The Baltimore Stars would be the defending champions.
For those pining for a Birmingham Stallions, Pittsburgh Maulers matchup, well that could happen in 2022. The United States Football League may be back on the field 37 years after the group’s last snap. Brian Woods, one of the league’s backers, has the old USFL names and logos and what seems to be a minor deal with Rupert Murdoch’s FOX television outfit. But there is little information about the league in terms of how many teams will take the field, where those teams may be located and what coaches and players might want to sign up with the group. The new USFL could go head-to-head with the second revival of the XFL, a league that failed in 2001 and 2020. The XFL could merge with the Canadian Football League. There is one certain thing, neither the National Football League or college football will have to worry about the competition. The USFL will not get sweetheart deals from municipalities, the league teams will be strictly rentals in terms of using a stadium. There won’t be much TV or streaming video money for the enterprise and the entity won’t get big money from luxury suites or club seats.
Spring leagues have come and gone with the most successive being the United States Football League which lasted three years between 1983 and 1985. USFL owners had a lot of things going for them, a TV deal, the use of NFL stadiums and fan interest. Ultimately league owners could not manage budgets and lost millions upon millions of dollars and while the league did win an antitrust lawsuit against the National Football League in 1986, a jury awarded USFL owners a buck that was tripled and the USFL owners threw in the towel. Springtime football is a costly endeavor which is why it has not been successful.
Tampa Bay Bandits left guard Chuck Pitcock, right, lands a right hook to the mask of Oakland Invaders? defensive end Dave Browning, whose head goes reeling back during the first half of their USFL game, June 30, 1985 in Oakland. The skirmish took place after a Tampa Bay fumble and the Invaders? Browning was given a unnecessary roughness penalty on the play in their first round playoff game. (AP Photo/Eric Risberg)