The road you’ll hear over the subsequent a number of weeks is the Pittsburgh Steelers have by no means chosen a participant within the Supplemental Draft. It might make QB Brendan Sorsby the primary, ought to Pittsburgh go down that highway.
That’s largely true. Within the Supplemental Draft as we all know it as we speak, the group hasn’t made a decide. There was, nonetheless, an exception in 1984 the place Pittsburgh drafted three gamers from the pool.
What occurred that 12 months? The league’s extra draft didn’t characteristic faculty gamers. As a substitute, it pooled USFL and CFL gamers for groups to assert.
On the time, the USFL served as an actual NFL competitor and had taken a few of soccer’s prime expertise. Steve Younger signed a 10-year, $40 million take care of the Los Angeles Specific, satisfied by that gaudy sum ($128 million in as we speak’s {dollars}) to select the USFL over the NFL.
However the league had issues and was at all times teetering on collapse. Shaped in 1983, the USFL shut down by August 1986. There have been issues with possession and administration, and gamers have been trying again towards the NFL as an escape hatch. Or, a minimum of, a backup plan.
Even Younger, the league’s star, had his points. That “$40 million” contract was largely primarily based on a long-term annuity that may pay out till he was 60, however was touted as an enormous quick contract because the USFL tried to flex its monetary muscle mass.
Ought to the USFL fold, the NFL didn’t desire a free-for-all free agent frenzy. Its answer was the 1984 Supplemental Draft, a extra orderly method for groups to acquire rights of gamers. Eligible have been those that have been imagined to be a part of the ’84 draft however signed with the USFL or CFL. The principles functioned like a “normal” draft and in contrast to as we speak’s model, didn’t require groups giving up future picks to make these choices.
The draft was held June 5, 1984. For the Steelers’ sake, it generated little buzz. The headline on the time was on Terry Bradshaw’s future and the extremely seemingly finish of his profession. Headlining the Pittsburgh Put up-Gazette the next day was: “Bradshaw faces new surgery … and apparently end of career”
Bradshaw revealed he was underdoing surgical procedure in July to restore ligament harm in his proper arm suffered in what can be his remaining look in 1983. He nonetheless held out hope of a return, however the group informed a special story.
“What a great career…we will miss Terry,” Dan Rooney stated.
Essentially the most curiosity of the draft was from the USFL perspective. The Pittsburgh Maulers have been a part of the league and noticed star RB/FB Mike Rozier get drafted 2nd general to the Houston Oilers. Steve Younger was chosen first with Gary Zimmerman third and Reggie White fourth. All three are Corridor of Famers.
“Maulers Downplay NFL Draft of Rozier” the Pittsburgh Press’ article learn as possession pushed again on the notion their league was about to be pillaged.
“Whatever they offer him, we can match the money and keep him,” Maulers GM George Heddleston stated.
Rozier would leap to the Oilers in 1985 and spent seven seasons within the league. Removed from a Corridor of Famer, however he had regular NFL profession.
Like most groups, Pittsburgh made three choices: receiver Duane Gunn with the twenty third general decide, heart Tom Dixon at No. 52 and offensive sort out Phil Boren at No. 79.
The papers paid little thoughts. Tucked on the prime of the PPG’s story about Rozier was an oblong field with transient information on all three. Gunn caught simply seven passes for the Los Angeles Specific that spring, giving the decide little fanfare.
Gunn by no means performed for the Steelers. Pittsburgh launched his rights that August and he remained with the Specific. He caught 32 passes for them in 1985. Right here’s one among them from Younger himself.
In 2004, Gunn pled responsible to 1 rely of mail fraud and one rely of cash laundering in an obvious mortgage mortgage rip-off. He now works in gross sales in Indianapolis.
Dixon joined the Steelers in Might of 1985, opting towards shifting to Oakland when his Michigan Panthers merged groups. He stop Pittsburgh and left camp in late July. In March of this 12 months, he was inducted into the Indiana Soccer Corridor of Fame.
Boren stayed with Birmingham till his launch in January 1985. He grew to become a profitable actual property agent now within the Sacramento space.
These three names by no means performed a down in Pittsburgh but nonetheless occupy a unusual piece of Steelers historical past throughout an uncommon time for the NFL.
If Brendan Sorsby turns into Pittsburgh’s decide subsequent month, he’ll be the primary supplemental choice from the faculty aspect, however technically not the primary ever.
