XFL (2020)

The **XFL** is a professional American football league. Consisting of eight teams divided equally between an East and West division, seasons run during the winter and spring months, with each team playing a ten game regular season, and four progressing to the playoffs to crown a season champion.[a] The company was headquartered in Stamford, Connecticut.

The competition was founded by professional wrestling executive Vince McMahon in 2018, as a reboot and successor to the league of the same name he founded in 2001. McMahon re-founded the XFL to create a league with fewer off-field controversies and faster, simpler play compared to the NFL, as well as one without the professional wrestling-inspired features and entertainment elements of its predecessor. The league and its teams were owned by McMahon's Alpha Entertainment, and spread across the United States in markets currently or recently represented by an NFL franchise.

After five weeks of play, the league's operations slowly came to a close due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and filed for bankruptcy on April 13.[5] On August 2, 2020, actor and producer Dwayne Johnson and longtime business partner Dany Garcia led a consortium with Gerry Cardinale's RedBird Capital to purchase the XFL for $15 million, hours before an auction could take place. On October 1, 2020, the league announced it would return to the field for the 2022 season.

## History

On April 10, the league formally issued a mass league layoff that laid off most, if not all of its employees. CEO Jeffrey Pollack announced the decision to his closest employees in a private video call. Most of the participants left the call thinking that the league would permanently fold. On April 13, the league filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy and began liquidating its products. On April 21, recently fired former XFL commissioner Oliver Luck sued McMahon for wrongful termination.

### Selling of team; Reincarnation

On August 2, 2020, it was reported that a consortium led by Dwayne Johnson, Dany Garcia and Gerry Cardinale (through Cardinale's fund RedBird Capital Partners) purchased the XFL for $15 million just hours before an auction could take place; the purchase received court approval on August 7. The XFL's parent company originally listed the league with assets and liabilities in the range of $10 million to $50 million. Garcia stated that the league is planning a 2021 season to be possibly played in a bubble environment. Johnson, who previously worked for McMahon as WWE wrestler The Rock, briefly played collegiate football in the 1990s; he and Garcia were married from 1997 to 2007 and have remained business partners since their divorce. Cardinale's previous investments included the New York Yankees' side projects (such as YES Network and Legends Hospitality) and Suddenlink Communications. On August 21, 2020, the transition of ownership was completed, with Johnson stating "The deal is officially closed and 'the keys' to the XFL have been handed over." On October 1, 2020, the XFL announced its return in spring 2022. However, in March of 2021 the XFL and Canadian Football League (CFL) announced talks to "collaborate, innovate, and grow the game of football". These talks however, would stall out, and by July 7, it was announced by both leagues that they had ceased talks with oneanother, which resulted in the cancellation of the 2022 season. A subsequent new start date of February 18, 2023 was announced on Dany Garcia's Instagram on December 2, 2021.

## Updated rules

### Kickoff

Unlike the NFL and NCAA, the XFL's kickoff spot was set at the 30-yard line. The members of the kicking team lined up at the 35-yard line, and the receiving team starts at their 30-yard line.Only the kicker and returner(s) could move until the ball is either caught or three seconds after it hit the ground.

Any kickoff that went out of bounds or falls short of the receiving team's 20-yard line results in the receiving team gaining possession at the 45-yard line.

If a team attempted an onside kick, the ball would have to travel at least 10 yards

### Touchbacks

The XFL used two different types of touchbacks. A major touchback occured when a kick traveled into the endzone in the air, which results in the receiving team taking possession at the 35. A minor touchback occured when the ball bounces into the endzone, which results in the receiving team taking possession at the 15. These rules discouraged either team from purposefully taking a touchback.

### Punts

* The XFL did not allow gunners; all players on a punting team had to remain on or behind the line of scrimmage until the ball is kicked. (This is a carryover from the original XFL, although that league had scrapped the rule midway through its only season).
* The coffin corner punt is treated as a touchback and brought to the 35-yard line. It would attempt to neutralize punt coverage are made with the intention of encouraging more fourth-down conversions; Luck conceded halfway through the inaugural season that the effort was largely unsuccessful, as coaches continued to punt as usual.
* The same touchback rules for kickoffs also applied to punts.

### Extra Points

The conventional extra point kick was replaced with a scrimmage play, varying in point value depending on how far the touchdown-scoring team chooses to take the snap from the goal line: a two-yard attempt would score a single point, a five-yard attempt two points, and a ten-yard attempt three points. (This rule is also a carryover from the original XFL, which added the rule only for the playoffs. The Stars Football League also used the rule during its existence.) In the event the defense secures a turnover and returns the ball for a touchdown, the defensive team scores the same number of points as the offense was aiming to score.

### Double Forward Pass

Teams were able to attempt two forward passes on the same play, so long as the ball never crossed the line of scrimmage before the second pass.

### Overtime

Overtime was decided by a five-round shootout of two-point conversions similar to a penalty shootout in soccer or ice hockey. Such a shootout had never been attempted in organized football at the time the rule was proposed; in April 2019, the NCAA adopted a similar concept for games that reach a fifth overtime starting with the 2019 FBS season. Unlike other football leagues, a coin toss was not used to determine who is on offense first; instead, the visiting team was on offense first and home team on defense first for each round, similar to baseball. The defense was not able to score, as should a turnover would occur, the play would be dead. Defensive penalties result in the ball moving up to the 1-yard line, while any subsequent defensive penalty on any play, even in future rounds, result in a score awarded to the offensive team. Pre-snap offensive penalties resulted in the ball being re-spotted pursuant to regular rules, while post-snap offensive penalties result in a loss of down and no score. If both teams remained tied after five rounds, multiple rounds of conversions would be played until one team succeeded, thus ensuring that no game can end in a draw. However, none of the 20 XFL games went into overtime before the season was cancelled.

### Clock Changes

* Outside of the two-minute warning, the clock ran continuously. During this time, the clock only stopped during a change of possession. This reversed after the two-minute warning (which the XFL uses), after which the clock stops after all plays from scrimmage until the ball was spotted and reverts to NFL timing rules otherwise, stopping after incomplete passes, advancing the ball out of bounds and spiking the football. (Arena football has long used a continuous clock with even fewer stoppages; Canadian football does not use a continuous clock, but stops the clock after all plays from scrimmage following that code's three-minute warning.)
* The play clock was 25 seconds long measured from the spotting of the ball, roughly the same as the NCAA rule for plays when the clock is stopped. (This is five seconds longer than the CFL rule, which is 20 seconds from the spotting of the ball. The XFL's efforts to speed up spotting were aimed to make the two lengths of time nearly the same, 30 to 32 seconds overall.) The NFL standard is 40 seconds from the end of the previous play, also used during the NCAA during plays when the clock is running; the former AAF and previous XFL measure was 35 seconds from the end of the previous play. In conjunction with this rule, the XFL had a one-way radio in all offensive players' helmets to allow the offensive coordinator to run a no-huddle offense and call plays directly to all of the players from the sidelines. This eliminates the need for a huddle.
* Teams were given two time-outs per half instead of three.
* Instant replay reviews were limited to 60 seconds. There were no coach's challenges; the sky judge originated all reviews automatically.

### Officiating

* The XFL expanded on the NCAA system of eight on-field officials (which includes the center judge not used professionally in either the NFL or CFL) including a ninth official — a specialized "ball judge" whose only duty is to quickly spot the ball after the end of the previous play. By utilizing the ball judge, who wears a red hat to differentiate themselves from the other officials, the league aims to have a ball-spotting time of between five and seven seconds.
* A new rule proposal would add a new "tap penalty", imposed on individual players instead of entire teams. Players who commit a foul which is not serious enough to warrant a penalty flag will be sent off the field for one play. This type of enforcement will keep the game moving quickly without allowing players to break the rules. Unlike the almost-analogous power play used in ice hockey, the offending team would be allowed to substitute another player.
* The defunct Alliance of American Football introduced the sky judge, an additional official in the press booth for the sole purpose of reviewing on-field decisions. Luck had said he thought this was a great innovation to the game and, in December 2019, confirmed the XFL would use the sky judge. Robert Lu, who served as the AAF's sky judge in 2019, continues in that capacity with the XFL.
* Penalty enforcement placed priority on fouls that pose a threat to player safety, with less emphasis on procedural violations so as not to slow down the game with unnecessary penalty calls. Officials would also have access to both teams' play calls. The sky judge would also have full access to the officials' microphones.
* All six of the XFL's officiating crews had at least one woman.
* The league uses Lazser Down chain crew equipment, which used wideband radio waves to precisely measure the spotting of the ball.

### Ball

The football used in XFL games was the traditional brown color used in most other leagues, but a unique feature is that each team has their own balls for use in home games, marked with the XFL logo and team's name in their respective colors. (This is in contrast to the black ball with red adornments used by the original XFL.) Another distinctive mark was at each end of the ball, where a two-tone "X" in the home team's colors adorns each point and runs through the middle of each panel of the ball, intended to allow the receivers to track the ball easily. Five balls, each with a different texture of leather, were tested during the Summer Showcases and The Spring League. The winning texture, a custom patent-pending design known as "X-Pebble," was released November 25, 2019. The design was created and is manufactured by Team Issue of Dallas, Texas, in what became their first professional football contract.

## Teams

Names and logos for the XFL teams for the 2020 season were to be revealed in early June of 2019 but were delayed over two months from that date. The XFL filed trademarks for five potential team names for its Seattle-based franchise in late June, including one for the eventually chosen name Seattle Dragons, but not for any of the other seven teams. The names, logos, and colors for all eight teams were revealed on August 21, 2019, in a live-streamed special. The 2020 XFL Draft was held on October 15 and 16, 2019. Training camps began in November.

Besides the eight competitive teams, the XFL had operated a centralized practice squad and farm team, which operated as a full team with a coaching staff and a 40-man roster (encompassing offensive and defensive players but no special teams) but didn't play any on-the-record games against the other eight teams. The team shared practice facilities with the Dallas Renegades and was internally known as "Team 9." Team 9 replenished itself after Week 5 when the team's members were assigned to rosters after it expanded to 57 players each, but the season ended abruptly.

On April 6, 2022, A report came out that sources close to the league have mentioned that XFL would be keeping five teams in their original 2020 locations (D.C., St. Louis, Dallas, Houston, Seattle) and adding three new cities (San Antonio, Orlando, Las Vegas).

Tampa Bay, New York, and Los Angeles are not expected to be returning cities for the XFL in 2023. It is currently unknown whether the same team identities from 2020 would be returning.

### 2020 teams

**\*** Full stadium capacity. The large stadiums with multiple decks only open the lower bowl for XFL games, similar to the former AAF games and MLS matches played in large stadiums. The XFL has a target stadium size of 30,000 seats so that in the event of playoff games, the upper decks can be opened to increase capacity.

### Team 9

Team 9 is a specialized team that acts as a hybrid farm team and practice squad for the league, and was inspired by a similar scheme employed by NFL Europe. It holds a maximum of 40 players at a time and is meant to prepare players for calling up to one of the XFL's 8 teams to fill roster vacancies due to injuries of other players or if the teams see a player as a "hidden gem". The team shares practice facilities and support staff with the Dallas Renegades but maintains its coaching staff; its head coach is Bart Andrus and is assisted by Pete Kuharchek and Peter Vaas.

During the first two weeks of the season, teams are encouraged to use players from Team 9 to fill roster spots but are not required to do so, as they may prefer to sign a player unaffiliated with the XFL or re-sign a player who participated in their preseason camps but was cut. After Week 2, exclusively using Team 9 players to fill rosters will become a requirement, with Team 9 constantly replenishing itself by adding new players from outside the XFL.

On March 10, each team's maximum roster size increased from 52 to 57 players and the majority of Team 9 was dispersed. Team 9 was to reload to approximately 36 players. Team 9 does not include the specialist positions of kicker, punter, or long snapper, who are instead reserved in a separate "player pool."

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