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Sports Arena
Pigskin Spring
Another baseball season approaches, and the national pastime continues to demonstrate its genius for self-inflicted wounds. The latest steroid scandal involved superstar Alex Rodriguez and only lengthened the shadow cast by past revelations about Roger Clemens, Barry Bonds, and others. A fan could be forgiven for throwing his hands up and walking away, but to where?
Starting next year, there may be another option: pro football. The United States Football League, defunct since the 1980s, is planning to relaunch in February 2010.
Michael Dwyer, the new league's founder, is busy organizing teams, securing stadiums, attracting backers and supporters, and getting the word out. Like many of us restless souls who came of age in the eighties, Dwyer loved the USFL -- its underdog status, its opening to cities unserved by the NFL, the generally high quality of play, and the chances it offered to players to build or extend careers. The USFL was probably the most impressive upstart sports league in history: it had an innovative concept, a network TV contract with ABC, a cable deal with ESPN (then still establishing itself), and some big-name coaches (George Allen, Red Miller). Its players were a mix of top college prospects bypassing the NFL (Herschel Walker, Steve Young, Jim Kelly), former NFL stalwarts (Joe Cribbs, Brian Sipe, Greg Landry), and homegrown stars (Bobby Hebert, Reggie White). And the team names were good: Michigan Panthers, Birmingham Stallions, Memphis Showboats, Oklahoma Outlaws, New Jersey Generals.
Most of all, the USFL had that spring thing. Here was America's most popular sport now available during the football fan's quiet time of the year. Now, when one was flipping the channels on a 10-2 baseball game, he had somewhere else to go. Of course, he could also try reading a book, going for a walk, or having a conversation, but if more people were interested in such things, there never would have been a USFL in the first place.
Critics tend to remember the league as a failed experiment, but spring football proved viable, on the whole. The league held on to its ABC and ESPN contracts. USFL teams in Sun Belt cities without NFL teams, like Birmingham, Memphis, and Jacksonville (which eventually got the NFL's Jaguars) packed stadiums, as did those in cities with NFL teams, like Tampa -- not surprisingly, given the pitiful state of the NFL Buccaneers back then -- and even Denver (more surprising, given the Broncos' popularity). To be sure, teams in some cities flopped in attendance (notably Los Angeles and Chicago), and others languished.
What killed the original USFL were two things: overspending on players and a disastrous, hubristic attempt to compete with the NFL in the fall. Teams didn't stick to their salary caps, focusing increasingly on NFL stars or blue-chip college players, and the league fell further into the red. Any expansion league is predicated on operating at a loss for several years, but once the USFL owners began to run amok with spending, any chance of stabilizing the league's finances became hopeless. Eager for more revenue, the league added new teams too quickly, exacerbating the problem and confusing fans as franchises switched cities and in one case swapped teams.
The decision to move to fall play, pushed by owners like the New Jersey Generals' Donald Trump (no surprise), set the league up for an antitrust suit against the NFL. The USFL lost the suit, effectively anyway (it was awarded a few dollars in settlement), and folded. Frequently the butt of jokes from front-running sportswriters, the league drifted into history, but it lives on in the memories of its devoted fans. Now those fans have a chance at a reprise.
Dwyer says the league will start with 12 teams, though specifics are still hard to come by, and the league's website is sparse. Like its predecessor, the new USFL promises innovations on the field, some reasonable (4 points for field goals 51 yards or longer) and some strange (4 points for a safety). It also looks to do things differently off the field, like allowing fans in each city to buy stock in teams in the manner of the Green Bay Packers. Dwyer promises economics and atmosphere more akin to minor league baseball than NFL football, and that would be a major accomplishment in itself. Minor league baseball is the best sports buy around.
Dwyer also pledges not to repeat the mistakes of the old league. He promises that salaries won't get out of control, and that he'll resist a bidding war with the NFL. Of course, all such promises, like generals' battle plans, are tested once action begins. It's hard to persuade ambitious men who like buying sports teams to have a sense of proportion.
(Curiously enough, the new USFL arrives when another new football league is trying to start up: the UFL plans on starting play this fall, a suicidal vision that never seems to lose its attraction.)
The greatest obstacle for the new USFL, though, is the deepening recession and mounting economic uncertainty. Certainly there are better environments in which to launch a new sports league, unless Dwyer can get some stimulus money from Washington (which really would create jobs). The recession could yet work in the league's favor, though. Americans out looking for work may finally get fed up reading about baseball players holding out for $50 million contracts, and may finally conclude that pro sports' ticket prices, concession costs, and relentless war on their wallets and common courtesy have finally gone too far. If so, we may see stock buying pick up again soon -- at least in spring football teams.
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Ryan| 3.6.09 @ 8:27AM
I'm not sure I see it working - with the AFL and World League folding (even though they went on longer than anyone thought), I wonder if there is really a market for year-round football. By the time the Super Bowl hits, I'm ready to take a break for a while and let the hype for the next season grow.
They better study the XFL and how well that didn't work, either - it went on a similar basis and even had some innovative ideas.
Ah, well...go Saints!
Peter| 3.6.09 @ 9:12AM
The USFL was awesome! I love the fact that it is coming back next spring. Baseball is too long, too boring and full of overpaid cheaters. Since 1994 when MLB went on strike, I have followed minor league baseball. The USFL will provide another source of entertainment for the sports fan... especially for those of us fed up with MLB.
What could be better? Warm weather, cold beer and professional football! Who knows, maybe Brett Favre will play for the team in Mississippi.
And one more thing, you can bet all the players will stand for God Bless America.... unlike some punk on the new york mets.
Great article! Where can I purchase tickets and stock? Whew!
Peter
Lambert| 3.6.09 @ 9:37AM
Bravo Pitino!
Yes! Yes!
Bring on the New USFL!
Forget Manny, ARod, Torre, Buddy Selig and give me pro football year round.
This game will attract college players who just missed making an NFL roster and veterans who who want to keep playing.
Absolutely Sweet Marie..... I'm talking homemade blueberry muffins... hear me?
Yeah! Will they have cheerleaders? Saints be praised..... football, summertime and cheerleaders. Somebody get me Rex Kramer!
Lambert
Dave| 3.6.09 @ 10:56AM
Well, after reading Mr. Beston's column on the return of USFL football, all I can say is ...
"Dude, how 'bout them Paducah Pelicans?"
Pahh-leezz! At best, the USFL was a notch above Arena Football. And I LOVE football.
Then again ... it's your money.
GO, PELICANS! : - )
rajones625| 3.6.09 @ 11:43AM
Don't forget the first rule of marketing: "if you can't be first, be different"
Some rule changes, a combo of old and new, could be dynamite, like:
one foot in on catches,-very exciting.
Give QB's the head bob back,-more offense.
Widen the hashes again-more sweeps,fewer FG's (straight-on kickers return? smaller d-lines?)
Limited substitutions- the 2-way player returns!
AND- a new soft helmet with eye shield but smaller faceguards-we can do it with a bladder- fewer cheap shots, less brave DB's so more Jimmy Brown runners, etc.
Wow!
Semi-pro Football| 3.6.09 @ 1:34PM
Who Cares about Semi-pro Football. Baseball is still great with some problems to work out. It will and we will be back to normal. A great sport to cherish while our economy goes down the tubes because of Obama and the Dems.
Bednarik| 3.6.09 @ 3:26PM
I'm surprised by the negativity of some of the comments to this article. Clearly, some of you are not fans of Paul Revere, George Washington.... I mean, when the bad guys come marching down Broadway, I want to be with Mr. Beston!
The USFL was a great league... great! If Mr. Dwyer plays his cards right, this league will succeed. Much like the early days of our great nation, all great things take time.
What would you rather watch on a Saturday night, a boring baseball game or a hard hitting football game? Please! I'll easily put away a six pack of sierra nevada watching USFL football!
Yes! From the top of Mount Beacon, I do solemnly swear my allegiance to this great nation and to this great new league!
Looks like I picked the wrong week to stop drinking...
Bednarik
Todd| 3.6.09 @ 4:54PM
Like Obama's stimulus plan, this will fail miserably. No player worth his salt will skip on the NFL to play there unless they are offered more money and that will be unsustainable as was proved by the original USFL. If you want to watch second rate professional football, move to Canada and watch the CFL. I love football but I don't need to watch it year round.
Elvin| 3.7.09 @ 1:47AM
I held season tickets to the Baltimore Stars when they played in College Park after moving from Philadelphia. The league had a lot of good players and could have succeeded in the spring. However, don't underestimate the PR prowesss of the NFL. I remember sportswriters quoting NFL scouts that only two or three players on each USFL team could make the NFL--a laughable claim when you look at the alumni that went on to the NFL. (OK, this was true for the lamentable Washington Federals.) To this day I'm amazed at the fawning nature of the sports establishment to the NFL--the draft is reported on for weeks before it happens, steroids was/is a big problem going back into the 1970s, but the game isn't tainted like baseball is. The USFL faces daunting odds in succeeding, but I hope it does.
J| 3.7.09 @ 2:05PM
Correction
The American Football League was the most impressive upstart league. But good info, thank you for the column
Joe M| 3.7.09 @ 9:41PM
Despite the USFL ruining my Dolphins!1 I would love to see Spring Football.
I think if they put forth a solid steroid testing policy they would get a big jump on the NFL(which will have it's own scandals from this soon)
Also the non mutant re: steroid free, players would make for a more talent based game.
Doctor Right| 3.8.09 @ 1:13AM
I hope this works...The months after the Superbowl and before NFL summer camps are pure hell...
Stuart| 3.8.09 @ 11:05AM
Ryan might very well be right. After a fall and winter of packed with NFL and college action, the nation's taste for football just might not be there come April or May.
By the way, does anybody out there remember the World Football League? Ryan mentions it.
Started by Gary Davidson(who founded the World Hockey League- a league good enough to send some of its teams onto the NHL once it folded), there was something inspiring and great fun about watching it- I was a New York Stars fan-
in the same way that fans of minor league baseball teams often have more fun than fans of major league teams. They had real characters, too.
I remember Jim "King" Corcoran, a Bull Durham kind of guy, a lovable roguish figure in minor league football who was the quarterback of Philadelphia WFL team.
Bronson| 3.8.09 @ 6:41PM
This league will kick butt. Hey, you mean to tell me I can buy stock in a team as well? Awesome. Sounds like the teams actaully may be accountable to their fan base. Hey, looky here, I'm done with the National Criminal League and Major League Steroids. I watch minor league baseball and Nascar. Spring football minus the thugs, roids, constant showboating and exhorbitant prices.... count me in. Spring football is better than watching cowards, cheaters and crybabies like Carlos Delgado... a worthless puke if I ever saw one.
Great article! Bobby Hebert lives!
Bronson
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Brent| 3.11.09 @ 3:38PM
I'll never forget watching Anthony Carter haul in Bobby Herberts touchdown pass that beat the Philly Stars in Denver. The first and only pro-football championship team to ever play in the Pontiac Silverdome!
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