Category: Alternative Football

Week three of XFL 3.0 got under way Saturday and the second season of the FOX-owned USFL starts in a little over a month.

But the original United States Football League – the circuit that made pro football in the spring a beautiful thing – debuted 40 years ago. And as far as grand openings go, it was hard to label its inaugural weekend as anything other than a rousing success.

The 12-team league began play with five games on Sunday, March 6, 1983, and one on Monday, March 7. A total of 243,070 fans showed up for the contests with a per game average of 40,512.

The National Football League hadn’t faced a challenge since the ill-fated World Football League of 1974-75. But while the WFL season had some overlap with the NFL, the USFL had created a new gridiron season all its own.

The brainchild of Dave Dixon, the USFL was born on May 11, 1982. Dixon had done plenty of research, and results showed that 75 percent of adults living in major metropolitan areas thought of themselves as pro football fans, and 76 percent said they’d watch spring and summer football on TV.

“The point is that there are more football fans than anything else,” Dixon told the Los Angeles Times. “And for them, the present season is too short. Baseball clubs play 162 games, the NBA plays 82 and the NFL only 16. And 16 games aren’t nearly enough for a real fan. The one thing there’s more room for in America, today, clearly, is more football.”

Before ever signing a player or coach, the new league announced a two-year contract with ABC and later added ESPN as a media partner. And once it did start hiring, it had the NFL’s full attention.

No. 1 NFL Draft pick Tim Spencer out of Ohio State signed with the USFL’s Chicago Blitz, and Georgia Heisman Trophy winner Herschel Walker decided to pass up his senior season and go pro, joining the New Jersey Generals. Many NFL veterans soon followed their lead.

The league also had big-time coaches like George Allen, Red Miller and John Ralston, and up-and-comers such as Steve Spurrier and Jim Mora.

It’s no wonder that when Dixon’s idea finally became a reality, NFL leaders took it very, very seriously.

“The USFL has more leadership than any new sports league since the AFL,” Cleveland Browns owner Art Modell said. “I have a high regard for the ability and integrity of their commissioner, Chet Simmons. He is a television man, but they have enough football minds in that league.

“They have some persons of great affluence.”

The Arizona Wranglers were the attendance champion on opening day, drawing 45,167 fans to their 24-0 loss to the Oakland Invaders. The Denver Gold was just 65 fans off the pace, welcoming 45,102 patrons to the Mile High City in their 13-7 setback to the Philadelphia Stars.

Fans in Florida showed they liked hot weather football, as 42,437 experienced the Tampa Bay Bandits’ 21-17 clipping of the Boston Breakers.

The Blitz blitzed the Washington Federals, 28-17, before 38,110 fans in D.C.; Los Angeles drew 34,002 people to watch the hometown Express beat the Generals, 20-15; and in Monday’s game in Birmingham, the hometown Stallions lost to the Michigan Panthers, 9-7, with 38,352 folks looking on.

Fans in the stands are one thing, but ABC and ESPN wanted fans on the couch.

So, did Americans tune in during Week One?

Yes … yes, they did.

The Generals-Express game had a 16.6 rating and 34 percent share of the audience in New York. Those numbers were comparable to average NFL Sunday ratings in the fall and winter.

Nationally, the three Sunday USFL games televised by ABC drew 14.2, far outperforming the network’s hopes of a 5 or 6 rating.

The premiere of the new league was a chance for a couple of over-the-hill NFL quarterbacks to get a new lease on their football lives; Tampa Bay’s John Reaves threw for 358 yards, while Chicago’s Greg Landry had 251 passing yards with two TDs.

But it also showcased many young stars, like Grambling rookie Trumaine Johnson, who snared 158 receiving yards in his pro football debut for the Blitz. And overlooked players such as Oakland’s Fred Besana and Philadelphia’s Chuck Fusina proved they could shine, given the chance.  

Of course, the full story of the original United States Football League is hardly all sunshine and rainbows.

There was overexpansion, contraction, relocation and financial strife. Ultimately, when New Jersey’s Donald Trump convinced fellow owners to move to a fall schedule starting in 1986 in hopes of forcing a merger with the NFL (a stupid decision made official on August 22, 1984), the league was doomed. Even though the USFL filed an antitrust lawsuit against the sport’s biggest league in October, 1984, a “victory” in the courtroom two years later yielded just $3 in damages – $1,499,999,997 less than what was sought.

How long it would’ve lasted had it stayed in the spring, we’ll never know.

But while you’re enjoying your XFL games this weekend and gearing up for the reimagined USFL’s sophomore campaign in April, tip your cap to the league that started it all.

Long may it live, even if only in our memories.

For those of us who follow the Canadian Football League, rules that might jar a fan of the American game are perfectly normal: three downs to make 10 yards; a 110-yard playing field that’s 65 yards wide with end zones 20 yards deep; and 12 players per side, just to name a few.

But take away the rouge (you might want to look that one up if you’re unfamiliar with it), and scoring is pretty standard. A touchdown is worth six points, a field goal three, and PATs count one with a two-point conversion option.

Go back to the 1955 season and earlier, however, and a Canadian football touchdown was worth just five points.

The change to a six-point score was announced on January 28, 1956, and hailed by The Canadian Press as “the most revolutionary in the game since the forward pass was introduced from the United States in 1931.”

The Canadian Rugby Union met in Toronto and decided to alter the scoring system, one that dated all the way back to the 1870s. Those in favor argued that two field goals should not be equal to a touchdown.

“After all, it’s much easier to kick a field goal from 30 yards than to score a touchdown from 30,” said Bill Bolvin, manager of the Winnipeg Blue Bombers of the Western Interprovincial Football Union.

Like any major change, though, there was resistance.

Bull Ritchie, who kicked off for the Toronto Argonauts in the first Grey Cup game in 1909, said a TD worth six points was an attempt to “Americanize the game too much,” and former British Columbia Lions coach Annis Stutkus lamented, “in these days of high costs some teams can possibly afford an odd specialist instead of a specialized team and could pick up points with field goals.”

The rule innovation was made official on March 3, with Montreal Alouettes owner Leo Dandurand, Canadian Intercollegiate Athletic Union official Bobby Coulter and Ontario Rugby Football Union president Frank Commins protesting.

Dandurand said the alteration was a “flight of fancy.”

Rules committee chairman Bert Warwick, however, insisted the change was needed.

“There is no defense against a field goal,” he told TCP. “There is considerable defense against the touchdown. A touchdown is more valuable than two field goals.”

I recently spoke to Dr. Frank Cosentino, a member of the Canadian Football Hall of Fame who has authored or co-authored 17 books – including Canadian Football: The Grey Cup Years. He played 10 years in the CFL and coached 12 years of college football, winning two Vanier Cups (the Canadian college football championship) while guiding the Western Mustangs.

The five-point TD was part of the game when Cosentino played high school ball, but changed during his college days.

“I think that it was a reaction taking place with more of the movement away from rugby connection and more with the American game,” he said.

It also came at a time when the professional game was moving toward consolidation.

“Really, in 1956, the CFL was yet to be formed officially,” Cosentino explained. “There were two independent leagues. There was the Western Interprovincial Football Union with Edmonton, Saskatchewan, Winnipeg and British Columbia (it used to be known in 1935 as the Western Interprovincial Rugby Union but as one wag said, ‘We’re not playing rugby, it’s football.’) In the east it was called the Big Four (Hamilton, Toronto, Ottawa and Montreal) but officially the IRFU (Interprovincial Rugby Football Union).

“In 1956, the two unions formed the Canadian Football Council. Two years later, the CFL was formed.”

Cosentino adds that the “rebranding” of Canadian leagues also helped lure American players north of the United States border.

“There were many ‘imports’ – read Americans – who were confused about signing with a rugby club,” he said. “That was partly the reason, and the six points for a TD resonated with the whole idea of Americans playing football in Canada. I seem to recall, too, that Hamilton head coach Jim Trimble, the former NFL Philadelphia coach, helped push the six-point change.”

If you wonder who scored the first six-point TD in Canadian professional football history, it appears the honor goes to Rollie Mills.

Games between Saskatchewan and Edmonton and Calgary vs. BC were the first pro matchups of the 1956 season, both played on August 18 at 8:30 p.m. Mountain Time. There was no scoring in the first quarter of the Lions’ 17-14 victory over the Stampeders, while Mills tallied an Edmonton TD in the opening frame of the Eskimos’ 15-3 conquest of the Roughriders.

I’m not sure what – if anything – Birmingham pro football fans are feeling today as the third incarnation of the XFL opens its inaugural season.

Vegas and Arlington start things off at 2 p.m. CST with a game on ABC, followed by Orlando vs. Houston at 7:30 p.m. on ESPN and FX.

On Sunday it’s St. Louis facing San Antonio at 2 p.m. (ABC) and Seattle clashing with DC at 7 p.m. (ESPN).

The XFL hasn’t been in the Magic City since the one-and-done season of 2001, and with the Birmingham Stallions starting their second season of the reimagined USFL in April – and entering the campaign as defending champions – the 2023 XFL might be little more than a curiosity to followers of Skip Holtz’s team.

But you know me … I’m not so obtuse that I can’t find an angle, and here it is: on this date 22 years ago, the Birmingham Thunderbolts recorded their final XFL victory.

Yep, on February 18, 2001, Birmingham led the Chicago Enforcers, 7-3, with under two minutes remaining in a Week Three matchup at Legion Field. With Chicago threatening at the Bolts’ 6-yard line, Duane Butler picked off a Tim Lester pass and raced 97 yards for the clinching touchdown in front of 17,582 fans.

The result was a 14-3 win by the hosts (2-1), putting them just one game behind the Orlando Rage (3-0) in the XFL East.

But then, the wheels fell off – for the team and the league.

TV ratings, which were outstanding for the circuit’s opening weekend, dropped 50 percent by week two. By the time Birmingham played Chicago, they had fallen another 25 percent.

As for the Bolts, they went on to lose their final seven games and finished 2-8. Fortunately for them, very few people were watching. XFL ratings continued to hit record lows, prompting league owner Vince McMahon and TV partner NBC to pull the plug after one season.

Having had a World Football League champion, United States Football League championship contender, and teams that made the playoffs in both the World League of American Football and Canadian Football League, this was Birmingham’s least successful pro football team by any standard of measure.

When the XFL tried again 19 years later, Birmingham wasn’t part of the plan. This time, McMahon went with all major markets – the Dallas Renegades, DC (Washington) Defenders, Houston Roughnecks, Los Angeles Wildcats, New York Guardians, Seattle Dragons, St. Louis BattleHawks and Tampa Bay Vipers.

TV ratings were good overall, and the quality of play, I thought, was outstanding. This reboot seemed like it had a legitimate chance at success.

Enter the COVID-19 pandemic – and exit XFL 2.0, completing half a season before shutting down.

But here we are again, with McMahon finally out of the football ownership business and replaced by RedBird Capital Partners, Dany Garcia and Dwayne Johnson.

The DC Defenders, Houston Roughnecks and St. Louis BattleHawks are back, while the Renegades rep Arlington, Seattle fans cheer for the Sea Dragons, the Vipers are in Vegas, the Guardians play in Orlando and the San Antonio Brahmas round out the eight-team field.

So, XFL 3.0 is Texas-heavy and missing the country’s top two media markets (New York and Los Angeles). Arlington is the training and housing hub, but teams will go to their “homes” for games. Think of it as a football boarding school with weekend passes.

And that leads me back to Birmingham, which was once again left out of an XFL reboot. This time, though, the city already has a team so there are no hard feelings.

Yet maybe – and this is nothing more than thinking out loud on my part – the XFL and Birmingham might one day meet again.

How, you ask?

Well, last season the USFL made it from wire-to-wire without seeing its TV ratings tank. It proved to be a popular sports programming addition to both FOX and NBC/Peacock.

What if the XFL pulls off the same feat? What if viewers who tune in on ABC, ESPN and FX this weekend stick with it through 10 weeks and two weeks of playoffs?

Assuming the USFL does the same starting in less than two months, that would make 2023 the greatest year in alternative football history. It’s hard enough for one league to make it, but two?

How cool would that be?

At this point you probably think I’m going to suggest a merger, but I’m not because I don’t want you to yell at me. So, let me suggest this: an arrangement similar to Major League Baseball, which consists of two separate leagues.

The only way that could happen, however, is if there was the equivalent of a Triple A football governing body (meaning the corporate side of both leagues would have to work together).

Think of it … the seasons sync up, with 10-game slates running concurrently. Before the season, though, each USFL team plays an XFL team in an exhibition game featuring a hybrid of their respective rules packages (although the XFL’s kickoff rule where teams begin play five yards apart – the kicking team at the opponent’s 35-yard line and return team at its own 30-yard line – should be adopted by all leagues). Then after the USFL and XFL crown their champions, the two standard bearers meet in the Summer Bowl.

And if both leagues are under one umbrella (I’ll call it the Alternative Football Alliance because I like the way it sounds) they could work out a common player draft and salary structure.

Best case scenario – based on the current setup of the NFL – 16 USFL teams and 16 XFL teams have working agreements with big league clubs. Every player in these leagues wants to either get back or to the NFL, so why not streamline the pipeline?

Look, I know I’m getting way ahead of myself here. As successful as the USFL was in 2022, it’ll likely be the end of the 2024 season before we know if it truly has staying power.

And it’s hard to get a feel for anything about the XFL until the games are played.

Still, there’s a great opportunity here for leagues that bridge the gap between college football and the NFL to build a sturdy bridge for spring/summer football.

And personally, I wouldn’t mind seeing a day when USFL champion Birmingham plays XFL champion Seattle for the alt-football championship.