The Gamblers appeared in the
playoffs in each of their two seasons, but suffered narrow first-round defeats both times. In 1984, the expansion Gamblers finished the regular season with the best record in the Western conference and were the favorites in the West to go to the championship game. They held a 16–3 lead over
George Allen's star laden
Arizona Wranglers with just 7 minutes remaining before falling 17–16 in a furious Wrangler comeback. The Wranglers would go on to play in the 1984 Championship Game. Following the August 22, 1984 USFL owners meeting in which the majority of owners decided to move to playing in the fall, things started to crumble for the league, especially for teams in cities with existing NFL teams, like the Gamblers. Kelly, one of the more public faces of the USFL, voiced the concerns of many fans when he called the schedule switch "100 percent" wrong, saying, "It's the worst thing they could have done." The Run N' Shoot attack of the Gamblers grew even stronger in 1985. Davis left to become head coach of the
Denver Gold and was succeeded by special-teams coach
John Jenkins. Jenkins's version of the Run N' Shoot brought more complexity and excitement to the Gamblers. In the first game of the season against the
L.A. Express, down 31–13 with 8 minutes left in the 4th quarter, the Gamblers became the first professional football team to use a
no-huddle offense before a
two-minute drill. The no-huddle would later become Kelly's base offense with the
Buffalo Bills. The so-called "hurry-up offense" allowed the Gamblers to come back to win the game 34–33, which
Sports Illustrated dubbed "The Greatest Game Never Seen" because it was not televised. In the first 5 games in 1985, Jim Kelly had one of the hottest starts in professional football history. In Week 4, the Gamblers beat Mouse Davis's Denver Gold 36–17 in the first pro game to match two Run N' Shoot offenses. After this game Jim Kelly was on pace to throw for 7,434 yards and 78 touchdowns. But Kelly suffered a leg injury that sidelined him for the last six games of the season. However, if you combine Kelly's and backup quarterback
Todd Dillon's stats together, they threw for a combined 6,118 yards (professional American-football record). The Gamblers offense set another record: for the first time ever in professional football, a team had 3 receivers each catch over 1,000 yards:
Clarence Verdin,
Gerald McNeil, and
Richard Johnson. The Gamblers made the playoffs with a 10–8 record and again lost in a nailbiter to an excellent team, the 13–5 veteran,
Cliff Stoudt/
Joe Cribbs/
Jim Smith-led
Birmingham Stallions, 22–20. As it turned out, that would be the last game the Gamblers would ever play. While the Gamblers had been a solid draw the year before, area fans were not about to abandon the
Houston Oilers. Attendance dropped by almost 9,000 from 1984. The resulting financial problems were so severe that at one point, the Gamblers had trouble making payroll. They needed an advance from the league just to go to the playoffs. Although owner Jerry Argovitz had ultimately supported moving to the fall, he and his partners knew they could not even begin to compete with the Oilers and decided to get out. After briefly entertaining an offer to move to
New York City, they agreed to sell controlling interest to real estate magnate and future
Miami Dolphins owner
Stephen Ross. Just days later, Ross announced he was merging the Gamblers with the
New Jersey Generals. Although the Generals were the surviving team, Ross would be a full partner with Generals owner
Donald Trump, and Argovitz became the merged team's president. However, Ross backed out of the merger after discovering the Gamblers' debt load was larger than he anticipated. Trump reimbursed Ross for his interest and became sole owner. However, Trump retained the Gamblers' player contracts, so the deal was still widely reported as a merger. Trump immediately hired Pardee as coach. With an offense boasting Kelly and Walker, observers dubbed the new Generals the USFL's "dream team." Kelly was even featured on the cover of
Sports Illustrated in a Generals uniform. That season however would never be played. The most notable players on the team were Kelly, future
Washington Redskins wide receiver
Ricky Sanders, future
Detroit Lions wide receiver
Richard Johnson, future Indianapolis Colts kick returner
Clarence Verdin, and future
Cleveland Browns wide receiver
Gerald McNeil.
Todd Fowler, the featured running back on the team, was also notable as the first USFL player the rival
NFL signed away from the league in 1985 (by the
Dallas Cowboys). ==Giant dice game==