The XFL is basically an NFL for Trump supporters, its creation is a naked attempt at monetising a di
Channel: SciShow New
Date: 2018-01-27

To sum up how poorly conceived and badly executed the XFL was in its first (and last) season in 2001, you need only look at its opening play.

Many won’t even remember the XFL, a failed venture that was joint-owned by what was then the WWF (before its run-in with the panda conservationists) and American television network NBC. The concept was for an American football league that would take place during the long NFL off-season, boasting fewer, modified rules, bigger hits and more pizazz.

One of those rule quirks was that instead of a kick-off to commence proceedings, the XFL was to have an ‘opening scramble’ where each team would sprint 20 yards to a stationary football and literally fight for possession.

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The XFL brought in skimpier cheerleaders to try and differentiate itself (Getty)
And in the first scramble of the first game of the first XFL season, Orlando Rage free safety Hassan Shamsid-Deen suffered a separated shoulder that would rule him out the entire season. Fans excited – or, at the very least, morbidly intrigued – by this new league were greeted with a ten-minute injury break before the first pass had even been thrown. That was when they started to turn off their TVs, and it was a trend that never stopped, resulting in the closing down of the league after just three months.

The whispers had got louder through late 2017, and then there was the announcement… of an announcement.

It was coming back. Vince McMahon, most famous for owning, running and making billions from the WWE (as the WWF is now known), was bringing back the XFL.

McMahon will revive his footballing Frankenstein in 2020, he said on Thursday. A venture purely funded by himself this time after NBC’s withdrawal left him financially hamstrung and publicly humiliated at the turn of the Millennium.


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Advert shows the vision for XFL in 2020
Even with a major television network on board, the eccentric North Carolina native discovered it isn’t easy to simply conjure a sports league out of nowhere and convince people to watch. The rules changed mid-season as the league descended into farce in 2001. Half-decent opening ratings dipped like one of its dreadful quarterback’s wobbling passes. The quality of play was, as people probably should have expected, not very good. 

In 2018, the billionaire owner of WWE does not need co-investors to make the XFL reboot work but what he will need is to right the wrongs of last time if he does not want to be doomed to repeat failure. The problem is there simply aren’t enough good players to go around.

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Nicknames on jerseys was another XFL gimmick (Getty)
McMahon legitimately saw an opportunity at the turn of the Millennium that still exists. The NFL is still king among American sports leagues and dominates TV ratings every year - in 2017, seven of the ten most-watched broadcasts in America were NFL games - but the regular season only lasts from September until early January. There is a thirst for more, as well as recognition that the NFL could do with some sort of ‘farm league’ to develop overlooked prodigies and perhaps refurbish those discarded by the sport’s cut-throat nature.