The United States Football League (USFL) was an American football league which was in active operation from 1983 to 1987. It played a spring/summer schedule in its first three seasons and a traditional autumn/winter schedule was set to commence before league operations ceased. The USFL was conceived in 1965 by New Orleans, Louisiana, businessman David Dixon, who saw a market for a football league which would play while the established National Football League was in its off-season. Dixon had been a key player in the expansion of the NFL into New Orleans and the New Orleans Saints began play in 1967.
The USFL had notable success, including three consecutive Heisman Trophy winners: Georgia running back Herschel Walker and Boston College quarterback Doug Flutie signed with the New Jersey Generals, and Nebraska running back Mike Rozier signed with the Pittsburgh Maulers out of college. Future Pro Football Hall of Fame members defensive end Reggie White of the University of Tennessee and quarterbacks Jim Kelly of the University of Miami and Steve Young of Brigham Young University, began their professional careers with the USFL's Memphis Showboats, Houston Gamblers, and Los Angeles Express, respectively. Veterans, such as quarterbacks Chuck Fusina and Cliff Stoudt, who had limited success in the NFL, had successful careers in the USFL. Former Cincinnati Bengals offensive lineman Dave Lapham signed an unusual personal services contract (rather than a traditional players' contract) with billionaire New Jersey Generals owner Donald Trump.
After its inaugural season, the United States Football League was plagued with franchise instability. A number of franchises either relocated or merged with others. However, there were franchises in several cities without NFL teams which would later receive them, such as Jacksonville, Florida. The Michigan Panthers were the first USFL champions. The Philadelphia Stars won the second USFL championship, and after relocating to Baltimore, Maryland, won the final USFL championship as the Baltimore Stars. In 1986, the USFL, having recently decided to compete directly with the NFL, filed an anti-trust lawsuit against the National Football League. The NFL was found to have violated anti-monopoly laws. However, in a Pyrrhic victory, the USFL was awarded a judgment of just $1, which under anti-trust laws, was tripled to $3. When it folded the USFL had lost over $163 million.
Read more about United States Football League: Teams, Season By Season, Championship Games, Drafts
Famous quotes containing the words united states, united, states, football and/or league:
“When, in some obscure country town, the farmers come together to a special town meeting, to express their opinion on some subject which is vexing to the land, that, I think, is the true Congress, and the most respectable one that is ever assembled in the United States.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“It was evident that, both on account of the feudal system and the aristocratic government, a private man was not worth so much in Canada as in the United States; and, if your wealth in any measure consists in manliness, in originality and independence, you had better stay here. How could a peaceable, freethinking man live neighbor to the Forty-ninth Regiment? A New-Englander would naturally be a bad citizen, probably a rebel, there,—certainly if he were already a rebel at home.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“It is impossible for a stranger traveling through the United States to tell from the appearance of the people or the country whether he is in Toledo, Ohio, or Portland, Oregon. Ninety million Americans cut their hair in the same way, eat each morning exactly the same breakfast, tie up the small girls’ curls with precisely the same kind of ribbon fashioned into bows exactly alike; and in every way all try to look and act as much like all the others as they can.”
—Alfred Harmsworth, Lord Northcliffe (1865–1922)
“In this dream that dogs me I am part
Of a silent crowd walking under a wall,
Leaving a football match, perhaps, or a pit,
All moving the same way.”
—Philip Larkin (1922–1986)
“We’re the victims of a disease called social prejudice, my child. These dear ladies of the law and order league are scouring out the dregs of the town. C’mon be a glorified wreck like me.”
—Dudley Nichols (1895–1960)