Bobby Hebert: the former quarterback fondly recalls the time his Panthers beat the Stars in the inaugural USFL title game

Football Digest, Dec, 2004 by Chuck O'Donnell

WHEN THE USFL'S MICHIGAN Panthers drafted me in 1983 after my senior year at Northwestern Louisiana State, they guaranteed me $150,000. I basically didn't have a pot to pee in, and I had a wife and daughter to support.

I had been to some NFL workouts, where I actually ran the fastest 40 time among any of the quarterbacks that year--faster than Dan Marino or John Elway or any of the other guys from that big quarterback class. I asked the people from the NFL what they would guarantee, to which they said, "Oh, we don't guarantee stuff like that." So I surveyed the whole scene. Thinking that a bird in the hand was better than two in the bush, I went to the USFL to play for the Panthers.

This was the first year for the USFL, and I remember the Panthers had 13 quarterbacks in camp. Whit Taylor, who had gone to college at Vanderbilt, was trying to make the team. So was Mark Miller, who had played in the NFL for the Cleveland Browns. I ended up winning the starting job.

That first year, we were actually more popular than the Detroit Lions. Gary Danielson and Eric Hipple were their quarterbacks, and they had Billy Simms running for them. A lot of fans felt that if we had played the Lions, we could have beaten them. Of our 22 starters, we had something like 14 who not only made NFL teams, but started. Ray Pinney, who was one of our offensive tackles, started off with the Pittsburgh Steelers before he went to the Washington Redskins. Chris Godfrey, another offensive tackle, went on to win a Super Bowl with the New York Giants. Wayne Radloff was a starting center for the Atlanta Falcons who had played at Georgia with Herschel Walker. Thom Dornbrook, a guard from the University of Kentucky, had played in the Super Bowl for the Steelers against the Los Angeles Rams. So we had awesome linemen.

Then we had Albert Bentley from the University of Miami, who was a good running back with the Colts. We had Anthony Carter, who ended up playing for the Minnesota Vikings. John Williams, a running back, wound up playing with me on the New Orleans Saints. We had David Greenwood, a safety from Wisconsin who went on to start for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. He was also the punter for us. And we had Ray Bentley, who started at linebacker for the Buffalo Bills. So we had a lot of good defensive players, too.

The USFL wasn't like the XFL or the NFL Europe. We had NFL-caliber talent. The USFL was one of the reasons NFL salaries started going up. You look at Jim Kelly, who lamed down the Bills and went to the Houston Gamblers because he had a better deal. Steve Young went to the L.A. Express. The New Jersey Generals signed two Heisman Trophy winners, Herschel Walker and Doug Flutie. Reggie White went to the Memphis Showboats. Even guys I would become teammates with on the Saints, Sam Mills and Vaughan Johnson, were linebackers in the USFL, with the Jacksonville Bulls. It was unbelievable. The only difference was that the USFL didn't have the depth of the NFL.

I have fond memories of the USFL. It gave me a chance to get a lot of experience. You can practice all you want, but until you're in a game, well, it just doesn't matter. I could have been on an NFL team and not had the chance to play for four or five years. With the USFL, I played right away.

We ended up having a lot of success that year and got into the inaugural championship game. We were at Denver--the championship game was at Mite High Stadium--practicing the whole week. Someone had made some death threats against me. My coach, Jim Stanley, pulled me aside and said, "Well, we might have someone crazy out here, so we're just going to watch you." There were three or four undercover people following me around, always looking around like I was some kind of politician. But I was so worried about getting ready for the game that the whole situation didn't really cross my mind until I was out with my wife a couple of times and she told me there were people standing off in the distance.

We were beating the Philadelphia Stars 17-3 when the fourth period of the title game began. But then the Stars mounted a comeback, and it became a 17-14 game. We sealed the deal with about three minutes left, when I threw a touchdown pass to Anthony Carter. The Stars were blitzing on that play; I barely got the ball off, and then I was hit in the back.

One of the biggest differences between the leagues was there were really no cornerbacks in the USFL who could actually cover Anthony. I read the blitz, kind of drifted to the right, got rid of the ball, and got hit in the back. If I had waited a tenth of a second more, I probably wouldn't have gotten the pass off. That was a third-down play, so we would have had to punt if I had been sacked. Who knew how the game would have turned out then?

The Stars came back and scored with barely any time left, and hundreds of people stormed onto the field. It was unbelievable. Mike Hagen played fullback for us. He had a wife and kid, so we ended up being roommates together and became best friends. His mother-in-law was sprayed in the face with mace during the whole thing. If was unbelievable because they didn't want the fans coming onto the field and starting a riot and tearing down the goal posts. There were some arrests--things got pretty wild on the field.