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On Sunday, February 12, the fifty-seventh edition of the Super Bowl took place in Glenndale, Arizona. (or the Super Bowl if you read us from Mexico or Latin America), ending the 2022 NFL season. Normally this event would mark the start of almost seven long months without football games in the United States, but not this year. Because on Saturday the 18th, just six days after the victory of the Kansas City Chiefs over the Philadelphia Eagles, the third attempt of the XFL will start.
This league was originally created by wrestling magnate Vince McMahon in 2001, although it only played a single season that ended with the victory of Los Angeles Xtreme over San Francisco Demons in the grand finale, called “The Million Dollar Game” (the million dollar game).
Two decades later it was reactivated the competition with eight new franchises in an attempt to fill the void left by the NFL during the spring. AND it was working pretty well until the outbreak of COVID-19 forced everything to stop. The league went bankrupt and was bought by Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson (among others), who ensured that the competition would be played again.
The XFL returns in a format very similar to that of the interior attempt and keeping most of the franchises that played three years ago. Three stay exactly the same: Houston Roughnecks, DC Defenders and St.Louis Battlehawks. The Texan franchise was the one that was leading the league at the time it was suspended at the hands of quarterback PJ Walker, who would later enter the NFL and would play several games as a starter for the Carolina Panthers during the last two seasons. DC and St Louis were also two of the featured teams in 2020. Two other teams undergo slight changes: the Seattle Dragons are renamed the Seattle Sea Dragons and the Dallas Renegades move a few miles and are now the Arlington Renegades. Two franchises relocate: the New York Guardians travel south and are now the Orlando Guardians, keeping the logo but changing their colors. AND the Tampa Bay Vipers leave Florida and move to Las Vegas, where they will play as the Vegas Vipers.
There is a new team, the third in the state of Texas: San Antonio Brahmas replace the Los Angeles Wildcats.
These teams will be divided geographically into two divisions, the North (DC, Seattle, St Louis and Vegas) and the South (Arlington, Houston, Orlando and San Antonio). After ten days (without a bye week or rest day), a playoff will be played consisting of a single match between the first and second place in each division and the grand final between the two winners.
In addition to filling the void left by the NFL among American football fans or discovering a player who may end up playing in that league, as happened, among many others, with the aforementioned PJ Walker, one of the main attractions of the XFL is the rule changes regarding the National Football League. There are some very striking ones, such as the one that allows two forward passes behind the ‘line of scrimmage’ (the imaginary line from where the ball is put into play) instead of just one. This rule, however, is unlikely to ever be implemented in the NFL. Other rules, however, do attract the attention of the centennial league and could be adapted in the not too distant future. Highlights the change in the ‘kickoffs’ (when the ‘kicker’ kicks to start the other team play, they occur at the beginning of each half and after each score), in which the players of the teams, except for the kicker and returner, line up much closer , just a few yards away. This it allows better returns and, in turn, reduces injuries since the colliding players carry much less inertia.
Whether it is to kill the bug, to discover new talents or to keep an eye on some of the rules that could reach the NFL in the future, all lovers of this sport should pay attention to this third, and hopefully final, attempt by the XFL. A dead king, king set.
By the way, this year we have a double helping of spring football in the United States, since in April the second season of the USFL will also begin, the old league of the 80s that returned last year. But that is another story…