Category: Alternative Football

The original United States Football League played its inaugural season 40 years ago, ushering in three springs of big budget football that was far better than the NFL wanted you to believe. But 1983 was also the last waltz for the American Football Association, a minor league circuit that spent seven seasons in relative obscurity.

Its final game, however – an American Bowl clash between the homestanding Carolina Storm and San Antonio Bulls on July 23 – makes for an interesting footnote. While one team was kinda/sorta “promoted” to the USFL, the other joined a new professional league that never got off the ground.

By the time the AFA reached the end of the 1983 campaign, it was obvious it wouldn’t return in 1984. The new USFL had completed its first season, making a splash by luring established players from the NFL and signing up-and-coming stars. A national TV contract with ABC also made it a serious player on the national stage.

The AFA, on the other hand, was a revolving door of franchises that paid players very little; one percent of the home gate was the standard for most teams. But despite the low budgets and low profile, there were some good players and quality teams throughout its seven-year run. The last two standing in the final season were the Storm and Bulls, who were making a high-profile exit with their championship game appearance.  

San Antonio had long been a staple of non-NFL pro football, including a franchise in the ill-fated World Football League’s second season (the 1975 San Antonio Wings).

The city was represented by the Charros in the AFA from 1977-81, and the Bulls from 1982-83. Oilman Clinton Manges owned the franchise, and angled to trade up once the USFL was formed. AFA Commissioner Roger Gill – who also just happened to be general manager and head coach of the Bulls in 1983 – was willing to help.

“We’re using our team this summer as a training camp for the USFL,” Gill said in an interview with the Austin American-Statesman on June 17. “We have about 62 players, dress out 45 for games, and we get inquiries all the time from players who want to come out and try to make the team, because they know they’ll be in the USFL next year.

“I would say 10 or 12 will probably make our USFL team.”

Two weeks before the American Bowl, the USFL officially announced that Manges’ team would, indeed, be part of the growing league in 1984. Jacksonville – one of six expansion clubs in year two – had already secured the nickname “Bulls,” however.

Meanwhile, an entity called the International Football League was unveiled at a New York press conference on June 30, and Charlotte was announced as one of its flagship franchises. While it would play a spring schedule like the USFL, it had plans for expansion to Australia and Japan in 1985. By early July, the Storm was already touting its move to the IFL. And the day before the AFA title clash, it was reported that Roman Gabriel was closing in on an agreement to be the new head coach, replacing Steve Patton.

“I’m going to be involved next year,” Patton told the Charlotte Observer. “But knowing we need a national person as head coach, my position will be changed.”

Patton said he was in favor of the move.

“He’s a good, quality person – the kind of person I could be involved with,” Patton said. “The IFL needs name coaches, especially in a city that doesn’t have the recognition of a Los Angeles or a Miami.”

Other franchises in the IFL’s first year were to be placed in New York, Los Angeles, Honolulu, Houston, Chicago, Milwaukee, Miami, San Jose, Omaha and cities in Tennessee and Ohio.

As for the final American Bowl, it was a blowout; Carolina won, 39-0, in front of 4,626 people at Memorial Stadium. The Storm (originally knowns as the Carolina Chargers) finished 7-0 and ended their AFA run with two titles and a 20-game winning streak dating back to 1982.

Unfortunately for the champions, their impressive victory over the Bulls was not a springboard to even better days in a better league.

Failure to land a television partner forced the IFL to put their league “on hold,” and that hold continues into the summer of 2023.

The remnants of the Bulls, however, were reborn as the San Antonio Gunslingers, who played in the USFL in 1984 and 1985.

Eventually, of course, Charlotte won the ultimate professional football promotion, beginning play in the NFL in 1995.

San Antonio, meanwhile, went on to field teams in the World League of American Football, Canadian Football League, Alliance of American Football and XFL 3.0. In 2005, the city hosted the New Orleans Saints for four games due to the after effects of Hurricane Katrina.

As for the AFA, it served as a nice bridge between the WFL and USFL. Existing in an era before indoor football, it provided welcome opportunities and good competition for players who failed to earn spots on NFL and CFL rosters.

It never found a place in the spotlight, but it also deserves more credit than it received.

Sports versions of “state of the union” addresses almost always offer interesting tidbits of information. United States Football League president of football operations Daryl Johnston gave his on June 30th, the day before the Birmingham Stallions claimed their second consecutive USFL crown.

The former Dallas Cowboys fullback and special teams standout turned executive touched on everything from hubs (they’re set to return in 2024) to expansion (it won’t happen until the current lineup of teams are placed in their home markets).

What intrigued me most, however, is the possibility that the USFL could one day be a place where NFL players find a spring home.

“When I was in the Alliance of American Football (as general manager of the San Antonio Commanders), Philadelphia was one of my teams,” said Johnston, who was also director of player personnel for the XFL Dallas Renegades in 2020. “Jeff Stoutland is the offensive line coach for the Eagles. I asked him, ‘Wouldn’t it be great for (tackle) Jordan Mailata to come to our league and actually play the game? He said, ‘Absolutely … but as soon as I let him go do that, I have to get into a bidding war with the other 31 teams to get him to come back, because everybody’s gonna see how talented he is. And we’ve got time and money invested in him right now and I don’t want to get into a competition for services by letting him go to that league.’ So, there are some things that we are hoping to start conversations with the NFL and allowing some free flow, and some different things that gives access but returns that player back to that team.”

Things turned out fine for Mailata, who signed a multimillion-dollar contract with the Eagles in 2021 and has now started 40 games. Still, the point is well taken.

The AAF had an informal relationship with the NFL, with each of its eight franchises assigned four big league teams. The Commanders, for example, were connected to the Cowboys, Eagles, Houston Texans and Kansas City Chiefs.

Of course, the AAF folded after just eight weeks of play in 2019, so the development of any kind of player pipeline – formal or otherwise – was over before it began.

Yet with the USFL already planning for a third season, such an arrangement seems closer to reality.

“You know, these are things that are in their infancy as we start to talk about them, but they would be better for both leagues,” Johnston said. “It makes the NFL better to get their players down in our league to play at game speed in the offensive line and the quarterback position, as opposed to practice speed. The NFL preseason has gone from five preseason games when I played to three now. So, we’re continuing to reduce the number of preseason opportunities in games for these players. The practice speed never matches game speeds.”

Ideally, an actual minor league for the NFL (modeled after the NBA’s G League) would play at the same time of year, allowing the parent team to pluck a player in-season when needed or send one down. But such a circuit would drown trying to compete with the NFL and major college football.

Utilizing the offseason USFL (and XFL, for that matter) is the next best thing. In a loan situation the spring league teams could boast that they have NFL players on their rosters, and adding quarterbacks to the mix would certainly draw more eyes to the product.

(That said, assigning QBs to the USFL would no doubt create challenges. The NFL club that sent a signal caller down would want him running the same offense, and that might not fit with what the USFL coach has already installed).

“It makes sense for there to be conversations about allowing key positions – or all positions – to come down into the spring league, but be able to go directly back to the NFL team that has your rights,” Johnston said. “Don’t open up a bidding war with everybody else when they see how good this guy could be. If he was yours going down, he’s yours coming back.”

For me, one of the draws of Triple-A football is seeing guys come out of nowhere and do enough to get on an NFL team’s radar. Each day I check to see what USFL or XFL player has received an invitation to camp.

But from a business standpoint, sharing players makes sense. There will still be plenty of opportunities for diamonds in the rough to be uncovered, but I’m guessing quite a few fans – and I’m one of them – wouldn’t mind seeing an NFL practice squad guy getting first team reps in the spring.

It’s something to keep an eye on, anyway.