Octopus Overlords

WWE founder and chairman Vince McMahon announced Thursday he is giving a professional football league another go.

It will be called the XFL, the same name of the league McMahon and NBC tried for one season in 2001, but it won't rely on flashy cheerleaders and antics as its predecessor did, he said.

McMahon said he is the sole funding source for the league, which is slated to begin in January 2020. Its first season will have eight teams around the country playing a 10-week schedule. The initial outlay of money is expected to be around $100 million, the same amount of WWE stock McMahon sold last month and funneled into Alpha Entertainment, the company he founded for the project.
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McMahon told reporters on Thursday afternoon that he has had no initial talks with media entities.

One mark of the new league, McMahon said, will be faster games. The ideal running time, he said, would be two hours.
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McMahon said players in his league will not be given the forum to take a personal stance while on the playing field.
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"People don't want social and political issues coming into play when they are trying to be entertained," McMahon said. "We want someone who wants to take a knee to do their version of that on their personal time."
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McMahon said being the only owner of all of the teams will allow him to do whatever he wants.

"I can say, 'Here are the rules, and as long as you are playing football in the stadium for us, you follow these rules.'"

McMahon also said he would preclude any player with a criminal record.
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"You want someone who does not have any criminality associated whatsoever with them. Even if you have a DUI you will not play in the XFL," McMahon told reporters. "So that will probably eliminate some of them. Not all of them. If Tim Tebow wants to play, he can very well play."

but it won't rely on flashy cheerleaders

Jaddison wrote: ↑Sat Jan 27, 2018 4:47 pm No criminal record? No DUI I am assuming also means no misdemeanor pot busts either. Interesting position coming from the man who ran WWF/WWE, I wonder if steroids will be okay for his new XFL

msduncan wrote: ↑Sat Jan 27, 2018 10:20 pm I actually think WWE would be the EXACT direction I would go if I were him. LOTS of people watch WWE. It's a soap opera for rednecks, and it works. They should have semi-scripted games, conflicts, etc. I mean we already have two products for serious football (College and NFL). We don't need another. We need one that is sheer entertainment only.

Jaddison wrote: ↑Sun Jan 28, 2018 11:55 am you know what we don't have is compelling soccer that brings in lots of viewers unless it is World Cup time.

RunningMn9 wrote:The problem is that the product itself will be terrible. Teams full of marginal football players will be marginal. And having one owner, how would anyone trust the competitive nature of the game?

This is marketing bullshit and will fail. The only thing (IMO) that might have a chance at succeeding is an off-season development league for younger players that need time to develop. And even that has been tried and failed multiple times.


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Jaddison wrote: ↑Sun Jan 28, 2018 11:55 am

msduncan wrote: ↑Sat Jan 27, 2018 10:20 pm I actually think WWE would be the EXACT direction I would go if I were him. LOTS of people watch WWE. It's a soap opera for rednecks, and it works. They should have semi-scripted games, conflicts, etc. I mean we already have two products for serious football (College and NFL). We don't need another. We need one that is sheer entertainment only.

you know what we don't have is compelling soccer that brings in lots of viewers unless it is World Cup time. Combat soccer or some such with scripted stuff. Just need to change the rules to make it more rough and tumble......or maybe cross soccer with hurling and rugby.

Clearly he thinks that the no drugs, no social statements will resonate with enough people they will spend their $s to support it but I am not so sure this will be the case.

msduncan wrote: ↑Sun Jan 28, 2018 5:55 pm

Jaddison wrote: ↑Sun Jan 28, 2018 11:55 am

msduncan wrote: ↑Sat Jan 27, 2018 10:20 pm I actually think WWE would be the EXACT direction I would go if I were him. LOTS of people watch WWE. It's a soap opera for rednecks, and it works. They should have semi-scripted games, conflicts, etc. I mean we already have two products for serious football (College and NFL). We don't need another. We need one that is sheer entertainment only.

you know what we don't have is compelling soccer that brings in lots of viewers unless it is World Cup time. Combat soccer or some such with scripted stuff. Just need to change the rules to make it more rough and tumble......or maybe cross soccer with hurling and rugby.

Clearly he thinks that the no drugs, no social statements will resonate with enough people they will spend their $s to support it but I am not so sure this will be the case.

That's because it's soccer....

EvilHomer3k wrote: ↑Fri Jan 26, 2018 10:10 pm

but it won't rely on flashy cheerleaders

Lets not go crazy, here.

It could be good. I like the lack of antics. I also like them keeping politics out of the game (assuming they allow that outside of the game). Any criminal record at all (including OWI) seems harsh but it doesn't really bother me. I'm sure I'll check it out. Hopefully they'll have a midwest team.

RunningMn9 wrote: ↑Sun Jan 28, 2018 2:21 pmAnd having one owner, how would anyone trust the competitive nature of the game?

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El Guapo wrote: ↑Mon Jan 29, 2018 12:05 pm

EvilHomer3k wrote: ↑Fri Jan 26, 2018 10:10 pm

but it won't rely on flashy cheerleaders

Lets not go crazy, here.

It could be good. I like the lack of antics. I also like them keeping politics out of the game (assuming they allow that outside of the game). Any criminal record at all (including OWI) seems harsh but it doesn't really bother me. I'm sure I'll check it out. Hopefully they'll have a midwest team.

It's not keeping politics out of the game, though, it's just setting up the league under Trumpian politics.

That's the story in a nutsehll of the XFL, the professional football league dreamed up by professional wrestling mogul Vince McMahon that lasted for all of one season in the early aughts. It was style over substance, flair over football. And now, nearly two decades after it flopped, McMahon has announced the league's resurrection, promising a "family-friendly" version of football where players will stand for the national anthem.
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His league is hardly going to challenge the NFL for American football supremacy, but it might help the NFL get better. After all, that's what the first iteration of the XFL did.

Don't believe it? When you're watching the opening kickoff of next Sunday's Super Bowl, take a moment to appreciate the camera angle being used. Nearly every kickoff, field goal, punt, and replay in every NFL game is shown via the so-called SkyCam, a camera suspended over the field on a set of wires, giving the audience a low-flying bird's eye view. In many ways it's a better perspective on the game than you get from the traditional sideline camera, and it gives the TV audience a better view of the players than what the fans sitting in the front row get.

And for that, you can thank McMahon. The SkyCam is probably the most longlasting contribution the former XFL made to the game of professional football, or at least to how we watch it. That camera angle is now a staple of NFL broadcasts. The league even used it as the main camera angle for one Thursday night game this season, to mixed reviews.

Even when a single entity dominates a marketplace like the NFL has dominated the market for American professional football for five decades—the NFL, which has a special exemption from federal antitrust laws, has become the epitome of a corporate monopoly—it must continuously evolve to stay on top. Often, those evolutions come from the absorption of ideas pioneered by smaller firms trying to gain a toehold in the market. Even failures, such as the XFL, provide fodder for improvement of other products. Creative destruction needs bad ideas as much as good ones.

hitbyambulance wrote: ↑Mon Jan 29, 2018 4:28 pm what we really need:

mori wrote: ↑Sat Feb 08, 2020 9:05 pm Not a gridiron fan but there are some improvements such as, speed up play and kicking rules. And I like the thought that no game should last longer than 2 hours. Goddamn that should be etched in stone in all American sport.

The XFL’s debut game drew 3.3 million viewers.

ABC announced that number today and added that the viewership peaked at the end of the broadcast, which is a good sign that the game kept fans interested.

Jeff V wrote: ↑Mon Feb 10, 2020 8:35 pm Apparently our city is too small a market to warrant a local team, so no interest here.

Isgrimnur wrote: ↑Mon Feb 10, 2020 8:45 pm

Jeff V wrote: ↑Mon Feb 10, 2020 8:35 pm Apparently our city is too small a market to warrant a local team, so no interest here.

DFW got the practice squad.

You have three different rugby unions/leagues.

Isgrimnur wrote: ↑Mon Feb 10, 2020 9:18 pm Chicago Lions

Chicago Griffins

Chicago Swans Australian football