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XFL coming back?

Discussion in 'Football: NFL, College, High School' started by Two Sandwiches, Dec 16, 2017.

  1. HillBoy

    HillBoy Contributing Member

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    Agree. This is simply another Vince McMahon ego trip.
     
  2. TheRealist137

    TheRealist137 Member

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    McMahon would be wise to cancel the XFL now. This new league has better leadership and more resources. XFL is destined to fail...again.
     
  3. jdh008

    jdh008 Member

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    Probably the worst thing that could have happened for the XFL.

    Vince chose to focus on things like standing for the anthem, excluding players with sketchy pasts, and avoiding politics. Those are all hot-button issues and the types of things that you focus on if you're trying to win the press conference, as the saying goes. But I don't think they're the things you focus on when trying to put together a successful football league. They might garner some initial buzz for the league, but eventually, the focus will be on the product on the field, and I suspect that it's going to look just like the NFL, only not as good. And that, to me, is an unsustainable business model. I just don't think you can succeed trying to be NFL Light.

    This new league, meanwhile, is focusing on the types of things that I think can make a difference and help establish a dedicated fanbase like keeping games short and speeding up the pace of play, both pain points with the NFL and potential differentiators from the NFL. They also have the benefit of debuting a year earlier, which is huge. They'll have the chance to establish proof of concept, and even if the first season doesn't go well, from an XFL standpoint, I actually think that makes it less likely they'll succeed. If the first rival league doesn't attract eyeballs out of the gate, why would fans then pay attention to the other league a year later?
     
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  4. Dairy Ashford

    Dairy Ashford Member

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    I don't think any of the leagues will survive; Houston had a team and won the first championship in the Regional Football League, that thing was evaporated once the XFL got on the ground and neither was sustainable. I believe McMahon is doing this because subconsciously I think he believes Trump's election has elevated his stature, similar to his wife now running the SBA after failing in that Connecticut senate race. WWE's survival and ascension after the early '90s is certainly impressive, but McMahon's personal tackiness just shines through outside of his comfort zone and will once again be the product people and the press are indirectly evaluating here. The NFL's only real competition was the AFL, and only because the NFL failed to meaningfully expand outside of the Rust Belt and Mid-Atlantic in time, and the AFL had two oil and gas guys subsidizing some of the less solvent franchises.
     
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  5. Cannonball

    Cannonball Contributing Member

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    Houston made it to the championship game but they actually lost to the team from Alabama.
     
  6. Dairy Ashford

    Dairy Ashford Member

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    Thanks, I remember checking those updates in the Moody Towers computer lab on some pre-iMac Apples, I guess I didn't retain that last part.
     
  7. plutoblue11

    plutoblue11 Member

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    I think they could get good players for the 'right' price...I think the teams need to have individual owners, as well.
     
  8. plutoblue11

    plutoblue11 Member

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    If that rule applied to WWF/WWE, during the 80s, 90s, and 2000s, can you think how many superstars would've been out of the Federation.
     
  9. Commodore

    Commodore Contributing Member

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  10. juicystream

    juicystream Contributing Member

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    I'd think they would mostly avoid NFL cities, though some people did love the Gamblers.

    I'd think Austin/San Antonio (though AAFL is in SA) would make more sense. Definitely try Oakland to take advantage of the Raiders leaving.

    There is no way for both the AAFL & XFL to survive. I really wanted the original XFL to make it, and it had the potential. McMahon did a great job with marketing the excitement, but he ultimately destroyed the league by rushing it and being a poor business partner (he clearly wanted total control).
     
  11. jdh008

    jdh008 Member

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    A few weeks ago in Half Price Books, I flipped through a book that was published a few years after the XFL folded. It was essentially a blow-by-blow of the only season of the league's existence. I can't remember the name of the book or the author for the life of me, but anyway, there were some self-infliced wounds in the league that the book mentioned that I didn't even know about. I was old enough to be watching the league at the time, but not quite old enough to really be all that cognizant of how ridiculous it really was.

    For example, the author talked a lot about how the XFL was so enamored of the idea of combining football and wrestling-type storylines that they had Jesse Ventura (who was serving as the color analyst for games) openly antagonize Rusty Tillman, the head coach of the New York/New Jersey team. He criticized his coaching up in the booth repeatedly, and then when Tillman (understandably) didn't show much interest in speaking with him, Ventura went out of his way to say that Tillman was intimidated by him. Meanwhile, at least the way it read, Tillman wasn't really in on the bit, which I imagine made it pretty awkward.

    I had also kind of forgotten that they shoehorned Jerry Lawler into the broadcast booth for a while, even though The King wasn't a football guy.

    In hindsight, it was 100% the kind of move you make when you think everything you touch will turn to gold, and I think that's what Vince McMahon felt. WWE was flying high and it hadn't been that long ago that he had vanquished his biggest rival, WCW. I think he just thought that his involvement and the WWE brand would be enough.
     
  12. Commodore

    Commodore Contributing Member

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  13. Kam

    Kam Contributing Member

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    The rumored 8 teams include Dallas, Los Angeles, New York, St Louis, Seattle, Tampa Bay ... and



    Houston.
     
  14. solid

    solid Contributing Member

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    It is a bad time to start a pro football team in Houston with the Texans riding high.
     
  15. gucci888

    gucci888 Contributing Member

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  16. jdh008

    jdh008 Member

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    I didn't watch any of the games, but it seemed like there was a lot of positive buzz about the AAF's debut last night.

    I mentioned it earlier in this thread, but it bears repeating. I think the AAF is focusing on things that will actually differentiate itself from the NFL product, and to me, that's how you break through as a springtime football league. The games will move faster, they've gotten rid of things that bog down the game, like extra points, and I think the fact that they're willing to get weird on the rules is a big selling point. NFL rule changes are a huge offseason topic every single year. Before, we've just had to discuss them hypothetically, but now we'll essentially get to see many of those proposed rule changes played out in front of us in the AAF. Overtime rules and eliminating kickoffs have been two such topics of late, and the AAF is giving us a different overtime structure and has eliminated kickoffs. Even if those rule changes don't go over well, people will want to watch to see how they play out, and that's a win for the AAF.

    If the AAF season goes well from start to finish, I just think it may be hard for the XFL to break through, especially since their league, to this point anyway, looks more like just a lesser version of the NFL and not a fun derivative of the game that gives you something different. Getting Bob Stoops on board to coach a team is a big deal, no doubt, but are people more likely to watch games just because a big-name coach is on the sideline? Maybe, but I'm not so sure.
     
  17. solid

    solid Contributing Member

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    The AAF's first game outdrew the Rockets/Thunder game in prime time. That is big.
     
  18. TheRealist137

    TheRealist137 Member

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    Saw highlights. It looked pretty entertaining. It looked like regular football which I like. The XFL tried too hard with gimmicky things. The XFL is in massive trouble. I can see the AAF lasting though.
     

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