The USFL Returns: 80s Era League to Return in 2022

It’s time to party like it’s 1983. According to an announcement on Thursday, the USFL will return to the American gridiron in 2022.

The 80s era league that experienced a short but lively run from 1983 to 1986 will make its return complete with legal rights to original team names and uniforms. The league will also, most importantly, have a major broadcast partner in Fox Sports.

“The league will have a minimum of eight teams,” the New York Post’s Andrew Marchand reports. “It is being co-founded by Brian Woods, the CEO of The Spring League, which also airs on Fox. The Spring League is continuing.”

The league did well in its first couple of seasons, but fortunes shifted after the league decided to take the NFL head-on in 1986. An ill-fated move that was advocated for by then-New Jersey General Owner Donald Trump. This time around, the plan is for the USFL to remain strictly a spring league.