Nick Geddes
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The United States Football League (USFL) will be making its return, per FOX Sports’ Colin Cowherd.
Cowherd announced the news on The Herd With Colin Cowherd on Monday, with eight original teams set to make up the relaunch of the league. The eight teams will be split into two divisions, North and South, as shown below.
North Division
- Michigan Panthers
- New Jersey Generals
- Philadelphia Stars
- Pittsburgh Maulers
South Division
- Birmingham Stallions
- Houston Gamblers
- New Orleans Breakers
- Tampa Bay Bandits
All eight teams will play at one location for at least the inaugural season. Play will begin in April 2022, with games on Saturday and Sunday. All teams will play a 10-game season with every game airing on FOX Sports.
The USFL is hoping to have more success than the past leagues that attempted to do a spring football league. The Alliance of American Football (AAF) started with great momentum in 2019 before folding midseason due to financial issues. The XFL underwent a rebirth in 2020 but closed its doors due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The USFL officially announced its formation on May 11, 1982. The league began play in 1983 and lasted until 1985. The league canceled the 1986 season and folded shortly after attempting to switch to playing in the fall. The Panthers won the USFL Championship in 1983, while the Stars won in 1984 and 1985, playing in Philadelphia and Baltimore respectively.
NFL Hall of Famers such as defensive end Reggie White and quarterbacks Jim Kelly and Steve Young got their start in the USFL before moving onto the NFL. Legendary Georgia running back Herschel Walker was arguably the star of the league, signing with the Generals in 1983 after his junior season. The NFL did not allow players to enter the NFL Draft until after their senior season.
Walker won the USFL MVP in 1985 after rushing for 2,411 yards on 438 carries for 21 touchdowns.
Unless they can find a way to pay players what the NFL pays them no one’s going to watch this, because people just don’t want to watch “discount priced football”.
John – millions of people already religiously watch “discount priced football” – it’s called college football.
I think any avenue which allows talented football players the opportunity to make $$ is a great thing – just don’t be under the illusion you can compete toe to toe with the NFL (or major college football) – there are too many wealthy stakeholders in those industries.
The NBA has the D-League, MLB has Minor League Baseball and even Soccer has multiple tiers for talented players to make some $$. I hope this new version of the USFL is successful. Football players need to play – I hope fans will embrace it. We’ll see.
It’s been tried though, several times now. Is there a single truly successful example? I think College football is in a different solar system in the football universe, so comparing it to pro football is like comparing apples and oranges. College football is about different things than pro football. It’s regional fan bases, tradition driven, fans are literally built-in at the large state universities who can fill the stadiums and feed the fan bases when they graduate, and it has storied history. A new league can’t create that from scratch. Hey, I’d love for the NFL to have a legit competitor, but you somehow have to offer a product that competes with theirs. I don’t know how you can do that playing with leftover talent.