Jones fits well with XFL’s desire to entertain
A table with an assortment of brightly colored leis welcomed visitors into the TDECU Stadium Club on Monday morning.
The bright green, blue and pink floral necklaces hung around a few spectators’ necks as they gathered in the building for the introduction of the city’s newest football coach.
June Jones is back in town. For now, he is the face of Houston’s newest football venture as head coach and general manager of the XFL team that will begin play in 2020.
If the XFL is going to thrive in Houston, the Hawaiian shirt-clad, offensive-minded Jones is just the guy to make it happen.
Jones is a seasoned coach. He has guided teams in the USFL (Houston Gamblers), in college (Hawaii and SMU), in the NFL (Oilers, Atlanta Falcons and San Diego Chargers) and most recently in the CFL (Hamilton TigerCats.)
He is spirited about coming back to Houston, where he spent several years coaching, and about building a team and winning. The yet-to-be-named team has partnered with UH and will play at TDECU Stadium.
It’s hard to say if the eightteam XFL will be a success. Memories of the Alliance of American Football and its colossal failure — it lasted all of eight weeks before folding in April — are still fresh.
This revamped version of the XFL is selling “reimagined football” — a game that is up-tempo and high-scoring. It wants to create an affordable product and will start next February after the NFL season ends.
The league’s eight markets are good spots to grow fan bases. And with coaches like Bob Stoops in Dallas and Jim Zorn in Seattle, there should be plenty of interest. If the league can bring in players who can drum up even more interest, the XFL could take off.
One of those players, of course, is Johnny Manziel. Jones has been asked a few times whether the quarterback might have a shot in Houston but has ultimately left that decision to the league.
In the XFL’s introductory news conference, league owner Vince McMahon said players who have any sort of criminal record would not be welcome. In a recent Sports Illustrated story, commissioner Oliver Luck said the league’s stance has softened slightly — to not employing players against whom there are credible accusations of felonies or domestic violence.
The league should maintain firm policies when it comes to players who have been mixed up in violent behavior of any kind. It would be refreshing to see a league with clear positions on these issues, which are a continuing problem in other professional sports leagues.
Other names of prospective players that have been thrown around are Tim Tebow and Colin Kaepernick. But Tebow seems pretty focused on his baseball career, and the XFL has a clear stance against national anthem protests, with McMahon stating several times that he doesn’t want social or political issues coming into play in the league.
Next month, the XFL’s general managers will get a chance to see what’s out there when each franchise hosts a showcase with available players. Jones said that part of his job — building a team from scratch — is what he is most excited about.
“I’d like to go get a bunch of 6-4 receivers,” Jones joked. “But I am not sure how many of those are available.”
Jones’ squad, like his previous teams, will throw the ball. A lot. It will be fun football to watch. And he has quite a pool from which to choose: college players who aren’t yet eligible for the NFL, former collegians who didn’t make the NFL and recent NFL players who were waived. There are a lot of quality players out there, and this is another place for them to show their skills.
In addition to searching for talent and creating a new system, Jones is looking forward to the types of players he will be dealing with.
“They will be hungry to prove themselves and to win,” Jones said. “I am excited to be around that.”
There are a lot of questions surrounding XFL 2.0. The league existed for one season in 2001, but McMahon said he learned a lot from that failure and has a new plan this time around.
The league is well-organized, has some traction thanks to hires it has made (Luck has been head of NFL Europe, president of the Houston Dynamo, athletic director at West Virginia and an NCAA executive) and has strong financial backing from McMahon. And it is good that McMahon has taken his time in rolling out the league. The AAF felt rushed. There are challenges.
Fans won’t watch if the quality of play isn’t good enough. And while the XFL is looking at rule options — including a few from the CFL — to help improve the entertainment factor, those could be a turnoff for fans who want a product similar to NFL or NCAA football. It’s a risk to change the game too much.
Additionally, TV games will compete with the NBA and college basketball.
It’s hard to say whether this new league will stick around. But watching Jones give it a shot in Houston will be entertaining.