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Los Angeles Express
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Los Angeles Express was a team in the United States Football League, an attempt to form a second major professional football league in the United States to compete with the established National Football League. The Express competed in all three of the USFL seasons played, 1983-1985.
After a lackluster 1983 season, investor J. William Oldenburg bought the team and hired veteran executive Don Klosterman as general manager. Klosterman assembled an impressive stable of young talent. This included the greatest player in Express history, Steve Young, a quarterback who had played at the namesake university of his lineal ancestor, Brigham Young University. Young negotiated for himself what was then reported to be the largest professional sports contract ever signed up until that point--a 10-year deal worth over $40 million. However, it was revealed that the payments were actually to be in the form of an annuity set up to pay him $1,000,000 annually for the next 42 years, so the current value of the contract was considerably less than stated. The team tied the Arizona Wranglers for the Pacific Division title and advanced all the way to the Western Conference championship game. They lost to the Wranglers, 35-23, but it appeared the Express' future was very bright.
However, it unraveled in 1985. Oldenburg was forced to turn the team back over to the league after some of his financial dealings came to light. The injury bug bit the team hard, decimating the roster. At one point, Young had to play at running back. The team never drew well at the cavernous Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, even in their breakthrough 1984 season. The low attendance figures began to prove very embarrassing and frustrating to the league and its major television broadcaster, ABC, which had hoped for a more credible product to emanate from the nation's second-largest media market. The team had to play its last home game at Los Angeles Pierce College, a small junior college in the San Fernando Valley.
Even if the USFL had survived past 1985, it is very unlikely that the Express organization would have survived much longer even if the league had succeeded in the two projects that were its eventual undoing, the proposed move to fall play effective with the 1986 season (which never actually happened), and its protracted anti-trust suit against the NFL, which resulted in its eventually being awarded a token $3. Steve Young went on to a great career in the NFL, and is apparently, as of May 2006, still receiving $1,000,000 a year from an annuity purchased by a team in a league that hasn't played a down of football in almost two decades.
Contents |
- Rushing Yards: 830 (1984), Kevin Nelson
- Receiving Yards: 889 (1984), Jojo Townsell
- Passing Yards: 2361 (1984), Steve Young
Note: W = Wins, L = Losses, T = Ties
| Season | W | L | T | Finish | Playoff Results |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1983 | 8 | 10 | 0 | 2nd Pacific | -- |
| 1984 | 10 | 8 | 0 | 1st WC Pacific | Won Quarterfinal (New Jersey) Lost Semifinal (Arizona) |
| 1985 | 3 | 15 | 0 | 7th WC | -- |
| Totals | 22 | 34 | 0 | (including playoffs) | |
- The Express lost the right to host the 1984 conference championship game because of a scheduling conflict with preparations for the Summer Olympics. The game was played at Arizona instead.
- One last-ditch marketing move by the Express just before the league folded was a solicitiation to students at USC (located adjacent to the Coliseum) of season passes for $100.
| United States Football League |
| Arizona Wranglers (1983-84) | Birmingham Stallions (1983-85) | Boston/New Orleans/Portland Breakers (1983-85) | Chicago Blitz (1983-84) | Denver Gold (1983-85) | Los Angeles Express (1983-85) | Michigan Panthers (1983-84) | New Jersey Generals (1983-85) | Oakland Invaders (1983-85) | Philadelphia/Baltimore Stars (1983-85) | Tampa Bay Bandits (1983-85) | Washington Federals/Orlando Renegades (1983-85) | Houston Gamblers (1984-85) | Jacksonville Bulls (1984-85) | Memphis Showboats (1984-85) | Oklahoma/Arizona Outlaws (1984-85) | Pittsburgh Maulers (1984) | San Antonio Gunslingers (1984-85) |