luck has worked all these years!!

 

But back to reality. I'm not surprised Trump bullied his fellow USFL owners to the pathetic anti-trust lawsuit they won, and then were rewarded one dollar for all their trouble!!

 

I remember that season and playoff game in SD well. That was a very gutsy performance by Fergy.

[GrudginglyPessimistic]

I plan to watch the show. I remember Joe Cribbs jumped ship to the USFL, and that really pissed me off, since Cribbs was arguably the best pass catching starting RB in the NFL at that time, and Chuck Knox had just quit the Bills to go to Seattle.

 

It was another "perfect storm" of bad things happening to a damn good Bills football team that came an untimely ankle injury to Joe Ferguson late in the 1980 season, from going to their first SB long before anyone had heard of Jim Kelly or Bruce Smith!

 

And think about that 1980 season. Their defense was number 1 in the NFL, and defense wins championships, right? The team that won the SB that season over an average Eagles team was the Oakland Raiders. Earlier in that very regular season, on a picture perfect fall sunny day in Orchard Park, I watched in total amazement as our Bills blew out those Raiders something like 24-3. One of the best games I watched the Bills play in my 40 plus years of being a Bills fan, and my 20 plus years of being a season ticket holder.

 

But alas, Fergy sprained his ankle on the road against the lousy (but improving with young QB Joe Montana) 49ers to clinch the AFC East, and he basically hobbled his way around the field in a gutsy performance against the dynamic Chargers on the road in the Divisional Playoffs, only to watch his team lose in the final minutes. Enter the wildcard Raiders defeating the Chargers in the AFC Championship, and then blowing out the Eagles in the SB. Just amazing how the Bills luck has worked all these years!!

 

Aren't you underselling the USFL court victory by orders of magnitude? My recollection (probably incorrect) was that they not only won $1 dollar but that the NFL antitrust was so egregious that this amount was tripled!!!

 

Was it $3.00 or .33 cents or was it a flat out dollar and the NFL was evil, just not that evil?

 

But back to reality. I'm not surprised Trump bullied his fellow USFL owners to the pathetic anti-trust lawsuit they won, and then were rewarded one dollar for all their trouble!!

[RLflutie7]

Small Potatoes: Who Killed the USFL?

 

In 1983 the upstart United States Football League (USFL) had the audacity to challenge the almighty NFL. The new league did the unthinkable by playing in the spring and plucked three straight Heisman Trophy winners away from the NFL. The 12-team USFL played before crowds that averaged 25,000, and started off with respectable TV ratings. But with success came expansion and new owners, including a certain high profile and impatient real estate baron whose vision was at odds with the league’s founders. Soon, the USFL was reduced to waging a desperate anti-trust lawsuit against the NFL, which yielded an ironic verdict that effectively forced the league out of business. Now, almost a quarter of a century later, Academy Award-nominated and Peabody Award-winning director Mike Tollin, himself once a chronicler of the league, will showcase the remarkable influence of those three years on football history and attempt to answer the question, “Who Killed the USFL?”

 

 

I loved the USFL and it's going to be a great show and I'm going to record it. But . . . I already know who they're going to blame and it's Donald Trump. But, Donald Trump has been proven right about the USFL. Proven right because of the WLAF, the XFL and now the UFL. Basically, Donald Trump said playing in the spring is dying a slow death and most of the football dollars are in the fall.

 

That being said, the UFL can't draw fans either and they are playing in the fall. They made a mistake with the uniforms and that's a killer, but it wouldn't have helped them anyway if they had great uniforms. I think the bottom line is there is just too much sports on the calander and there's no room for another league. Unless it's like the Nationwide series with NASCAR. They have the minor league race one day then the big race the next day.

 

If the NFL had a minor league and they played in the fall on the same day they might make it work. It would be like a double header in baseball. The minor league plays the first game and the NFL teams play the second game. The fans would already be there and it could come with discounted tickets.

 

 

However, there are plans to restart the USFL with some of the original teams and uniforms and with a spring schedule. It would be nice but they need the league to have at least 20 teams. Starting with 4 teams like the UFL or 8 teams like the XFL doesn't draw TV ratings or fans.

[PromoTheRobot]

I loved the USFL and it's going to be a great show and I'm going to record it. But . . . I already know who they're going to blame and it's Donald Trump. But, Donald Trump has been proven right about the USFL. Proven right because of the WLAF, the XFL and now the UFL. Basically, Donald Trump said playing in the spring is dying a slow death and most of the football dollars are in the fall.

 

That being said, the UFL can't draw fans either and they are playing in the fall. They made a mistake with the uniforms and that's a killer, but it wouldn't have helped them anyway if they had great uniforms. I think the bottom line is there is just too much sports on the calander and there's no room for another league. Unless it's like the Nationwide series with NASCAR. They have the minor league race one day then the big race the next day.

 

If the NFL had a minor league and they played in the fall on the same day they might make it work. It would be like a double header in baseball. The minor league plays the first game and the NFL teams play the second game. The fans would already be there and it could come with discounted tickets.

 

 

However, there are plans to restart the USFL with some of the original teams and uniforms and with a spring schedule. It would be nice but they need the league to have at least 20 teams. Starting with 4 teams like the UFL or 8 teams like the XFL doesn't draw TV ratings or fans.

 

I loved the USFL. I was a huge fan of the Philly/Baltimore Stars. My first game was a playoff game between the Stars and the Marv Levy-coached Chicago Blitz. The Stars came back and beat the Blitz in OT 44-38. They won two of three USFL titles. Looking back you could have built an NFL pro bowl roster just with players from the USFL. The league was that good.

 

It was Trump's fault but he was wrong about spring football. If the USFL stuck with it a few more seasons, spring football would have been established in peoples minds. No, it would never rival the NFL but it would have been successful. And that's the the nut of it: Is being successful good enough or do you have to go for all the marbles? THAT is what killed the USFL.

 

I think there is still a market for spring football. In fact the NFL would be wise to embrace a new USFL and treat it like a feeder league. There are so many borderline players who can develop with experience. (Fred Jackson is a shining example.) You don't think a spring team in Buffalo would be a big hit?

 

PTR

[RLflutie7]

I loved the USFL. I was a huge fan of the Philly/Baltimore Stars. My first game was a playoff game between the Stars and the Marv Levy-coached Chicago Blitz. The Stars came back and beat the Blitz in OT 44-38. They won two of three USFL titles. Looking back you could have built an NFL pro bowl roster just with players from the USFL. The league was that good.

 

It was Trump's fault but he was wrong about spring football. If the USFL stuck with it a few more seasons, spring football would have been established in peoples minds. No, it would never rival the NFL but it would have been successful. And that's the the nut of it: Is being successful good enough or do you have to go for all the marbles? THAT is what killed the USFL.

 

I think there is still a market for spring football. In fact the NFL would be wise to embrace a new USFL and treat it like a feeder league. There are so many borderline players who can develop with experience. (Fred Jackson is a shining example.) You don't think a spring team in Buffalo would be a big hit?

 

PTR

 

 

I think spring football can be done if it's done right. But that window of sucess is very, very small. I think all of the start up leagues in the spring made glaring mistakes. The USFL, XFL and WLAF they all made too many mistakes.

 

I thought the fall season was the place to be and I still think it's better than the spring, but the UFL is proving otherwise. There are no fans in the stadium. The XFL had better crowds.

 

It's going to be interesting to see what Trump has to say. I think he didn't want to be a minor league owner and that's what the USFL was. Yes, it could have worked, but Trump wasn't the only owner to scrap the small budget system and sign big name college players.

[billsfan89]

Trump was working the USFL all along he really wanted his New Jersey team to be either merged with the Jets or merged into the NFL. Trump didn't care about the league at all he just wanted to own an NFL team and was using the USFL to do so.

 

Trump is an !@#$ who's douchesbaggary knows no bounds. I hope he looks pathetic in this documentary and he goes on a bunch of talk shows later this week to claim it was a smear job or some BS. He mortgaged the health of the league in order to try and benefit himself and it didn't work and it benefited no one.

 

What's wrong with Spring football? Honestly you can't challenge the NFL when your league has just started to make a name for its self. Had the USFL given another 8-10 seasons of spring football two things would have happened. One either the league would have found out that they are good where they are competing against baseball and hockey/basketball playoffs or Two they would have build up enough of a fan base and enough of a player base to go head to head with the NFL but they would have been a much stronger entity than when they tried to do that.

 

As another poster has mentioned a spring league (Start off with 8 teams) would work if they knew what they were and tried to build a league that way. I mean people love football and you could get 7-8 million people to watch a football game in May.

[RLflutie7]

Trump was working the USFL all along he really wanted his New Jersey team to be either merged with the Jets or merged into the NFL. Trump didn't care about the league at all he just wanted to own an NFL team and was using the USFL to do so.

 

Trump is an !@#$ who's douchesbaggary knows no bounds. I hope he looks pathetic in this documentary and he goes on a bunch of talk shows later this week to claim it was a smear job or some BS. He mortgaged the health of the league in order to try and benefit himself and it didn't work and it benefited no one.

 

What's wrong with Spring football? Honestly you can't challenge the NFL when your league has just started to make a name for its self. Had the USFL given another 8-10 seasons of spring football two things would have happened. One either the league would have found out that they are good where they are competing against baseball and hockey/basketball playoffs or Two they would have build up enough of a fan base and enough of a player base to go head to head with the NFL but they would have been a much stronger entity than when they tried to do that.

 

As another poster has mentioned a spring league (Start off with 8 teams) would work if they knew what they were and tried to build a league that way. I mean people love football and you could get 7-8 million people to watch a football game in May.

 

 

I would tend to agree with you except for starting with 8 teams. No one will watch an 8 team league. Not going to happen.

[RLflutie7]

Trump was working the USFL all along he really wanted his New Jersey team to be either merged with the Jets or merged into the NFL. Trump didn't care about the league at all he just wanted to own an NFL team and was using the USFL to do so.

 

Trump is an !@#$ who's douchesbaggary knows no bounds. I hope he looks pathetic in this documentary and he goes on a bunch of talk shows later this week to claim it was a smear job or some BS. He mortgaged the health of the league in order to try and benefit himself and it didn't work and it benefited no one.

 

What's wrong with Spring football? Honestly you can't challenge the NFL when your league has just started to make a name for its self. Had the USFL given another 8-10 seasons of spring football two things would have happened. One either the league would have found out that they are good where they are competing against baseball and hockey/basketball playoffs or Two they would have build up enough of a fan base and enough of a player base to go head to head with the NFL but they would have been a much stronger entity than when they tried to do that.

 

As another poster has mentioned a spring league (Start off with 8 teams) would work if they knew what they were and tried to build a league that way. I mean people love football and you could get 7-8 million people to watch a football game in May.

 

 

Also what a lot of people don't know is that Donald Trump put in a bid to buy the New England Patroits in the late 80s, at the time Victor Kiam bought the team.

 

The NFL sent word that they would not approve Trump's ownership because of his ties to gambling.

 

Then Reebok executive Paul Fireman was going to buy the team. I don't know what happened with that. It was going to be approved. Then Kraft came into the picture. It was a big mess. I don't know if I have the order of events right but that's how I remember it.

[Albany,n.y.]

That being said, the UFL can't draw fans either and they are playing in the fall.

 

The reason the UFL can't draw fans is they have no clue what they're doing. Outside of Las Vegas, the other franchises are too close to NFL teams for people to spend close to major league prices for minor league football. Why would anyone in NY pay $50 to sit on the sidelines of a minor league football game? Ditto for San Francisco-both cities have two teams, why did the UFL put teams in those 2 places? Even the Orlando team is too close to the Tampa Bay Bucs & even is playing one game in far too close St Petersburg at Tropicana Field. Making things worse, the NY team plays each of its home games in a different stadium. One is at Giants Stadium, one at Citifield, which is designed for baseball, not football & one is at Rentschler Field in East Hartford Ct.

Marketing has been horrible. Until a few weeks ago, individual game tickets weren't yet available. You can't get much, if any coverage in the newspapers, the NYC papers have basically ignored the UFL. The only thing I saw was a point spread listing for their games in the NY Post. Do any of these teams have any local radio coverage? I haven't seen anything in the NY papers about the Sentinals games on the radio, I doubt they have a broadcast.

The league is a joke. Sure some guys like K Graham Gano will find a job in the NFL next season, if not sooner, but the talent level is has beens and never beens. The best QB in the league is Brooks Bollinger, who has washed out with 3 NFL teams. 2nd best QB of 4 is JP.

[Catholic Guilt]

I loved the USFL and it's going to be a great show and I'm going to record it. But . . . I already know who they're going to blame and it's Donald Trump. But, Donald Trump has been proven right about the USFL. Proven right because of the WLAF, the XFL and now the UFL. Basically, Donald Trump said playing in the spring is dying a slow death and most of the football dollars are in the fall.

 

Wrong. The other leagues you mentioned never pulled the stars from college and the pros like the USFL did.

[Griswold]

....That was a very gutsy performance by Fergy.

 

..as is his current battle with cancer.

[KD in CA]

Wrong. The other leagues you mentioned never pulled the stars from college and the pros like the USFL did.

But that was part of the undoing. They signed all those guys like Kelly, Flutie, Young, Walker, Rozier, etc. to big contracts but didn't have the attendance or TV ratings to generate the revenue to keep it going.

 

As with a lot of start up businesses, you need a lot of capital to get you through the early years and there were a lot of USFL owners that didn't have that money, and the league couldn't support the franchaises themselves.

 

Would they have had a chance if they had stayed in the spring? Maybe, but there were huge hurdles to overcome, Trump or no Trump.

 

 

p.s. I forgot how young Trump looked back in those days!

[Sanners]

I remember that season and playoff game in SD well. That was a very gutsy performance by Fergy.

 

Hell yah! I was 10 at the time, and was the biggest Bills fan around. I freakin cried when they lost. You could hit me in the back with a Louisville Slugger, and get no response from me, but a Bills loss... I whimpered at night.

 

Great team. Fergy, Cribbs, Smerlas. Butler, Lewis. Simpson, Clark, Devlin, Dobler, McKenzie, Shane Nelson, Jim Ritcher, Voglar, etc.....

[/dev/null]

I blame the fuzzy alien parasite attached to Trump's scalp

[Sanners]

I loved the USFL. I was a huge fan of the Philly/Baltimore Stars. My first game was a playoff game between the Stars and the Marv Levy-coached Chicago Blitz. The Stars came back and beat the Blitz in OT 44-38. They won two of three USFL titles. Looking back you could have built an NFL pro bowl roster just with players from the USFL. The league was that good.

 

It was Trump's fault but he was wrong about spring football. If the USFL stuck with it a few more seasons, spring football would have been established in peoples minds. No, it would never rival the NFL but it would have been successful. And that's the the nut of it: Is being successful good enough or do you have to go for all the marbles? THAT is what killed the USFL.

 

I think there is still a market for spring football. In fact the NFL would be wise to embrace a new USFL and treat it like a feeder league. There are so many borderline players who can develop with experience. (Fred Jackson is a shining example.) You don't think a spring team in Buffalo would be a big hit?

 

PTR

 

Please. Their best players would have equaled to about 4 NFL teams. They stole some stars, made it uncomfortable for the NFL, but ultimately sucked. Wow, big USFL fan here (not that that is bad or anything) ha

[extrahammer]

Just watched it, didn't realize how weak Trump is as a business man. You never ever ever acknowledge true competition, which is what Trump did with pursuing a fall season. Set yourself apart.

[Arkady Renko]

Why would you think that the NFL would merge with the USFL? Many of the cities already had NFL teams. A handful would merge if any.

 

The USFL was before my time. I actually thought the XFL was better than people thought. If they had gotten rid of the WWF bs but kept the innovative rules, I thought they might be on to something.