USFL relaunching in spring 2022 with at least eight teams

After decades dormant, USFL to relaunch in '22

The USFL is relaunching in 2022, four decades after the spring football league's short-lived run that featured such stars as Reggie White, Herschel Walker, Steve Young and Jim Kelly, as well as future President Donald Trump as an owner.

www.espn.com

USFL relaunching in spring 2022 with at least eight teams​

The USFL is relaunching in 2022, four decades after the spring football league's short-lived run that featured such stars as Reggie White, Herschel Walker, Steve Young and Jim Kelly, as well as future President Donald Trump as an owner.

The new USFL announced Thursday that it will play next spring with a minimum of eight teams and will "deliver high-quality, innovative professional football to fans."

Although the teams, cities, head coaches and schedule won't be announced until later, the league said it retains the rights to "key original team names." The USFL also is using the same red, white and blue stars-and-stripes logo it did from 1983 to 1985.

The USFL's return could result in two pro leagues playing football in the spring. The XFL has been targeting a 2022 resumption of play after owners Dany Garcia, Dwayne Johnson and RedBird Capital Partners purchased the league out of bankruptcy in 2020. Planning for the XFL's 2022 season has been on pause since March, when it entered into negotiations regarding a collaboration with the Canadian Football League.

Fox Sports, which has a minority equity stake in the company that owns the new USFL, will serve as the league's official broadcast partner.

"I'm extremely passionate about football and the opportunity to work with Fox Sports, and to bring back the USFL in 2022 was an endeavor worth pursuing," said Brian Woods, co-founder of the new USFL and founder and CEO of The Spring League. "We look forward to providing players a new opportunity to compete in a professional football league and giving fans everywhere the best football viewing product possible during what is typically a period devoid of professional football."

Fox Sports CEO and executive producer Eric Shanks called the USFL's relaunch "a landmark day for football fans and Fox Sports."

The USFL was launched in 1983 but crumbled after three seasons because of out-of-control spending and an ill-conceived push led by Trump, owner of the New Jersey Generals, to compete directly against the NFL with a fall season.

Launched originally to serve as more of a complement to the NFL than a direct competitor, the USFL helped change professional football in its short life span. The USFL featured rules innovations, helped usher in underclassmen being drafted by the NFL, and pushed the NFL to pay bigger salaries and create real free agency.

In the end, the USFL's most enduring legacy was the $3 judgment it "won" in an antitrust suit against the NFL, a ruling that finished off the league in 1986 before it carried out the Trump-backed move from spring to fall.

 

[CGI_Ram]

USFL 2022: Can the revived league avoid the mistakes the XFL and AAF both made?

The USFL is back, but it will have to compete with the XFL and stay financially viable

www.cbssports.com

USFL 2022: Can the revived league avoid the mistakes the XFL and AAF both made?​

Here we go again -- like ... again, again.

The United States Football League announced on June 3 that it would revive the once-popular competitor to the NFL in the spring of 2022, nearly 40 years after its initial launch in 1983 and 36 years after it folded in 1986. The relaunch will theoretically coincide with the third version of the XFL, which is in the process of rebooting under new management (re: The Rock) after the pandemic sent it into bankruptcy midway through its first season back in 2020.

Hope always springs eternal for announcements like these, and for good reason. Football is America's favorite sport by a country mile, and there's a dead zone between the end of the Super Bowl in February and the start of training camp in the summer, post-draft. Couple in ever-growing markets for gambling and fantasy football, and, as someone who covered the XFL in 2020 and the only season of the AAF in 2019, I firmly believe there's a sustainable pro football market outside of the NFL. Someone, eventually, is going to get it right.

So good on the USFL for relaunching now.

But you don't have to look far to know what these spring football leagues are up against. And it's spelled M-O-N-E-Y. The USFL of all leagues should know that. It collapsed three years after its launch because teams hemorrhaged money trying to buy star power (bad idea) and then the league tried to sue its way out of its problems while directly competing with the NFL (worse idea).

That's not going to be a problem in 2022 because now everyone knows there is no substitute for the NFL. The salary incentives that brought over big names like Herschel Walker in the 1980s are noncompetitive now. Still, capital is king for any start-up and the USFL will face the same financial challenges the XFL and AAF faced before it. But it's important to understand the differences. The AAF failed to get off the ground because CEO Charlie Ebersol couldn't find a reliable source of liquidity. There were multiple investors before eventual control owner Tom Dundon pledged to inject a quarter of a billion dollars into the league just a couple of weeks into the season. Two months later, Dundon shuttered the league due to, shall we say, "disagreements with Ebersol" over the direction of the league.

The XFL, on the other hand, was the victim of some really bad timing. Vince McMahon was prepared to invest hundreds of millions into the the league himself and liquidated $270 million in WWE stock to help funding in 2019. At least at the beginning, money wasn't a problem and the XFL was off to a good start all things considered. But when the nation shut down in March due to a global pandemic, that left little room for McMahon's dream of a viable football league to remain solvent.

The AAF filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy, attempting to pay off its creditors as best it could. The XFL filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, which led to The Rock, Dany Garcia and their partners purchasing the company for $15 million last August. Even though each league failed financially for different reasons, the lesson is the same: the market for a start-up alternative football league is opportunistic, but unforgiving. There's not a lot that needs to go wrong for these leagues to falter, but a lot does need to go right. The USFL better make sure it has the financial backing and revenue streams it needs if it's going to last more than a season (or three, as it were).

But no amount of money is going to save a start-up football league if the on-field product isn't good. It took the AAF weeks before it became watchable; in fact, one of the travesties of its failing was it was just starting to become a quality league. The XFL played better football overall, but it was aided by quirky rule changes that kept it interesting (and affected gambling). The USFL can keep eyeballs after the initial surge in interest by having fun quarterback play and competent offensive lines. However, you don't just pick those two things up off the street.

In general, offensive lines are harder to put together in these leagues. There's less emphasis on hitting during practice and development can take longer. The number of elite offensive linemen has gone down, and if there are great ones, they're in the NFL. And forget about drafting a sure thing at quarterback. The XFL had one superstar carrying the league -- Houston Roughnecks QB P.J. Walker -- and he's now a backup for the Carolina Panthers.

Give the XFL 2.0 this much: they made it about football. The league's OG installment in the early 2000s was far less about playing quality football and the results showed. The XFL 2020 was far more invested in playing at least decent football. The offbeat kickoff and overtime rules help, but the XFL 2022 and USFL will have to make sure that a good on-field product is the first and foremost priority.

Still, the USFL and XFL will have their work cut out for them when it comes to finding diamonds in the rough and developing them into must-watch players. There are barely enough of those types of players to make up one spring league, let alone two. And ultimately, I wouldn't expect both of these leagues to survive in the same space together. Only one will probably prevail -- maybe.

Still, it's pro football. It'll be a little bit better than what you might watch on a college football Saturday, and definitely not as good as what you'd watch on an NFL Sunday. If the money's there, if the talent is quality enough, if the conditions are right, then there's room for a spring football league to have a successful run. It might be the USFL, but it has to win the battle of finances and talent.

 

[Q729]

I hope this isn't a sign of things to come.

https://profootballtalk.nbcsports.c...have-the-legal-right-to-call-itself-the-usfl/

Does the new USFL have the legal right to call itself the USFL? - ProFootballTalk​

As former USFL head coach Lee Corso would say, “Not so fast, my friend.” (Personally, I prefer his other catch phrase.)

The USFL is back. But it may not be really back.


Via Paul Domowitch of the Philadelphia Inquirer, a question has emerged as to whether the reincarnated USFL has the legal right to the USFL name.


“I was surprised when I heard about it this morning,” Steve Ehrhart, former USFL executive director, told Domowitch. “I want to dig into it and see who they’re claiming they acquired these rights [to the name] from. Because it didn’t come from any legitimate source.


“My guess is there’s some knucklehead out there who claimed he had registered the name and had the rights to it. We’re not being antagonistic. But if they want to do this, they should do it the right way and talk to the actual people, not some guy who sent in an Internet registration or something like that.”


Erhart contends that the USFL still exists, and that league officials still get monthly royalty checks. Brian Woods has resurrected the USFL, with FOX as the broadcaster and equity partner.


“We were only around three seasons, but the USFL was a classy, well-respected name,” Erhart said. “We always said that we didn’t want to just jump in there and sell it to somebody who was going to be underfunded and blow up and give a halfway kind of effort. So we never did give or sell or authorize the rights to anybody.”


It will be interesting to see where it goes from here. And it could end up in the same place where the old USFL won an antitrust case against the NFL. This time around, however, the verdict could be significantly more than one dollar.

 

[den-the-coach]

I had 3 favorite teams in the USFL, the first year it was the Chicago Blitz under George Allen, the Blitz made to the first title game and lost. The second year, Allen moved to the Arizona Wranglers and I rooted for them and then finally rooting for the Los Angeles Express under Head Coach John Hadl and defensive coordinator Ray Malavasi.

 

[bubbaramfan]

Bring back "HE HATE ME'!

 

[Loyal]

Bring back "HE HATE ME'!

You rang?

 

[snackdaddy]

Jeopardy question in 2023: "I'll take failed leagues for 400."

 

[dieterbrock]

I had season tickets for the NJ Generals, was a huge Flutie fan back then. That said, had the USFL continued on, what a team they would have had. After merging with the Houston Gamblers, Jim Kelly would have had Herschel Walker in his backfield.
I will always try to support a spring league because I just love football and something has to fill the void....

On a side note, how tough of a dude was Maurice Carthon? (Fullback for the NJ Generals & NY Giants) The dude played in 37 football games, (45 if you count pre-season) in less than 1 year! 18 reg season games, 1 playoff game with NJ, league folds and then he plays 16 reg season game and 2 playoff games for NYG. Nuts!

 

[Merlin]

The NFL could use a farm league. Hope this time around they keep costs low with a standard salary vice trying to compete with the NFL. Would be great to have a spring diversion.

 

[Karate61]

I am so stoked about this news. I was digging the AAF and then the XFL. Great offseason entertainment. XFL had some awesome rule changes that made those games really fun to watch.

My only concern is, will they actually be able to finish a whole season and have a championship game?

 

[ScotsRam]

They gotta put teams in places where there is no pro team already. Fuck watching MORE LA or NY teams.

 

[dieterbrock]

My only concern is, will they actually be able to finish a whole season and have a championship game?

I liked the AAF league more, was a legit San Diego fan, but the league was run so poorly. The XFL had it going on, had the tv deals that were rock solid, but covid destroyed them.
I think there is definitely space for an off season league, especially with pre-season games becoming obsolete

 

[Loyal]

They gotta put teams in places where there is no pro team already. Fuck watching MORE LA or NY teams.

TESTIFY!..... Anaheim need some love!

 

[Corbin]

So does STL get a team? Or they still having a shit show over there regarding the Dome?

 

[CGI_Ram]

I thought the XFL was well done this last time. I was enjoying it until CoVID hit and ended their season.

I wonder what sort of deal they might be working with the CFL?

 

[dieterbrock]

I thought the XFL was well done this last time. I was enjoying it until CoVID hit and ended their season.

I wonder what sort of deal they might be working with the CFL?

I just think the rules are too different for the CFL to be part of a spring league, with the idea of a spring league being a feeder system to the NFL, or last shot if you will

 

[CGI_Ram]

I just think the rules are too different for the CFL to be part of a spring league, with the idea of a spring league being a feeder system to the NFL, or last shot if you will

Good point. Yeah. Hmm. Hitching a ride on an established league makes sense… The CFL rules, I am not sure.

 

[dieterbrock]

Fisher, Fedora fill final two USFL coach openings

Jeff Fisher and Larry Fedora will coach the Michigan Panthers and New Orleans Breakers, respectively, filling the final two vacancies in the rebooted USFL.

www.espn.com

 

[dieterbrock]

Personally, I think its pretty cool that they are bringing back teams with the original names. I'm sure it will be another 1 and done like all the other leagues that have tried but I'll give it a follow

 

[thirteen28]

Fisher, Fedora fill final two USFL coach openings

Jeff Fisher and Larry Fedora will coach the Michigan Panthers and New Orleans Breakers, respectively, filling the final two vacancies in the rebooted USFL.

www.espn.com

I hope for his sake Fisher learned something during his time with the Rams about the need for a more dynamic offense instead of his usual Bore-Ass middle school prevent offense. If he would have had any balls for offense, he could have had better teams during his Rams tenure because he did a decent job with the defense (and he was smart enough to draft Aaron Donald).