Another midsummer playoff football weekend. From scorching heat in Tempe to the cool AC of the Astrodome, football was all the rage this weekend. We had 4 games and 8 teams all building to the Conference Championships and one step closer to the Summer Bowl at the Super Dome in New Orleans. It was a weekend full of tension, drama, glory and heartbreak. Let’s get to it.
Saturday, July 10, 1993 --- RFK Stadium, Washington, DC
It was not final second heroics, but this game between two familiar foes had a bit of everything else and truly delivered as fantastic playoff football. The two teams traded scores throughout the day as both Alan Risher and Don Majkowski had strong days. The big surprise of the day was HB Curvin Richards, who got more carries than Barry Word and rushed for 57 yards, most in the second half. That equaled the total for veteran Mike Rozier of Pittsburgh, who was held largely in check by the Washington defense.
Pittsburgh scored first on a Risher-Pritchard connection with 5 minutes left in the 1st quarter, but when the Maulers got the ball back, a tip at the line of scrimmage became a pick-6 thanks to the quick reflexes of Washington’s Mike Dumas. Washington took the lead 3 minutes later on a Barry Word TD run, but the Maulers came right back to tie at 14 with Risher hitting Raynard Brown. Washington pulled ahead before the half, thanks to a 46-yarder from Ray Wersching, and then a last second Joey Walters TD from Majkowski.
Trailing 23-14 at the half, Pittsburgh wasted no time getting back into it, with Risher connecting for his third TD pass of the day, a beauty of a seam route run by Mike Shaw, and it was 23-21 after 3. In the 4th it was two field goals that would determine the outcome. The Maulers retook the lead briefly after a 24-yard chipshot by Septien, but it was Washington who would put up the final points, a 39-yarder that just barely grazed the inside of the right goalpost on its way through for the Federals’ 26-24 win. Washington will now head to the Conference Championship and a chance to return to the Summer Bowl.
Saturday, July 10, 1993 ---- Astro Dome, Houston, Texas
Saturday’s night game proved to be another grind-it-out defensive showdown as Denver kept Houston in range, but was never able to get the upper hand against the #1 seed. Despite being outgained on the day 388 to 219, the Gold were never fully out of it. They actually put the first points on the board, when a nice 73-yard drive ended with Timmy Smith finding the corner and plunging in from 4 yards out. Houston would quickly recover, and put 3 on the board with their next drive. They would take the lead, one which they would never relinquish, on their final drive of the first quarter, a 51 yard drive after Mark Brunell’s only pick of the day, capped by Thurman Thomas’s goalline dive.
Brunell, who started for the injured Dave Krieg, played close to the vest, mostly completing short dink and dunk passes all game. He finished the game with a 21/35 completion rate (60%) but only 164 yards. Natrone Means and Timmy Smith combined for 22 carries, but yards were tough to come by, and the combo only amassed 47 yards on the day. Meanwhile, Jim Kelly went 18 of 28 for 270 yards and Thurman Thomas rushed 22 times for 100 yards, adding another 84 in the air. Thomas’s touchdown, however, would be the only time the Gamblers found the endzone. They kicked 2 more field goals in the next 2 quarters, and went into the 4th with a 16-7 lead. That 9-point cushion would prove vital, as Denver needed 2 scores in a game where they were not showing any explosiveness.
Houston held Denver to just 1 field goal in the 4th, and then added another of their own (John Kasay’s 4th on the day), and it was all she wrote. The plucky Denver Gold were sent home and the #1 seed advanced to host the Western Conference Championship next week.
Sunday, July 11, 1993 --- Legion Field, Birmingham, Alabama
The first game of the Sunday double header was a wild affair, with neither club seeming to have an answer for the offense of the other. With Jacksonville amassing 512 total yards of offense, and Birmingham surpassing that with 536, it was one of the highest scoring, and most intense games in USFL history. Both quarterbacks flirted with 500-yard games, with Eason throwing for 461 and 6 touchdowns (tying the league record) and Favre throwing for 480 and 4 scores. It was a free for all form the onset as the two teams combined for 28 points in the first quarter alone. Scores from Shannon Sharpe, Hassan Jones, Brent Fullwood, and Jones again gave us a 14-14 first period. In the second, Birmingham had its most decisive quarter, adding 10 points to take a 2-score lead on the Bulls, but when Jacksonville scored first in the second half, Hassan Jones’s 3rd of the day, it was game on again.
Birmingham responded with a Favre to Truitt scoring strike, but once again Jacksonville was game, with Brian Blades scoring from 19 yards out. The shootout continued into the 4th quarter, where once again both teams scored twice. Brent Fullwood and Clarence Collins both scored for the Stallions, who took a seemingly safe 45-28 lead, but in the final minutes Jacksonville got 7 from Lawyer Tillman, recovered an onside kick, then Eason hit HB Vince Workman for the 6th passing TD of the day. It all came down to another attempt at an onside kick, this time with Jacksonville trailing by only 3 points. Stoyanovich got the bounce he wanted, but TE Walter Reeves was not going to muff this kick, and when he snatched it and fell to the turf, the Stallions punched their ticket to the Eastern Conference finals. 87 points and it was decided by an early field goal and the good hands of a backup tight end. What a game!!!
Sunday, July 11, 1993 --- Sun Devil Stadium, Tempe, Arizona
The final game of the weekend kept up the frantic energy of the rest, again a tight game, though it did not always appear it would be. Arizona led 24-7 at the half, but a furious comeback by Bernie Kosar and the Machine proved too much for a tired and overheated Arizona defense. The game started with a temperature in the mid-90’s after being delayed nearly an hour to see if the temperature would drop below 100 degrees. It hit 97 and the league decided to move forward (the temperature did dip to 81 by the 4th quarter).
Arizona, like the field turf, was red hot when the game began, scoring 24 in the first half on 3 Mitchell TD passes, one each to Lester, Hill, and Hawkins. Chicago got 7 form a Wessley Walls TD reception, but seemed destined to fade away as the game wore on. Quite the opposite occurred. Chicago came out for the second half and put 10 on the board to pull back to a 7-point deficit. Despite a Trumaine Johnson TD catch which boosted the lead back to 14 (31-17), Chicago was unphased, and when the 4th quarter began, it was the Wranglers, not the Machine, that faded down the stretch. Arizona gained only 78 yards in the final period, while Chicago racked up nearly 250, including drives that ended with a Reggie Langhorne TD, a Michael Haynes TD, and, with 22 seconds left in the game, a John Carney 40 yarder that gave Chicago the lead and the win.
In a game that saw both teams move the ball well, we had something unexpected in that both clubs had solid ground games. Chicago’s Albert Bentley finished the day with 95 yards and a TD, while Arizona got a great game from fill-in power back Tim Lester, who broke out some huge runs against a tired Chicago defense, gaining 129 yards on only 10 carries. But, in the end, it was Bernie Kosar’s 281 yards passing and 3 TD’s which did in the Wranglers and set up Chicago for a huge game in Houston next week.
Four teams left, three we pretty much expected in Houston, Birmingham and Washington, and one upstart crashing the party in Chicago. We also have four of the game’s best quarterbacks in Kelly, Favre, Majkowski and Kosar. It should be explosive as each club tries to figure out if they can outpace their opponent. Defense has been in short supply this postseason and both of these games look like they have the potential to come down to who has the ball last.
WASHINGTON @ BIRMINGHAM: The unstoppable force against the immovable object, also known as Brett Favre vs. the Washington Front Four. Can Manley and the Feds get to Favre and force him to throw some poorly-chosen passes, or will Favre have the time to find his receivers and get the ball deep? That is the key to the game. Sure, Washington will try to milk the clock with their run game, and Birmingham will stack the box, but we all know it comes down to a QB vs a DE in the end. Got to go with Favre on this one. Birmingham has shown they can protect him, and if they do, it will be a Stallions win.
CHICAGO @ HOUSTON: As division foes, Houston and Chicago have met twice this season, with the Gamblers coming out on top both times. But, you know what they say about a team beating another 3 times in the same year. Houston would seem to have all the advantages, but we won’t count Chicago out because they have shown that they can stick with even the best teams. Their last loss to Houston in Week 15 was only by 6 points, and they have hung tough in game after game. Do they have enough, we are not sure, but we expect it to be close. That is just what Chicago does.
NEW YORK CITY—July, 13
The big news has arrived, today the USFL bigwigs made it official. The rumors out of Columbus are correct, and the Ohio Glory will be joining the USFL in 1995. The second team was also announced, and in what appears to have been a close decision, Seattle will be joining the league in 1995 as well. So, we now know our four expansion cities and 3 of 4 identities. 1995 will have the Los Angeles Express return to the Pacific Division, where they will be joined by a yet-to-be-named Seattle franchise. The St. Louis Knights will be reassigned to the Central Division, the only division not to get an expansion club. The Atlantic Division will be adding Ohio as a rival to Pittsburgh, and the Southern Division will be the home to the Atlanta Fire.
The celebration in Columbus, Ohio was immediate, with the governor hosting an event at the State House, complete with red, white, and blue confetti, and the guests of honor, the Ohio Glory owners, real estate magnate Daniel Galbreath, Ann Arbor based Domino's Pizza President Thomas Monaghan, and former astronaut and U.S. Senator from Ohio, John Glenn. The club officially unveiled their logo, an eagle head, holding a trailing red and white banner, all on a flag blue circle, which harkens to the Ohio State flag as well as to the symbols used by NASA for various space missions. The team colors will be, officially, flag blue, firework red, and white. The Glory will play at Ohio State University’s Ohio Stadium, which has a seating capacity of just over 91,000 seats, though it is expected that some of the upper levels will be covered by team logo tarps to reduce capacity to somewhere around 55,000. It will still be one of the larger venues in the league.
Seattle will be owned by an LLC headed by Microsoft executive and owner of the Portland Trailblazers, Paul Allen and including manufacturing giant John Edson, and the owner of Seattle’s NBA Club, the Supersonics, Barry Ackerly. The team will play their home games at the University of Washington’s Husky Stadium, north of downtown in the University district. The stadium has a capacity of 72,500, and, like Washington, will likely tarp off upper decks to create a more cozy 45,000 seat stadium unless demand requires more. The team plans to run a name the team contest through the Seattle Times and local ABC affiliate KOMO. With both Mariners baseball and the Supersonics also playing through the summer, there are questions about fanbase, but with Seattle being a very strong corporate city, with a growing population and a high-income level population, there is anticipation that Seattle’s USFL fanbase can draw from fans of the Seahawks, as well as those who may feel priced out by NFL ticket costs.
All four clubs will be stocking their rosters with players in an expansion draft to be held in October of 1994 and through the USFL Collegiate Draft in February of 1995. Atlanta has named their head coach already, former Broncos head man, Dan Reeves, and LA has scheduled a press conference later this week, where they too are expected to be naming the coach who will help guide them in the expansion process. With Columbus and Seattle being added later, we do not anticipate coaching announcements until later this fall, possibly not until the end of the NFL season in January, when several coaches will reach the end of their current contracts.
LOS ANGELES—July 15
The Los Angeles Express have their new head ball coach, and he is a name familiar to USFL fans everywhere. LA has opted to go sign a former USFL player, and the youngest head coach in pro football. Today at Angel Stadium, the Express presented former Arizona Wrangler and San Antonio Gunslinger quarterback Rick Neuheisel as their new head coach. Neuheisel, who retired from the USFL after injuries cut short his 1987 season in San Antonio. Since that time the UCLA grad has been coaching with quarterbacks at his alma mater. He was named to be the Offensive Coordinator for UCLA before the USFL came calling.
With only 6 years of coaching, Neuheisel is green, but he has also been credited for helping to develop talent such as Troy Aikman and Tommy Maddox. Serving under Tom Donahue, the legendary UCLA head coach, Neuheisel has quickly risen up the coaching tree and was considered for several OC jobs across the western states, but has chosen instead to come back to the USFL. His first order of business may well be to find a quarterback. Tommy Maddox may be at the top of that list, the 1988 grad of UCLA has been a backup to John Elway in Denver after being drafted in 1992, and may be an option when his contract expires after the 1994 NFL season. But, let’s let Rick get his feet into an office, and an LA hat on his head before we start speculating too hard about who his QB will be two seasons from now.
When asked if any of his former USFL teammates may find a place on his coaching staff, Neuheisel joked, perhaps half seriously, saying “Well, a good number of my teammates are still around, playing ball, but if I could sign up one guy right now, it would be Putt Choate, the most dedicated linebacker I ever played with and a real terror on the field, even during practice.”
TAMPA BAY---July 16th
The Tampa Bay Bandits, still smarting from a very disappointing 5-11 season, still mourning the loss of owner John Bassett, and still in search of a Head Coach after the resignation of Steve Spurrier, are turning over a new leaf. A part of their new start is a new look, thanks to the folks at Nike. While the colors and the primary logo, the masked rider, remain the same, there are some noteworthy changes to the Bandits’ look. First of all, Nike has created a secondary logo, a TB monogram with a black cowboy hat very reminiscent of the won worn by minority owner Burt Reynolds in his box office smash Smokey & the Bandit movies. The second are the use of thin, curved pant stripes and matching side panel and yoke piping on the red and white jerseys. Again, we think there is a nod here to Reynold’s and his films, as the jerseys now take on the look of a Western button down shirt’s embroidery. Nike has not come out and said it, but it makes sense to us that they are embracing a “good ole’ boy” look and the flamboyant personality of the former FSU football player and Hollywood icon, Reynolds as they start to rebuild their team around another country boy, QB Troy Aikman. Here is a look at the new look Bandit gear:
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