Look closer at the Flutie picture
The day Donald Trump's narcissism killed the USFL
Although the president is a constant critic of the NFL, he unintentionally helped the league during a hapless turn as a witness in a 1986 lawsuit
As its third season came toward a close, the United States Football League filed an anti-trust lawsuit against the NFL, claiming it had established a monopoly with respect to television broadcasting rights. The suit was led by Donald Trump, the New Jersey Generals owner who was convinced his league would win and, as a result, force a merger with the NFL. Held over 42 days in the United States District Court in Manhattan, it was one of the most eagerly anticipated trials in the history of modern sports. And the USFL seemed to have a good shot – until Trump stepped up …
The NFL’s lead attorney, Frank Rothman, utilized an approach that was the 180-degree opposite of [USFL attorney Harvey] Myerson’s. He didn’t beat people down. He didn’t scream, rant, snarl. A distinguished 59-year-old with broad shoulders and gray hair, Rothman was the former CEO of MGM/UA Entertainment, and he exuded a natural dignity. He sat back, let Myerson do his dance (as the entity that led the suit, the USFL was first to call witnesses), then meticulously went about making the NFL’s case that the USFL, by moving to fall, dug its own grave. “They had everything their way at the beginning,” Rothman said. “They had the jury they wanted. They hammered away at the Harvard [presentation]. Myerson was pitching the little guys versus the big guys. I would go back and tell the NFL people, ‘Listen, when we get our turn we can start turning this thing around. We have to be patient.’ But, actually, it didn’t take that long.”
John Elway, pictured here in 1999, turned down the Invaders in the USFL, and went on to win two NFL championships with the Broncos.
How John Elway rejected an offer from the league Donald Trump would ruin
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Beginning with the trial’s opening day, Rothman asked himself a single question: Who is my bad guy? He sought someone the jury would find difficult to believe and even harder to like. He sought someone with false bravado, with arrogance, with indifference. He didn’t want the jury to think about a sad little league going up against a powerful machine. No, he wanted the jury to see that the USFL, sympathy be damned, was its own Frankenstein. “The more I developed the strategy,” he said, “the more I wanted Donald Trump as my fall guy. I would call it Donald versus Goliath. I would make their scheme Donald’s plan, which it was. I would show that Donald Trump is not a little lightweight; he is one of the richest men in America . . . He was such a lousy witness for them, and a great one for us.”
“The way Myerson set it up was perfect for [Rothman],” said Ehrhart. “It was big, bad Donald Trump trying to screw the poor little NFL people, who had worked so hard to build their league up.”
Early in the proceedings, the USFL called Pete Rozelle, the NFL’s commissioner, to testify as the trial’s first witness. Over the course of five interminable days, Myerson hammered Rozelle, pounded Rozelle, grilled Rozelle. In particular, he focused on Trump’s claim that the NFL commissioner promised him a franchise should he abandon/damage the USFL. There was, both sides agreed, a meeting held between Trump and Rozelle at the Pierre Hotel in March 1984. What happened, however, was of dispute. Oh I get it you didn't mean Flutie, you mean the guy who killed the USFL.
