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Buy Saints TicketsAnnouncing the new Head Coach of the Houston Gamblers: Curtis Johnson 🙌 pic.twitter.com/Xla1BF8GbJ
— Houston Gamblers (@USFLGamblers) February 15, 2023
This is cool: the USFL has hired former New Orleans Saints wide receivers coach Curtis Johnson as the head coach of its Houston Gamblers franchise. Johnson’s coaching career took off with the Saints from 2006 to 2011, when he was hired as head coach of the Tulane Green Wave; he later returned to New Orleans as a senior offensive assistant from 2017 to 2021, though Dennis Allen didn’t retain him after taking over as head coach.
Now Johnson is running his own team again. The Gamblers compete in the USFL’s South division and are looking to make some noise after a 3-7 debut under head coach Kevin Sumlin last year.
The spring league’s 2023 season kicks off in April, with Johnson’s Gamblers meeting a team coached by one of his old coworkers — former Saints linebackers coach Mike Nolan, now head coach of the Michigan Panthers. The Gamblers and Panthers will play in Memphis, Tenn. at Simmons Bank Liberty Stadium on April 16. The USFL is rolling out a regional hub model after playing all of its games in Birmingham, Ala. during the 2022 campaign, with plans to install each franchise in its own home city in the near future.
