United States Football League on television On May 24 , 1982 , the United States Football League ( USFL ) reached an agreement with ABC and ESPN on television rights . The money for inaugural 1983 season would be a total of $ 13 million : $ 9 million from ABC and $ 4 million from ESPN ( roughly $ 1 . 1 million per team ) . Coverage overview . ABC televised a Sunday afternoon game - of - the - week , one prime time evening game , plus coverage of the USFL divisional playoffs and championship game . The contract required the USFL to schedule a minimum of three games on Sunday , with ABC guaranteed to broadcast one game nationally ( the aforementioned , Sunday afternoon game - of - the - week ) or two or more regionally . The contract included no clauses regarding " blackouts " or " cross - feeding " . In all , the total package with ABC called for 21 telecasts of USFL action . Meanwhile , ESPN generally televised two prime time games ( on Saturdays and Mondays respectively ) each week of the USFL season . The first professional football game to ever be broadcast on ESPN . On Monday , March 7 , 1983 the Michigan Panthers opened their 1983 schedule with a 9 - 7 win at Legion Field in Birmingham , Alabama against the Stallons . The game marked the first professional football game ever to be broadcast on ESPN . Novo Bojovic of Serbia hit the winning field goal from 48 yards out in the waning moments to preserve the Panthers ' road win . The first USFL game on ABC . Meanwhile , one day earlier , the Los Angeles Express and New Jersey Generals played in the first nationally televised USFL game , with the Express winning , 20 - 15 . The end of the USFL itself . ABC offered the USFL a 4 year , $ 175 million dollar TV deal to play in the spring in 1986 . ESPN offered $ 70M over 3 years . Following all the mergers and shutdowns , there just were not enough spring football advocates left in the league to accept those contracts . The owners in the league walked away from what averaged out to $ 67 million per year starting in 1986 to pursue their big picture - - - merger with the NFL . In 1984 , the league began discussing the possibility of competing head - to - head with the NFL by playing its games in the fall beginning in 1986 . The idea was to force a merger in which the NFL would be forced to admit some USFL teams . Despite the protests of many of the league ' s " old guard , " who wanted to stay with the original plan of playing football in the spring months , the voices of Chicago owner Eddie Einhorn and Generals owner Donald Trump and others would eventually prevail . Trump sold a majority of the other owners on the gamble that if a merger did occur , their teams would instantly be worth the $ 70 million or so NFL franchises were worth at that time - - - tripling , quadrupling , or more their cash investment . On October 18 , 1984 , the league ' s owners voted to go along with Einhorn and Trump ' s idea and begin playing a fall season in 1986 . The spring advocates had lost and the fall advocates would accept nothing less than victory vs . the NFL , either by forcing a merger or winning a sizeable settlement and securing a TV network for fall broadcasts . Spring football had been replaced with an incredibly risky gamble for a huge return . In another effort to keep themselves afloat while at the same time attacking the more established National Football League , the USFL filed an antitrust lawsuit against the older league , claiming it had established a monopoly with respect to television broadcasting rights , and in some cases , to access of stadium venues . The USFL claimed that the NFL had bullied ABC , CBS and NBC into not televising USFL games in the fall . It also claimed that the NFL had a specific plan to eliminate the USFL , the " Porter Presentation . " In particular , the USFL claimed the NFL conspired to ruin the Invaders and Generals . The USFL sought damages of $ 567 million , which would have been tripled to $ 1 . 7 billion under antitrust law . It hoped to void the NFL ' s contracts with the three major networks . The USFL proposed two remedies : either force the NFL to negotiate new television contracts with only two networks , or force the NFL to split into two competing 14 - team leagues , each limited to a contract with one major network . Ratings . According to an ABC spokesman , the network averaged a 6 . 0 rating for their first USFL season . This was slightly better than the network ' s coverage of the first American Football League football season back in 1960 . In its second year , AFL games on ABC averaged a 6 . 1 rating , and in 1962 , the third year , a 6 . 5 . Overall , ESPN averaged a 3 . 3 rating for its USFL coverage , a 3 . 0 for Saturday games and a 3 . 5 for the Monday night coverage . " We are pretty pleased with the results " , said an ESPN spokesman , who noted that the network ' s overall USFL rating average was almost 50 % higher than its prime time average for their entire fourth quarter of 1982 . Sponsors . ABC claimed to have made a profit from its coverage of USFL during the 1983 season . Regular season 30 - second spots were priced at $ 30 , 000 ; playoff spots at $ 35 , 000 . Thirty second spots for the championship game between the Michigan Panthers and the Philadelphia Stars played on July 17 sold for $ 60 , 000 . Major sponsors throughout the season included Gallo , Anheuser Busch , Buick , Chevrolet , Dodge , Honda and Miller . Major USFL sponsors for ESPN in 1984 included Ford , Anheuser Busch , American Motors , DuPont , GMC , Mattel , Michelin , Nissan , Noxema , Timex and A . C . Delco . Franchises most affected by the television coverage . ABC ' s contract with the league required that , at the very least , there had to be franchises in the Chicago , Los Angeles , and New York markets . Not coincidentally , these markets were home to ABC ' s best - performing owned - and - operated stations . Chicago Blitz . Before the end of the 1984 season , it was announced that the Blitz would be shut down . Chicago White Sox part - owner Eddie Einhorn was awarded a new Chicago franchise . While it was stressed that this new franchise was not the Blitz , Einhorn retained all player contracts . A strong proponent of the USFL ' s planned move to the fall in 1986 , he opted not to field a team in 1985 . ABC had no objections to this move , probably due to the USFL ' s anemic ratings in Chicago . Denver Gold . Just after Mouse Davis took over as head coach , the USFL announced that it would switch to a fall schedule for the 1986 season . Local support for the Gold practically vanished . While the Gold had been one of the USFL ' s attendance leaders , fans in the Denver area were not about to abandon the Broncos in favor of the Gold . Despite finally getting into the playoffs with an 11 - 7 record , the Gold ' s attendance crashed to 14 , 400 fans per game . As a result , despite finishing second in the Western Conference , they were forced to play on the road against the lower - seeded Memphis Showboats under pressure from ABC . The network , who had considerable influence over the USFL due to the structuring of the league ' s television contract , did not want the embarrassment of having a game played in a near - empty Mile High Stadium . Los Angeles Express . The team never drew well at the cavernous Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum , even in their breakthrough 1984 season . The low attendance figures began to prove very embarrassing and frustrating both to the league and ABC , which had hoped for a more credible product to emanate from the nation ' s second - largest media market . The team had to play its last home game at Los Angeles Pierce College , a small junior college in the San Fernando Valley . The Arizona Wranglers , despite having the worse record of the two participating teams , got to host the 1984 Western Conference championship game because the Coliseum was being prepared for the 1984 Summer Olympics . To accommodate Arizona ' s oppressive summer heat , as well as the ABC Sports television schedule , the game kicked off at 8 : 30 p . m . local time , 11 : 30 p . m . Eastern time . Announcers . ABC . ABC used Frank Gifford as the studio anchor and Mike Adamle as a sideline reporter . Another play - by - play man that ABC used was Curt Gowdy . ESPN . ESPN used Tom Mees as a studio anchor .