Category: Alternative Football

Sometimes, the path to NFL stardom is a winding one for quarterbacks.

Joe Theismann took a detour through the Canadian Football League before having a Hall of Fame career with Washington.

Peyton Manning started at Tennessee, was QB1 as a rookie with the Indianapolis Colts, and never missed a beat on the road to Canton.

Shoot, Bart Starr was better known as a safety and punter than a quarterback at Alabama, but became a legend at Green Bay and one of the greatest signal callers to ever take a snap.

Then there’s Roger Staubach, who spent a year at New Mexico Military Institute, won the Heisman Trophy at Navy, and had a four-year gap between college and his NFL debut due to military commitments.

Thanks to the Pensacola Goshawks, however, Staubach wasn’t completely rusty once he began playing for pay.

The Goshawks were a naval base team in Florida, stocked by officers stationed in the Florida Panhandle city. Aside from other military teams, the Goshawks would also compete against small colleges.

In the summer of 1967 Staubach sent a letter to Pensacola Naval Air Station commanding officer Capt. W.R. McDowell asking to play for the Goshawks.

“I have managed to stay in shape and hope to play football for the Naval Air Station,” the letter read. “I miss athletics very much and hope to participate in them at Pensacola if they don’t interfere with my duties.”

Staubach had spent five months as a Land-Air Freight officer in Da Nang before it was learned he would be stationed in Pensacola. At the Naval Academy he set a record for total offense in 1963 with 1,892 yards, winning the Heisman Trophy as a junior. He also had single season records for passing yards in 1964 (1,474) and that same year set marks for most pass attempts (204) and completions (119).

The Dallas Cowboys made him a 10^th round future selection of the NFL Draft, while the American Football League’s Kansas City Chiefs took him in the 16^th round. Both teams were able to draft him as a junior since he was four years out of high school in 1964, but it was with the understanding he’d have to serve in the military before beginning his career as a pro football player.

Needless to say, he would be the most high-profile player the Goshawks had ever “signed.”

Staubach suffered an ankle injury in his senior season of 1964 and hurt his shoulder in the college all-star game that year, which marked his last competition. Once he joined the naval base squad, he had two weeks to prepare for the team’s season opener on September 9, 1967.

“Staubach is in pretty good shape,” Goshawks coach Bob Moss told the Pensacola News Journal for a September 7, 1967 story. “Considering his not playing for a couple of years, he’s in good physical shape.”

Moss, however, refused to anoint Staubach as the full-time starter.

“I may start Staubach or I may start (Ed) Barrett,” Moss said. “Both of them are great quarterbacks. Regardless who starts, both players will see plenty of action.”

They did, and Staubach made the most of his time behind center in the Goshawks’ 47-8 rout of Mexico Polytechnico, going 9-13-0 for 105 yards and a TD pass. When the season ended he had racked up 1,218 yards and 11 TDs through the air, leading his team to a 6-4 record.

In 1968 he threw for 2,542 yards and 20 TDs; the team finished 7-2.

“I realize that after four years people are going to say that I can’t make it in the pros, that I’ve been away too long,” Staubach said in an interview with the Pensacola News Journal. “I don’t know what lies ahead, but I definitely feel that I can make it, that I’m going to make it with Dallas.

“I’m only 26 now and will be 27 in February, so I feel that I’m still young enough. I think I have 10 years of football left. I’m in good physical condition thanks to the two years I’ve been here and played. I’ve worked very hard to stay in shape.”

Staubach said solid competition also helped hone his skills.

“People don’t realize that some of these small college teams have good football teams,” he said. “Working under game conditions against them really helped in many ways. It helped me correct mistakes; throwing to receivers under fire for timing and getting prepared has done me a great deal of good.”

In July, 1969, he was finished with his Navy obligations and free to join the Cowboys.

By the time he was done in Dallas, Staubach had thrown for 22,700 yards and 153 touchdowns, leading the Cowboys to two Super Bowl titles and earning Pro Bowl accolades six times on his way to the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

“I was stationed in Pensacola in 1967 and 1968, and Pensacola played schools such as Southwestern Louisiana, Southeastern Louisiana and Middle Tennessee,” Staubach told the Fort Worth Star-Telegram for a 2013 story. “We had a lot of fun, and the Navy base football teams ended in the 1970s because of the Vietnam War and other reasons. We played on a team with a bunch of Navy pilots and Vietnam veterans.” Turns out, those Navy pilots and Vietnam veterans were pretty good football players, too.

The United States Football League was near and dear to my heart.

I remain smitten with the Canadian Football League.

And if the USFL and CFL had combined forces in 1988, it could’ve been my greatest love of all – gridiron-wise, at least.

I’d like nothing more than to tell you it almost happened, that two of my favorite leagues came tantalizingly close to becoming my one favorite league. If I told you that, though, I’d be lying. But let the record show that a merger of the two was, in fact, proposed by none other than Charles O. Finley on March 2, 1987. And for a brief, shining moment (actually it was roughly 48 hours), visions of a Birmingham Stallions vs. Hamilton Tiger-Cats clash at Legion Field danced in my head.

Here’s how it all played out:

Finley, you might remember, was the colorful and controversial sports mogul/showman who once owned the MLB Oakland Athletics, NHL California Golden Seals and ABA Memphis Tams. By the 1980s he was looking for the next big thing, and thought he might’ve found it in the ruins of the USFL.

The former spring league suspended what was supposed to be its first fall season in 1986 after collecting only $3 in its antitrust suit against the NFL. Despite having no players and no apparent path forward, technically the USFL was still around in early 1987, featuring the Arizona Outlaws, Baltimore Stars, Birmingham Stallions, Jacksonville Bulls, Memphis Showboats, Orlando Renegades, New Jersey Generals and Tampa Bay Bandits.

In March of 1987, Finley proposed merging the CFL with the remnants of the USFL and went to both FOX and Turner Broadcasting with his pitch.

“Charlie has approached us and I think he talked to FOX as well,” Turner Broadcasting Vice President of Sports Programming Rex Lardner told Associated Press. “I think it’s kind of speculative right now. Our response was that we have an interest but we’d love to chat more specifically once things are in place. He indicated to us that they were talking to the CFL and talking to some of the USFL owners.”

Finley wouldn’t say whether all the USFL owners were on board, but insisted there was plenty of interest from big money men who wanted to be part of his proposed North American Football League.

“I’ve been working continuously since November (1986) lining up these U.S. owners with substantial stability, with mighty deep pockets,” Finley said. “I’m happy to state they’re all ready and hot to trot with the CFL teams. A man would have to have rocks in his head not to be interested in a proposition like this.”

In 1988 the CFL had eight franchises, so if all the USFL leftovers were involved it would make for a 16-team league with an even split of clubs north and south of the U.S.-Canada border.

Bandits owner Lee Scarfone was interviewed by the Tampa Tribune and expressed interest in the idea.

“If anyone comes forward with a viable professional football league, the Bandits are definitely interested,” Scarfone said. “But we would only be interested if it was truly a professional league. I do know that people in the CFL feel that a USFL-CFL combination would give them a good opportunity in a great market.”

Frank Kush, still employed as head coach of the USFL’s inactive Arizona team, told Associated Press he had spoken with several CFL executives about a merger.

“I personally think it would be a great idea,” said Kush, who spent a year in Canada coaching the Hamilton Tiger-Cats. “It would be the culmination of both leagues.”

Kush reportedly began pushing the idea as early as January, 1987, before Finley got involved.

Unfortunately for Charlie O., Kush and me, the CFL was not “hot to trot” to sign on. On March 4, CFL Commissioner Doug Mitchell issued a press release that said, in part, “The CFL has received overtures from a group headed by U.S. businessman Charlie O. Finley which, if accepted, would have the CFL playing some form of interlocking schedule with U.S. based teams. The CFL intends to operate in its present format and if any expansion takes place it will occur within the boundaries of Canada.”

Mitchell told the Canadian Press he had, in fact, met with Finley but felt the need to issue the statement to shoot down rumors that former USFL teams would form a Southern Division of the CFL.

“People began to think that it was becoming a reality,” Mitchell said. “I just thought I’d make it known that, no, it’s not a reality.”

And that, as they say, was that.

Finley was still touting the formation of the North American Football League throughout the summer of 1987, this time with eight to 10 U.S. teams and four to six Canadian clubs (but none of them affiliated with the CFL). With Montreal losing the Alouettes in 1987, he planned to put a franchise there.

By September, though, the NAFL had morphed into the International Football League. The IFL would begin play with 10 franchises, including some under the direction of former USFL owners.

“There’s no more NAFL crap because those guys (the CFL) did not want to cooperate,” Finley told the Toronto Globe and Mail. “We’ll have nothing to do with the CFL. They had the opportunity to work with us but didn’t, so we’ll go with the IFL.”

Games would be played June to November on Friday and Saturday nights with a $3 million salary cap per team, 40-man roster, and maximum player wage set at $750,000 per season.

Of course, you know how this story ends. The USFL faded into history, the CFL waited until the 1990s to expand south, and Finley’s football fantasy didn’t materialize.

Thus, the greatest pro football mashup of all-time (at least it would’ve been to me) existed only on paper and during a brief news cycle. The bright side, however, is that since it never happened, the alternative football graveyard was spared another tombstone.