And Just When You Thought Football Season Was Over – In Walks the XFL

There is a new football league in town that starts this weekend to nicely bridge that gap between football and March Madness.

Basic info:

• Debuts February 8^th
• Runs for 10 weeks with no bye week. The 11^th week will be a playoff between the top 2 teams each the East and West with the Championship game the following week (April 26^th).  March Madness doesn’t start until 3/17 so let this bridge the gap for a while.
• Owner: Alpha Entertainment (Vince McMahon)
• HQ: Stamford, CT (same as ESPN)
• TV partners: ESPN and ABC
• This is technically XFL 2.0 as the first one was owned by WWE and NBC back in 2001 and ran for 1 season. McMahon ran it back in 2001 as well but back then they attempted to be in direct competition with the NFL. And the estimated losses were ~$35MM to both partners.

Sound familiar?

This isn’t the only new league to launch in the sport. The Alliance of American Football (“AAF”) launched in Feb. 2019 by Charlie Ebersol (son of one of the original partners in the XFL OG). This league failed and was suspended in April of 2019.  There are many theories on why this league failed but most stemming from the rush to launch before the XFL (teams didn’t have a lot of time to practice which led to not great football at the beginning and trying to speed up processes with the NFL and NFLPA). The XFL has taken longer to have its first season and thus should have more of a chance at survival.

The Teams:

• West
  • Dallas Renegades
    • HC: Bob Stoops (former OU HC)
  • Houston Roughnecks
    • HC: June Jones (former Hawaii, SMU and Falcons HC)
  • LA Wildcats
    • HC: Winston Moss (NFL player for 10 years and assistant HC of Packers for 9 years)
  • Seattle Dragons
    • HC: Jim Zorn (former starting QB for Seahawks for 8 seasons)

•  East
  • DC Defenders
    • HC: Pep Hamilton (held various coaching jobs at 12 different NFL and college teams before taking this job)
  • NY Guardians
    • HC: Kevin Gilbride (20 years coaching in NFL with 2 Super Bowl rings with the Giants as OC)
  • Louis Battlehawks
    • HC: Jonathan Hayes (played TE in the NFL from 85-96 then coached Bengals TEs from 03-18)
  • Tampa Bay Vipers
    • HC: Marc Trestman (coached in NFL/CFL since 1985 at various teams with various positions)
• Team 9 is a combo of a farm team and practice squad that holds 40 people at a time but not a kicker, punter or long snapper.

So this isn’t college football or NFL, then who is playing?

52 players (per team roster) who didn’t make the NFL or another league, but they can be picked up by other leagues. Players will be employed for $2,725/week with half being guaranteed. Starting QBs can make up to $495k but average QBs are more around $125k. These figures were announced when most teams signed their QBs in late 2019.

The XFL is also not limited by the 3 year out of high school rule that the NFL has. So you could see some of your favorite players from the 2019 season but these players will be analyzed on a case-by-case basis according to the commissioner.

Colin Kaepernick going to join?

Not likely as political gestures are banned from this league.

Johnny Manziel?

No, although his name was in the initial draft pool. Coaches and the commissioner have said that they have the best players outside the NFL but in my opinion, they don’t want the drama that seems to follow Manziel in this start up league.

Some names you might recognize?

• QB/RB Quinton Flowers – Vipers (@SpotTheBall_9)
  • South Florida QB
• QB Cardale Jones – Defenders
  • Led Ohio State to a natty in his 3^rd career start in college
• QB Landry Jones – Renegades  (@LandryJones12)
  • Oklahoma QB back with his Oklahoma coach
• RB Kenneth Farrow – Dragons (@KennethMFarrow)
  • Over 3000 rushing yards at Houston then 2 teams in NFL (injury plagued) and played in the AAF
• WR Jazz Ferguson – Renegades
  • LSU failed drug test then joined FCS before playing for Seahawks
• DE Kony Ealy – Roughnecks
  • Drafted 2^nd round in 2014 NFL draft then stints at 4 teams but with little playing time – time to prove them wrong Kony!
• CB Jamar Summers – Guardians
  • UConn, brief stint in NFL then a star in the AAF with 3 interceptions in their short season
• LB Scooby Wright – Defenders (@TwoStarScoob)
  • Won Nagurski Trophy, Lombardi Award, Bednarik Award and even some Heisman votes in 2014 at Arizona and hasn’t done anything since
• P Marquette King – Battlehawks (@MarquetteKing)
  • All Pro in the NFL, spent some time with the Raiders and Broncos

I don’t like regular football, why would I like this?

The league has made some of changes from the NFL and NCAAF. These games are estimated to be a lot shorter with only a 10 minute halftime, 2 one-minute timeouts per half, a 25 second play clock (compared to the current 40 second) and having the game clock begin when the ball is spotted on incomplete passes and out of bounds plays (outside the final 2 minutes of each half).

Other rule changes your bf will be seriously impressed you know – hey he may not even know!

• Kickoffs
  • Kicks should be between the 20 yard line and the endzone. If a kick falls short of the 20 yard line then it gets a penalty and the opposing team starts at the 45 yard line. If the ball goes into the endzone it is a ‘major’ touchback and is placed at the 35 yard line. If the kick bounces into the endzone, the ball will be placed at the 15 yard line.
  • No players but the kicker and receiver can move until the ball is caught or has been on the ground for 3 seconds. Opposing players are started only 5 yards from each other to avoid high speed collisions.
  • No surprise onside kicks – the team must warn the officials that they intend to do so.
    • NFL/NCAAF rule: Teams kick off from the 35 and (NCAAF) places a touchback at the 25 yard line -or- (NFL) places a touchback at the 40 yard line.
• PATs
  • After  TD, the scoring team could go for an offensive play from the 2, 5 or 10 yard line for 1, 2 or 3 points respectively. No kicking allowed!
  • If the defense gets a turnover and runs the ball back to the endzone then they score the amount of points the other team would have gotten for a successful play.
    • NFL/NCAAF rule: 1 point for successful kick between the uprights or 2 points for a successful offensive play (aka ‘a 2 point conversion’)
• Punts
  • Punting team cannot cross the line of scrimmage until the ball is kicked, making it less likely that the other team will call for a fair catch and get a substantial run.
  • If the ball goes out of bounds (“OB”) then the ball is placed at the 35 yard line as a ‘Major’ touchback or if the ball went OB before the 35, then wherever the ball went OB – whichever is better for the defense.
  • Instead of punting, XFL teams are encouraged to go for it on 4th down.
    • NFL/NCAAF rule: Some players are released to run downfield when the ball is snapped (not when the ball is kicked) to tackle the receiver. If ball goes out of bounds, it is place at the spot of OB.
• Double-Forward Pass
  • 2 forward passes are allowed as long as the first pass is completed behind the line of scrimmage. This allows for more of those ‘double pass’ plays that are always so exciting!
    • NFL/NCAAF rule: 1 pass is allowed per play – if there is going to be multiple passes, then one has to be backwards and behind the line of scrimmage

For the full rules, see their website’s rules page.

For those of you who pray for a shootout in hockey or soccer…

You’re going to love the XFL’s OT setup…..

Each team gets 5 1-play possessions from the 5 yard line (which if you remember from the PAT discussion was worth 2 points each). Teams will alternate who is on offense until one team is eliminated. Defenses cannot score in OT format.

If it is still tied after the 5 rounds, then play goes to single rounds until one team takes it home and the other fails.

Fantasy football is such a big part of the NFL, will there be fantasy for this league?

Great question! ESPN signed a deal with Caesars for their sports-book info and the owner of the XFL has a minority stake in DraftKings (sorry FanDuel) so there will likely be some seriously collaboration in the future. But for now, its TBD until more states open up the ban on sports betting.