Professional Football Researchers Association Forum

It seems like Don Klosterman is one of the more overlooked front office people in Professional football history. He was with the early Chargers, drafted some top players when he ran the Houston Oilers in the late 1960's, won a Super Bowl with the Colts in 1970, then won a series of Division Championships with the Rams in the 1970's. Does anyone know why he did not rejoin the NFL following the collapse of the USFL in 1985?

Just wondering. Thank you

Pure speculation but I'm guessing that Klosterman may have had enough after the L.A. Express' disastrous 1985 season (both on and off the field). On a side note, Klosterman once put together a rare 400 yard passing performance as a member of the Calgary Stampeders. The Stamps lost to Frank Tripucka and the Saskatchewan Roughriders 24-23 on September 10, 1955:

SASKATCHEWAN 24, Calgary 23 (12000) - Don Klosterman, cut loose by Toronto, threw for 421 yards and three TDs to lead Calgary. His 26 completions matched the league record set by Winnipeg's Jack Jacobs in 1953.

https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=K ... %2C1618655

In March of 1957 his playing career ended following a skiing accident.

After the USFL he may not have been a hot commodity to be an NFL GM. I think he poked around and didn't get offers. In late 1980s he got involved with NTN Communications, the company that did the real-time play guessing in bars. There were machines and they communicated over the phone lines and people could "win" and so on. that caught on and made him wealthy. By early 1990s he was living in a penthouse apartment in Century City, enjoying life.

I think he stayed there until his death cashing checks and being an advisor to NTN. With the Internet, that whole thing changed, and I don't know what NTN did in late 1990s, but they made a mark, that's for sure.

Klosterman signed a number of top college stars to play for the Express (Ied by Steve Young) under the delusion that the team could actually afford all of the contracts. That imploded within a year. It's not as if he was beating the bushes for unexplored talent.