🏈 Why We’ll Miss The XFL So Much

It was an outstanding mix of innovation and football, and it gave plenty of players a second chance. Now, the XFL is gone far too soon. [View in browser]( In today’s FOX Sports Insider: We say goodbye to the XFL and remember the league’s amazing five-week stint ... Usain Bolt demonstrates the perfect way to ensure proper social distancing ... and Tiger Woods’ recap of his 2019 Masters championship has us looking toward the fall and Augusta. Farewell then, XFL, certainly for now and maybe forever. And it really is a fond farewell, the kind reserved for things that go away purely because of bad luck and with nothing to blame for it, in this case, except a virus. While the XFL’s first iteration in 2001 was a gimmick-laden spectacle that disintegrated due to the simple fact that it couldn’t sustain the public’s attention, the 2020 version was the opposite. It was about entertainment, sure, but it was first and foremost about producing football of a solid enough quality to appeal to the hardcore, while showcasing innovations and renovations designed to make the game better. [STORY IMAGE 1] The XFL was real football. It wasn’t smoke and mirrors. Not everything worked, but it was all made with the best of intentions. In the five weeks the XFL was up and running, it gave us a glimpse of something that many thought impossible: the concept that a secondary, supplemental pro setup could exist to fill some of the interminable NFL gap between the Super Bowl and Week 1. Now it is gone, all of it. On Friday, the league suspended operations and laid off virtually all of its staff, amid reports and admissions that there were no plans to play in 2021, and no thoughts given to resuming at any other point beyond that. “It’s bittersweet,” FOX Sports rules analyst Dean Blandino, who served as the XFL’s head of officiating, told me via telephone on Monday morning. “Everyone involved took a lot of time to prepare and get things right, and it showed. It had this very real, very positive feel to it, and people were really starting to like it. I feel good about being a part of it, and I think it made a lot of people feel good — but how do you prepare for this, or anticipate it? It is so far beyond anyone’s imagination.” There were good people in the XFL, folks who managed to make those five weeks both fun and serious, and eminently watchable. Oliver Luck was a commissioner with some gravitas; Blandino championed new rules that added significant intrigue. [STORY IMAGE 2] There were one, two and three-point conversions, a double forward-pass rule and, Blandino’s favorite, a kickoff system that kept exciting returns in the game while simultaneously enhancing safety. All of it — the rules, the presentation, the quality of play, the excitement, the fan engagement — added up to a whole far greater than its parts. The XFL was working. It felt like it was going to work, and for a long time. Now, it’s gone. And we will miss it dearly, as will the participants. The defining statistics that will linger in history from the time of this COVID-19 pandemic are those that refer to the shocking numbers of human lives that have been taken. That is, of course, how it must be, and nothing matches it in terms of seriousness. Yet there are other aspects of our existence that are melting away the longer things persist as they are. When a business shuts down like this, it means a whole lot more than some rich investors losing part of their wealth. It means the disappearance of jobs, from players and coaches to assistants and administrative staff and publicists and cooks and cleaners and every other position that you need to run a professional sporting outfit. [STORY IMAGE 3] For some of the regular staff, it likely means a trip to the unemployment office. Hopefully future gainful work beckons, though there is a lot of competition for positions out there. For the players, it is, for most of them, the final roll of the dice. “It is just sad,” Blandino added. “For many of the players, this was their last opportunity to realize their dream of playing in the NFL or going back to it. Then there are other people who have lost full-time jobs, just like is happening elsewhere. It is a great shame. There are a lot of people involved – and a lot of people that you feel for.” A few players will land on NFL rosters. Houston Roughnecks quarterback P.J. Walker had already been snapped up by the Carolina Panthers, while the Pittsburgh Steelers have claimed five former XFLers. A slow trickle of players were getting the promise of NFL chances over the weekend, but they are very much the exception. [STORY IMAGE 4] Plenty won’t. There is Canada or semi-pro leagues in Europe, but with the XFL gone, the vast majority will need to find something else to do. In a lot of cases, this will be the time when the dream died, amid all the other upheaval from these bleak and testing months. What will they do next? “My wife asked me that question today. I didn’t have an answer,” former NFL and XFL QB Matt McGloin told WNEP.com. For so many reasons, that’s an utter shame. WWE owner Vince McMahon was bold and enterprising in bringing the XFL back, and it was clear that the mistakes of years earlier had been taken on board and learned from. It was a new league that we loved. The XFL was brave and precocious and fearless and made for really good television. As a viewing experience, it was often spectacular — real, raw, in your face and blessed with the majestic idea that you could hear the coach call plays. It was different, in all the best ways, yet still familiar. The football wasn’t of the same standard as the NFL, sure, but neither is college football. It was more than watchable; it was genuinely enjoyable. And it was just getting started. Until it wasn’t. [STORY IMAGE 5] Here’s what others have said ... Rodger Sherman, The Ringer: “While I liked the on-field product and on-camera delivery, what I truly enjoyed most about the XFL was its playful demeanor. It never got to have an MVP, so I’ll go ahead and award one: It was the Washington, D.C., Beer Snake. Sure, other sporting events have featured massive beer snakes before; the XFL spent large swaths of a competitive game keeping fans updated on the progress of a beer snake. At one point, the league’s commissioner contributed a cup. The XFL also explored what it means to be an Extremely Online Sports League, sharing memes that would never get approved to appear on the NFL’s or NBA’s official social media channels. It was, so far as I can tell, the only league ever to share video of its players shotgunning celebratory hard seltzers.” Ryland B., Behind the Steel Curtain: “The second run of the ‘Extreme Football League’ was extreme in name only, displaying some decent talent with a few clever rule changes that made its games entertaining enough to watch. But, from an NFL fan’s perspective, it was doing even more. It was challenging the NFL, not financially, but with some of its innovations, such as the new kickoff and replay review system. The XFL was coming up with and testing new ideas, which could eventually be implemented into and improve the NFL. Most importantly, the XFL was giving players that would otherwise be on a practice squad or free agents valuable experience, and was starting to look like a valuable pipeline of developing talent to the NFL.” Reggie Wilson, ABC Cincinnati: “[First-time head coach Jonathan] Hayes served as Bengals tight ends coach for 15 seasons under Marvin Lewis. The XFL hired him to be the head coach and general manager of the St. Louis Battlehawks. Hayes enjoyed coaching a team that led the XFL in attendance per game, in a city without professional football in four years. ‘I'm appreciative of how hard they've worked, their commitment to the city, and I'm grateful to how St Louis embraced us,’ Hayes said. After a 3-2 start, Hayes is disappointed not to be able to see the process through, but his efforts weren't in vain. ‘The XFL named me Coach of the Year,’ Hayes said. ‘I don't know why. But that's a testament to my assistants, really, to the players and everyone else.’” [IN OTHER WORDS] - A few players fly under the radar in every NFL Draft and wind up having Pro Bowl-caliber careers. [Bleacher Report’s Marcus Mosher ranks]( the 10 biggest draft steals of the past decade. - SB Nation is on a quest to identify the best NBA teams to not win a title, and [Mike Prada tips things off]( with 16 of the biggest flameouts in NBA playoff history. - Despite Dana White pulling out all the stops, UFC 249 will no longer happen this weekend. So what’s next for everyone involved? [ESPN’s Brett Okamoto and Marc Raimondi try to answer]( that question. [THE INTERNET IS UNDEFEATED] [THE INTERNET IS UNDEFEATED]( Eight-time Olympic gold medalist Usain Bolt knows a thing or two about leaving significant distance between himself and those around him, and on Monday morning, he was keen to use that personal experience to remind the rest of the world what to do in these strange times. So even if you can’t break world records as a sprinter, make like Bolt and maintain that space around you. It’s for the greater good. [VIEWER'S GUIDE] FOX Football NOW (FS1, 7 p.m. ET) Curt, Michael, Tony and Jimmy break down the offseasons so far for the teams in the NFC and AFC South, and Matt and Reggie join the show to talk all things Draft, from Tua’s place on the big board to how they’d prepare for a virtual draft process. WWE Monday Night Raw (USA, 8 p.m. ET) With their championships securely in hand, Drew McIntyre and Becky Lynch survey the pack of would-be challengers to their titles as the 2020 Money in the Bank pay-per-view looms a little less than a month away. College Football’s Greatest Games: Penn State at Ohio State, 2017 (FS1, 8 p.m. ET) 2.7 percent. That was Ohio State’s odds of winning this game, according to at least one calculation, just over midway through the fourth quarter. And if you don’t remember what happened next, remind yourself tonight on FS1. MNF Classics: Packers vs. Vikings, 2009 (ESPN, 8 p.m. ET) Playing against Green Bay for the first time in his career, Brett Favre turned in a classic performance you can relive this evening, throwing for 271 yards and 3 TDs a week shy of his 40th birthday. [BET OF THE DAY] [BET OF THE DAY] Odds provided by [FOX Bet]( Tiger Woods to win the 2020 Masters: +2400 Sunday saw a fascinating re-air of Tiger Woods’ win at last year’s Masters, featuring the defending champion breaking down some of the biggest moments from his return to glory. And with this year’s turn at Augusta not until the fall, we got to thinking — what are the odds Tiger can make it two green jackets in a row? Fortunately for all of us, FOX Bet has the answer: A ripe 24-to-1, trailing the likes of Rory McIlroy (the betting favorite at +600) and Brooks Koepka (+1400). A new FOX Sports app and website is coming. [Click here]( to be notified when the reimagined app is available. 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