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2018/01/25 22:59:28
Subject: It's official, the extreme reboot your mouths have been screaming for...
WWE founder and chairman Vince McMahon announced Thursday he is giving a professional football league another go.
It will be called the XFL, the same name of the league McMahon and NBC tried for one season in 2001, but it won't rely on flashy cheerleaders and antics as its predecessor did, he said.
Features of Returning XFL
• 8 teams to start
• 40 man rosters
• 10-game season beginning in January
• Two-hour game-time goal
• Any player with a criminal record precluded from playing
• Players won't receive forum to take personal stance on social issues on playing field
McMahon said he is the sole funding source for the league, which is slated to begin in January 2020. Its first season will have eight teams around the country playing a 10-week schedule. The initial outlay of money is expected to be around $100 million, the same amount of WWE stock McMahon sold last month and funneled into Alpha Entertainment, the company he founded for the project.
"I wanted to do this since the day we stopped the other one," McMahon told ESPN in an exclusive interview. "A chance to do it with no partners, strictly funded by me, which would allow me to look in the mirror and say, 'You were the one who screwed this up,' or 'You made this thing a success.'"
McMahon told reporters on Thursday afternoon that he has had no initial talks with media entities.
One mark of the new league, McMahon said, will be faster games. The ideal running time, he said, would be two hours.
As for the timing of the announcement, two years before the league's debut, many might point to McMahon's relationship with President Donald Trump, who this fall criticized the NFL for allowing its players to kneel and sit during the national anthem. McMahon said players in his league will not be given the forum to take a personal stance while on the playing field. McMahon's wife, Linda, heads the Small Business Administration in Trump's Cabinet.
"People don't want social and political issues coming into play when they are trying to be entertained," McMahon said. "We want someone who wants to take a knee to do their version of that on their personal time."
Despite his relationship with President Trump, McMahon told reporters he had "no idea whether President Trump will support this."
McMahon said being the only owner of all of the teams will allow him to do whatever he wants.
"I can say, 'Here are the rules, and as long as you are playing football in the stadium for us, you follow these rules.'"
McMahon also said he would preclude any player with a criminal record, which would possibly disqualify former Texas A&M quarterback and Heisman Trophy winner Johnny Manziel.
"We are evaluating a player based on many things, including the quality of human being they are," McMahon said. If you have any sort of criminal record or commit a crime you aren't playing in this league."
McMahon was asked by reporters specifically about Manziel, Colin Kaepernick and Tim Tebow playing in the XFL. While Kaepernick does not have a criminal record, he started the NFL movement to protest during the national anthem, which would not be allowed in McMahon's league. McMahon answered the question and only specifically referenced Tebow.
"You want someone who does not have any criminality associated whatsoever with them. Even if you have a DUI you will not play in the XFL," McMahon told reporters. "So that will probably eliminate some of them. Not all of them. If Tim Tebow wants to play, he can very well play."
Manziel, however, tweeted at McMahon to express his interested in playing in the league.
One of the main problems with the ill-fated previous XFL was timing -- the first games were played a year after the concept was announced. Adding an additional year, McMahon said, will allow for a better product. Teams will be formed in 2019.
"It's extremely important that we have time to get together and get them practicing so we can have a quality product," McMahon said.
One of the reasons McMahon thinks he will be able to succeed 19 years after the league first failed is because, he said, television ratings no longer dictate success.
"To me the landscape has changed in so many different ways," McMahon said. "Just look at technology and companies like Facebook and Amazon bidding for sports rights. Even if ratings go down, there's no denying that live sports rights continue to be valuable and continue to deliver."
One of the ways McMahon envisions enticing major media partners is to offer them something the NFL hasn't: more creative feeds of the same game.
"I don't think people want to see the same thing when they're streaming as they see on television," McMahon said. "That's boring. I think fans want it shot in a totally different way, and I think there's an immersive opportunity that's more interactive to the game."
McMahon said seeing the NFL's troubles, which included a second consecutive year of a decline in ratings, didn't have to do with the timing of his announcement.
"The start of this league has nothing to do with the NFL's troubles," McMahon said. "What has happened there is their business, and I'm not going to knock those guys, but I am going to learn from their mistakes as anyone would if they were tasked with reimagining a new football league."
NFL spokesman Brian McCarthy told ESPN that the league will have no comment on McMahon's upstart league.
Over the next couple of months, the league will announce the eight cities, expected to be large and medium-sized markets, where the teams will play. Team names will follow.
"Every city is on our radar," McMahon told reporters.
Then will come selection of players for the 40-man rosters. Salaries will be determined, but McMahon said players will make more money for winning.
"To me that's common sense," McMahon said. "Everyone in America lives when they perform, they get a raise or bonus. That's capitalism."
Although the season is only 10 weeks, McMahon said the contract will be a 52-week job so players can work themselves into the communities where they play.
It is not clear whether star players, should they garner national attention, will be able to jump to the NFL.
"One thing we are not is a development league for the NFL," McMahon said.
McMahon said he decided to go with the XFL name even though his new league won't provide the same gimmicks that were both a hallmark and a black mark on the original league.
"Quite frankly I looked at a number of things, but nothing resonated like the XFL. There's only so many things that have 'FL' on the end of them and those are already taken. But we aren't going to have much of what the XFL had, including the cheerleaders, who aren't really part of the game anymore. The audience wants entertainment with football, and that's what we are going to give them."
That means popular names such as Tebow, the 2007 Heisman Trophy winner, won't be given priority just because they are marketable. Everyone will come in on an even playing field, McMahon said.
"Maybe in a certain city having the old college quarterback would make sense, but only if he's the best option," McMahon said. "It's the wrong thing to do just for marketing."
McMahon told reporters that, unlike the last XFL, he doesn't have any plans to be visible during the league's games or with the league's content. Similarly, McMahon said that there will be no crossover with the league and WWE talent.
I'm back!
2018/01/25 23:06:23
Subject: Re:It's official, the extreme reboot your mouths have been screaming for...
Players won't receive forum to take personal stance on social issues on playing field
Haha, what does this mean? No players on the field during the anthem? No Twitter for athletes? Is XFL positioning itself as a safe space for deplorables to get their football fix?
I am interested in his "creative feeds" idea. Sounds like it might be giving the viewer the ability to switch around to different perspectives during the action. That could be cool.
We were once so close to heaven, St. Peter came out and gave us medals; declaring us "The nicest of the damned".
“Anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that 'my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge.'”
2018/01/25 23:08:45
Subject: Re:It's official, the extreme reboot your mouths have been screaming for...
Players won't receive forum to take personal stance on social issues on playing field
Haha, what does this mean? No players on the field during the anthem? No Twitter for athletes? Is XFL positioning itself as a safe space for deplorables to get their football fix?
I am interested in his "creative feeds" idea. Sounds like it might be giving the viewer the ability to switch around to different perspectives during the action. That could be cool.
By different perspectives I'm going to assume that means what else is on TV at that moment.
I'm back!
2018/01/26 03:28:51
Subject: Re:It's official, the extreme reboot your mouths have been screaming for...
No, no no no. They're doing it wrong. They need to ONLY accept players with violent criminal records, play the games in burnt out city blocks of collapsing middle American cities, and give all the players as many melee weapons and armor as they choose to carry. Each team has a safety with a high powered rifle with a scope and a single bullet.
The above would make me literally the single biggest sports fan in the world.
Players won't receive forum to take personal stance on social issues on playing field
Haha, what does this mean? No players on the field during the anthem? No Twitter for athletes? Is XFL positioning itself as a safe space for deplorables to get their football fix?
How about someone that just wants to watch football and not feel preached to?
2018/01/26 06:24:08
Subject: Re:It's official, the extreme reboot your mouths have been screaming for...
Players won't receive forum to take personal stance on social issues on playing field
Haha, what does this mean? No players on the field during the anthem? No Twitter for athletes? Is XFL positioning itself as a safe space for deplorables to get their football fix?
How about someone that just wants to watch football and not feel preached to?
They could struggle up off their sofa and grab a beer or whatever from the kitchen during the couple of minutes at the beginning where there's no football going on anyway?
But hey, I'm not mad at this at all, it's a great idea - nothing else is as likely to finally bankrupt that chimp in a skinsuit McMahon.
"Your society's broken, so who should we blame? Should we blame the rich, powerful people who caused it? No, lets blame the people with no power and no money and those immigrants who don't even have the vote. Yea, it must be their fething fault." - Iain M Banks
-----
"The language of modern British politics is meant to sound benign. But words do not mean what they seem to mean. 'Reform' actually means 'cut' or 'end'. 'Flexibility' really means 'exploit'. 'Prudence' really means 'don't invest'. And 'efficient'? That means whatever you want it to mean, usually 'cut'. All really mean 'keep wages low for the masses, taxes low for the rich, profits high for the corporations, and accept the decline in public services and amenities this will cause'." - Robin McAlpine from Common Weal
2018/01/26 07:14:41
Subject: Re:It's official, the extreme reboot your mouths have been screaming for...
Players won't receive forum to take personal stance on social issues on playing field
Haha, what does this mean? No players on the field during the anthem? No Twitter for athletes? Is XFL positioning itself as a safe space for deplorables to get their football fix?
I am interested in his "creative feeds" idea. Sounds like it might be giving the viewer the ability to switch around to different perspectives during the action. That could be cool.
It means no one will watch it, like every other attempt to create a competing league in any major sport. No spectators = no forum.
This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2018/01/26 07:15:26
insaniak wrote: Sometimes, Exterminatus is the only option.
And sometimes, it's just a case of too much scotch combined with too many buttons...
2018/01/26 07:20:05
Subject: Re:It's official, the extreme reboot your mouths have been screaming for...
How about someone that just wants to watch football and not feel preached to?
Preaching? Wasn't this about kneeling?
I love it though, the existence of people I disagree with is "preaching". I guess it's the same persecution complex thinking that same sex couples existing is "shoving it in my face"
I prefer to buy from miniature manufacturers that *don't* support the overthrow of democracy.
2018/01/26 07:41:39
Subject: Re:It's official, the extreme reboot your mouths have been screaming for...
So someone is using a hypocritical political controversy to market their latest ego trip business venture to the people who couldn't care less about political issues being protested until someone starts kneeling on TV. I look forward to seeing this play out either way, cause no matter how it turns out it's going to be fething hilarious
Players won't receive forum to take personal stance on social issues on playing field
Haha, what does this mean? No players on the field during the anthem? No Twitter for athletes? Is XFL positioning itself as a safe space for deplorables to get their football fix?
How about someone that just wants to watch football and not feel preached to?
They could struggle up off their sofa and grab a beer or whatever from the kitchen during the couple of minutes at the beginning where there's no football going on anyway?
But hey, I'm not mad at this at all, it's a great idea - nothing else is as likely to finally bankrupt that chimp in a skinsuit McMahon.
That "chimp" is a multi-billionaire that brillantly took an entertainment medium, moved it's business model out of the old carnie mindset and regional territories, and made it a multi-million dollar a year international success story.
He obviously sees a potential market, and thinks it's worth the risk. It's called diversification.
If he can avoid the mistakes made before, and keep the XFL divorced from the WWE, then it could work.
Proud Purveyor Of The Unconventional In 40k
2018/01/26 10:08:14
Subject: Re:It's official, the extreme reboot your mouths have been screaming for...
daedalus wrote: No, no no no. They're doing it wrong. They need to ONLY accept players with violent criminal records, play the games in burnt out city blocks of collapsing middle American cities, and give all the players as many melee weapons and armor as they choose to carry. Each team has a safety with a high powered rifle with a scope and a single bullet.
The above would make me literally the single biggest sports fan in the world.
Already exists: www.fox2detroit.com
insaniak wrote: Sometimes, Exterminatus is the only option.
And sometimes, it's just a case of too much scotch combined with too many buttons...
2018/01/26 10:16:54
Subject: Re:It's official, the extreme reboot your mouths have been screaming for...
How about someone that just wants to watch football and not feel preached to?
Preaching? Wasn't this about kneeling?
I love it though, the existence of people I disagree with is "preaching". I guess it's the same persecution complex thinking that same sex couples existing is "shoving it in my face"
More like yet another no-talent acting out to score some controversy points to bolster their career. After all, there is no such thing as bad publicity in professional sports or show business.
But such antics are usually done when the subject in question is either not the rising star that was expected, or somebody whose relevancy among the public has passed.
Also, these individuals are being paid multi-million dollar a year contracts to play football. Not to make political/social statements while on the clock, and pissing off a good portion of your customer base. Go on social media, donate money, or make statements in personal interviews, on your own time, if you want to promote a cause.
Proud Purveyor Of The Unconventional In 40k
2018/01/26 10:41:56
Subject: It's official, the extreme reboot your mouths have been screaming for...
Surely the attraction of professional sport is that it is played by talented individual players whom we can admire and view as role-models, with a background, human interest, and so on.
Otherwise just watch Madden NFL videogame on demo mode.
If political statements before football games is so awful perhaps they should, y'know, stop playing the national anthem? Because it's pretty damn transparent that the issue isn't with making a statement, but rather with the content.
For thirteen years I had a dog with fur the darkest black. For thirteen years he was my friend, oh how I want him back.
2018/01/26 15:20:38
Subject: It's official, the extreme reboot your mouths have been screaming for...
oldravenman3025 wrote: More like yet another no-talent acting out to score some controversy points to bolster their career. After all, there is no such thing as bad publicity in professional sports or show business.
Anyone who actually makes it to the NFL (1.6% of the college football players), is by definition not "no-talent." Even the worst NFL players and heads and shoulders above everyone else who plays the sport.
But such antics are usually done when the subject in question is either not the rising star that was expected, or somebody whose relevancy among the public has passed.
You know what they say about assumptions.
Not to make political/social statements while on the clock, and pissing off a good portion of your customer base.
There is a great irony in how 2/3 of the NFL is black, and more than 3/4 of the NFL come from inner cities, but heaven forbid they have an opinion about the state of inner cities in America. I mean feth them right? I think the issue is less that few NFL players are making a show of themselves, and more that once again a certain group of Americans doesn't like being reminded that racial divides still run deep in this country even while enjoying a sport filled with racial divides (enjoyed most by whites but played most by blacks, while white players earn the most money and white owners reap most of the profits).
Go on social media, donate money, or make statements in personal interviews, on your own time, if you want to promote a cause.
Like Hollywood starlets? This is why this whole issue is so funny right here. People would bitch about this in any state other than absolute silence so feth it, why shouldn't they make use of the stage they get paid millions of dollars to stand on and force people to either come to terms with an issue, or show how dickish they can be? It's a win win.
This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2018/01/26 15:32:34
*Insert meme of guy sitting on his couch watching the NFL game on tv, complaining that players are kneeling during the national anthem.*
This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2018/01/26 16:29:51
Sorry for my spelling. I'm not a native speaker and a dyslexic.
1750 pts Blood Specters
2000 pts Imperial Fists
6000 pts Disciples of Fate
3500 pts Peridia Prime
2500 pts Prophets of Fate
Lizardmen 3000 points Tlaxcoatl Temple-City
Tomb Kings 1500 points Sekhra (RIP)
2018/01/26 18:04:18
Subject: It's official, the extreme reboot your mouths have been screaming for...
It seems like he also is again underestimating the problems of competing with the NFL. Established audiences means advertisers have no real incentive to risk long standing relationships for an already failed attempt. Likewise, the addition of Thursday Night Football already seems to be reaching an oversaturation point with audiences. Anyone not watching is not doing so because of players social stances or criminal records- fans easily overlook those for their favorite teams
Also the irony of "evaluating players as a human being" while being a white billionaire who has been embroiled in everything from steroid distribution charges to sexual abuse allegations and doesn't want his players talking about "social issues" just ramming into each other to make him money is kind of striking.
-James
2018/01/26 20:30:18
Subject: It's official, the extreme reboot your mouths have been screaming for...
I have issues with any political statements by anyone in a venue where it is inappropriate. If George Cloony started holding up anti-abortion signs at a movie premiere I'd roll my eyes just as much.
Contrary to what some may claim, this isn't a "persecution complex" or "problem with the content".
This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2018/01/26 20:33:55
2018/01/26 20:32:51
Subject: It's official, the extreme reboot your mouths have been screaming for...
Well we could just get rid of all the black players. I bet you'll cut down the kneeling then.
Then you can watch your pure football without politics. /s
Anyways the XFL is an opportunity to return to the good old days of football. Back when there wasn't no wuss rules like defensive PIs, fair catches or that fruity yankee invention of the forward pass. You know back when men were men in the good old days that Americans of all races and creed can come together and fondly remember.
2018/01/26 22:21:01
Subject: It's official, the extreme reboot your mouths have been screaming for...
avantgarde wrote: Well we could just get rid of all the black players. I bet you'll cut down the kneeling then.
Then you can watch your pure football without politics. /s
Anyways the XFL is an opportunity to return to the good old days of football. Back when there wasn't no wuss rules like defensive PIs, fair catches or that fruity yankee invention of the forward pass. You know back when men were men in the good old days that Americans of all races and creed can come together and fondly remember.
Pretty sure the forward pass was invented by Indians from Oklahoma
The NFL teams struggle to accumulate good talent, hire good coaches, keep players healthy and win games. An additional league will have even greater struggles in amassing talented players and coaches and fielding good teams playing competitive games. We won't see a second professional football league survive unless that league launches with the same multi billion dollar revenue streams that the NFL already has. Nobody wants to watch bad football games and talented players wont take lease money to play in a lease prestigious league.
College football will have better players and coaches than the XFL. The whole concept is a pathetic joke. I'm amazed people are even taking it serious enough to discuss because it's not even going to exist for another 2 years if McMahon succeeds in raising enough money to fund it.
Mundus vult decipi, ergo decipiatur
2018/01/26 22:55:11
Subject: It's official, the extreme reboot your mouths have been screaming for...
Prestor Jon wrote: The NFL teams struggle to accumulate good talent, hire good coaches, keep players healthy and win games. An additional league will have even greater struggles in amassing talented players and coaches and fielding good teams playing competitive games. We won't see a second professional football league survive unless that league launches with the same multi billion dollar revenue streams that the NFL already has. Nobody wants to watch bad football games and talented players wont take lease money to play in a lease prestigious league.
College football will have better players and coaches than the XFL. The whole concept is a pathetic joke. I'm amazed people are even taking it serious enough to discuss because it's not even going to exist for another 2 years if McMahon succeeds in raising enough money to fund it.
I could still see a way to earn some profit honestly. It’s not like he built the WWE on talent. The man I can’t knock for his business sense per se. He knows that people will pay for spectacle and he knows how to put one together.
I think the issue is will there be any interest in that shen he finally puts it out? This is hole thing with the NFL this year will blow over by then I think. Is there going to be any interest I a another league by then?
I don't really think there will be much competition. XFL season starts in January. So, what, 2 or 3 weeks competing? After that there isn't much of the NFL to watch for a while.
2018/01/26 23:25:54
Subject: It's official, the extreme reboot your mouths have been screaming for...
cuda1179 wrote: I don't really think there will be much competition. XFL season starts in January. So, what, 2 or 3 weeks competing? After that there isn't much of the NFL to watch for a while.
The last time he started up the XFL its season was in the NFL's offseason and it still folded quickly. Nobody wants to watch teams they have no attachment to as fans because they're brand new, with rosters of players that aren't good enough to make it into the NFL, play bad football games. The only reason the AFL succeeded back in the day was because it happened long enough ago that the NFL was still small enough physically and financially that competition was viable. It's not the 1960s anymore and hasn't been for a while. That's why the USFL and the XFL have failed.
Mundus vult decipi, ergo decipiatur
2018/01/26 23:42:32
Subject: It's official, the extreme reboot your mouths have been screaming for...
Honestly I think interest is just the crux for success. Will there, or won't there, be enough interest to generate the cash flow needed to make the XFL a success? I think it's kind of a toss up but then I'm not really a sportsy kind of guy so my thoughts are probably worthless on whether or not a given sport will succeed XD
All I know is that curling is bizarrely fascinating and i will be watching it soon
oldravenman3025 wrote: More like yet another no-talent acting out to score some controversy points to bolster their career. After all, there is no such thing as bad publicity in professional sports or show business.
Anyone who actually makes it to the NFL (1.6% of the college football players), is by definition not "no-talent." Even the worst NFL players and heads and shoulders above everyone else who plays the sport.
But such antics are usually done when the subject in question is either not the rising star that was expected, or somebody whose relevancy among the public has passed.
You know what they say about assumptions.
Not to make political/social statements while on the clock, and pissing off a good portion of your customer base.
There is a great irony in how 2/3 of the NFL is black, and more than 3/4 of the NFL come from inner cities, but heaven forbid they have an opinion about the state of inner cities in America. I mean feth them right? I think the issue is less that few NFL players are making a show of themselves, and more that once again a certain group of Americans doesn't like being reminded that racial divides still run deep in this country even while enjoying a sport filled with racial divides (enjoyed most by whites but played most by blacks, while white players earn the most money and white owners reap most of the profits).
Go on social media, donate money, or make statements in personal interviews, on your own time, if you want to promote a cause.
Like Hollywood starlets? This is why this whole issue is so funny right here. People would bitch about this in any state other than absolute silence so feth it, why shouldn't they make use of the stage they get paid millions of dollars to stand on and force people to either come to terms with an issue, or show how dickish they can be? It's a win win.
No. I think it means no making statements such as kneeling on pitch, or other political stuff. When your not on thr game pitch. Tweet away.
As quote above. The league does not ban it. Just on the pitch.
Outside the pitch they can do as they please, they just cannot on during the game.
Sgt. Vanden - OOC Hey, that was your doing. I didn't choose to fly in the "Dongerprise'.
"May the odds be ever in your favour"
Hybrid Son Of Oxayotl wrote:
I have no clue how Dakka's moderation work. I expect it involves throwing a lot of d100 and looking at many random tables.
FudgeDumper - It could be that you are just so uncomfortable with the idea of your chapters primarch having his way with a docile tyranid spore cyst, that you must deny they have any feelings at all.
2018/01/27 00:44:19
Subject: It's official, the extreme reboot your mouths have been screaming for...
How dare people protest silently and peacefully in a place people can see them. Don't they know one should only protest in a place they can't be seen and has no chance to create a dialogue? Not only that but in the USA where such a thing is perfectly legal and ok to do?
Amidst the mists and coldest frosts he thrusts his fists against the posts and still insists he sees the ghosts.
1750 pts Blood Specters
6000 pts Disciples of Fate
3500 pts Peridia Prime
2500 pts Prophets of Fate
Lizardmen 3000 points Tlaxcoatl Temple-City
