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XFL reboot: Will new spring league last?
From left: former NFL QB Cardale Jones, XFL financial backer Vince McMahon of the WWE and XFL commissioner Oliver Luck. Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports | Ethan Miller/Getty Images | Ben Queen-USA TODAY Sports

XFL 2.0: Rebooted league set to debut, but will it last?

The new XFL, which has ditched the extreme components that were the 2001 edition’s top drawing card, debuts Saturday. Like the league's short-lived first version, XFL 2.0 has eight teams that consist of players on the NFL fringes. 

The season is scheduled to run from Feb. 8-April 26, with a four-network TV schedule and a four-team playoff.

Here are 10 questions on the latest attempt to make professsional football work in the spring. The most pressing: Will it last?

How will it be different from the first try?

American sports fans over 25 likely remember the XFL’s attempt to launch an edgier brand of football. The NBC-backed venture came near the height of the WWE’s “Attitude” era, arguably professional wrestling’s apex, and was marketed as football without some of the NFL’s safety restrictions. (The concussion crisis had not become mainstream yet; the early-aughts NFL was considerably more violent than it is today.)


XFL rules innovations | Top players | Power rankings


Aside from an opening weekend that delivered a monster rating, the endeavor was a disaster. WWE chairman and CEO Vince McMahon played an on-screen role that mirrored his wrestling persona, brought in WWE announcers to call football games, attempted a cringe-worthy cheerleader stunt and saw NBC back out of the deal after the first season.

This time around, McMahon has stayed out of the spotlight and attempted to legitimize this effort. Former NFL QB Andrew Luck’s father, ex-NFL quarterback Oliver Luck, serves as commissioner. Former NFL coaches John Fox and Jim Caldwell are consultants, and ex-NFL VP of officiating Dean Blandino is on board as the XFL's officiating czar. Former Oklahoma coach Bob Stoops (Dallas) and ex-NFL head coaches Marc Trestman (Tampa Bay) and Jim Zorn (Seattle) lead teams. Despite sticking with “XFL,” the league may not feature much resemblance to the first go-round. That would be for the best.


Official XFL game ball. Cliff Welch/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images

Will this long-attempted formula work?

The curiosity surrounding McMahon’s second try will help drive ratings early; so will the nation’s most popular sport going up against regular-season basketball as top ratings competition. But the same issue that plagued XFL 1.0, the United Football League (2009-12) and 2019’s Alliance of American Football debacle will interfere with the second XFL try. Will enough people care about lower-quality football?

XFL 2.0’s rosters predictably look like the AAF’s last year. There are some recognizable names but no needle-movers. Ex-Ohio State national championship quarterback Cardale Jones , ex-Panthers defensive end Kony Ealy (the most productive Panther in Super Bowl 50) and former Raiders and Broncos punter Marquette King may be the best-known talents. 

This formula doomed leagues. No spring offshoot has been remotely successful since the USFL in the mid-1980s, and that interest came largely from the league paying up for NFL-caliber players. The XFL must rely on aspects beyond player talent to keep fans interested.


Formers Steelers backup Landry Jones will play for the Dallas Renegades of the XFL. Bill Streicher-USA TODAY Sports

How does XFL 2.0’s QB group look? 

Jones is stationed on the D.C. Defenders; the Dallas Renegades’ best-known QB is ex-Steelers backup Landry Jones. On the Houston Roughnecks, it’s former Raiders third-stringer/one-time playoff starter Connor Cook. Josh Johnson, a former employee of nearly half the NFL’s teams, is the Los Angeles Wildcats’ top passer. 

Ex-Cook Raiders teammate Matt McGloin is on the New York Guardians, and the Seattle Dragons have a less recognizable B.J. Daniels-Brandon Silvers depth chart. Displaced Panthers backup Taylor Heinicke has the most experience on the St. Louis Battlehawks’ QB depth chart, and ex-Chiefs draftee Aaron Murray fronts the Tampa Bay Vipers’ operation. It's problematic for the XFL to count on this contingent as a draw. 

Can the league’s salary structure work?

Before the AAF folded, a 2020 landscape featuring two major spring football leagues was on tap. A 16-team universe outside the NFL would have created more opportunity for lower-tier players than anything observed since the USFL peaked in 1984 with 18 teams. But the AAF ceasing operations in April eliminated XFL competition and likely caused the newest spring league to reduce salaries.

Once set to pay approximately $75,000 per player, the XFL dropped that figure to around $55K. However, draftee Corey Vereen’s decision to spurn the league led to an agent memo indicating most players’ base salaries are under $30K, with the remainder of the money being paid in per-game and per-win bonuses. The XFL paid most players approximately $45,000 in 2001.

The NFL rookie minimum is $510,000 in 2020. Even practice squad players make a minimum of $8,000 per regular-season week. The AAF fell apart because of numerous reasons, but stories about the league’s shaky financial foundation gradually surfaced. This will be an issue to monitor.


XFL commissioner Oliver Luck, father of former NFL QB Andrew Luck. Ben Queen-USA TODAY Sports

Will the XFL get serious about adding underclassmen?

The league is dependent on NFL castoffs and young hopefuls trying to book a training camp in July. The XFL must also begin identifying underclassmen who would either prefer to be paid rather than risk injury playing college football or players who have run into trouble in college and are looking for an easier NFL bridge.

Players must be out of high school for three seasons before becoming NFL Draft-eligible. Luring underclassmen to the second-tier pro league over school sounds slightly shady, but Luck confirmed the XFL will look to add these younger talents. The league, however, must survive Year 1 for such defections to happen.

For the XFL to attract potential early-round draft picks, it may need to increase its salaries. Underclassmen represent the league’s best avenue toward impact talent. It would become a Double-A baseball setup of sorts, with top prospects passing through. But if the XFL can convince highly touted recruits to bypass their sophomore or junior seasons while waiting for the NFL, that would be the most significant spring football development in 30-plus years.

Can creative rules keep fans interested?

It will not be the players or the better-known coaches attracting fans in Year 1. The XFL’s rule changes need to resonate with viewers. The rebooting league cannot be faulted on this front. XFL 2.0’s kickoffs, PAT system and overtime format will generate more action than the NFL’s rules allow.

Kickoffs are set up to be safer, and Saturday's first kickoff will mark one of the strangest-looking sequences in football history. Kickers will line up at their own 25-yard line while 10 teammates stand at the opposing 35, with the return team’s 10 non-returners positioned five yards away at the 30. With the 20 primary blockers and tacklers frozen until the returner fields the kick, these sequences may become more deliberate run plays disguised as kick returns.

The XFL going with one-, two- or three-point conversions –- and no extra-point kicks –- is obviously preferable to the NFL’s post-touchdown routine. Using a soccer-style shootout route (sans-kicking) from the 5-yard line in overtime will also produce fireworks, only it will be up to the teams’ play-callers to have a host of innovative goal-to-go plays to avoid tedium.

Overlooked amid these more radical changes: timing rules that will decrease the inaction between plays and attempt to provide better half- and game-ending competition. The XFL will use a 25-second play clock, as opposed to the NFL’s 40 seconds. The game clock will not stop after incompletions, but the “comeback period” in the final two minutes of each half will result in stoppages after every play.

These innovations, among others, will either carry or sink the league while distancing it from XFL 1.0’s ridiculousness.

Should the NFL steal the XFL’s replay concept?

No coach’s challenges exist in the XFL rulebook. Putting officiating mistakes in coaches’ hands, a system the USFL created, has always seemed strange. Instead, XFL plays will be subject to booth reviews. Only certain types of plays are reviewable; pass interference is not among them. But XFL games will also feature a sky judge, as the AAF did, with the power to correct egregious mistakes that occur in games’ final five minutes or during OT.

If this runs smoothly, the NFL needs to consider lifting some of the concepts. The country’s most popular league features a system that continually overshadows the product. If the XFL’s replay procedure goes smoother, fans and critics will notice.

How promising is the league’s TV deal?

McMahon and Co. not only secured a better television package than the AAF or the first XFL iteration, the deal outflanks the NHL (in terms of exposure), WNBA and Major League Soccer. The original XFL featured games on NBC but also aired other contests on the United Paramount Network and The Nashville Network (both long-defunct). Despite that McMahon-backed league’s ignominious reputation, networks are diving back in for spring football.

Every XFL game will be televised. The league’s games will air on ABC, Fox, ESPN and Fox Sports 1. Unlike its first season, the league secured four time slots each weekend. Every game will be nationally televised. The XFL’s season will conclude before the NBA playoffs move into high gear, and the March Madness second-round games may be the only threat to dominate the new football league in ratings during a weekend. The AAF's national games did well against regular-season NBA and college basketball early in its season but also aired many of its contests on the lesser-viewed NFL Network.

This XFL season will be a major test of nation’s appetite for its signature sport. Securing these broadcast partnerships represents a major win for the league.

Why are seven teams located in NFL markets?

The XFL has two conferences: Western  (Dallas Renegades, Houston Roughnecks, Los Angeles Wildcats and Seattle Dragons) and Eastern  (DC Defenders, New York Guardians, St. Louis BattleHawks and Tampa Bay Vipers). The only non-NFL city with an XFL team: St. Louis. The other seven are in NFL markets, with three teams – New York, Seattle and Tampa Bay – using NFL stadiums. 

After the AAF focused primarily on mid-sized markets without NFL teams, the XFL using bigger cities with a host of professional teams will be a challenge. Chargers-type struggles will occur. (And good luck to the XFL’s Los Angeles franchise, which certainly will trail even the Bolts for L.A. relevance.) Among major startup football leagues, XFL 2.0 has the highest percentage of teams located in NFL markets.

Luck said the XFL’s big-market vision stemmed from a study indicating those built-in football fan bases would fare better. But those fan bases support decades-long NFL brands, not inaugural spring outfits filled with lesser talent. Competing for fans against NBA, NHL and MLB franchises locally will pose problems.

Can this possibly last? 

The AAF failed to last a season. The UFL, which held its games on various fall non-Sundays, lasted for parts of four seasons -– albeit as mostly a four-team league. The World Football League, a mid-1970s effort that included numerous poached NFL players, lasted only a season and change. The USFL, the most successful of these startups, ran for three seasons before foolishly attempting to move from the spring to the fall for what would have been a fourth season in 1986.

Reportedly worth over $2 billion, McMahon has poured hundreds of millions into this venture. After the first failure, the ever-competitive wrestling magnate will surely want to see this second try last at least into Year 2. But history certainly stacks the odds against the brash billionaire.

Considering the AAF’s fate, McMahon failing again to make spring football happen will probably ensure these leagues disappear for a long time. But it will be entertaining to see this redemption bid attempt to become the outlier.

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