The XFL is back, here is what you need to know about this spring football league

Most recently we had the short experiment of the Alliance of American Football headed by Charlie Ebersol and Bill Polian that collapsed after only completing 8 weeks of their 10-game schedule. This year, Vince McMahon has taken to reviving his old league he created in 2001 that took a terrible turn very quickly (Google the XFL 2001 for more info). McMahon’s answer to the long history of fallen spring football leagues is new, innovative and has what you want in football, more game, less commercials.

Team Locations and Names:

image via xfl.com

Dallas Renegades

DC Defenders

Houston Roughnecks

Los Angeles Wildcats

New York Guardians

St. Louis Battlehawks

Seattle Dragons

Tampa Bay Vipers

All teams are playing in stadiums with at least a capacity to hold 20,000 people with four teams having a capacity of over 65,000. If they can sell enough tickets to fill them, it will be a great atmosphere for any home team. For reference, the average NFL stadium will hold around 69,000 people.

Schedule:

The XFL will kick off their inaugural revival season on Saturday February 8th, 2020. Two games will be played on opening day and two will be played on Sunday February 9th, 2020. The schedule throughout the season will continue in this way with two games played each day of the weekend for the regular season.

Opening Weekend matchups: Dates Times (C/ST) Networks

Seattle Dragons Vs. DC Defenders 2/8 1 PM ABC

LA Wildcats Vs. Houston Roughnecks 2/8 4 PM FOX

Tampa Bay Vipers Vs. NY Guardians 2/9 1 PM FOX

St. Louis Battlehawks Vs. DAL Renegades 2/9 4 PM ESPN

The XFL will feature a 10-week regular season and a two-week playoff with the Championship game set to air on ESPN April 26th at 2:00 C/ST.

Image via xfl.com

New and Improved Football:

The XFL will feature some unique rules in comparison to the NFL or college football. The hope from the XFL as revealed in multiple public statements is to make the game more entertaining for football fans. Here are some of the rules that are expected to make waves once the season commences with some commentary from me on how it will affect the games.

1. After a touchdown, the team has the option of running a play from the 2, 5, or 10-yard line, worth 1, 2, or 3 points respectively. The team must run an offensive play and no kicking plays are allowed. This will usher in a new level of strategy for coaches by forcing both creativity in play-designs and strategy of how to keep a game close. It will make it possible for any team to tie a game up when their opponent has a 9-point lead!?!? That is crazy to think about!!!

2. If a punt goes out of bounds or into the endzone on a kick it will result in a “Major” touchback, at which, the ball will be placed on the 35-yard line of the receiving team. This will force punters to keep the ball inbounds to gain any sort of field position advantage.

3. Overtime shall consist of 5 “Rounds”, staged in alternating single-play possessions as is customary in National Hockey League (NHL) shootouts or Major League Soccer (MLS) penalty kicks. A “Round” will consist of one offensive play per team. Each possession starts at the opponent’s 5-yard line and the offensive team has one play to score. The team with more points after 5 rounds is the winner. This will give the opportunities to the offenses and defenses of both to give it their all and not to be stuck on the sidelines.

4. The XFL will have no coaches’ challenges and all plays will be subject to review from the Replay Official, who will be stationed in a booth above the field. Similar to what the Alliance of American Football attempted to do a year ago, this will allow for the avoidance of officiating mistakes that cannot be handled on a single officials’ line of sight and judgement.

5. The XFL will have a 25-second play clock that begins after the ball is spotted for the next play. This will force coaches to get plays into their players quicker and force the game to have a faster tempo and potentially an opportunity for more plays per game. The NFL observes a 40 second play clock in most situations.

Players you might know:

The XFL held a player draft in October that held a pool of many former NFL players and high-profile college athletes. Here are some of the names you might know with some info as to why you recognize their name.

Landry Jones. Photo by Butch Dill/Associated Press

• Tanner McEvoy- Played at Wisconsin and logged 29 games with the Seattle Seahawks.

• Landry Jones- 5 NFL Starts at QB with the Pittsburgh Steelers.8 TDs to 7 INTs on his pro career.

• Sammie Coates-3rd Round pick of the Steelers.

• Cardale Jones- Led Ohio State to National College Championship victory in first college starts.

• Rashad Ross- Lit up the AAF a season ago with his deep threat speed scoring 7 touchdowns in the 8 games played.

• Josh Johnson- A journeyman NFL QB, most recently seen with the Washington Redskins in late 2018.

• Christian Michael- 256 career NFL carries in time with Seattle, Green Bay and Indianapolis.

• Matt Jones- over 1,200 career yards from scrimmage in the NFL and 2 seasons of over 450 rush yards with the Redskins.

These are the players that you want to see. Players still chasing their dream and playing for the love of the game. These are all the guys you saw in the NFL preseason and thought to yourself “with some work, they could be pretty good”. Here is their chance to get that work in.

Something to put in the history books…. Maybe.

The NFL is notorious for having teams that catch the injury bug and are in need of the services of any high level football body they can find in a pinch. The XFL has a plan to make sure the players that aren’t playing, are still getting their work in.

The XFL revealed that they will maintain a “Team 9” with a roster and coaching staff. Team 9 has been said to maintain a rotating roster of players and will hold practices weekly with workouts and all of the work it takes to be professional football player. This, in my opinion, is a great innovation in the sport of football. The idea of training athletes to keep their bodies ready to engage in a professional football game is going to allow teams in the XFL to smoothly add athletes to their rosters. As injuries arise, teams will not need to find athletes on the street to play on gameday.

This can only work with you:

The fans make football what it is in the NFL and NCAA. If you are a fan of the game, I encourage you to tune-in to the XFL this year and lend your support to those trying to make football a year-round sport. Not only to support the league, but to allow players to continue to chase what they strive for, the dream of playing in the National football league.

You can check out the full rosters, schedule, uniforms, merchandise and more on XFL.COM.

You can download the XFL app in the Google Play Store or IOS store.