In 2023, the USFL Pittsburgh Maulers will look closer to the Pittsburgh Steelers. After wearing purple and orange last season, the Maulers unveiled their new jerseys for the upcoming season today, black and gold with black helmets.
Here’s the video the Maulers released earlier Thursday morning.
And here’s a photo of the home and away uniforms.
I’m far from being a jersey expert but they look…ok. At the least, they play in the spirit of the other professional Pittsburgh teams, a city that shares the same color scheme among its NFL, NHL, and MLB squads. These jerseys certainly don’t look as good as the Steelers, Pirates, or Penguins, but it’s more in-line with the city spirit as opposed to the random purple and orange ones that the Maulers wore in 2022.
To be clear, the Maulers still won’t be playing in Pittsburgh this season. After every team played the 2022 season in Birmingham, Alabama, the Maulers will play this year at Tom Benson Stadium in Canton, Ohio. That’s only a two-hour drive from Pittsburgh and might entice a few fans to go catch a game.
Of course, the on-field product will have to be far better than last year if the Maulers want to grow their fan base. They were the USFL’s worst team last season, winning just one game, with a lifeless offense and making headlines for all the wrong reasons. This year, there’s a new head coach in former Steelers DB Coach Ray Horton with new names across the roster, highlighted by LB Reuben Foster, a former first-round NFL pick.
The Maulers’ season kicks off Sunday, April 16th with a road contest against the New Orleans Breakers. The USFL will be one of two spring leagues playing this year, competing alongside the XFL. There’s also the Mike Tomlin favorite A7 league, which gets underway in a couple of days.
