By one freaking point!!! 
There are massive differences between today’s XFL and the first two incarnations, which are why I think it not only has a chance, but a pretty good one.
Remember the first one? Vince McMahon creating an rebel football league out of spite against the “soft” NFL, grabbing whatever 5th-rate castoffs he could, introducing brilliant innovations like no fair catches and fighting for opening possession (which would’ve caused a medical crisis if this thing survived), and never missing a chance to strut or thumb his nose? All the allegedly fun stuff like overendowed cheerleaders and cornball skits? And inside access to the locker room where we learned that XFL coaches were just as capable of spewing out tired cliches as any other? McMahon made it a point to tick off pretty much everyone who had any involvement with the NFL, and they were giddy as the ratings dropped week by week. With garbage players enacting the garbage ideas of a garbage owner, it was doomed to never make it past one season, and in hindsight it was impressive it lasted that long.
Remember the second one? Vinny Mac had two purposes for it, to suck up to President Trump and to worship the national anthem to stick it to Colin Kaepernick. Yeah. Well, guess what, this thing takes a bit longer to get organized than he thought, and in the meantime Trump loses the election and Kaepernick moves on with his life. Oops. While Covid was certainly the death blow, I had no reason to believe a league resurrected out of pure spite run by an increasingly zero-craps-given geezer would’ve lasted any longer than it did the first time.
Now we have Dwayne Johnson, and say what you will about him, he has a brain in his head and knows how to make a big idea work. (I loved The Titan Games. 
) He understands that he needs to make friends, not enemies, and you can feel this positive vibe every time he talks about the league. The players know the game and give it their all. The officials may actually be more competent than in the NFL. There are no foolish illusions about competing with or supplanting the NFL. No outlaw nonsense, no “real man” procedures that’ll result in horrifying injuries, no skits, no BS. It’s purpose is to give more football to fans who want to watch more football and players who want to play more football, no more, no less. Ironically, it may have gotten an unexpected boost from Covid, because the prevailing narrative (from what I’ve heard, anyway) was that the second incarnation was doing great and would have succeeded if not for a one-in-a-billion disaster. There are a lot of people who thinks this should work and want it to work, and that’s why it has a real chance.
I’ve watched parts of a few games. I don’t like the excessive emphasis on gambling (When did “betting after the start of the game” become a thing?), and the continuous chatter from all parties got a tiny bit annoying, but otherwise I saw a lot of clean, energetic sport. No obnoxious gamesmanship, no ugly fights, no egregiously horrible calls, no anger, no bitterness. I honestly can’t find anything bad to say about this league, and that may be my biggest compliment of all.
That has always been a thing. Bookies just adjust odds based on the state of the game.
Chris Smith was a DE for the Seattleh Sea Dragons when he passed away.
In 2019 his girlfriend was hit and killed by a drunk driver right in front of him, just weeks after giving birth to their daughter. His family has dealt with a lot. 