ESPN's 30 and 30 USFL (Cowboys related)

[playmakers]

I dont know if anyone has checked out these 30 and 30s by ESPN but I seen two of them now (USFL and Wayne Gretzky) and they have been really good.

Anyways, watching the USFL one on DVR the other day, the Cowboys can really thank one man for us winning three Superbowls and he is Donald Trump. He ruined that league and ran it right into the ground. It was all about him and his agenda was to either attain an NFL team through a merger(cheaply, by forcing the NFL's hand in court) or try to take them down in the process. In doing so, he did not care about the other franchises in the league. He would intimate all of the other owners into doing things his way and they did because they thought he would bring them a lot of money. The final thing that killed the USFL is Trump's attempt to move the league from the Spring to Fall. The Fall had less television opportunities and more sports to compete with. The USFL I beileve never made it to the Fall season and let the players out of their contracts.

This affected the Cowboys in a major way, if Trump doesn't have an agenda that league would had lasted for a couple more seasons in the Spring. Herschel Walker would of still played in the USFL and the trade with the Vikings would of never happened. You can thank him for our 90's success. What do you think?



That league might of had a chance to succeed as a Spring league if Trump wasn't an owner. Steve Young and Jim Kelly thinks it would of stayed. The one thing they had over all other non NFL football leagues is they had some talent. Herschel Walker was probably that decades version of Adrian Peterson of today. They had Reggie White, Steve Young, Anthony Carter, Jim Kelly, NATE NEWTON, Doug Flutie and many others. I was only barely out of diapers when this league was going on but I do remember it. I use to like the team names. I think where this league went wrong is they jumped right into large stadiums. They should of started in the 30,000 or less stadiums and have the demand go up.

I think if the league stayed together still today that 30 percent of the NFL stars would be in the USFL. That would of made for some nice tv having an all start game against each other or probably the most likely thing would of been some sort of merger. They hinted that the Philadelphia/Baltimore Stars could have won some games in the NFL.

Opinions on this and Trumps affect on us...................

 

[SDogo]

I was a huge New Jersey Generals fan. Walker, Flutie..........loved that team. Loved that league. Check out some of the head coaches of these teams.

George Allen
Marv Levy
Craig Morton
Jack Pardee
Lindy Infante
Lee Corso
Jim Mora
Steve Spurrier

 

[Established1971]

I dont know if anyone has checked out these 30 and 30s by ESPN but I seen two of them now (USFL and Wayne Gretzky) and they have been really good.

Anyways, watching the USFL one on DVR the other day, the Cowboys can really thank one man for us winning three Superbowls and he is Donald Trump. He ruined that league and ran it right into the ground. It was all about him and his agenda was to either attain an NFL team through a merger(cheaply, by forcing the NFL's hand in court) or try to take them down in the process. In doing so, he did not care about the other franchises in the league. He would intimate all of the other owners into doing things his way and they did because they thought he would bring them a lot of money. The final thing that killed the USFL is Trump's attempt to move the league from the Spring to Fall. The Fall had less television opportunities and more sports to compete with. The USFL I beileve never made it to the Fall season and let the players out of their contracts.

This affected the Cowboys in a major way, if Trump doesn't have an agenda that league would had lasted for a couple more seasons in the Spring. Herschel Walker would of still played in the USFL and the trade with the Vikings would of never happened. You can thank him for our 90's success. What do you think?



That league might of had a chance to succeed as a Spring league if Trump wasn't an owner. Steve Young and Jim Kelly thinks it would of stayed. The one thing they had over all other non NFL football leagues is they had some talent. Herschel Walker was probably that decades version of Adrian Peterson of today. They had Reggie White, Steve Young, Anthony Carter, Jim Kelly, NATE NEWTON, Doug Flutie and many others. I was only barely out of diapers when this league was going on but I do remember it. I use to like the team names. I think where this league went wrong is they jumped right into large stadiums. They should of started in the 30,000 or less stadiums and have the demand go up.

I think if the league stayed together still today that 30 percent of the NFL stars would be in the USFL. That would of made for some nice tv having an all start game against each other or probably the most likely thing would of been some sort of merger. They hinted that the Philadelphia/Baltimore Stars could have won some games in the NFL.

Opinions on this and Trumps affect on us...................

Im so sick of this walker trade got us 3 bowls business. That trade is so overrated. Cowboys haters use it to minimize the super bowls. I dont understand why the fans themselves are gonna perpetuate this.

 

[playmakers]

I know we still had to produce on the field but to have no Emmitt and I beileve Darren Woodsen, Dixon Edwards etc would of been be hard to overcome and still win Superbowls.

 

[CaptainMorgan]

Can anyone actually name all the players we ended up getting from that trade?

 

[dcfanatic]

Can anyone actually name all the players we ended up getting from that trade?

http://www.lacrossetribune.com/sports/article_2b79693e-b622-11de-9a35-001cc4c03286.html

IRVING, Texas - Jimmy Johnson has a challenge for anyone who believes the Herschel Walker trade singlehandedly turned the Dallas Cowboys into the dominant team of the 1990s.

"Trace it," the former Cowboys coach said. "You can't do it."

Twenty years ago Monday, the Cowboys sent Walker to the Minnesota Vikings for a bundle of players and draft picks in what is widely considered one of the biggest steals in NFL history, if not all of pro sports.

The legend has grown because Dallas went from 1-15 to three-time Super Bowl champions in just a few years. Sure there was a lot more to the turnaround, but there's no doubt this deal was the catalyst.

"It was a once-in-a-lifetime thing," said Charley Casserly, then the general manager of the Commanders.

But this trade wasn't just a big-time swindle.

The strange truth is that the Cowboys didn't use a single one of the Vikings' picks - except to parlay them into more or higher picks.

Johnson made 51 trades in his five years in Dallas, "more than the entire league put together," he proudly noted. That's how the Cowboys built the crux of their championship rosters. Emmitt Smith came on a pick from Pittsburgh, Darren Woodson and Russell Maryland on picks from New England, Dixon Edwards and Clayton Holmes on picks from Washington, Kevin Smith on a pick from Atlanta, and Godfrey Myles on a pick from San Diego.

See why tracing the trade is nearly impossible?

And it explains why so many teams now go into the draft looking to move up, down or both. The Cowboys didn't invent the concept, but they sure helped make it popular.

This trade changed a lot of things for a lot of people the last two decades, all because some NFL newcomers were willing to do things differently and they wound up doing it better than it had ever been done before.

---
October 1989 was a weird time for the Cowboys and Vikings.

In Dallas, Arkansas oil man Jerry Jones had bought the Cowboys that February, fired Tom Landry and hired Johnson, a successful college coach with no pro experience but who'd been his college teammate at Arkansas.

They took Troy Aikman with the first overall pick in the draft, then hedged their bets by using a supplemental pick on Steve Walsh, who'd helped Johnson win a national championship at Miami. That move cost Dallas its first-round pick in 1990 and triggered a quarterback controversy.

Aikman started the opener, went 0-4 and broke a finger. Walsh's first start happened to be the Cowboys' first game at Lambeau Field since the Ice Bowl in 1967. With Walker joining him in the backfield, Dallas lost again.

The Vikings, meanwhile, were trying to regain the optimism they had at the start of the season - before they lost two games, their quarterback broke a hand and their All-Pro safety accused general manager Mike Lynn of being a racist.

Both teams needed to do something. Something drastic.
---

Johnson and Lynn had talked about a trade during training camp. For Walsh.
"I might be interested in that Herschel Walker guy," the Minnesota GM said.

"No," Johnson said. "That's the only Pro Bowl player that we've got."

Once Johnson realized how terrible his team was, he was ready to trade his only Pro Bowl player. Walker was 27, coming off his best season and still had a year left on his contract.

Johnson wanted three first-round picks, three second-rounders and three thirds. He almost had a deal with the Browns, but they lacked a first-rounder in '90, so the Cowboys kept shopping.

Lynn swooped in with an intriguing proposition: Five players, each with a first-, second- or third-round pick attached. The Cowboys could enjoy the talent upgrade for the rest of the season, then take either the player or the attached pick.

Johnson finagled an extra first-rounder. All along, he planned to keep both the players he liked and the picks.

"That's why at the press conference I said 'This is a great train robbery,"' he said recently. "Everybody looked at me like I was a complete fool, including Jerry, because they weren't sure we could pull this thing off."

Johnson limited the playing time of the ex-Vikings to keep coaches and fans from getting too attached. After the season, he told Lynn the Cowboys wanted a few of the players, but was cutting them all anyway. Lynn hung up.

It took a certified letter sent to the league office, with a copy to the Vikings, for Lynn to call back and work things out. Johnson gave him some other picks, which is how the trade grew to 18 players and picks, still the largest in league history.

"When we heard about the Herschel Walker trade, we were like, 'Wait a minute? Are we sure this is right? Is it true?"' said Casserly, now an analyst for CBS Sports. "We knew right then it was a hell of a bonanza."
---

Walker didn't want to go, but didn't have a no-trade clause. Fearing that Walker could mess everything up, Jones gave him a $1.25 million going-away gift, essentially paying his best player to leave.

Walker dazzled in his Minnesota debut. Lynn was happiest of all.

"We felt that the last piece of the puzzle, the last spoke on the wheel, was a running back - and not just a running back, but a marquee running back," he said at the time. "If we don't get to the Super Bowl while Herschel Walker is a member of the Minnesota Vikings, then we have not made a good trade."
Uh, no, they didn't.

The Vikings made the playoffs in '89, lost right away, and didn't make it back in 1990 or '91. Walker was cut the following summer; by then, Lynn had resigned and coach Jerry Burns retired.

"Herschel was basically an I-back and we were a two-back, sweeping, trapping team," Burns said this week. "He made every accommodation. On at least two or three occasions, he told me he'd cover kickoffs or punts. Things just didn't work out real well. ... You know how it is in pro football, your team reaches a peak then levels off and goes down the tubes."
---

The Cowboys weren't the first to use draft-day maneuvers to fortify their roster with young talent and lots of it. The model was right in front of everyone.

San Francisco was coming off a Super Bowl title in 1988 and was headed to another in '89. What put them over the top was their 1986 draft, when Bill Walsh kept trading down until he had 14 picks. He selected eight future starters, including Charles Haley, John Taylor and Tom Rathman.

Dallas dabbled with a similar strategy in 1989, then the Walker trade changed everything for years to come. Whatever move they made, they had the luxury of knowing that if it didn't pan out, they had the firepower to do something else.

"I've had times in my life when I wouldn't take risks because if I lost, I would've busted," Jones said. "When you have the dynamic of a pocket full of picks, you can gamble. ... As much as the picks themselves brought us players, that attitude of risk-taking made a big difference in how we built the team."

It also helped that they picked wisely, which wasn't the case with other teams that gave up running backs in blockbuster trades.

The Rams dealt Eric Dickerson for three first-rounders and three second-rounders over the '88 and '89 drafts. They used all six and had a losing record every year from 1990-98.

In 1999, Casserly and the Commanders sent the right to draft Ricky Williams to New Orleans for six picks that year, plus first- and third-rounders the following year. Washington made the playoffs in '99, then didn't have a winning record for five straight years.
---

Dallas went 1-15 in 1989, then soon launched the greatest four-year run in NFL history, winning the Super Bowl in 1992, '93 and '95, and reaching the NFC championship game in '94.

That surge from the bottom of the bottom to the top of the top makes their run even more amazing. It's also why the Walker trade is so inflated - well, by everyone except Johnson.

Earlier this year, Aikman asked Johnson whether the Cowboys would've won the Super Bowl without making that deal.

"Yeah," Johnson told him, "because if we hadn't made the Herschel Walker trade we'd have done something else. We might not have gotten good as fast as we did, but we would've eventually been there."

 

[dcfanatic]

As I sat watching this special one particular thought just kept creeping back into my mind.

Jerry Jones and Donald Trump are men of the same ilk.

 

[arglebargle]

Don't think you've researched Trump enough. I know which guy I would want to work for, hands down....

 

[big dog cowboy]

Earlier this year, Aikman asked Johnson whether the Cowboys would've won the Super Bowl without making that deal.

"Yeah," Johnson told him, "because if we hadn't made the Herschel Walker trade we'd have done something else. We might not have gotten good as fast as we did, but we would've eventually been there."

Jimmy was one cocky dude.

 

[bbgun]

Haven't seen it yet. Some reviewer at Yahoo said it was less a history of the league than a hit piece on Trump.

 

[dcfanatic]

Haven't seen it yet. Some reviewer at Yahoo said it was less a history of the league than a hit piece on Trump.

It was. And Trump sniffed it out in the shortened interview they did with him.

 

[Yakuza Rich]

As I sat watching this special one particular thought just kept creeping back into my mind.

Jerry Jones and Donald Trump are men of the same ilk.

Not really.

Jones is a master marketer and fabulous business. Trump has failed over and over and over in business and if his ole man didn't own half of Manhattan, he'd be selling insurance. Say what you will about Jerry, but he made his own money.






YAKUZA

 

[Yakuza Rich]

Haven't seen it yet. Some reviewer at Yahoo said it was less a history of the league than a hit piece on Trump.

For the most part, yes it was. It was also a nice piece on the former Tampa Bay Bandits owner.

I think what needed to be stressed was how the NFL was at that time. It's not like it is now where just about every team sells out every game and you have passionate fanbases for almost every team.

Back then there were more teams that had financial troubles and were lousy for years, if not decades. Plus, the NFL was really crusty about rules and changing them. The best example was the instant replay where the NFL back then refused to institute it because the game had always been called without instant replay and they were afraid of 'insulting' the refs. That's how it was back then, and it was extremely frustrating to see the NFL's logic back then. And those things are why the USFL did appeal to people.

The biggest mistake the USFL made was going from 12 teams to 18 teams after the first season. That was too much and gave way to too many awful owners so you wound up with too many teams badly hurting for money. It would be like the NFL expanding to 38 teams and basically adding a bunch of Mike Browns as owners.

With that, the USFL really needed Trump's money. Trump would've joined the USFL anyway, but because now they needed his money, that gave Trump leverage and he could make the league decisions which basically ran the league out of business.

More or less a classic business mistake.





YAKUZA

 

[BAT]

Jimmy was one cocky dude.

You are only cocky if you can't back it up. Imagine Norv's offense ran by Troy Aikman (not a Herschel pick), throwing to Irvin (already on the team) and handing off to Herschel Walker.

Herschel Walker may not have finished w/Emmitt's records, or he could have completely smashed them. Herschel broke Eric Dickerson's single season rushing record 2,000 plus yards while in the USFL. Walker was capable of rushing and receiving for a 1,000 yards in the same season.

Jimmy would have molded the same type of D personnel & production, with or without the Herschel picks IMO.

The key was Charles Haley IMO.

 

[MONT17]

The USFL would have worked... they just needed a few more yrs! letting players in "early" was a bug advantage over the NFL! With the USFL getting the old guys at QB from the NFL it would have been only a matter of time b4 a merger. Guys like Sipe had a huge following and if they could have landed a Danny White or a Ron Jaworski after a few yrs... it would have exploded!


Trump blew it thats why he was so pissed about the interview

 

[tyke1doe]

I think where this league went wrong is they jumped right into large stadiums. They should of started in the 30,000 or less stadiums and have the demand go up.

How do you pay for the high-priced salaries with 30,000 or less stadiums?

The league had to pay those salaries, or it never would have attracted the Youngs, Whites and Walkers of the league. And gate receipts are a way to generate the big dollars.

 

[Fla Cowpoke]

How do you pay for the high-priced salaries with 30,000 or less stadiums?

The league had to pay those salaries, or it never would have attracted the Youngs, Whites and Walkers of the league. And gate receipts are a way to generate the big dollars.

The fact is most of the big stadiums were only half full anyway, if that. It didn't matter how big the stadiums were. They were viable as a spring league. They had no business trying to go to the fall. That was suicide and anyone could see that.

In general, they made huge offers to one or two star players and the rest were journeymen. It made for good entertainment. I personally would love to see about a 12 team league, all in non NFL cities. There are plenty of such places. Birmingham. Sacramento. Orlando. Boise. Las Vegas. Throw in a team or two from Canada and Mexico.

Put in a salary cap with a $75k minimum per player, up to a max of $500k. You could keep the salary cap at like 10 million a year. Have three divisions with 4 teams each. Schedule could be two games against division opponents and one against everyone else. That is a fourteen game season. Start at the end of Feb and run into the end of June. You could definitely get a reasonable TV deal with a regular network or one of the networks like TBS or TNT.

Tickets could be $20-60. If the average was $40 and you could get 20k fans per home game that is $800,000k per home game. Add parking and concession proceeds and you could easily be over a million per home game. With the gate, merchandise and the TV deal.....I have no doubt it could be profitable.

 

[UnoDallas]

Can anyone actually name all the players we ended up getting from that trade?

Minnesota Vikings Received

• RB Herschel Walker
• Dallas's 3rd round pick - 1990 (54) (Mike Jones)
• San Diego's 5th round pick - 1990 (116) (Reggie Thornton)
• Dallas's 10th round pick - 1990 (249) (Pat Newman)
• Dallas's 3rd round pick - 1991 (68) (Jake Reed)

[edit] Dallas Cowboys Received

• LB Jesse Solomon
• LB David Howard
• CB Issiac Holt
• RB Darrin Nelson (traded to San Diego after he refused to report to Dallas)
• DE Alex Stewart
• Minnesota's 1st round pick in 1990 (21) (traded this pick along with pick (81) for pick (17) from Pittsburgh to draft Emmitt Smith)
• Minnesota's 2nd round pick in 1990 (47) (Alexander Wright)
• Minnesota's 6th round pick in 1990 (158) (traded to New Orleans, who drafted James Williams)
• Minnesota's 1st round pick in 1991 (conditional) - (12) (Alvin Harper)
• Minnesota's 2nd round pick in 1991 (conditional) - (38) (Dixon Edwards)
• Minnesota's 2nd round pick in 1992 (conditional) - (37) (Darren Woodson)
• Minnesota's 3rd round pick in 1992 (conditional) - (71) (traded to New England, who drafted Kevin Turner)
• Minnesota's 1st round pick in 1993 (conditional) - (13) (traded to Philadelphia Eagles, and then to the Houston Oilers, who drafted Brad Hopkins)

Dallas ended up with a total of six of Minnesota's picks over the succeeding years, two of which were used to draft Emmitt Smith and Darren Woodson. Jimmy Johnson used the other draft picks to make trades with other teams around the NFL. One of the trades led to obtaining the first overall draft pick in 1991, which was used to draft Russell Maryland. In other words, the trade of Herschel Walker to the Vikings contributed largely to the Cowboys' success in the early 1990s

 

[links18]

Not really.

Jones is a master marketer and fabulous business. Trump has failed over and over and over in business and if his ole man didn't own half of Manhattan, he'd be selling insurance. Say what you will about Jerry, but he made his own money.






YAKUZA

The Cowboys market themselves. Sometimes, Jerry tries too hard creating a backlash, such as he had undergone lately. There was actually a thread today comparing Wade and Jerry's media appearances.

 

[T-RO]

Missed it. Watching NFL network.