Author Chronicles the Rise and Fall of the USFL

Tina Cervasio talked one-on-one with New York Times bestselling author Jeff Pearlman about his book "Football for a Buck: The Crazy Rise and Crazier Demise of the USFL."
In their conversation, Pearlman told Cervasio about the hundreds of interviews he did to collect stories about the now defunct USFL. Some are crazy, many are inspiring, others will make you yearn for the 1980s when football was played in spring and fall. Brawls and bad business deals were a plenty.
Pearlman really opened up about how when he was writing the book one of the former USFL owners-Donald Trump-launched his the presidential election campaign and won.
Hear the parallels Jeff has discovered over the years, from how Trump took down the USFL by taking on the NFL and things he continues to do today in his presidency.
www.jeffpearlma...
#Football #USFL #DonaldTrump

[@71dupuis]

In another interview, Jeff talked about how Giants owner Wellington Mara took a dollar bill out of his wallet in the courtroom and handed it to Trump, lol!

[@MrCigarro50]

It is the same with Mexico, Trump tried three times to build a "first class" resort and failed. Same as with the USFL. But we hope for him to do a good work, if America does well, the whole world does well.

[@71dupuis]

RIP Sam Mills!

[@NJGuy1973]

I read the book. The chapter on the San Antonio Gunslingers alone made it worth it. As one former employee put it, you couldn't make a movie about that team because no one would believe it.

[@chrispap4957]

Lost my purple Mauler shirt. My girl I hope 🤞 and think gonna get me new one for Xmas. She hates sports but loves me and think she’ll make my Xmas and remember...

[@davidcollison8973]

The USFL was awsome! I still love watching USFL games on KZbin. Great football and a lot of fun. When Trump got the Generals I knew the league was in trouble. I was 18 and could see that with the money they were spending and the empty seats something wasn’t adding up.

[@FAITHandLOGIC]

Riiiiiight. The empty seats in LA, Chicago, Detroit,.etc. was the fault of Trump. 😅🤣😂

[@rockvilleraven]

FAITHandLOGIC I think even if Trump didn't get involved, the league would have died a slower death.

[@ivanduncan3145]

rockvilleraven Not if they stayed in the spring. It would have ended up being a farm league for the NFL

[@marcpower4167]

I don't think Trump was doing anything in the USFL other owners weren't already doing, it's just he was so high profile it was made more obvious. The problem was overspending, if they had actually enforced the salary cap it may have survived. Clinton Manges should never have been given a franchise. The Gunslingers were an absolute mess. Moving to the fall was a mistake, and sadly ABC had offered them a $175 million deal to stay in the spring/summer. That would have bailed them out and given them a chance to be a solid #2 football league.

[@anthony0358]

The ESPN Documentary "Small Potatoes" Also raised the same issues about President Trump. I have such fond memories of the USFL . It also shows how incompetent Hilary Clinton was not to raise this issue during the campaign. Sports fans might have identified with that. The league did not stick to their plan of Spring Football, they also expanded too fast. I think they started with 12 teams and went to 18 in just 2 years.

[@j-fpilote1576]

That 1984 expansion is equally responsible as Agent Orange's move to the fall. Should have stuck to the AFL plan in 1960's: stability, no expansion in first 5 seasons, move agt rival league for player talent only after signing huge TV deal.

[@anthony0358]

that is a very good point, here we were in 1983, only 20 years after the AFL started in 1960 and the USFL did not stick to the plan. I recall in 1982, when I first heard about the new spring league, their core values were "football in the spring only" and "not competing with the NFL"

[@louisbologna4089]

@Anthony Mark your absolutely right the league tried to get to big to quick. If the usfl would have held off on expanding and when they would expand do it slowly and also Trump trying to compete with the NFL killed this awesome league! I live in Detroit and was fortunate enough to go to the Silverdome for the semifinals the first season and at that time was a record crowd for the usfl with over 65,000 at the Silverdome and all the fans stormed the field after the Panthers beat Oakland Invaders

[@utubeuseronline3385]

Pearlman better be careful or Trump will be suing him for 5 billion dollars

[@petezm]

Usfl was much, much funnier than the nfl. Dont know why, but there was something in usfl...players played for fun Dont know how to explain...

[@martinmcbeth6578]

Sports economist "expert," Jeff Pearlman, "just loved the league, just loved the colors, loved the uniforms, loved the helmets, loved the names ... and it was fun." So much more to the economics of the whole pro sports industry then (1980s) and today other than yet another never-run-anything lefty career journo hating on Trump. "The USFL _was kinda of rolling along_ " ... . The USFL was bleeding money. It lost around $163,000,000 in three years. Nothin' but chump change if you asked Barack Obama, of course. Tina Cervasio: So is this a political book though? Answer: NO!!! It is a book about football! Tina Cervasio: "Could the USFL survived if things had gone differently?" Answer: "If they'd stayed in Spring. If they'd stuck to the plan. And if they _sort of_ didn't let Donald Trump _kind of_ take over and ..." And there you have it. If only Hillary Clinton had become President. And if only the Kennedy's had owned a team in the USFL. And if only AFL1, 2, 3, and the AAFC; and the WHA, and the ABA, and the rival rebel rugby leagues (League and Union), and Packer's World Series Cricket et al., had all stuck to their plans we would all be experiencing so much more fun with pro sports all around the world. Remember, the USFL was "kinda rolling along." To wit: _The USFL accused the NFL of interfering with the younger league's chances of getting a network TV deal, increasing its rosters so the younger league wouldn't have any good players, tampering with USFL players already under contract, hogging all the referees, hogging all the coaches, insulting the USFL in public, and not letting the USFL teams use any of the big stadiums in the country._ _Now does that sound like the NFL? Sure it does. And maybe the league would have had to stop all that if the jury had given the USFL enough money to keep in going. Instead, it decided that all the NFL was guilty of was monopolizing football, and that was worth three bucks - which barely equaled the gate receipts at an Arizona Outlaws game._ [...] _Even if they had won the appeal, the USFL owners knew it wouldn't revive the USFL. That would be like trying to put Humpty Dumpty back together again, and Humpty had more friends and at least as good a sense of balance as the USFL._ "Sport$biz," 1989, Martin J. Greenberg and Dale Hofmann (out of print)

[@Stonewall29]

You must be a blast at parties

[@SuperMathewson]

@@Stonewall29 Depends on the party, if there's a cross burning, I'm sure he'd be a delight

[@HonestUAWElectrician]

He's not lying though. It's very very easy to point the finger at Trump, but that league was doomed from the start.

[@theprolificnetwork4670]

Sam Mills Gary Plummer Bart Oates Gary Zimmerman miles Tannenbaum

[@chrispap4957]

I’m a bit younger than Jeff. I live in Pgh. Love Pitt and college football and loved the USFL. I hate the Steelers and not an NFL fan. Like I said I love college football, if not for fantasy football wouldn’t watch a second of the NFL. But I friggin loved the USFL as a kid. Absolutely loved it