Vince McMahon announces the return of the XFL.
Late last year, speculation mounted that WWE owner Vince McMahon was considering another run at an alternative pro football league to the NFL, much as he did early this century with the innovative, if doomed, XFL. One wrestling observer pointed at Jan. 25 as the day McMahon possibly would unveil his latest endeavor, and sure enough, that’s what happened Thursday afternoon.
“The new XFL will kick off in 2020, and quite frankly, we’re going to give the game of football back to fans,” McMahon, 72, announced during a news conference before taking questions from the media.
McMahon said his new venture will offer a shorter, faster-paced, family friendly and fan-centric game.
“Don’t get me wrong, it’s still football, but it’s professional football reimagined,” he said.
The planned 2020 launch will happen in January of that year, with eight to-be-determined teams, 40-man rosters and a 10game regular season before two playoff semifinals and a championship game. Unlike the original XFL, which ceased operations after one season in 2001, McMahon said there will be no crossover between the single-entity league and WWE.
McMahon said he has wanted to relaunch the original XFL for years and intends to offer a “better football game than what everyone is accustomed to.”
McMahon suggested that launching in two years gives the league “plenty of time to get it right.”
The original league was rushed into existence in 2001 as a joint venture between the WWE and NBC, which spent much of the run-up period marketing the league instead of concentrating on the nuts-and-bolts required of a pro-sports startup, resulting in some decidedly terrible football once the games actually began.
This new XFL will be reborn in an interesting time for football. The NFL’s TV ratings have faltered over the past few seasons for a variety of reasons, from cord-cutting, to attacks from President Donald Trump, the league’s wobbly stance on head injuries and domestic violence, seemingly endless instant-replay challenges, officiating that is seen as inconsistent, at best, and, this past season, player protests during the national anthem. The XFL could attempt to woo those football fans who have turned away from the NFL.
“Vince sees blood in the water,” a source told TMZ.