New Orleans Breakers Flashback: Dario Casarino (VIDEO)

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, punter Dario Casarino:

Casarino played his college football for the Washington Huskies, averaging 36.3 yards-per-punt in 1978.

Out of football from 1980-1982, Casarino signed with the Birmingham Stallions, averaging 36.4 yards over 12 punts, before joining the Boston Breakers, for whom he punted 55 times for an average of 42.6 yards.

On June 6, 1983, in a game against the Chicago Blitz, Casarino, while with the Breakers, set USFL records for number of punts and punting yards in a single game, punting 11 times for 487 yards.

The 6-foot-7, 240-pound Casarino had a net average of 35.9 in 1983.

When the Breakers moved to New Orleans in 1984, so did Casarino, where he averaged 40.7 yards on 60 punts, including a 37.0 net average.

The 1984 season proved to be the last one for the Breakers in New Orleans, and the last in professional football for Casarino, who punted 127 times with a 41.1 yard average over his career.

Below, watch Casarino,  wearing number 1, and then Boston Breakers, take on the Philadelphia Stars, from week 13 of the 1983 USFL season, back on Sunday, May 29, 1983: