USFL May Unload High-Priced Players

United States Football League owners met for 10 hours Friday to figure out how to remain solvent and in the public eye during a year’s hiatus, and resolved only to meet again Sunday.

“These decisions are hard, these conversations long and exacting,” said Commissioner Harry Usher, whose league will play its final springtime game Sunday night when the Baltimore Stars meet the Oakland Invaders for the championship, then start up again in the fall of 1986.

But nobody--not even the owners themselves--know what teams, what players and what cities will be in the league then. In fact, even the starting date is up in the air.

Much of the day, according to several participants in the meeting, was devoted to discussions on unloading high-salaried players signed during the league’s 1982 spending spree.

Under one scenario, players such as Steve Young and Gary Zimmerman of the Los Angeles Express, and Gary Anderson of Tampa Bay would be allowed to buy their way out of the remainder of their contracts and sign with National Football League teams. That would give the USFL an additional several million dollars in cash and also rid the league of the obligation to pay those players starting next March, when the contract with the league’s players union stipulates the teams must start their 1986 salary payments.

One player, wide receiver Trumaine Johnson of the Arizona Outlaws, has already made the switch of leagues, paying a reported $500,000 to buy out his contract and then signing with the San Diego Chargers.