The United States Football League ranks up there with He-Man figures and Star Wars among the principal obsessions of childhood.
I loved the USFL so much that I would call a friend on the phone, and he would give me play-by-play of games since he had cable TV (and some wild thing called ESPN) and I didn’t.
With the new revival of the USFL launching in May in Birmingham, I am awash in memories and nostalgia.
The Birmingham Stallions and the run-and-shoot offense.
The Harrisburg Gamblers “Million Dollar Backfield” (Brian Sipe, Herschel Walker, and Maurice Carthon).
Desperado ball in Florida.
It was all so fun. It had no chance.
What can the new USFL do to find a niche in the American sports world, and does it have a chance?
Sorry, aspiring legal Texas sports gamblers, this option is not available to you just yet. But with some luck, the benefits of offering legal gambling will help change the minds of those in resistance in the near future.
Most of all, let’ h temper anticipation
This might become the most important point for the eight-team league to prove.
Everyone is likely to examine the TV ratings and the small number of followers in the stands and compare them to the NFL or college crowds, or the MLB rankings. They’re going to look at the attendance and instantly determine whether the league will survive.
It’s fool’s gold. Ratings were strong for the first week and then dropped off. The quality of play has remained strong, and the games are competitive. Attendance has been reasonable only for the games the local team Birmingham has played in.
Understand, the size of the audience for a spring football minor league? It’s not that big. Spring is about football season, proms, and graduations. Soon it will be summer, and people will be going to the beach. Not many individuals are interested in a minor league football operation.
The USFL can’t immediately lose in the battle of public opinion when the ratings drop. Sports still attract big ratings when compared to other television programs. The USFL ratings will look good compared to other drama TV shows, NHL playoffs but not the Super Bowl.
It’s concerning the quarterbacks
Soccer at every level is all about quarterbacks. In the pros, it means leadership, throwing precision, and grace under fire.
In college football, throw in the same characteristics, but also a bit more athleticism. Great college quarterbacks are often run-pass threats. Even in high school football, the trend is to simply make your best athlete the quarterback and let him (or her) run the football.
The truth is, there just aren’t that many good quarterbacks out there. The USFL should do everything it can to let as many quarterbacks play, maybe mandate 2 each per play, or something similar. It’s the one position left in sports that really needs real playtime to develop.
If the USFL can find one or two great quarterbacks, it will go a long way towards making it successful.
Innovation, thy name world wide web
Sports institutions still have trouble with this. It can be confusing for the local sports fan to find out when/where/what channel their favorite team is on.
The USFL has to make it easy for fans to find the games and have access to them when they want, where they want. Streaming every game on any device on demand. That’s the only way you’ll ignite a new generation of fans.
As far as the on-the-field gameplay, sure, a new first down measuring system is nice, and a faster-paced game with new overtime and extra point rules grabs many headlines, but it won’t keep fans tuning in every week.
Besides, this is not the NFL, and the USFL certainly will not be appointment viewing, especially not at the beginning.
I give the USFL a lot of credit for being innovative already. The draft was on Twitter, with each pick being announced as it happened. It has already created a strong visual identity for the teams.
It chose eight of the old franchise names, catnip for older guys like me, but gave the logos a 21st-century spin.
Yes, the USFL was last century, but it’s back now with a chance to capture a new generation of fans.
But , great players already are taken
The USFL had some of the best players in the world at that time. Eventual Professional Football Hall of Famers played in the USFL, such as:
– Jim Kelly
– Reggie White
– Steve Young
– Mike Mills
Team names were unique, and the color schemes were vibrant. The gameplay was great.
Yes, sure, Donald Trump kind of messed things up, but still, the league was not a major ratings hit. I don’t see how the new USFL will last very long either.
What is always evident whenever one of these new football leagues shows up is that all the stars are taken already. New USFL games will be plodding dull affairs, why? Because all the best players are already taken.
It will be a league of a bunch of players who all run a 4.6 in the 40-yard dash.
There won’t be many (if any) stars that emerge. In a way, that kind of balance is admirable; it places a premium on execution and strategy, but America doesn’t want that again.
It wants the 75-yard touchdown run, the 2-minute drill, and the game-winning field goal. That’s where I see the USFL struggles. That’s the critic in me.
The 10-year-old in me still remembers the phone calls to my friends to get the live updates.
The 10-year-old hopes the league succeeds despite itself.
Darren Cooper was born and raised in Southern Louisiana, just a short pirogue trip away from New Orleans. He started his writing career at the New Orleans Times-Picayune and has been a writer and journalist in New Jersey since 1998. He’s won 16 statewide press awards and earned his first Associated Press Sports Editors Top 10 award in 2022.
