'74 Birmingham Americans VS '84 Philadelphia Stars

[74_75_78_79_]

The WFL's best-ever team, and the USFL's best-ever...

Who wins and why?

[Gary Najman]

I didn't saw the WFL (My early pro football/NFL moments were from 1977), but I would chose the Stars for two things: their offensive line (Brad and Bart Oates, Irv Eatman, Chuck Commiskey) and their defense (Sam Mills, former and future 49er Pete Kugler, Garcia Lane, Mike Lush, Scott Woerner). The OL made QB Chuck Fusina (a Buccaneers castoff) and RB Kelvin Bryant (who had a great college career at UNC) USFL superstars, it was a shame that when they went to the NFL in 1986 didn't had success.

As for the Americans, I was very impressed by WR Alfred Jenkins when he was with the Falcons in the early 80s, you can make an argument that he was the best NFC receiver in 1980-1981, and easily the best player that came from the WFL (as many also think that Sam Mills was the best player that came from the USFL not drafted by the NFL).

[Bryan]

The OL made QB Chuck Fusina (a Buccaneers castoff) and RB Kelvin Bryant (who had a great college career at UNC) USFL superstars, it was a shame that when they went to the NFL in 1986 didn't had success.

I think the Stars easily win. Aside from their personnel, they had Jim Mora as their coach! I remember Chuck Fusina being with the Packers after the USFL folded. He had no arm strength, and the Packers ended up starting Randy Wright for the entire season. All the USFL guys the Packers got were terrible (Paul Ott Carruth, David Greenwood, Mossy Cade, maybe some others).

I think you can make a case that Kelvin Bryant was the best USFL player in that league's history. He was the top producer for the league's best team. He basically became a 3rd down RB for the Redskins for a few years. I guess the defenses in the USFL were nowhere near NFL standards.

[Zero26]

Stars. The USFL had better talent probably maybe better than the AFL in year 2. Even if that weren't the case the Stars were more dominant in the USFL, Stars were one possession away from joining the AAFC Browns as the only team since before championship games started to three peat even if they fell off a bit in 1985.

In 1984 in particular the Stars 2 losses were to the Generals by 1 possession. 1 week after the second loss the Stars easily beat the Generals in the first round of the playoffs. During the playoffs the Stars gave up 1 field goal outside of the 4th quarter. They dominated a Wranglers team that had much of the 83 Blitz offense that had almost beaten them the year before(and whom had all decade CB Minnifeld). Where those Blitz put up 38 these Wranglers put up 3. The Wranglers were lucky to get to that point and perhaps the Gamblers and Panthers would have given them a harder fight but the East was the stronger confrence(they changed seeding the next year because of it) and the Stars won it. The Stars didn't play the Gamblers that year but they beat them in 85 and avenged their 83 title loss to the Panthers pretty soundly 31-13.

In terms of players on defense the Stars had 4 USFL all pro players and a fifth from the year before. 1 of said players(Sam Mills rip) just made the HOF though none of the others made a pro bowl in the NFL. They had 3 all pro offensive lineman 1 of whom made 5 pro bowls. Bryant was the all pro running back ahead of Herschel Walker, Gary Anderson and Joe Cribbs who all made pro bowls in the NFL and while this is almost entirely because of the players above Fusina was the sporting news All pro QB likely second team all pro if that was an official honor. Finally they had Sean Landeta at punter who made the sporting news all pro team twice. So they had 8 consensus USFL all pros, another 3 all pro calibar. Treating the leagues equally Americans had 4 WFL all pros in 1974. While they had NFL players and great ones like Jenkins the Stars had the better roster, played opponents closer to the NFL level and had a better record. Americans point differential was 106 the 84 Stars was 254.

Treating the leagues the same the Americans were likely not the best WFL team in 1974 as they had the third best record and won their playoff games by a combined 4 points. They benefitted from a bye and one of their opponents having a losing record. A better comparison would be the 85 Stars who had almost the same point differential(108) and were not a historically dominant team(0 all pro selections). But even there the core was largely the same and the defense was still number 1(they'd even added William Fuller) just not great enough to overcome the struggling offense in a lot of games. Late in the season the offense dramatically improved though and they were closer to the previous 2 years the last few weeks of their existence. They were capable of better than they were playing much of the year they just weren't as consistant.

I know more about and am more interested in the USFL so I'll admit I'm biased.

[vikingsfan1963]

Really good observatlons there Zero26! As much as I wish the USFL would've survived, the ownership group made some bad decisions, especially in expansion which wasn't needed. When teams started merging I knew they were in trouble. Wasn't it Blitz/Wranglers and Panthers/Invaders? They could have had an above average product if they hadn't expanded after the first season. I always liked seeing the Houston Gamblers run the run-and-shoot offense that I believe produced a 1,000-yar rusher in Fowler (I believe that was his name).

[Zero26]

Really good observatlons there Zero26! As much as I wish the USFL would've survived, the ownership group made some bad decisions, especially in expansion which wasn't needed. When teams started merging I knew they were in trouble. Wasn't it Blitz/Wranglers and Panthers/Invaders? They could have had an above average product if they hadn't expanded after the first season. I always liked seeing the Houston Gamblers run the run-and-shoot offense that I believe produced a 1,000-yar rusher in Fowler (I believe that was his name).

What's interesting about Blitz/Wranglers is they didn't merge they traded teams. So in 1983 the Blitz were really good and the Wranglers were awful. Then in 1984 the Wranglers were good and the Blitz were awful. But yeah the Blitz weren't drawing fans either way the bad 83 Wranglers actually outdrew the good 83 Blitz in terms of attendance. The Wranglers then merged with the Outlaws in 1985.

I think the USFL was in a good place after year 2 they just shouldn't have moved to the fall and gambled everything on a lawsuit. They had a tv contract had built a following and were poaching NFL talent. In terms of finances it was a mixed bag some teams were doing well other teams were doing awful, the NFL had that same period in the 1920s where every few years you had a pretty different group of teams. With expansion while they did expand too quickly the Bulls and Showboats were among the leagues more successful teams that survived to the end.

[Bryan]

What's interesting about Blitz/Wranglers is they didn't merge they traded teams. So in 1983 the Blitz were really good and the Wranglers were awful. Then in 1984 the Wranglers were good and the Blitz were awful. But yeah the Blitz weren't drawing fans either way the bad 83 Wranglers actually outdrew the good 83 Blitz in terms of attendance. The Wranglers then merged with the Outlaws in 1985.

In relation to the Stars, they were never really thought of as "favorites" in the USFL...they were like the "try hard" team. In 1983, the favorite was the Blitz because George Allen had brought in a bunch of NFL vets (which IMO, already sealed the USFL's doom), and then during the year the Panthers emerged as another favorite when they purchased the Steelers' OL. In 1984, you had the Wranglers & Panthers, as well as the NJ Generals who had acquired their own NFL vets with Trump's money.

One funny thing about the Blitz 'leaving' to Arizona and taking all the good players was that not only were the 1984 Blitz a truly terrible team, but a lot of people in Chicago had grown sick of watching Vince Evans continually misfiring with the Bears, and then Evans returns to Soldier Field as the Blitz QB. It's like you couldn't get rid of the guy. That was probably the worst thing the Blitz did in terms of trying to sell tickets. It made no sense.

[Brian wolf]

Allen thought he could win the championship in 1983 and take away Bears fans but the Blitz lost in the playoffs while the Bears were challenging for their division. A good year of football for Chicago fans.