The Professional Spring Football League (PSFL) was a proposed outdoor american football minor league slated to begin in 1992. The league had a preview show on SportsChannel America in 1991, laying out the ten teams that would play. [1] The league was founded by Vincent Sette, a computer sales executive, while TV executive Rex Lardner served as commissioner.
Spring football was nothing new by the early 90s: the United States Football League played three seasons from 1983-85, while the NFL's own minor league, the World League of American Football, was starting its second season in 1992. Lardner was unconcerned about the USFL's failure or competition from the WLAF: "We're going to play a new brand of football that will create excitement." Two-point conversions were to be allowed and overtime was to be a modified sudden death, with each team being guaranteed a possession. The PSFL also had what they called a "universal ticket" which allowed season ticket holders to attend any league game anywhere in the country.
The PSFL did hire some fairly high-profile coaches (including ex-Denver Gold coach Craig Morton and former Detroit Lions and college coach Darryl Rogers), and a number of current or future notable Arena Football and NFL players were in the teams' training camps, including mid-90s Miami Dolphins running back Bernie Parmalee, AFL quarterback Ben Bennett, AFL defensive specialist Durwood Roquemore, and AFL wide receiver/defensive back Barry Wagner. Also vying for spots in the PSFL were former Notre Dame signal-caller Tony Rice and running back Timmy Smith, who rushed for 204 yards Super Bowl XXII for the Washington Redskins. The team salary cap was set at $2 million per team with 50-man rosters.
The 1992 PSFL season was set to begin in Tampa on February 29, with the Utah Pioneers taking on the Tampa Bay Outlaws. There was to be a sixteen-game regular season through June 14, two rounds of playoffs, and the championship game (or "Red, White And Blue Bowl"), scheduled for Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Stadium in Washington, D.C., on Sunday, July 5.
The league was the first sports LLC, which has been used as a blueprint for several leagues since, such as Major League Soccer and the WNBA. Rather than the league being set up as a non-profit organization which technically exists for the benefit of its for-profit franchises, the PSFL was one single corporation (the "entity" model of sports league organization) with limited partners operating the teams and performing many of the functions usually performed by team owners in the traditional model of North American professional sport organization. The idea was to eliminate weak financial teams as well as the potential for collusion as all players were contracted by the PSFL, and then assigned to individual teams.
Many sports leagues have folded before actually playing a game, but the PSFL probably got the closest to starting their season before the plug was pulled; each team had players already in camp and practicing, and rosters cut down to 60 players. The folding of the league was announced by Lardner on February 19, 1992, 10 days before the scheduled season opener, after a needed cash infusion of $1 million did not surface. The league had over $7 million in escrow from ticket sales as funds were not to be spent until the games were played and revenues were earned. This protected fans and sponsors from losses or failure, and ticketholders received full refunds. The teams shut down all on the same day as all invoiced expenses were paid by the league headquarters. The PSFL tried to regroup for 1993 season, but again the start-up funding did not get secured and the league organization disbanded.
| EASTERN DIVISION | City | Venue | Head Coach |
| Carolina Cougars | Columbia, South Carolina | Williams-Brice Stadium | Pete Kettela |
| Miami Tribe | Miami | Orange Bowl | Pete McCulley [2] |
| New England Blitz | Worcester, Massachusetts | Fitton Field | Steve Grogan |
| Tampa Bay Outlaws | Tampa, Florida | Tampa Stadium | Boyd Dowler |
| Washington Marauders | Washington, D.C. | RFK Stadium | Guy Morriss |
| WESTERN DIVISION | |||
| Arkansas Miners | Little Rock, Arkansas | War Memorial Stadium | Darryl Rogers |
| Nevada Aces | Las Vegas, Nevada | Sam Boyd Silver Bowl | Steve Goldman |
| New Mexico Rattlesnakes | Albuquerque, New Mexico | University Stadium | Al Bruno |
| Oregon Lightning Bolts | Portland, Oregon | Civic Stadium | Craig Morton |
| Utah Pioneers | Salt Lake City | Rice Stadium | John D'Ottavio |
William Ernest Walsh was an American professional and college football coach. He served as head coach of the San Francisco 49ers and the Stanford Cardinal, during which time he popularized the West Coast offense. After retiring from the 49ers, Walsh worked as a sports broadcaster for several years and then returned as head coach at Stanford for three seasons.
The Tampa Bay Buccaneers are a professional American football team based in Tampa, Florida. The Buccaneers compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) South division. The club joined the NFL in 1976 as an expansion team, along with the Seattle Seahawks, and played its first season in the American Football Conference (AFC) West division. Prior to the 1977 season, Tampa Bay switched conferences and divisions with Seattle, becoming a member of the NFC Central division. The Seahawks eventually rejoined the NFC in 2002, leaving the Buccaneers as the only NFL team not to play in their original conference. As a result of the league's realignment prior to the 2002 season, the Buccaneers joined three former NFC West teams to form the NFC South. The club is owned by the Glazer family and plays its home games at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa.
The Arena Football League (AFL) can refer to one of three successive professional indoor American football leagues in the United States. The first of these was founded in 1986, and played its first official games in the 1987 season, running for 22 consecutive seasons until going bankrupt following the 2008 season. The second league, consisting largely of teams from the first AFL and arenafootball2, purchased the first league's assets out of bankruptcy and resumed play in 2010 as a continuation of the first AFL; this second AFL ran for ten further seasons, before again going bankrupt following the 2019 season. A third AFL, which is not directly connected to the previous two iterations of the league but claiming their histories and trademarks, intends to launch in 2024.
The World Football League (WFL) was an American football league that played one full season in 1974 and most of its second in 1975. Although the league's proclaimed ambition was to bring American football onto a worldwide stage, the farthest the WFL reached was placing a team – the Hawaiians – in Honolulu, Hawaii. The league folded midway through its second season, in 1975. A new minor football league began play as the World Football League in 2008 after acquiring the rights to its trademarks and intellectual property; it folded in 2011.
NFL Europe League was a professional American football league that functioned as the developmental minor league of the National Football League (NFL). Originally founded in 1989 as the World League of American Football, the league was envisioned as a transatlantic league encompassing teams from both North America and Europe. Initially, the WLAF consisted of seven teams in North America and three in Europe. It began play in 1991 and lasted for two seasons before suspending operations; while the league had been "wildly popular" in Europe, it failed to achieve success in North America. After a two-year hiatus, it returned as a six-team European league, with teams based in England, Germany, the Netherlands, Scotland, and Spain. NFL Europa was dissolved in 2007 due to its continued unprofitability and the NFL's decision to shift its focus towards hosting regular-season games in Europe; at the time of its closure, the league consisted of five German teams and one team based in the Netherlands.
The Tampa Bay Storm were a professional arena football team based in Tampa, Florida, US. It played in the Arena Football League (AFL). Originally the team was located in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and operated as the Pittsburgh Gladiators. The franchise was one of the original four that launched the Arena Football League for its inaugural season in 1987. The club was relocated to Tampa Bay area for the 1991 season, being the last of the original teams to either fold or leave its market. After 26 years in the Tampa market, the team ceased operations in December, 2017.
The New York Dragons were a professional arena football team based in the New York metropolitan area. The Dragons participated in the Arena Football League's (AFL) National Conference as a member of the Eastern Division. The team was founded in 1995 as the original iteration of the Iowa Barnstormers, and relocated to New York in 2001. They played in New York until 2008, when the league folded. They played in the Eastern Division of the National Conference, and played their home games at Nassau Coliseum in Uniondale, New York. Their last coach was Weylan Harding.
Tampa Stadium was a large open-air stadium located in Tampa, Florida, which opened in 1967 and was significantly expanded in 1974–75. The facility is most closely associated with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers of the National Football League, who played there from their establishment in 1976 until 1997. It also hosted two Super Bowls, in 1984 and 1991, as well as the 1984 USFL Championship Game. To meet the revenue demands of the Buccaneers' new owners, Raymond James Stadium was built nearby in 1998, and Tampa Stadium was demolished in early 1999.
Arena football is a variety of eight-man indoor gridiron football. The game is played indoors on a smaller field than American or Canadian football, designed to fit in the same surface area as a standard North American ice hockey rink, resulting in a faster and higher-scoring game that can be played on the floors of indoor arenas. The sport was invented in 1981, and patented in 1987, by Jim Foster, a former executive of the National Football League and the United States Football League. The name is trademarked by Gridiron Enterprises and had a proprietary format until its patent expired in 2007.
The Fort Worth Cavalry was an Arena Football League team which operated for a single season, 1994, in the National Conference. The league did not want to abandon the idea of having a franchise in the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex, a major media market, after the demise of the Dallas Texans (1990–1993), and granted a new franchise to an ownership group in Fort Worth. The team was owned by Peter "Woody" Kern and led by head coach Michael Trigg. The team struggled with ticket sales and financial issues lead to the team being folded after the 1994 season.
The Toronto Phantoms were a professional arena football team based in Toronto, Ontario. The team was a member of the Eastern Division of the National Conference of the Arena Football League (AFL). The team also previously operated in New York City and Hartford, Connecticut.
Derrick Dewan Brooks is an American former professional football player who was a linebacker for his entire 14-year career in the National Football League (NFL) with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Brooks played college football for the Florida State Seminoles, earning consensus All-American honors twice. He was selected by the Buccaneers in the first round of the 1995 NFL draft. An 11-time Pro Bowl selection and five-time first-team All-Pro, Brooks was the NFL Defensive Player of the Year in 2002 en route to winning the franchise's first Super Bowl title in Super Bowl XXXVII. Following his retirement, Brooks served as co-owner and president of the Tampa Bay Storm in the Arena Football League (AFL) from 2011 to 2017. He was inducted to the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2014 and the College Football Hall of Fame in 2016.
Christopher Jackson is an American football coach and former wide receiver who is the wide receivers coach and passing game coordinator for The University of Texas. During the 2022 season, he was the wide receivers coach for the Jacksonville Jaguars of the National Football League (NFL). He previously served as an assistant coach for the Chicago Bears.
Pat Sperduto is an American football coach and executive. He is currently the Director of College Scouting for the Kansas City Chiefs of the National Football League. Sperduto played his entire three-year Arena career as an active player with Tampa Bay Storm, and was also the final head coach of the Nashville Kats.
The history of the Buffalo Bills began in 1960, when the team began play as a charter member of the American Football League (AFL), winning two consecutive AFL titles in 1964 and 1965. The club joined the National Football League (NFL) as part of the 1970 AFL-NFL merger. The Bills have the distinction of being the only team to advance to four consecutive Super Bowls between 1990 and 1993, but also the regrettable distinction of losing all four of them.
Jay Michael Gruden is an American football coach and former quarterback. He previously served as the head coach of the Washington Redskins from 2014 to 2019 and as offensive coordinator for the Cincinnati Bengals and Jacksonville Jaguars. During his time in the Arena Football League (AFL), he won four ArenaBowls as a player and two more as a head coach. Gruden is the younger brother of former NFL head coach Jon Gruden and was an assistant coach of the 2002 Buccaneers team that won Super Bowl XXXVII.
The National Football League (NFL) was founded in 1920 as the American Professional Football Association (APFA) with ten teams from four states, all of whom existed in some form as participants of regional leagues in their respective territories. The league took on its current name in 1922. The NFL was the first professional football league to successfully establish a nationwide presence, after several decades of failed attempts. Only two founding members are still in the league, the Decatur Staleys and the Chicago Cardinals is the oldest NFL franchise.
The Tampa Bay area is home to many sports teams and has a substantial history of sporting activity. Most of the region's professional sports franchises use the name "Tampa Bay", which is the name of a body of water, not of any city. This is to emphasize that they represent the wider metropolitan area and not a particular municipality and was a tradition started by Tampa's first major sports team, the original Tampa Bay Rowdies, when they were founded in 1975.
In the United States and Canada, the term professional football includes the professional forms of American and Canadian gridiron football. In common usage, it refers to former and existing major football leagues in either country. Currently, there are multiple professional football leagues in North America: the three best known are the National Football League (NFL) and the XFL in the U.S, and the Canadian Football League (CFL) in Canada. American football leagues have existed in Europe since the late 1970s, with competitive leagues all over Europe hiring American Imports to strengthen rosters. The Austrian Football League and German Football League top division are known as the best leagues in Europe. The Japan X-League is also a strong league that has a long history since 1971. The NFL has existed continuously since being so named in 1922.