I remember a young fella who started his professional football career with the Memphis Showboats. The young man was handed a fat contract and did what any young man might do. He went shopping. There was a salesman in a clothing store who got into a bit of trouble for taking advantage of the young guy with the newly acquired bankroll. He sold him (among other things I'm sure) something like $400 worth of socks. That young man was future Hall-of-famer Reggie White. The thing to do at the games was to bring a pair of socks to wave and help cheer on the defense.
Great post. I wrote about the USFL back in January of 2006: www.runner-up.org Here's an excerpt: Despite that, the influence of the USFL has been significant. The league was the first to allow two-point conversions in professional football, and also pioneered the use of instant-replay technology to challenge officials' rulings on the field. Both innovations have since been adopted by the NFL. In addition, the owners of the new franchises (including Donald Trump, who owned the New Jersey Generals) were willing to take chances on young players, and as a result, some of the USFL's superstars went on to illustrious careers in the NFL. These included Herschel Walker, Doug Flutie, Jim Kelly, Reggie White, Steve Young and Bobby Hebert. Many NFL coaches also got their first chance to coach professionally in the USFL, including Jim Mora, Steve Spurrier, and Lindy Infante. As well, veteran NFL coaches like George Allen and Marv Levy (who also coached in the Canadian Football League) were attracted by the new league.
Two corrections are in order: First, from the original article: "The USFL had all the green lights to making it, unlike the World Football League, the American Football League, and (cue to snicker aloud) ... the XFL." Ummm, the American Football League did make it. It's now called the AFC of the NFL. The old AFL was the most successful of any alternative league in American sports history. The entire league merged with, and heavily influenced, the older, stuffier NFL. And from jmcnally: "Despite that, the influence of the USFL has been significant. The league was the first to allow two-point conversions in professional football . . ." Bzzzt! No, it was the AFL that first allowed two-point conversions. The AFL also put names on the backs of football jerseys for the first time, and did allow players to mess around with the form, like Edward McDaniel for the Dolphins, who used "Wahoo" on his back. FYI.
He is a Boston College Eagle through and through. I think maybe my sense of humor is a bit rusty. I was trying to make a bit of a funny alluding to vito's comment. Ya' see, we were both going for the "really, man has landed on the moon?' sort of vibe. Speaking of the XFL, I hear that some of those rasslin' matches are staged.
