Terry Poole set to begin inaugural USFL season
A lot has transpired since the United States Football League folded up its tents 37 years ago, with a $3 reward from a lawsuit filed against the NFL.
The list of names that played in the original USFL in the 1980s includes Pro Football Hall of Famers Steve Young, Reggie White and Jim Kelly, not to mention Donald Trump owned the New Jersey Generals.
While Terry Poole wasn’t alive when the league first launched, he will be part of the return of the USFL Saturday as the left tackle for the Generals, who will face the Birmingham Stallions.
“You don’t get to play football forever,” Poole said. “The locker room environment and camaraderie is something you will never get again in your life. I’m living the dream for as long as I can.”
Poole is one of three former area athletes in the USFL, as one-time Palma punter Michael Carrizosa is with Michigan and San Benito High graduate Ryan DiSalvo is a long snapper for Tampa Bay.
The USFL is made up of eight teams that will play a 10-game season — with all games being played in Birmingham.
A former Seaside High and Monterey Peninsula College lineman, Poole’s journey in pro football has been one in which he’s cleared numerous unforeseen hurdles in his path not related to his talents.
Poole was a menacing presence for the San Diego Fleet in the Alliance of American Football before it went bankrupt in its first year in 2019 and canceled the season after eight fourth round in 2015 out of San Diego State.
Last summer, Poole was signed by the Winnipeg Blue Bombers of the Canadian Football League, before Toronto traded arguably the best defensive back in the league for the lineman.
“My vision was to get back into the XFL,” Poole said. “I had a great time in that league. I had planned on coaching in the community before a couple of USFL teams contacted me.”
With the XFL a year off from relaunching in the spring of 2023, Poole seized another opportunity when the USFL’s Generals took him in the seventh round.
“Everything I do has a purpose to it,” Poole said. “The NFL is still a vision. I know I can play in the league. It’s a matter of getting another opportunity. I can only do what I can control.”
Poole’s NFL career was shortened in his third season when a back injury led to a medical waiver in 2017 by the Houston Texans, who had acquired him from Miami after two seasons in Seattle.
Learning the value of nutrition and healing,
Poole feels he’s in the best shape of his life and is playing at a level that is superior to where he was when he was with Seattle during his rookie season.
“No question I’m a better football player than I was five years ago,” Poole said. “What’s benefitted me is all the coaches I’ve learned from. From coach Martz to coach (Pete) Carroll to coach Mike Riley. Grasping the terminology. The game has been simplified.”