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, linebacker Marcus Marek:

Born in Vienna, Ohio, California, Marek played his college football in his home state for the Ohio St. Buckeyes, where he compiled 572 career tackles, a school record, between 1979-1982.

In his senior year of 1982, Marek was named All-American, racking up 178 tackles, and put an exclamation point on his great career by recording a career-high 21 tackles against Michigan in his final regular season game.

Marek ranks first in all-time assisted tackles at Ohio State with 316, and his 256 solo stops place him third in that category.

Marek joined the Boston Breakers of the USFL in 1983 and immediately became a tackling machine, recording a team-leading 240 stops.

The 6-foot-2, 225-pound Marek also had four interception in his first professional season.

When the Breakers moved to New Orleans in 1984, so did Marek, and his continued his old ways, leading the team with 227 tackles, while intercepting one pass.

The 1984 season proved to be the last one for the Breakers in New Orleans, but Marek moved with the team to Portland, where he again eclipsed 100 tackles for the season, his last in professional football.

Below, watch Marek, wearing number 56, and the New Orleans Breakers, take on the Chicago Blitz, from week 5 of the 1984 USFL season, back on Sunday, March 25, 1984:

 

 

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