Remembering the fun that was the USFL

It’s hard to believe 30 years have gone by since the heyday of the USFL.

What, you may ask, is the USFL? It was the United States Football League – a professional football league played in the spring and meant to challenge the NFL in terms of professional football dominance.

I loved the USFL. Growing up outside of Denver, I was a huge fan of the Denver Gold. The league only lasted three years, but the teams were colorful and the games were fun. It was full of NFL has-beens and wannabes and a handful of future NFL stars. Jim Kelly, a hall of fame quarterback for the Buffalo Bills, got his professional start with the Houston Gamblers.

Texas had two USFL teams – the Gamblers and the San Antonio Gunslingers. Both were expansion teams in the 1984 season. The USFL ran from 1983 through 1985. It died the next year after an announced plan to play in the fall. The league sued and won an antitrust lawsuit against the NFL, but was awarded only $1 in damages. That ended any hopes the league had of living to play another day.

When the league was in full swing, it was great. Because the Broncos were always sold out, the Gold gave me the opportunity to see my first professional football games and my first visits to Mile High Stadium. I also got press credentials to photograph a game from the sidelines. Denver was playing the New Jersey Generals, with Doug Flutie at quarterback and Herschel Walker at running back. (The Gold won!)

I also vividly recall being at a game in 1984 after John Elway’s disastrous first year with the Broncos. My buddy Pete Larson and I were walking along the third deck concourse when we walked right by Elway. I looked up at him as he passed by and turned to Pete and said, “man, they won’t let him get any closer to the field than this!”

If there was any consistency to the USFL, it was in its inconsistency. Each year featured new teams and divisions. One team, the Breakers, played in a different city each year – Boston, New Orleans and Portland. There were 12 teams that started the first year. That grew to 18 in 1984 and then shrank to 14 in 1985. Of the original dozen teams, only six and a half played in the same city all three seasons. The Arizona Wranglers would have been the seventh, but they merged with the Oklahoma Outlaws to become the Arizona Outlaws.

It was also 30 years ago that the Gold took the biggest tumble in professional sports. They were atop the league at 9-0 and ended third in their division at 9-9. In their two years in the league, the Houston Gamblers proved to be one of the most successful franchises. They were 13-5 their first season and 10-8 the next. They made the playoffs both years, but lost both games. The Gunslingers were 7-11 and 5-13 and never made the playoffs.

While it has been three decades since the rise and fall of the USFL, at least one player is still profiting from it. Former San Francisco 49ers quarterback Steve Young signed a $36 million contract with the Los Angeles Express. It was to be paid out over 43 years, most of it backloaded. He had the contract insured, so this year he will make $1 million from the defunct league. That will escalate annually until it tops out at $3 million a year when the contract expires in 2027.

I think spring football is fun. I was able to photograph a game during the short-lived World League of American Football. It was a pathetic league with sloppy play. I have yet to see a single game of the Arena Football League, but it is starting its 27^th year. Two different Denver teams have won league championships. The Denver Dynamite won the inaugural title and the former Colorado Crush – owned by John Elway – took the title in 2005.

Texas has six former AFL teams and one current – the San Antonio Tallons. Houston had the Texas Terror, which later became the Houston Thunderbears. They lasted from 1996 to 2001.

Given what happened to the Houston Texans last year (and my beloved Broncos in the Super Bowl), maybe it’s time to take in a San Antonio stroll and watch a little indoor spring football.