1984-85
OFF SEASON CHANGES
The 1984 season signalled the beginning of the end of the United
States Football League, only its owners didn't recognize it for
what it was. A revolving door of team ownership changes,
relocations, mergers and other happenings should have told
everyone involved in the venture that it was time to fold up the
tent, or at least take some steps to inject some long-term
stability, but instead those who came into the league prior to
and during 1984 - chiefly among them New Jersey Generals owner
Donald Trump - decided of all things that it was time to change
to a fall season and compete directly with the NFL - the exact
opposite of David Dixon's plan.
The financial losses suffered by the league's owners in 1984
were significant to say the least. The Chicago Blitz, who
had been abandoned by new owner Dr. James Hoffman pretty much
before the season had even began, had lost nearly $6 million,
and was disbanded after the season. Another flagship
franchise, the Los Angeles Express, had also been relinquished
by its owner. In July 1984 J. William Oldenburg gave up
the ghost, claiming losses of $15 million. Edward J.
DeBartolo stuck out the 1984 season with his Pittsburgh Maulers,
but within days of the USFL's decision to move to a fall
schedule he simply, and about as quietly as you could do so one
would suppose, disbanded the team. He had lost $10
million. Eleven other teams showed losses of at least $3
million each - triple what David Dixon had originally projected
as an "acceptable" annual loss.
From the start of his involvement in the USFL, New Jersey's
Donald Trump had advocated placing the league in the fall,
competing head-to-head with the NFL. Eventually he got his
wish - in October 1984 the league's owners voted to move to a
fall schedule beginning in 1986. For more on the league's
developments in this area, see the "Spring
Forward, Fall Apart" section of USFL.INFO.
The eighteen franchises of 1984 had been whittled down to
fourteen: the Blitz and Maulers were disbanded, while two
others were pared through franchise mergers - Oklahoma with
Arizona, and Michigan with Oakland. The L.A. Express
survived as a ward of the league for 1985, but only because of
TV - the USFL's television contract with ABC required the league
to maintain franchises in the three largest television markets
(New York, Chicago and Los Angeles). While the network
hadn't concerned itself with Chicago's demise (perhaps because
the USFL's television ratings in Chicago were as bad as the
Blitz home attendance), losing Chicago and Los Angeles
was something the USFL's owners simply couldn't risk - the fear
of losing the revenue ABC provided, in spite of all else, was
sufficient to keep the Express alive. Two other teams were
immediately impacted by the league's decision to move to the
fall. The USFL champion Philadelphia Stars were relocated
to Baltimore, where owner Myles Tanenbaum hoped they would fill
the void left by the NFL's Colts, who had moved to Indianapolis
after their 1983 season. Meanwhile the New Orleans
Breakers, coming to the realization that going head-to-head with
the beloved Saints wasn't a good idea, also relocated, to
Portland, Oregon.
The mergers proved interesting even by USFL standards.
Having decided to play in the fall beginning in 1986, Michigan
Panthers owner A. Alfred Taubman found was searching for a new
home for his club, not wanting to compete head-to-head with the
NFL's Lions. The Oklahoma Outlaws meanwhile had been
looking to get out of Tulsa since their second game in the city,
with the Tathams openly courting the team to other locations
within Oklahoma as well as to Honolulu, San Diego, and
elsewhere. Tad Taube had had enough of being a USFL
majority owner in Oakland meanwhile, as had Dr. Ted Diethrich in
Arizona despite going to the USFL Championship Game. The
four teams (Arizona, Michigan, Oakland and Oklahoma) each
discussed a variety of merger scenarios before it was decided:
the Michigan Panthers and Oakland Invaders would merge, with
Taubman becoming majority owner of the Invaders but Taube
staying on as the team's Chairman and a minority owner; and the
Outlaws would merge with the Arizona Wranglers essentially as an
acquisition of the team, with the outcome being an Arizona
Outlaws team owned by the Tathams and Diethrich out of the
picture.
Just as the 1984 expansion had caused a realignment of the USFL,
the contractions of 1985 caused one as well. After
contemplating a return to a three-division format (with
Baltimore, Jacksonville, New Jersey, Orlando and Tampa Bay in
the Atlantic; Birmingham, Houston, Memphis and San Antonio in
the Central; and Arizona, Denver, Los Angeles, Oakland and
Portland in the Pacific), it instead realigned into two
seven-team conferences, with each playing its six conference
opponents twice (home-and-home), representing two-thirds of each
team's 18-game regular season schedule. The
Eastern Conference consisted of the Baltimore Stars, Birmingham
Stallions, Jacksonville Bulls, Memphis Showboats, New Jersey
Generals, Orlando Renegades and Tampa Bay Bandits. The
Western Conference meanwhile had the Arizona Outlaws, Denver
Gold, Houston Gamblers, Los Angeles Express, Oakland Invaders,
Portland Breakers and San Antonio Gunslingers. The playoff
format was also modified for 1985: the top two teams from
each conference were guaranteed playoff berths, with four
wild-card teams, regardless of their conference, also
qualifying.
ON THE FIELD, NO TEAM DOMINATES
The behind the scenes turmoil had an impact on each of the 14
remaining USFL teams, in some cases a significant impact.
Most impacted on the field were most likely the Arizona Outlaws,
Baltimore Stars, Memphis Showboats and Oakland Invaders - each
of whom experienced a dramatic shift in their fortunes in 1985.
In Arizona the merger between the Wranglers and Outlaws could
have been expected to produce a team that could challenge for
the 1985 USFL Championship Game. After all, the 1984
Wranglers made it to the title tilt, and adding the best from
the Outlaws (including of course quarterback Doug Williams)
would only enhance the team's fortunes, right?
Wrong. In an effort to cut costs the Tatham family opted
instead to leave most of their key players available to other
teams via a dispersal draft, losing key members of the '84
Wranglers including RB Tim Spencer... What was left wasn't a
cohesive unit, and it showed on the field as the Outlaws went
8-10-0.
In Baltimore, the team's "relocation" in fact was a
mess to put it mildly. The Stars were a Baltimore team in
name only, with no facilities in Baltimore at all. The
team practiced in Philadelphia, then played their
"home" games at Byrd Stadium on the campus of the
University of Maryland - 40 miles from Baltimore and actually
closer to Washington DC. It wasn't conducive to a great
regular season performance, as the Stars came out of the gate
slowly (going 0-2-1 in their first three games) and had to win 9
of its remaining 13 games just to finish 10-7-1 and make the
playoffs.
Through the little-publicized USFL dispersal draft and other
means, the Memphis Showboats had added some impressive talent to
their roster for 1985, including RB Harry Sydney from Denver, RB
Tim Spencer from Arizona, LB's John Corker and John Banaszak,
and OL Tyrone McGriff from the Michigan Panthers... they were
potent additions. The Showboats turned a 7-11-0 1984
season into an 11-7-0 record in 1985, landing the third best
record in the USFL Eastern Conference in the process and one
game short of the 1985 USFL Championship Game when all was said
and done.
The Oakland Invaders
meanwhile were rejuvenated on the field thanks to their merger
with the Michigan Panthers. The team's roster took the
best from both 1984 clubs (most importantly QB Bobby Hebert, WR
Anthony Carter and RB Albert Bentley from Michigan) and combined
them into the best team in the Western Conference. A 31-10
win over the Denver Gold kicked off Oakland's 1985 season with
its third straight opening week victory, and despite the tie
against Baltimore after six weeks the Invaders boasted a 4-1-1
record. The team sputtered in Weeks 7 and 8, falling to
the Portland Breakers and Birmingham Stallions, put then put
together 9 wins in their next 10 games to close out the 1985
regular season with the USFL's best record at 13-4-1.
The
Birmingham Stallions would be the best regular season team from
the Eastern Conference in 1985 thanks to having three former NFL
standouts performing well. Running back Joe Cribbs gained
1,047 yards on 267 carries, scoring 7 touchdowns. Wide
receiver Jim Smith caught 87 passes for 1,322 yards and a
then-unheard of 20 touchdowns, and former Pittsburgh Steeler
back-up Cliff Stoudt, who couldn't break the team's starting
lineup in the days of Terry Bradshaw, would throw for 3,358
yards and 34 touchdowns against 19 interceptions, pacing the
Stallions to a 13-5-0 record and the Eastern Conference's top
playoff seed. The New Jersey Generals took a step down in
their record, falling from 14-4-0 in 1984 to 11-7-0, but added a
second Heisman Trophy winner to its backfield with the signing
of famed Boston College QB Doug Flutie. The 11-7-0 mark
was matched by the Memphis Showboats, who behind quarterback
Walter Lewis and defensive standout Reggie White not only made
the playoffs, but also made the Showboats one of the few USFL
teams whose attendance improved in 1985. For the
second time in three years, the Tampa Bay Bandits just missed
the playoffs, finishing 10-8-0 and a half-game behind Baltimore.
Their cross-state rivals would each finish below them in the
standings as the Jacksonville Bulls improved to 9-9-0 from their
inaugural season 6-12-0 record, and the Orlando Renegades (nee
Washington Federals) improved from their 1984 record as well,
but still finished last at 5-13-0.
In the Western Conference, the Invaders were joined by the
Denver Gold, who under the new regime of owner Doug Spedding and
head coach Darrell "Mouse" Davis won 11 games and
earned the team's only playoff berth. The Houston Gamblers
underwent serious woes behind the scenes, but Jim Kelly and
Company still fared well enough to post a 10-8-0 record, good
for the conference's third playoff seed. In Arizona, the
merger between the Oklahoma Outlaws and Arizona Wranglers was
expected to produce winning results under new head coach Frank
Kush and quarterback Doug Williams, but it was not to be as the
Arizona Outlaws would let the combined unit's other key
offensive weapons, RB Tim Spencer and WR Trumaine Johnson go
elsewhere. An 8-10-0 finish would still qualify them for
the playoffs however as the conference's remaining three teams:
the Portland Breakers (6-12-0), San Antonio Gunslingers (5-13-0)
and league-run Los Angeles Express (3-15-0) were essentially
running out the string, its players simply hoping they got a
paycheck each week and not terribly concerned with how they
fared on the field.
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