Football fans from Texas, Boston, Indiana coming to Canton for USFL playoffs, 'Super Bowl'

John Tomasulo recalls sitting at the 40-yard line of New Jersey Generals games in the 1980s.

The original USFL franchise starred Heisman Trophy winners Herschel Walker and Doug Flutie.

"You have a guy who can throw the long ball," recalled Tomasulo, 60, of Hudson. "And you have a guy he can hand the ball off to who runs 60 yards without batting an eye."

Adding to the panache was Donald Trump, who owned the Generals. Among his coups was secretly signing New York Giants linebacking sensation Lawrence Taylor to a contract that was set to begin in 1988 (but the league disbanded two years earlier).

Nearly 40 years later, Tomasulo is now rooting for the Generals as a rebooted franchise in the 2022 version of the USFL.

And he's excited about attending the inaugural USFL playoffs on Saturday at Tom Benson Hall of Fame Stadium in Canton. The championship game also will take place there on July 3.

Country music star Trace Adkins will perform following the completion of the first of two semifinal playoff games on Saturday.

The Philadelphia Stars face the New Jersey Generals at 3 p.m. and the New Orleans Breakers take on the Birmingham Stallions at 8 p.m.

More: USFL players chasing their NFL dreams in Canton in semifinal playoffs

USFL coming to Canton: 'Something unique and very special': USFL playoffs coming to Tom Benson Hall of Fame Stadium

USFL: 'It was an amazing time back in the day.'

During a press conference earlier this month, Mike Levy, president of operations for the Hall of Fame Resort & Entertainment Co., said he didn't have expectations for how many fans would attend the inaugural USFL playoff games. The stadium holds 23,000.

Hall of Fame Village powered by Johnson Controls is hosting and helping coordinate the USFL playoffs.

Both games are on television — the first on Fox, the second on NBC.

"We think that we're going to have a nice reach," Levy said. "I know that Fox is going to be marketing to a number of cities ... and we know that there's a lot of football fans within 90 miles of here, so we believe we're going to have a nice draw — not just Stark County, Cuyahoga County and Cleveland and so forth, but ... once they find out what they're going to be in for, once they come to these games, we feel that the momentum is going to pick up, and we'll have some nice crowds out here — absolutely."

One thing is certain, however. Regardless of crowd size, Tomasulo will be joined by fans who share his passion for the USFL: Straight-up football geeks; USFL podcasters; a hobby archivist of alternative football leagues; a content provider for the Sports Gambling Podcast; and others.

Tomasulo talks of those earlier days as if it was a football fairytale.

Giants season tickets were out of the question.

"One of my best friends was put on the waiting list for Giants tickets when he was born, and he got season tickets when he was 29," the former Chatham, New Jersey, resident recalled.

Jets tickets also were in demand. So the Generals were a gridiron godsend.

"This allowed the average fan in his early 20s to attend a game at will," Tomasulo said. "And it was just amazing."

And to boot, his younger sister was a Generals cheerleader.

"It just seemed there was more energy at a Generals game than even a Jets game, and when you went to a Giants game, the fans were more conservative," Tomasulo said.

"And any time there were like big plays, it was just amazing," he said of home crowds ranging between 35,000 and 60,000. "It was like a college atmosphere and a little more electric. You had younger fans who were starving there for football, and it was an amazing time back in the day."

This isn't your dad's USFL

Fans are traveling from Northeast Ohio, Indiana, Texas, Iowa, Massachusetts and elsewhere.

The modern USFL lacks the pizazz and college stars of the original, which launched the careers of future NFL legends Steve Young, Jim Kelly and Reggie White, as well as standouts like former Cleveland Browns star Kevin Mack and quarterback Bobby Hebert of the New Orleans Saints.

The original USFL: Revisiting The Glory Days

Meet the 2022 USFL stars: 2022 All-USFL Team Announced

Fans tracked down online by The Canton Repository embrace the contrast between the former and current USFL.

They admire the hunger of players who are trying to make it back to the NFL to earn a roster spot. They root for underdogs. They appreciate players from obscure colleges who are still clawing for a shot at the NFL. And they simply love pro football — all leagues, all seasons.

This fan is an 'athletic contrarian.'

Dusty Sloan's full-time job is director of athletic communications for Ashland University, but he's also a pro football archeologist.

The 45-year-old Ohio resident obsessively digs into the histories of alternate football leagues. And the reborn USFL fits right in.

"I've sort of been an athletic contrarian to coin a phrase," Sloan said.

No football league slips past him. Not the World League of American Football featuring the Ohio Glory of the early '90s. Not the United Football League showcasing former Ohio State star Maurice Clarett of the Omaha Nighthawks in 2010.

Sloan was even a chief content writer for the UFL's website. "That was kind of the fulfillment of a dream for me, and then they stopped paying me, so that was the end of that dream," he quipped.

What Sloan isn't old enough to remember, he reads in books, watches on YouTube or uncovers on the Internet.

The guy is knowledgeable about football. Really knowledgeable. Asked if he was familiar with Charlie Grandjean, a former Hoover High School star of the 1970s who played one season with the original Birmingham Stallions in 1983, the pigskin buff immediately knew the obscure name and what position the former Kent State University All-American played.

"I've got books, I've got stats, I'm probably one of the very few people in the world who has rosters at the point that the (original USFL) folded after the anti-trust trial," he said matter-of-factly.

Sloan will be in Canton for the playoffs, mostly as a fan, although he might search out some league data after the championship.

"I'm excited to go," said Sloan, who has attended International Federation of American Football games at Tom Benson stadium, including USA versus Mexico.

'I'm going to say I was there at the very first championship game.'

Craig Warren, a 56-year-old self-employed barber from Corydon, Indiana, is pumped for the USFL playoffs.

He'll be in Canton with his wife Cindy for both the semifinals and championship. Warren drove six hours to a USFL game in Birmingham.

"I'm really, really excited because I've never had the opportunity to go to a playoff game, and in particular, a championship game ... and I've never been to Canton," he said. "And we're looking forward to visiting the city as well."

USFL football is a quality product, Warren said. Games are competitive. Several players pass the NFL eyeball test. And he gives Birmingham's kicker a great shot of making an NFL roster next season.

"I hope they stick to their game plan and can survive," he said. "I see this league, not as a developmental league; I see this as a major football league, and 20 years down the road, I'm going to say I was there at the very first championship game."

From Sugar Land, Texas, to Canton, Ohio

Roger Vazquez, 38, of Sugar Land, Texas, a psychotherapist with a private practice, was born during the final season of the old school USFL.

The Houston Texans fan will be traveling to Canton for what he considers to be the "Super Bowl equivalent" of the USFL — the July 3 championship game.

Vazquez has two seats on the 50-yard line.

"Those are kind of once in a lifetime opportunities," he said. "If the USFL takes off, tickets certainly won't be $38 for a 50-yard line VIP ticket.

"I feel like it's an opportunity to get in early on something, and if the USFL does take off, I'd be able to tell my son I went to the inaugural game and the first championship game."

Banker turned USFL insider

When Bryan Denton isn't busy with his job in finance, he immerses himself in the new spring football league as head of the USFL Network podcast.

Denton interviews players. He talks with league sources.

"I started it on my own," he said of the podcast before quickly crediting nine others who help out. "... I looked around and there wasn't much USFL content on the new league coming out, so I thought this might be something I could dive into.

"There's a ton of guys that are out there just like myself who are covering the NFL," noted Denton, a Boston, Massachusetts resident. "But they're just a dime a dozen; there's too many. You have your ESPN and your NFL Network where you get the official news and breaking news.

"When it comes to the USFL, I feel like we have a more insider information type of thing because we're closer with the players and with the league."

Denton started the podcast from scratch, growing into a website, YouTube channel and social media accounts. He participates in USFL press conferences virtually.

"The league sources, they've called us the grassroots of the USFL because we go ahead and get their stories out there ... and they love it," he said.

Denton's podcast has attracted a couple of sponsors. And he's even broken news about the USFL producing a new television show similar to the NFL's "Hard Knocks" on HBO.

"It was amazing," the 37-year-old said. "We were interviewing a running backs coach for the Houston Gamblers, and he said there's a film crew. We're going to have a 'Hard Knocks' thing. We broke it on social media and Twitter."

Denton said he couldn't pull off the side gig without his fiancée's support.

"I can't thank her enough for the nights we've conducted interviews where it's only one night, and it's turned out to be five straight nights — it's amazing; she's been by my side all the way."

Give this guy football any time of year

Zach Keilman, 27, of Indianapolis, is another USFL enthusiast.

Television production is his full-time job, but he also co-hosts The USFL Podcast.

"We're just diehard fans of the league," said Keilman, who attended two Birmingham games in Alabama during the regular season and he tailgated with another fan he met online.

"I'm one of those folks who could watch football any time of year," said Keilman, a former center, defensive tackle and long snapper at Boone Grove High School in Valparaiso, Indiana. "To me, it's the greatest sport."

USFL offers more podcast, media access than NFL

Justin Mark is another media type in the fledgling USFL.

He'll be at this weekend's games, but not the championship. A 12-hour drive from Winterset, Iowa, is too long a haul for two trips.

Mark, 35, contributes content to the Sports Gambling Podcast, which treated the USFL draft as importantly as if it were the NFL.

"We did the first and second night (draft) coverage and talked about each player who was drafted," Mark said of the nearly 11-hour stretch. "After looking up all these guys and watching their highlights and looking up their backstories and their history, it was really unique to watch them play — it was really cool."

Mark writes about depth charts and running back carries and receiving targets; information useful for those interested in USFL fantasy football and wagering on league games.

More USFL: Players in USFL Playoffs Who Deserve a Shot in the NFL

USFL playoff picks: Generals and Stallions advance to championship but only one team cover

The lower-profile league affords more access to players.

"For the NFL, everybody kind of has their own opinion because they know it so well and everybody on the Internet likes to argue ... their opinion and yours," he said. "With the USFL, it's a little different; people seek out opinions for fantasy football or gambling.

"So it was very different in the fact that they wanted to hear your opinion and not just argue it for once."

Exchanging Twitter messages with a USFL quarterback

USFL players are also appreciative of the interest, said Mark, a risk and remediation analyst at a mortgage company.

"It's hard to connect with an NFL player because they have millions of people probably trying to connect with them," Mark said. "So when I talk to the USFL players, a lot of them respond and they're happy to talk football.

"Every one of them are just so down-to-earth. They're so excited to be playing the game again because for a lot of these guys, it's their last shot to play in the game."

Mark has exchanged Twitter messages with quarterback Bryan Scott of the Philadelphia Stars and formerly of Occidental College. 

"After I had tweeted something talking about his athletic ability ... he actually reached out to thank me for the support," Mark said.

Mark also reached out to Scott about his injury. "He was just touched (that I was) concerned about that."

The podcast interviewed wide receiver Peyton Ramzy, formerly of Tuskegee University, as part of live draft coverage on YouTube.

Mark had never heard of Ramzy, who will be in Canton this weekend as a member of the Birmingham Stallions.

"The guys playing (at Tuskeegee) don't have a lot of hope of making it to a professional level, so they don't get seen ... and then to be drafted by the Stallions, he was so excited for himself and he was excited for his family," Mark said. "It made you feel so good for him."

Reach Ed at 330-580-8315 and ebalint@gannett.com

On Twitter @ebalintREP

If you go

What: Inaugural USFL playoffs

Where: Tom Benson Hall of Fame Stadium, 1835 Harrison Ave NW in Canton (next to the Pro Football Hall of Fame)

When: Saturday

Who: First semifinal game: 3 p.m. Philadelphia Stars vs. New Jersey Generals and 8 p.m. New Orleans Breakers vs. Birmingham Stallions

Tickets: $15 to $30 for adults and $5 to $15 for children under age 15. Tickets are good for both games and available at www.hofvillage.com/p/events/united-states-football-league. Tickets include a performance by Trace Adkins between games.

On TV: First game is on Fox; second on NBC.

This article originally appeared on The Repository: No Jim Kelly or Steve Young, but USFL fans pumped for Canton playoffs