The potential for a professional football league to carve out a niche as an alternative to the NFL has been explored a number of times. From the long-lasting but recently-shuttered Arena Football League, to the short-lived, unabashed failure that was the Alliance of American Football last year, there seems to be an endless line of wealth funding leagues that purport to create a new brand of football. The 2020 iteration of the XFL, however, might just have the makings of a success.
For starters, the brand has taken every opportunity to distance itself from the 2001 league of the same name. That league, the brain-child of WWE chairman and CEO Vince McMahon, barely resembled football. McMahon envisioned a perfect fusion of the sport with the flashiness and presentation of his native form of entertainment: professional wrestling. It didn’t work. Almost none of it worked. Ratings and attendance tanked after opening week, and the league saw itself grasping desperately for eyes with publicity stunts, such as promising an inside look into the cheerleaders’ locker room.
While that league utilized some innovations in presentation that would later be adopted by the NFL, such as sky cams, the league is remembered best for one player, Rod “He Hate Me” Smart. That shows just how much of an unequivocal failure the league’s only season was, and so the 2020 version’s propensity for denouncing its 2001 counterpart is understandable.
This XFL has looked to innovate in search of a different goal: rather than make the game flashier and harder-hitting, the league has sought to make it timelier and more exciting. The most visible change to the speed of the game comes as a result of a shorter play clock. Teams have 25 seconds to call and begin a play, as opposed to the 40 seconds given to NFL teams. Other rules intended to speed up the game include keeping the game clock running at all times until the last two minutes of a half, and the allotment of two timeouts per team each half.
The innovations from the league in play style also have the potential to be hits. Double forward passes have produced exciting trick play attempts, and the system for extra points has made it so that a touchdown and extra point could net a team anywhere from seven to nine points. This change has altered the dynamic of obtaining leads and has satisfied fans.
Through the first two weekends of games, it appears to be too early to tell if the league has lasting ability. A fantastic first week of ratings was followed by an expected drop-off in week two, making the league’s ability to retain fans through week three crucial. Time will tell if football fans have finally found a lasting spring football league, or if the XFL reboot will fall to the same fate as its earlier counterpart.
Photo courtesy of Scott Taetsch
