Welcome Florida Tuskers.

Come on in. Put down your bags. Make yourself at home for there is plenty of room right here at Orlando’s ‘Heartbreak Hotel of Pro Football.’

The other guests figured you’d be stopping by. We just hope you won’t be staying for too long. You see, they all envy what you attempted to accomplish over Thanksgiving weekend and are just as somber that things didn’t go as planned.

This one must really sting though, huh? Making it all the way to the inaugural United Football League championship game as an undefeated team at 6-0 only to come up short, 20-17, against the hometown Las Vegas Locomotives in overtime.

What makes it worse is the way you dominated the competition throughout the regular season under the leadership of former National Football League player and coach Jim Haslet, and the offensive play calling of former Arena Football League player and coach Jay Gruden.

You led the four-team UFL in total offense, first downs and takeaways while MVP Brooks Bollinger slung the ball around like he was the all-time quarterback in a flag football league.

And how were you rewarded for such a season? By having to travel cross-country to Sin City. The nerve of the UFL. I’m sure the Citrus Bowl had plenty of room for the handful of fans that may have been interested in such a showdown. At least the same 12,000 or so that made it out for each of your two home games downtown.

Not since the Orlando Panthers of the forgotten Continental Football League has a local football team won a league title of the outdoor football variety. And they did it twice between 1966-70.

Which brings us to why you’re here in the first place. Let me start by introducing you to the others.

Down this hall stays the Florida Blazers of the World Football League, who after entering the fourth quarter of the 1974 WFL World Bowl down 22-0 charged all the way back only to lose by one point. Imagine that. Which I’m sure you can. Only the Blazers would never see the start of the following season before vanishing into the history books.

A little further down to your right is where the Orlando Renegades of the battered United States Football League are shacked up. Quite a concept the USFL was, if only the Renegades were half as innovative. They had one 5-13 season in 1985 before “pro football” made yet another quick exit from town, along with the league.

But the sport returned (as it always does) in 1991 when the Orlando Thunder came on the scene as part of the startup World League of American Football. In their second season the Thunder managed to advance to the title game in 1992 only to fall 21-17 in the WLAF World Bowl before suddenly disappearing at its conclusion.

The Thunder are staying a bit further down the hall to your left, where you’ll also find our most recent occupant from the defunct XFL.

For a split second in 2001 it sounded like a good idea – Inviting pro wrestling fans to a football game and catering to their vises. It certainly worked for the Orlando Rage. That year they swept through the regular season with the best record in the league only to lose by a point in the first round of the postseason.

These has-beens have been here sulking and mingling together ever since.

And now it’s the Tuskers who have become another rotten slice of the good football championship-chasing life after falling just short of satisfying the title quench for local fans.

At least there’s a bright side. You have something none of these old washed-up local teams have, and that’s a chance to try it again in a league that is still up and running.

Well, at least for the time being.

– More Florida Tuskers Coverage –

- United Football League info at UFL Access

- Tuskers news and notes at Tusker House

- Video footage at UFL-Football

- Postgame stories at FanHouse

- Box score at UFL-Football

- More at Orlando Sports Central