Daryl Johnston has been on both ends of the spectrum when it comes to startup football leagues.
In 2019, he served as general manager of the Alliance of American Football’s San Antonio Commanders, and watched the circuit implode before completing its first and only season – leaving behind bad debts and bad feelings.
Now the former Dallas Cowboys fullback is president of football operations for the United States Football League. And after meeting all its financial obligations in Year One and garnering solid television ratings, the USFL has returned.
Johnston likes where it’s headed.
“We hosted the Birmingham Stallions (on Monday at Protective Stadium) and passed out their championship rings,” Johnston said during a Tuesday morning press conference. “And it was really kind of a full circle moment for us because the room we hosted the event in was actually the room we did our inaugural draft back in February of 2022.
“We’re just really, really excited to kick off the season here in Year Two and bring high quality football to the fans of the USFL, and I cannot wait until we are crowning our Year Two champion next season as we get ready for season three. But there’s a lot of work to do before we get to that point.”
After Birmingham served as the hub for all eight teams in 2022, the league will have four sites this spring. Birmingham will be home to the Stallions and New Orleans Breakers; Memphis hosts the Showboats and Houston Gamblers; the Michigan Panthers will play in Detroit, along with the Philadelphia Stars; and the New Jersey Generals and Pittsburgh Maulers will call Canton home for 2023.
“We’ve actually moved out into four hubs throughout our league, and that was in response to a lot of the feedback we had from our fan base,” Johnston explained. “You know, one of the things they wanted to do was to see those full stadiums when the home teams were playing, and it was really hard for us to accomplish that with Birmingham basically having a home game every weekend. And our other teams, when they played, really didn’t have that same support.
“So, one of the things we wanted to do was start to get our teams into their home markets – or as close to their home markets as we can – and give them that opportunity that Birmingham had last season.”
The Memphis Showboats replace the Tampa Bay Bandits for the 2023 campaign, and have the honor of hosting the first USFL regular season game outside Birmingham.
The Showboats kick off the new season at 3:30 p.m. CDT on Saturday when they welcome the Philadelphia Stars to Simmons Bank Liberty Stadium.
Todd Haley, who guided the Bandits to a 4-6 record in 2022, is helming the Showboats.
“Daryl called me this summer and he said, ‘How would you feel about coaching the Memphis Showboats?” and I said it sounds great. And then he added, ‘You’re going to be in Memphis,” and that got me really excited,” Haley said. “I came down here for the opening press conference, got to see a little bit of Memphis. I’ve been in and out a few times, but really excited about everything that I’ve seen here.
“I mean, our facility here at Simmons Bank Liberty stadium is phenomenal. The locker room that we’re able to utilize is phenomenal. That gets the players excited. You know, just a first-class setup, and I think it’s only gonna get better.”
USFL head of officiating Mike Pereira was also on hand for the presser and gave updates on a few rule changes and tweaks in store for this spring and summer.
“We are always concerned about the pace of play, and the overall length of the game,” Pereira said. “And about Week Three last year, we had games that were lasting longer than three hours. So, we put in a rule that said that we would wind the clock after incomplete passes in the first and third quarters. It still really didn’t get the overall time of the game down to where we wanted it to, or where we wanted it to be. Therefore, this year, we’re expanding that winding after incomplete passes into the second and fourth quarters also, up until the five-minute mark of each one of those quarters, then the clock will remain stopped after the incomplete passes.
“We’re shooting for a game that falls into a window of around two hours and 45 minutes, maybe two hours and 55 minutes.”
Perhaps the biggest change – and best news for league offenses – is an alteration of the forward fumble rule.
“We did change a rule that got discussed every year when I was at the competition committee, and I was against changing it, but I got beat down a little bit,” Pereira said. “The rule has always been that when you fumble the ball forward and out of bounds in the field of play, the ball goes back to the spot of the fumble and the fumbling team keeps the ball. But the rule has been if you fumbled it forward into the end zone or into the pylon and out of bounds of the end zone, then it turned into a touchback and everybody – I mean I think every fan – felt that the rule was unfair. And so, we changed it. We’re treating all forward fumbles that go out of bounds the same even if it’s in the end zone. The ball goes back to the fumbling team at the spot of the fumble.”
Teams will also carry three quarterbacks this year. The third will remain inactive unless the first two quarterbacks are knocked out of the game. And kickoffs have been moved back to the 20-yard line to ensure even more runbacks.
Rules notwithstanding, the goal of the league is to provide quality entertainment for fans while giving players another chance to make the leap to the NFL. “Guys in this league have seen some guys extend their dream and make it into the NFL, and we embrace that as coaches and as the USFL,” Haley said. “So, we’re rooting for those kinds of things to happen. And when they see guys make it and stick on an NFL team and have success, that just builds the excitement even more because there’s just not enough spots in the NFL for all the talented players we have out there that love this game of football.”