Spring football? TWO leagues?

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gounion
Posts: 17261
Joined: Sun Oct 24, 2021 4:59 pm

Spring football? TWO leagues?

Post by gounion »

Well, everything old is new again...

First, there's the USFL. What? The USFL? That's the league that Donald Trump destroyed!

But they're back. I guess Fox Sports has bought out the name and logos and such from the skeleton of the old league, and plan to play 8 teams in a 10-game schedule from April to July. But even though they have 8 cities with teams, they plan to play all games in Birmingham, AL??? More info.

Then there's the XFL. The XFL was fun, exciting and interesting when it started in February 2020, only to be derailed completely by COVID. The league was FUN, with lots of experimenting with the rules and an exciting wide-open game, even if the talent mostly wasn't anywhere near NFL-caliber, not even top college level. They were just getting into the groove five games into the season when the league was shut down. I was rooting for the DC Defenders, and was planning on going to some of the games.

However, the bones of the league was bought by a group led by Dwayne Johnson. They now plan to be back in 2023.

Neither league have any interest in competing with the NFL. The old USFL could have survived and thrived as a spring league, which could help develop players for possible NFL careers, like college does. But dumbass Donald Trump, as always, destroyed the league by manipulating it into competing with the NFL because Trump wanted to own an NFL team. He lost and the whole league lost, going bankrupt.

Is there room? Heck yes. Football is the transcendent sport in the USA, and the XFL showed there WAS interest. With streaming and hundreds of channels, there's hunger for new programming, and not only is there room for a spring league, there's probably room for two!

Fox Sports owning the USFL means it'll be well-funded, and Dwayne Johnson will put his reputation, name and money behind the XFL next year.

It's great to have feeder minor leagues that can develop future NFL talent. I'm all for it, let's go!

The last NFL season was a real bust with COVID and empty stadiums, and it was hard to get excited. Now that I'm retired, I've watched more football, one game live at Green Bay, than I ever have in my life. Love it!
Glennfs
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Joined: Sun Oct 24, 2021 12:54 pm

Re: Spring football? TWO leagues?

Post by Glennfs »

I would like to see it become a developmental league.
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gounion
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Re: Spring football? TWO leagues?

Post by gounion »

Glennfs wrote: Mon Jan 03, 2022 10:58 am I would like to see it become a developmental league.
Well of course they will be developmental leagues. Heck, over 60 XFLrs signed with the NFL after the league stopped play for COVID.

It doesn't seem that football can be overexposed these days. We used to have NFL football on Sunday afternoons. The NFL CANNOT play against college football per agreements with Congress on anti-trust grounds. That's why you ONLY have Saturday NFL after the college season is over.

Then we went to Monday games, which were HUGE. Then Thursday, then Sunday night. More teams, more games. Just keeps exploding.

And the NFL's growth hasn't hurt college football ratings at all.

Football leaves a hole for sports fans after the Super Bowl that Basketball and Baseball just can't fill. Sure, it will probably never hit the ratings the NFL does, but with a somewhat different set of rules that allows for an exciting game, they'll draw just fine. I mean, look at the crowds that high school football draws - and even smaller colleges! They sure don't have NFL-level talent, and it's STILL lots of fun to watch.

I'm looking forward to seeing what both leagues have to offer. We'll see what the USFL COULD have been, had they stayed a spring league without the poisoning influence of Donald Trump.
Motor City
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Re: Spring football? TWO leagues?

Post by Motor City »

there was one guy he worked at a grocery store and played in the arena league and he did pretty good in the nfl
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gounion
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Re: Spring football? TWO leagues?

Post by gounion »

Motor City wrote: Mon Jan 03, 2022 8:03 pm there was one guy he worked at a grocery store and played in the arena league and he did pretty good in the nfl
Yeah, the Arena league was a quite different type of football than the NFL, and didn't affect the NFL. Now, the USFL had several rule differences that were ultimately adopted by the NFL, including instant replay and the two-point conversion.

The XFL 2020 edition was experimenting with several new rules, but with only five weeks played, there's no way to know if the changes improved the game or not.
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