Will the USA go by the way of the USFL

"Mike, give Trump a chance...you see he's a great businessman, he'll get things done." You see, I already did that long ago…

It was 1982 and I was in High School. I was suffering through the NFL strike, which eliminated 7 weeks from the regular season. And yes, I was just as rabid a football fan back then…maybe even more so. I had football withdrawal. However when playing resumed, I sported my “I survived the NFL strike” T-shirt. But losing almost 2 months of football was not easy to digest. But alas, I would soon learn that a new football league would be starting in the spring of 1983. Also, football year round! I’m in! Even though I just learned about it, apparently it had been in the works since I was born! They knew…

The USFL was the brainchild of David Dixon who had been instrumental in bringing the New Orleans Saints to town. In 1965, he envisioned football as a possible spring and summer sport. Over the next 15 years, he studied the last two challengers to the NFL's dominance of pro football, the American Football League and the World Football League. In 1980, he commissioned a study by Frank Magid Associates that found promising results for a spring and summer football league. He'd also formed a blueprint for the prospective league's operations, which included early television exposure, heavy promotion in home markets, and owners willing to absorb years of losses, which he felt would be inevitable until the league found its feet. He also assembled a list of prospective franchises located in markets attractive to a potential television partner. With respected college and NFL coach John Ralston as the first employee, Dixon signed up 12 cities, nine where there already were NFL teams and three where there were not. The Dixon Plan called for teams in top TV markets to entice the networks into offering the league a TV deal. All but two of the 12 initial teams were located in the top 13 media markets in the US. After almost two years of preparation, Dixon formally announced the USFL's formation at the 21 Club in New York City on May 11, 1982, to begin play in 1983. ESPN president Chet Simmons was named the league's first commissioner in June 1982.

David Dixon took over 17 years of planning and preparation into this venture. Donald Trump would destroy it in two.

Before the USFL would start, our friends gathered round to pick a favorite team. I had liked Detroit a little from watching them on Thanksgiving…it was always root for the Lions and against the Cowboys. So when I saw there was a team in Michigan, I picked them. I didn’t even know what their mascot would be. Over the course of a few weeks I found out they would be the Panthers. Not bad, as a Steeler fan the local college was the Panthers. A good sign. Also, the USFL implemented a draft where teams had the first right to sign local college stars to help give the teams an identity. I thought this was brilliant, follow your home town college favorites into the league. Well, for the Panthers one of the colleges was Wisconsin, who at that time was one of my favorite NCAA football teams. But wait, there’s more. The Panthers, as other USFL teams did, raided some of the NFL teams for talent. The Panthers would sign 3 offensive linemen from the Steelers, including Ray Pinney and defensive end John Banaszak. It was shaping up pretty nicely.

The schedule soon arrived and the Panthers would open on Monday night, March 7, 1983. I had seen the logo in black and white, but did not know the exact colors. When the team took the field that night in their Royal Plum, Champagne Silver, Light Blue uniforms I was hooked! And there, my favorite player from Wisconsin, safety David Greenwood, stood in #31. It was a sloppy game but the Panthers prevailed 9-7. Spring football was here, and Mikey liked it. However, the Panthers would go on to lose the next 4 games to go 1-4, but I did not abandon them. Finally in a rain soaked game at the Meadowlands, against the New Jersey Generals, they turned it all around. It would start a 13-2 run that would end up culminating with a win in the first ever USFL Championship game. The New Jersey General’s, who started their dominance, would ironically be a part of their demise. You see, in September 1983, the New Jersey Generals were sold to real estate magnate Donald Trump.

Trump had always envisioned owning an NFL team. However, you need to be voted on by the existing NFL owners to own such a prestigious franchise. And they would have none of him. Thwarted, he saw an opening…and the chickens let the fox into the henhouse. The USFL owners who were competing dollar for dollar with NFL team's players felt Trump’s money would give them the edge they needed. He signed big name players and boasted he would have the team to beat. His team however would fail to win even one playoff game. But putting a winner on the field was not his motive…and the USFL owners would soon find that out. He started pushing his fellow owners to move the league's games to the fall and go head-to-head with the NFL. "If God wanted football in the spring," Trump once said, "he wouldn't have created baseball." He ignored years of research by David Dixon. The Donald said he knew better…where have we heard this before. Instead of continuing spring football, Trump had hoped to compete head to head with the NFL. His ultimate goal was not to save the fledgling league, but that the NFL would absorb a team or two, more specifically HIS team into the NFL. He would then have his wish of owning an NFL team realized. In his usual con-man antics, he was able to convince the owners this was the right thing to do.  In preparation for the move, they had to realign the teams that could not play fall football in certain NFL cities. One of those teams was the Michigan Panthers. After the 1984 season, with only 2 years of their existence, the Panthers folded as per Trump’s marching orders. They would combine with the Oakland Invaders, but they had lost this fan forever. My team, my spring football taken away...by a spoiled rich kid who wanted to play with the big boys. And how did that go? Well after the league's third season, they announced a fall schedule in 1986. The USFL would never play another game.

Trump tried to force the NFL owners hand. But they were not falling for it. Trump took them to court…where technically he did win. But what did the judge award him? Millions? The right for the USFL to play in the fall? Maybe even that the NFL had to absorb his team? No, this man you elected to run our Country, this failed businessman...if we could see his taxes, was awarded $1. But wait…good news, he was due triple indemnity…so he actually got the USFL three dollars. Trump's ego took a man’s lifelong dream, a fan base watching spring football and a kid’s passion…and threw it away for his own selfish reasons. The NFL owners recognized long ago he did not belong running a franchise.

Too bad America didn’t see the same thing.