New Orleans Breakers Flashback: Charles Smith

The New Orleans Breakers were a United States Football League franchise that played in the Louisiana Superdome for one season, in 1984.

The Breakers began their USFL tenure in Boston, in 1983, but a stadium issue forced a move, allowing New Orleans real estate developer Joe Canizaro to buy the team, and move it to New Orleans for the 1984 season.

In 1984, the Breakers began the season 5-0, but went 3-10 the rest of the way, and missed the USFL playoffs.

New Orleans supported the team well, with the Breakers averaging 30,557 per game, but the USFL opted to move their schedule from the spring to the fall in 1986, and with the Saints in town, the franchise elected to move to Portland for the 1985 season.

All summer long, we’re looking back at former players for the New Orleans Breakers.

Today, wide receiver Charles Smith.

A resident of Monroe, Louisiana, Smith played his college football at Grambling St., and signed with the Los Angeles Rams as an undrafted free agent in 1973.

After failing to make the Rams' roster, Smith signed with the Philadelphia Eagles prior to the 1974 season, and went on to play eight years there, compiling 218 receptions for 3,349 yards and 24 touchdowns, between the years 1974-1981.

Smith had his best NFL season in 1980, totalling 47 catches for 825 yards and three touchdowns, while playing for a Philadelphia team that made it all the way to the Super Bowl.

A 6-foot-1, 185-pounder, Smith was out of football for one year before joining the Boston Breakers of the USFL in 1983, where he caught 54 passes for 1,009 yards and five touchdowns.

In 1984, the Breakers' first year in New Orleans, and Smith's last year in professional football, he caught 40 passes for 623 yards and three touchdowns.

Smith was part of a prolific Breakers offense, which also featured quarterback Johnnie Walton, running backs Buford Jordan and Marcus Dupree, receiver Frank Lockett, and tight end Dan Ross.

Since 2008, Smith has been the track coach at Wossman High School in Monroe.

Below, Smith and the New Orleans Breakers take on the Birmingham Stallions in week six of the 1984 USFL season: