The entire premise of the XFL was that the NFL had become too wussified, too politically correct, and all around too not-fun.

The XFL, would have a harder edge, no celebration penalities, taunting allowed and encouraged, nicknames on jerseys, much less strict rules about physical contact, etc.

Well, this was back in 2000 and despite a seemingly promising start and backing from a major network, the XFL spectacularly fell apart like a house of cards and folded after just 1 season.

It's clear that if anything the NFL has continued down the watering down the game path at an exponential rate since then.

As crazy and futile as "taking on" the NFL sounds, if the NFL continues down the current road of de-physicalizing the game, removing kickoffs, making it so you can't breath on a QB or a WR, etc. wouldn't the appeal of a hardcore football league be much greater than it was back in 2000? Obviously not as a replacement, but maybe as a small, but successful niche alternative?

Would the XFL done better in 10 years back (in 1990) or 10 years forward (2010)? Maybe it was an idea that was just put into practice too late. Then again, I guess player safety wasn't nearly the concern it is today in 2000, but I think people were at least more cognizant of it in 2000 than in a year such as 1990.

It seems hard to believe that a league like that would be able to run effectively in 2013 for legal reasons.

Only good thing I recall coming from the XFL was the camera on wires suspended behind the play which has now become pretty standard in college and NFL. Was there anything else that came from it?

The trouble is, where's the money for a small, niche alternative?

The problem the XFL had was quite simple: the football was not entertaining. A lot of people watched that first game, thought 'this sucks', and the ratings plummeted. You can gussy things up with all sorts of claims about wussification and no contact, but I think the XFL proved that while physical play is an integral part of football, so too is quality play. People love football but it's very easy for football to be boring because so much of the game is spent waiting for the next play.

I can't imagine the combination of low pay and explicit nonfocus on safety being very enticing to players, either.

I think at one point there were supposed to be cameras in the cheerleaders lockerrooms but NBC nixed the idea.

yes, lets make a new league that focuses less on safety than the NFL

what could have been

http://www.sportsbusinessdaily.com/J.../XFL-main.aspx

all i remember is they were going to allow players straight out of high school to be drafted for their 2nd year

too bad. JFF in the xfl woulda been legit incredible

could you just get players to sign a bullet proof waiver basically saying "you will 100% get CTE and end up committing suicide if you play in this league"? pretty sure most would still play.

apparently the XFL failed, not because of the usually cited reasons (basically low ratings), but because the NFL had a quiet word in the ear of advertisers, if you believe Jesse Ventura at any rate

If you word it that way, the players probably get to CTE and think, "Sweet, we get a Caddy!" and stop reading there.

I always get the XFL and the CFL mixed up.

Probably because I've never watched either of them.

He Hate Me

Besides the WNBA (LOL), I don't there was a bigger money suck than the XFL

Idea behind its time, more like.

LOL crappy alternate football leagues.

Counterpoint: people liked to play football in the 1970s.

Has there ever been a bigger douche bag, real or fake, than Vince M.?

Yes,

might've been ok if it had some college studs go out early to rake in $

but other than that it was a bunch of NFL rejects which is not good jags playing the bucs or freeman airmailing all his WR's every week

I don't remember any aspect of the actual game being edgier/less safe than NFL, besides for the 1v1 sprint to the ball replacing the coin toss.

I didn't really watch it much and don't remember much either, but I know you were pretty much allowed to celebrate as much as you wanted without flags, players could put whatever they wanted to on the back of their jersey, that sort of thing.

All I'm saying is the "edgy" XFL was really not THAT much different than the NFL in 2000, however as the NFL gets more and more pansified the appeal of an edgy, more violent football league might be much stronger than it was in 2000.

I think the XFL in say 2015 would have maybe had a much greater chance of success (ignoring all the brain injury stuff they'd have to answer about)

There was a greater focus on the cheerleaders, live footage of halftime speeches, and like someone above said the floating camera, which may have been ahead of its time.

Maybe the edgiest thing were the wages. You were paid on performance, I think based only on wins (during the regular season). It was something like, QBs made ~5k if they won, and a sliding scale per position.

It was mostly just guys of arena caliber talent playing outdoor football.