Houston Gamblers not a safe bet

 

Two decades after the Houston Gamblers lit up the Astrodome scoreboard in the United States Football League, a new version of the Gamblers has returned to its Houston roots.

To be sure, this isn’t your father’s Houston Gamblers. About the only thing the two teams have in common are a name and spring football. The original Gamblers joined the USFL in the 1984 and 1985 seasons. It was a fun and explosive team that featured quarterback Jim “Machine Gun” Kelly and the rapid-fire Run & Shoot offense.

Jack Pardee was the head coach and in 1984 he brought on Darell “Mouse” Davis as his offensive coordinator. Davis was a master with the Run & Shoot offense and proved it by setting the single-season scoring record with 618 points. The Houston Gamblers played in the Astrodome and had an average attendance of 23,500. They went 23-13 in two seasons, making the playoffs both years.

After three seasons the USFL announced plans to move to the fall and go head-to-head with the NFL. That fateful decision was strongarmed by New Jersey Generals owner Donald Trump, who coerced the other team owners into following his lead. Trump led the USFL into an antitrust lawsuit against the NFL and won. But the jury only awarded $1 in damages, which under antitrust laws was tripled to $3. The gambit was a bust and the league never played another season.

In 2001, wrestling promoter Vince McMahon launched the XFL with all the glitz and fanfare he was known for with the World Wrestling Federation. It lasted one season. McMahon revived the XFL in 2020 and it generated a lot of excitement in Houston where the Roughnecks, playing at the University of Houston’s TDECU Stadium, went 5-0 under coach June Jones before the COVID-19 pandemic shut down the league. The league filed bankruptcy, but actor Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson and his ex-wife Dany Garcia purchased it for $15 million and brought it back in 2023.

In the meantime, Fox Sports and its partners revived the USFL in 2022. An eight-team league was formed including the Houston Gamblers, this time under former Texas A&M head coach Kevin Sumlin. The league played all its games in Birmingham, Alabama. That year the Gamblers went 3-7, finishing last in the South Division.

The next year was a rarity for spring football. Two leagues were in operation, the USFL and the XFL. Houston had teams in both leagues. The Roughnecks returned to TDECU Stadium, and the Gamblers played their games in Memphis, Tennessee. This time Curtis Johnson took over for Sumlin with the Gamblers and Wade Phillips took the reins of the Roughnecks. The Gamblers returned to the USFL South cellar with a 5-5 record while Phillips led the Roughnecks to a 7-3 record and a playoff appearance.

In 2024 the USFL and XFL merged to form the UFL. The two Houston teams merged, keeping the Gamblers’ coaching staff and players but playing as the Roughnecks. Three other USFL teams were retained, along with four XFL teams. Due to construction at TDECU Stadium, the Roughnecks spent that season in the dreary confines of Rice Stadium.

Johnson coached the Roughnecks to a 1-9 last place finish. The team returned to TDECU Stadium in 2025 and went 5-5, once more missing the playoffs. At the end of the season Johnson was finally dumped and replaced by Sumlin.

This year the UFL is back but completely reorganized. The Roughnecks are now the Houston Gamblers. The Birmingham Stallions is the only other remaining team from the USFL. The Dallas Renegades, St. Louis Battlehawks and DC Defenders remain from the XFL. Joining the league this year are the Orlando Storm, Louisville Kings, and the Columbus Aviators.

The Gamblers play in Shell Stadium, the home of Houston’s professional soccer teams. I wanted to photograph the home opener between the Gamblers and the Stallions for sentimental reasons being a fan of the old USFL. I couldn’t make it, but I did photograph last week’s game against the Aviators. The Gamblers won 17-13 to improve their record to 2-3.

The official attendance for the game was 5,166, but that’s give or take about 4,000 people. Their first home game was held on Easter Sunday. The second was on a Thursday night, and the last game was under a forecast of rain. The next home game falls on Mother’s Day. This just isn’t good planning on the part of the league.

From the first season of the Roughnecks in the XFL to the current season of the Gamblers in the UFL, the quality of the gameday experience has steadily declined. Houston football fans are fair weather and they don’t back losers. When the Roughnecks were good and the games well hyped, the fans were there. What I saw last Sunday had all the enthusiasm of a junior high football game. They don’t even have logos on the field.

I really want to get behind this team and this league but it’s got to improve the quality of the product and the gameday experience. The spring football concept is solid and it works but the league isn’t doing much to connect with fans and generate excitement.

The whole league is based in Dallas, with teams only going to their respective markets for games. If the league wants to grow and expand, it must first endear itself to the fans and bring them along for the ride.