The only true home team for the USFL’s inaugural (sort of) season has made the most of its advantage.
The Birmingham Stallions ran their unbeaten record to 6-0, with a 33-17 win over the Michigan Panthers on Saturday night.
All USFL regular-season games for 2022 will be played in Birmingham. The Stallions lose that advantage in the postseason, when the games move to Canton.
Running back Bo Scarbrough generated 105 rushing yards for the Stallions, including a 28-yard score that shut the door on an attempt by the Panthers to pull off the win. Instead, the Panthers (led by long-time NFL head coach Jeff Fisher) fell to 1-5. (And, yes, there’s still a chance he’ll finish the 10-game season with nine losses.)
The game, televised live by NBC, moved to CNBC with roughly three minutes to play. More importantly than the late local news was the pending Saturday Night Live season finale. Anyone who was watching the game on Peacock didn’t notice the change.
Anyone who was watching on NBC may not have noticed, either; it was already 33-17 at that point. There was no threat of a Heidi reprise.