THE
UNITED STATES FOOTBALL LEAGUE was a professional
football league organized in the early 1980's, playing its
games in the spring from 1983 to 1985. While not
competing directly during that time with the
long-established National Football League, the USFL
nevertheless managed to be the strongest competitor to the
NFL since the American Football League of the
1960's. Through aggressive marketing, key player
acquisitions, and lavish spending, the USFL initially
appeared as if it would buck the odds and become a
permanent part of the American sports scene.
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Almost
as quickly as it arrived on that scene, however, it
disappeared, a victim of franchise shifts, ownership rifts,
excessive spending on the part of its team owners and an
inability to focus on the premise for which the league had
been founded. Less than two years after playing its
first game, the USFL announced its intention to take on the
NFL head-on beginning in 1986 - and instead signalled the
beginning of its own demise.
On the field the USFL from Day One appeared to be on a path
toward competitive parity with the NFL. Teams such as
the Chicago Blitz, Michigan Panthers and Philadelphia Stars
were at least worthy of being compared to some NFL teams of
the day, while in other cities where both leagues had
franchises, the USFL brand of football never quite matched
up to that of the older league. Players with NFL track
records such as Stan White, Greg Landry, John Banaszak and
Raymond Chester came on board with USFL teams to lend
credibility prior to its launch, and the signing of three
consecutive Heisman Trophy winners - particularly of 1982
Heisman winner Herschel Walker, propelled the league into
the national spotlight before a single ball had been
snapped.
Viewed as a "made for television" league, the USFL
had initial success in that arena as well, securing a
network broadcasting contract with ABC, as well as a cable
television deal with ESPN - the first league in any
professional sport to broadcast on national cable. But
rather than seeing the ABC and ESPN deals as opportunities
for the league to gain valuable exposure and credibility for
its on-the-field product, the USFL's owners saw the terms of
these arrangements so onerous that they almost immediately
sought to either renegotiate the deals, or in the case of
ABC, end them altogether.
By 1984 some petals had fallen off the USFL's rose:
expansion that increased the league's size by 50% and
diluted the quality of play on the field, franchise
relocations or other moves that left the USFL's presence
diminished in several key markets, and changes in team
ownership in others damaged the league's credibility in the
public view. By 1985 whatever credibility the league
had built was all but gone thanks to the announced move to a
fall schedule beginning in 1986, a number of franchise moves
and ownership changes, and the folding of four teams,
including the 1983 USFL champion Michigan Panthers.
The owners had deviated from the original plan for the
league, and they paid dearly for it.
While the concept of spring professional football was
considered odd in the early 1980's, the USFL worked
initially thanks to the quality of its product and the
novelty of seeing pigskin fly during months when it never
had before. Had the league continued down the path it
was blazing, and had a few breaks gone the USFL's way, it
likely would have survived to today. |
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