coach Jack Patera. After four seasons, Mora moved to the New England Patriots in 1982 under head coach Ron Meyer. USFL The United States Football League came into existence 1983 and Mora became head coach of the Philadelphia Stars (who moved to Baltimore in 1985). During his tenure the team compiled a 48–13–1 () record, appeared in all three USFL championship games and won two of them. Mora was named Coach of the Year in 1984 and is considered by many observers to be the best coach in the short history of the USFL. Six months after the Stars won the 1985 USFL title, Mora was named head coach of the NFL's New Orleans Saints. The USFL was later forced out of business after winning a token award of $3 in an antitrust suit against the NFL. New Orleans Saints Mora was hired by new Saints general manager Jim Finks to turn around what had long been reckoned as the most inept franchise in the NFL. The Saints had won only 90 games in their first nineteen seasons, never tallied a winning record, and only twice had reached .500, in 1979 (the only time they finished higher than 3rd in their division) and 1983. In late 1984, founding owner John Mecom threatened to sell the team to a group of investors who planned to move the franchise to Jacksonville, Florida if he could not find an owner or group of owners who would buy the team and keep them in New Orleans. Mecom sold the Saints to Tom Benson in May 1985 for $70 million. Benson, who grew up in the city's Ninth Ward, pledged to keep the team in New Orleans. The Saints limped along to a 5–11 record in 1985, and coach Bum Phillips resigned with four games remaining. Benson hired Finks in January 1986 and charged the former Vikings and Bears executive with the task of hiring the new coach. Mora spent his first off-season remaking the Saints roster. He convinced several players from the USFL, including some from his Stars, to come to New Orleans. The imports included linebackers Sam Mills and Vaughan Johnson, who went on to form the inside tandem of the legendary "Dome Patrol" linebacking corps with veteran Rickey Jackson and draftee Pat Swilling on the outside. Mora inherited quarterback Bobby Hebert and receiver Eric Martin from Phillips, and drafted running back Reuben