 |
| By the way, I own the whole trading card set. |
By Douglas V. Gibbs
Author, Speaker, Instructor, Radio Host
I love sports, and I love underdogs. Variations are fun to watch, which is why I love college baseball, indoor lacrosse, the Arena Football League, and any league that tries to poke the NFL in the eye. Don't get me wrong, I am a hardcore Major League Baseball fan, and a football fan, but sometimes I like to see the big guys slapped around a little (especially when the players are kneeling during the National Anthem).
The World Football League (WFL) was around before I was old enough to care about football. The USFL was a fun ride when I was in my youthful prime. I went to see the L.A. Express twice. I missed the last two seasons (1985, 1986) due to my service in the U.S. Navy. The World League of American Football made a great run, becoming a European league (NFL Europe) for a while, until finally engulfed by the NFL where the larger league tried to make it a developmental league before eventually killing it. American Football remains a big deal in Europe to this day, and I believe the German and British teams are largely popular because of the World League's short foray into their area. The Canadian Football League even made a journey into the American market, but retreated by to its nine Canadian teams after getting beat up by the NFL, and light fan participation.
Then, the XFL appeared for one season in 2001. This is what I was waiting for. No B.S., no more No Fun League rules, just smash mouth football with an attitude. The games were not even up to college level quality, but who cares? It was an underdog in a world controlled and operated by the NFL. To survive, the Arena League had to come up with a whole new formula (adjusted for play indoors, creating the "50 Yard Indoor War"), but the XFL was going head to head with the NFL, and doing it with a "screw you" kind of game face.
It kind of reminded me of Al Davis and the old renegade AFL (which later merged with the NFL, becoming the American Football Conference).
While the cities have not been determined yet, Orlando (who was home of the Rage in 2001) has already shown interest in having a team.
“Quite frankly, we’re going to give the game of football back to the fans,” McMahon said on a conference call. “We’re going to ask a lot of questions and listen to players, coaches. We’re going to listen to medical experts, technology executives, members of the media and anyone else who understands and loves the game of football.”
McMahon wants the new XFL, which will begin play in 2020, to “re-imagine” professional football. Changes like simplifying rules, eliminating halftime and having games last just two hours were examples he cited.
“The new XFL will be fan-centric with all the things you like to see and less of the things you don’t,” he said. “We will present a shorter, faster-paced, family-friendly and easier-to-understand game. Don’t get me wrong, it’s still football — but it’s professional football re-imagined.”
Like the original XFL, this new version will have teams in eight U.S. cities playing a 10-game regular season that would start in late January or early February. All teams would be owned by the league in a single-entity structure and have 40-man rosters.
McMahon is betting on fans unhappy with NFL to be drawn to his new XFL, where he said kneeling during “The Star-Spangled Banner” would not be tolerated.
“It’s a time-honored tradition to stand for the national anthem,” McMahon said, adding, “We’ll have nothing to do with politics, nothing to do with social issues.”
McMahon also said the “quality of the human being is going to be as important as the quality of the player” and that XFL won’t have any players with criminal records.
“Even if you have a DUI, you will not play in the XFL,” he declared.
-- Political Pistachio Conservative News and Commentary
No comments:
Post a Comment