What a Superbowl week the XFL and Oliver Luck had. With him doing what seemed like a couple dozen interviews with radio stations from every part of the country, promoting the XFL in 2020. Vince McMahon getting Mr. Luck involved a good two years prior to first kick off is allowing him the time to say and do all the right things to build a good foundation for the league to build on.
Radio Row Run
Most of the interview answers us real-time consumers of XFL news had heard before, with no big breaking news per sea and focusing more on the general football audience of Radio Row. But this in no way took anything from them and there were some good bits here and there. It was also good to just hear him making the rounds and getting the word out to the masses via Superbowl’s Radio Row. I think us fans owe Oliver Luck, a bit of gratitude for burning the midnight oil last week to benefit the league. The radio segments were mostly all 10 to 15 minutes long and covered a lot of the same stuff between them as you would expect on rounds like that. So I will mention things he seemed to gravitate to most and a couple more interesting points I heard in maybe only one or two interviews.
Luck focused a lot on letting the listeners know that they wanted to do it right this time and not be rushed or as gimmicky as it was in 2001, with a better overall product on the field. He thinks this is possible by getting good football people in the right places, good capital, having time to prepare and quite frankly the overall play of all football has gone up. College players have increased in skill and knowledge of the game and the NFL’s second tier players have also increased significantly in skill the last couple decades. And 700 of them are out of football and available every year at the cut down from 90 to 53 NFL roster spots. They also want it to be 'family friendly', which includes shooting for around $25 tickets.
Another interesting thing he mentioned during the beginning was the discussion of keeping the XFL name. Some where wondering if they should change it to avoid any bad stereotypes from the past XFL venture in 2001. They ultimately decided there was some brand equity in XFL and kept it. I think this was a good decision, if not a hard one, as like me the original fans would instantly be fans of the new incarnation and the naysayers would still associate it with 2001 because of Vince McMahon owning it anyway. So not much downside and a lot of upside to keeping the XFL name.
Vision and Philosophies
Also mentioned repeatedly was a lot of the reasons why the XFL chose almost all NFL cities, aka ‘good football markets’ was because of a good NFL fan base and season ticket holders that might want more football after the NFL season ends. The only non-NFL city of course is St. Louis, but that is just recently when the Rams moved out a couple three years ago and they left behind a pretty passionate and somewhat scorned fan base, which might in and of itself be good for the XFL. I have read several things about St. Louis fans feeling miffed with how the Rams left town. In cases like that the anger is mostly personal and not directed to the entire sport giving the city the shaft. So those fans might be happy to embrace another professional football team.
Some other philosophies the league mentioned were giving more coaches and players professional football jobs, which in limited cases would include taking players only a year or two out of college and not waiting 3 years as the NFL does. They want the XFL to compliment the NFL but not compete with it. And at the same time be a self-sustaining league and not an NFL developmental league. I think this is a very good view to not be tied to the NFL. Being in even a small deal with them would most certainly come with strings attached. And this way the XFL is free to grow and learn more as they wish, especially in the early stages.
One thing I heard in only one or two interviews was the mention of a “Team 9” which might consist of an entire 45 man roster that practices during the league year as a regular team would, to stay in shape and game-sharp. And this roster could be utilized by any of the 8 teams to pick a backup player from if needed. This could help keep the overall on-field football product at a higher level, which was a problem in 2001 due to player attrition.
As far as game specifics mentioned, we heard about making sure to keep the kickoff but redesigning it and the punt return to be safer. I have often thought of how to do this on kickoffs and wondered if you could start players in groups of 1 or 2 and then in 10, or 20-yard increments down each side of the field. Maybe 3 at line, 2 at 50, 2 at 35 on each side and opposing players matching up. Not sure if it would really work without testing. Mr. Luck may have alluded to something like this mentioning something along the lines of ‘stating them where they end up’. So, we will see how it works out, but I for one am very glad they are planning on keeping the kickoff in some fashion. Punt returns may have the 5-yard halo to help ensure more punt returns. Point after attempts might have options for 1, 2 and even 3 points. And OT rules will be different from both NFL and college.
Looking Forward
We were left with some teases of what might be coming in the next few weeks. Luck said we were a week or so away from a broadcast announcement. He said the XFL wanted to first concentrate on standard TV mediums such as cable to help keep the masses involved, but of course explore the new mediums that were not around in 2001. I am also glad for this viewpoint as I think being on standard TV will help legitimize the league at this time. Other mediums are great and may very well be the future but for now standard cable TV rules the roost on the biggest football broadcasts. He confirmed the games will be played on Saturday and Sunday, similar to the original XFL. Mr. Luck also said that head coaches/GMs should be announced within the next two to three weeks, with many already on-board.
So, all this makes me want to hear more and more even after listening to a few hours of interviews this past week. Should be good stuff going forward. We may have a year to wait for the real games, but for us XFL fans the news this coming year, as it comes out will be fun enough to watch unfold.
+Plus Random thoughts
While I was typing most of this some UTV (side-by-side all-terrain vehicles) racing came on the TV. Now if you are like me you might watch an off-road truck race if it comes on, or not. So, I thought the same things as this side-by-side racing came on and didn’t really pay attention at first. Then I started noticing these machines on this big, up and down flowing, jumpy outdoor track, and they were flying.
Let me tell you why I think this might be the biggest four-wheel off-road racing in the next decade. One, the start and stop acceleration is amazing and can provide much more back and forth racing than the long arcs you usually do with full-sized car and truck racing. The jumps and obstacles can also be more technical, and smaller so you can have more with less risk. In the UTVs you can jump two, then three, then maybe two jumps in a single strait or rhythm section; doing a little bit more technical jumping, even coming up a bit short and bouncing sideways safely. With cars and trucks the jumps must be more flowing, less arc, maybe not as many in a row and very forgiving as when you come up short in a full vehicle you can quickly get sideways a bit too far and not recover. I am sure nothing beats a full-on modified, V-8, 4X4 off-road truck as far as bad@$$ery goes, but those side-by-sides might have something going on besides a novelty. Time will tell.
See you next time, enjoy the week that is.
