ESPN Plays Trump Card In '30 for 30' Doc About USFL

ESPN, which usually celebrates youth and short attention spans, is marking its 30th anniversary by taking longer looks into the recent history of sports.
The effort is dubbed “30 for 30” and will feature 30 documentaries about subjects from the past 30 years of sports. The films are being made by some celebrated names including Barry Levinson, Spike Lee, Barbara Kopple, Ice Cube, John Singleton, and Albert Mayseles.
This week’s episode dealt with a professional football league that was born and died before many of ESPN’s current viewers learned which end of the football is up.
The USFL featured many great players on the field and a number of unique characters operating behind the scenes. As it happens, one of those behind the scenes characters was filmmaker Mike Tollin, who was in charge of the league’s film production unit. In addition to making the documentary, he plays a role, making youthful Zelig-like appearances in archival footage and conducting the climactic interview with Donald Trump, who was just becoming a bold faced name when he was owner of the USFL’s highest profile team, the New Jersey Generals, which starred the phenomenal Herschel Walker.
“Small Potatoes: Who Killed the USFL” spends as much tracking the struggling business side of the USFL as the wide-open play on the field. Among the league’s backers: ABC, which broadcast its games and a then-new cable channel called ESPN.
The film’s hero is John Bassett, the owner of the Tampa Bay Bandits, who advocated starting a professional league that plays its games in the spring. The villain is Trump, who insisted playing in the fall and ultimately bet the USFL’s future on a $1 billion antitrust lawsuit against the NFL. The USFL won a pyrrhic victory as the jury found that the new league had been wronged, but awarded it just $1 in damages, which were tripled, coming to $3.76, including interest.
Storied players including Heisman Trophy winners Herschel Walker, Mike Rozier, Doug Flutie, prolific quarterbacks Jim Kelly and Steve Young and the Minister of Defense Reggie White all play small roles. (They are among the 187 who moved on to play in the NFL after the USFL folded.)
But to Tollin, the big question is why the USFL failed. And most of the league figures he interviews point the finger at Trump.
“To go head to head [with the NFL in the fall] was insane,” says Burt Reynolds, a part owner of the Bandits.
“There could have been a spring league that’s still playing,” says Young, the former quarterback.
Trump grants Tollin an unpleasant and short interview during which dismissively claims that had the league continued in the spring, “it would have been small potatoes.”
Athletes who played in the USFL tell Tollin it was a great experience. “I never talked to anyone who played in the USFL who wasn’t proud of it, Young says.  Watching “Small Potatoes: Who Killed the USFL” was a positive experience as well. I’m looking forward to the rest of the series.