The USFL will have a new president as it enters Year 2 of its rebrand. Daryl Johnston, a three-time Super Bowl champion during his playing days with the Dallas Cowboys, has been promoted from vice president to president.
Johnston, also a longtime analyst for the Fox NFL broadcast booth, takes over for Brian Woods, who stepped down as USFL president in order to pursue entrepreneurial endeavors. As vice president, Johnston played an integral role in the USFL becoming the first spring league in nearly 40 years to complete its season in 2022.
“I think that Year 1 was very successful,” Johnston recently said in an interview with CBS Sports. “I think more of what you’re trying to do is establish a stand-alone league that provides a non-traditional route back to the NFL. … We’re about football, we’re about the why, what motivates the guys, what you are trying to accomplish here and trying to do everything we can from a coaching and from an exposure standpoint to give them an opportunity to continue to chase that dream.”
The league certainly achieved its goal last year of providing its players with NFL opportunities. Over 180 USFL players worked out for NFL teams last season, with over 50 players taking part in training camps. A number of them ended up on NFL rosters, with KaVontae Turpin, the USFL MVP last year, earning All-Pro honors with the Cowboys last season.
“The success of your model causes you to reload your workforce 25, 30, 35% every year,” Johnston said.
Fortunately for the USFL, both quarterbacks who played in last year’s league championship game — J’Mar Smith of the Birmingham Stallions and Case Cookus of the Philadelphia Stars — will be back for their respective teams. Mike Abernathy, a veteran safety who spent time last fall with the Packers and Falcons, is back patrolling the secondary for the Houston Gamblers.
After playing each of their regular-season games in…
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