Stars QB Case Cookus has never been to Philadelphia but his underdog journey to the USFL is fit for the city

Case Cookus isn’t certain, but thinks he passed through Pennsylvania once while driving from New York to Maryland. And that’s about as close as he ever came to Philadelphia, the city he represents as the quarterback of the USFL’s Philadelphia Stars.

The team played its games last season in Alabama and will play home games this year in Detroit after starting the season on Saturday in Memphis. The USFL’s eight teams are based this season out of four cities: Detroit, Canton, Ohio; Memphis, and Birmingham, Ala.

» READ MORE: USFL's Philadelphia Stars to play a little closer to home this season

The only thing Philly about the Stars — who played at Veterans Stadium in the 1980s during the original USFL — is their first name. But their quarterback has taken a journey fit for Philadelphia despite never making it to town.

He wasn’t recruited out of high school, went to a junior college for a semester before playing four years at Northern Arizona, an FCS school. Cookus was not drafted in 2020 and spent the last three years trying to find a place in the NFL. He learned five offenses in 2021 — including a month in the Canadian Football League — and was waived by three NFL teams in four months.

As teams turned him away, the son of a fire captain refused to quit. He latched on last spring with the Stars as a backup QB before becoming the starter during the third game of the season. He threw for 1,334 yards and 12 TDs in seven games while leading the Stars to the USFL championship game.

He had a tryout lined up the next week with the Dallas Cowboys. Finally, it seemed like things were lining up. And then he broke his right leg in the fourth quarter of the championship game.

“It was tough,” Cookus said. “I heard my leg crack right away, so I knew it was broken. It hit pretty hard. I was talking to my wife and my parents after the game and was just like, ‘Ugh.’”

Cookus nearly followed his father into the fire department after interviewing with the Los Angeles County Fire Department after graduating from high school in Southern California.

He didn’t play quarterback until his senior year at Thousand Oaks High School, and colleges weren’t knocking down his door. But Cookus enrolled at Ventura Community College, and Northern Arizona soon offered him a scholarship.

He threw for 3,111 yards and 37 TDs and won the Jerry Rice Award, given annually to the nation’s best freshman in the FCS and won two years earlier by Cooper Kupp, in 2015. Cookus had chances to transfer to bigger schools but stayed at Northern Arizona.

“They were the only team that believed in me,” Cookus said. “There were other teams that had been in touch but never offered me. They were the ones who believed in what I brought to the table. Looking back, you could say, ‘What if I transferred to a Pac-12 school or whatever.’ But I was really happy with my four years of my time at NAU. I met my wife there, too.”

He signed with the Giants hours after he was not one of the 13 QBs selected in the 2020 NFL draft. They cut him during training camp.

Cookus played the next spring in a now-defunct football league called The Spring League before signing with the Broncos. They cut him three days later. The Vikings were next. Three days later, they cut him, too. He lasted a week with the Raiders and spent four weeks in October traveling around Canada with the Edmonton Elks. It would have been easy to forgive Cookus if that was enough for him to walk away. Instead, he kept going.

“My dad taught me a lot of that,” Cookus said. “He never wanted me to quit anything. He always wanted me to finish what I started. It’s just something that’s been instilled in me. You can only play football for so long, so if I can, I’ll keep playing as long as I can.”

He had surgery soon after his injury last July and rolled down the aisle five days later at his wedding on a scooter. He rehabbed four days a week, pushing himself to work out for the Cowboys last September despite knowing he wasn’t fully recovered. They passed on him, but he spent the final seven weeks of the season on the practice squad of his hometown Rams.

“It was a breath of fresh air to be able to stay in a spot longer than a week, two weeks, three weeks,” Cookus said.

Now, he’s back with Philly, the city he’s never been to but the one that helped him create some buzz last season. The NFL felt close last July before his knee bent awkwardly in the turf. Another strong season in the USFL should position Cookus for a chance in an NFL training camp. His dream is still in reach.

“I’ve been so close time and time and had it pulled away a few times, but it would mean the world to see my hard work pay off,” Cookus said.

Cookus said he would love to get to Philadelphia and see the historical sites. The Stars, he said, have a roster of players who have charted journeys like him. Philly would love them, he said. And if he ever makes it to Philadelphia, Cookus said he’ll look for a real cheesesteak.

“I’ve had one, but I can’t say I’ve had a true Philly cheesesteak,” Cookus said. “I’ve had a few, but not the real one. If we win this championship, I’ll have to take the trophy to Philadelphia and get one.”