I didn’t really think about NFL retreads or second/third stringers.
But yeah, I suspect it’ll be something of a disaster- just what IS the draw to the XFL? I have yet to hear how they plan to positively differentiate themselves from the NFL and gain fans- it seems to be based on some kind of “common knowledge” that there’s this vast legion of fans who will preferentially watch garbage football in the off season instead of watching some other top league sport like major league baseball or NBA basketball during that part of the year.
I’m not sure why it would be garbage football. College football is pretty exciting, and most teams have only one or two players that will ever be good enough for the NFL.
I’m not sold on the concept yet, but I’ll keep an open mind.
…and, if you ask me, also the biggest thing going against it. WFL? USFL? XFL 1.0? WALF/NFL Europa? I think all of them made it quite clear that nobody is really interested in spring or summer football, unless you count college “spring football” scrimmages, and even then, pretty much only in the south.
McMahon needs to make two things quite clear from the start:
One - This. Is. Not. Anywhere. Near. NFL. Quality.
Two - This. Is. Not. Professional. Wrestling. He forgot this the first time, and audiences quickly dwindled as the WWE fan base realized there would be no crossover and the football fan base couldn’t shake the fact that there might still be a link. IIRC, one game made history as the first nationally broadcast TV show that couldn’t draw even a 0.05 rating.
So much of a sports league is history and legitimacy, though. People show up in droves to see the Buckeyes or the Crimson Tide because they have for generations, and because NCAA football has been a brand for generations. A sports league matters because it matters. This year’s championship matters because there was a championship last year, and the years before, and because of the assumption there will be one next year.
The XFL lacks that legitimacy, but even worse, ANY upstart football league now has a sort of anti-legitimacy, because “Upstart New Football League” is becoming a punchline. Footballs fans know about the USFL, the WFL, the AAF, and hell, the XFL. Any upstart league will be instantly put on a death watch; I wonder how long THIS joke will last?, everyone thinks.
I thought the AAF was decent. I watched a handful of games and enjoyed them. The talent isn’t at the NFL level honestly, but it doesn’t have to be in order to have good games, as long as the teams that are competing are at similar levels. As was stated before, it’s a big like watching an NCAA team play; that’s not NFL quality but it’s still enjoyable.
The AAF didn’t last an entire season because they clearly had no good business plan from the start. I’m not saying that the XFL is guaranteed to do better but I have a feeling they will. Not that it’s saying much; it’s hard to do worse…
I don’t disagree, but there’s no way this would compete with the NFL during their season. The best thing going for it may not be enough to make a difference.
One - He means to provide appropriate production quality, something missing from the first go round. As for the quality of the football, no one imagines it could be at that level, he just imagines there’s a market for something in the off season. I’m as skeptical as anyone about that.
Two - He intends to make that very clear this time. In the first go round he repeated a mistake he’s made before in believing wrestling fans would watch one of his non-wrestling ventures, they didn’t, and then on top of that he dissuaded anyone who didn’t want to see anything like wrestling. So this time he’s going to be serious about the football, no wrestling type gimmickry at all, except it’s kind of too late since he’s using the same name for the league and people will just associate with the WWE and the XFL 1.0 anyway.
I don’t see a good chance for even the first two years supposedly already financed to succeed.
Honestly, the only thing IMO, that could save the XFL is if it could somehow get official sanction as the NFL’s developmental league, rather than as a competitor. Even then, it’s not a done deal.
I do think the NFL could stand an off-season developmental league- quite a few high-caliber players came out of the NFL Europe/World League when it functioned in that capacity. It could also serve as more than a player incubator; it could be a d-league for rules changes, referee training, coach training, etc… And perhaps develop NFL interest in smaller markets- people might follow favorite players once they make it to the big league.
I feel like the XFL season starts too soon after the NFL season ends. After the Super Bowl, my first thought is not “I can’t wait to watch more football!” This is the equivalent of me just finishing a great steak dinner and someone tries to give me a Big Mac while I’m still sitting at a table.
Plus, they’re going to be competing directly with the Final Four.
Eh, I remember there were a bunch of headlines about AAF players being signed to the NFL in the off-season, but did any of them survive the final cuts? Pretty much all of these players already had a chance to get into the NFL.
They’re starting at the same time that the AAF did last year (i.e., the XFL’s Week 1 will be the weekend immediately after the Super Bowl); the AAF explictly said that they did, in fact, think that they would be filling a fan desire for more football in that time frame. (Whether that’s a real thing, or whether football fans are burned out by then, is another question. )
But, the more obvious truth is that, after the Super Bowl, there aren’t any big sports events going on in February – the NBA and the NHL are just past their halfway points, MLB spring training hasn’t started yet, and nor has the NCAA basketball tournament. So, at least they potentially have a few weeks to gain some viewers/fans, which they can hope to hang onto once March and April roll around.
MLB is looking to scale down its minor league system. I don’t see how going the opposite way and introducing one helps the NFL. It already has a development league - college football.
There certainly are some players who could use a bit more seasoning out of college, but very few are going to make that leap up to the NFL from there. Coaches would rather develop players themselves. It could be a good place for veterans, especially ones cut/sidelined due to injury, to show they still have something to contribute, though.
I have no clue where the idea NFL Europe generated several top quality players comes from. It really didn’t. The best it managed were some kickers and 3rd stringers. Oh, and some decent to very good TV announcers cut their teeth there.
The old USFL did produce some top notch NFL talent, but it was not a development league - it was a direct competitor that eventually folded. And it competed and got top veteran and college talent by offering up more money than the NFL. I believe it was something like 30-50% on average, even for rookies (though Steve Young ended up getting a monstrously big contract for the era). As it turns out, the league was unsustainable, but that was a reasonable plan - get top talent to validate the league as a serious competitor.
Actually, I found this article, with the top 10 players to come out of NFL Europe, and it surprised me – I’d thought it was Kurt Warner and Adam Vinatieri, and a bunch of scrubs. But, to that list, one can add James Harrison, Jake Delhomme, Brad Johnson, David Akers, Dante Hall, and Jon Kitna. Plus Terry Crews.
Those are the best 10 too; it wasn’t like there weren’t others- Jay Fiedler, Shaun Hill, and Fred Jackson are some other notable players who were NFL Europe players.
My point wasn’t so much that the NFL needs a d-league, but more that being affiliated with the NFL as a d-league might give the XFL the cachet it needs to succeed, because without it, it’s going to be viewed as a second-rate product, and suffer in competition to the entrenched spring sports like baseball and basketball.
I remember Shaun Hill when he was a backup on the Rams. And Fred Jackson was a really good running back and teammate of Marshawn Lynch on both the Bills and Seahawks. I didn’t realize those guys played in Europe.
I’m ready because I’m sick of a penalty flag on almost every damn play of the game. Couple that with Instant Replay and the commercial breaks, and it takes 3 1/2 hours to watch 60 minutes of football.
MNF last night had 4 total flags all game. It was so refreshing. Officiating wasn’t perfect; there were three bad calls that were reversed by challenges and seemed obvious during live play. But that was a very physical game between two of the top NFC teams in prime time and it was beautiful to not see ticky-tack flags tossed around left and right. If only all games could be like that in the NFL.
After watching some of the XFL, I feel fairly certain in saying it is doomed. It isn’t like that is earth shattering news or anything.
There was a chance for it to work if the football was high enough quality but it looks like low to mid level college football - not good enough to make it work.
Yeah, there was some on late at night at my favorite sports bar. I assume it was a repeat broadcast of a game. It was weird, I know in the lull of summer some of the regional sports networks will show repeats of college football to fill up airtime and gear up for the upcoming season. I was thinking. ‘Why are they Northern Illinois vs Ball State in early February?’ Then I realized it was the XFL and that’s about the level of the football.
I don’t want football one week after the super bowl. Everything has a season
As a St. Louisan I wanted to see how our return to pro football would look. It looked sloppy, not at all fast-paced, and not even on a par with top college games. Since I’m not a rabid football fan, I think I’ll put the XFL back on the shelf for a few weeks and come back in midseason to see if the Battlehawks have improved.
)