The Odd Season

First finish for the U.S.F.L.

The premiere season highlights film of the United States Football League should surely include the historic coin flip setting up an overtime period between the Chicago Blitz and the New Jersey Generals. Though the coin landed safely, officials could not recall whether the Generals had called heads or tails. After an open-minded discussion of the sort that has made U.S.F.L. officiating legendary, the ball was given to the Generals, who obligingly surrendered it and lost the game, 17-14.

Everyone's second-favorite pro-football league endured its odd March-to-July season and staged its first championship game Sunday in Denver. The new league got one lucky break: Super Cup I managed to feature two of the U.S.F.L.'s top performers, Running Back Kelvin Bryant of Philadelphia and Wide Receiver Anthony Carter of Michigan, but not the famous Herschel Walker, who led the league in rushing with 1,812 yards but did little to lift the lackluster Generals. Walker set a record of sorts by retailing the same sad speech to reporters week after week: "I've still got a lot of learning to do. Pro ball is a lot different than college ball."

The Generals assembled an atrocious team in the key New York market, but they were hardly the only disappointment. Weather and scheduling were bizarre. Chicago opened its home season in a blizzard. The Washington Federals played five of their first six home games in torrential rains, and the Arizona Wranglers spent most of the last three months of the season on the road to avoid the blistering heat of Phoenix. The firing of the popular Red Miller, coach of the Denver Gold, dampened the U.S.F.L. boom in the Mile-High City. Half of the 32,000 fans at the next game wore red to protest Miller's dismissal. The National Football League looked down upon the woes of the new league with lordly silence, but its attitude was summed up well enough by Jim Finks, general manager of the Chicago Bears, who referred casually to his second-city rivals as "the Chicago Blintz."

Owners showed more skill in marketing the product than in producing it. The Oakland Invaders (rhymes with Raiders) lured 7,000 people to a cheerleader contest. Michigan Owner Al Taubman drew 60,237 fans to the semifinal playoff game by shrewdly cutting ticket prices and offering discounted parking. Hollywood Stars Lee Majors (Los Angeles Express) and Burt Reynolds (Tampa Bay Bandits) have been brought in as part owners, part hucksters, and Reynolds induced Actress Loni Anderson to pose for a memorable poster that helped push Tampa Bay toward the black. Few other teams managed that feat--or planned to. Chicago Blitz Owner Ted Diethrich announced last week that he had lost $3 million in the team's first season.

But the results seemed to outperform the cynics, who had predicted that the real battle in the league would be to see which three or four teams survived to be absorbed by the N.F.L. No franchises show danger signs of being shuttered. The U.S.F.L. did better at the gate than the American Football League in 1960, its first season--24,824 per game, vs. 16,538. Further signs of suspected U.S.F.L. hardiness include the news that six added teams are planned for next year, with the incoming owners paying $6 million each for the privilege.

The real bottom line, of course, is tallied on the TV Scoreboard. The league, which survives on the electronic umbilical cord, exceeded its goal of an average 5.0 rating by a full point, though audiences dwindled steadily after the first few games. A 6.0 rating may not threaten the N F.L average of 16.5 last season, but it handily beats the audiences who watched the junk sports ABC previously offered in the same time slot. Advertisers made generally pleased sounds, and ABC seems cheerful enough about letting the U.S.F.L. carry the ball for another season. This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so viewer discretion is required.