On March 6 1983, the new United States Football League (USFL) season kicked off with a plan to bring American football to springtime.

What unfolded was a wild tale of early success, crazy players and crazier owners, and the undoing of the entire league by a little-known property developer from New York, Donald J Trump.

Titus O'Reily and Mick Molloy begin their three-part look at one of the wildest leagues in history, a league that featured ex-criminals, a defensive end who gained fame for trapping his head in the sunroof of a car, and the bodyguard of Rick James.

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Research

I went wide researching this, but I kept coming back to Football for a Buck: The Crazy Rise and Crazier Demise of the USFL by Jeff Pearlman.

If you don’t know his work, Jeff Pearlman is one of, if not the best sports writer of his generation and I’d recommend any of his books to you.

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Few players have burned so bright and fallen so far as Detroit Tigers Denny McLain.

In 1968, 'The Year of the Pitcher', Denny would win 30 games, a World Series, release a record through Capitol Records, Denny McLain at the Organ and drink 24 bottles of Pepsi daily.

The fall was fast; it involved fraud, the mafia, his house burning down, and jail time.

Titus O'Reily and Mick Molloy looked at an athlete as brilliant as he was dodgy.

Titus O'Reily and Mick Molloy are excited to announce the launch of Bizarre Plus, the new Membership program for even more Sports Bizarre.

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Athletes get injured; it comes with the territory, but a lot of them get injured in weird ways.

From damaging a tooth eating a microwaved chocolate doughnut, having your own dentures bite you, to falling asleep in a sunbed.

Titus O'Reily and Mick Molloy look at the weirdest sport injuries of all time, and wonder how exactly you injure yourself by running into a moose.

Titus O'Reily and Mick Molloy are excited to announce the launch of Bizarre Plus, the new Membership program for even more Sports Bizarre.

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In the final of our series on James Hunt, we look at his 1976 battle with close friend Niki Lauda for the World Championship, the greatest season of F1 ever.

We then look at his commentary career, where he once said French driver Jean-Pierre Jarier had “a mental age of 10” and should be given a short suspension for poor driving before adding: “for being himself, he should receive a permanent suspension.”

Titus O'Reily and Mick Molloy finish off their tribute to the most entertaining F1 driver of all time.

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When Lord Hesketh started Hesketh Racing team, he needed a driver, and he found the perfect one, James Hunt.

Everything about Hesketh Racing was fun. “We had failed in both Formula 2 and Formula 3, so Formula 1 was the only logical place to go, said Lord Hesketh on entering the big leagues.

Titus O'Reily and Mick Molly continue their series on James Hunt, covering his time at Hesketh and his interesting marriage.

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Perhaps no other Formula One Driver has captured the imagination of racing fans as much as James Hunt.

For a man who said, “my first priority is to finish above rather than beneath the ground," he spent an enormous amount of his early career crashing.

Titus O'Reily and Mick Molloy begin looking into the life of James Hunt, race car driver, international playboy and keen breed of budgerigars.

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In the late 19th century, one sport stood above all others in terms of popularity, pedestrianism. That's right, walking. 

Tens of thousands of people would come to watch the top pedestrians walk for five days. Arguably the greatest was Edward Payson Weston, a man who walked wearing a costume of 'black velvet, white silk hat, blue sash, white kid gloves, top boots reaching to the knees on the outside of the pantaloons, and a gold-mounted riding-whip.'

Titus O'Reily and Mick Molloy examine the career of arguably the greatest pedestrian of all time and the rise of his great rival, Daniel O’Leary.

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Sport is fun, but it's a lot of effort to organise, run a whole competition, and then fix the result so you can win a lot of money through betting.

The simple solution is to run your own event, or even better, just convince people you ran one and take their money.

Titus O'Reily and Mick Molloy look at some of the greatest sporting events that never happened. From one of the great scams of all time the Trodmore Race Day to the IPL match that was played on a farm.

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In 1932, with the world going through the Great Depression, Brazil had no money to send its Olympic team to Los Angeles.

Then a government official had an idea—load a ship with 50,000 bags of coffee, and have the Olympic team sell the cargo to fund the entire trip.

Titus O'Reily and Mick Molloy look at a strange trip which included pretending the ship was a warship, and civil war breaking out.

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Jese Rodriguez was a future star in the soccer world, but things like a music career and discovering he was a father via Instagram sent things sideways.

Despite a career that included stints at Real Madrid and Paris Saint-Germain, it was off the field Jese shone, like when he spent €5,000 on text messages to vote an ex-girlfriend off the show Big Brother.

Titus O'Reily and Mick Molloy examine the life and loves of Jese Rodriguez, a man who could resist anything except temptation.

Titus O'Reily and Mick Molloy are excited to announce the launch of Bizarre Plus, the new Membership program for even more Sports Bizarre.

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