In the Christmas classic, Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer, the character Yukon Cornelius was set in his ways of gold and silver. You can even reverse that and say silver and gold. Yukon is a prospector looking for the riches of silver and gold. The city of Pittsburgh, known as Steel-town, takes their gold serious. Some will say it looks like a yellow on all the Pittsburgh sports landscape uniforms. The natives of Pittsburgh call it Gold and they like their color scheme of Gold and Black colors that don’t run in the wash. The Pirates, Steelers, and the Penguins come to town & their color scheme is intimidating and represents the city of Pittsburgh of their hard working citizens with pride they have for those teams. The history of their teams that go back from the beginning wearing Gold and Black, and it means something. Even the soccer team, the Pittsburgh River hounds of USL, adopted the Gold and Black. Last year in the reboot of the USFL, the Pittsburgh Maulers’ uniforms were similar to the 1980’s in the original league. The color scheme of orange, white, and purple are not Pittsburgh colors. Maulers only existed one season during the original league and last year in the reboot. The Maulers are returning for their second year, and in year two they are going with the Steel-town style of Gold and Black.

Ray Horton was a defensive back in the NFL for ten seasons during the 1980’s and a few years into the 1990’s. Horton never played for the Pittsburgh Steelers. Horton played with the arch rival Cincinnati Bengals for 6 seasons & then did 4 seasons in Dallas as a Cowboy. Horton had 19 interceptions in his career while scoring 4 touchdowns on defense. Horton’s ties to Pittsburgh came when he was a defensive back coach for the Steelers. The Steeler organization head coaches hold on to their job like they are the Pope. Horton has been coaching in Pittsburgh for the last three recent Superbowl appearances the Steelers have made and beyond. Last year’s Maulers coach, Kirby Jackson, lead a team that went 1-9 and they were awful. Jackson resigned and was not returning to Maulers, so Ray Horton will get his first head coaching gig. His first order of business was to change the Mauler color scheme and they did.

The Maulers and Steelers represent what Pittsburgh was all about… producing steel. The Maulers mascot goes by Marty the Mauler who resembles the Steelers mascot, Steeley McBeam. The Steelers helmet is one of the best looking in the NFL. I always liked the Maulers logo, even in the old color scheme. The new scheme is even better as it shows the steel worker swing a maul, which is like a sledge hammer. I think the team should have actor David Rasche, who played Sledge Hammer in the old 1980’s sitcom, do something for this team in the future on game day.

The original Pittsburgh Maulers did better than last year’s 2022 Mauler team. The old Maulers played more games and won 3 games. The 1980’s Maulers went 3-15 in their lone season they played. The 1980’s Maulers did play all their home games in Pittsburgh at Three Rivers Stadium. That 3-15 record the Maulers had was tied with the Washington Federals for the worst record in the league that year. Both Maulers’ seasons have been very bad even though both these USFL leagues will never be linked together. This year, Maulers will not play any home games in Pittsburgh as they played all their games last year in the one hub city of Birmingham where everyone played except the playoffs were held in Canton, Ohio. The Maulers this season will play their home games in Canton, Ohio. Each division has two hub cities that will share two teams as the league is playing year two again with 8 teams. The North division has Canton and Detroit as their hub cities. Detroit will have their team Michigan Panthers and the Philadelphia Stars. While Canton will share the Maulers and New Jersey Generals. The South division will have two hub cities, one in Memphis and the city of Birmingham will return. The Stallions who had all the home games last year until the playoffs, will share their stadium with the New Orleans Breakers. The Tampa Bay Bandits of last year are on a one-year hiatus to welcome back another former 1980’s team, the Memphis Showboats. The Showboats will share their city with the Houston Gamblers. Only the Showboats and the Maulers have changed their look from the original 1980’s league. The Maulers kept their logo and changed their colors completely. While the Memphis Showboats changed their color scheme and their logo completely from their original. In year two, the Maulers should feel like they are part of Steel-town going with the city’s color scheme.