{"id":8823,"date":"2025-12-14T09:23:42","date_gmt":"2025-12-14T14:23:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.2guysgaming.net\/usfldr\/?p=8823"},"modified":"2025-12-14T09:23:42","modified_gmt":"2025-12-14T14:23:42","slug":"1986-usfl-west-conference-championship","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.distantreplaysports.com\/usfldr\/2025\/12\/14\/1986-usfl-west-conference-championship\/","title":{"rendered":"1986 USFL West Conference Championship"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"349\" height=\"103\" src=\"https:\/\/www.distantreplaysports.com\/usfldr\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/score-6.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-8824\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.distantreplaysports.com\/usfldr\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/score-6.jpg 349w, https:\/\/www.distantreplaysports.com\/usfldr\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/score-6-300x89.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 349px) 100vw, 349px\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">Dateline<\/span>: Sunday, June 29, 1986. Denver left little doubt who is the best in the west Sunday evening. Quarterback Bob Gagliano threw for five touchdowns and rushed for one as the Gold soundly defeated the Gamblers to earn a spot against Boston in the USFL Championship Game. The Gold defense also stepped up, intercepting Jim Kelly 3 times and recovering two fumbles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Gamblers, perhaps overconfident at hosting the championship game for the 2nd time in 3 years, scored only a field goal in the first quarter. The other drives ended in turnovers or punts. With the poor performance in another playoff game, questions will surround Houston during the offseason, perhaps leading to some changes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure data-wp-context=\"{&quot;imageId&quot;:&quot;6a1b6b2ff1f8e&quot;}\" data-wp-interactive=\"core\/image\" data-wp-key=\"6a1b6b2ff1f8e\" class=\"wp-block-image size-large wp-lightbox-container\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"237\" data-wp-class--hide=\"state.isContentHidden\" data-wp-class--show=\"state.isContentVisible\" data-wp-init=\"callbacks.setButtonStyles\" data-wp-on--click=\"actions.showLightbox\" data-wp-on--load=\"callbacks.setButtonStyles\" data-wp-on--pointerdown=\"actions.preloadImage\" data-wp-on--pointerenter=\"actions.preloadImageWithDelay\" data-wp-on--pointerleave=\"actions.cancelPreload\" data-wp-on-window--resize=\"callbacks.setButtonStyles\" src=\"https:\/\/www.distantreplaysports.com\/usfldr\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/summary-5-1024x237.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-8825\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.distantreplaysports.com\/usfldr\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/summary-5-1024x237.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.distantreplaysports.com\/usfldr\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/summary-5-300x69.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.distantreplaysports.com\/usfldr\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/summary-5-768x177.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.distantreplaysports.com\/usfldr\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/summary-5.jpg 1342w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><button\n\t\t\tclass=\"lightbox-trigger\"\n\t\t\ttype=\"button\"\n\t\t\taria-haspopup=\"dialog\"\n\t\t\tdata-wp-bind--aria-label=\"state.thisImage.triggerButtonAriaLabel\"\n\t\t\tdata-wp-init=\"callbacks.initTriggerButton\"\n\t\t\tdata-wp-on--click=\"actions.showLightbox\"\n\t\t\tdata-wp-style--right=\"state.thisImage.buttonRight\"\n\t\t\tdata-wp-style--top=\"state.thisImage.buttonTop\"\n\t\t>\n\t\t\t<svg xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" width=\"12\" height=\"12\" fill=\"none\" viewBox=\"0 0 12 12\">\n\t\t\t\t<path fill=\"#fff\" d=\"M2 0a2 2 0 0 0-2 2v2h1.5V2a.5.5 0 0 1 .5-.5h2V0H2Zm2 10.5H2a.5.5 0 0 1-.5-.5V8H0v2a2 2 0 0 0 2 2h2v-1.5ZM8 12v-1.5h2a.5.5 0 0 0 .5-.5V8H12v2a2 2 0 0 1-2 2H8Zm2-12a2 2 0 0 1 2 2v2h-1.5V2a.5.5 0 0 0-.5-.5H8V0h2Z\" \/>\n\t\t\t<\/svg>\n\t\t<\/button><\/figure>\n\n\n\nngg_shortcode_0_placeholder\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Dateline: Sunday, June 29, 1986. Denver left little doubt who is the best in the west Sunday evening. Quarterback Bob Gagliano threw for five touchdowns and rushed for one as the Gold soundly defeated the Gamblers to earn a spot against Boston in the USFL Championship Game. The Gold defense also stepped up, intercepting Jim [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6428,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,5],"tags":[57,14,31],"class_list":["post-8823","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-box-scores-and-recaps","category-stats","tag-1986-playoffs","tag-denver-gold","tag-houston-gamblers"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.distantreplaysports.com\/usfldr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8823","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.distantreplaysports.com\/usfldr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.distantreplaysports.com\/usfldr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.distantreplaysports.com\/usfldr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.distantreplaysports.com\/usfldr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8823"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.distantreplaysports.com\/usfldr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8823\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.distantreplaysports.com\/usfldr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6428"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.distantreplaysports.com\/usfldr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8823"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.distantreplaysports.com\/usfldr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8823"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.distantreplaysports.com\/usfldr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8823"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}