Jeff Fisher to return to coaching with USFL's Michigan Panthers
Jeff Fisher is returning to coach pro football.
The Michigan Panthers of the revamped USFL, which is set to kickoff its operation this spring, announced they have hired Fisher to be the head coach.
Fisher had been a head coach in the NFL for 22 seasons, for the Houston Oilers — which became the Tennessee Titans — and then for the St. Louis and Los Angeles Rams. He compiled a 173-165-1 (.512) record over that span and had a 5-6 mark in the playoffs.
His 1999 Titans team made it all the way to the Super Bowl, where Tennessee fell just 1 yard short of a potential game-tying touchdown and lost to the Rams, 23-16.
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Fisher last coached in the NFL in 2016, when the Rams fired him after Week 14 of that season.
Elsewhere, the New Orleans Breakers announced they hired former North Carolina Tar Heels coach Larry Fedora.
Fedora compiled a 45-43 record at North Carolina from 2012-18 and went just 1-3 in bowl games. The program announced his dismissal in November 2018 after he went 2-9 in his final season.
The USFL, or United States Football League, is the latest professional league to try to capitalize on the interest and reach of the NFL by playing a slate of games in the spring, when the NFL is in its offseason.
In 2020, the XFL began playing its games but had to shut down operations just five weeks into the regular season as the COVID-19 pandemic hit. Eventually, the league filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy and was sold in August 2020 sold to Dany Garcia and investors at RedBirdCapital Partners, including Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson, for $15 million. That league said it expects to return in the spring of 2023.
The USFL announced Tuesday that it will play all of its games in Birmingham, Alabama, at Protective Stadium and Legion Field.
There will be eight teams in the new USFL, split into two divisions. The North Division will include the New Jersey Generals, Michigan Panthers, Pittsburgh Maulers and Philadelphia Stars. The South will include the Birmingham Stallions, New Orleans Breakers, Tampa Bay Bandits and Houston Gamblers.
The league will kick off on Saturday, April 16, at 7:30 p.m. ET, when the Stallions play the Generals. The game will be broadcast on both Fox and NBC, the first time two broadcast networks have scheduled to air the same sports competition at the same time since Super Bowl I was aired on both NBC and CBS.
The league originally ran from 1983-85 before folding prior to the 1986 season.
Contributing: Mikey DiLullo, The Tuscaloosa News
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Jeff Fisher, ex-NFL coach, returns to lead USFL's Michigan Panthers
