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.  

An alternative (football) reality

If you’re a fan of alternative football leagues, this has been a heckuva week. Not only did XFL 3.0 rosters start to take shape with Tuesday’s selection of quarterbacks (followed by a two-day position draft), but the USFL announced it was moving into a new market – and expanding its hub model.

The fact that not one but two pro circuits outside the NFL and CFL were vying for the spotlight in mid-November is something of an early alt-football holiday present.

Scott Adamson writes stuff. Follow him on Twitter @adamsonsl

The USFL will start its second season next April, and that in itself is significant; no domestic play-for-pay spring outdoor league with teams in the United States has done that since the World League of American Football (1991-92). And now the Memphis Showboats have joined the league, taking the place of the Tampa Bay Bandits.

Yet while the Bandits never made it to Tampa (the entire league played its regular season in Birmingham in 2022), the Showboats will actually play their home games at home – in Simmons Bank Liberty Stadium (formerly the Liberty Bowl). Memphis will serve as the second South Division hub and will also house the Houston Gamblers in 2023.

The USFL champion Stallions will return to Protective Stadium next spring and summer, sharing space with the New Orleans Breakers.

A North Division hub hosting the Michigan Panthers, New Jersey Generals, Philadelphia Stars and Pittsburgh Maulers is rumored to be headed for the Detroit area, although the USFL has yet to make an official announcement.

“Completing a remarkably successful inaugural season and preparing for a second season shows the USFL is a stable and professional league run by people with football experience,” Daryl Johnston, USFL Executive Vice President of Football Operations, said on Tuesday during a news conference in Memphis. “In 2022, we accomplished every goal we set – high-quality, exciting, and competitive football, establishing a fan-friendly affordable and fun stadium experience, being a catalyst for the evolution of football through innovative rules, and achieving ratings success that gave viewers unprecedented access and the best football production on television. We showed our fans, our players and coaches, our communities, and our public and corporate partners that the USFL is here to stay.”

The XFL, meanwhile, signed a bunch of quarterbacks on opening day of its draft week, including one of my favorite players – Luis Perez – and Kyle Sloter, who both called signals in the USFL last season.

Perez is becoming an alt-football legend, having played in the Alliance of American Football, 2020 XFL, The Spring League and USFL. I cheered for him when he led the Birmingham Iron in the ill-fated AAF in 2019, and got to watch him help lift the lid on the new United States Football League last April when he took snaps for the Generals.

He was signed by the Vegas Vipers on Tuesday.

Sloter, who quarterbacked the Breakers last summer, also jumped leagues and joined the Arlington Renegades.

Other names of note (or at least guys who made me go, “Hey, I know him!”) include Troy product Brandon Silvers, who played in the AAF and XFL 2.0 and is now with the Houston Roughnecks, and former Alabama QB A.J. McCarron, who has been on the roster of five NFL teams and will now try to win the starting job for the St. Louis Battlehawks.

Arguably the top player signed on Wednesday was former NFL wideout Martavis Bryant, who averaged 21 yards per catch during his rookie season with the Pittsburgh Steelers back in 2014.

Like USFL teams, XFL rosters will have a mix of players trying to get back in the NFL and those looking for their first shot.

“Congratulations to all the players selected in the inaugural XFL Draft,” XFL Senior Vice President of Player Personnel Doug Whaley said in a statement released on Thursday. “Together they will serve as the backbone of our league and be the center of the dynamic football our fans will experience when teams take the field in February. For our teams, this week represents the first step in building their rosters and another step closer to kickoff.

“Over the next two months, the league will hold a supplemental draft and claiming period for players who were not eligible for this week’s draft, including players currently under contract with other professional football leagues and graduates of the NFL Alumni Academy. With 442 players selected over the last two days, and 528 spots to fill in training camp, there are still opportunities for players looking to take the field for the XFL in 2023.”

The rebooted XFL’s season starts on February 18 while the USFL’s second campaign kicks off on April 15. The eight teams in both leagues will play 10 regular season games each followed by the playoffs.

And that begs the question; if the two spring/summer leagues can survive, can they also coexist?

Sure, they can … whether they will or not is another question.

It’s hard for me to imagine them operating separately over the long haul if for no other reason than one will continually try to outspend the other for players. Supposedly the XFL is offering more money than the USFL (this will be key when it comes to signing the best available quarterbacks), so one would assume the USFL will have to upgrade its salaries to keep up.

History suggests that when sports leagues engage in bidding wars, there’s only one winner. But that’s one of those “if and when questions” that need not be answered for a while.

For now, all fans need to know – and something we should be happy about – is that there is plenty of talent to stock both leagues.

The USFL has joined forces with the HUB Football scouting service, while the XFL has partnered with both the NFL Academy and Indoor Football League to cull players.

And consider this … there are 131 programs in the Football Bowl Subdivision, 130 in the Football Championship Subdivision, and 169 in Division II. Throw in NAIA schools (96), JUCOs (65) and even Division III (242), and there is no shortage of young, talented players good enough to play a fan-pleasing brand of football.

In addition, the USFL is owned by FOX with NBC as an additional TV partner, while the XFL has the Disney media empire (i.e., ESPN and ABC) behind it. That’s some impressive reach.

So, we can spend our time bemoaning the history of failed spring football leagues – and goodness knows I have – or we can view them in their present state.

And if you do that, there’s a lot to look forward to in 2023.

Remembering NFL Europa

History will be made on Sunday when the Seattle Seahawks and Tampa Bay Buccaneers tangle at Allianz Arena in Munich.

For the National Football League, it’ll mark its first regular season game played on German soil.

Scott Adamson writes stuff. Follow him on Twitter @adamsonsl

And for German fans, it’ll be a chance to ask, “What took you so long?”

While tackle football’s most prestigious league has made England its primary international stop for several years, a strong German fan base has been there for decades. All you have to do is look back at NFL Europe, which began as the World League of American Football but spent its final season as NFL Europa – with five of its six franchises located in Germany.

“It’s ubiquitous in Germany,” Brett Gosper, NFL Head of United Kingdom and Europe, told the Daily Mail in September. “When I visit, I always get the feeling you talk to the taxi drivers about NFL – but here (London) not quite. As a sport maybe it scratches an itch that other sports don’t in that market. Rugby is not a big game in that market – there is not another contact sport. There’s a lot of professional sports kicking around in England, from cricket, to rugby, to football, and so on. And NFL still finds its way in that competitive landscape.

“But in Germany, there just seems to be a wider possibility to come in and occupy a space that maybe is not occupied by someone else.”

Alexander Steinforth of NFL Germany was interviewed by the Ran sports website in July and said there had been more than three million ticket requests for the game set for the 75,024-seat venue. He knew tickets would be in high demand, he just couldn’t imagine how high.

“Based on the roughly 600,000 registrations for this pre-sale in the past few weeks, we could already guess a bit in advance,” he said. “At the peak, however, there were around 800,000 people in the virtual queue at the same time. Ticketmaster informed us afterwards that they could have sold around three million tickets. There would be such a demand worldwide – whether at sporting events or concerts – otherwise only at the Super Bowl. 

“Thus, this advance sale for the NFL Germany game has once again exceeded all expectations.”

So, where did this passion for the gridiron game begin?

The WLAF, which hit the field in the spring of 1991, featured three European teams – the Barcelona Dragons, Frankfurt Galaxy and London Monarchs. Eight of the nine other franchises were located in the United States with one in Canada.

The Monarchs drew 40,483 fans per game during the inaugural season, followed by Frankfurt (29,856) and Barcelona (29,002). By year two London’s attendance slipped to 21,909 per home outing while Frankfurt’s grew to 36,293. Barcelona played before 30,756 during home dates.

However, poor TV ratings, subpar attendance in North American markets and mounting financial losses convinced the NFL to suspend the World League after the 1992 campaign and examine what options were left for a developmental circuit.

The option was to go across the pond, and the WLAF returned in 1995 with an all-European lineup. Frankfurt, Barcelona and London resumed operations, and were joined by the Amsterdam Admirals, Rhein Fire and Scottish Claymores.

By 1998 the NFL’s spring gridiron experiment had changed its name to NFL Europe, and the London Monarchs were renamed the England Monarchs (playing in Birmingham and Bristol as well as London).

Yet while the novelty of minor league American football began to fade in England, Spain and Scotland, German clubs continued to have plenty of support.

The England team folded in 1998, Barcelona called it quits in 2003, and Scotland’s last year in NFL Europe was in 2004.

The lineup in 2005 featured Amsterdam, Berlin, Cologne, Frankfurt, Hamburg and Rhein, meaning NFL Europe was – for all practical purposes – NFL Germany Plus One.

Rebranded as NFL Europa for its final season in 2007, the six teams averaged 20,24 fans per game – the highest per game attendance since the league was rebooted in 1995.

The farewell year saw Frankfurt draw 33,043 each game, followed by Rhein (24,473), Hamburg (20,874), Berlin (15,710), Cologne (14,352) and Amsterdam (11,668).

Despite the strong support from German fans, the NFL was losing $30 million per year on the league and decided to dramatically alter its European presence and fold NFL Europa on June 29, 2007.

“A foundation of American football fans in key European markets has been created and the time is right to shift our strategy,” NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell said. “The next phase of our international growth is to focus on initiatives with global impact, including taking advantage of developing technologies that make the NFL more accessible on a global scale and ensuring the success of our new international series of regular-season games.” 

The Galaxy was the only franchise in WLAF/NFL Europe/NFL Europa to compete in all 15 seasons and had the most titles with four.

“NFL Europa has created thousands of passionate fans who have supported that league and our sport for many years,” Mark Waller, senior vice president of NFL International, said. “And we look forward to building on this foundation as we begin this new phase of our international development.” And part of that new phase means that 15 years after NFL Europa showcased Germany, the NFL is finally showcasing a regular season clash there.