WORTH THE GAMBLE?
How Texans fans could have something new and different to root for
Jun 8, 2021, 3:05 pm
The USFL will return in 2022. Photo by Stephen Dunn/Allsport/Getty Images
Are you ready for some football, lots of it, possibly too much of it, next spring?
Last week the United States Football League, last seen filling the air with long passes and gadget plays between 1983 and 1985, announced plans to relaunch with "at least eight" teams starting next March. Meanwhile the XFL's scheduled return in 2022 is on hold while the league discusses a possible merger with the Canadian Football League.
Houston's chances of landing a USFL team are decent to a lock bet. The Houston Gamblers were a USFL expansion team in 1983-84 and introduced the run-and-shoot offense to pro football. Jim Kelly was the star quarterback. Since the USFL owns the rights to all of its original team names, and Houston has several available stadiums and a growing population, it makes sense for the USFL to double-down on the Gamblers.
Still the USFL is a longshot for long-term success. Since 1960, more than a dozen upstart football leagues have tried and failed to gain a foothold on the American sporting public. Spanish philosopher George Santayana said, "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it." English poet Alfred Lord Tennyson put it this way, "In the spring a young man's fancy lightly turns to thoughts of love" – not run-pass options and quarterback sacks.
Here's just a partial list of football leagues that tried to compete or co-exist with the mighty National Football League: Alliance of American Football (2019), Continental Football League (1965-69), Indoor Football League (1999-2001), Professional Indoor Football League (1998), United Football League (2009-12), World Football League (1974-75), XFL (2001), and XFL (2020).
Everything in its place, and football's place might be limited to fall through the Super Bowl in winter. While it's true that the mighty NFL's grip on America may be slipping just a little (attendance hit a 15-year low in 2019, TV ratings were down 7 percent last year), the "shield" still is the most popular sports league by far. Nothing compares.
In 2002, Playboy ran a pictorial, "The Women of Enron," and the magazine's top brass came to Houston for a big publicity blowout. I asked one of Playboy's executives, "is the Internet hurting killing Playboy? I've heard there's free porn on the Internet."
The executive said, "Yes, our sales are down. We like to put it this way, we've fallen all the way to No. 1."
That's the NFL, still the 1.
The USFL's announcement last week did not mention where its "at least 8" teams would be based, who would coach the teams, who would play, in which stadiums or much of anything else. The league did release a promotional video with Doug Flutie, a former USFL star, promising, "The USFL is back. See you in 2022. It's football. It is real football. It's pro football at the highest level. It's just being played in the spring."
While the original USFL was loaded with moneybag owners and could afford to lure coveted NFL prospects like Herschel Walker, Steve Young, Jim Kelly and Reggie White, this new incarnation won't have deep pockets. Teams will not have individual owners, the league will own all the franchises.
The USFL has a TV contract with Fox, which also has a financial stake in the new league. But having a TV deal doesn't guarantee success. The Alliance of American Football had hundreds of millions of dollars invested and TV contracts with CBS, TNT and the NFL Network and barely made it through eight games of its inaugural season in 2019 before declaring bankruptcy. The XFL partnered with NBC for its one-and-done season in 2001. Two decades later, XFL 2.0 games aired on Fox and ESPN and still the league landed in bankruptcy halfway through its season.
Maybe it's just that America is suffering from football fatigue. Depending on your monthly cable bill, you can watch 20 college football games on Saturdays. Last year there were 44 bowl games and five all-star games. Teams with losing records, for Heaven's sake, earn a bowl bid now. Last year, Mississippi State finished its regular season with a 3-7 record and was invited to the Armed Forces Bowl. And won!
Granted 2020 was a weird pandemic year. But other teams with losing records have played in a bowl game since 2015, like Hawaii, North Texas, Nebraska, Minnesota and San Jose State.
With the right cable package, fans can watch every NFL football game all season long – that's 333 games including pre-season, regular season, post-season and the waning Pro Bowl. The NFL is expanding its regular season schedule to 17 games next season. Is more too much?
Flutie promised the USFL would provide football at the "highest level." Some might say that the NFL isn't even doing that. Where will the USFL find those highest-level quarterbacks? Quick, who played quarterback for Denver last year? For Cincinnati after Joe Burrow went down with an injury? For San Francisco after Jimmy Garrapolo was hurt?
For Houston this year? Where is Mitchell Trubisky?
One hope for USFL success lies in gambling, which never goes out of season. Bettors need the action, and it doesn't stop after the Super Bowl. It doesn't matter who's playing. One year I was in Las Vegas during an NFL strike. I bet $100 on the Hamilton Tiger-Cats to cover against I don't remember. I couldn't name one player on the Tiger-Cats then, now or ever. And I won!
Here's something that isn't helping. With social media critically important for sports leagues and teams to stay connected with fans, the USFL does not own usfl.com or theusfl.com. Then again, if you click on whitehouse.com, you won't find the First Family's residence, but rather a gambling site. On second thought, that sounds about right.
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How Astros advanced metrics tell puzzling story about Houston's start
Apr 17, 2025, 5:21 pm
Major League Baseball’s regular season is 162 games long. You can think of 18 games as the first inning of the season, 18 times nine equaling 162. While the Astros 8-10 record is not good, it’s far from disastrous. Think of it as them being behind 1-0 after the first inning. It is pretty remarkable that they have yet to win consecutive games. Even during last year’s 7-19 stink bomb of a start the Astros twice managed to win two in a row.
The Astros’ offensive woes are plentiful. Oddly enough as impotent as they’ve been, the Astros have yet to be shutout. But in half their games they have scored exactly one or two runs. Basically, most of them stink thus far. Exemptions go to Jose Altuve and Isaac Paredes, but it’s not like either of them has been outstanding. It’s still early enough that one big series can dramatically alter the numbers, but the Astros badly need Yordan Alvarez to pick up his production. Yordan enters the weekend batting just .224 with a .695 OPS and just four extra base hits. Yainer rhymes with minor. As in minor leagues, where Diaz belongs at his current level of performance. That is not saying Diaz should be sent down, just that any random AAA catcher called up couldn’t have done much worse to this point. Diaz isn’t hitting Altuve’s weight, a woeful .130 with seven hits in 57 at bats. Diaz simply remains too undisciplined at the plate swinging at too many balls. He’s drawn three walks. And now to Christian Walker, who thus far has delivered return on investment for his three year 60 million dollar contract about as strong as the stock market’s performance in Tariff Time. Walker’s .154 batting average and .482 OPS are very Astro Jose Abreu-like. Walker’s23 strikeouts in 65 at bats jump off the page. He has often looked befuddled in the batter's box. Walker is definitely pressing and frustrated, wanting to perform better for his new team. Jeremy Pena goes into the weekend batting .215 and has one hit in 13 at bats with runners in scoring position. Brendan Rodgers, Jake Meyers, and Chas McCormick all have weak stat lines, with little reason to expect quality offensive output from any of them. Cam Smith is at .200 with a yucky .591 OPS but he’s obviously a young stud work in progress thrown into the deep end of the pool.
All batting orders are top-heavy, the Astros’ on paper more so than many. As I set forth on one of our Stone Cold ‘Stros podcasts this week, the first inning should be a team’s best offensive inning. It’s the only frame in which a team gets to dictate who comes up from the start with the batters lined up just as the manager slots them. Add to that, the first inning is a good time to get to a starting pitcher before he settles in. The Astros have scored a pitiful three first inning runs in 18 games, and in two of the games they pushed one across in the first, it turned out to be the only Astro run of the game. Improvement needs to come internally from the big league roster. It’s not as if the Astros have a meaningful prospect at AAA Sugar Land who looks ready to help. Entering play Thursday the Space Cowboys’ team average was .186. Second base hopeful Brice Matthews is nowhere close, batting .180 and striking out left and right. Outfielder Jacob Melton opened three for 17 following the back injury-delayed start to his season.
As exasperating and boring as the offense has been for so many, grading needs to occur on a curve. So, while the Astros’ team batting average is a joke at .216, know that at close of business Wednesday the entire American League was batting just .232. The American League West-leading Texas Rangers scored eight fewer runs over their first 18 games than did the Astros, though that is skewed by the Astros’ one 14-run outburst against the Angels.
Familiar faces return
This weekend the Astros play host to the San Diego Padres at Daikin Park. The Friars are off to a fabulous start at 15-4. The Padres being here creates a mini reunion as both Martin Maldonado and Yuli Gurriel are on their roster. In a telling fact, Maldonado would have the third-highest batting average on the Astros if on the team with his current numbers. Maldonado is hitting .250 with seven hits in 28 at bats. The last season he finished above .200 was 2020. The only season in his career Maldonado topped .234 was his rookie season with a .266 mark in 2012.
Gurriel was last good in 2021 when he won the American League batting title at .319. He fell off a cliff from there, though perked up to have a fine postseason in the Astros’ 2022 run to World Series title number two. “La Pina” is batting .115 with just three hits in 26 at bats. Gurriel may be released soon, and approaching his 41st birthday June 9, that would probably be the end of the line. Short-timer Astro Jason Heyward is also on the Padres, and batting .190.
For Astro-centric conversation, join Brandon Strange, Josh Jordan, and me for the Stone Cold ‘Stros podcast which drops each Monday afternoon, with an additional episode now on Thursday. Click here to catch!
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