The Giants’ first two Super Bowl victories likely would not have happened without the help of the USFL.
Before center Bart Oates, punter Sean Landeta and fullback Maurice Carthon played an integral part to win the 1986-87 and 1990-91 Super Bowls, they got their first professional opportunities in the USFL.
“I’m a perfect example of a guy, I would have never made it in the NFL, I don’t think, because I wasn’t that big,” Oates told The Post. “I played three years in the USFL, I was able to improve my trade, and become a better, more well-rounded player.”
Oates, now 63, eventually did more than make it in the NFL, starting every single game at center during both the Giants’ first two Super Bowl runs. In 1995, he won another Super Bowl with the 49ers.
Now serving as the president of the NFL Alumni Association, Oates earned five Pro-Bowl honors throughout his 11-year career. Coming out of BYU, however, he wasn’t ready for the NFL. Accustomed to a pass-heavy system, Oates had to learn how to run-block, which he did throughout his three years with the Philadelphia Stars, winning two championships and appearing in a third.
Through the USFL, Oates was able to establish himself, and was signed to be the Giants’ starting center, rather than being a low-round draft pick coming out of college and struggling to make the team — a development Oates credits as paramount for his career.
“I had such a good time,” Oates said. “I would never have left. I would’ve stayed in the USFL, if they had maintained it.”
Landeta enjoyed a 22-year NFL career with five different teams. He played nearly half that career with the Giants, earning pro-bowl recognition both seasons the Giants won the Super Bowl. After his career at Towson, however, he needed the exposure he got with the Philadelphia Stars.
“I came from a division 2 school,” Landetta, now 60, told The Post. “I would have gotten a tryout in the NFL after my senior year, but there’s no doubt, because I went to the USFL and played three years there, that my opportunity was better. The USFL was a league that was above college football, but maybe a little below the NFL. For me and many others, yes, the USFL was something that helped us get to the NFL.”
The path from the USFL to the NFL was even more direct for Carthon, who starred for the New Jersey Generals before becoming a fan favorite with the Giants.
Carthon, now 60, remembers Bill Parcells, head coach of the Giants at the time, coming to watch the Generals practice, and the two “learned a lot” sharing ideas together, just a few years before Carthon would then play under Parcells with the Giants.
Carthon shared a Generals backfield with Herschel Walker, and the two shined with 1,000-yard seasons in 1984. Carthon later got his handoffs from Doug Flutie, who was the Generals’ quarterback in 1985.
“I got a whole lot out of the league,” Carthon told The Post. “I was just graduated from college, and then I went to the USFL, and then the rest is history. We’re talking about playing with Doug Flutie, Herschel Walker, people like that. There was some good football in the USFL.
“It helped me as a football player because I played with Herschel, and we both played together. Then being a 1,000-yard rusher, I couldn’t believe that I did it, but I was able to do that.”