Event Date: February 1st, 1984
Event Description: Simmons Visits St. Louis
Source: United Press International
U.S. Football League Commissioner Chet Simmons says the league will take a “wait and see” attitude on whether it will attempt to sign running back Marcus Dupree.
“We're going to have to wait and see,” Simmons said Tuesday while making a stop in St. Louis during a tour of non-USFL cities. “We don't know what he wants to do.” Dupree, a former star at Oklahoma, dropped out of the University of Southern Mississippi Tuesday and there is speculation he may want to turn pro. Dupree has two more years of college eligibility remaining.
Simmons said the league might be interested in signing Dupree if it is convinced Dupree wants to play professional football and if there are no legal complications.
The USFL last year signed Heisman Trophy-winning running back Herschel Walker before his collegiate eligibility had expired, but Simmons said that signing had to be treated as an isolated situation.
“We went ahead and signed Walker because we knew if he ever challenged the law, we would have lost. Our problem with that case was more with the coaches than anyone. We went through a lot of turmoil to prove the situation was separate from anything anybody had ever been faced with before. Dupree could fall under much the same circumstances, but we'll just have to wait and see.”
The NFL also requires a player to complete his college eligibility before he is allowed into the league.
Whether or not the USFL decides to pursue Dupree, Simmons said he hopes a decision will be reached in the near future that will establish guidelines for letting players jump to the pros if they so desire.
“We're not talking about every kid,” Simmons said. “But we need to have some kind of middle ground that establishes some circumstances where a kid can be allowed to go pro early. There has to be some sort of review set up. We want to get it down in black and white.”
On other matters, Simmons said he was visiting St. Louis and other non-league cities to increase the exposure of the USFL and to “tell the people who we are and what we're doing.”
“I'm not here looking for franchises,” said Simmons, who plans a similar stop Wednesday in Indianapolis. “St. Louis obviously is a market we are interested in, but if we do expand next year we're going to go on a much slower and smaller basis than a year ago.”
Simmons said if the league does vote to expand for the 1985 season, it will probably be for a maximum of two cities.
Simmons also said he was hopeful an agreement could be reached between former St. Louis Cardinal quarterback Jim Hart and the Denver Gold, who have acquired Hart's USFL rights.
“I think an experienced quarterback like that could really help that club,” Simmons said. “They've done an awful lot of work building up their offense and defense for this season and that would be another positive step.”
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