Ok...Round two of this whole "minor league football" ordeal. 4TH & CINCY staff is ready to move on from our last side piece in the deceiptful liar called the AAF. To be honest this new interest is a little sexier. Also, her dad is Vince Mcmahon, total badass. Her name is XFL and she is ready to rock our world in 2020.
As you can tell by the photos above this is also round two for the XFL itself. Back in 2001 the original league which included ridiculous story lines and crazy rules was born and died just that quick. With players sporting nicknames like "He Hate Me" and "Deathblow" on the back of their jerseys it was more like the WWE (which Vince is the brain of) than football. For you youngins that do not remember it was quite the show. We use the term show purposefully due to the pretty much fake nature of the game and league. But now the league has gotten a makeover and has decided its time to go out on the town again strutting her stuff. The black and red mean machine stile of the past has evolved into a professional red, white and blue logo. The website houses professional descriptions of each city and what the XFL wishes to bring to them. Vince threw on a tie and understands that his 100 year chain smoker voice cannot be the voice and face of the league olaying that responsibility to League Commissioner Oliver Luck. Overall it has the recipe for what could be a success.
The promotion so far has been to the tune of professional, fast paced play with safety at the forefront of each stakeholders mind. Rule changes are being tested in "The Spring League" as we speak. The Spring League is a developmental short term four game showcase for players to attempt to impress NFL, CFL and now XFL scouts. Rule changes include things like the following...
- A five yard halo around a punt returner before he touches the ball. No fair catches.
- No three point stances for O-Linemen.
- Extra points do not exist and you may attempt a scrimmage play with a correlating point value based on which yard line you elect to go from.
- Kickoff and Kick return teams will be located what sounds like in the middle of the field only five yards apart and cannot cross the "neutral zone" until the ball is fielded by the returner. Sounds like prime shit talking moments will occur here.
- 25-35 second play clock to quicken the pace of the game plus a possible running clock overall.
- A Specialized ball judge will be added to the officiating crew.
- All review replays will only be 30 seconds long meaning the stripes don't have all the time in the world to screw up a call.
These all sound well and good but we will have to wait and see them real time to judge. We imagine that more rule changes will come down the pipe as time goes on and The Spring League tests them out. The goal of the XFL is to deliver football the way fans actually want to see it. They want to leave the political bull shit that has plagued the NFL over the last three to four years and just deliver good football and that sounds refreshing.
The cities that have signed on so far are, Washington D.C., Dallas, Tampa Bay, Los Angeles, St. Louis, Houston, Seattle, and of course... New York. Ohio has not jumped in for the 2020 season but if it is successful who knows, maybe the league expands. No team names, logos or uniforms have been released as of now but it is exciting to think we will have a crop of new teams to watch play ball. All locations are major cities, many of which already have a professional team within them or very close to them so throwing another professional football team into the mix will be interesting. We saw how it played out in the scumbag organization that was the AAF and we have much higher hopes here as all promotion that has dropped looks incredible. All of the cities seem to have the corporate side of football down pact having hired their owners and general managers. The potential for fan bases in these cities is great as well. If you look at places like St. Louis who had its beating heart ripped from its chest after losing the Rams organization to L.A. It all adds up! Major markets who have the silent (our loud) groups who are sick of the NFL. Hell it could be fans of the NFL that just want year round football, us included.
Another crazy change with the XFL is that Vince Mcmahon and the XFL talking heads have made it explicitly clear that they want nothing to do with the NFL nor do they want to become a farm league for them in the future. They have made it crystal that this is not out of dislike for the NFL nor do they wish to speak ill of the other league but simply want to compliment it. They fully understand that in year one you cannot compete with them.
“The new XFL will kick off in 2020, and quite frankly, we’re going to give the game of football back to fans,” McMahon, is on record as stating. “Don’t get me wrong: It’s still football, but it’s professional football re imagined,”
“We don’t compete with the NFL,” Oliver Luck, XFL Commissioner said at an XFL press conference. “I don’t think anybody competes with the NFL. I love the NFL. It’s a juggernaut, it’s an awesome league, I was proud to be a player way back in the day, I’m proud my son can play in the league. We have great relationships with both the league office and the local teams in the markets we’re in. So we want to be a complement. We want to stay away from politics. We want to play good football, make it family affordable, keep it relatively simple, a fun day out at the ballpark, the stadium, and try to stay away as best we can from all the other issues. You’ll never hear me say a bad word about the National Football League.”
These are all huge changes from the 2001 shit show that Mcmahon delivered to us. It would seem that we have a professional organization growing before our eyes that truly wants to deliver a fun, affordable and entertaining product. Like we eluded to in the top of this giant run on sentence of a blog post the XFL is all dressed up and looks pretty damn good. Like we always say though.. only time will tell.
WHODEY
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