Viewpoint / Letters : Having to Sit Through USFL Game Was Enough

USFL Commissioner Harry Usher says the NFL has been pushing and shoving his league into a tenuous situation.

I’ve been to one USFL game in my lifetime. It was a blistering hot day in the summer (what a hell of a time to play football in the first place), and the L.A. Express was playing God-knows-who. I sat with a thundering crowd of say . . . 4,000? After four Los Angeles turnovers in the first quarter, I turned to my pal Dave and said, “Just think, in a few short months, when the leaves start to turn back East, there will be another silver and black team here and they’ll be playing a game known as football .”

If the NFL has been guilty of keeping the rival league off the airwaves, then gridiron fans all across the country owe Pete Rozelle and company a debt of gratitude.

MITCH ENGLE

Los Angeles