Philadelphia Stars make their debut Sunday. Here’s how the USFL differs from the NFL and where to watch and stream.

Update: The Philadelphia Stars’ debut in the new USFL against the New Orleans Breakers has been delayed to 5 p.m. Sunday due to inclement weather that pushed back the start of the league’s first Easter game.

Philadelphia’s newest professional sports team will take the field for the first time on Sunday, though it will be a while before the team sets foot anywhere near the City of Brotherly Love.

The Philadelphia Stars will face the New Orleans Breakers on Easter Sunday as part of the debut weekend of the United States Football League, the latest in a string of upstart spring football leagues hoping to tap into the interest of NFL fans during the offseason.

Of course, we’ve seen this show before. The XFL’s reboot attempt in 2020 was cut short in part by the pandemic (they’ll try again in 2023), and in 2019 the Alliance of American Football crashed and burned before finishing its first season.

Daryl Johnston is the USFL’s executive vice president for operations, best known to football fans as an NFL analyst on Fox Sports and a former Dallas Cowboys fullback. Johnston was part of both leagues and witnessed the failures of both firsthand. He said having Fox Sports back the USFL with a multiyear commitment right out of the gate offers a lot of stability and visibility, especially paired on the broadcast side with NBC, which will also air games.

» READ MORE: Meet Blob, Philly’s new and mysterious USFL mascot

“None of the other leagues are able to match what we have,” Johnston told The Inquirer. “As we go week to week through the season, our focus is getting to year two.”

The Stars are one of the league’s eight teams, which is divided into two divisions — North and South. Each team will play 10 regular-season games, with the top four moving into the playoffs. The USFL championship game is scheduled to take place July 3 at Tom Benson Hall of Fame Stadium at the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio.

But Philadelphia sports fans will have to trek miles south to Birmingham, Ala., if they want to see the Stars in person. In an attempt to keep costs down, the league will play the bulk of its regular-season games at Protective Stadium. Johnston said the hope is after two years the league will be on solid enough footing for owners to purchase teams and bring them back to their home cities.

“I know how Philly fans are. They have to have that connection to the team,” Johnston said. “I want to make sure that when we break from Birmingham and the Philadelphia Stars come home, that the fan base is going to be excited because we’ll hopefully have some connections back into the history of the Eagles franchise.”

Other than the name and logo, these Stars have no connection to the 1980s USFL team, which played two seasons at Veterans Stadium before moving to Baltimore. But the decision to use the former league’s branding led to a lawsuit by representatives of the original owners earlier this year that could end up forcing the league to change its team names and logos.

On Thursday, a federal judge declined to grant a preliminary injunction against the current league using the USFL’s team names and branding, which could have halted the season. But in court documents the judge said the original owners did show they are “likely to prevail” on their trademark infringement claim. The case remains pending as the league’s season gets underway.

With all the games taking place in Birmingham, the USFL at least to start will be mostly a television product. So both Fox and NBC have taken care to assemble broadcast crews with football experience, either coaching games or calling them.

At Fox, its top USFL booth will feature longtime Fox NFL Sunday host Curt Menefee alongside analyst Joel Klatt, the network’s top college football analyst. Its other booth will feature play-by-play announcer Kevin Kugler alongside onetime Eagles quarterback Mark Sanchez.

On NBC, former Dallas Cowboy head coach Jason Garrett landed a job as an analyst, his first shot at broadcasting. Last season, Garrett was the offensive coordinator for the New York Giants before being fired in November.

Notre Dame football announcer Paul Burmeister and Jac Collinsworth, the son of Sunday Night Football analyst Cris Collinsworth, will handle play-by-play duties on NBC. In addition to Garrett, NFL Network analyst Michael Robinson and New Orleans Saints defensive end Cameron Jordan will serve as analysts.

The Birmingham Stallions defeated the New Jersey Generals 28-24 on Saturday night in the USFL’s debut. The game aired simultaneously on Fox and NBC, marking the first time a game has simulcast on competitive networks since Super Bowl I aired on both NBC and CBS in 1967.

Unlike the original USFL, there aren’t many household names in this league. The most well-known player on the field Saturday night was Generals running back Mike Weber, who was Ezekiel Elliott’s backup at Ohio State and won a Super Bowl ring as a member of the Kansas City Chiefs in 2019.

The Stars will take on the New Orleans Breakers, with the game scheduled to start at 4 p.m. on Easter Sunday on USA Network. Burmeister and Robinson will call the game, with Lewis Johnson reporting from the sideline. Sara Perlman, host of The Daily Line on NBC Sports, will anchor the network’s studio coverage.

The Houston Gamblers will face the Michigan Panthers at noon on Easter Sunday on NBC. The Tampa Bay Bandits will take on the Pittsburgh Maulers at 8 p.m. on FS1, capping off the league’s first week of action.

Here’s the full weekend USFL TV schedule:

While the USFL will look and feel like an NFL game, league officials did carve out some notable differences in their rule book.

For starters, teams will have three extra-point options following a touchdown — one point for a field goal from the 15-yard line, two points for a play from the 2-yard line, and three points for a play from the 10-yard line.

Another big difference will be in overtime, which will end with a best-of-three, soccer-style shootout, when teams try to score from the 2-yard line. Each successful score earns two points, and the team with the highest score after three plays will be the winner. If the score remains tied, teams will get one shot each in a sudden-death approach until there is a winner.

The league has also set up rules that will allow more kickoff returns than the NFL, where most kicks sail out of the end zone for a touchback. All kickoffs will be from the 25-yard line, and it will feel more like a punt, with the coverage team prohibited from getting a running start.

“I love the new kickoff,” said Fox’s NFL rules analyst Mike Pereira, who is serving as the league’s head of officiating. “It’s going to help the offense. ... We’re trying to get the kickoff back in the game but trying to keep it safe, also.”

After a score, in addition to an onside kick, teams in the USFL will also have the option of running a fourth-down-and-12 play from their own 33-yard line. If the team makes the first down, it keeps the football. If it fails, the defense gets the ball.

Many fans won’t remember most of the former Eagles players who will take the field for the USFL this weekend, since most were relegated to the practice squad and never played a down with the team.

That being said, there are a number of former Birds scattered across the league, though none play for the Stars. Defensive tackle Destiny Vaeao, who appeared in 33 games for the Eagles from 2016 to 2018, will start for the New Jersey Generals. Former Eagles cornerbacks De’Vante Bausby and Trae Elston — who played in a combined seven games for the Birds — are also on the Generals’ roster.

Quarterback Clayton Thorson, a former fifth-round pick of the Eagles out of Northwestern who never made it out of training camp, will start for the Houston Gamblers. Kyle Lauletta, another former Eagles quarterback who never made it beyond training camp, will play for the Pittsburgh Maulers.

Maybe the most well-known person with Eagles ties is Michigan Panthers head coach Jeff Fisher, who came within one yard of a Super Bowl victory with the Tennessee Titans. Fisher was part of Buddy Ryan’s coaching staff for five years in the 1980s, including two seasons as defensive coordinator.