As most of you may or may not have noticed, the second season of the USFL is back!

The strange thing the USFL is doing is that not every team has a home stadium. Last year the USFL played all of their games in Birmingham, Alabama. Now all the games will be played in three stadiums, Birmingham, Detroit and my hometown of Memphis. Memphis has a team this year called The Showboats which was the name of the original team but for whatever reasons changed the colors and the logo. This team replaced the Tampa Bay team for some reason, since that team never played in Tampa Bay to begin with.

The crowd was stark to say the least. The Memphis team probably had the best showing, looking at the stadium, maybe 10,000 people? Another game was played in Birmingham with the Birmingham team and it drew again, maybe 10,000 people? The other two games had literally no spectators. One game even seemed to have pre recorded crowd noise.

The game play wasn’t too bad, except that the kicking seemed to be lacking. I like the XFL point after touchdown rule, no Point After Touchdown, the team can either run it for one, two or three points. The USFL teams just did the kick for the extra point.

This league to me seems more sad than even the XFL. The XFL regular season has concluded and there will be a final four of the ten teams then a championship game. Would sort of be cool if the champion of the USFL and the XFL play against each other for the champion of the two leagues.

But it doesn’t seem to register to the people who dream up these spring professional football leagues that the public doesn’t care about it, because of inferior play and that it isn’t football season, now it’s the end of NBA and MLB. America loves football, but we can wait until September.

Go Showboats!

The USFL has 8 teams, two divisions, and 4 venues, let's take a look:

There are a total of 8 teams in the USFL that make up two divisions:

North Division:

Michigan Panthers

New Jersey Generals

Philadelphia Stars

Pittsburgh Maulers

South Division:

Birmingham Stallions

Houston Gamblers

New Orleans Breakers

Memphis Showboats

Where will games be contested during the 2023 USFL Season?

The New Jersey Generals and Pittsburgh Maulers will be hosted in Canton, Ohio at Tom Benson Hall of Fame Stadium.

The Birmingham Stallions and New Orleans Breakers will be hosted in Birmingham at Protective Stadium.

The Michigan Panthers and Philadelphia Stars will be hosted in Detroit, Michigan at Ford Field.

The Memphis Showboats and Houston Gamblers will be hosted in Memphis, Tennessee at Simmons Bank Liberty Stadium.

The venue set-up is a bit of a head scratcher, I guess you could argue outside of St. Louis and the first game in San Antonio and two games in DC the crowds haven't been good in the XFL so what difference does it make. That said, does it make any sense to have the Jersey team play in Canton which is over 450 miles from the border of New Jersey. Pittsburgh is around 100 miles away, Canton has a population of about 70,000 so who is going to go see any of this in person. The USFL strategy is based on the premise that football is primary a TV game experienced by football fans watching TV.

I didn't know that! I thought it was the USFL from the 1980s.

Since it seems the horrible Dan Snyder is selling the Redskins, also known as the Commanders, if and when the XFL goes bust (and I honestly think it will, although O want them to succeed), Washington should take over the DC Defenders name colors and logo, but the logo from 2020 (the crossed lightning bolts) and not the generic D they have now.

My favorite USFL uniforms are the Philadelphia Stars (which became the Baltimore Stars before dying) and the Pittsburgh Maulers. The Maulers uniform looks a bit like the Steelers however and this is no accident.

DC Defenders have the best record so they might go all the way.

Concerning the USFL, for some reason, the league changed and moved the Tampa Bay Bandits to the Memphis Showboats. Since all the teams played in one venue last year and there was only some attendance for the “home team” Birmingham, I don’t really understand this or why. I don’t really get why they are not seeding their teams in their home cities, some say it’s money, and if that is so, if you cant afford stadium rent on eight teams, maybe you shouldn’t have a league. My favorite helmet of the old USFL is the Oakland Invaders. A fist holding a bolt of lightning!

I don’t understand why the Memphis team had to change their logo and colors for the new team instead of the 1980’s team, since everyone else had basically the same uniforms, slightly updated since then. I have mentioned this before but my hometown of Memphis has had so many minor league football teams. Grizzlies (WFL 1970’s)Showboats (USFL 1.0 1980’s) Mad Dogs (1990’s, Canadian League playing on a field which couldn’t expand) Maniaxs (XFL 1.0 00’s) Express (WLAF 10’s) and now back to the Showboats. Really, Memphis is not that much of a football city. We are content and happy with the NBA (I don’t watch or like NBA, but am happy they gave my city a team so that Memphis at least has a top professional league). Memphis was turned down for an NFL team in the 1990’s only seeing Nashville get a team. Frankly, since this message board is about TV shows, getting into a football team here is like getting into a TV show that gets cancelled. After being burned several times, enough is enough. If I was the USFL, tickets would be $5, fifty cent hot dogs and nachos and $2 beer. But the Mad Dogs did that in the 1990’s and people still didn’t come.

Birmingham has even had more minor football league teams come and go than Memphis.

Lastly, the last professional football team in the state of Michigan to win a championship was the Michigan Panthers in 1983.