Former Kansas City Chiefs head coach Todd Haley is one of four men named as head coaches in the new USFL, scheduled to begin play on April 16th.
Haley, coach of the Chiefs in a 19-26 stretch from 2009 to 2011 will lead the Tampa Bay Bandits. After leaving Kansas City, Haley become offensive coordinator for the Pittsburgh Steelers and then the Cleveland Browns, where he was fired in 2018.
Chosen as the coach of the Houston Gamblers was former Texas A&M and University of Arizona head coach Kevin Sumlin. Sumlin returns to the city where his coaching resume rose as head coach of the Houston Cougars over a decade ago.
Former Nebraska and Oregon State football coach Mike Riley was hired by the New Jersey Generals. Riley’s resume includes a stint with the San Diego Chargers from 1999 to 2001. He has also coaches in the AAF and XFL.
The Philadelphia Stars will be coached by Bart Andrus, who has stints with Toronto in the CFL, Omaha in the UFL, and Amsterdam in NFL Europe.
Four other USFL franchises, the Michigan Panthers, Pittsburgh Maulers, Birmingham Stallions, and New Orleans Breakers, are expected to announce their coaching choices soon.
The USFL will start this spring, running with 10-game regular season schedules from April 16th through mid-June, re-starting the original USFL that was launched in 1983, but fell apart three years later due to money issues, and a ill-conceived plan by Generals owner Donald Trump to attempt a fall season to compete head-to-head with the NFL.
Fox Sports and NBC will broadcast USFL games in 2022, with Fox having a minority equity stake in the company that owns the USFL.
