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HOW DONALD TRUMP DESTROYED A FOOTBALL LEAGUE

An oral history of the rise and fall of the USFL.

By Drew Jubera
Jan 13, 2016


Editor's Note: This story was published in January 2016, when Donald Trump still
looked like a long-shot candidate.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Before barreling through what he dismisses as his loser, low-energy,
blood-coming-out-of-their-whatever opposition and shaking up politics as usual,
Donald Trump was trying to shake the high holy shit out of professional
football. He was just 37—a budding rogue rich guy with flyaway sandy (not yet
orange) hair and a trophy first wife named Ivana. He'd just built a 68-story
glass tower in the middle of Manhattan and, to make sure people noticed, put his
name on it. In bronze. He'd soon open his first Atlantic City casino, slapping
his name on that, too. Even back then, Trump wanted what he still wants most:
more.

So in 1983 he bought a football team, joining a confederacy of other rich rogues
who had just completed their first season of the United States Football League.
The business plan: compete with the NFL—sport's one true, grim superpower, whom
USFL owners mocked as the No Fun League—but not directly against it. The
twelve-team USFL played its games in the spring, encouraged excessive end zone
celebrations (the NFL penalized them), and allowed both replay challenges and
two-point conversions after touchdowns (the NFL still didn't permit either).
Games were televised on ABC and an upstart cable channel called ESPN.

Trump purchased the New Jersey Generals from J. Walter Duncan, a laidback
Oklahoma oil tycoon who got homesick travelling each weekend to watch his team
play ("You weren't going to outsmart him," one observer said of Duncan. "But you
might be able to out-talk him"). With Heisman Trophy winner Herschel Walker
already in the backfield, the Generals had been the league's flagship
underachiever. They won just six games against opponents that stretched from
Tampa Bay (whose halftime promotions included seven-car giveaways and the
burning of mortgages) to Birmingham to Los Angeles, where the league eventually
took over a team almost nobody came to watch. By the next season, when Trump
bought in, the league swelled to eighteen cities—a money grab by owners to
collect millions in franchise fees and soften their growing losses.



Trump and Herschel Walker, 1983.
The Sporting News
Advertisement - Continue Reading Below




The Generals' fortunes rose instantly, but the league's did not. The USFL
collapsed after just three seasons. Yet its Trumpian storyline hews eerily close
to today's. The Donald made a media-inhaling, savior-is-born entrance; surged
beyond expectations; then went all in on his attempt to upend the entrenched NFL
by pushing his fellow owners to move games to the fall in hopes of inciting a
merger. The bet brought the league, already in failing health, crashing down.
Critics blame Trump's hubris. Haters wait for a similar last act in the upcoming
Republican primaries.

"You can cut and paste the USFL and the GOP and it's the same damn story," says
Charley Steiner, radio voice of the Generals and now play-by-play man for the
Los Angeles Dodgers. "It's all about him and the brand and moving on to the next
thing if it doesn't work out."

Others, like Buffalo Bill Hall of Fame quarterback Jim Kelly, remain friends
with Trump, and while they see parallels between The Donald then and The Donald
now, they aren't betting against him.

"It's like when he came into the USFL," Kelly says of Trump's hell-with-'em
nomination campaign for president. Kelly starred for the run-and-shoot Houston
Gamblers before that team merged with the Generals, not long before the league
folded. "And here he is as a kind of bull in the china shop again."

His take on Trump's odds now: "He does everything big, whether it's big
buildings or a presidential candidacy. He always shoots for the stars and
usually gets what he wants. Except the NFL."


ENTRANCE

Jimmy Gould (Generals president): When we had the announcement at Trump Tower
when [Duncan] sold him the team, it was a big deal. Trump was Mr. New York, here
to salvage the USFL. The league should've paid him. The league was dying, and
here came this massive shot of steroids.

This content is imported from Third party. You may be able to find the same
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Lawrence Taylor (Hall of Fame linebacker for the New York Giants, who signed and
then backed out of a contract with the Generals): Donald was the mogul of the
USFL. He was a major pain in the ass to the NFL. I liked him a lot. Heck, he was
my kinda guy.

Advertisement - Continue Reading Below


Jim McVay (director of marketing for the Tampa Bay Outlaws): Trump brought a lot
of glamour and attention. I thought it was good for the league. You had the San
Antonio team: players had a gumball rally [a car race down the highway] to get
to the bank to get their checks cashed. There was a lot of that going on.



Joe McNally



Kelly: Trump was a businessman. He had money. We needed that. There were players
that weren't getting paid after games. He had the money to pay the players to
play. That's what we wanted.

Gary Barbaro (Pro Bowl defensive back for the Kansas City Chiefs who played one
season with the Generals): When I went to New York to sign, we pulled up to
Trump Tower. That was a good indication of the kind of personality you were
dealing with. When I signed the contract, I was looking out the window at
Central Park. Trump Tower is actually one block away from the park. He bought
the air rights to the buildings in front of him so no one blocked his view. I
thought that was kind of interesting.



> "Trump was Mr. New York, here to salvage the USFL. The league was dying, and
> here came this massive shot of steroids."

Advertisement - Continue Reading Below




Steve Ehrhart (USFL executive director): He had so much enthusiasm, so much
energy, so much positive-ness. He said, "We've got to make this league as great
as it can be. We're going to take on everybody."

Gould: We had to meet and figure out what to do about cheerleaders. I had to
work with Ivana. She wanted to put on a really big presentation at the Trump
Tower.



Trump and Andy Warhol, 1983.
Mario Suriani/AP



Andy Warhol (from The Andy Warhol Diaries): I was a judge at the cheerleading
tryouts for the New Jersey Generals….They were having them in the basement part
of Trump Tower. It was the final tryout, and I was supposed to be there at 12:00
but I took my time and went to church and finally moseyed over there around
2:00. This is because I still hate the Trumps because they never bought the
paintings I did of the Trump Tower. So I got there and they were already up to
the fiftieth girl and there were only twenty left to go. Another guy had been
filling in for me and he handed me his pad and I took over. I didn't know how to
score….People like LeRoy Neiman were the other judges. He said he voted for
anybody who could kick. Ivana voted for any of the girls who looked like her.

Steiner: What Trump desired, what he craved, was attention—imagine that. He felt
that buying a football team, albeit the New Jersey Generals of the USFL, not the
NFL, would get him into the greater media consciousness. Nothing compared to
owning a football team. It was a calculated media strategy. [He was] the best
thing that ever happened to the USFL, and two years later he was the worst thing
that ever happened to the USFL.


SURGE

In Trump's first year, the Generals' record jumped from 6-12 to 14-4, before New
Jersey was knocked out in the first round of the playoffs. Average attendance at
Giants Stadium, their home field, topped 40,000. While he inherited Walker and
the three-year, $5 million contract he signed after his junior season at Georgia
(then the richest pro contract ever), Trump continued to spend on marquee
college players and quality NFLers—exactly what the founding owners vowed not to
do, and which few could resist. Trump signed Cleveland's MVP quarterback Brian
Sipe the first season, then plucked Heisman Trophy winner Doug Flutie out of
Boston College the next. All-pro linebacker Lawrence Taylor, already the toast
of New York, secretly signed a futures contract with the Generals, unhappy with
what the Giants were paying him halfway through his six-year deal with them. The
windfall included a $1 million, interest-free loan. When their NFL rival learned
of the Generals' contract, the Giants gave Taylor a new, juiced-up offer. Taylor
accepted it, with the Giants paying Trump at least $600,000 just weeks later to
buy out his Generals contract.




Advertisement - Continue Reading Below




Gould: I was reading in the paper about Lawrence Taylor being dissatisfied with
the Giants. Trump and I got together that morning and he says to me, "We got to
get him." Literally that day [Taylor] showed up at Trump Tower. I took him into
Donald's office and Donald said to him, "How would you like to make a million
dollars?"

Lawrence Taylor: I remember his secretary called and said, "Mr. Taylor, please
hold for Mr. Trump." They sent a car for me, we met at Trump Plaza. He had me
watch some Trump movie before we met. He says, "I want to sign you." I was like,
"I've got three or four years on my Giants deal." He didn't give a shit. He had
me call my bank, and sure as shit, thirty minutes later he wired a million
dollars into my account. I was like, "Thanks, Don." I respected that he put his
money where his mouth was.

Trump, from LT: Over the Edge: I ended up selling him back to the Giants. I did
it not because of the money, but because I never felt Lawrence Taylor should be
in the USFL. I had too much respect for him as a football player.



Lane Stewart/Sports Illustrated Classic



Taylor: I wasn't even on my way back to Jersey when word started leaking out. He
has certainly always known how to use the media. When my USFL deal fell apart,
the Giants had to send him $750,000 to get me out of it, but it got me a helluva
raise from the Giants. I became the highest paid defensive player in the league.
I have always been appreciative because I don't really think he ever thought I
would be a General, but it was a brilliant publicity stunt.

Herschel Walker (from Breaking Free: My Life With Dissociative Disorder): I
wouldn't have continued in pro football if it hadn't been for Mr. Trump. I made
a lot of money right away with my signing bonus and salary, and was young and
uncertain of what I wanted to do with my life. I still had dreams of being in
the military. Football wasn't my only love…and I could easily have walked away
from it. I had at least a hundred other things I would have considered doing. I
had some very honest conversations about my feelings with Mr. Trump—something
unusual between an owner and a player. He told me that I was young, that I loved
to compete, that I was good at what I did, and that I should really just stick
with what I did best. I'd have plenty of time later on to take on other things.
I'm glad I listened to him, and I'm really glad he became our owner. As soon as
he took control of the team, he started to upgrade our talent.

Dave Lapham (veteran offensive lineman for the Cincinnati Bengals signed by the
Generals): He would ask players, "Are we doing this like the NFL?" Things like
meals and travel. He was very aware of making it top-shelf. Other owners
couldn't afford it or didn't care about it. It was part of his M.O. If you were
a player, you liked playing for Donald Trump.

Gould: We went after Joe Theismann, the most valuable quarterback [in the NFL].
We got Joe to meet at Trump Tower. I remember going into the bathroom and
talking [with him] about it. It was really surreal. There I am standing at a
stall with Joe Theismann, talking about him leaving the Washington Redskins. I
actually thought we had a shot.

Barbaro: I had very little contact with Donald. Me being a defensive back, he
wasn't overly interested in how the defense worked. He was more interested in
how to score points.



> "He would ask players, 'Are we doing this like the NFL?' If you were a player,
> you liked playing for Donald Trump."

Advertisement - Continue Reading Below




Steiner (radio voice for the Generals): I worked for George [Steinbrenner].
Donald was the next generation of George. If there was a camera and microphone,
he was there. In terms of the Generals, it was just a small part of his big
basket of things. The USFL was born the same year Trump Tower opened. The
Generals were just a part of expanding the brand. That was job one for him.

Ehrhart: I think he relished the competitive nature, not only of competing
against other teams but competing in the New York market. If there's one thing
about Donald, he is one hell of a competitor. He's been the same way for the
thirty-two years I've known him. He's not going to back off any position. He's
gonna go down the road he feels is the right thing to do. You can't go by and
say, "Be nice now, Donald." He's just going to go full bore.

Lisa Edelstein (actress—House, M.D., Girlfriends' Guide to Divorce—and former
Generals cheerleader, from The Huffington Post): I helped form a whole walkout
because they were treating the cheerleaders like hookers. They were being asked
to do these signings in their little uniforms in these sleazy bars all over the
place, and they weren't protected and they were feeling really unsafe and
uncared for and just sort of thrown into these environments. I was never asked
to do it because I was too young. [But] when they started talking about it, we
all got together and formed a walkout.


DISRUPTION

Trump dismissed the USFL's spring strategy right away, baiting the NFL with
public talk of moving games to the fall. Canadian businessman John Bassett,
beloved owner of the Tampa Bay Bandits and Trump's stoutest strategic rival,
warned that such a move would trigger apocalypse. That kind of opposition only
prompted Trump to proclaim: "If God wanted football in the spring, he wouldn't
have created baseball."

Ehrhart: There's no question everybody appreciated him coming into the league at
the time. They needed New York to succeed. Everybody really respected what he
was doing in that second year of the league. What caused tension was he began
pushing the tape, saying we needed to be playing in the fall, we have to go for
it. Some of the other owners in different markets said we need to stay in the
spring, that they had too many guns in the NFL. To some degree, both were right.

Steiner: He was the Pied Piper and these other desperate owners went along for
the ride. It all happened in a flash. Then the USFL was dead and gone and he
moved on to the next thing, which was Atlantic City. Which didn't work out too
well, either.



> "You can't go by and say, 'Be nice now, Donald.' He's just going to go full
> bore."

Advertisement - Continue Reading Below




Lapham: I know he had visions of a merger with the NFL. It was the only route he
felt he had. NFL owners looked at him as a maverick.

Mike Tollin (former head of the USFL's highlight film show and director of
ESPN's 2009 documentary Small Potatoes: Who Killed the USFL?): He was a bully.
From the beginning I had enormous respect for [USFL commissioner Chet] Simmons
and Bassett, and I saw him bullying them and using the USFL to get in the NFL
through the back door. The NFL didn't want him. Bassett was dying [from brain
cancer], and Trump derailed Simmons. He was good at finding and exploiting an
opponent's weakness.

Brian Sipe (on ESPN Radio in Cleveland, October 2015): The man's about leverage,
he's about promotion, and that's what our franchise was like back in the USFL.
But we all got it. We understood it. It kind of made us the marquee team for the
league.


CRASH

The apocalypse arrived in the summer of 1986. Having already lost a collective
$200 million, USFL owners, out-debated and out-maneuvered by Trump, voted 12-2
to move to a fall schedule. They also went ahead with a $1.7 billion anti-trust
lawsuit against the NFL, who it claimed, among other things, had a chokehold on
national TV rights. USFL owners hoped the suit would void the NFL's TV
contracts, force a merger, or provide a game-changing payday. So instead of
playing football in the spring of 1986, the USFL landed in U.S. District Court
in Manhattan. (Bassett, one of the two votes against the fall move, died on the
trial's first day). Ehrhart says Trump brought in lawyer Harvey Myerson—later
jailed for a phony billing scheme—to lead the case. (Another of Trump's lawyer
pals, Roy Cohn, the commie-baiting counsel for Senator Joseph McCarthy's
hearings in the 1950s, served as only an infrequent consultant, says Ehrhart.)
The NFL focused its defense on Trump. It portrayed him, Trump wrote in his 1987
bestseller The Art of the Deal, as a "vicious, greedy, Machiavellian
billionaire, intent only on serving my selfish ends at everyone else's expense."
To be fair, he's been called worse.

The 42-day trial ended with a jury ruling in favor of the USFL. But it also
concluded that the league's dire straights were largely a result of its own
doing, not the NFL's, and so awarded the USFL damages totaling…$1. Damages in
anti-trust cases are tripled, so the award grew to…$3. The USFL appealed all the
way to the Supreme Court, which four years later allowed the award to stand.
Including interest, the NFL stroked a check to the USFL for $3.76. Ehrhart still
keeps it, uncashed, inside a Memphis bank's safety deposit box. (Ehrhart also
handled a $6 million check for the league's attorneys' fees and allows, "I did
distribute that one.")

Advertisement - Continue Reading Below




The NFL's check to the USFL, uncashed to this day.



On Myerson's advice, the league scuttled its new fall season while waiting out
the appeal, assured a huge payout was on the way.

The USFL never played another game.

Steiner: The founding fathers, such as they were, had a pretty good idea. And
when you have a guy come in and right away say, "If God wanted football in the
spring he wouldn't have created baseball." I'm like, "Why are you coming to this
dance? Find another dance to crash." He crashed our party pretty hard.
Fortunately, it was only football.

Ehrhart: There was plenty of back and forth. One group felt we should stay in
the spring. When the final vote came, Donald was able to convince them. Donald
had the absolute power to persuade. He had such an ability to counter any point
anybody would bring up. If they'd say, "Let's stay in the spring," he'd say,
"That really worked out good for you guys in L.A., didn't it?"



> "Trump was a bully. He was good at finding and exploiting an opponent's
> weakness."



McVay: The bottom line: too many people were losing too much money.

Ehrhart: The Harvey Myerson thing, in retrospect, was a bad, bad deal. Donald
said, "He's the greatest." That was one case where he was not the greatest.

Kelly: I'm still owed $250,000 from the Houston Gamblers. One owner told me when
we merged that it was Trump's job to pay us back. We were told it was the
Gamblers'. Nothing ever came of it. I wrote it off as a loss.

Steiner: There isn't a goddamn difference between Don King and Don Trump. One
guy's hair goes north and south, the other's goes east and west.

Advertisement - Continue Reading Below




Courtesy of Mike Tollin



McVay: I think Trump kept the league together. I know that's not a popular
belief, but I think he kept the league going a couple more years than it would
have. I know it's popular to say Donald was the villain, that the poor players
didn't get to pursue their dream. Hey, the league was outta money!

Tollin: He's the same guy who never lets the truth stand in the way of a good
story or anything that furthers his ambition. He never lets humanity get in the
way of personal gain. He's the same guy who looks down on anyone in his way,
whose audacity and narcissism knows no bounds.

Donald Trump (in a message he wrote atop a letter Tollin sent to him with an
advance copy of documentary on USFL's demise, and which Trump returned): P.S.
You are a loser.

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