In the spring of 1986, Donald Trump held a check for $3.76 in his hand—the final, nominal payout from a massive antitrust lawsuit against the National Football League that was supposed to help him conquer professional American football. Decades before he returned to the White House or built a media empire, the future president’s multibillion-dollar ambitions collided with the stubborn legal and financial reality of America’s most powerful sports league.
The Birth of the USFL and an Autumn Monopoly
To understand how Trump nearly hijacked American football, you have to look back at the sports landscape of the early 1980s. The United States Football League (USFL) launched in 1983 as an ambitious spring alternative to the NFL. While the NFL played its games during the crisp autumn and winter months, broadcasting on traditional weekend afternoons, the USFL staked its claim on the warm-weather months of February through July. League founders envisioned a fast-paced, regional product that would capture fans starved for sports during the traditional offseason.
The league boasted early momentum, signing marquee college stars like Heisman Trophy winner Herschel Walker out of the University of Georgia and securing television contracts with ABC and ESPN. Yet, financial discipline cracked almost immediately. Franchise owners engaged in fierce bidding wars for talent, inflating salaries far beyond what gate receipts and television revenues could support. Enter Donald Trump, who purchased the New Jersey Generals franchise in 1983.
From Spring Innovation to Autumn Confrontation
Trump quickly rejected the spring-football model. According to historical accounts of the league, he argued that the USFL could never achieve true major-league status while competing in the shadows of baseball and the off-season calendar. Instead, Trump pushed fellow owners toward a high-stakes gamble: move the USFL schedule to the fall to directly challenge the NFL head-to-head on Sundays and Monday nights, forcing a merger.
Despite warnings from more pragmatic owners—most notably Trump’s fiercest internal opponent, Tampa Bay Bandits owner John Bassett—the majority of USFL owners voted in 1984 to shift operations to the autumn of 1986. The move proved catastrophic. Major television networks abandoned the league, ticket sales plummeted in direct competition with established NFL teams, and several franchises folded before the fall season could even begin.
The Antitrust Lawsuit and the Verdict of $3.76
Desperate to salvage their investments, Trump and the USFL owners pivoted from the gridiron to the courtroom. In 1986, the league filed a massive $1.7 billion antitrust lawsuit against the NFL in a Manhattan federal court, accusing the league of monopolizing professional football and strong-arming television networks to freeze competitors out.
The trial captivated the sports and business worlds. Trump testified as the league’s star witness, painting the NFL as an illegal monopoly that had deliberately crushed any entity standing in its way. The jury ultimately returned a verdict finding the NFL guilty of monopolizing professional football. However, in a twist that sealed the USFL’s fate, the jury awarded the plaintiff nominal damages of just $1.
Under federal antitrust laws, damages are automatically trebled, bringing the total award to $3.00. With interest accrued over the course of the lengthy legal proceedings, the final check delivered to the USFL—and divided among its shattered ownership group—totaled exactly $3.76. The verdict effectively ended the USFL, marking the collapse of the last major rival league to challenge the NFL’s supremacy.
The Next Checkpoint
As the NFL prepares for its upcoming slate of international fixtures and postseason push, the ghost of the USFL remains a legendary cautionary tale of sports economics and overreach. Share your thoughts on whether a spring football league could ever successfully challenge the NFL today in the comments below.
Worth a look
