USFL
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50 free USFL trivia questions with answers — sports quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
The United States Football League lasted only three spring seasons in the 1980s, yet it left a mark on pro football that outlived it. It signed Heisman Trophy winners out from under the NFL, launched the careers of future Hall of Famers, tried rules the older league later copied, and ended in a courtroom with one of the strangest verdicts in sports history. This quiz covers the whole story: the star players and coaches, the teams that moved, merged and folded, the owners and their feuds, the lawsuit, and the revived league that took the field in 2022 before merging into a new one. It is written for fans who remember spring football, for NFL history buffs, and for anyone curious about how a rival league rose and collapsed so fast. Every answer comes with a short explanation.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Which real-estate developer bought the USFL's New Jersey Generals in 1983 and pushed for fall games?
Donald Trump
Donald Trump argued that playing in the fall would force a merger with the NFL. The owners voted his way in 1984, but the league never played a fall game.
Q 02A jury sided with the USFL in its 1986 antitrust suit against the NFL but awarded what sum in damages?
One dollar
One dollar was the whole award, tripled to three under antitrust law. The league had asked for $567 million to fund its move to the fall and never played again.
Q 03Which Hollywood actor, a former Florida State football player, was a part-owner of the USFL's Tampa Bay Bandits?
Burt Reynolds
Burt Reynolds fronted the team's early marketing. Many assumed the name came from his Bandit films, but the managing owner said it came from his daughter's German Shepherd.
Q 04Which Mississippi Valley State receiver was the top pick of the 1985 USFL draft but signed with the NFL instead?
Jerry Rice
Jerry Rice chose the San Francisco 49ers, who took him in the first round. Only one of the four top overall picks in USFL draft history ever played in the league.
Q 05Which BYU quarterback signed a 10-year, $40 million contract with the USFL's Los Angeles Express in 1984?
Steve Young
Steve Young agreed to take the record deal as an annuity paid out over forty years to help the struggling team. The Express collapsed anyway, and he left for the NFL after 1985.
Q 06Which Georgia running back, the 1982 Heisman winner, left college early to sign with the USFL's New Jersey Generals?
Herschel Walker
Herschel Walker's signing broke the league's own ban on underclassmen, a rule officials doubted would survive in court. He ran for 5,562 yards in three USFL seasons.
Q 07Which University of Miami quarterback threw 44 touchdown passes as a Houston Gamblers rookie and won the 1984 USFL MVP?
Jim Kelly
Jim Kelly had turned down the Buffalo Bills to play indoors in Houston. When the USFL folded he joined the Bills after all and took them to four straight Super Bowls.
Q 08Which future Philadelphia Eagles defensive end began his pro career in 1984 with the USFL's Memphis Showboats?
Reggie White
Reggie White piled up 23.5 sacks in two seasons in Tennessee, his college state. Counting those, his 221.5 career sacks are the most in professional football.
Q 09Which former Buccaneers quarterback joined the USFL's Oklahoma Outlaws in 1984 and was later named Super Bowl MVP?
Doug Williams
Doug Williams had sat out a year before signing with the Outlaws. Back in the NFL with Washington, he threw four touchdown passes in one quarter of Super Bowl XXII.
Q 10Which Boston College quarterback, the 1984 Heisman winner, signed with the USFL's New Jersey Generals in 1985?
Doug Flutie
Doug Flutie's deal was reported at $7 million over five years. Because he had already signed, the NFL draft passed on him until the 285th pick, in the 11th round.
Q 11Which future national champion college coach got his first head-coaching job with the USFL's Tampa Bay Bandits?
Steve Spurrier
Steve Spurrier was 37 when hired, the youngest head coach in pro football, and his wide-open Bandit Ball offense produced three winning seasons and two playoff trips.
Q 12Which NFL rushing great was offered $2 million a year by the USFL's Chicago Blitz in 1984, a deal later withdrawn?
Walter Payton
Walter Payton was still weighing what would have been football's richest contract when the Blitz pulled the offer. The club had realized it did not have the money.
Q 13Which future Buffalo Bills head coach led the USFL's Chicago Blitz in 1984, his only season in the league?
Marv Levy
Q 21Which NFL commissioner was in charge when the USFL took the older league to court in 1986?
Pete Rozelle
Pete Rozelle was devastated on first hearing that the jury had found the NFL an illegal monopoly. He headed back to the courthouse on learning the USFL had lost nearly every other claim.
Q 22Which team, coached by Skip Holtz, won both championship games of the revived USFL in 2022 and 2023?
Stallions
Birmingham Stallions players had a home crowd throughout 2022, when every regular-season game was staged in their city. They went on to win the first UFL title in 2024.
Q 23Which team beat the Philadelphia Stars 24-22 to win the first USFL championship game in July 1983?
Michigan Panthers
Marv Levy went 5-13 with the Blitz. Two years later he took over the Bills and coached them to four consecutive Super Bowls, a record streak that ended in four defeats.
Q 14Which NFL coaching great nearly joined the USFL's New Jersey Generals in 1983 before talks stalled over an apartment?
Don Shula
Don Shula was open to leaving the Miami Dolphins but insisted on a rent-free apartment. He broke off talks in fury after the Generals' owner aired the snag in public.
Q 15Which rival spring league, co-owned by Dwayne Johnson, merged with the USFL to form the United Football League?
XFL
XFL and USFL owners announced the deal in September 2023. The combined league kicked off on March 30, 2024, with each old league surviving as a conference.
Q 16Which broadcaster owned the revived USFL that kicked off in 2022 and aired many of its games?
Fox Sports
Fox Sports started as a minority partner of league founder Brian Woods and took sole ownership by 2023, reportedly committing at least $150 million over three years.
Q 17Which Ohio city hosted the championship games of the revived USFL in both 2022 and 2023?
Canton
Canton first got the playoffs because the league's regular-season hub was busy with the 2022 World Games. The title game came back to Hall of Fame Stadium a year later.
Q 18Which Florida city's support for the USFL's Bulls helped it land an NFL expansion team in the 1990s?
Jacksonville
Jacksonville packed the Gator Bowl for the Bulls, and many experts say the NFL would not have considered awarding the city the Jaguars in 1993 without that success.
Q 19Which scoring play, borrowed from college football, did the USFL allow a decade before the NFL adopted it in 1994?
Two-point conversion
Two-point conversion tries were then allowed in only one other pro league, Canada's CFL. The USFL rulebook was a hybrid of the NFL's and the college game's.
Q 20Which cost control did the USFL's founding plan include, years before the NFL adopted one in 1994?
A salary cap
A salary cap of $1.8 million per team was in the plan, but it was never hard, and bidding wars for stars pushed nearly every payroll past it within 18 months.
Michigan Panthers ownership spent on NFL veterans after a 1-4 start. The team took the title while reportedly losing $6 million, three times what the league's founder had budgeted.
Q 24The champion Philadelphia Stars moved to which city for 1985, hoping to replace an NFL team that had just left?
Baltimore
Baltimore had lost the Colts in March 1984, but baseball's Orioles blocked use of the city's stadium, so the Stars played their home games 29 miles away in College Park.
Q 25What officiating tool did the USFL introduce in 1985, a year before the NFL first tried its own version?
Instant replay challenges
Instant replay challenges in the USFL worked almost exactly like today's NFL system. The older league's first version of 1986 took a different form and was dropped after 1991.
Q 26A USFL head coach cut running back De'Veon Smith in 2022 after he asked for which food instead of chicken salad?
Pizza
Pizza was the lunch request, judged a breach of team protocol. The clip, shot for the league's documentary series, stirred controversy before the first game was played.
Q 27Which Nebraska running back, the 1983 Heisman winner, was the only No. 1 USFL draft pick to play in the league?
Mike Rozier
Mike Rozier went first in 1984 and spent two seasons in the USFL before joining the Houston Oilers. The league's three other top picks all ended up in the NFL instead.
Q 28Chet Simmons left the presidency of which fledgling cable network to become the USFL's first commissioner in 1982?
ESPN
ESPN was not yet three years old; Simmons had overseen its launch and the creation of SportsCenter. The network then became one of the USFL's two television partners.
Q 29Which New Orleans businessman, a force behind the Saints and the Superdome, conceived the USFL as a spring league?
David Dixon
David Dixon first floated the idea in 1965 and spent years studying earlier challengers to the NFL. He sold his stake after one season, dismayed by the owners' runaway spending.
Q 30Which Hall of Fame coach, who took Washington to Super Bowl VII, led the Arizona Wranglers to the 1984 USFL title game?
George Allen
George Allen had built the Chicago Blitz in 1983, then moved with most of that roster to Arizona when the two franchises were swapped. His Wranglers lost the final 23-3.