Professional Football Researchers Association Forum

Mark L. Ford wrote:

single wing wrote:I am hearing its going to be the UrFL
Play on
Your Football League.

Because without u-r-f-l, you can't spell "failure"!

In the spring time, I believe a sensible league is a product that can make it. It has to be on the premise of just "being football". No silliness, no "aspirations of making it to the NFL", .....just solid football product for the abundance of quality players not good enough or fortunate enough to make it in the NFL.

Official announcement made today.

WWE's Vince McMahon had a conference at 3:00 pm http://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/2221 ... eturn-2020 Kind of an interesting concept (that he says will be "family friendly", faster-paced and "easier to understand") rather than the 2001 debacle. Eight teams, spring football, and, like most of these leagues, will kickoff two years from now. Of course, most of these ventures end up postponing their kickoff date another year, so they're always in the future. This one is supposed to have a $100,000,000 outlay of capital before it starts... I'm all in favor of any league that can create some more jobs for players.

Mark L. Ford wrote:and, like most of these leagues, will kickoff two years from now. Of course, most of these ventures end up postponing their kickoff date another year, so they're always in the future. This one is supposed to have a $100,000,000 outlay of capital before it starts...

Way different from "most of these ventures". Those are the ones that the have the same group of people going forum to forum to hype them up while everyone else knows there's a 0% chance of the league playing a game. While those leagues, exactly as you said, generally postpone year after year until fading away for good. Or they do the always classic start by releasing logos/uniform concepts before they even have a finance plan and the league dies before it starts. Or probably the worst ones, that don't really have a legitimate plan but they have a draft and take money from all the players coming to tryouts then immediately disappear.

I wouldn't put the XFL in that category. It'll be more surprising if they don't start in 2020 than if they do. How long it'll last is a different conversation but on the front end, actually getting to kickoff, Vince and the XFL are in a totally different category from the ones you're talking about.

I do wonder if the NFL would counter it though, with bringing back the developmental spring league (would never be NFL Europe again but similar concept). That's probably the best chance of the XFL NOT happening.

I watched the announcement live at Noon today. He said it'll start in Jan/Feb, so similar to the first run where the season was over in April.

Seemed like the only thing it'll have in common with the original XFL is the name of the league and season structure (8 teams, 10 games, winter/spring schedule).

Also, less competition for coaches/players than they had in 2001. No NFLE and arena football isn't anything like it used to be.

John Grasso wrote:How about they play with no challenges and no replay.

That I can get behind!!

Mark L. Ford wrote:This one is supposed to have a $100,000,000 outlay of capital before it starts... I'm all in favor of any league that can create some more jobs for players.

This was the only piece of actual information given at the press conference. $100M doesn't sound like nearly enough money to start a pro football league IMO. That wouldn't even cover Steve Young's annuity payments from the USFL.

This league can work if:
They don't have some of the rule changes they had before ex: every punt return is live
Define a catch
No rasslers involved!
Give all the undrafted and low round players another chance: Brady 6th round, Montana 3rd round,Jamal Anderson 6th round,etc
Don't move to the fall!
Don't overpay players.Have you noticed that almost everytime a player gets a big contract,they almost never perform the same again?
Let it be football,not rasslin'
Don't let our sitting President get involved.

One thing positive I'll say about the XFL is that their telecasts brought two innovations that are common today... the Skycam and the "talking heads" player introduction where the player says his name and his alma mater. The XFL did it live, whereas the format now is to have prerecorded images that move more efficiently. Luckily, the "race to the ball" didn't get accepted as a replacement for the coin toss.

Does anyone here recall the "helmet cam" that was used in 1991 in WLAF telecasts? I regret that that didn't catch on, but it was a miniature video camera, microphone, and wireless transmitter built into the helmet of a designated player, usually a lineman. It made for some great replays, and I enjoyed watching the games on the USA Network, even the ones that involved the Raleigh-Durham Skyhawks. I think that one of the drawbacks was that the player wearing the helmet cam was more likely to get injured by someone wanting screen time.