The big question is this- will the league return for 2021?
The league completed half of the planned schedule, but with the forced pause in mid-season, the league had little choice in concluding the season rather than a postponement of games.
Considering that the XFL uses more college stadiums and soccer fields than they do NFL sized facilities (only Tampa Bay and New York), the option of postponement would have made dates difficult with the five facilities that have MLS soccer teams and Houston sharing with the Houston Cougars in need of their fields during the time that makeup games would be played.
The decision to end the season does make sense for those reasons, but it does raise legitimate doubt on the future of the league.
League owner Vince McMahon stated that all players would be paid their full salaries and continue to have their health care provided and that is a positive note for a potential second season as if their plans were not to come back, it would have been far easier to just not pay the bills as any potential bad PR would not matter without a second season.
I thought the league played a better brand of football than the original and I thought it was pretty comparable to the AAF, maybe even a nick better, but there is always that group that wants to compare it to the NFL.
That's silly, but with rival leagues dating all the way back to the AAFC in the late 40s football fans always want to downplay the new league compared to the NFL.
If that is the goal for new leagues, it's an unrealistic one and I'm not sure why people even bother to start them because it cannot be reached.
The biggest problem for the league (besides attendance and TV ratings) seems to be the same as many football ventures- the quarterback play.
If there were plenty of good quarterbacks around, every NFL team would have a good one and we all know that's not true!
Other than P.J. Walker of the Houston Roughnecks, I didn't see a quarterback that raised his stock as far as playing in the NFL.
Cardale Jones looked great for two games and then awful thereafter to the point of being benched.
Jordan Ta'amu looks to be too small for the NFL, Josh Johnson might be able to be a veteran emergency type and that's about it as the passers go.
If your quarterbacks aren't great, it's hard for the games to be fun and if they aren't fun, most casual fans will not watch.
If you are looking at this as a AAA league and developmental for the NFL, that's fine.
However, the talent level for the league is going to be guys looking for a chance or someone that had failures in the NFL or players that had issues outside of football.
So what's the solution?
An alliance with the NFL is unlikely as the NFLPA wasn't interested in sending quarterbacks to the AAF and even if they did, how much difference in quality is there between the third-string passer fort the Redskins and Cardale Jones if any?
There isn't a stock of quarterbacks sitting around to pilfer, so if the league really wants to improve their quarterback play (and the other positions as well) they really only have one choice- go after college talent.
That's an expensive alternative, but if the goal is to improve the on-field play they have little choice.
That might not be the avenue that the league will go, but it's a choice that renegade football leagues soon realize after the league begins.
The business plan looks good until you start playing the games, but it's a tough choice as maintaining the status-quo will find a product that may struggle in drawing fans and chokes off revenue or if you sign top talent to improve the league and add fan interest, the bottom line soon can become untenable.
The USFL did the latter of the two choices and went under, but its three-year run is still the longest of the challenger leagues in the last fifty years and I still maintain they had the right idea- sign a few big names and mix with the other players to build a following.
The USFL was on its way under this plan under Donald Trump came along and I think it can succeed, but it's going to lose plenty of money before things turn the corner and it may still never become profitable.
I hope to see the second season of the XFL and I think a return is possible.
However, the long-term health of the league has to be in question and only Vince McMahon and his league shareholders will be able to answer if the XFL will hear the bell for season two.
Time will tell the tale of whether the D.C. Defenders are another team headed for that fabled TRS Graveyard of franchises that I cared about and have only stories and a headstone to remember them by,
This entire problem sweeping our country has taken a bit out of me of late and it took me three days to get through this post.
I hope to be working on the Browns free-agent additions soon and I may drag them out a bit since there is next to nothing else to write about in the sports world.
Thanks for sticking with me.
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