When I first learned that Vince McMahon of all people was founding a professional football league, I greeted the news with skepticism about its chances of survival. McMahon may be a modern day P.T. Barnum when it comes to entertaining the masses, and perhaps he does have his finger on the pulse of the adolescent male audience, but none of this alters the most crucial factor to be considered. There is simply no need for another football league. The most diehard fan gets more than his fill with the NFL, NFL Europe, Arena football, and collegiate games. So if the XFL is to entice pigskin enthusiasts to emotionally invest in a whole new set of teams, it will have to offer considerably more than the same old same old. After all, the USFL, which legitimately attempted to compete with the NFL for talent by offering competitive salaries, failed in its noble attempt. For McMahon's league to avoid a similar fate, he would have to reach deeply into his bag of tricks. To his credit, the XFL does present some interesting innovations that promote more action and a quicker pace, not to mention increased violence and mayhem.
The fair catch has been abolished, and kick off returners cannot take a knee in the endzone but must attempt to advance the ball. Quarterbacks in the XFL are not protected by the in- the-grasp rule. Punts travelling 25 yards or more are considered a live ball, recoverable by either team. Only one foot needs to be in-bounds when making a reception or interception, like in college ball. The point-after-touchdown kick has been replaced by a far less reliable and more interesting one-down play from the 2-yard line. Both teams are given opportunities to score when a game goes into overtime (once again emulating the college game). And my personal favorite, instead of the opening kickoff scenario being decided by a coin toss, a mad dash for the ball that has been placed at midfield starts games off.
In addition to these tweaking of rules, there are plenty of additional changes regarding the coverage of games. Twenty players on each team have microphones implanted inside their helmets, providing viewers with audio of every hit and load of trash talking that takes place. This serves to give live action football the feel of a video game, which ironically brings matters full circle, since sports video games strive to capture the feel of actual games. The camera work in the XFL is particularly intrusive, with cameras inside the huddle and suspended by wire overhead. Increased focus has been put on artificially enhanced cheerleaders, who are allowed and are seemingly encouraged to date players and then fill us in on whatever it is McMahon thinks we might want to know about them. Broadcasters sit outside in the stands rather than being pampered in an enclosed booth. One of these broadcasters happens to be former wrestler, Jesse "The Governor" Ventura. Even the salary structure (these guys will deservedly be paid far less than NFL players) seems to be inspired more by televised game shows than traditional sports leagues. By far, the wisest decision made about the XFL was having its season begin in January, after the NFL's ends, for direct competition would have been suicide.
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