The News Herald (Willoughby, OH)
Browns could use boost USFL gave team in ’80s
Kevin Mack, Mike Johnson among players who helped shape franchise’s last great era
It was the league that was a springboard to greatness for four Pro Football Hall of Famers.
It was the league that signed three straight Heisman Trophy winners.
It was also the league that helped resurrect the Browns in the mid 1980s.
Bernie Kosar was the headline acquisition during that era as the former Miami Hurricanes quarterback who maneuvered his way into the NFL’s supplemental draft and into the Browns’ lap in 1985.
However, Kosar didn’t guide Cleveland to three AFC championship games in the 1980s by himself.
The parts around him were brought in, thanks in part, when the United States Football League’s three-year run from 1983 to 1985 came to an end.
When the spring league came crumbling down, the Browns were there to pick up the pieces, and it benefited them greatly.
Players brought in weren’t spare parts. They were huge contributors for the Browns’ last great era.
The biggest names from the USFL to come to the NFL were future Hall of Famers Jim Kelly (who went to the Bills as their franchise QB), Steve Young (who started with Tampa Bay, and then was the successor to Joe Montana in San Francisco), defensive end Reggie White (signed by the Eagles), and offensive lineman Gary Zimmerman (signed by the Vikings).
The biggest splash names signed by the USFL were back-to-back-back Heisman winners Herschel Walker of Georgia in 1982, Nebraska’s Mike Rozier the next season and Boston College QB Doug Flutie in 1984.
The Browns got none of the splash or future Hall of Famers. What they got were valuable assets, thanks to a smart trade by
the Browns’ front office.
It was an influx of talent at the right time on the shores of Lake Erie, something that’s desperately needed with the current Browns.
Executive Vice President Sashi Brown and Co. have stockpiled draft picks. But with college prospects, there’s still the element of the unknown.
Many of the players brought in through the USFL’s 1984 supplemental draft and USFL free agency were proven as professionals. They immediately helped turn the Browns into Super Bowl contenders. Here’s how it happened: The USFL broke ground in 1982, and played three seasons in the spring from 1983 to 1985.
For three years, football fanatics enjoyed the game year-round, but by 1984 the league showed signs of falling apart. Big spending by owners, big expansion in Year 2 and lackluster crowds spelled doom. In a last-ditch effort to push the league into the fall, the USFL
sued the NFL in 1985. Its claim was the NFL was monopolizing the fall. The USFL won, but the jury awarded the league just $1, and the league eventually folded.
In 1984, with fears of the USFL folding continuing to mount, the NFL held a draft for players under contract by the USFL and the Canadian League. The goal was to avoid a massive amount of free agents for the NFL, and bidding wars, especially for the top players.
In Cleveland, the emergence of the USFL was felt when Brian Sipe signed with Donald Trump’s New Jersey Generals in 1984.
Before the USFL/CFL supplemental draft, one trade was made. The Browns moved their picks from the last four rounds of the 1984 NFL Draft, which was 12 rounds, to the Bears for Chicago’s three supplemental picks.
The trade gave the Browns six picks in threeround draft. Three of the picks were home runs.
The first four overall picks of the supplemental
draft were stars. Tampa Bay took Young of the L.A. Express at No. 1. The Oilers took Rozier of the Pittsburgh Maulers at No. 2, followed by Zimmerman to the Giants, and White to the Eagles.
The Browns used their first pick from the Bears at No. 11 to take running back Kevin Mack of the Express. At No. 19, they took tough linebacker Mike Johnson of the Philadelphia Star.
Their next pick — No. 44 in Round 2 — landed them Gerald “The Ice Cube” McNeil.
Cleveland’s last three picks were forgettable, but the nucleus of Mack, Johnson and McNeil were huge additions, and instrumental for the Browns in their runs to AFC championship games in 1986, 1987 and 1989.
Another enormous get by the Browns from the USFL was cornerback Frank Minnifield. He signed with the Arizona Wranglers after graduation from the University of Louisville but sued the USFL after the 1984 season
to get out of his contract.
He won his lawsuit, and signed with the Browns to form a lethal cornerback combination with Hanford Dixon.
Four more from the USFL signed with the Browns and were key players — offensive guard Dan Fike, defensive end Sam Clancy, cornerback Mark Harper and punter Jeff Gossett.
With their USFL additions, the Browns went on a roll. They won the AFC Central in 1985 with an 8-8 mark, then really got going, starting in 1986.
That season, the Browns were 12-4, then 10-5 in 1987, 10-6 in 1988, and 105-1 in 1989.
Since then, the Browns have had just three winning seasons.
Unfortunately for the current Browns, there’s not an influx of USFL talent out there for the taking.
Contact Podolski at MPodolski@News-Herald. com; On Twitter: @mpodo.