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XFL 2020 Season


ozzyman314

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2 hours ago, DEAD! said:

How about a team in Omaha? I'm sure Peyton Manning would vouch for that.

 

As much as I'd like it, unless that team is called the University of Nebraska Cornhuskers, it won't garner enough support to sustain itself.  As someone else pointed out, they need to find markets where there is a "need" for football that isn't already served by existing NCAAF teams.  Omaha has had trouble supporting the Beef (Arena) and Nighthawks (UFL) so I wouldn't think an XFL team would do well.  Happy to be proven wrong, though.

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5th in NAT. TITLES  |  2nd in CONF. TITLES  |  5th in HEISMAN |  7th in DRAFTS |  8th in ALL-AMER  |  7th in WINS  |  4th in BOWLS |  1st in SELLOUTS  |  1st GAMEDAY SIGN

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30 minutes ago, dorshak said:

Would Toronto and Mexico City be good places to put teams or would that ruin the All-American, Patriotic, Don't Tread on Me, Guns Blazing potential appeal of XFL?

There's nowhere for them to play in Toronto. Rogers Centre is a no-go now, and there's no way the Argos or MLSE lets the XFL into B-MO.

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I'm actually excited to see how this develops. If they can make enough rule changes to separate it from NCAAF/NFL, it may gather enough steam to last more than one season.  I'd rather see them be a different kind of football like the CFL (110 yards, 3 downs, etc) than just minor tweaks like the one foot/two feet catch differences between NCAAF/NFL.

 

One thing I always liked about arena leagues was the loose restrictions on men in motion before the snap.  You'd have three receivers sprinting towards the line so once they snapped, the WRs were already 10-15 yards downfield.  Stuff like that could make the XFL different enough to be interesting.

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5th in NAT. TITLES  |  2nd in CONF. TITLES  |  5th in HEISMAN |  7th in DRAFTS |  8th in ALL-AMER  |  7th in WINS  |  4th in BOWLS |  1st in SELLOUTS  |  1st GAMEDAY SIGN

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11 minutes ago, GDAWG said:

I find the 2020 launch date for XFL 2.0 coincidental because after that 2020 XFL season is done, comes the arrival of the final year of the current NFL Collective Bargaining Agreement.

Means little as the league year and the start of a possible (who am I kidding, likely) lockout will fall in the middle of the 2021 XFL season.

 

Plus, NFL TV contacts are through 2022, so if your a free agent, the pay cut is too drastic to think about jumping over.

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The UFL tried timing its launch to match up with the end of the NFL CBA and anticipated labor strife. Guess how that turned out.

On 1/25/2013 at 1:53 PM, 'Atom said:

For all the bird de lis haters I think the bird de lis isnt supposed to be a pelican and a fleur de lis I think its just a fleur de lis with a pelicans head. Thats what it looks like to me. Also the flair around the tip of the beak is just flair that fleur de lis have sometimes source I am from NOLA.

PotD: 10/19/07, 08/25/08, 07/22/10, 08/13/10, 04/15/11, 05/19/11, 01/02/12, and 01/05/12.

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I can understand why there will never be another rival league in baseball, but I don't really get why there keep being attempts to form a rival league in football.  The only rival league to have been successful against the NFL at all was the AFL of the 1960's.  Vince's ego won't allow this league to be an NFL Developmental league, despite the fact that I think the NFL needs one badly.

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1 hour ago, GDAWG said:

I can understand why there will never be another rival league in baseball, but I don't really get why there keep being attempts to form a rival league in football.  The only rival league to have been successful against the NFL at all was the AFL of the 1960's.  Vince's ego won't allow this league to be an NFL Developmental league, despite the fact that I think the NFL needs one badly.

And the AAFC which had three of its members join the NFL as part of its dissolution (not a full merger).

 

The AFL everyone knows and loves is the third AFL. First two didn't last long. The AAFC entered the fray back when the west coast was still wide open. There were plenty of places to put teams. Hell, the AAFC Cleveland Browns actually caused the DEFENDING NFL CHAMPION Cleveland Rams to move to Los Angeles.

 

The 50s were peaceful, but the 60s saw the AFL come in and compete in the major markets with the explosion of television. You had available venues (football at baseball stadiums was exceedingly common, and the multi-use stadiums such as Shea, and the other 'cookie-cutters') that wanted tenants (where the NFL team wasn't an exclusive tenant usually), and it wasn't a high threshold to compete with NFL.

 

By the 70s, you had the WFL. Which was a mismanaged fly-by-night type league. It never seriously had a chance because most of its markets were already full of teams. Open spots are few and far between.

 

USFL ran into this, too. Arizona, Oklahoma, Jacksonville, Orlando, etc. But they had big money behind them. But that big money wasn't content to stay small time for long. Had they 'stayed the course' and not grossly overpaid for players, they might have survived until some pestering of the NFL brought forth an agreement between the two or absorption and paying off teams they didn't want.

 

WLAF was NFL backed, and a mockery of football. Though the Day-glo Orlando Thunder are always a fun throwback identity.

 

After NFL expansion in 2002 back to Houston. There really isn't a ton of available markets that don't have major league sports to compete directly with in the late winter/spring or the NFL team in general to compete for overall football dollars and time by fans.

 

The one thing the new XFL can benefit from is that the cord-cutters out there are going to be hurting places like ESPN that put in big money. Live sports still sells, but in 4-5 years, they may have grossly overextended themselves. XFL is going to be 'next generation' distribution. Streaming, possibly free to anyone with advertisements built into the broadcast. Vince's theory of a 2-hour game only works if TV timeout are minimal. THink more 'picture-in-picture, field logos/signage, announcer callouts, etc.

 

Plus, the theory of 'multiple broadcasts of the same game' is novel, so you can cater to different bases. From the 15-second attention span adolescent crowd to the armchair quarterback wanting pure Xs and Os discussion. Integrated fantasy league. Able to make changes during the game on which players you play, etc. And if legal wagering is allowed (NBA is in favor), you could see XFL throwing themselves out as the first to be fully integrated into real-time prop betting and game-flow wagering you see in Europe. When ESPN says a team has a "85% chance of winning" at some point in a game? You might be able to wager right from the tablet, phone, or PC that you're viewing to place a bet they'll win or lose.

 

This may never happen if the sports gambling laws aren't changed, but if they are, they're setting themselves up to go all-in. But, until then, single day fantasy teams? That will be integrated.

 

XFL just needs to get right the one thing XFL 1.0 failed. And that was forming cohesive teams before you throw them out in front of the cameras. The sad thing was, for those watching the second half of the season. It was pretty decent football. But those first two weeks were dreadful. Between the LV/NYNJ game to open the season and then the LA/CHI game that should have cemented the league as exciting.... had a power outage to their truck and probably many people that tuned out never came back. Because the Week 1 to Week 2 viewership numbers didn't tank. It was by Week 4 that reached numbers that... TODAY, would still be sought after by cable networks.

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You guys keep saying “rival”. There’s been no indication that this league is designed to compete with the nfl. It’s just a supplemental league. 

 

Unless Vince loses his mind, or is willing to lose his fortune. 

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47 minutes ago, BringBackTheVet said:

You guys keep saying “rival”. There’s been no indication that this league is designed to compete with the nfl. It’s just a supplemental league. 

 

Unless Vince loses his mind, or is willing to lose his fortune. 

 

In fairness, that's always my operating assumption with Vince. ;) 

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I remember watching the first XFL game.  It was certainly an odd experience.  I'm still a LV Outlaws fan and love the interlocking LV logo.  I remember reading that the identities wouldn't carry over so while i'm sad the Birmingham Bolts with their unique helmet design or the weirdly detailed SF Demons logo won't come about, it'll be interesting to see what comes out of all this.

 

If anything, I think this could work as an alternative league.  The name alone has generated buzz more than the UFL/Spring League/FXFL/whatever other failed league has attempted to make the same impact.  This already has interest.  People are going to buy into it because of the original attempt.  It was so publicly shown that people know of it.  Yes it failed but obviously something worked because people still remember the XFL. 

 

Vince needs to be cautious with this.  Take the right steps and don't try to alienate anyone.  Just play the game the way people expect it to be played and you will draw people in.  Many people have stated that the later half of the season was good football.  Build on that.  Build identities that people want that isn't too button-pushing.  The fact it isn't associated with WWE and being run by a separate company is a great start already.  It could succeed and be a decent spring alternative that works in conjunction with the NFL. 

 

 

I can't believe the XFL is back

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Think about some of the NFL's best Cinderella stories like Tom Brady getting drafted in the 407th round or Kurt Warner bagging groceries at a Hy-Vee.  If not for a few lucky breaks, we'd never have had Terrific Tom or Warner's run with STL and then taking the Cardinals back to the SB late in his career.

 

There is absolutely a need for an NFL development league.  They tried with NFL Europa which was never wildly successful.  Especially for positions like QB, I'd rather see a college kid take meaningful snaps with an XFL team than to ride the pine as the 3rd stringer for the Browns.  Certain players could really benefit from the extra play and coaching and you'd probably see more stories of guys like Brady or Warner rising through the ranks to stardom.

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5th in NAT. TITLES  |  2nd in CONF. TITLES  |  5th in HEISMAN |  7th in DRAFTS |  8th in ALL-AMER  |  7th in WINS  |  4th in BOWLS |  1st in SELLOUTS  |  1st GAMEDAY SIGN

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This isn't directly related to XFL but I learned something really interesting this morning.

 

Some of the World Football League's games back in 1974 were evidently broadcast on... HBO.  I always envisioned HBO as being an ideal destination for a pro football league under the right circumstances; turns out, they'd already done it.

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6 hours ago, BringBackTheVet said:

You guys keep saying “rival”. There’s been no indication that this league is designed to compete with the nfl. It’s just a supplemental league. 

 

Unless Vince loses his mind, or is willing to lose his fortune. 

Vince’s ego won’t let the XFL stay as a “supplemental” league, even if they do find some stability in that niche.

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13 hours ago, Ice_Cap said:

There's nowhere for them to play in Toronto. Rogers Centre is a no-go now, and there's no way the Argos or MLSE lets the XFL into B-MO.

Maybe Lamport? :P

GTA United(USA) 2015 + 2016 USA Champions/Toronto Maroons (ULL)2014, 2015 + 2022 Gait Cup Champions/Toronto Northmen (TNFF)

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56 minutes ago, Mac the Knife said:

This isn't directly related to XFL but I learned something really interesting this morning.

 

Some of the World Football League's games back in 1974 were evidently broadcast on... HBO.  I always envisioned HBO as being an ideal destination for a pro football league under the right circumstances; turns out, they'd already done it.

I have a feeling Facebook, Twitter or YouTube Red could be where Vince is looking to start their games off. With a run time of 2 hours he may be looking to follow soccer's current trend of having sponsors appear on the score bug.  He even mentioned tossing halftimes out if that's something fans wanted to have happen. The one thing I wouldn't want to see is the quarters cut down to 12 minutes or something like that.  With head coaches reported to be receiving $750,000 it will be interesting to see what the players and other members of the coaching staff will be getting. This should help get competent head coaches rather than a few dinosaurs that are on their way to pasture. this si the only true threat to college and NFL football since a younger coordinator will like the opportunity to take his shot at a head coaching gig. 

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1 hour ago, Mac the Knife said:

This isn't directly related to XFL but I learned something really interesting this morning.

 

Some of the World Football League's games back in 1974 were evidently broadcast on... HBO.  I always envisioned HBO as being an ideal destination for a pro football league under the right circumstances; turns out, they'd already done it.

 

WFL on HBO? Interesting. I wonder how many cities actually got HBO around that time.


Also, I wonder if Monday Night Football had went to Hughes in 1970 and fizzled out, would that have left ABC open to hop on the WFL bandwagon?

 

For those who had DirecTV in 1995, they had the WLAF on tape delay on weeknights late at night.

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I think those five cities mentioned would be great choices. However, Memphis and St. Louis are pretty close, when you consider it will probably be an 8-team league. Portland, Oregon needs to be considered as well.

 

I will watch any football league that's not the NFL. 

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