Editing United States Football League (section)

===The 1983 season===
{{main|1983 USFL season}}
* The [[Washington Federals]] finished tied with the [[Arizona Wranglers]] as the league's worst team with 4–14 records.  The Federals were coached by the [[Canadian Football League]]'s fourth most successful coach at the time, [[Ray Jauch]]. The team was injury prone and mistake prone, on and off the field.  Prior to the 1983 season, the team traded away the rights to the league's leading sacker, linebacker [[John Corker]] to Michigan for a 5th round pick. In spite of a rotating door at QB, the Federals lost 8 games by a TD or less, a fact that gave team owner [[Berl Bernhard]] hope for the 1984 season. The 1983 team finished second to last in attendance drawing 13,850 per game.
* [[New Jersey Generals]]' running back [[Herschel Walker]] emerged as the league's first superstar running for 1,812 yards and 17 TDs.  However, the team won only 6 games.
* The [[Denver Gold]] won only 7 of 18 games in their first year, but finished first in the league in attendance drawing an average of 41,736 fans to see a team that featured a number of former Broncos. Team owner [[Ron Blanding]] stuck to his budget, and took great pride in seeing his team defeat the big budget Chicago Blitz in Chicago 16–13 in week three on a TD run with 22 seconds to go. Blanding fired very popular former Broncos Coach [[Red Miller]] after a 4–7 start, but was still able to finish the season with strong attendance.  Due to low attendance numbers and over budget spending on players on all the other teams in the league, Blanding's Gold was the only USFL team to turn a profit in 1983.
* The [[Oakland Invaders]] finished 9–9 and won the Pacific Division behind the play of 29-year-old quarterback [[Fred Besana]] and former Oakland Raiders tight end [[Raymond Chester]] and halfback [[Arthur Whittington]].  Besana had played for the Twin City Cougars of the California Football League from 1980 to 1982, but played like a proven veteran, finishing the season as the league's second rated passer.
* In spite of a strong team led by 36-year-old former [[World Football League|WFL]] quarterback [[Johnnie Walton]] and CFL veteran halfback [[Richard Crump]], the [[1983 Boston Breakers season|Boston Breakers]] were unable to draw the regular sellouts they needed to survive at Nickerson. (Even when they sold out Nickerson, they still lost money due to its small capacity.)  Boston finished the season 11–7, narrowly missing the playoffs. Walton, who had retired from pro football years earlier, and had spent the previous 3 years coaching college football, was the league's 7th ranked passer.  Boston and Washington were the only USFL teams to draw less than 14,000 per game in 1983.  The other 10 teams drew over 18,000 per game.
* The [[George Allen (coach)|George Allen]]-led [[Chicago Blitz]] had been described as an "NFL caliber" team and were heavily favored to win the title and dominate the rest of the league. The team was stacked with quality players, led by NFL veteran quarterback [[Greg Landry]], rookie HB [[Tim Spencer (American football)|Tim Spencer]] of Ohio State, and rookie wide receiver [[Trumaine Johnson (wide receiver)|Trumaine Johnson]] of Grambling. In week two, [[Jim Joseph]]'s [[Arizona Wranglers]] led by rookie quarterback [[Alan Risher]] of LSU came from a fourth-quarter 29–12 deficit to defeat the Blitz 30–29 in a game considered by many to be the biggest upset in USFL history.  The Blitz would go on to lose five more games in the regular season and be edged out by Michigan for the Central Division title.  In the first round of the playoffs, the Blitz would carry a 38–17 lead into the fourth quarter vs. the host [[1983 Philadelphia Stars season|Philadelphia Stars]] before losing to the Stars 44–38 in OT.
* The [[Philadelphia / Baltimore Stars|Philadelphia Stars]] finished a league best 15–3.  Led by Coach [[Jim E. Mora|Jim Mora]], NFL veteran quarterback [[Chuck Fusina]], rookie halfback [[Kelvin Bryant]] of North Carolina and a very good defense led by linebacker [[Sam Mills]], the Stars made it to the title game where they almost came back from a 17–3 third-quarter deficit before falling 24–22 to the Michigan Panthers.
* [[Michigan Panthers]] owner [[A. Alfred Taubman]] quickly decided he was willing to pay to fill the holes on his team with NFL caliber talent.  Early in the season, the Panthers signed NFL veterans like guard [[Thom Dornbrook]], offensive tackle [[Ray Pinney]], fullback [[Cleo Miller]]<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.usfl.info/cleomiller.html|title=USFL.info|access-date=2009-11-25|archive-date=2009-06-25|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090625094607/http://www.usfl.info/cleomiller.html|url-status=dead}}</ref> and defensive end [[John Banaszak]].  Consequently, after a 1–4 start, the team jelled and finished the regular season 11–2, edging out Chicago for the Central Division title. They dispatched Oakland in the playoffs 37–21 and weathered a frantic comeback by the Stars to become the first league champions.

On the whole, the inaugural season was a success for the league. Attendance was in line with league expectations at about 25,000 fans per game, and television ratings slightly exceeded projections (an average [[Nielsen Ratings|Nielsen rating]] of 6.1, when the league had aimed for 5.0). The brand of play was exciting and entertaining, and the 1983 championship was generally recognized as being a more entertaining game than most of the [[Super Bowl]]s of the era. Even in cities where the fans were not numerous, the fan base was passionate; the documentary ''Small Potatoes: Who Killed the USFL?'' made note of a regular-season game in which [[Portland Breakers|Boston Breakers]] fans [[pitch invasion|stormed the field]] following a come-from-behind victory over the Stars at [[Nickerson Field]].