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The Birmingham Stallions have won the first two championships of USFL 2.0.
The Stallions capped off their second straight title run on Saturday night with a 28-12 win over the Pittsburgh Maulers, 28-12.
In two seasons with 24 total games, the Stallions have posted a record of 21-3 under coach Skip Holtz.
League MVP Alex McGough again led the way for Birmingham, with four touchdown passes and another 64 rushing yards. Receiver Deon Cain, the MVP of the championship game, caught four passes for 70 yards and three scores. In two postseason game, McGough threw eight touchdown passes and no interceptions. He added 148 rushing yards.
Pittsburgh had an early 3-0 lead, but Birmingham went ahead 7-3 and never fell behind again, pulling away from a 14-9 halftime score to the final margin. The Stallions defense kept the Maulers out of the end zone; Pittsburgh’s 12 points came on four field goals from Chris Blewitt.
For the second straight year, the title game was played in Canton, Ohio.
The USFL initially debuted in 1983. Fox resurrected the league last year. The games are televised both by Fox and NBC. The championship game appeared on NBC and Peacock.
And so ends the relay of football seasons that started with the NFL, continued one week after the Super Bowl with the XFL, and concluded after a few weekends off overlap with the USFL.
The next step for USFL players will be to see whether and to what extent their efforts in the four-letter spring-and-summer league will result in tryouts and/or roster spots with NFL teams. McGough, a seventh-round pick of the Seahawks in 2017, has done enough to at least get some consideration.