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(单词翻译:双击或拖选)
A football league that collapsed1 spectacularly in the 1980s is coming back
The United States Football League relaunches Saturday, playing its first game since 1985. NPR's A Martinez talks to author Jeff Pearlman about the earlier rise and demise3 of the league.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
JIM LAMPLEY: ABC Sports presents...
A MARTINEZ, HOST:
Hardcore football fans of the 1980s were treated to a new league that tried to give the NFL a run for its money.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
LAMPLEY: ...The season premiere of the United States Football League.
MARTINEZ: The USFL collapsed spectacularly after only three seasons. But tomorrow, the league returns. A reconstituted USFL is playing its first game since 1985. Jeff Pearlman literally4 wrote the book on the league. It's called "Football For A Buck5." It recounts the birth and demise of the USFL, a demise, he writes, thanks in large part to a certain future U.S. president. Pearlman also points to the USFL's habit of paying huge salaries to a handful of marquee players, like Herschel Walker and Steve Young, but only a pittance6 for the rest of the league.
JEFF PEARLMAN: They would pluck as many guys as they could from the local amateur leagues. They would find guys who hadn't played in the NFL for five or six years - you know, teams like the San Antonio Gunslingers. The owner was a guy named Clint Manges, and he had a ranch7. And he signed his ranch hand to be the punter because he thought, this guy has a really good leg. He's going to be a really good punter. It didn't work out. But there was a lot of thriftiness8 in the old USFL. It adds to - it makes some of the best stories in football history, but it doesn't necessarily make for great football.
MARTINEZ: Now, one of the things that a lot of NFL fans are used to - it's almost an event as big as the Super Bowl - is the NFL draft. It's at the end of April, when the NFL chooses college players. And those college players don't get a choice. They don't get a choice of which team drafted them. They wind up usually just signing, and then they go on with their careers. And finally, when they become free agents, they get to pick the team they want to be with.
How was the USFL different, particularly with someone, say, like Herschel Walker, who had a lot of leverage9, the Heisman Trophy10 winner, when he eventually got to the New Jersey11 Generals? How were their rules different from the NFL in that respect?
PEARLMAN: Well, the rules were that they didn't really have any rules in this regard. Like, they really wanted Herschel Walker. Herschel Walker called. He wanted to come out of Georgia early. At the time, the NFL would not take underclassmen. They had a strict rule against it. And Walker - you know, he came from Wrightsville, Ga., a small town, very poor family. And he wanted to come out. Then he called the USFL - his agent did - and they said, where do you want him to go? And they wanted him to go to the New York market. So that was the New Jersey Generals.
I mean, those drafts were fixed12. Like, a lot of those picks - they knew where they were going way before the draft. They knew the order of the draft. They just manipulated the market to make sure. What they really desperately13 wanted, honestly, is legitimacy14. And they knew they had to put themselves in the best situation to sign as many marquee guys as possible.
MARTINEZ: Now, the first USFL season in 1983 had some high points. But, Jeff, things started to change once they welcomed a brash young owner to their New Jersey Generals franchise15. So tell us about who that was.
PEARLMAN: Donald Trump16 - he always wanted to be an NFL owner. Like, he desperately, desperately wanted to be in the NFL owners club. And he tried buying the Baltimore Colts at one point - failed miserably17. So very early on, he has a meeting with Pete Rozelle, who was then the commissioner18 of the NFL. They met at a suite19 in the Pierre Hotel in New York City. And Donald Trump says basically, you know, I own this team in the USFL. I don't care about this league. If you guys get me an NFL franchise, I would help you kill this league. And Pete Rozelle, to his credit, says to him, as long as I'm involved in the NFL, as long as my heirs are involved in the NFL, you, Donald Trump, will never have a team in this league.
MARTINEZ: And Donald Trump had some pretty kind of wild ideas about what he wanted to do with the league to change the league. He had some kind of plans that he thought would maybe go up against the NFL and take it down.
PEARLMAN: Basically, his plan was, I'm going to use the USFL. We're going to force a merger20 with the NFL. The USFL was a spring league. And he kept pushing for fall. He kept saying, it's fall. It's fall. He would manipulate figures. He would do studies and then lie about the studies, showing that fall was the way the USFL could go. It made no sense whatsoever21. Why would you challenge the NFL directly? But he was very manipulative and very powerful in that owners room. And they wound up moving to fall, trying to move to fall.
And he wound up leading the USFL's death dive, which was, we're going to sue the NFL. We're going top file this antitrust suit. And what happened is the NFL - it was a crazy, complicated lawsuit22 that the USFL alone actually won. But they were given $3 as a reward because what the jury decided23 was that, yes, the NFL was guilty of some antitrust violations24. But the USFL and Donald Trump were their own - was the USFL's own worst enemy.
MARTINEZ: You know, that last season for the USFL, that last third season - and I'm a teenager at the time. So I'm not, like, that tuned25 into to the business. I knew it wasn't doing well through my uncles and my dad. But I didn't know how bad until they went from playing at the LA Memorial Coliseum...
PEARLMAN: Oh, yeah.
MARTINEZ: ...To LA Pierce Community (laughter) College in the San Fernando Valley for their last home game. And that's when I even thought, OK, this league's in trouble.
PEARLMAN: It's a funny moment because it was the LA Express playing the Arizona Outlaws26. And the quarterback for the Express was Steve Young. And the quarterback for the Outlaws was Doug Williams, former Tampa Bay Buccaneers star. And they're playing at this tiny little field, and nobody's there. And it's really pathetic.
And at the end of the game, Young and Doug Williams, you know, meet. They shake hands. And Williams says, what the hell are we doing here? And Steve Young is like, I don't know, man. I don't know. But the funny thing is, a year later, Steve Young was playing for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, who were awful at that point. And he said he would have preferred to stick with the Express, that even they were better than the lowly Buccaneers.
MARTINEZ: I was there, Jeff. No one was there. I was there. I actually watched that game (laughter).
PEARLMAN: That's amazing.
MARTINEZ: Yeah. Well, you know...
PEARLMAN: You were the one.
MARTINEZ: It was a cheap ticket. It was a cheap ticket.
MARTINEZ: What can I say? Now, OK, a shiny new version of the USFL is going to be starting up again really soon - this weekend, actually. So what lessons do you think they have to learn to try to survive?
PEARLMAN: All right. So I just want to say that when people say the USFL is back...
MARTINEZ: (Laughter).
PEARLMAN: ...I struggle with that because it's sort of like - let's say KISS breaks up this year, and they never perform again. And then 10 years from now, four guys put on KISS make up, and they're like, KISS - we're back. Like, KISS isn't back. It's four guys in makeup28.
This is not the USFL. This is a league kind of, I think, trying to make money quick off of spring football, a TV deal on Fox league, where they're using USFL uniforms, USFL logos. I don't actually totally get why. They've shown no interest in the old league. I talked to one of the guys with the league. I was like - he hadn't read my book. And I'm not saying anyone should read my book. It was weird29 that a guy was starting a new USFL and didn't read the book about the USFL.
MARTINEZ: (Laughter).
PEARLMAN: I just found the whole thing - and again, I'm not - he could have bought it for a nickel. I don't care. I just thought it was weird. I love the USFL. You sound like you love the USFL. There aren't that many of us. So it's kind of weird that like, they're starting a league with USFL uniforms, and that's it. And almost none of it makes any sense to me. So I don't know what to expect. It just seems really disjointed.
MARTINEZ: Jeff Pearlman is the author of the 2018 book "Football For A Buck: The Crazy Rise And Crazier Demise Of The USFL."
Jeff, thanks a lot.
PEARLMAN: Thank you.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "ROCK AND ROLL ALL NITE")
KISS: (Singing) I wanna rock and roll all night and party every day.
收听单词发音 |
1
collapsed
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| adj.倒塌的 | |
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transcript
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| n.抄本，誊本，副本，肄业证书 | |
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3
demise
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| n.死亡；v.让渡，遗赠，转让 | |
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4
literally
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| adv.照字面意义，逐字地；确实 | |
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buck
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| n.雄鹿，雄兔；v.马离地跳跃 | |
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pittance
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| n.微薄的薪水，少量 | |
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ranch
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| n.大牧场，大农场 | |
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thriftiness
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| 节俭，节约 | |
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9
leverage
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| n.力量，影响；杠杆作用，杠杆的力量 | |
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10
trophy
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| n.优胜旗，奖品，奖杯，战胜品，纪念品 | |
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jersey
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| n.运动衫 | |
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12
fixed
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| adj.固定的，不变的，准备好的；(计算机)固定的 | |
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13
desperately
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| adv.极度渴望地，绝望地，孤注一掷地 | |
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14
legitimacy
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| n.合法，正当 | |
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15
franchise
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| n.特许，特权，专营权，特许权 | |
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16
trump
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| n.王牌，法宝；v.打出王牌，吹喇叭 | |
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17
miserably
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| adv.痛苦地；悲惨地；糟糕地；极度地 | |
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commissioner
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| n.（政府厅、局、处等部门）专员，长官，委员 | |
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suite
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| n.一套(家具)；套房；随从人员 | |
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20
merger
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| n.企业合并，并吞 | |
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whatsoever
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| adv.（用于否定句中以加强语气）任何；pron.无论什么 | |
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22
lawsuit
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| n.诉讼，控诉 | |
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23
decided
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| adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的 | |
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24
violations
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| 违反( violation的名词复数 )； 冒犯； 违反（行为、事例）； 强奸 | |
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25
tuned
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| adj.调谐的，已调谐的v.调音( tune的过去式和过去分词 )；调整；（给收音机、电视等）调谐；使协调 | |
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outlaws
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| 歹徒，亡命之徒( outlaw的名词复数 )； 逃犯 | |
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27
awesome
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| adj.令人惊叹的，难得吓人的，很好的 | |
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28
makeup
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| n.组织；性格；化装品 | |
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weird
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| adj.古怪的，离奇的；怪诞的，神秘而可怕的 | |
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