Neck injury forces Wood, Bills’ center, to retirement

Buffalo Bills center and respected leader Eric Wood revealed that a debilitating neck injury has left him with no choice but to retire after nine NFL seasons.

Wood, 31, said the injury was discovered during his season-ending physical and that he no longer would be cleared to play, even with surgery or further treatment.

The team’s second-longest active tenured player, Wood signed a two-year contract extension last summer that ran through 2019.

A Louisville product, Wood was drafted with the second of Buffalo’s two first-round picks in 2009. He’s started since his rookie season and appeared in 120 games. words — and there’s every reason to believe XFL2 will meet a similar fate.

But a spring football league, done the right way, could work.

And, no, we’re not kidding around. The United States Football League came up with the most feasible concept back in the 1980s, only to crumble after just three seasons because of out-of-control spending and a suicidal push by owners such as Donald Trump to compete directly against the NFL.

But the USFL might still be around today if it had stuck to its original concept, which was to serve as more of a complement to the NFL than a direct competitor.

The timing is ripe for another attempt.

While the economy is booming and football remains the nation’s most popular sport, the NFL is contending with shrinking TV ratings, empty seats and a lingering debate over players kneeling during the national anthem to protest social injustice. For the first time in decades, there are actually some cracks in the league’s armor.

Clearly, those issues figured into Mcmahon’s planned re-launch of the XFL in 2020 .

“As far as this league is concerned, it will have nothing to do with politics, nothing to do with social issues,” he said.

Good football likely will be the fatal flaw in Mcmahon’s new venture, just as it was for the original XFL.

But an updated version of the USFL concept would have a real chance at succeeding during the spring and summer.

Here are a few ideas:

Start with 10 or 12 teams, split between major NFL cities such as New York, Chicago and Los Angeles; those that have lost teams (San Diego, St. Louis and soon-to-be Oakland); and untapped markets with big league stadiums (San Antonio comes to mind).

Restrict ownership to those who not only have deep pockets, but are totally committed to the concept (i.e., not simply trying to turn their investment into a merger with the NFL).

Don’t get into a bidding war with the NFL over players. Focus heavily on scouting and development, which means pursuing lower-level pros who might thrive in a bigger role and college stars projected to go in the later rounds of the NFL draft.

Line up a traditional TV deal to provide financial stability, perhaps some combination of a major network and a newer, sports-themed cable outlet such as NBCSN or Fox Sports 1.

In essence, follow the model laid out by the late David Dixon, the

New Orleans businessman whose longtime push for an out-of-season league finally came to fruition with the launch of the USFL in 1983.

Looking back, that first season was a rousing success in many ways. The Denver Gold averaged more than 41,000 fans. Overall attendance was roughly in line with the hoped-for 25,000 per game. TV ratings on ABC and then-fledgling ESPN actually exceeded projections. The quality of play was solid.

But the seeds of the USFL’S downfall were already in motion. When the New Jersey Generals skirted the salary cap to lure Heisman Trophy winner Herschel Walker away from Georgia, it only led more teams to dole out big bucks in pursuit of stars. That, in turn, led to huge financial losses. Dixon wisely walked away after that inaugural season.