Title/Author:
“Football
for a Buck: The Crazy Rise and Crazier Demise of the USFL” by Jeff Pearlman
Tags:
Football
(American), history, professional, management
Publish
date:
September 11, 2018
Length:
384 pages
Rating:
5 of 5
stars (outstanding)
Review:
For a brief stretch in the 1980’s, there were two
professional football leagues in the United States. There was the well-established
National Football League (NFL), which by then was staking its claim to being
the most popular league of the most popular sport in the country. But for three years, there was another league,
the United States Football League (USFL) that played its games in the spring and
saw wacky games and players, innovative rules such as instant replay
challenges, both good and not-so-good football and one brash, bombastic owner
who tried to take on the NFL and eventually lost, meaning the end of the league
just three years after it started.
The history of the USFL, from the day that David Dixon’s
idea for spring football was announced by the Associated Press in 1966 to the
dispersing of USFL players into the NFL after the results and award from the
anti-trust lawsuit were revealed, is captured in this highly entertaining,
highly informative book by best selling author Jeff Pearlman. No matter what a
reader wants to learn or read about regarding the USFL, they are sure to find it
in this book.
Yes, that date announcing the idea of the USFL was
correct. The idea of a professional spring football league was conceived by
David Dixon in 1966, the league gaining that name simply because he liked the name
of U.S. Steel for a company in which he held stock. The idea went into to
hiding when the NFL soon thereafter awarded a team to New Orleans and merged
with the American Football League.
However, Dixon never let his dream completely die and in the early 1980’s,
it was reborn. Thanks to a trip to the home of legendary coach George Allen and
the growth of a new product called cable television, Dixon set out to sell the
idea of spring football. When a group of
wealthy businessmen with deep pockets and large egos all signed on, the USFL
was born, complete with a schedule for 1983 with 12 teams and more importantly,
a television contract.
The first season was considered, in the big picture,
a success. The attendance and television ratings were considered reasonable for
a new league. The quality of football ran from ugly to spectacular. For ugly, just
watch any Washington Federals game as Pearlman regularly reminded readers just
how bad this team was both on and off the field. Pearlman humorously wrote that
the team “led the USFL in three unofficial categories: 1. Football players no
one had ever heard of. 2. Cigarette smokers 3. Coke Addicts.” Not exactly the formula
for a good team. However, for spectacular football, two good examples are the triple
overtime playoff game that season between the Philadelphia Stars and the
Chicago Blitz, still considered to be one of the best playoff games in football
history; and the championship game the following week between the Philadelphia
Stars and the Michigan Panthers, won by the Panthers on a thrilling touchdown.
However, the championship game wasn’t the biggest
news for the league that season. Proving
that that the league was for real and to get a “big name” player, the New
Jersey Generals signed running back Herschel Walker from the University of
Georgia before he was eligible to play in the NFL. The story of getting Walker
to sign with the new league was very interesting, especially as the league
wanted to keep everything a secret until it was official. Because of this, the scout for the Generals who
did the work to get Walker to sign with New Jersey, Rick Buffington, was
concerned when he received a call from the Boston Globe to inquire if it was
indeed true that Walker signed with the USFL. Pearlman writes about this at his
best, calling Buffington the “Herschel Walker Deep Throat.”
The Generals were not only the team in the biggest
market, they later on had the most brash and outlandish owner in the league’s
second season in a New York real estate tycoon named Donald J. Trump. If
anything could take attention away from the strangeness of two franchises swapping
players and locations, as the Chicago Blitz and Arizona Wranglers did , it was
the loud and bombastic announcement of the league’s newest owner. While the league already had some eccentric
owners, such as Bill Oldenburg, the oil tycoon who owned the Los Angeles
Express and had some wacky stories of his own shared in the book (one Pearlman
description of an Oldenburg meltdown said he “went from agreeable to obnoxious
to One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest psychotic”), he had nothing on Trump. More
on the Generals’ owner a little later.
While the signing of Walker was a boon for the
league’s publicity, there were reservations inside league headquarter and from USFL
Commissioner Chet Simmons. He and some
other owners, most notably Tampa Bay Bandits owner John Bassett, wanted the
goal of the league to build slowly and keep salaries in check. Walker was the
first signing to break that mold.
However, the dam burst on salaries before that second season. Many
future NFL stars were signed to huge contracts such as Jim Kelly (signed by the
expansion Houston Gamblers) and Steve Young. Young’s contract, totaling over
$40 million dollars when including annuity payments, was the butt end of a lot
of jokes. His team, the Express, not only had an eccentric owner, but also was
suffering from poor play on the field and very poor attendance, made all the
more noticeable by playing home games in the massive Los Angeles Coliseum.
One other notable signing was Doug Flutie, the
Boston College quarterback who made one of the most famous college football
comebacks with a “Hail Mary” pass touchdown to beat Miami. Flutie was sought
and signed by New Jersey. Trump wanted to sign the quarterback as he believed
the popular quarterback would be good for the league – and he also wanted all
of the league’s owners to chip in toward paying Flutie’s salary instead of just
the Generals. Regardless of political position or affiliation, any reader will
realize that sounds very familiar to something that Trump stated later in his
second career. This is another example of the brilliance Pearlman brings to
this book as he is able to make the reader connect the USFL to today’s
events, whether or not they relate to football.
Despite the craziness, it seemed like the USFL was gaining
its place for spring football. While not enjoying NFL numbers for attendance, TV
ratings and quality of play, the product nonetheless was gaining respect in all
those areas. For the latter of those qualities, the USFL never claimed to be on
the same footing as the NFL. The players enlisted were described as “your tied,
your poor, your huddled masses, your one-armed and chain-smoking and half blind
and clinically insane..” by Pearlman – one of the funniest lines in a book filled
with snippets that will make a reader laugh out loud.
Even though the league made a questionable decision
to expand from 12 to 18 teams with some of these teams never getting on solid
footing (example A is the San Antonio Gunslingers, whose woes are told in
entertaining detail) there were new teams who were run well and played competitive
football such as the Birmingham Stallions and Memphis Showboats. The ocean that
was the USFL seemed to be settling down despite some choppiness.
However, there was some disturbance in this ocean churned
up by Trump. The motives behind Trump’s purchase of the Generals were being
questioned, and they became clear when he announced to his fellow owners that
the USFL needed to move to a fall schedule and compete directly with the NFL as
soon as possible. This would be his best way to be an NFL owner as many
believed that was his goal all along.
This drama off the field was overshadowing the play
on the field, which included a revolutionary offense by Gamblers' offensive
coordinator Mouse Davis. Utilizing Kelly’s strong arm and a fleet of speedy receivers,
the Gamblers became an offensive juggernaut, setting many professional football
records for offense and becoming one of the elite teams. League officials were
salivating at the thought of a Gamblers-Generals championship game for the
league’s second season, but it was not to be. Instead, the Philadelphia Stars
avenged their loss in the previous season by handily defeating the Arizona Wranglers
to capture the 1984 USFL title.
The story of the next offseason was all about Trump.
He kept on pushing his idea to his fellow owners that it would be in the best
interest of the league to go head-to-head against the NFL. Just like with his
businesses, he was one who got others to buy into his plan. Most of his fellow
owners were on board with this plan, with the notable exception of one of the leagues
more successful owners, Bassett. He was just as strong willed on his belief
that the original goals of the league were to be followed as was Trump’s about
playing in the fall. Sadly, Bassett developed brain cancer and as his health
deteriorated, his influence on his colleagues dwindled until he passed away.
Without his biggest adversary, Trump pushed ahead
with his agenda, filing an anti-trust lawsuit against the NFL and also getting
the league to announce that 1985 was going to be the last season of spring football
and the league would begin fall play in 1986. This lead to confusion both on and
off the field. What was going to become of the players during such a long downtime?
How many teams would be willing to go
against the NFL, as some stadiums would not allow the USFL team to play at the
same time its primary tenant, the NFL team, would be using the facility? What about the college draft? Of course, these
questions were small potatoes compared to the big question – what would become
of the league should the trial end in favor of the NFL?
All of this overshadowed the entire third season of
the league, as the dominant team of the USFL, the now-Baltimore Stars defended
their league title with a win over the Oakland Invaders in the championship
game. The moves and merges of the league’s franchises were numerous and often
had interesting anecdotes that were shared in the book. These two teams were
included, as the Stars had to play games in Baltimore after their lease to play
in Philadelphia was not renewed and the Invaders had many players from the
Michigan Panthers after that team merged with the new Oakland franchise rather
than compete with the NFL’s Lions when the league would start fall play.
The last, sad chapter of the league was the anti-trust
trial. This was to be Trump’s finest hour, even with a questionable strategy
and the death of the lawyer originally hired to represent the USFL, a lawyer
who gained fame in the McCarthy-era trials against alleged Communists. Even when writing about court proceedings,
Pearlman is at his best. For the sake of those with weak stomachs, I will leave
out Pearlman’s recap of an exchange between Trump and then-NFL commissioner
Pete Rozelle, but it is one that had me laughing so hard, I was in tears. The
result is known to all interested in this league – the jury did find the NFL
was guilty of violating anti-trust laws and awarded the USFL $1 – treble damages
made the total amount $3. Of course, since the league was counting on this
verdict for its future, it ceased operations soon thereafter and the players
were free to sign with any NFL team.
Some made it, many didn’t and those whose one shot
at pro football was through the USFL were saddened but look back upon those
days fondly. The NFL’s product on the
field, while they may not admit it, was influenced by the upstart league after its
demise. The New Orleans Saints hired Stars coach Jim Mora and signed many of the
players he coached and, not coincidently, went from league laughingstock to
playoff team in two seasons. The most innovative rules in the USFL – the two
point conversion and instant replay reviews – have both been adopted by the
NFL. While the league may not exist any longer, its memories live on.
Any reader who is a fan of Pearlman’s previous work,
a fan of the USFL or football history, or who just likes an entertaining book
on the game, must add this to their library. An outstanding work that is one of
the best books I have read on any sport.
I wish to thank Houghton Mifflin Harcourt for
providing an advance review copy of the book via NetGalley in exchange for an
honest review.
Book
Format Read:
E-book (Kindle)
Buying Links:
If memory serves me both Doug Flutie and Mouse Davis ended up in the CFL.
ReplyDeleteCorrect
ReplyDelete