The XFL is coming back, but not until 2020. There are still plenty of details to be worked out before the football league is back and running once again.
The original XFL, a professional American football league that played for one season, was founded in 1999 by Vince McMahon and was meant to build on the success of the WWE as well as the NFL. The “X” in XFL was originally meant to stand for “Extreme,” but another league had that name, so McMahon made clear that the “X” didn’t actually stand for anything. The league was designed as an eight-team, “rules-light” league, and would play from February through April, when NFL, college, and CFL football were in the off-season.
The league’s inaugural (and only) season was in 2001 and the initial game drew high ratings on NBC.
But after the first game the ratings took a nosedive due to a number of reasons, the main one being questions over whether the games were rigged because of McMahon’s hand in the WWE. Citing low viewership, NBC pulled out of the contract after the first season of play.
Two secondary networks were still willing to air the league, but due to one network’s unfavorable demands caused for McMahon to cease the league’s existence. McMahon referred to the project as a whole as “a colossal failure.”
That brings us to today, January 25, the day the XFL has been confirmed for relaunch in 2020. Now obviously with the way the first go around went what’s to say this time will be any different?
McMahon held a press conference at 3 p.m. EST to announce the commencement of the league set for 2020 while taking calls from publications such as ESPN and the New York Post.
If the press conference is any indication of how the XFL is going to go, it won’t be smooth. The conference felt rushed comma and many of the callers asked similar if not the same questions. It all happened on Periscope, with the publications calling in to ask McMahon questions.
Fortunately, there were a few good questions that McMahon answered for the 118,000 viewers that watched.
There are no talks in the works with any major network to broadcast the games but McMahon claims there is interest. So who will broadcast the games? It’s up in the air?
The biggest draw from McMahon to start the XFL back up for a second time is that this is going to be a no politics league, but other than that the details are still cloudy.
When asked if President Trump would endorse the league McMahon made it clear that the XFL would be a “no politics” league. McMahon confirmed there would be a set of rules in place that players would be expected to follow during the playing of the National Anthem.
Now this has to rule out Collin Kaepernick right? Wrong.
“If he adheres to the set in place rules he will be able to play,” McMahon said.
The likelihood Kaepernick would abide by the rules and step away from his stance on social justice is slim. More than likely Kaepernick is too deep into his cause to turn around now.
So who are the players McMahon is looking for?
“Well I think this, that one of the things that I said was the quality of the human being is very important and just as important as the quality of the player, what I mean by that is you want someone who does not have any criminality whatsoever associating with them,” said McMahon.
“If you have a DUI, you will not play in the XFL,” McMahon said.
This should rule out Johnny Manziel, as he has had a DUI. We shouldn’t rule him out entirely though, as McMahon’s stance could change.
Manziel showed his interest in the XFL in this tweet, prior to finding out he was ineligible.
So who is the XFL targeting for talent to kick-start their league? The only other player McMahon has hinted at is former Florida Gators’ Heisman winner, Tim Tebow.
Tebow has already made the jump from football to baseball and is playing minor league baseball for the NY Mets farm team the St. Lucie Mets. Tebow’s newfound love of baseball makes it not all too promising he would even be willing to return to the gridiron. Tebow’s last time playing football at a professional level was with the New York Jets in 2012 where he started in a measly two games.
The league already has $100 million in funding and the number is growing and will continue to grow, according to McMahon. He also clarified he will be the single entity owning the league’s eight teams, so you have to wonder what kind of pay these players will be getting and whether it will be enough for the high-paced action McMahon plans to implement for the game.
McMahon is undecided about where the eight teams will be located.
“We are way away from announcing cities. We are doing research as far as cities concern,” McMahon said. “We’re going to go where fans want us to go. Where there is more interest, and of course there is a lot of factors,” McMahon continued.
Fans will have to wait and see how things evolve as 2020 approaches. Hopefully everything doesn’t X-plode as it did the first time.
