Usher Challenges NFL to Play Summer Game

Harry Usher, the new commissioner of the United States Football League, challenged the National Football League Wednesday, suggesting that the USFL’s Express play either the Raiders or the Rams of the NFL this summer.

“It would be an exhibition game for charity,” he said at a morning press conference in the Coliseum Commission board room. “I think (such a game) would be really fun for the fan, the (TV) viewer, the Coliseum and the environment.”

Reminded that USFL players--coming off their regular-season schedule--would have the advantage over an NFL training-camp team, Usher volunteered to even things up.

“We’ll kick off from the 15-yard line,” he said.

The Raiders and Rams quickly expressed no interest. They said they couldn’t imagine NFL teams meeting a representative of a league that is suing them for $1.3 billion.

“We can’t even get the Rams to play us,” a Raider spokesman said.

Returning to Los Angeles for the first time since he went into pro football earlier this month, Usher said he is looking for someone to buy the Express, the Los Angeles team being run by the league in the absence of a team owner.

“They have a bright future,” he said.

The USFL is believed to have invested more than $4 million to support the Express in its present crisis.

In his first action as commissioner, Usher had recommended that the USFL spend whatever is needed to save the Express.

“The Express is one of the finest teams in pro football today,” he said. “(President Don) Klosterman has put together an unbelievable unit that someday will be the envy of every team” in both leagues.

Usher indicated that as his next major move, he would like to save the NFL.

The NFL’s “15-year monopoly” has created a product that is getting “duller and duller” ever year, he said, pointing to the decline in TV ratings for NFL games.

“They need the excitement of competition (with the USFL),” Usher said. “There’s nothing on the horizon but us to engender new interest.”