USA TODAY International Edition
How the XFL revamped the rules of football
Randal Agee was eating after returning from a recruiting visit when he heard about the XFL’s proposed rules – and learned that he had less than a week to help bring them to life.
Agee, running backs coach at Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College, was among the first coaches tasked with implementing the startup league’s tentative rule book in December 2018. He said the Bulldogs learned about the rules on a Sunday, installed a few basic plays and formations on Monday and played a controlled scrimmage on Friday.
“We were the first group to actually try to play with the rules,” Agee recalled, “so ( the challenge was) trying to have an image of what we could do.”
That scrimmage and practices that preceded it were just one part of the months- long process the XFL used to “reimagine” professional football – a process that will culminate Feb. 8, when the eight- team league officially begins with a nationally televised game in Washington, D. C.
Over the past two years, the league has used a combination of focus groups, market research, situational NFL data, in- game testing and conversations with coaches, players and other experts to shape what XFL commissioner Oliver Luck believes will be a faster, more exciting brand of professional football.
“There are some innovations, but we think they make some sense,” Luck told USA TODAY Sports. “And we think they’re grounded in a very sound rationale, whether it’s health and safety or allowing us to play more up- tempo. We think traditional football fans will say, ‘ Hey, these are some pretty good ideas. I kind of like that.’ ”
Luck estimated that “98%” of the XFL’s rules are in line with what fans are accustomed to seeing in the NFL. Though there are, of course, some notable wrinkles: from timing changes, such as a running clock and 25- second play clock, to operational changes like a tiered point- after- touchdown system.
Several other proposed changes were left on the cutting room floor. When Luck sat down more than a year ago for what amounted to a formal brainstorming session with a group of experts, including ex- NFL coaches Jim Caldwell and John Fox, the group essentially started with a blank slate. Some of the ideas that emerged were fairly radical.
“Something like having additional players eligible to catch a pass,” Luck explained. “So what if you could throw a pass to a left tackle without having to check in? Or a center?
“We looked at the idea of eliminating punts. Four- down football. You start to think about those things, and we started to really query coaches: ‘ Hey, Coach Fox, if you couldn’t rely on the punt, how do you think you might coach?’ ”
Many of those ideas fizzled quickly, upon the realization that they would fundamentally alter the nature of the sport. Other possible rule changes – like the halo rule that the Canadian Football League has implemented on punt returns – made it further in the process but also did not make the final cut.
Dean Blandino, the XFL’s head of officiating, said he thinks the most consequential rule change will be the implementation of a 25- second play clock. ( The NFL’s is 40 seconds.) The rule is largely designed to speed up games and keep them within a three- hour window; the league’s research showed that the average NFL game has nearly 17 minutes of inaction, in real time, after incompletions.
“At least at first glance, you go, ‘ Whoa, 25 seconds, that’s pretty quick,’ ” Blandino said. “But when you talk about OK, we have a dedicated ballspotter. We have some built- in time between when the ball- spotter’s going to get the ball at the end of the down and put it down and wind the clock. It really started to make a lot of sense.”
Throughout the process, Luck and his team – including Sam Schwartzstein, the league’s director of football operations – solicited advice from icons like former NFL quarterback Doug Flutie but also players in The Spring League or junior college coaches such as Agee.
Agee remembered one specific conversation he had with Schwartzstein about a proposed rule change that ultimately was not implemented: That offensive linemen start in a two- point stance, rather than a three- point stance, in certain situations.
There’s a fine line between gimmickry and innovation, of course. And many traditionalists will scoff at some of the XFL’s rule changes. But Luck hopes enough fans will give it a chance and come to appreciate the startup league for what it wants to be: Familiar, just with a few sensible twists.
“At the end of the day, it’s a great game,” Luck said. “We just think we can make it a little bit better.”