‘Who killed the USFL?’ ESPN takes a look
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(by MEL BRACHT | The Daily Oklahoman)
ESPN’s next "30 for 30” film at 7pm tonight looks at the three-year existence of the United States Football League in Small Potatoes: Who Killed the USFL?.
The short answer in Peabody Award-winning director Mike Tollin’s excellent film: a greedy Donald Trump. Other factors included overexpansion in its second season of 1984 — including the addition of the Tulsa-based Oklahoma Outlaws — and the death of Tampa Bay Bandits owner John Bassett, who had urged league owners to show fiscal restraint.
Trump, who bought the New Jersey Generals from Oklahoma City oilman J. Walter Duncan Jr., pushed owners to move play from the spring to the fall and go head-to-head with the NFL. The league never made it that far after its antitrust suit against the NFL produced only a $3 judgment.
After being handed the actual check, which with interest had grown to $3.76, Trump abruptly ended his interview with Tollin, a former USFL employee.
Duncan, who died in February at age 92, joked about the league’s beginnings and his signing of Heisman Trophy winning running back Herschel Walker, one of several stars who joined the league.
"A bunch of guys got together and had a few beers and decided to form this league,” he said. "I had one too many and decided to sign Herschel.”
Walker, and the film’s large sampling of players and coaches spoke fondly of their USFL memories.
