Fabulous book with great insight.i thoroughly enjoyed reading this Book. May even consider reading it again. Lov3 this author and all the books he has written. Thank you

A well-researched and entertaining look at the rise and fall of the USFL.

I’m always skeptical of nonfiction that examines failed enterprises. If the subject itself was a failure because it couldn’t retain an audience, why would a book about it be able to do so?

Fortunately, Pearlman put my fears to rest by sharing the fascinating trajectory of the alternative football league that seemed so promising but in the end, could not compete.

I really liked this book. I am old enough to remember the USFL but I really didn’t know all the background and history of the Leauge. This book told the story of the USFL through anecdotes and stories from the players, coaches, owners and fans. Some of the stories involving the boozing and drug use of the players and the horrible conditions and wield owners were fascinating and hysterical. And of cours, looming over everything is Trump, who in his self aggrandizing way ruined the leauge(much like he is doing to the country in my opinion). A fascinating slice of Americana. Highly recommended.

Jeff Pearlman has an excellent pedigree as a sports writer having previously written such fantastic books as Boys Will Be Boys about the Dallas Cowboys and The Bad Guys Won about the New York Mets. In this book he turns his attention towards a lifelong interest of his, the ill fated USFL. Formed in the early 80s its intention was to bring football fans some Spring action and to break up the dominance of the NFL. They got off to a decidedly rocky start. The pedigree of the players was sketchy to say the least, the equipment was sometimes non existent (one quarterback recalls having to remove the full cage from his helmet himself) and the attendances patchy at best. Then, just as the league was starting to make some headway along came one Donald Trump. Having fancied himself as an NFL team owner but unable to break into the league, he saw the USFL as an easy way to make an inroad. Before long he’d started bullying and manipulating his way towards a winter season, sending the USFL towards a doomed court case that would spell the end of the fledgling league.

This is a really fascinating book. Being British and a follower of NFL I was only vaguely aware of the previous existence of a rival league, with this book though Pearlman plugs any knowledge gaps a casual or avid fan would have. There’s story after story, professionalism was virtually non existent and players would often stay out partying the night before games, some even sleeping on the beach before making their way to practice. There’s tales of punch ups on planes, coaches being threatened with guns and chancers very nearly bluffing their way onto the roster. Pearlman is a great sports writer. Some of the games weren’t televised but Pearlman describes the action as well as any commentator. The end of season games come as a real sucker punch for some players as they realise this isn’t only the end of the season, but the end of their life as a pro player. It comes as no surprise either to learn that Donald Trump behaved as badly in business as he does today in office and there’s not many people with a nice word to say about him here.

Jeff Pearlman really is one of the great sports writers and this is a worthy addition to his catalogue. It’s meticulously researched and obviously written with a real love for the game and affection for what the USFL was trying to achieve and the people who tried to make it happen. A rip roaring read from a brilliant writer.

I received a ARC from NetGalley and the publisher in exchange for a fair review.

In many ways, the NFL is one of the last vestiges of American monoculture. In a world where the zeitgeist moves exponentially faster and more unpredictably with each year that passes, there are few entities that are as familiar, as entrenched, as overwhelmingly present as the NFL. Football is America’s sport and the NFL IS football.

But pro football was almost very different.

Jeff Pearlman’s new book “Football for a Buck: The Crazy Rise and Crazier Demise of the USFL” tells the story of the last pro football league to pose a serious challenge to the NFL’s domination of the football landscape. For a brief moment in the mid-1980s, the USFL looked poised to assume a spot alongside the NFL in the American sporting landscape. The pieces were there to succeed, but unfortunately – thanks to some massive individual egos and more than a little hubris – the league flamed out.

It all started with a simple question – why was the NFL the only professional football league in a country mad for the sport? It was a question that had been asked numerous times in the past and had received widely varying answers. When the American Football League was founded in the early 1960s, it took essentially a decade for the NFL to decide to absorb the upstart league. However, when the World Football League tried to launch in the mid-1970s, it lasted less than two seasons before folding. A mixed bag, to say the least.

This was the world into which the United States Football League desired entry. But this league was different. They were going to be a springtime league, an offseason alternative to the entrenched legacy of the NFL. In mid-1982, following a plan formulated years earlier by an entrepreneur named David Dixon, the USFL announced that it would begin play in the spring of 1983.

A dozen teams – nine in NFL markets – hit the field in that inaugural season. The initial goal was to manage costs and take small, incremental steps in the early years. Ideally, slow, gradual growth would be the watchword. Build an audience, both in person and via broadcast deals, and manage financial expectations. Alas, the best laid plans …

It wasn’t long before egos started getting in the way. There was no cap, so different owners could spend differently. Some teams lavished riches on college players, resulting in elite talents like Herschel Walker, Steve Young and Jim Kelly joining the league, while others went bargain hunting. So there was competitive imbalance. Some teams were far more popular than others, drawing five times the crowds – and not necessarily in the places you’d expect. Expansion came far too fast and too haphazardly.

And of course, there were the ill-conceived and ultimately league-immolating plans of the owner of the New Jersey Generals franchise, one Donald J. Trump.

The majority of the USFL’s owners convinced themselves (or allowed themselves to be convinced) that direct competition with the NFL was the right thing to do. And so came the threats to move to the fall … as well as the antitrust lawsuit filed by the new league against the established one, a suit whose ramifications still echo today.

Over the scant three years of its existence, the USFL gave America a pro sports league unlike anything it had ever experienced. Veteran castoffs and never-weres lined up alongside future Hall of Famers, playing a style of football far more freewheeling and dynamic than that of the stodgier elder league. The NFL tried to ignore the upstart, but as more star players chose the new league (and as more fans started watching), it became more difficult not to acknowledge the elephant in the room.

The USFL was also utterly chaotic. Team rosters were packed with bizarre, colorful characters. Players were doing cocaine on team flights and getting drunk at airport bars. Fists flew between players and coaches; hell, even a few owners got involved in a melee or two along the way.

Jeff Pearlman’s affection for the USFL runs deep; his prologue makes that connection abundantly clear. But affection only goes so far. Pearlman is also a top-notch reporter and talented writer. He develops this fascinating story with meticulous research and an incredible eye for detail. Not just any detail, either – the most engaging, most significant detail. This could have easily been a book filled with minutiae; instead, Pearlman weds his journalistic instincts with a crackerjack sense of storytelling to create a rich and vivid portrait of a league that burned twice as bright and half as long.

Is this a niche story? It absolutely is. It’s a deep dive into a deep cut – it’s the definition of niche. However, it also deserves attention outside that niche. Anyone with even a passing interest in football should pick this book up – it’s a look back at a bygone era that shaped the sport as we now experience it. Oh, and it’s also hilarious, if you’re into that kind of thing.

“Football for a Buck” is a frantic, funny history of a football league that was ultimately, to paraphrase Hunter S. Thompson, too weird to live and not too rare to die. It was a glorious, flawed experiment, a football league whose renegade existence helped shape not just the sporting landscape, but the cultural landscape that followed.

FOOTBALL FOR A BUCK, by Jeff Pearlman, chronicles the creation, rise, fall and eventual demise of the USFL in the early 1980's. Pearlman reached back the early inklings of thought of a spring professional football league. He describes moments of inspirational forethought as well as doomed-from-the-start ideas that were the heart and soul of the USFL. The theme of the book, aside from a wonderfully detailed history of the league, seems to be that everyone involved with the league had a slightly different opinion on how and what the league really was. To some it was a more fun and relaxed version of professional football, to others a chance to extend your career in the sport, and to others a viable business model destined to succeed either by become profitable or by a NFL buyout.
Pearlman does an excellent job of describing how the league began and there is a certain point in the book where the reader is thinking "this all seems great, why didn't the USFL survive?", which echoes what so many people felt as the league started to fall apart. More gimmicky, more human interest, more fun. As the book moves forward, the kinks on the armor become apparent as some franchises thrive as an almost NFL franchise, while others struggle just to fill a roster and get all their players to the games on time. The disparity, coupled with two team owners who had wild aspirations, seemed to culminate in a implosion of the league after the 1985 season. The book has so many great stories that keep the reader entertained through the entire book, half the time laughing and the other time jaw-droppingly shocked. Donald Trump, the owner of the New Jersey team, played and integral part in the growth and collapse of the league and Pearlman does and exceptional job of being as objective as possible about Trump's involvement. He does provide many quotes from other owners and league executives and most of them don't hold back in their blame and contempt towards Donald Trump's part in the collapse of the USFL.
FOOTBALL FOR A BUCK drove me to start looking up league stats, facts, and stories about the league as soon as I finished the book. Well researched and written with care, this book is one for the ages, even though the league it recounts lasted only three years.

Two immediate takeaways from this book are that Jeff Pearlman loves the USFL, and is not rather fond of Donald Trump.

I live in one of the USFL cities, but the league was a bit before my sports maturity so I am vaguely aware of the stars and teams. This book does an excellent job of filling in the cracks and sharing the true character of the league and the entities throughout it. I was unaware of how detrimental Trump was to the league’s viability, or exactly how the league was able to secure some of the premium talent available from the collegiate ranks.

Beyond the current parallel of Trump’s ascension to power, the two leagues rising to challenge the NFL heavily relying on several of the tenets of the defunct USFL. It is going to be quite interesting to see if these new leagues will learn from the mistakes of the USFL or not.

I have enjoyed almost everything that Jeff Pearlman has written about sport and this excellent book is no exception.

It is a forensic study of the history of the USFL - from its foundation to its demise in the mid 1980's but it is not dry and dusty as one might fear but the book breathes life and excitement in every page because it deals with the characters and personalities that frequented the ill-fated league either as players, owner, officials or even fans.

He has delved deep and uncovered a non-stop series of stories, facts and anecdotes thatcaptivatpd me and grabbed my attention from the first page of this wonderful book.

Highly recommended.

Thanks to Netgalley and Houghton Mifflin Harcourt for the advanced reader copy. I am not the biggest football fan these days, but I’m still partial to my Buffalo Bills and have great memories of the glory days in the 90s. Knowing that Jim Kelly started in the USFL and having some generally fuzzy memories of that league and also knowing that Donald Trump was involved somehow all combined to stir my interest in this title. I’m so glad I read this and found it much more enjoyable than I might have anticipated. The stories of the USFL teams and players are fantastic. I didn’t realize what an absolutely crazy shoe-string operation most of these teams were. And that only gets worse as time goes on, not better. If you have any interest in sports, football, sports business, or just nostalgia for the 80s, you will enjoy this book. Who won’t enjoy this book? Anyone who feels Donald Trump is already unfairly maligned enough. Luckily I don’t fall into that camp and this only cemented things I already think about him.

For a brief stretch in the 1980’s, there were two professional football leagues in the United States. There was the well-established National Football League (NFL), which by then was staking its claim to being the most popular league of the most popular sport in the country. But for three years, there was another league, the United States Football League (USFL) that played its games in the spring and saw wacky games and players, innovative rules such as instant replay challenges, both good and not-so-good football and one brash, bombastic owner who tried to take on the NFL and eventually lost, meaning the end of the league just three years after it started.

The history of the USFL, from the day that David Dixon’s idea for spring football was announced by the Associated Press in 1966 to the dispersing of USFL players into the NFL after the results and award from the anti-trust lawsuit were revealed, is captured in this highly entertaining, highly informative book by best selling author Jeff Pearlman. No matter what a reader wants to learn or read about regarding the USFL, they are sure to find it in this book.

Yes, that date announcing the idea of the USFL was correct. The idea of a professional spring football league was conceived by David Dixon in 1966, the league gaining that name simply because he liked the name of U.S. Steel for a company in which he held stock. The idea went into to hiding when the NFL soon thereafter awarded a team to New Orleans and merged with the American Football League. However, Dixon never let his dream completely die and in the early 1980’s, it was reborn. Thanks to a trip to the home of legendary coach George Allen and the growth of a new product called cable television, Dixon set out to sell the idea of spring football. When a group of wealthy businessmen with deep pockets and large egos all signed on, the USFL was born, complete with a schedule for 1983 with 12 teams and more importantly, a television contract.

The first season was considered, in the big picture, a success. The attendance and television ratings were considered reasonable for a new league. The quality of football ran from ugly to spectacular. For ugly, just watch any Washington Federals game as Pearlman regularly reminded readers just how bad this team was both on and off the field. Pearlman humorously wrote that the team “led the USFL in three unofficial categories: 1. Football players no one had ever heard of. 2. Cigarette smokers 3. Coke Addicts.” Not exactly the formula for a good team. However, for spectacular football, two good examples are the triple overtime playoff game that season between the Philadelphia Stars and the Chicago Blitz, still considered to be one of the best playoff games in football history; and the championship game the following week between the Philadelphia Stars and the Michigan Panthers, won by the Panthers on a thrilling touchdown.

However, the championship game wasn’t the biggest news for the league that season. Proving that that the league was for real and to get a “big name” player, the New Jersey Generals signed running back Herschel Walker from the University of Georgia before he was eligible to play in the NFL. The story of getting Walker to sign with the new league was very interesting, especially as the league wanted to keep everything a secret until it was official. Because of this, the scout for the Generals who did the work to get Walker to sign with New Jersey, Rick Buffington, was concerned when he received a call from the Boston Globe to inquire if it was indeed true that Walker signed with the USFL. Pearlman writes about this at his best, calling Buffington the “Herschel Walker Deep Throat.”

The Generals were not only the team in the biggest market, they later on had the most brash and outlandish owner in the league’s second season in a New York real estate tycoon named Donald J. Trump. If anything could take attention away from the strangeness of two franchises swapping players and locations, as the Chicago Blitz and Arizona Wranglers did , it was the loud and bombastic announcement of the league’s newest owner. While the league already had some eccentric owners, such as Bill Oldenburg, the oil tycoon who owned the Los Angeles Express and had some wacky stories of his own shared in the book (one Pearlman description of an Oldenburg meltdown said he “went from agreeable to obnoxious to One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest psychotic”), he had nothing on Trump. More on the Generals’ owner a little later.

While the signing of Walker was a boon for the league’s publicity, there were reservations inside league headquarters and from USFL Commissioner Chet Simmons. He and some other owners, most notably Tampa Bay Bandits owner John Bassett, wanted the goal of the league to build slowly and keep salaries in check. Walker was the first signing to break that mold. However, the dam burst on salaries before that second season. Many future NFL stars were signed to huge contracts such as Jim Kelly (signed by the expansion Houston Gamblers) and Steve Young. Young’s contract, totaling over $40 million dollars when including annuity payments, was the butt end of a lot of jokes. His team, the Express, not only had an eccentric owner, but also was suffering from poor play on the field and very poor attendance, made all the more noticeable by playing home games in the massive Los Angeles Coliseum.

One other notable signing was Doug Flutie, the Boston College quarterback who made one of the most famous college football comebacks with a “Hail Mary” pass touchdown to beat Miami. Flutie was sought and signed by New Jersey. Trump wanted to sign the quarterback as he believed the popular quarterback would be good for the league – and he also wanted all of the league’s owners chip in toward paying Flutie’s salary instead of just the Generals. Regardless of political position or affiliation, any reader will realize that sounds very familiar to something that Trump stated later in his second career. This is another example of the brilliance Pearlman brings to this book is how he is able to make the reader connect the USFL to today’s events, whether or not they relate to football.

Despite the craziness, it seemed like the USFL was gaining its place for spring football. While not enjoying NFL numbers for attendance, TV ratings and quality of play, the product nonetheless was gaining respect in all those areas. For the latter of those qualities, the USFL never claimed to be on the same footing as the NFL. The players enlisted were described as “your tied, your poor, your huddled masses, your one-armed and chain-smoking and half blind and clinically insane..” by Pearlman – one of the funniest lines in a book filled with snippets that will make a reader laugh out loud.

Even though the league made a questionable decision to expand from 12 to 18 teams with some of these teams never getting on solid footing (example A is the San Antonio Gunslingers, whose woes are told in entertaining detail) there were new teams who were run well and played competitive football such as the Birmingham Stallions and Memphis Showboats. The ocean that was the USFL seemed to be settling down despite some choppiness.

However, there was some disturbance in this ocean churned up by Trump. The motives behind Trump’s purchase of the Generals were being questioned, and they became clear when he announced to his fellow owners that the USFL needed to move to a fall schedule and compete directly with the NFL as soon as possible. This would be his best way to be an NFL owner as many believed that was his goal all along.

This drama off the field was overshadowing the play on the field, which included a revolutionary offense by Gambler’s offensive coordinator Mouse Davis. Utilizing Kelly’s strong arm and a fleet of speedy receivers, the Gamblers became an offensive juggernaut, setting many professional football records for offense and becoming one of the elite teams. League officials were salivating at the thought of a Gamblers-Generals championship game for the league’s second season, but it was not to be. Instead, the Philadelphia Stars avenged their loss in the previous season by handily defeating the Arizona Wranglers to capture the 1984 USFL title.

The story of the next offseason was all about Trump. He kept on pushing his idea to his fellow owners that it would be in the best interest of the league to go head-to-head against the NFL. Just like with his businesses, he was one who got others to buy into his plan. Most of his fellow owners were on board with this plan, with the notable exception of one of the leagues more successful owners, Bassett. He was just as strong willed on his belief that the original goals of the league were to be followed as was Trump’s about playing in the fall. Sadly, Bassett developed brain cancer and as his health deteriorated, his influence on his colleagues dwindled until he passed away.

Without his biggest adversary, Trump pushed ahead with his agenda, filing an anti-trust lawsuit against the NFL and also getting the league to announce that 1985 was going to be the last season of spring football and the league would begin fall play in 1986. This lead to confusion both on and off the field. What was going to become of the players during such a long downtime? How many teams would be willing to go against the NFL, as some stadiums would not allow the USFL team to play at the same time its primary tenant, the NFL team, would be using the facility? What about the college draft? Of course, these questions were small potatoes compared to the big question – what would become of the league should the trial end in favor of the NFL?

All of this overshadowed the entire third season of the league, as the dominant team of the USFL, the now-Baltimore Stars defended their league title with a win over the Oakland Invaders in the championship game. The moves and merges of the league’s franchises were numerous and often had interesting anecdotes that were shared in the book. These two teams were included, as the Stars had to play games in Baltimore after their lease to play in Philadelphia was not renewed and the Invaders had many players from the Michigan Panthers after that team merged with the new Oakland franchise rather than compete with the NFL’s Lions when the league would start fall play.

The last, sad chapter of the league was the anti-trust trial. This was to be Trump’s finest hour, even with a questionable strategy and the death of the lawyer originally hired to represent the USFL, a lawyer who gained fame in the McCarthy-era trials against alleged Communists. Even when writing about court proceedings, Pearlman is at his best. For the sake of those with weak stomachs, I will leave out Pearlman’s recap of an exchange between Trump and then-NFL commissioner Pete Rozelle, but it is one that had me laughing so hard, I was in tears. The result is known to all interested in this league – the jury did find the NFL was guilty of violating anti-trust laws and awarded the USFL $1 – treble damages made the total amount $3. Of course, since the league was counting on this verdict for its future, it ceased operations soon thereafter and the players were free to sign with any NFL team.

Some made it, many didn’t and those whose one shot at pro football was through the USFL were saddened but look back upon those days fondly. The NFL’s product on the field, while they may not admit it, was influenced by the upstart league after its demise. The New Orleans Saints hired Stars coach Jim Mora and signed many of the players he coached and, not coincidently, went from league laughingstock to playoff team in two seasons. The most innovative rules in the USFL – the two point conversion and instant replay reviews – have both been adopted by the NFL. While the league may not exist any longer, its memories live on.

Any reader who is a fan of Pearlman’s previous work, a fan of the USFL or football history, or who just likes an entertaining book on the game, must add this to their library. An outstanding work that is one of the best books I have read on any sport.

I wish to thank Houghton Mifflin Harcourt for providing an advance review copy of the book via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I’m a huge fan of Jeff Pearlman’s books so was delighted to get an advance review copy of Football for a Buck which is due to be published this September. It tells the story of the short-lived United States Football League, an upstart rival American Football league set up to try and capture fans attention during the NFL off-season.

An ambitious and slightly crazy plan, the USFL looked to have a real chance of success before a disastrous decision was made to try compete directly with the NFL in autumn time. The league was made up of journeyman pros, college standouts who couldn’t make the NFL, and most excitingly, up and coming superstars who were lured by outrageous paydays – including future NFL Hall of Famers Steve Young and Jim Kelly.

The USFL was before my time, but I really enjoyed the ESPN 30 for 30 documentary ‘Small Potatoes’ on its rise and fall. Pearlman’s book covers the story in much greater detail and has interviews with a very wide range of characters. Pearlman captures what the league meant to a lot of people – fans, players, coaches and owners. He also captures the real influence the USFL had on the NFL, with a number of USFL initiatives, such as the 2 point conversation and replay challenges, being introduced into NFL not long after.

Pearlman has carved a bit of a niche in chronicling the bad guys in sport – with previous books Boys will be Boys and the Bad Guys Won covering the questionably behaved Cowboys and Mets. His books are at times gossipy and entertaining but also meticulously well researched and always brilliant. Similarly in Showtime, Pearlman did a great job of bringing the the 80’s era Lakers to life – through many interesting and sensational anecdotes. Who wants to read about a well behaved team after all? It’s not surprising then that some of the highlights of Football for a Buck are those stories of parties, outrageous behaviour and the wild sense of fun that accompanied many of the teams.

However, the book is at it’s best when it chronicles the behind the scenes story of how teams were formed, how decisions regarding the league were made and the court case that ultimately lead to its demise. A clear villain emerges in the form of Donald J. Trump – a man who sadly needs no introduction. Pearlman is pretty active on twitter including very often strongly condemning Trump’s Presidency. No matter your politics, it would be hard for even the most myopic MAGA enthusiast to read Football for a Buck and think anything favourable of how Trump behaved and influenced the USFL. The book does capture Trump’s remarkable ability to influence and get people on board with him – even, or especially, when his motives are anything but pure – an ability that ultimately took him way further than anyone would have imagined. It also shines a fascinating light on Trump’s feud which seems motivated by resentment towards the NFL as much as by the opportunity to rile up the militaristic instincts of his base.

Overall, this is an entertaining and brilliant read. Pearlman’s nostalgia for the USFL, his meticulous research and his genuine warmth towards many of its remarkable cast of characters shines throughout this excellent book. Pearlman clearly had a great time doing the research and I had a great time reading the book.

Pearlman’s writing podcast ‘Two Writer’s Slinging Yang’ is well worth checking out for fascinating interviews with very interesting writers who discuss their craft in detail. The fact that Pearlman advertises a classic sports jersey website on the podcast purely in exchange for free sports gear for him and his kids is simply wonderful and speaks to Pearlman’s passion for the USFL and great sports stories.

Long before the XFL another football league made go at bringing professional football to the spring. In Football for a Buck, veteran sportswriter Jeff Pearlman expertly tells the tale of this outfit, the United States Football League.

Unlike the XFL, the USFL had some real star power and managed to put a high level of football out on the field. But the action on the field is only part of the story. As in his other books, Pearlman uses extensive research and interviews with people who were there to weave a wide tapestry of events both well-known and obscure. He tells the stories of Herschel Walker and Steve Young, top collegiate players who chased riches into the upstart league, but also fills you in on people like Greg Fields, who assaulted one of his coaches and barricaded himself in a hotel room and refused to leave when he was cut.

Pearlman also explores how a good idea, which was growing and steadily improving was derailed by an egomaniacal carnival barker- the young New York real estate tycoon Donald J. Trump. While not a political book, Trump's role in the demise of the USFL is unavoidable, and the parallels to Trump's '80s boasts and cockiness ring familiar after his unexpected rise to the US presidency.

Any fan of Pearlman's previous work or professional football will enjoy Football for a Buck. Thanks to NetGalley for providing a digital review copy in exchange for an honest review.

It's tough to say if "Football for a Buck" ever would have been published had Donald Trump not been elected President of the United States. After all, it's about a football league that lasted three years and then went out of business with something of a whimper.

If that's the case, there will be those who say Trump finally did something good in the world of sports.

For "Football for a Buck" is fabulous and fun for more than 300 pages.

Author Jeff Pearlman has written a variety of good books over the years, and never steered away from controversy in the process. This effort, though, is a little different. Pearlman admits that he had something of a crush on the United States Football League when it was formed in 1983 - when the author was in school - and he obviously had a ball doing the research (something like 400 interviews) and writing for it.

For those who are too young to remember, here's a refresher course on the USFL. The idea was to form a nice little football league in the spring - when there would be no pressure to compete with the NFL, and give the nation's football fans something to watch. Remember, the NCAA basketball tournament was just starting to grow in the early 1980s, and the same could be said for basketball and hockey playoffs. In other words, it was easy to picture a niche for the new league.

It's a rather typical story for the a new sports league. Some teams were well financed and professionally run, and did fine. Others had poor ownership and very limited talent. It set up something of the haves and have-nots when it came to on-field play. Sometimes the teams folded up their tents and moved quietly to the next city. While there was a plan to keep budgets in place in order to slowly build a winner, rich owners quickly decided to violate that rule when they had a chance to win. For example, the Michigan Panthers signed some expensive offensive lineman in the league's first season, and the move produced a champion.

It's the stories that make the book come alive, and Pearlman collected bunches of them. There are tales of fights and drug use. A tale about two busloads of prostitutes greeting a football team that had just moved to a town, handing out business cards to their new potential clients. Stories about missed payrolls and players who invent new reactions to being cut from a pro team - like punching the coach. Since the league was in business more than 30 years ago, everyone seems free to open up to everything that went on. It's all great reading, and frequently hilarious.

Trump certainly gets plenty of attention in this story, and it's fair to say that many blame him for the demise of the league. Trump spent wildly and foolishly on his New Jersey Generals, couldn't control his ego, frequently lied, and alienated himself from practically everyone - according to the accounts here. Anyone going to his New York City office for an appointment - anyone - had to sit through an eight-minute video explaining how wonderful Trump was. I particularly liked the story about how Trump disguised his voice slightly and called reporters as "a public relations man" to leak stories out. Some of this sort of behavior may sound familiar if you've been reading newspapers in the past couple of years.

More than that, Trump urged the league to move to the fall and compete with the NFL head on, probably in the hopes of getting into the established league one way or another. He also assured his fellow owners that the USFL would win an anti-trust suit against the NFL that would change everything. The new league did win the suit, but only award $1 in damages - times three, because it was an anti-trust case. The USFL was instantly dead, and legal analysis indicated that Trump's own testimony was a major reason why the upstarts did not win the case.

The USFL may not have survived past three years, but its influence was felt for quite a while. Players like Jim Kelly and Reggie White became Hall of Famers, while executives such as Carl Peterson and Bill Polian became major players in NFL executive circles. It also helped push the NFL toward such rule changes as replay challenges and the two-point conversion.

Admittedly, I'm a sucker for books on new leagues - I've tried to read them all. "Football for a Buck" is right up there with "Loose Balls" (an oral history of the American Basketball Association) for entertainment value. Don't miss this one.