Converging on a merging

Come on … you knew this was going to happen, didn’t you?

I mean when you think about it, the planned merger of United States Football League 2.0 and XFL 3.0 is the only outcome that makes sense. It was going to be hard enough for one spring professional football league to have long-term sustainability. But two?

Scott Adamson writes stuff. Follow him on Threads @sladamson1960 and Adamsonmedia on Facebook.

That was never going to work.

They aren’t married yet – and they have to work through the prenup – but they did show off their engagement rings via a dual press release on Thursday:

Today, the United States Football League (“USFL”) and the XFL announced their intention to merge.

 Subject to customary regulatory approvals and if the transaction is consummated, the new league will establish best-in-class operations based on the most recent seasons of both leagues.  This historic combination will anchor professional spring football with substantial capabilities and resources to ensure future growth and continue to enhance the development of the collective players, coaches, and staff that are coming together. 

 More details regarding the new league will be announced at a later date. 

Ah yes … details. That’s what we all want.

Sadly, I don’t have any for you because I’m not an insider. I get press releases from both leagues and showed up for USFL media availabilities and games in Birmingham last year, but I didn’t cozy up to sources.

I stopped getting paid to chase stories when I retired from the newspaper business back in 2017, and no longer have the energy or inclination to do it. Translation: If you’re looking for a scoop, I’m afraid you’ll need to look elsewhere.

That being the case, I’m quite content to sit back and wait and see what happens, although it is kinda fun to envision where all this is headed.

And in a perfect world, it would be a full merger with eight teams from the USFL and eight from the XFL.

Spoiler alert: it’s not a perfect world.

Those supposedly in the know are all over the map as to what the new league will look like; many are suggesting 12 teams will move forward in 2024 with four getting the ax.

One thing that seems obvious on the surface is that either the Houston Roughnecks of the XFL or Houston Gamblers of the USFL will have to go. Two teams in Space City are one too many in a spring league.

Unlike the USFL club, however, the Roughnecks have actually played in Houston. The Gamblers spent their first season in Birmingham and second in Memphis.

Speaking of that …

I hope the combined league will get rid of the hubs.

Yeah, yeah, yeah … it’s financially responsible and allowed the USFL to walk into living rooms before it ran into more markets, first with one hub (Birmingham) and then with four (Birmingham, Canton, Detroit and Memphis). And for two years, the FOX-funded circuit has been as much a TV show as a sports league, so their approach was smart.

But going into year three, I think it’s time to play where your potential fans live.

And if hubs go away, I would guess supporters of the Gamblers, New Orleans Breakers, New Jersey Generals, Philadelphia Stars and Pittsburgh Maulers might be worried those teams might go away, too, since they’ve never once played in the cities they rep.

Canton was “home” to the Generals and Maulers last season, and 2024 ticket deposits are already being taken for Tom Benson Hall of Fame Stadium. So maybe it’s time for a modern version of the Canton Bulldogs to make their pro football debut in the … what should we call it?

National Spring Football League is getting the most buzz, and  it seems logical. The USFL is owned by National Spring Football League Enterprises Co, LLC, and a trademark for that name has been filed.

I’d be fine with that because, honestly, I hoped the USFL reboot was going to be called something else back in 2022. I’m one of those “get off my lawn!” types who prefers that the United States Football League of 1983-85 is allowed to rest in peace.

And I’ll never understand the obsession with digging up the XFL brand over and over.

The NSFL is as good an acronym as any.

When it comes to rules, those of the USFL and XFL were fairly similar overall, with things like tiered (one, two and three-point) conversions, double forward passes, overtime “shootouts” and a scrimmage play that can be called in place of an onside kick. The USFL did have a traditional kick option for a single extra point, which I like better than the all run-or-pass choices in the XFL.

On the other hand, I hope the XFL’s kickoff rule is adopted.

The placekicker kicks off from his 25-yard line and the ball must be in the air and in play between the opponent’s 20-yard line and the end zone. The coverage team lines up on the receiving team’s 35-yard line with the return team stationed five yards away on the 30.

Each team has three players outside the hash marks on both sides of the ball and can’t move until the ball is caught by the returner.

The USFL’s was good, too (kickoffs from the 20, with kicking team members lined up one yard back and stationary until the ball is kicked to the receiving team that has eight or nine players set up between their own 30 and 40), but this is better.

I doubt the competition committee will start from scratch, so I imagine what we see in 2024 will be mostly familiar. (As a guy who loves a good gimmick, I still long for defensive scores where a team gets one point for an interception, recovered fumble or turnover on downs).

Whatever the case, I’m quite interested in how all this plays out in terms of TV coverage, number of games on the schedule, start of season, etc. And based on the executive structure of the league, we should find out fairly soon whether this was a  traditional merger of equals or an absorption.

If we don’t see Dwayne Johnson and Dany Garcia at every photo op, we’ll know the USFL held the upper hand.

Most important of all, I think this gives organized minor league football its best path forward. There are many obstacles to overcome, but hopefully it can grow into a viable developmental/experimental outlet for the NFL.

May the marriage be a long and happy one.

Gambling on Gabriel

Minor league football, circa 1973, was neither glamorous nor lucrative.

But the addition of NFL star Roman Gabriel to its ranks would’ve certainly been flashy – especially framed by the glitz and glamour of Las Vegas. And the promise of a $100,000 payday was the key to luring the 32-year-old Gabriel to the desert and making him the face of its lower division team.

Scott Adamson writes stuff. Follow him on Threads @sladamson1960 and Adamsonmedia on Facebook.

The Las Vegas Casinos, members of the Southwestern Football League, tried to put themselves (and the SFL) on the map in April, 1973, by bringing in Gabriel. And based on news reports at the time, it appeared that such a move was actually possible.

Gabriel was going through a messy divorce from the Rams, asking to be traded after new L.A. coach Chuck Knox signed John Hadl away from the San Diego Chargers and tapped him as the franchise’s presumptive starting QB.

Gabriel was coming off an injury-plagued 1972 campaign that saw him suffer from a collapsed lung and tendinitis in his throwing elbow. Although he played in all 14 regular season games, he managed just 12 touchdowns against 15 interceptions.

But while Gabriel was uncertain about his NFL future, his agent – Ed Masry – said his client had an opportunity to get an early start on the 1973 football season. The Casinos would begin their campaign in June and were supposedly ready to write Gabriel a check for six figures, plus a percentage of gate receipts. According to Masry, an agreement in principle to play with Las Vegas had been made on April 12.

The Southwestern League was formed in February, 1972, and its primary gimmicks were field goals from 35 to 50 yards counting four points and those from 51 or more worth five. The SFL featured the Casinos, Phoenix Blazers, Southern California Razorbacks, New Mexico Thunderbirds, Denver Oilers, Dallas Rockets, San Antonio Toros, Oklahoma City Wranglers and Kansas City Steers.

The plan was for Gabriel to play eight games for Las Vegas during the summer and then he could resume his career with an NFL team during its exhibition slate.

But … there was a pretty big problem.

Since Gabriel was still on the payroll of the Rams, he had to follow NFL rules.

“No player under contract to a club in the NFL shall be permitted to participate in any football game for or against any team, group or organization outside the league except in games officially approved and sanctioned by the NFL,” reads an excerpt from the NFL constitution.

League officials also warned him that jumping to the SFL could possibly result in a permanent ban from the NFL.

At a news conference at Masry’s office, Gabriel didn’t address the minor league rumors, but claimed his contract with L.A. was null and void since the franchise was under new ownership.

“I don’t get along with the present Rams management,” he told Associated Press for an April 14 story. “I have reason to distrust them, so it makes it difficult to play for them. I’m a little upset and offended about it being said that I am afraid to compete against John Hadl. In the past 11 years I have competed against a minimum of 14 quarterbacks in order to maintain my position as a starter.

“Under no circumstances would I ever leave a team because of competition. I thrive on it; I don’t fear it.”

Of course – spoiler alert – Gabriel didn’t play for the Casinos, and who knows if he ever had any real intention to do so. It was just a public way of letting the Rams know his time in southern California was over and they needed to make a deal.

It was a bummer for me, because the Rams were my favorite team in the NFL (prior to its merger with the American Football League), and Gabriel was a major reason why.

On April 18, Masry and Casinos legal counsel Eddie LeBaron (a former NFL quarterback himself and four-time Pro Bowler) released a joint statement saying Gabriel would not suit up for Las Vegas.

“Mr. Gabriel has commenced initial steps toward legal resolution of his purported contract with the Los Angeles Rams. It does not appear possible to revolve the legal questions in time for the Las Vegas Casinos to arrange a summer schedule that would permit Mr. Gabriel to play for a National Football League club in the fall. Therefore, negotiation for his services have been terminated by mutual agreement,” the statement read.

The story had a happy ending – at least for Gabriel.

In June he was traded to the Philadelphia Eagles for Harold JacksonTony Baker, a 1974 first-round selection and first and third-round picks in 1975.

He went on to win NFL Comeback Player of the Year honors in 1973, throwing for league highs of 3,219 yards and 23 touchdowns (although the Eagles finished 5-8-1 and third in the NFC East).

He spent the last five years of his 16-year NFL career in Philly, and why he isn’t in the Pro Football Hall of Fame remains a mystery to me.

As for the Casinos, they suffered the same fate as most minor league/semi-pro teams, spending the rest of their brief existence in obscurity.

They did manage to make the 1973 SFL playoffs without Gabriel, although they were blown out by the Toros in the semifinals, 45-3. Vegas was without starting quarterback Mark Bordeaux – who missed the game because he was attending a wedding.

The Casinos’ last bit of notoriety came in 1974 when, playing in the Pacific Professional Football League, they defeated the Albuquerque Thunderbirds, 100-0, on June 29. The game saw the winners tally 15 touchdowns and was shortened to 50 minutes because it was such a mismatch.  The team folded in August, turning the lights out on the three-year old team repping the City of Lights.

NFL vs. the world

Fifty years ago, Pete Rozelle began plotting the future of the National Football League.

The commissioner already oversaw a blossoming 26-team circuit – one that grew by 10 three years earlier when the merger with the American Football League became official. And the NFL was coming off a season that produced the league’s first (and so far, only) perfect team – the 17-0 Miami Dolphins.

Scott Adamson writes stuff. Follow him on Threads @sladamson1960 and Adamsonmedia on Facebook.

But there was still plenty of room to grow, and in early September, 1973, Rozelle announced that nearly two dozen cities were in the running for a future NFL franchise.

In an interview with U.S. News & World Report, Rozelle said an NFL committee was doing market research on possible NFL sites “within this decade.” The targets included: Anaheim, Birmingham, the Carolinas, Chicago, Columbus, Ohio, central and north central Florida (Tampa, Orlando, Jacksonville), Honolulu, Indianapolis, Louisville, Mexico City, Nashville, greater New York, Oklahoma City, Phoenix, Portland, San Antonio, Seattle and the Tidewater area of Virginia.

Exotic locales such as Honolulu and Mexico City were in the running, but Rozelle said the league had no interest in going north of the border.

“There are a number of negatives,” he told the USN&WR. “One is the weather. The Canadian football season really ends around Thanksgiving because of the cold weather. And there is also concern that if we moved into one of the major Canadian cities, we could be helping contribute to the death of the Canadian Football League, which we would not want to do.”

All that was big news as the NFL prepared to start its 54th season. And if Rozelle was paying attention (and you know he was), he might’ve noticed that other groups were out to grab a slice of the pro football pie, too.

In fact, 1973 was also the year that not one, not two, but three World Football Leagues were being organized – all with designs on competing with the NFL.

Louis P. Roberts was the first to unveil WFL plans, and he was followed later in the year by Tony Razzano and Louis S. Goldman’s circuit as well as Gary Davidson’s – the latter the only World Football League that made it off the drawing board and onto the playing field.

According to a Philadelphia Inquirer piece from February 27, 1973, Roberts – an insurance executive based in Anniston, Alabama – was looking to convince several millionaires to invest in a 10-city World Football League. The inaugural franchises in 1974 would be selected from Birmingham, Chicago, Dallas, Detroit, Honolulu, Jacksonville, Jersey City, Los Angeles, Memphis, Mexico City, New York, Philadelphia, Phoenix, Seattle, Tulsa and Wichita.

“The cost of a team will be at least $5 million,” Roberts told the Inquirer. “But we prefer the man to have $10 million in backup capital. We expect to line up eight to 10 teams in the next few months and sign the articles of association.”

Roberts had actually been seeking investors since 1972, so give him credit for being the WFL early bird.

Then on October 6, a story broke announcing that Davidson was ready to go with his World Football League for 1974. Chicago was getting the first franchise and Boston, Honolulu, Los Angeles, New York, Tokyo and Toronto were expected to join soon.

“We plan for at least eight and possibly 12 teams operating the first season,” Davidson said to the Associated Press. “We currently are negotiating with 19 groups for franchises covering 15 cities from Mexico City to Vancouver.”

(For the record, Roberts told the Philadelphia Inquirer in 1974 that Robert Schmertz, owner of the WFL New York Stars and John Bassett, who owned the Memphis Southmen, stole his idea and Davidson ran with it.)

Finally, there was the WFL proposed by Razzano and Goldman, which had to change its name to Universal Football League since Davidson beat them to the WFL punch when he held the first press conference.

“We had originally settled on the title of World Football League for our organization, and then when this other group made the announcement, we had to change ours,” Rozzano told the New Castle News for an October 9 story.

Its gimmick was to utilize some key CFL rules (12 men to a side, three downs to make 10 yards, etc.), plus kickoffs from the 20-yard line and field goals of varying point values.

Inaugural franchises were planned for Anaheim, Birmingham, Chicago, Mexico City, Memphis, New York, Phoenix, Tampa, Toronto and Seattle.

As you know, only one of the three pretenders to the NFL throne ever got beyond the idea stage.

They never had a franchise outside the United States, but Davidson’s WFL did make it to market – although its colorful history was short and marked by financial disaster.

Of course, we all know the next wave of NFL expansion came in 1976 when the Seattle Seahawks and Tampa Bay Bandits joined the league. And over time, six of Rozelle’s targets were hit – either through expansion or relocation.

Anaheim, for example, was home of the Los Angeles Rams for 15 seasons (1980-94).

Indianapolis infamously became an NFL city when Mayflower moving fans took the Baltimore Colts to Indiana in 1984.

Phoenix (or at least the Phoenix ‘burbs) tasted the gridiron big leagues when the St. Louis Cardinals headed West in 1988. They were the Phoenix Cardinals for six seasons (1988-93) and have been known as the Arizona Cardinals ever since.

The Carolinas got in the NFL in 1995 with the addition of the Charlotte-based Panthers, and Jacksonville joined them that same year with the birth of the Jaguars.

And Nashville was the new playground of the Houston Oilers after that franchise relocated to Memphis for the 1997 season and made a permanent move to Music City a year later, ultimately rebranding as the Tennessee Titans.

When it comes to the rest of Rozelle’s list, most found homes in upstart leagues – but not in the NFL.

(Birmingham, Columbus, Orlando and San Antonio did get consolation prizes, though, in the form of the NFL-funded World League of American Football). Regardless, it’s fun to look back on what was an active planning year in professional football half a century ago – even though many of those plans were never fully realized.