It has been a pretty busy month since the Superbowl for the XFL. Beginning February 7th and running through March 5th we saw half of the new HC/GM positions announced. Dallas, Washington DC, Seattle and Tampa Bay all have their new leaders. And what a dynamic, well versed and respected list so far.
Tailoring the Fit
I could easily list the accomplishments of these men and it would be relevant in this format, but us in this somewhat new XFL community we are making in media/social media have read those over and over this past month, so I will just offer a couple things I found notable or interesting.
All four have ties or history with their respective cities. Bob Stoops in Dallas of course is a legend right up the road in OU country. He mentioned he considers that whole corridor from OU to DFW his home territory. Pep Hamilton has coaching ties to Washington DC, Jim Zorn is a beloved former quarterback in Seattle and Marc Trestman began his coaching career in Florida and has ties to the area.
It has been interesting watching the coaching announcements play out. Almost as good as a weekly game in this building year for us XFL fans already fully engaged. A unique thing about the hiring is the flexibility the XFL can have in fitting coaches in respective cites. Since this is a building year and they are one entity they have some freedom in this regard and are using it to the advantage of not only the individual teams but the league as a whole. I really like what I am seeing in the first half, if you will.
I also noticed and liked how all four new HC/GM thanked and gave a lot of the credit for them accepting the job to commissioner and CEO Oliver Luck. This guy just keeps hitting it out of the park for us in the XFL community. Besides the original thought of bringing back the XFL, Vince McMahon’s hiring of Mr. Luck to be the face and leader of this league may turn out to be the single best decision he makes growing the XFL.
Memorable Post Hiring Interview Quote
Strange maybe, as these press conferences are all about the future, but one of the more memorable quotes that caught my attention at least was more about the past than the future. These four bring such a wealth of experience and different journeys to the XFL, and part of this journey for most coaches includes the occasional firing. In one of his post XFL hiring interviews Marc Trestmen mentioned a quote that really put things like that in a good perspective and I thought was worth mentioning.
“People are in a position to make choices and I respect that. The only thing I can do is learn from it and move on and that's what I intend to do." - marc trestman
What a good way to look at the coaching journey, or many times life in general I suppose. Sometimes you are the guy making the decisions, sometimes you aren’t, respect the process either way.
Pay Structure for Players
More details about the player’s pay were revealed last week. The numbers are out there but I got my breakdown from xflboard.com, and the most notable further detail I see is the Tier 1 players now possibly getting up to 600K per year. I know it is easy to say ‘hey I like that the XFL can pay that much’ but here is why I really like that number. That number for the best XFL players, is not dumb enough to bankrupt the league or drive up false hopes about crazy star power, but it is enough to give a 3rd or 4th string NFL QB a choice. Do I possibly make a little more per year bouncing around the NFL, inactive most of the time, constantly worry about getting cut and moving the family then probably be out of the league in 3 or 4 years. Or do I go to the XFL, be the face of a city/team for 10 years and bank 6 million, plus game win bonuses? You know, assuming the league and player is sustainable, which is what all of us XFL faithful are thinking will be true at this point.
Tier 2 is for the other ‘household’ names as there are only 3 per team and they can go up to 175K per year. Then Tier 3 and 4 are about evenly split (23 to 18 respectively) and range from 50K to 100K per season. Again, I like these ranges for starting the league. You have the middle and upper-middle class levels, being paid enough to live decent while keeping the dream alive. And then the smaller upper-class group, who like some Tier 1 players might be happy making a good living (comparing with the same middle and upper class working folk) for a decade playing the game they love.
Speaking of pay, did you see where Mr. McMahon almost doubled his net worth in one year. That just happened to be the year he announced the return of the XFL, and I didn’t see him do too much more, so maybe that is a good sign. All joking aside I am sure he worked his tail off as always. But could you imagine taking decades to build an empire and increasing your net worth to 1.7 billion dollars, and then in the very next single year you almost double that to 3.2 billion without seemingly altering all that much in your businesses. The guy is a genius and I am glad he is the founder of our league.
+Plus Random Thoughts
Since we are stating up our baby up next year in 2020 we should at least mention the other Spring startup, the AAF or Alliance of American Football. It looks like they have aligned themselves a bit with the NFL and may be more of a feeder league than the XFL wants to be. Which is fine and I am glad to see slightly different philosophies of the two leagues, even with me personally being more in favor with the XFL paradigm.
They appear off to a decent start with some teams having pretty good attendance to start their season and good play. One of the dustups however was the 250 million dollar bailout/investment depending on who you talk to, that happened after only one week. There was a lot of crosstalk between AAF and XFL fans cutting on the deal, but I really don’t think many people in the XFL community want to see another Spring Football Startup fail after one year. But there was a lot of ribbin’ going on. I am glad they got that big investment my only question was why let it leak out that way? You know people would be calling it a “save” or “bailout” if it leaked like that. My guess is Oliver Luck and the XFL would have had a Press Conference and announced it in a very positive way with a little glitz. Or maybe that is just the value of hindsight, which in a way the XFL is partly already seeing due to starting a year later. Lessons Learned.
Even now and then on Twitter, but more than super rare I admit, you hear for people calling for an AAF vs XFL championship game. You never know what might work down the road. I think they both need a few years to get legs under them but who knows. I might be in favor of it if there was no interleague play, with only the respective champs playing one game. And of course the leagues stayed relatively the same level of players. Who knows where this will go, but it sure will be fun to watch.
See you next time, enjoy The Week That Is!
