'84 Chronology-Watchdog Committee

Event Date: March 23rd, 1984

Event Description: Changing Times

Source: UPI

Commissioner Pete Rozelle, wary of the inroads made by the U.S. Football League, Thursday concluded league meetings by naming a committee to study the future of the NFL.

The six-man long-range planning committee was dubbed the “USFL Watchdog Committee” because the commissioner admitted, “I think the USFL is part of the reason for forming it.”

The committee will study the USFL's affect on the future of the NFL and also what Rozelle called the “changing times” the league is facing.

Rozelle also said the league delayed any decisions on having a supplementary draft of USFL players or moving the draft up to go head-to-head with the USFL in February.

The league, though, will again hold all 12 rounds of the draft May 1.

The NFL's general policy on the USFL had been to ignore the league and hope it would spend itself to death. the NFL also hopes to avoid triggering any antitrust action by the new league.

Al Davis, the Los Angeles Raiders owner who favors a more aggressive posture against the USFL, said: “What looks to you like no program is our program.”

Story-(UPI)