Longtime NFL executive Jim Finks used former...

Longtime NFL executive Jim Finks used former USC quarterback Vince Evans’ salary as an example of how he said the USFL fueled the bidding war between the two leagues, a major part of the younger league’s $1.69-billion antitrust suit.

Evans, who Finks described as “an average NFL quarterback,” had his salary increased $446,750 when he jumped from the NFL’s Chicago Bears to the USFL’s Chicago Blitz in 1984, Finks said.

Finks, a longtime executive with the Minnesota Vikings and Bears and now the president and general manager of the New Orleans Saints, testified that Evans’ 1984 salary with the Blitz, including bonuses, was $626,750.

With the Bears, Evans was paid $180,000 a year.