The NFL season is over, but it doesn’t mean football fans must wait until August to watch their favorite sport. In fact, the launch of the 2020 XFL season on Feb. 8 will provide fans with a new brand of football that could be even more exciting.
Vince McMahon and XFL commissioner Oliver Luck have a vision for an innovative brand of football. Fans want more scoring, faster action and an intensity that is sometimes missing from the NFL. Now the XFL is hoping its new rules will give fans exactly that. Paired with well-known names on coaching staffs and on rosters and teams ready to compete for a title, everything else is in place for an entertaining product.
When fans tune in for the opening kickoff of the XFL season on Feb. 8, they’ll be treated to a game with different rules tailored to make the game more exciting. Now, let’s take a look at what makes the XFL standout from the NFL.
This rule was implemented with safety in mind by the XFL. The NFL employs a version of a sudden death overtime period, while the XFL plans to make OT five rounds, where each round, an offense will get one play per team starting at the opponent’s five-yard line. Whoever has the most points after five rounds wins the contest.
Rules
- Kickoff
The game will feel different from the moment the football is kicked off for the first time. As part of the XFL’s vision to bring more excitement to the game, kickoff returns have changed to avoid touchbacks and increase returns.
- The kicker stands from the 30-yard line and kicks the ball to the returner inside the opponent’s 20-yard line.
- Unlike in the NFL, both coverages teams will line up five yards apart with the return team at the 30-yard line and the coverage team at the 35-yard line. It’s a measure to prevent high-speed collisions.
- Only the kicker and returner can move at the start of the play. Once the ball is either caught or is on the ground for three seconds, all other players can move.
- These rules are in place not only to increase player safety, but to create more chances for huge kickoff returns.
- If the football goes into the end zone and is downed, it’s a “major” touchback with the ball placed at the 35-yard line.
- If the football hits in play and then goes out of the end zone, it is placed at the 15-yard line.
- Punts
Punts will be more infrequent in the XFL than the NFL, in large part thanks to rules put in place to encourage more aggressive decisions on fourth downs.
- The punt team can’t unleash its players past the line of scrimmage until the ball is kicked.
- If the football goes out of bounds inside the 35-yard line, it’s a major touchback and the ball goes to the 35-yard line. This eliminates coffin-corner punts, which are popular in the NFL.
- If the ball is punted and lands in the opponent’s end zone or goes out of the end zone, it’s a major touchback.
- Point-After Touchdown
This is one of the areas where the XFL can really stand out. The extra-point kick has become stale in the NFL. So, the XFL is bringing a new twist to the game after a touchdown.
- Following a touchdown, the team can choose between running a one, two or three-point play. No matter what the team picks, it must run an offensive play.
- One-point attempt: The team will run an offensive play from the two-yard line.
- Two-point attempt: The team runs an offensive play from the five-yard line.
- Three-point attempt: The team runs an offensive play from the 10-yard line.
- If the defense creates a turnover and returns it to the opposite end zone, they receive points equal to the attempt by the offense.
In the XFL’s eyes, this will add greater excitement to the game and increase opportunities for comebacks.
- Overtime
When an XFL game goes to overtime, that’s when the wild excitement starts. Instead of watching long drives unfold in the XFL with few scoring opportunities, the XFL focuses on immediate scoring chances.
- Each team will alternate in a single-play possession from the opponent’s five-yard line and is given one play to score. Each score is worth two points and only the offense can score.
- The single-play shootout will last for five rounds or until one of the teams is mathematically eliminated from matching the other team’s points.
- If the score is tied after five rounds, then it will continue until a winner is decided.
- If the defensive team commits a penalty at any point after, the offense moves to the one-yard line. If another penalty is made, the offense receives two points.
- If the offensive team commits a pre-snap penalty, the team moves back the subsequent yardage. If a post-snap penalty occurs, the play is dead and no score is given.
Clock Rules:
- Running game clock: Unlike the NFL, when a pass is incomplete or the play goes out of bounds, the game clock will start once the ball is spotted.
- Comeback period: Takes place after the two-minute warning. The clock will run after incompletions and out of bounds plays.
- Play clock: The XFL will use a 25-second play clock rather than the NFL’s 40-second clock.
- Timeouts: Each team receives two timeouts per half.
All of these rules are meant to increase the speed of the game and help the XFL achieve its goal of games being under three hours. Stopping the clock in the comeback period also allows coaches to save their timeouts. Overall, the focus is on a quicker game with more speed and better decisions.
Nfl And Xfl Differences
Instant Replay:
- Coaches’ challenge: No challenges will be allowed for coaches. All replay decisions are determined by officials.
- Replay official: The XFL sky judge watches over the game and can correct any egregious and obvious error that may have a significant impact on the game’s outcome in the last five minutes of the fourth quarter or in overtime.
The XFL’s goal is to have coaches focus on the game entirely and not become distracted by a referee’s mistake.
Gameplay Rules:
Difference Between Xfl And Nfl Rules
- Double-forward pass: A team can complete a forward pass behind the line of scrimmage then throw a second forward pass, barring the football not crossing the LOS before.
- Sideline catches: If a player secures control of the football and gets one foot in bounds, it will be considered a catch.
These rules are meant to not only make the game simpler and to allow players to make more incredible catches, but to also open up more creativity in playbooks.
World Wrestling Entertainment events begin with a montage showing the company’s history, framed by three words: Then. Now. Forever.
Then: 19 years ago this week, on February 3, 2001, the first incarnation of the XFL, created by WWE chairman and CEO Vince McMahon as a direct alternative to the NFL, held Opening Night of its first and only season.
Now: This Saturday, February 8, 2020, the second incarnation of the XFL kicks off.
Forever: That’s pushing it, considering the dismal track record of spring professional football leagues in the United States.
But there are clear differences between the old XFL and new XFL, contrasting the statement McMahon wanted to make in 2001 with the different goals of the new incarnation.
Begin with the ball. From All-XFL.com: “When it came time to decide what the [2001] XFL ball would look like, league officials were not going to settle on the same old, boring brown pigskin that other leagues traditionally use. Rather, the XFL wanted their balls to have more attitude, just as its players will have.” That black football proved to be too slippery in wet conditions — so league president Basil DeVito sandpapered the ball’s surface to restore its grip. The 2020 XFL’s football is brown, with each football featuring the home coloring of the eight XFL teams and that coloring extended to X’s on either side of the ball. In the league’s official press release, the ball’s “X-Pebble grip technology” is touted as “help[ing] players control the ball with a feel that enables a tight spin on throws, and also allows ball carriers to enhance their ball security.” A clear change in priorities, and the hint of advance planning.
The number of teams remains the same from 2001 to 2020, as does the length of regular season: an eight-team league playing ten games leading up to the postseason. But the facilities are notably different. The 2001 XFL specifically sought natural grass stadiums: the Birmingham Thunderbolts at Legion Field, Chicago Enforcers at Soldier Field, New York/New Jersey Hitmen at Giants Stadium, Orlando Rage at the Citrus Bowl (now Camping World Stadium), Los Angeles Xtreme at the Coliseum, Las Vegas Outlaws at Sam Boyd Stadium, Memphis Maniax at Liberty Bowl Memorial Stadium, and San Francisco Demons at Pacific Bell Park (now Oracle Park, home of MLB’s Giants). Interestingly, Legion Field, Soldier Field, the Citrus Bowl, Giants Stadium, Sam Boyd Stadium, and Liberty Bowl Memorial Stadium have all gone through major periods with artificial surfaces — but not in 2001, when the XFL was looking for natural grass sites.
In 2020, league standards have changed along with the quality of modern-day synthetic surfaces: Three XFL teams, the DC Defenders, Los Angeles Wildcats, and Tampa Bay Vipers, will play on grass. The other five, the Dallas Renegades, Houston Roughnecks, New York Guardians, St. Louis BattleHawks, and Seattle Dragons, will host their games on turf.
Notice how those team names and brands are markedly different from 2001 to 2020. From a glorifying of branded violence 19 years ago, the XFL’s franchises have changed to stylish embraces of city identities. Houston’s logo features an oil derrick, harkening to the city’s former NFL franchise, the Oilers. (All 2020 XFL team logos are pictured above.)
The embrace of violence from the 2001 XFL was borne out by the league’s rule innovations. Games began with a ‘scramble’ in lieu of a coin toss, with two players sprinting from the 30-yard line after a football placed at midfield; on Opening Night, Orlando’s Hassan Shamsid-Deen separated his shoulder in the scramble, ending his season. The 2001 XFL encouraged bump-and-run coverage in the secondary — but it discovered what the NFL already knew, which was that this proved too difficult to overcome in the passing game. A month into the season, the XFL reversed course and banned the bump-and-run in a bid to add more scoring and excitement to its defensive-dominated games. Old school grind-it-out football wasn’t as exciting as it used to be.
The 2020 XFL’s rule innovations, meanwhile, prioritize pace of play for brisker games: a 25-second play clock (rather than the NFL’s 40-second play clock), shortening halftime to ten minutes and timeouts to one minute (with each team only receiving two timeouts per half), introducing a ball-spotting official whose only job is to get the ball ready for play as quickly as possible, and an up-tempo game clock that rolls as soon as the ball is spotted for play, even following incompletions, unless inside the final two minutes of each half. Inside those final two minutes, the game changes. If a play ends with the player down inbounds, the clock stops until five seconds have elapsed on the play clock, thus allowing more time for a comeback and denying kneel downs from draining the final two minutes. Another key change: While the 2001 XFL banned fair catches, allowing the chance for greater collisions on punt returns, the 2020 XFL permits (though discourages) fair catches while giving returners greater freedom for returns by not allowing the punting team to cover the punt until the ball is safely booted upward and onward. If there are injuries, as there assuredly will be, the 2020 XFL comes complete with its own practice squad, Team 9, with a corps of players practicing in Arlington, TX, waiting for their chance to be signed during the season.
Difference Between Xfl And Nfl Rules Today
Both the 2001 and 2020 XFL did identify a clear area to separate from the NFL and orthodox football: No extra-point kicks following touchdowns. In 2001, XFL teams were forced to run a play from the 2-yard line to pick up an extra point. The current XFL is going deeper, giving offenses the choice of going for one, two or three points, depending on if they choose to run a play from the 2-yard line, 5-yard line, or 10-yard line.
Perhaps the biggest difference between the two different XFLs is shown in the leagues’ broadcast presentations. The 2001 XFL saw Vince McMahon walk out to midfield, microphone in hand, to growl, “Ladies and gentlemen, this is the XFL,” as if still in his Monday Night RAW persona. The Rock, before he became box office star Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, gave a full-on wrestling promo leading up to a game. RAW commentators Jim Ross and Jerry “the King” Lawler served as one of the league’s broadcast teams; Jesse Ventura worked on another; RAW commentator Jonathan Coachman served as sideline reporter. The implications were clear: The XFL and the WWE, though at that point still the WWF, were inextricably tied. Narratives were forced and hotshotted, from a feud between Ventura and New York/New Jersey’s head coach, Rusty Tillman, to the sexualized way the league’s cheerleaders were presented, which led to a brief demotion for lead broadcaster Matt Vasgersian after he did not react on air as enthusiastically as his bosses wished to the cheerleaders dancing in the crowd.
Now, consider the 2020 XFL’s announced broadcast teams: Kevin Burkhardt, Steve Levy, Tom Hart, Curt Menefee on play-by-play, with Joel Klatt, Greg McElroy, Joey Galloway, Tom Luginbill, and Pat McAfee as analysts. Each brings football broadcast credibility to the airwaves.
There were more than a few memorable aspects from the 2001 XFL beyond its failures. Major League Baseball’s Players Weekends see the players wear their nicknames on the backs of their jerseys; the XFL did it first. The XFL’s players were mic’ed up, the coaches were interviewed during games, halftime speeches were recorded and aired, players individually introduced themselves to the camera, and the Sky Cam zoomed about the field above the players. These have all stuck around, to increasing use, in today’s football broadcasts. They, too, are the XFL’s legacy.
That was then. This Saturday is now for the new XFL.
Difference Between Nfl And Xfl Rules
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