USFL '86: The Season That Never Was

Friday, October 6, 2017

'82 Chronology-Expansion in '84?

Event Date: November 1st, 1982

Event Description: Expansion Plans?

Source: Birmingham News/UPI

The new 12-team United States Football League hasn't even seen its first kickoff yet, but league officials say they are already planning to add new franchises.

USFL Commissioner Chet Simmons was quoted by the Birmingham News Wednesday as saying that 40 cities -- ranging in size from Madison, Wis., to Dallas -- have expressed an interest in joining the league.

Simmons said other cities that have contacted his office include Pittsburgh, New Orleans, Honolulu, Atlanta, St. Louis, Hartford, Jacksonville and Fort Wayne, Ind. Simmons said the 12-team league will probably expand to 16 teams in time for the 1984 season.

“This is no minor league,” Simmons said. “We're not a fly-by-night league. I guarantee you'll love the USFL.”
In other USFL news;

Chicago Blitz coach George Allen Friday traded his first USFL draft choice to the Washington Federals for a veteran NFL punter George Roberts, the first such trade in the USFL. For Roberts, 27, Allen traded a middle-round choice in the league's college draft, to begin Jan. 4.

Roberts, 27, played from 1978-80 with the Miami Dolphins and was traded last season to the San Diego Chargers. In 64 NFL games, he averaged 41.0 on 289 punts.

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