"The United States Football League--known fondly to millions of sports fans as the USFL--was the last football league to challenge the NFL while causing its owners and executives to collectively shudder. It spanned three seasons, from 1983 to 1985, secured multiple television deals, drew millions of fans, and launched the careers of legends. But then it died beneath the weight of a particularly egotistical and bombastic owner, a New York businessman named Donald J. Trump. The league featured as many as eighteen teams and included such superstars as Steve Young, Jim Kelly, Herschel Walker, Reggie White, Doug Flutie, and Mike Rozier. In Football for a Buck, dogged reporter and biographer Jeff Pearlman draws on more than four hundred interviews to unearth all the salty, untold stories of one of the craziest sports entities ever to have captivated America. From excess drug use to airplane brawls and player-coach punch-outs, to backroom business deals, to some of the most enthralling and revolutionary football ever seen, Pearlman transports readers back in time to this crazy, boozy, audacious, and unforgettable era of the game. He shows how fortunes were made and lost on the backs of professional athletes, and how, even thirty years ago, Trump was a scoundrel and a spoiler" -- From publisher's description.
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