Month: December 2022

Chuck and the Stars

The original United States Football League gave the National Football League fits during its three years of competition. When the USFL wasn’t snatching up young superstars in the making before the senior circuit could make a deal, it was signing away several big names.

Reggie White got his start there, and it’s where three consecutive Heisman Trophy winners decided to begin their professional careers.

Scott Adamson writes stuff. Follow him on Twitter @adamsonsl

Four players who suited up for USFL clubs before moving on to the NFL – White, Jim Kelly, Steve Young and Gary Zimmerman – are now enshrined the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

So, when talking about the spring league’s top quarterbacks from 1983-85, it’s safe to assume that Kelly and Young were the most decorated, right?

It depends on who your decorator is.

If championship hardware is part of the display, Chuck Fusina needs to be the centerpiece. He was behind center for all three USFL championships as a member of the Philadelphia/Baltimore Stars, losing to Michigan in 1983, beating Arizona in 1984 and – after the Stars had moved to Baltimore – writing the final chapter of league play with a conquest of Oakland in 1985.

Fusina reached an agreement with Philadelphia on December 17, 1982 – one of 13 former Penn State players to sign on the dotted line with the new team in the new league.

Having served as a backup to Doug Williams of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and throwing only seven passes before being traded to the San Francisco 49ers in the offseason, Fusina was looking to do more than watch from the sidelines.

“I spent three years behind a pretty good quarterback,” Fusina told the Tampa Tribune for a December 18, 1982, story. “And when you’re as competitive as I am and you don’t see much playing time, I guess you start to wonder a little bit about yourself.

“The new league interested me. I wanted to play. I’m not blaming my activity on the (Tampa Bay) coaches or anyone else. I blame myself.”

Fusina was 29-3 as a starter at Penn State, leading the Nittany Lions to 19 straight victories before losing to Alabama, 14-7,  in the 1979 Sugar Bowl.

But the fifth-round draft pick began his NFL career as an understudy, and failed to earn a starting job with the Bucs. However, Stars officials were confident he could step in and make an immediate impact in the alternative league.

“With Chuck Fusina, we have the type of player we want to grow with,” Stars managing partner Myles Tanenbaum said. “We’re interested in not only building a team for the first year, but for the future, and to have a quarterback as young as Chuck (25), someone who had the opportunity to have experience in the NFL, is a bonus.”

In February, 1983, Stars coach Jim Mora named Fusina the starter over Brian Broomell and Jim Krohn. With big Kelvin Bryant – a three-time 1,000-yard rusher at North Carolina – toting the freight, Fusina was expected to spend much of his time handing the ball off.

Although his season stats were hardly earth shaking (2,718 passing yards, 15 TD passes and 10 interceptions) he helped guide Philly to a league-best 15-3 record. That was followed by an overtime playoff win over the Chicago Blitz before the Stars were upset by the Michigan Panthers, 24-22, in the USFL Championship Game in Denver.

“From what I read, I can’t throw the ball too far,” Fusina told the Hartford Courant before the title game against Michigan. “But with the type of receivers and passing game we have, we throw a lot of quick, short passes. We’re not much of a speed-demon team, anyway. My range is what our offense demands.

“How far can I throw the ball? I don’t know. I’ve never really tested it. But a quarterback has to know he can throw it far enough, and I know I can throw it far enough. My players know when I go out there, I’m going to give it 110 percent. I’m going to win any way I can.”

Although he and the Stars came up short of a crown in 1983, they never did again.

In 1984 Fusina threw for a league-best 3,837 yards and 31 touchdowns in helping the Stars finish 16-2 in the regular season and roll through the playoffs, capped by a 23-3 trouncing of the Arizona Wranglers in the championship game.

Fusina was named Most Valuable Player of the contest, and his season-long performance was worthy of USFL MVP honors.

“I lost the Sugar Bowl by one yard, and I lost the USFL championship last year by two points,” Fusina said. “This is a very happy moment for me after coming so close. All year long out goal was not just to come here, but come here and win.”

The win over Arizona came in Tampa, where he rarely got on the field. And in another twist, Williams – in his first season with the Oklahoma Outlaws after jumping to the USFL from the Bucs – finished well behind Fusina in most statistical categories.

The 1985 season saw the Stars relocate to Baltimore; with the USFL planning to play a fall schedule in 1986, the franchise couldn’t compete with the Eagles so it moved 100 miles southwest.

But by the end of the season, the results were the same for both Fusina and his team.

Although Baltimore had a mediocre regular season – starting 5-6-1 and finishing fourth in the seven-team Eastern Conference with a 10-7-1 worksheet – the Ws came when they mattered most.

First up was a 20-17 victory over New Jersey, then a 28-14 besting of Birmingham.

I was at the Eastern Conference final at Legion Field, fully expecting the favored Stallions to earn a trip to the championship game in New Jersey. Instead, I saw Fusina go 10-16-0 for 210 yards and a touchdown (including a 70-yard TD pass to Bryant), a result that closed out the Birmingham franchise.

Finally, Baltimore’s 28-24 win over Oakland capped off the last championship – and last game – of the original United States Football League.

Fusina threw for 3,496 yards, 20 TDs and 14 picks in 1985, finishing his USFL career with a 47-13-1 record (7-1 in the playoffs) and an 86.2 passer rating.

“I really believe this tops it all,” Fusina said in a United Press International story on July 15, 1985. “To go through what we did is a great accomplishment. A lot of people gave up on us, but we never gave up on ourselves.

“It’s a great feeling to win and come back from all that adversity.”

With the USFL failing to launch in 1986, Fusina signed with the Green Bay Packers in October of that year.

It was his final season in professional football.

It’s easy to look back at the NFL’s last major league challenger and obsess over the flashy players that stocked its rosters and multi-million-dollar contracts that upended the establishment.

It truly changed the landscape of professional football.

But the name of the game is to win, and Chuck Fusina did that better than any other signal caller in the USFL’s brief history.

And 40 years later, that’s worth celebrating for those of us who still celebrate the late, great United States Football League.  

In my opinion …

The only certainties in life are death, taxes and people getting their undergarments in a twist when discussing the College Football Playoff.

Folks can sit back and passively watch the world burn around them, but they’ll start screaming and frothing at the mouth if you think your team deserved a spot in the field more than theirs.

Scott Adamson writes stuff. Follow him on Twitter @adamsonsl

But every sports fan has an opinion on it, and the Sports Fan’s Handbook demands that we are obligated to share that opinion.

So, what do I think about the 2022 CFP seeding (1. Georgia, 2. Michigan, 3. TCU, 4. Ohio State) ?

Meh.

There are 131 Football Bowl Subdivision teams and 10 conferences. Having just four teams vie for a championship is, shall we say … lacking. Certainly, it beats the old Bowl Championship Series (which beats the old Bowl Alliance, which beats the old Bowl Coalition, which beats the old days of awarding “mythical” national championships). But as I’ve said and written many times, four participants mean you have an invitational, not a playoff.

Hearing folks cuss and discuss it amuses me, though.

Alabama fans are mad that a one-loss Ohio State team made it in over their two-loss team.

“But they got smoked at home by Michigan, 45-23, and our losses came on the last play of regulation (52-49 to Tennessee) and overtime (32-31 to LSU).”

I respond with, “Tennessee and Alabama have the same record and the Vols beat the Tide head-to-head, so shouldn’t they get in over Alabama?”

The return argument is that Tennessee was badly beaten by South Carolina, 63-38.

But …

Tennessee dismantled LSU 40-13 in Baton Rouge, and LSU beat Bama in Death Valley. The Tide didn’t play the Gamecocks, so who’s to say they wouldn’t have suffered a similar fate?

And what about Clemson? The Tigers are 11-2, and they won the ACC Championship Game.

Then there’s Tulane, which also finished 11-2 and claimed the AAC title. Oh, and the Green Wave defeated Big 12 champ Kansas State in Manhattan during the regular season.

Ohio State, Alabama and Tennessee didn’t even win the divisions of their respective conferences.

Before you start pelting me with debris, keep in mind I’m not advocating for any team; I truly couldn’t care less. That said, if you had to pick four under the current guidelines, I don’t have a problem with the four that were picked.

Thing is, fans can justify in their minds whatever narrative works best for their favorite sons.

And it’s always bugged me that in a four-team playoff, league championship contests only matter when the CFP wants them to matter.

If LSU had upset Georgia, the Bulldogs would’ve still made the playoffs but a three-loss LSU team – the SEC champions – would not.

And look at K-State. They have a nice trophy, but the team they beat last Saturday (TCU) is in the CFP while they get the consolation prize of playing in the Sugar Bowl.

Fortunately, there’ll be just one more season for the teams who finish fifth and sixth in the CFP pre-bowl rankings to whine. Starting in 2024, it’ll be the 13th and 14th-place schools that’ll get to bitch and moan because the field will be tripled to 12.

Obviously, that’ll be a lot closer to a playoff than what we have now and overall, I think it’s a positive change.

The format will feature the six highest ranked conference champions plus the next six highest ranked teams in the CFP poll.

Seeds one through four will receive first round byes, while seeds five through eight will host first round games. The quarterfinals and semis will be played in traditional bowls, followed by the CFP Championship Game.

Although flawed, I find a lot to like with this setup … perhaps because I, too, am flawed. Conference championship games will truly matter again, and as a fan of a Group of 5 school (UAB, which heads to the American Athletic Conference in 2023) there is realistic CFP access for mid-majors. It’s not as good as the Football Championship Subdivision’s 24-team playoff, but it’ll do.

Now, what gets the four-team playoff supporters spitting and convulsing is this whole “access” argument.

“You’ll be putting teams in who don’t deserve it!” they shout. “This is just about money!”

Well, yeah, of course it’s about money. I didn’t think that was a secret.

As for expanding the field with teams that – on paper – have little shot at winning it all, I think that’s great. It’s one of the beauties of tournament play.

When the UMBC Retrievers made the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament in 2018, they had no realistic chance of winning the national championship. But they became the first No. 16 seed to beat a No. 1 seed with a 74-54 beatdown of Virginia.

If only bluebloods had been allowed in the field, something as monumental as that would’ve never happened. And merely being in a championship chase has value.

Isn’t that part of what competition is all about, giving an underdog a chance to punch above their weight?

Once the CFP grows to 12 the last team in on Selection Sunday will usually be the first team out on First Round Saturday, but that won’t always be the case.

There’ll come a time when a Sun Belt team beats an SEC team in December. Outcomes like that make the playoffs a whole lot more interesting to me.

And while we discuss the merits of any postseason, it should be noted that tournaments don’t necessarily determine the best team, only the best team in that particular competition.

I joked last week that if you really wanted to crown a true champion in the FBS, the schools would need to play a round-robin, 130-game schedule. Then at the end, the one with the best record would be the undisputed king of the hill.

So sure, with a 12-team playoff you’ll have schools that probably don’t “belong.” But no one knows for sure until and unless they get the chance.

And I’d rather have a bigger tourney that includes pretenders than an invitational that excludes contenders.

But, that’s just my opinion …

Memphis tops Birmingham

Feron Hunt (44) and the Birmingham Squadron get ready for the second half.

BIRMINGHAM – At first glance, there was nothing about tonight’s NBA G League game between the Birmingham Squadron and Memphis Hustle that seemed particularly “historic.”

It was the seventh meeting between the two clubs since the 2021-22 season. Birmingham, the affiliate of the New Orleans Pelicans, came into the contest with a 6-0 record all-time against the Memphis Grizzlies’ feeder team.

Scott Adamson writes stuff. Follow him on Twitter @adamsonsl

And once the horn sounded on ‘Holiday Celebration” night at Legacy Arena, that record changed to 6-1 as Memphis (6-6) took a 114-109 decision over Birmingham (5-9).

The game was also the next to last meeting of the teams in the 2022 Showcase Cup, the preseason tournament that determines the participants in the championship at the Winter Showcase on December 19-22. Once that champion is crowned in Las Vegas, records for all teams will be reset at 0-0 when they begin a 32-game regular season slate starting on December 27.

“They care and they play together, and they really want it,” Birmingham coach T.J. Saint said of his charges. “You see glimpses all the time. It’s more than glimpses … you might see a stretch of five or six possessions in a row of what a championship team we can be, and I really do think we have the capabilities down the line of doing that in the regular season. There are just a lot of mental errors that we make and it’s a collective thing where it snowballs.

“We’re gonna get there, though. They care and they’re super high character – we have no issues off the court.”

If you follow this team, you probably already know all that. Win, lose or Elam Ending overtime, this bunch goes full tilt from buzzer to buzzer.

And all that is interesting, but here’s where the historic part comes in: the contest marked the 75th anniversary of the first-ever pro roundball meeting between teams representing the Magic City and the Home of the Blues.

On December 8, 1947 – with player/coach Wheeler Flemming pumping in 19 points for the winners – the visiting Birmingham Vulcans trounced the Memphis Legionnaires, 62-43, in a Southern Basketball League game at Fairgrounds Shelby County Arena. It would be the first of four meetings between the clubs before the SPL disbanded a little more than a year later, with Birmingham winning three (including the last, 73-71, played on January 9, 1948).

Yet, while that might be a fun history lesson, the future is now for a couple of teams hoping to finish the 16-game Cup schedule strong.

Birmingham came into the game with the momentum of a 138-135 victory over the Texas Legends on Tuesday, a contest that saw the club set a season high for points, putting up 31.5 more than their average.

Memphis, on the other hand, had its modest two-game winning streak snapped in a 126-112 loss to Mexico City on the same day and hoped to hit the reset button on the road.

Two nights later, both teams put on one heckuva show.

Memphis took the fight to the hosts quickly, racing out to a 7-0 lead before Kira Lewis Jr. hit a jumper to put the Squadron on the board. But Birmingham shots weren’t falling while the Hustle was consistently finding the range, and the visitors got up by as many as 15 late in the frame.

The Squadron stopped the bleeding somewhat before the horn sounded, but after 12 minutes they were staring at a 36-25 deficit.

The second quarter started with a Daeqwon Plowden three that got the Memphis lead down to single digits, and Birmingham slowly chipped away.

A John Petty Jr. layup at 3:59 made it a 49-44 game, and the Squadron was able to pull to within four twice, the last coming when James Kelly Sr. delivered a rim-rattling dunk at the 2:13 mark to make the score 53-49.

The Hustle advantage was 61-55 at the half, making this one either team’s to win with 24 minutes to go.

Kelly Sr. was the only Birmingham player with double digits at the break (14), while Memphis was paced by Kennedy Chandler’s 14 points and 12 from Matt Hurt.

In the third quarter, the Squadron caught up and took flight.

Kelan Martin gave the home side their first lead of the night when he nailed a jumper at 9:22 to make it 65-63, and the squads spent much of the stanza swapping leads.

After frenzied action up and down the court, the quarter ended with Birmingham on top, 85-83.

“We came out at halftime and gave a pick-and-roll coverage we’ve never actually practiced called ‘squeezing,’ where the big guy kinda skins up against his man and we go under to not force the rotation,” Saint explained. “It worked a little bit, but I thought the best part about it was we just stayed consistent on our normal defense and forced some turnovers and got back in it.”

Unfortunately for the Squadron, the Hustle finished what they started in the fourth quarter.

With Birmingham reverting to its first quarter cold shooting Memphis heated up, going on a 16-2 run and turning a nip-and-tuck game into a 107-94 advantage with just over four minutes remaining.

With 48 seconds left Saint’s team had clawed their way back thanks to a 10-0 spurt, trailing just 109-107 and in a decent position to keep their perfect mark against the Hustle intact.

It was 111-109 with 11 seconds remaining, putting the Squadron in a fouling situation.

Charity tosses upped the advantage to 114-109 with eight seconds left, and Birmingham was out of time.

Kenny Lofton Jr. led the winners with a game-high 24 points and nine rebounds, followed by Chandler (23), Hurt (17), Vince Williams Jr. (16) and Dakota Mathias (11).

Martin paced Birmingham with 21 points, Kelly Sr. and Zylan Cheatham each chipped in 20, Lewis Jr. added 14 points and Feron Hunt scored 12.

Memphis won the battle of the boards, 42-34.

“It’s a little different now,” said former UAB player Jordan Swing, who saw 10 minutes of action for the Squadron and remembers the UAB-Memphis college basketball rivalry from his days as a Blazer. “In college it’s a big deal and a fun game. But still, every time you get out there you want to win. It means a lot when you play Memphis. We didn’t get it done today, but we’ll get back to practice and be ready for the next one.”

Birmingham returns to action on Thursday, December 15, when it travels to Lakeland, Florida, to play the Magic. The Squadron ends Showcase Cup play at Memphis on December 17.

The Hustle hits the court again on Saturday when the Texas Legends provide the opposition in Frisco.