Alabama was the most dominant team in college football during the 2010s, winning four national championships between 2010 and 2019. Alabama wasn’t known for its passing game or fast-paced offense during this time. Instead, they relied heavily on their defense and smash-mouth football running attack.
Bo Scarbrough was one of the running backs that helped the Crimson win two National Championships. Scarbrough was the last player that defenders wanted to see with Jalen Hurt and Damien White running side to side, wearing the defense out. When Scarbrough came in, it meant that the tired defenders would have to deal with a 6-1 235 lb running back who wouldn’t juke, cut, or outrun them; He was just going to try to run right through them. And normally, it worked.
On Saturday, Bo Scarbrough announced that he was officially hanging up the cleats and stepping away from the game. However, his impact on the game will be remembered much differently than that of any other player, perhaps in professional football history.
Scarbrough Was the Face of the New USFL
When the USFL debuted in 2022, the league hoped to avoid the fate of many other spring football leagues that had started and failed very quickly due to a lack of interest. In order to succeed, the league needed two things: entertaining games and a star player.
The games were, in fact, pretty entertaining, particularly with the unique rules and camera angles that the USFL utilized (such as drones and sideline interviews). However, the league lacked a player who was common and recognized.
Enter Bo Scarborough.
While Scarbrough didn’t have the kind of NFL career he hoped to have, with his unique name and dominance while at Alabama, people knew who he was. Rather than watching a game with a bunch of players the common fan never heard of, Scarbrough was a name people knew and remembered. It also helped that he played on the best team, the Birmingham Stallions.
In 2022, Scarbrough cemented his short but very effective legacy in the USFL Championship, where he went off for 135 yards and a touchdown on only 13 carries (10.1 yards per carry). His performance and the rest of his team did enough to draw the ratings to give the USFL another year. Scarbrough was on the Stallions again in 2023, however saw very limited playing time due to an injury.
USFL and XFL Merge
With an already established audience, many fans were brought in due to Scarbroughs’ performance the USFL got a second season in 2023. THe issue however was that they had to share their audience with the newly brought back XFL league. Both leagues struggled to get many views, but the support was enough for the XFL and USFL to decide it was in everyone’s best interest to merge the two leagues and name it the UFL.
The UFL will debut officially later this Spring, with the Alabama Stallions being one of the teams selected to stay in the league after the XFL and USFL decided to keep only some of their existing teams.
If not for Bo Scarbrough, one has to wonder if the UFSFL would have survived another season, if the XFL would have had much interest, and if the merger between the two leagues would have even been possible.
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