By AILEEN BURKE
Executive Editor
Hardcore football fans were devastated when the Alliance for American Football announced that they had folded before the end of their first season. People were interested in being able to follow their favorite sport long after the regular National Football League season had ended, and loved the promise of the interactive nature of the new league.
Although the Alliance is now long gone, the XFL, or the Xtreme Football League, has announced the names of their teams. The return of this league run by Vince McMahon through a more personal LLC, Alpha Entertainment, is highly anticipated, especially since they no longer have to compete with the Alliance. McMahon is an interesting sports figure himself; he is a longtime affiliate of the World Wrestling Entertainment, or WWE, which has significant ties to the history of this league. The evolution of this minor league is interesting for fans of any sport to read up on.
The XFL is the long-deceased football minor league that plans on resurrecting itself in 2020, since its initial season in the early 2000’s. The original league fell victim to its dependence on existing in the ‘attitude era’ of sports based in professional wrestling, but it seems as though they might have learned from their mistakes, the mistakes of the AAF, and where the National Football League seems to be lacking in the eyes of the fans. This new incarnation of the XFL will stand with more rules and less open violence than the original form of the league, which advertised themselves as a place for ‘real’ football, according to many websites that possess old school XFL content.The biggest flaw with the original league was their rather obvious connection to the 50 percent owner, the WWE.
The Dallas Renegades, the Houston Roughnecks, Los Angeles Wildcats, New York Guardians, St. Louis Battlehawks, Seattle Dragons, Tampa Bay Vipers, and the Washington D.C. Defenders will compete in a 10 game season once the new league commences next year. Each team was strategically selected to play in big cities, some wherein football fans might feel as though they are underserved by other leagues including the NFL.
Each team, according to the League, has 45 players on their roster. Team rosters are deep, and the competition will be deeper. A point of comparison; there is much less comparative publicity for the members of the XFL rosters. A significant selling point for the Alliance and it’s fans was the level of talent that they were able to sign on to each team, and the promise that some of these players were given a ‘second chance’ at getting noticed to play in or get drafted by the NFL.
Rules for the XFL will look similar to that of the defunct Alliance, with a shorter field, less time outs, and a focus from the league on the importance of the fans and what they are looking for in their consumption of American football. The main goal of the 2020 XFL is to speed up the time that it takes to play a complete game; the speed is a major bone of contention that football fans have with the NFL.
This league will still stand as an alternative to traditional American football, just as the NFL postseason ends in early February with Super Bowl LIV. Although the 2020 XFL will be drastically different than the original, what really matters now is the blossoming league’s ability to outlive their ill-fated counterpart, the AAF.
Fans can look for the totally unnecessary, but rather anticipated revival of the XFL on ESPN syndicates and FOX; the 2020 XFL will not on NBC where they were originally housed in its former life.
