XFL 2020 Season

[dfwabel]

3 hours ago, Lights Out said:

I'm hoping for the XFL to succeed. The NFL has become greedy and out-of-touch. It could use some competition.

This won't be in competition with either the NFL or NCAA.

 

If you are even a 2* HS player with a lower G5, FCS offer, are you really going to play in this for approx. $60K and basically "grow up" as opposed to...

 

Play for a collegiate team you grew up rooting for, get a cost of living stipend, get "3 hots and a cot", get access to a quality weight room and sports medicine staff, live the collegiate life and develop adult relationships*?

 

*-Going to class or not.

 

These factors are going to be similar to those within these numerous indoor leagues. The younger players, if it becomes 18+, will be one of the following:

Not good enough for NCAA.

Not smart enough for NCAA or JuCo

Possess some other type of "baggage" which will test the character clause.

[nickp91]

if XFL had teams in cities that lost NFL franchises or haven’t had one - San Diego, St Louis, Oakland (with Raiders to Vegas),

[Lights Out]

50 minutes ago, Saint Zephyr III said:

So if they're blatantly and transparently capitalizing on anger over the anthem protests, I take it they're going to go for more conservative big cities right?

 

Jesus Christ, there's going to be a team like the "Cleveland Grit" or the "Birmingham Bootstraps" isn't there?

I think people are really overstating how much the new XFL is banking on the anthem thing. If you look at their marketing so far, it's emphasizing a faster pace of play, player safety, a simplified rulebook, more access behind the scenes and more fan input. For all we know, by the time the league actually launches in 2020, the anthem might not even be a huge controversy anymore.

[Brass]

3 hours ago, Brian in Boston said:

Further, from the looks of things, Vince "Emperor Palpatine" McMahon might not be drawing breath

 

Vince McMahon is immortal, you mark.

[TheOldRoman]

3 hours ago, Ice_Cap said:

Well a few things. 

The first is that Vince seems to be gearing this towards the people who freaked out over NFL players expressing their Constitutional rights by insisting everyone will stand for the anthem. 

 

The players weren't expressing their constitutional rights. The NFL granted them the right to demonstrate on national TV while wearing their emblem, but the league would be entirely within their rights to fine or fire the players for doing so (as determined by the CBA).

 

As for the rest of your post, the safety is the biggest thing. People might want to see "hard nosed football," but there's not really a way to do that without risking concussions at a much higher rate than the NFL. They can't have scrums for possessions and they can't glorify safeties destroying receivers in this day and age. Some fans would dislike it and the media would rightfully destroy them for it. There's a lot of room to clean up the crap of not knowing what a catch is, not knowing what holding is, replays taking 5 minutes, replays reversing calls when there's no evidence to justify it, and so forth. The officiating is getting worse, and there are more and more games each year that leave you infuriated because they end on some arbitrary rule or a blown call. And we can only watch the Patriots benefit from pro-wrestling style officiating so many times. There's a market for "different than the NFL" which has nothing to do with politics.

 

But I don't know how they could make it safer outside of going with padded leather helmets. Maybe they could focus on offense in an arena-type game. No kick-offs, teams get the ball at the 30, maybe replace the punt and come up with something penalizing teams for not going for it on 4th down (not saying it's a good idea). Come up with something different than anything that's done in high school/NCAA/NFL and brand it as "not your daddy's football." Vince has had 17 years to think this over. I have to imagine things are going to be much more thought-out than the last time around. I don't think it's going to be a live action NFL Blitz.

[CubsFanBudMan]

33 minutes ago, TheOldRoman said:

There's a market for "different than the NFL" which has nothing to do with politics.

 

A market that isn't already covered by NCAA football, though?

[Mitch B]

4 hours ago, BringBackTheVet said:

Not sure why so many people want this (and other similar leagues) to fail.  In what way is the success of a second football league a bad thing?

 

I understand that the odds are that it will fail, but the vitriol spewed toward any non-NFL league that starts up just doesn't make a bit of sense to me.

 

I for one was a big USFL fan.  I fondly miss the Philadelphia/Baltimore Stars.  ?? ?⭐️?⭐️?⭐️?⭐️??

[DG_ThenNowForever]

2 hours ago, the admiral said:

Scott Hall did a Tony Montana impression and Vince was like "this is brilliant, how did you come up with such a revolutionary character?" and Razor Ramon was born because Vince doesn't watch movies, TV, or do anything but yell at Pat Patterson about Raw formatting.

 

This is one of my favorite out-of-touch Vince stories, as told by one-time movie star and former WWE writer Freddie Prinze Jr:

 

Quote

"I used to call him Robo-Vince and he goes, 'what does that mean?' because he [has] never seen anything but wrestling. I'm like, 'you've never seen RoboCop? Of course not! You didn't see Scarface or you would have known Razor Ramon is plagiarism!'" Prinze recalled, "I was watching a Richard Pryor set on the sweet WWE jet one time just to kind of unwind and relax. And we're flying back to White Plains [New York] and he literally is like, 'why don't you have on WrestleMania?' I'm like, 'Vince, I just want to laugh' [and McMahon replied] 'well, we have Santino'. I'm like, 'great, I love Santino [but] that's not Richard Pryor!'"

 

Which begs the question: Do you think Vince McMahon has watched football in the last 30 years?

[TheOldRoman]

59 minutes ago, CubsFanBudMan said:

 

A market that isn't already covered by NCAA football, though?

 

Possibly, but 1) tNCAA fandom is still a huge market they could make a lot of money on; and 2) it looks like they're going to play in the Spring, so they wouldn't even need to steal the fans away from college football. The fans could follow both at different times of the year. Also, I think there's a sizeable group of people who don't watch college sports because it's not pro talent.

 

If they do things right (which remains to be seen), they can gain a following among people who are fed up with the NFL, get viewership from NFL/NCAA fans who desire even more football/gambling, and maybe establish themselves as a minor league for the NFL a few years down the road. I have to imagine that's their endgame, because they aren't coming close to competing with the NFL for at least a decade barring some kind of catastrophe from Goodell and co.

[DEAD!]

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

[dfwabel]

40 minutes ago, TheOldRoman said:

 

Possibly, but 1) tNCAA fandom is still a huge market they could make a lot of money on; and 2) it looks like they're going to play in the Spring, so they wouldn't even need to steal the fans away from college football. The fans could follow both at different times of the year. Also, I think there's a sizeable group of people who don't watch college sports because it's not pro talent.

 

If they do things right (which remains to be seen), they can gain a following among people who are fed up with the NFL, get viewership from NFL/NCAA fans who desire even more football/gambling, and maybe establish themselves as a minor league for the NFL a few years down the road. I have to imagine that's their endgame, because they aren't coming close to competing with the NFL for at least a decade barring some kind of catastrophe from Goodell and co.

Going after NCAA fans is a poor try because those people have a DEEP attachment and isn't looking to go elsewhere or with the cost of those tickets now, some of which may still require an additional donation*, don't really possess the disposable income.

 

$hit, the only group which he could try to exploit is the disgruntled NASCAR fan who has stopped buying their tickets.

 

However, Smart Football's Chris Brown brought up a great point and problems:

Coaching.

 

The former XFL staffs were basically NFL and NCAA guys who couldn't get those jobs any longer and most of them were old then. Old as in they were products of the 70's and 80's risk averse, defensive, smash mouth style Vince wanted...and games weren't great. The Galen Hall/Ted Cortrell/Gerry DiNardo et al are the same guys who've been associated with other failed problems attempts since (UFL/FXFL/NAFL/MLFB).

 

I guess Art Briles will have his agent contact Vince by and of business Friday to express his interest. If you bring in him and Bob Stoops, at least you have some recent football minds as opposed to Terry Shea, Buddy Geis ,and Dave Campo

[TheOldRoman]

I'm not saying they should try to steal fans from college football. Their seasons won't overlap, so they don't have to steal fans from college or the NFL.  If they get loyalty from CFB fans who don't really care about the NFL, get a casual following among football fans who would watch anything, and distinguish the league as pro talent (obviously lesser) with a different kind of game, they could make it work.

[BBTV]

5 hours ago, Ice_Cap said:

Well a few things. 

The first is that Vince seems to be gearing this towards the people who freaked out over NFL players expressing their Constitutional rights by insisting everyone will stand for the anthem. He’s essentially stroking and emboldening the worst aspects of sports fandom. 

 

The second big factor is that every non-NFL league since the AFL has failed spectacularly. The XFL 1.0 being the one that failed the hardest. So there’s a bit of a morbid curiosity to see how bad it will go this time.

 

Finally? We don’t even know how dangerous playing football is, but each new study suggests it’s more dangerous than we previously thought. 

Theres an argument that rules changes and complete transparency for informed consent will solve the NFL’s biggest issues in due time, but now this?

If we acknowlege point two above than it seems dangerous to add another league where football players put their mental health on the line, just to appease Vince McMahon’s ego in what’s statistically very likely to be a losing venture.  

 

1. Is he really?  Saying they'll stand for the anthem doesn't really mean he's "gearing" it to that segment of the population.  His association with you know who does lead one to be skeptical of his motives, but that doesn't seem to me to be his main selling point - or even second or third selling point.  Also, as previously pointed out, I'm not sure this falls into the "constitutional rights" area, since everything about the situation is happening in a private event.  Not totall sure though.

 

If he turns this into a league all about 'murica and the military and pandering, then yeah I'll root for it to fail too, but I'm not seeing that - so far.  The second I do, I'm out.

 

2. OK, so I guess I can maybe kinda a little bit but not really get that, but the benefits of success far outweigh the feeling of watching it implode.  HOnestly, the failures aren't really that interesting.  They play, the quality sucks, power fails, etc. etc. etc., then it's just gone.  Did the UFL have a spectacular end?   I don't see this as a good reason to see something fail.

 

3.  So you're just against more football, not necessarily this league.  That's legit - the safety concerns are real, and it takes some giant grapefruits to invest 100M into a sport that's probably not going to exist as we know it in 10 years.  That's more about wanting football to fail (though you still watch it?) not necessarily this league.

 

 

[BBTV]

2 hours ago, Brass said:

 

Vince McMahon is immortal, you mark.

 

When he appeared on RAM25, "Palpatine" was the first thought that came to my mind.  I'm not sure I've seen eyes look that bad in a long time.  I hope that was just piss poor makeup, because man he looked bad even for 72.  I'll give him a pass, because he looked great when he was 52.

[IceCap]

6 minutes ago, BringBackTheVet said:

So you're just against more football, not necessarily this league.  That's legit - the safety concerns are real, and it takes some giant grapefruits to invest 100M into a sport that's probably not going to exist as we know it in 10 years.  That's more about wanting football to fail (though you still watch it?) not necessarily this league.

My issues with football are a bit more complex than wanting it to fail.

I enjoy football, and I want it to get to the point where the risks to the human brain are as mitigated as possible. Ideally? I want to see the NFL fully embrace research into CTE and the effects the game has on the health of its players. I want full transparency. I want the NFL, and every other football league, to adapt its rules to cut down on the amount of unnecessary trauma. At that point? Yeah, it becomes an issue of informed consent.

And at that point? I'm sure more football that takes all of that into account will be a good thing. The problem as I see it is that we're not there yet. And I'm not sure more football at this point- for a league that's almost doomed to failure- is the best thing.

[JerseyJimmy]

4 hours ago, DEAD! said:

I want one of those teams to be called the Chicago Midway Punk.

 

What are you talking about? Who is this "See 'Em Punk" you speak of?

[The_Admiral]

1 hour ago, DG_Now said:

Which begs the question: Do you think Vince McMahon has watched football in the last 30 years?

 

According to Prichard, Vince is nominally a Redskins fan, but doesn't keep up with sports, and didn't know who'd won the last World Series or Super Bowl when he launched the XFL 1.0.

 

Which is weirder: "former WWE writer Freddie Prinze Jr." or "former WCW writer Bob Mould"? I gotta go with Bob Mould. He wrote one of the best songs of the '90s but couldn't write WCW out of its demise.

[GDAWG]

While I don't see this league succeeding, at least it's not a rival baseball league. The XFL could put teams in San Diego, Oakland, NY/NJ, Birmingham, Memphis, St. Louis, San Antonio and Omaha or any other major cities like Honolulu, Oklahoma City, Louisville, Portland, Salt Lake City.  Forming a rival baseball league would have been an even bigger disaster than bringing back the XFL because that rival league would have to find cities and venues willing to join the league and that is unlikely to happen. 

 

Also, it'll be a huge shocker if the XFL does not return with teams in either Birmingham or Memphis.  All Alternative football leagues that have come after the AFL have had one of those two cities (and Las Vegas) among their teams.  Of course, Las Vegas is thrilled to no longer be lumped in with Birmingham and Memphis as "cities where pro football leagues come to die."

[DG_ThenNowForever]

42 minutes ago, the admiral said:

 

According to Prichard, Vince is nominally a Redskins fan, but doesn't keep up with sports, and didn't know who'd won the last World Series or Super Bowl when he launched the XFL 1.0.

 

Which is weirder: "former WWE writer Freddie Prinze Jr." or "former WCW writer Bob Mould"? I gotta go with Bob Mould. He wrote one of the best songs of the '90s but couldn't write WCW out of its demise.

 

When everyone was buying Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness (except for me!) no one though Billy Corgan would turn into this:

 

[Dogeshak]

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?