8 teams, start play tomorrow at 2pm. 10 week season.

Rule differences https://www.xfl.com/en-US/rules

Does it make it to the championship game on 4/26??

2/7/2020 10:38:15 PM

NC State Players

Johnathon Alston CB Seattle
Mike Stevens CB LA
Jack Tocho Safety LA


Marc Trestman is head coach of TB

2/7/2020 10:47:20 PM

and Jalan McClendon is a QB for LA.

2/7/2020 11:42:04 PM

Going to a DC game in March if the league makes it that far.

2/8/2020 1:00:28 AM

Vince McMahon has an ungodly amount of money from TV deals for WWE and Saudi Arabia. It'll make it to the title game.

2/8/2020 3:39:31 PM

Some of the presentation, ie interviewing players immediately after big plays, and having coaches mic'd up during the game are cool, but the football itself just isn't that good. Some of it may be from the fact that it's the first game of the season, but some is also from the level of talent.

[Edited on February 8, 2020 at 3:47 PM. Reason : that last play was fun though]

2/8/2020 3:46:26 PM

Always hear it said people want more football but they want more college and NFL football.

I don’t see this working just like it hasn’t worked previously. Yes previous iteration had issues, some major but if people really wanted it most of the issues were correctable. Ultimately no amount of rule shifts, recognizable coaches, or even quality reserve level players will make this work.

I think the only way it would work is if you somehow expanded the nfl draft, held it around the Super Bowl then created minor league teams filled with drafted rookies and 2nd string players from a certain franchise, more similar to the NBA G league or minor league baseball. I think more people would watch if there was a sense that “these guys could be the future Of my team.” But the NFLPA wouldn’t go for it and the result is just average football played by average players who couldn’t cut it in the NFL. I don’t think there is a market for that.

2/8/2020 6:45:08 PM

the xfl at least figured out a better kickoff than the nfl

2/8/2020 6:55:36 PM

Jalan McClendon 1/4 0yds 1int 2sacks

LOL

2/8/2020 9:29:26 PM

Dang he put up a Finley-esque stat line

2/8/2020 10:10:58 PM

Which Finley?

2/8/2020 10:36:06 PM

it doesn't matter, it's genetic.

2/8/2020 10:41:33 PM

Watched a few minutes of the Houston LA game. From what I saw it looked like decent quality football.

2/9/2020 11:03:02 AM

It wasn’t terrible football, some pretty bad throws from QBs though. The fact that it wasn’t a gimmicky broadcast like the original XFL works in its favor. The problem is it’s clearly not the “best in the world” like you get in the NFL so unless you have some connection to the teams or the cities it’s not gonna be on the top of your list to watch.

2/9/2020 11:17:16 AM

Yeah from what I've watched the game quality isn't terrible but you can definitely see the struggles of a new and growing league, especially with having everyone mic'd up. There are times there'll be 2-3 people talking overtop of each other, and sometimes the camera operators don't know what to show on replays, especially that Renegades-Battlehawks injury play

2/9/2020 6:54:44 PM

Watched for about 15 minutes total. The only difference I liked from the NFL was hearing the offensive play calls out loud. I don't think they would do that in the NFL because of the proprietary nature of play books.

2/10/2020 11:43:09 AM

I couldn’t tell who was talking half the time.

2/10/2020 12:38:33 PM

if you watched this with the expectation of nfl play, you have stupid expectations.

2/10/2020 5:04:30 PM

i saw that pat mcafee is involved. can't stand him, won't be watching.

2/10/2020 5:08:22 PM

I too am not a big Pat McAfee fan.

2/10/2020 5:23:09 PM

I enjoyed the portions of games I saw this weekend. A lot of talk in here about inferior game quality but there are some BAD nfl games too, especially early season.

One of my favorite moments was when there was a goal line play during the Dallas game and they showed the offensive and defensive coordinators calling plays. The OC had some long drawn out play call, they cut to the DC and he just says something to the effect of "rush everyone". The offense scored on that play and Pat MaAfee said that that was the most hilarious defensive playcalling he's ever seen. Might've been a you need to be there moment but it was pretty hilarious

2/10/2020 7:15:30 PM

DROD - after that game, LA fired their DC

2/10/2020 8:41:04 PM

Quote :

" A lot of talk in here about inferior game quality but there are some BAD nfl games too, especially early season."

2/11/2020 9:35:56 AM

Defenders are TEARING UP the NY Guardians right now

2/15/2020 3:57:27 PM

30%-50% drop in viewership from week 1.

Uh oh

2/19/2020 7:51:55 PM

shocking

2/19/2020 9:01:33 PM

I’m kinda holding out against all hope that this works out. Oh well.

2/19/2020 9:26:02 PM

Ratings down 22% from week 2, now down 48% overall from week 1

2/27/2020 10:52:38 PM

They should make it a 6 game season

2/27/2020 10:55:48 PM

I'm not shocked. The alternative rules can only draw so much attention. Then that gets boring. I'm one of those people who likes a break from football after the Super Bowl. I'll start caring again during week 1 of the college season. The spring and summer is filled with more important sporting events.

2/27/2020 11:08:00 PM

I don't get what they were thinking putting teams in the same major cities that already have saturated sports scenes. If I started a league, i'd put it in underserved cities/States that don't have pro teams. The whole area would attend/tune in because it would finally be "their team". Start small and build up like AAA instead of trying to be nfl2.0

Birmingham
Jackson
Charleston
San Diego
Portland
OKC
Louisville
Virginia Beach
Salt Lake City
Omaha
El Paso
Boise

[Edited on February 28, 2020 at 1:01 AM. Reason : l]

2/28/2020 1:01:17 AM

that worked great for the AAF

2/28/2020 1:30:02 AM

The problem with the AAF wasn't *really* attendance, it was that they didn't have any money to start with. Most of the games had a reported attendance of ~15-20,000 (that's on the same level as MLS). Sure lots of the stadiums had huge swaths of seats covered with banners to try and cover up their seating issues but the problem was management and lack of funds from the start. When Dundon came in he had the money but had a different plan for the league--his official tie-in as NFL Spring Training was literally banned by the NFLPA and an outright impossibility. Couple that with the massive startup costs and the losses any football league is gonna see at the start and you get an investor who pulls out 9 times out of 10.

2/28/2020 7:46:20 AM

Why am I watching this? A guy just scored a TD and in his sideline interview, he did the it doesn't matter what your name is Rock bit.

3/7/2020 2:55:39 PM

Oh so you're one of the 12 people still watching this

3/7/2020 3:17:26 PM

Also the players salary would actually be livable in the types of cities I suggested.

3/8/2020 11:45:11 PM

Horosho - a YouTuber named OfficialJaguarGator9 did a fairly good comparison of non-NFL cities vs NFL cities for expansion teams going back to the 40s (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fOpkvM954A0) - he found there wasn't actually a huge difference in average attendances but there are a few nuances

Defenders bounced back this week against the BattleHawks! Haven't been able to catch most of the games unfortunately but they benched Cardale Jones for Tyree Jackson

[Edited on March 9, 2020 at 10:13 AM. Reason : fix]

3/9/2020 9:45:28 AM

Welp

3/12/2020 10:24:03 PM

Defenders are East Conference champs (leader of a 3-way tie at 3-2), 2nd overall based on W/L behind the Roughnecks (5-0).

I'm hopeful the league can continue but probably the better decision in the long run since teams pretty much only made money from merch sales and tickets.

[Edited on March 12, 2020 at 11:31 PM. Reason : ed]

3/12/2020 11:30:55 PM

RIP XFL

4/10/2020 1:28:51 PM

lol it would have died anyways.

4/10/2020 2:00:16 PM

maybe, not as quickly.

RIP

4/10/2020 6:00:46 PM

Yeah I mean they would have finished the season in all likelihood, but the TV ratings were already plummeting.

4/10/2020 6:49:21 PM

Football and basketball minor leagues are always going to have trouble existing because the division 1 college level has the same mainstream popularity as the top pro league. That makes it tough for a new 3rd league to exist. Also, football needs to be played during football season and not after all other football leagues end their season's. At that point people are ready for a football break and ready to watch other things like baseball, golf, tennis, motor sports, etc. Soccer, hockey, and baseball struggle, but have a little more success at the minor league level because they play during the same time of year as the top division, and the college level isn't anymore popular.

4/13/2020 6:19:26 PM

Quote :

"Also, football needs to be played during football season and not after all other football leagues end their season's. At that point people are ready for a football break and ready to watch other things like baseball, golf, tennis, motor sports, etc."

you think anyone is going to care at all about the XFL if they are playing their games during NCAA and NFL season?

4/13/2020 6:36:20 PM

If anything, I've thought some of these leagues started too soon after the end of the NFL season.

4/14/2020 8:51:54 AM

Yep. Don't start spring football in February.

4/14/2020 10:04:31 AM

^^^No, but more football in the off season isn't a good idea either.

4/14/2020 12:53:04 PM

Is that why the NFL keeps adding more games?

[Edited on April 14, 2020 at 2:49 PM. Reason : .]

4/14/2020 2:48:02 PM

^The NFL adding more games isn't the off season that is just a longer season.

4/14/2020 3:46:12 PM