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The first time the XFL tried to challenge the NFL for football dominance was in 2001. Instead of trying to put forth a quality football product, the league relied on gimmicks. There were scantily clad women on the sidelines that were more exotic dancers than cheerleaders. There were nicknames on the backs of jerseys and rules that encouraged a more violent brand of football. The league turned out to be a flash in the pan and disbanded after only one season. It’s different this time around.

This time the XFL is trying to do it the right way. In January 2018, Vince McMahon announced that he would relaunch the failed eight-team league in spring 2020. He was going to take two years to get it right. This time no gimmicks, just football. 

McMahon has stayed true to his word. On top of landing legitimate TV contracts for the league with both ESPN and FOX, he brought in respectable figures in the world of football to make the league legit. First, he hired Oliver Luck to run the league as commissioner. Luck, the father of former star NFL quarterback, Andrew Luck, has a long track record as a football executive. He was the president of NFL Europe, athletic director at West Virginia University, and executive vice president of Regulatory Affairs for the NCAA. Luck knows football, and it was a great hire that brought respectability to the XFL. 

McMahon has also brought in respectable coaches. Most notable is future Hall of Famer Bob Stoops, a former University of Iowa safety and National Championship winning coach at the University of Oklahoma. There are also former NFL head coaches such as Marc Trestman, Jim Zorn and June Jones. These are legitimate coaches that bring name recognition in the world of football.

All but one of the XFL’s head coaches have one thing in common; They are all offensive-minded coaches. The XFL is clearly making it a priority to entertain fans with offense, which is also why the league has made a concerted effort to bring in quality quarterbacks, namely Landry Jones and Cardale Jones, former NFL players who are looking for a chance to actually get on the field instead of holding a clipboard. There is also a plethora of former NFL players who either never got a chance to play or are looking to earn their way back into the league. 

The upstart league isn’t just relying on bringing in former NFL talent and coaches with name recognition; it has also instituted numerous changes to the game of football that the league believes will bring some staying power. For starters, there is an emphasis on the speed of play. The XFL wants every one of its games to be played in under three hours. To accomplish this, the league has fielded an extra official referee just to spot the ball, instituted a 25-second play clock and limited each team to only two time outs per half compared to the NFL and College Football’s three timeouts. The halftime is also shorter, only 10 minutes compared to 12 minutes in the NFL, and 20 minutes in College Football. 

The most significant differences in rules of actual gameplay of the XFL will be on special teams. First there is the kickoff. Whereas the NFL is going away from the kickoff and encouraging more touchbacks for safety reasons, the XFL is encouraging kick returns to create excitement for fans. To accomplish this, the league has put a rule in place that says the kicking team must kick the ball into the field of play. If they don’t, the opposing team starts on offense with the ball placed at either its own 35-yard line if it is a touchback, or worse the kicking team’s 45-yard line if the ball is kicked out of bounds.

Then there is the point-after rules. In both the NFL and college football there only two options: a team can attempt a kick (at the 15-yard line for the NFL and the 5-yard line for college) for one point or attempt a two-point play from the 2-yard line. In the XFL, there are three options; however, none involve kicking. A team can choose to run a play from the 2, 5 or 10-yard lines worth 1, 2 and 3 points respectively. There is also a built-in advantage for the defense in these situations. If the defense can cause a turnover and return the ball to the opposing end zone, the score will be worth however many points the offensive team was attempting. 

To create more access to the coaches and players, the XFL will have multiple in-game interviews with both players and coaches after big plays. Fans will also be able to listen to a coach relay plays and explanations to their players in real-time. 

All of this boils down to one simple question. Is the XFL a quality product that’s worth watching? After only a couple weeks of play to judge, the answer is yes; but it’s a work in progress. With all of the emphasis on making offense a priority to entertain fans, only one game in the opening weekend reached its over/under projection of a combined 52.5 points. Five of the other eight teams that played scored fewer than 20 points. In week two, the most exciting thing to happen was watching quarterback Matt McGloin give a live interview as he was benched in the second half for poor play.

Clearly the XFL is not yet the offensive entertainment powerhouse they are hoping to be, but the league is only a couple of weeks into its first season of meaningful play. There is an acclimation period needed to work out the kinks. For die-hard fans looking for more football, the XFL will appease the appetite. Will the casual fans looking for something meaningful to entertain them buy in? That remains to be seen.