USFL, Houston Gamblers set to return next spring
Houston will be home to another spring football league.
A Fox Sports-backed reboot of the United States Football League, which originally existed from 1983-86, was announced Monday with play starting in April 2022. The eight teams will play in an undetermined host city.
The eight-team league will include the Houston Gamblers, which will carry the same name as the city's original USFL franchise that played in 1984 and 1985 and featured future Pro Football Hall of Fame quarterback Jim Kelly. He had signed with the USFL after balking at playing for the Buffalo Bills, who selected him in the first round of the 1983 NFL draft.
The new USFL will have two divisions. The North will be comprised of the Michigan Panthers, New Jersey Generals, Philadelphia Stars and Pittsburgh Maulers. The South will have the Gamblers, Birmingham Stallions, New Orleans Breakers and Tampa Bay Bandits. All the team nicknames were used in the original USFL.
Brian Woods will be the league's president of football operations and former Dallas Cowboys fullback and Fox analyst Daryl Johnston will be the executive vice president of football operations. Continuing with the Fox theme, Mike Pereira, the network's NFL and college football rules analyst, will be the USFL's director of officiating.
Houston's last spring football team was the Roughnecks of the revived XFL in 2020. The league suspended operations in April 2020 in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic, with the Roughnecks the only undefeated team at 5-0.
Greg Rajan