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33-608: New Orleans Breakers may refer to: New Orleans Breakers (1984) New Orleans Breakers (2022) Topics referred to by the same term [REDACTED] This disambiguation page lists articles associated with the title New Orleans Breakers . If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended article. Retrieved from " https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=New_Orleans_Breakers&oldid=1073883806 " Category : Disambiguation pages Hidden categories: Short description

66-418: A 0.5 national rating and a total viewership of 645,000. As awareness and critical acclaim grew, the viewing audience also grew. By the seventh episode, The U , the audience had grown to a 1.8 rating and well over 2 million viewers. Cadillac and Levi's are the presenting sponsors of the series. The Cadillac name appears on the 30 for 30 logo. The Levi's "go forth" slogan appears on the bottom corner of

99-559: A 13-episode series under the ESPN Films Presents title in 2011–2012, and a series of 30 for 30 Shorts shown through the ESPN.com website. The series has also expanded to include Soccer Stories , which aired in advance of the 2014 FIFA World Cup , and audio podcasts. The idea for the series began in 2007 from ESPN.com columnist and Grantland .com founder Bill Simmons and ESPN 's Connor Schell . The title, 30 for 30 , derived from

132-581: A 31 percent interest to New Orleans real estate developer Joe Canizaro, and the move was approved by the USFL on October 18, 1983. Matthews later sold his remaining stake to Canizaro, but Vataha remained as team president. Sources In New Orleans, the team played in the Louisiana Superdome , also home to the NFL's New Orleans Saints . They started out the season 5-0, and all signs pointed to them running away with

165-563: A fall schedule starting in 1986. This put teams like New Orleans, Michigan , and Philadelphia in an awkward situation. Canizaro believed he could not hope to compete directly with the Saints, even though the Breakers were one of the few USFL teams that could have potentially run their NFL rivals out of town. At the time, the Saints were mired in decades-long mediocrity, having only managed to get to .500 twice in their history. Then-owner John W. Mecom Jr.

198-471: A former Continental Football League and World Football League alumnus who had been out of football since the late 1970s) and Canadian Football League veteran halfback Richard Crump . The Breakers finished 11-7, finishing one game behind the Chicago Blitz for the final playoff spot. Walton, who had retired from pro football years earlier and had spent the previous three years coaching college football,

231-464: A home, Canizaro considered moving to Sacramento and Columbus , and even weighed merging with the Birmingham Stallions . However, he was particularly intrigued when he visited Portland. It was a fairly large market with a reasonably adequate facility by USFL standards, Civic Stadium (which seated 32,000 people at the time). The move to Portland was announced on November 13, 1984. It marked

264-447: A more proven USFL quarterback without a home, like Craig Penrose , Alan Risher , or Mike Hohensee , or trading for someone like Oakland 's Fred Besana , or even signing an NFL veteran. Robinson ultimately proved to be a less-than-adequate replacement for Walton, finishing with a 62.6 QB rating. Halfback Jordan had another strong year with over 800 yards gained, as did Lockett. However, their season effectively ended when Dupree suffered

297-455: A result, their initial choice for a home facility was Harvard Stadium , but Harvard University rejected them almost out of hand. They finally settled on Nickerson Field on the campus of Boston University , which seated only 21,000 people – the smallest stadium in the league. The team's cheerleaders were called "Heartbreakers". Coach Dick Coury put together a fairly competitive team led by quarterback Johnnie Walton (then 36 years old,

330-544: A return home of sorts for Coury, who had led the World Football League 's Portland Storm in 1974. Initially, Portland seemed to welcome the Breakers with open arms. The Breakers sold 6,000 of its highest-priced tickets within twelve hours. On the field the team struggled, as the strain of playing in three cities in three years finally caught up with them. The team opted to go with former Jacksonville starter Matt Robinson as Walton's replacement, rather than seeking

363-467: A season-ending knee injury in the season opener. While they managed to upend four playoff teams, they never recovered from a six-game losing streak and finished 6-12. The Breakers were one of nine teams slated to play in the USFL's first fall season, and were slated to be one of only two teams west of the Mississippi River . However, they had only drawn 19,919 per game, not enough to break even. This

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396-617: A stadium proved difficult. The lack of a professional-quality stadium had stymied previous attempts at pro football in Boston before the Patriots arrived in 1960. The largest stadium in the region was Schaefer Stadium in Foxborough , home of the Patriots. However, it was owned by the Sullivan family, owners of the Patriots, and Matthews and Vataha were not willing to have an NFL team as their landlord. As

429-414: A striking sports issue or event that occurred during those three decades, including what Simmons describes as "stories that resonated at the time [they occurred] but were eventually forgotten for whatever reason." Subsequent films, including Volume II and online-only shorts, expanded the series beyond the "ESPN era". In September 2014, Schell said, "Even though we have been at this for five years now, there

462-704: Is different from Wikidata All article disambiguation pages All disambiguation pages New Orleans Breakers (1984) A new United States Football League – legally distinct from its predecessor, but using its team nicknames – was started in April 2022. A new version of the New Orleans Breakers is one of eight teams competing. The team started out in 1983 as the Boston Breakers, owned by Boston businessman George Matthews and former New England Patriots wide receiver Randy Vataha . However, finding

495-469: Is no shortage of incredible moments from the world of sports, so that enables us to continue making 30 for 30 films we're proud of." In 2010, John Dahl, Connor Schell and Simmons served as 30 for 30's executive producers. In April 2018, it was announced that the entire archive of 30 for 30 films and shorts would be available on ESPN+ , ESPN's direct-to-consumer online platform, once the service launched on April 12, 2018. The A.V. Club review for

528-675: The 1983 season was College Football Hall of Fame and former NFL Most Valuable Player Roman Gabriel . After the 1984 season, Jim Fassel was hired as offensive coordinator, but after five months on the job, he left to become head coach at the University of Utah . In 1985, the offensive coordinator was Pete Kettela , a former head coach of the Edmonton Eskimos . Allen would hire former Breaker executive Steven "Dream" Weaver as his marketing director and whose publicity stunts raised his Portland State teams to national acclaim. The team president for

561-531: The Portland Breakers was John Ralston , who was also a founder of the USFL. Other executives included Jack Galmiche, John Brunelle, and Brian Feldman. Feldman was the only executive who worked in all three cities. 30 for 30#Volume I 30 for 30 is the title for a series of documentary films airing on ESPN , its sister networks, and online highlighting interesting people and events in sports history. This includes four "volumes" of 30 episodes each,

594-619: The Southern Division. However, they only won three more games to finish 8-10. This included a 35-0 thrashing by the Philadelphia Stars and losses in their last six games, a skid fittingly capped off with an embarrassment by the Washington Federals in the season finale. In spite of adding NFL star tight end Dan Ross and rookie halfbacks Buford Jordan and Marcus Dupree (whose signing was technically against USFL rules as he

627-488: The USFL for three cities, each season in a different city without relocating mid-season. Unlike many USFL teams, the Breakers never changed its name, logo, or colors when it relocated. Sources Among the top "name" Breakers players were: linebacker Marcus Marek ; halfbacks Marcus Dupree and Buford Jordan ; quarterbacks Johnnie Walton and Matt Robinson ; kicker Tim Mazzetti ; punter Jeff Gossett ; offensive tackle Broderick Thompson ; and tight end Dan Ross . Coury

660-483: The eighth entry, Winning Time: Reggie Miller vs. the New York Knicks , called it "the most hotly anticipated [of the first eight]" and stated that "it more than lived up to the hype." Special praise was given to Brett Morgen 's collage documentary June 17th, 1994 as a standout episode. The A.V. Club has given positive and negative reviews for different episodes in the series, with notable critical reviews of

693-455: The full salaries stipulated in their contracts. After talks to merge with other teams failed, Canizaro folded the franchise while the USFL's antitrust suit against the NFL was underway, citing over $ 17 million in losses over three years. It had been obvious even before Canizaro folded the franchise that the Breakers would never play another down. Canizaro was the only league owner who moved his team twice and both moves were long distance. There

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726-437: The locker room, and its lure was too strong for many of his teammates who had grown up poor. On the positive side, New Orleans supported the team well, averaging 30,557 per game. Many of them came to see Dupree, who grew up in neighboring Mississippi. Jordan ran for 1,276 yards (fourth in the league), and Ross and wide receiver Frank Lockett had strong years. After the season, league owners decided to go for broke and move to

759-425: The only teams to draw fewer than 14,000 per game in 1983. The other 10 teams drew over 18,000 per game. (The fans who came to the games were generally passionate; the documentary Small Potatoes: Who Killed the USFL? made note of a particular Breakers victory in which fans stormed the field afterward.) Concluding that Nickerson Field was not suitable even for temporary use, Matthews again approached Harvard, but

792-602: The school refused again. He then hashed out a deal to move to Foxborough, but ultimately decided against being a tenant of an NFL team. He considered an offer to sell a stake in the team to Jacksonville, Florida businessman Fred Bullard, but pulled out after Bullard proposed firing Coury in favor of Florida State coach Bobby Bowden . (Bullard would ultimately land an expansion franchise, the Jacksonville Bulls .) After floating offers to move to Seattle , Honolulu , and Portland, Matthews decided to move to New Orleans. He sold

825-441: The screen during the directors interstitial comments, which appear for 45 seconds at the beginning of each film and 30 seconds at the end. Commercials for both companies were shown during every intermission during the original air dates, with Levi's guaranteed a 60-second commercial slot at the beginning of the third act. Cadillac replaced Honda as a primary sponsor. During its time as a contributor, Honda aired parts of its "Dream

858-503: The series's genesis as 30 films in celebration of ESPN's 30th anniversary in 2009, with an exploration of the biggest stories from ESPN's first 30 years on-air, through a series of 30 one-hour films by 30 filmmakers. Volume I premiered in October 2009 and ran to December 2010, chronicling 30 stories from the "ESPN era", beginning with the network's founding in 1979. Each film in Volume I details

891-662: The three Volume I episodes that had involvement by the media production arms of Major League Baseball ( Four Days in October ), the NBA ( Once Brothers ) and NASCAR ( Tim Richmond: To the Limit ). The series had a slow beginning. The first film, Peter Berg 's Kings Ransom , a chronicle of Wayne Gretzky 's trade from the Edmonton Oilers to the Los Angeles Kings , premiered on October 6, 2009, to poor ratings. Kings Ransom drew

924-600: Was looking to sell or move the team. However, rather than play a lame-duck spring 1985 season in New Orleans, Canizaro opted to move the team for the second time in as many years. Tommy Lister Jr. attempted to cross over into football after a successful track and field career at California State University, Los Angeles ; he played the 1984 preseason with the team but failed to make the regular season roster. Lister then returned to Los Angeles, where he pursued an acting and professional wrestling career. Sources Searching for

957-563: Was partly because Civic Stadium was in an area of downtown with little parking (a stop on the MAX Light Rail line would not open for another decade). With such meager attendance, meeting payroll became an adventure. At one point midway through the season, the players were only paid every other week. With four games to go, the checks stopped coming altogether. They were forced to waive their entire roster after missing their final payroll. Coury later recalled that he and his staff never got paid

990-507: Was some discussion of transplanting the Denver Gold organization to Portland, but this idea was abandoned as the Gold (whose owners opposed moving to the fall) instead merged with the Jacksonville Bulls . The entire league suspended operations not long after, when it was awarded only three dollars in damages. The Breakers had the distinction of being the only team to play for the entire duration of

1023-490: Was the league's seventh ranked passer. Coury was named coach of the year. Despite fielding a fairly solid team, playing in Nickerson Field doomed the team in Boston. The stadium had been built in 1955 (though parts of it dated to 1915 ), and had not aged well. It was so small that the Breakers lost money even when they sold out as visiting teams got a portion of the gate proceeds. The Breakers and Washington Federals were

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1056-512: Was the team's coach for all three seasons. He was no stranger to Portland, having coached the Storm of the World Football League in 1974. Defensive coordinator was the late Pokey Allen who would later take Portland State University to two national championship games. Division I journeyman Bob Shaw who was hired after leaving Lou Holtz's staff at the University of Arkansas and served in both New Orleans and Portland. The offensive coordinator during

1089-411: Was underage), the team struggled. Walton was inconsistent and ultimately retired after the season, while Dupree would experience constant problems with his knees throughout his time with the Breakers. Years later, defensive lineman Jeff Gaylord recalled that the Breakers' slide came because many of his teammates were sucked into New Orleans' drug culture. According to Gaylord, cocaine use ran rampant in

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