XFL is back!

[jerichoholicninja]

Vince McMahon announced the XFL will be revived in 2020. He's bringing in football people to run the league so maybe it won't go down in flames after 1 year this time.

[Fear The Chorizo]

I think it's actually not a bad plan, given that the NFL will likely lose a season after 2020 due to a strike after the current CBA runs out. Depending on when the XFL would schedule their season, they could benefit greatly from that.

 

still hope there's a sport for He Hate Me...

[RobDeer 45]

I'm all for this and enjoyed watching the xfl back in the day. Not because of the goofy side stuff, but because there was football on TV when there usually wasn't. I'm curious if they will try to be "different" or if they will legitimately try to produce good football? I think there is some room to chip away at the NFL product right now and maybe become a legitimate "minor league" for them at the same time. We will see! America loves football.

[pacopete4]

I truly feel they should look into more of a rugby type football league. Take the huge helmets off guys, take away the head shots and they might actually have something revolutionary with this league.

[jerichoholicninja]

I've only seen it brought up by commentators but making it a "minor league" for guys skipping the charade of being an NCAA student/athlete wouldn't be a bad idea.

[Point Beer Is Best]

I watched the press conference from Alpha Entertainment's Twitter feed (OF COURSE that's what McMahon would call a company he just dumped $100M into).

 

I thought the timing of bringing back the XFL was right, in that I think fans get frustrated with overly complex rules (the catch rule, that stupid rule where the defense gets the ball if you fumble the ball forward and it rolls out of the endzone, etc) and they are fed up with protections afforded to QB's (nobody wants to see violent headshots, but enforcing a 15 yard penalty for a D lineman grazing the side of a QB's helmet are frustrating).

 

However, I came away from watching that press conference with some questions and concerns.

 

- I don't know what their plan is. They want to play in the spring of 2020 (just two years from now), but don't appear to have anyone running the league, don't have a TV or streaming partners and don't have any cities identified (he mentioned exploring cities that have existing NFL facilities, which seems to indicate they'd like some kind of partnership, but do they have any idea if the feeling is mutual?). The only concrete plan seemed to be that they will just now begin getting input from fans and coaches on what the league should look like.

- They also want to make the game quicker ("2 hours is the goal"), which is pretty easy if you don't have a TV partner anyways, but where does your ad revenue come from? Will the jerseys be covered in ads like in other sports? NOBODY is going to want to pay for this (we don't currently pay for the majority of NFL content, which is the most popular sport in America), so partnering with a streaming service seems unlikely.

- It's pretty clear that McMahon wants to "keep politics OUT of the XFL", while at the same time he not so subtly indicated that there will be rules that every player must follow, including standing for the National Anthem, which some would argue is inherently political.

- The high bar for player personal conduct. "If you have a DUI, you won't plan in this league" is what McMahon said. What is driving this is fan feedback on the perceived criminal history of players in the NFL (which, when you look at MLB and NFL players and arrest records, they are actually much lower than the general population). I don't have a problem with that - they have every right to create that threshold. I just think it is a very high bar, and appears to be a no-tolerance policy. He was asked about Tebow, Manziel and Kaeparnick. He dismissed Manziel (which shocked the heck out of everybody before he explained the policy), but invited Tebow as well as Kap (while pointing out that he must adhere to rules of the league, which we all know what he's talking about).

 

The message I walked away with was, the fans want a quicker paced game, with easier to understand rules, with *some* of the violence reinstated to the sport, played by athletes with clean off the field records who will stand for the national anthem and keep their personal politics to themselves. And they currently have no in plan in place on how to make that happen and sustain it as a viable business enterprise.

[MrTPlush]

I've only seen it brought up by commentators but making it a "minor league" for guys skipping the charade of being an NCAA student/athlete wouldn't be a bad idea.

 

I’d be surprised if they get enough exposure to challenge the NCAA.

[Invader3K]

It's stupid, but if they want to try this again, fine.

 

My guess is that they'll put this on WWE Network. Maybe stream live games on Hulu or some other platform as well, to reach more people (there is already some WWE programming on there).

 

I can't see any of the major networks picking this thing up after what a ratings disaster it was the first time around.

[owbc]

I truly feel they should look into more of a rugby type football league. Take the huge helmets off guys, take away the head shots and they might actually have something revolutionary with this league.

 

Agreed, that would have gotten my attention.

 

Instead he's emphasizing the two worst things about the NFL (the violence and political divisiveness).

 

I can't imagine it will ever actually launch.