The United States Football League was a professional American football league that played between 1983 and 1985, in the process presenting the rival NFL with its greatest competitor since the 1960s version of the AFL.
At first the USFL competed with the older NFL by avoiding direct competition - playing its games on a March-June summer schedule. The league also offered innovations later adopted by the older circuit, among them the two-point conversion and the instant replay challenge system. And while the league was enormously successful on the field, acquiring such talented players as Jim Kelly, Herschel Walker, Reggie White, Mike Rozier, Doug Flutie, Steve Young and a host of others, it was a failure in terms of its teams management, as team owners in competition with the NFL - and one another - vastly exceeded agreed upon budgets for their teams.
While no teams folded during any season, it was a close call in many cases. A summary of the league's turmoil:
- Following the inaugural 1983 season, the owners of the Arizona and Chicago franchises traded teams, while the Boston Breakers franchise was unable to gain access to Foxboro Stadium, forcing the team to relocate to New Orleans. Meanwhile in need of fresh capital to keep the original 12 teams afloat, the league expanded by 50%, adding another six franchises.
- Following the 1984 season, the Breakers moved again, this time to Portland. The owner of the Los Angeles Express abandoned the franchise, which in turn put the league's television contract with ABC in jeopardy. The league champion Philadelphia Stars were evicted from their stadium and would relocate to Baltimore. The league's 1983 champion Michigan Panthers would merge with the Oakland Invaders, while the Arizona Wranglers (nee Chicago Blitz) would merge with the Oklahoma Outlaws. Meanwhile, the Chicago Blitz (nee Wranglers) and the expansion Pittsburgh Maulers, owned by billionaire mall magnate Edward J. DeBartolo folded, and the Washington Federals transferred to Orlando to become the Orlando Renegades.
The league's death knell was sounded on October 18, 1984, when the league's owners voted to go head-to-head with the NFL beginning in the Fall of 1986. The league also filed an anti-trust lawsuit against the older league, claiming it had established a monopoly in terms of television rights, and in some cases access to stadium venues.
The case went to trial, and while the USFL won the battle--the court held that the NFL was indeed a "duly adjudicated illegal monopoly"--it lost the war, as the jury awarded the upstarts a token $1 judgment, tripled by antitrust law to $3. However, several jurors later said that they wanted to grant a substantial judgment to the USFL (one juror was willing to award $100 million before tripling), but the entire jury could not agree on an amount. They finally settled on $1 because they felt the court was allowed to override the jury on the question of damages and impose its own damage award, but the court had no such authority.
Shortly after the verdict it suspended its planned 1986 season and appealed the verdict. Various legal maneuvers over the next few years kept the league technically alive into the early 1990s, but the USFL never played another down of football.
TEAMS OF THE USFL
TEAMS SCHEDULED TO PLAY IN THE 1986 USFL FALL SEASON
USFL CHAMPIONSHIP GAMES
COMMISSIONERS OF THE USFL
- 1983-1984 - Chester R. "Chet" Simmons (removed)
- 1984-1989 - Harry L. Usher (league ceased operations)
