The Pittsburgh Maulers as an entity existed for one season in 1984 in a previous incarnation of a league called the USFL. The team folded after the league voted to adopt a fall schedule, but the name was revived in the latest league using the USFL name beginning in 2022.
And these Maulers, like the previous Maulers, were not very good. In fact, they were arguably the worst team in the league last year. Now they are competing for the title under former Pittsburgh Steelers defensive backs coach Ray Horton.
While the opportunity to finally be a head coach is not one that he takes for granted, Horton was very upfront about the fact that he essentially came out of retirement to take this job for the opportunity to coach with his son, who is on the Maulers’ staff. But he doesn’t find it radically different from what he’s been doing for decades.
“It’s more logistical…and you call the timeouts”, he said of being a head coach rather than a coordinator or position coach while speaking to 92.3 The Fan in Cleveland. The Maulers are in Canton, Ohio, today to contend for the USFL title, as mentioned. “But it’s still football. It’s just more responsibility”.
Would he want that responsibility today in the NFL, after years of being on the head coaching circuit? “No, because I don’t think that they want me”, he said. Horton is part of a lawsuit filed by former Steelers senior defensive assistant Brian Flores against the NFL and several constituent teams, raising accusations against their following of the league’s hiring policies regarding the evaluation of minority candidates.
“I’ve proven that I can do this at so many levels”, he said, describing this Maulers season as part of his “living resume”, a worst-to-first turnaround after Pittsburgh bottomed out in 2022 under the leadership of another former Steelers assistant, Kirby Wilson.
A former cornerback and safety in the NFL, playing under former Steelers defensive coordinator Dick LeBeau while he was with the Cincinnati Bengals in the 1980s, Hortons spent 25 years in the league, most of it as a defensive backs coach (including eight under LeBeau back in Pittsburgh, and five years as a defensive coordinator.
He believes that while his teams may not have always had success as a whole, he always left his unit better than it was when he got there, making special note of his time with the Cleveland Browns, spread out over two separate seasons.
Flores’ lawsuit, which also includes Steve Wilks, remains ongoing, even while Flores remains employed in the NFL, currently the defensive coordinator of the Minnesota Vikings, with his ultimate ambition to return to a head coaching job in 2024.
Horton’s Maulers only went 4-6 this year, but that was good enough, with a 4-2 divisional record, to win the North, the Michigan Panthers and Philadelphia Stars also finishing 4-6. Pittsburgh defeated the Panthers in an overtime victory in the divisional round for the right to face the Birmingham Stallions tonight for the championship.
