USFL '87 Notes: The Ballad of Brian Bosworth

By the end of '86 New Yorkers appeared to revel in having a third football club of bums, ne'er-do-wells, and underachievers--again, there is greater pleasure in watching a team you hate than one you love. And the Generals found their trench in local consciousness: the Giants degenerate bluebloods who represented once towering institutions rotting from the inside; the Jets the genius, cherished friend who creates his own misfortunes after crafting an early masterpiece; the Generals a snake-oil, bawdy roadshow of grifters. The flurry of personnel moves after a narrow loss in the '85 title game should've been a sign. The trade with Houston wasn't a disaster--it brought them Ricky Sanders, good defensive end Hoses Taylor, and all-star lineman Tommy Robison; Kiki DeAyla had his moments--but also seemed needless. Golden parachutes to Richard Todd, Reggie Wilkes, Beasley Reece, and Jay Saldi seemed less a strategy to improve as some sort of homage to Trump's reckless pursuit, an offer of rice to his spirit; it also secured the club's status as a kitschy, hollow simulation of an NFL club. Like the villainous powerhouse in a football movie.

Chera stranded head coach Walt Michaels at the Memphis airport after a humiliating 42-39 Week 10 loss to the Showboats, one that saw them blow a 26-0 lead.They sat at 4-6, half a game worse than '85. Michaels wasn't fired--Chera made him drive all the way back, a sort of Masonic Lodge-prank to humiliate, to bend one's will--and for whatever reason, the humiliation worked: 7-1 the rest of the way for another division title. They looked more lazy than tired in the 17-13 Conference semi-final loss to Pittsburgh. Hersch's fumble on the last, harrowing drive--he just seemed to drop the ball on purpose--was what stuck with everyone. Still, a fun year. The rookies and an improving Flutie contributed to that. Gill Fenerty made up for slow feet with the sort of death-defying grace of a contortionist on kickoffs. John Tagliaferri--an open tryout from Cornell--had amazing hands and real horns, barrelling through Real Guys like Mike Johnson and Reggie White. Eugene Robinson, in year two, blindsided Anthony Carter--the villain of '85--to applause. Where does one go? If the Old Blood Rituals in the Turkish Bathhouses of the East Village taught him anything, it was the infinite blossom of youth that got things done. 

The steroid accusations, the Orange Bowl ban, and the "National Communists Against Athletes" t-shirt culminated in Brian Bosworth's sudden availability. The Outlaws held Bosworth's territorial rights and were initially desperate to have him, but they ran into two cement walls: (a) Boz himself didn't want the "phantom money" typical of a USFL contract  if stuck in a small market and (b) the NCAA threatened the University of Tulsa--the club's landlord--with the Death Penalty if he signed. 

The Fairgrounds stadium still two years away--building materials from Poland and Czechoslovakia and Cosmo Green turf from Libya remain impounded due to sanctions--the Outlaws had to deal his rights. Commish Debs massaged consensus toward placing him somewhere east to avoid NCAA ire. Chairman Burt was already stretched thin, giving Wilbur Marshall a bonus and signing NFL holdouts Chuck Banks and Dexter Manley to 1-year, $450,000 deals each (Cleveland would still trade Chuck's rights to San Diego on draft day as part of a pick swap to move up and take Rod Woodson--ed). Reynolds also found him "too crass." Jacksonville and Birmingham were too small of markets and already overloaded on defensive talent--the Ponies would sign Cornelius Bennett, the Bulls had plucked two small college no names in Jesse Tuggle and Greg Lloyd. Boz thought Pittsburgh's orange and purple uniforms were too gaudy. Baltimore had no interest but none was reciprocated. While the feds opened a file on Boz, the Feds were dealing with the fallout of Boomer's jump, and, besides, they already stole another tough white linebacker and 1st round talent in Duke's Mike Junkin, signing him to a 7-year, $6.5 million deal. 

It was New Jersey because it was always going to be New Jersey. The now 40,000-strong season ticket base of Chiropractor Guild Members, cleaning supply middlemen, pizza industry insurance actuaries, labor-relations attorneys, truancy officers and sub-contractors (and their commanders), fax repair service owner/operators, cultural attaches to San Marino and Sardinia, and Catholic Church Supply logistic experts--the yeoman of Staten and Long Islands, Queens, Westchester County, and Stratford, CT--all demanded for their LT to go alongside Randy White, Hersch, DeOssie, and That Bum Flutie. Chera recognized the angle and needed some damage control from the Pittsburgh loss and a second failed attempt at landing Don Shula. The USFL also needed juice for the '90 contract renewal. Commissioner Grover Debs always planned ahead. The offer splashy: 10-years, $15 million and mostly actual salary. They concocted a trade with Oklahoma afterwards--three guys off New Jersey's territorial list, 1st round picks in '87 and '88. The cash and promise to play in the country's largest market didn't win Boz over. Rather, it was that he could still wear his #44 that put ink to paper. Pete and The League prepared to engineer a deal to fulfill Boz's wish to land with the Raiders, but details of the contract scared off Al Davis and BCCI, which was willing to extend zero-interest credit just the year before.

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The bigger acquisition might have been Ohio State's Cris Carter. Members of the family established clandestine communiques as early as November '86 to the league office and the Generals themselves--long before the asinine, convoluted conspiracy that ended his college career hit the mainstream in the Spring. Carter signed for 3-years, $900,000, which included an immediate $150,000 bonus; modest given recent trends. Chera's political connections also got him out of federal charges, and the shady agent who put Carter's career in peril never showed for his trial.

Joe Dufek joined the party late. Signed to the taxi squad in April '86, he made the active roster after Todd's career ending injury in Week 18. An old knee injury was healed thanks to a complicated plot orchestrated by fellow Yalie and intern-turned-player development apparatchik Cecil Flapp(see our '86 notes--ed.).

In order to avoid scandal to Chera, Flapp borrowed The Lady Ghislaine--the yacht of British publishing magnate and Generals minority owner Robert Maxwell--and procured three Cuban doctors to conduct Soviet miracle procedures on Dufek, veteran Reggie Wilkes, and Herman Fontenot, who went down with a thigh injury in the same game they lost Todd. The three men were knocked out, strewn on three snooker tables. The Lady Ghislaine sailed outside the Florida Keys in International waters. Castro's personal chef made them all slow pork sandwiches afterward. Dufek beat out rookie Ed Rubbert and a desperate Joe Theismann for the second slot.

Chera got oddly stingy again, letting the popular James Lockette walk on a 3-year, $1.25 million deal with the Chargers, furthering Spanos' assembly of an All-USFL team. As a quick aside, it seemed to be working: San Diego finished 10-6 to win the AFC West; they beat 15-0 Cleveland in Week 16 at Municipal, with Kelley hitting Kellen Winslow on a 44-yard pass last second; they'd beat the defending champion Dolphins in the divisional playoff, 40-38, before losing the rematch with the Browns in the AFC title game, 30-7. 

Walt Michaels would slot in second-year Tim Green at defensive end. Other signings made The Post roll their eyes: no one would fault Jeff Rohrer’s intensity, though his sudden arrival to New Jersey led some to question the liquidity of  Cowboy's owner Bum Bright. (Just before we went to print, Page Six ran that Bright was tight on money again and needed help on insurance for the bronze oil derek he commissioned in ‘84 from the money he made on the sale of Steve DeOssie’s contract--ed.). Ivory Sully was an "oh yeah, that guy," and member of the '79 Rams. Both looked reasonably skilled in camp but one ever knows. Given Baltimore’s, Pittsburgh’s, and Washington’s teardown projects, the Generals were still heavy favorites to at least walk away with the division. 

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An interesting aside that might fit here, regarding Boz and the Soviet Premier: not particularly interested in the "needless innovation" of springball, Morenov nevertheless sent a telex congratulating Boz for a superb collegiate career while also admonishing him for the shirt, writing "in the Socialist Free World, you would experience a different liberty: you would be one of many charging a singular foe with everything, but you would be the jagged thumb of an Iron Fist, wrapping comrades and leading the way." Brian, for what it was worth actually replied, thanking the Premier for comparing him to Alexander Nevsky, whom he never heard of but would read about.