Vince McMahon is officially moving forward with plans to bring back the XFL, the pro football league he launched in 2001 which lasted for one season. The WWE chairman and CEO made the announcement during a press conference on Thursday.
“The new XFL will kick off in 2020 and quite frankly, we’re going to give the game of football back to fans,” McMahon said. “It’s still football, but it’s football re-imagined.” McMahon also said the league would begin with eight teams, each with a 40-man roster. He added that there would be no crossover of WWE talent into the league and that he would not be the frontman of the new league as he was with the original. He went on to say that XFL games would have a faster pace and his goal was to get them to two hours.
When asked if the league would be distributed on broadcast or streaming, he said, “As we re-imagine the game, we re-imagine the way we distribute the game. It’s going to be a combination of any number of forms of presentation.”
In addition, McMahon stated that the league would be a single entity and would not use the franchise model.
The XFL was originally founded as a joint venture between NBC and the WWE and was comprised of eight teams. The rules differed from NFL football in several respects, including having no opening coin toss. Instead, a player from each team would line up on the 30 yard line and race toward the ball on the 50 yard line. The first player to get a hold of the ball would determine possession. This method infamously resulted in multiple injuries to players before the game had even begun. The league also standardized players’ pay, with bonuses given out to winning teams.
I said on the other article that I would be surprised if a single down was played. I think this is little more than a publicity stunt.
There wasn’t enough interest for the XFL to work in 2001. Since then the NFL has added a team and introduced Thursday night football. So there’s more NFL to satisfy a market which, domestically at least, appears to have peaked. On top of which college football now has a championship playoff soaking up football fans interest.
Regardless of the Guardian’s obsession with relating everything to Trump, I don’t think this is indicative of anything except the fact that McMahon is and always will be a carnival barker