I know LOL First Take but they just talked about how Pop Warner announced a decline of 20,000 kids playing football.

Pretty sure that was just a ploy by Vince to get viewers, and then showed a ridiculous comedy skit at halftime.

The first games were also great for things like the fair catch rule being exposed. Every commercial before the league started was "NO FAIR CATCHES!! PEOPLE MAY DIE ON THE FIELD!!" Then early in the first game, someone breaks the five yard halo rule that hadn't been mentioned, and the announcers are just like "oh right, we didn't tell you about that?"

Nope take the schools away and CFB folds near instantly.

wonder if a secondary football league ever will make it. i mean theoretically there's a void there for spring-summer football, and lord knows people have tried, but for a bunch of reasons it hasn't really worked, save for maybe the USFL a little? also the CFL has its niche market and is doing well now i think. does the Arena League make money (edit: quick search concludes not really)? anyway i imagine that people will keep trying, because if you can ever get it to work well, you're printing money.

i guess the biggest thing is that you need some legitimacy, and stability. aside from another league starting up, one thing that might work on some level if is the NFL ran a developmental league in that period for their younger players, UDFAs, etc. unless getting players game-like reps just isn't really worth it and/or people wouldn't bother watching it.

iirc it was a separated shoulder or something as the two guys dove for the ball

and yeah that was for the 1st game, right? bad luck for some stuff like that to happen right away, even if that coin flip race thing was kind of a lol idea

Players getting paid per win is an awesome concept.

Agreed, it's something I would definitely support in the pros and would create a lot greater effort IMO.

Like your gameday check being 100k vs 300k depending on a win or a loss.

It also would keep teams motivated at the end of the year, even if you were 0-12 you'd play like hell.

It would also stop teams that are like 13-1 and clinched the #1 seed from basically throwing their last couple of games

def seems awesome but how does free agency work when players all have huge incentive to go to good teams?

Yeah, the NFL doesn't have guaranteed contracts and one injury can send you into retirement - I find myself thinking that the effort is just not there among NFL players.

and I really want to see my MVP QB getting his ACL shredded in week 17 against the Jags after already locking up HFA throughout the playoffs.

I thought players could get away with hitting the quarterback a lot more in that league. Also, didn't some of the early rules (which were eventually changed) make it harder to throw the ball? I thought the earliest games weren't that interesting because the games didn't have enough scoring. How many casual fans want to watch a game with a score that's something like 13-7?

I just looked it up. The XFL started with this rule and eliminated it later.

http://corporate.wwe.com/news/2001/2001_01_16.jsp


http://m.sportsbusinessdaily.com/Dai...-Up-Game.aspx?

That rule made the games more boring IMO and when they got rid of it, the league was already doomed.

Another mistake the league made is they had much
shorter training camps/preseason/etc. compared to the NFL which made the play look uglier at the beginning of the season.

How to guarantee a new XFL will succeed.

College football has a lot more scoring, which makes it more exciting IMO in spite of the fact that defenses look bad. It was too hard to throw the ball in the first few weeks in the XFL.

Even the NFL seems to have realized this because the rules in the NFL are more favorable to the passing game than ever before.

I think the bump and run rule in some ways put the XFL behind its time. NFL football was more exciting in 2000 than it was 30 years earlier.

There's no illegal contact in college, the quarterbacks suck compared to the pros, and yet they score tons of points. College DBs must really, really suck.

The NFL is like a $9b operation and it's sweating long-term legal complications for health problems caused by the game. The XFL actively marketed themselves as a more violent football league and the litigation costs alone would likely have done them in before long.

For all of its faults the NFL is still a good product. Then college ball for a ton of people who like that. HS ball is still the biggest thing in lots of small towns. Pretty crowded football market. Seems like a small league would have a better shot outside of the US.

separated shoulder out for season

The American Football League did pretty well, reaching a point where its good teams were comparable with the NFL's good teams (with the AFL teams winning two out of the first four Super Bowls).

I actually think getting star power at QB should be far and away the #1 priority of a 2nd tier football league. Imagine a 12 team league with these starting QBs:

Tebow
Jamarcus
Manziel(assuming he can't make it as NFL starter)
Sanchez
Favre
McNabb
Gabbert
Weeden
V Young
Leinart
Grossman
Ponder


Who here wouldn't want to watch that?

That's what America has been waiting for, 50 year Brandon Weeden squaring off against 50 year old Brett Favre

Grossman vs Ponder would be must see TV!

Xfl?

I thought it was a good idea until I watched the first game. After that I found watching reruns of All in the Family more entertaining

He Hate Me needs to be brought back in some form.

Maybe Richard Sherman of the Seahawks can wear that jersey.

Somewhat related to this: Does anyone here know a lot about boxing in its heyday? Writers love comparing the NFL and pro boxing and claiming the violence killed boxing's widespread popularity. I've never been sure if that was accurate or just fitting a narrative.

Violence didn't kill boxing, lots of things did.

The rise of UFC.

The fact there are like 8 different sanctioning organizations all handing out their own championships.

The fact that lots of great athletes who would have gone into boxing are now choosing to go into other sports (football, basketball).

The fact that it's still a very dirty sport with outright fixed matches.