Earlier this year it was announced that the United States Football League (USFL) would be retuning in 2022 on FOX. When the news dropped the league stated that they would launch with a minimum of eight teams, which would include franchises from the original USFL. Since then, we’ve learned a lot more details.
Currently, the USFL is in talks with the city of Birmingham, AL to host all eight teams in 2022. If a deal is struck, Birmingham could host up to four teams in 2023; with the goal of having all franchises in their respective cities by the third season.
The National Spring Football League (NSFL), which was created by FOX to house all of the USFL assets, recently submitted their own set of trademark applications, separate from the ones active from The Spring League, LLC.
In the latest round of trademarks, we see 15 former USFL teams that could potentially return. But… it looks like one may have already hit a snag.
Alt-Football fan Seth Lessans took to Twitter with the news when he noticed that the Carolina Panthers had filed a request for an extension of opposition to the Michigan Panthers trademark.
The NFL’s Carolina Panthers have filed a request for an extension of opposition to The Spring League’s trademark of the Michigan Panthers. The Michigan Panthers played in the OG #USFL in 1983 and 1984. The mark in question is the name “Michigan Panthers.”
— Seth “Collector of Footballs” Lessans (@TujuMaster) October 22, 2021
As we mentioned earlier, there’s currently USFL trademarks spread across multiple entities. The filing we’re talking about is in regards to the Michigan Panthers trademark owned by The Spring League LLC. The NSFL’s round of trademarks didn’t go live until October 12th, so it’s likely we’ll see their trademark targeted as well.
The Michigan Panthers won the USFL’s inaugural championship in 1983. The franchise also holds the record for the most attended USFL game from when they hosted the Oakland Invaders in the Western Division championships in front of 60,237 fans.
To this day, the Panthers are the last professional football team to win a championship in Michigan.
Do you plan on supporting the USFL in 2022? Let us know down in the comments below or join the conversation on Discord.
