NEW USFL

[Gary Najman]

(although I admit that I liked several of the USFL uniforms - I think my favorite was the Arizona Wranglers').

Maybe its a generational thing, but I thought the USFL uniforms were spectacular (other than the Stars and the Stallions looking exactly the same). They were very modern and unique. I always liked the Breakers. For comparison, the WFL uniforms were the ugliest I've ever seen. Nearly all of them were awful:

https://www.justsportsstats.com/uniforms/wflunis.php

Other similar uniforms were the Chicago Blitz, Tampa Bay Bandits and Memphis Showboats. But I agree with the uniforms, they were unique. I liked very much the Jacksonville Bulls and Michigan Panthers.

[ChrisBabcock]

The modernized versions of the old logos from the original league are interesting.

[lastcat3]

Can't help but think it's going to be a similar deal as the AAF and XFL (which is also coming back under The Rock), but I'd be more than overjoyed if this USFL started making a play for top college talent. It will have a nostalgia draw that the other leagues lacked if nothing else.

With them now allowing college players to have their own endorsements I'm not sure these minor leagues are really in the market for top college talent anylonger. There is a lot more endorsement money to be made playing for a popular college team then there is for a minor league pro team that likely won't be around two years into the future. And as far as them trying to convince draft eligible college players to sign with them they just simply don't have enough money to compete with the NFL these days.

[racepug]

Michigan Panthers.

Yeah, I think I liked Michigan's USFL uniforms, too. As I recall one of their colors was "plum" which I thought was pretty cool.

[Zero26]

Honestly really looking forward to it. I've always been fascinated with the old USFL. It's not going to as close to the NFL level as the old USFL was(especially with the XFL competing with it for even the NFL's scraps) but that doesn't mean it can't be fun.

[Throwin_Samoan]

It'll be fun.

While it lasts.

First, there's Brian Woods, who couldn't organize a trip to the men's room.

But they do have Fox/NBC money behind them, and they've managed to cut out a big part of the equation that usually leaves these types of leagues figuratively on the streets wearing barrels with suspenders to hold them up.

Birmingham and Jefferson County have ponied up the stadium operating expenses, supposedly under the assumption that someone sitting in, say, Lima, Ohio might watch a game and think, "You know what? I should take my whole family to Birmingham, Alabama for a week because they just showed its stadium on television."

They have taken travel costs out, as everybody will be in one place until they go to Canton for the playoffs. (BTW, thanks for the $5M or whatever it was, Alabamans, but you don't even get the playoffs.) Big cost savings.

I have not seen their player payroll targets,but come on. If quarterbacks are always the highest paid players, good luck, Paxton Lynch! Plus, no team front offices to staff and pay!

So they don't have to travel, don't have to have expensive staffs and local operating budgets in markets, NBC gives them a rights fee, the stadiums are basically comped, FOX can sell avails in the games. They might actually make a little money on this.

Which is not to say it will succeed, even if it makes money. Oh, some people will watch. Until they see who they're watching, and that the skill position players are guys who have had NFL shots and just aren't at that level. (Not that there's any shame in not being at that level, it's just not something a lot of people are interested in seeing without the emotional component of their alma maters or favorite conferences.)

And people in Birmingham will go to Stallions games, I guess. But if you live in or around Birmingham, why would you go see the Pittsburgh Maulers play the Michigan Panthers? I get it, Alabamans love football. But they love Alabama and Auburn football. Second game of a doubleheader in June between New Jersey and Houston? Nah, pass.

And if you live in Tampa, Florida....why get emotionally attached to a team that will never set foot in Tampa, Florida? Because they call themselves your team? For a TV show? You might as well become a fan of the California Bulls or Washington Sentinels. Oh, some hardcore Millennials will show up on a broadcast having made a road trip, with their faces painted and with signs and whatnot, but the stadiums will be largely empty unless they paper the house regularly. Everyone likes having 8 home football games. Who likes having 40 of them?

Same old retreads who show up in every latest spring league that is destined to fail. Same coaches pulled off the couch. (Michigan is a lock to go 5-5 with Jeff Fisher, aren't they?) Same substrata of player, all of whom will claim they were the last guy cut from an NFL team and didn't get a fair shot.

Look, you can't be under the age of 40 and have meaningful memories of the original USFL. If you are old enough to have meaningful memories of the USFL, you can tell in about four seconds that this ain't that. You could steal a quality NFL player for $100,000 in 1983. You're going to get exactly zero actual bona fide NFL players and high draft choices. It will be washouts and guys who are not quite there. Might be entertaining (I went to a couple of AAF games, they were fun for what they were, and the weather was great), but it's not the basis for a football league. And there were no Pittsburgh Mauler fans the first time around. Anyone who says they are now is just posing.

No matter how many spring leagues fail, someone always says the same thing:
1 - There's an insatiable appetite for football;
2 - Colleges crank out more players every year than can join the NFL.

No, there's an insatiable appetite for NFL (and college) football. Not for any group of 22 guys in contrasting uniforms running into each other on television. And there's a reason those guys aren't in the NFL.

They might have cracked the code on the financial equation, but it's not really a league if it's all in one place, with the same level of players and coaches we always see, making no attempt whatsoever to be big league, co-opting names from the past in an attempt to put their bona fides in a microwave.

Just won't work, I don't think. I can't see it.

[GameBeforeTheMoney]

I remember how excited I was as a kid for that first USFL weekend. My next memory is watching the Washington Federals play another team and even as a kid I thought, this looks slow, it's nowhere near the NFL. There were some exceptional players in that league but overall the level of play wasn't all that interesting to me. Despite my early excitement, I only watched a few games. I even remember the championship game (which I think was the Philadelphia Stars) didn't seem very interesting. There's a lot of nostalgia around the USFL but I just don't remember it being very good. Even watching the documentary, I could see how people enjoyed it if they followed a team and there probably were some exciting games, but it never really appealed to me as an NFL- and NCAA-crazed kid.

So, I agree, I think the majority of people who won't simply watch football for football's sake. There are a few who will, probably. Now, maybe this new USFL lasts a few years and they end up putting some really good teams together, but I agree that there's a limit to how much football people are going to watch.

[RichardBak]

I was talking about the reincarnated Michigan Panthers with a buddy the other day. We shared fond memories of that championship team from almost 40 years ago--and also agreed we had no interest in the new version. There wasn't nearly as much football available on TV back then, and there was no internet, so the original USFL helped fill a void, even though the talent wasn't top caliber. For that matter, neither were the Lions, so watching a local team win a title was fun. But now we're old and jaded and prefer our memories to a microwaved version of that 1983 team.

[JohnR]

I hope Hershel resigns with the Generals.

[74_75_78_79_]

I simply wish that they wouldn't call it the USFL and not have the same team names and logos. Simply make it a "normal"-enough (not XFL-like) NFL-rules spring pro league. Maybe most of the same cities as the USFL (non-NFL cities/markets in-particular), but make it something different. More defense-friendly than the NFL wouldn't hurt either.