Athletes - United States Football League

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	Athletes - United States Football League

The United States Football League was a professional American football league that played three seasons between 1983 and 1985. In the process, the National Football League had its greatest competitor since the 1960s version of the American Football League.

Organization

The USFL was the brainchild of David Dixon, a New Orleans entrepreneur who in the 1960s envisioned football as a possible spring and summer sport. In the early 1980s, Dixon gathered a group of owners from twelve cities and announced the league's launch on May 11, 1982, to begin play in 1983.

Franchise instability

While no teams folded during any season of the USFL, it was a close call in many cases, and some franchises folded before or after a season's play. The league experienced a great deal of franchise instability, relocation, and closure:

During the 1983-1984 off-season:
* The Boston Breakers franchise, which was unable to gain access to Foxboro Stadium and had played the 1983 season in Boston University's small Nickerson Field, relocated to New Orleans.
* The owners of the Arizona Wranglers and Chicago Blitz franchises basically traded teams, with virtually all 1983 Arizona players playing in Chicago for 1984 and vice-versa.
* Needing fresh capital, the league expanded from 12 to 18 teams, adding the Pittsburgh Maulers, Houston Gamblers, San Antonio Gunslingers, Memphis Showboats, Oklahoma Outlaws and Jacksonville Bulls.
During the 1984-1985 off-season:
* The Breakers moved a second time, this time to Portland, Oregon.
* The owner of the Los Angeles Express franchise went bankrupt, abandoning his franchise and putting the league's television contract with ABC in jeopardy.
* Upon the league's announcement that they would begin play in the fall of 1986, the league champion Philadelphia Stars announced they would relocate to Baltimore, Maryland for 1985.
* The league's 1983 champion Michigan Panthers would merge with the Oakland Invaders, as team owner Alfred Taubman did not wish to compete head-to-head with the NFL's Detroit Lions in 1986.
* The Washington Federals were relocated to Orlando, Florida where they would become the Orlando Renegades.
* The Arizona Wranglers (nee Chicago Blitz of 1983) would merge with the Oklahoma Outlaws, forming the Arizona Outlaws. The Outlaws had originally intended to merge with the Oakland Invaders, but an agreement between their owners couldn't be reached.
* The Pittsburgh Maulers, owned by billionaire shopping mall magnate Edward J. DeBartolo folded; and
* The Chicago Blitz (nee Arizona Wranglers of 1983) also folded. Eddie Einhorn was granted a new franchise for Chicago, but it was repeatedly announced that the team Einhorn had purchased was not the Blitz.

Competition vs. NFL

Competing by not competing

At first the USFL competed with the older, more established National Football League by trying not to compete directly with it, primarily by playing its games on a March-June schedule but also having different playing rules, most notably:

The two-point conversion (since adopted by the NFL, in 1994).
For the 1985 season, a method of challenging officials' rulings on the field via instant replay (using a system that is almost identical to that used by the NFL today).

Initially the league was viewed as innovative and a serious challenger to the establishment NFL thanks to its willingness to sign marquee talent such as Herschel Walker, Doug Flutie, Mike Rozier, Reggie White, Jim Kelly, Steve Young and other young stars of the day.

Spring vs. fall

In 1984, the league began discussing the possibility of competing head-to-head with the NFL by playing its games in the fall beginning in 1986. Despite the protests of many "old guard" owners within the league, who wanted to stay with the original plan of playing football in the spring months, the voices of New Jersey Generals owner Donald Trump and others would eventually prevail. On October 18, 1984, the league's owners voted to begin playing a fall season in 1986. However, the USFL would never play a fall game.

USFL v. NFL

In another effort to keep themselves afloat while at the same time attacking the more established National Football League, the USFL filed an anti-trust lawsuit against the older league, claiming it had established a monopoly with respect to television broadcasting rights, and in some cases to access of stadium venues.

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