Will the XFL Change All Games Again?

No opening coin flip? Four downs in overtime? And what kind of name is Nic Car Nic?

Who remembers the first iteration of the XFL, the radical version of America’s favorite sport meant to challenge in the NFL? The X stood for eXtreme back in 2001. The game ball was black and red. Team names were the Las Vegas Outlaws, Memphis Maniax and New York/New Jersey Hitmen, to name a few.

The brainchild of WWE owner Vince McMahon, he boldly laid the gauntlet down, confidently boasting his league was taking on the established behemoth by presenting the sport with the edginess and attitude of his pro wrestling league.

That bravado was easily crushed as this eXtreme football didn’t live up to its billing. The quality of play was well below expectations, even with in-season rule changes to try to improve the product. Ultimately the league lasted just one year, as no network was willing to air the league’s games for the second season.

The XFL was looked at as a joke. All the histrionics couldn’t cover for bad football. Everybody buried the XFL.

Which was funny, because while the four major sports dismissed what the XFL was, they picked away at the carcass. They walked away with ideas that they eventually incorporated into their sports.

Let’s be honest here. The four major sports got stale. Nothing was wrong with the product, but there had been very little innovation over the years because they were comfortable. Maybe a little nip-tuck of a rule here and there (extending the goal post length…[yawn]), but otherwise sports were very much unchanged for decades because they had the best versions of their sports, the fans always came back with little to no complaints, so there was no incentive to change.

The XFL, like the ABA and USFL before, intended to shake up the status quo. To do so, they thought outside the box.

Some ideas were stupid, like eliminating the opening coin flip for a dash for the football placed at mid-field. Other ideas we see today in other sports.

The XFL introduced the spider cam, a camera suspended by wires over the field of play, providing a John Madden-like view of the field. It’s now in every NFL stadium and the NBA used a version of it as well.

Players and coaches were available for interviews at all times on the field and sideline, getting quick comments, sometimes right after plays. While the four major sports won’t go that far, we see more in-game interviews with coaches between periods, coming out of commercial breaks, and during MLB playoff games.

Individuality was celebrated in the XFL, and the other leagues realized it’s good for their sports as well. In the NBA, players don’t have to wear sneakers that match their team uniforms anymore. The NFL started Crucial Catch, allowing players to wear custom cleats once a year and raffle the shoes to benefit a charity of the players’ choice.

Rod Smart’s iconic “He Hate Me” name on his Las Vegas Outlaws jersey made him a household name. And once a year in the MLB we see players in jerseys with a moniker of their choice on the back. That’s way more interesting than a seventh corporate uniform designed to take fans’ money.

A couple of personal relics from an XFL shopping spree

The 2020 XFL returns to action with a lot less bloviating. The slogan is a tame “For the Love of Football.” The desire to push the envelope remains, thankfully. No extra point kick after touchdowns. The play clock is just 25 seconds. Overtime resembles a hockey shootout, with offenses taking shots at the end zone from the 5-yard line.

Will these rule changes, and others, have enough appeal to make the NFL change some of their rules? We’ll have to wait and see. The XFL’s 2001 version of overtime was great, but no one talks about it.

But maybe we’ll see it, or something like it, somewhere. Eventually.

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