In the wake of the NFL's woes, Vince McMahon set to relaunch the XFL

Remember the XFL? It was an alternate football league, launched by the combined forces of Vince McMahon's WWF and NBC back in 2001. Instead of tedious rules minutiae like "completing the process of the catch," it emphasized cheerleaders, Hail Mary passes, and "extreme" bombast. Its players swore that, unlike pro-wrestling, it wasn't scripted but (despite impressive initial ratings) it never managed to find a sustainable audience. The whole thing imploded after one season.

---

Still, the idea of a stripped-down football experience lingered. If there was one positive thing you could say about the XFL it was this: it may have been goofy, but it was fast - and you didn't get bogged down in the tedium that seems to have overtaken the today's NFL. Speaking of the NFL, it's currently a little like the wounded zebra of the sports world. Sure, it's political issues have done damage, but the weird officiating, the spoiled players, and a wide range of criminal scandals have also taken a toll. It's hard to find a football fan that will actually admit to liking the current direction of the National Football League. Viewership and attendence are down, and it looks like Vince McMahon smells blood. Rumors have been swirling that the XFL might spring back into action - and it sounds like those rumors will be confirmed later today. As Forbes reports:

As WWE's production team reportedly prepares video footage for XFL 2020, Vince McMahon will boldly reenter the minefield of professional football, which has burned so many potential competitors to the NFL, including McMahon himself with the original launch of the XFL in 2001. This improbable project first caught buzz when right-wing blogger Brad Shephard tweeted that WWE was set to bring back the beleaguered league, which he claimed would be announced on January 25, 2018.

---

---

David Bixenspan of Deadspin also picked up the story, which was given more life when a WWE spokesperson surprisingly admitted that Vince McMahon was using his own money to launch Alpha Entertainment, "to explore investment opportunities across the sports and entertainment landscapes, including professional football."

Well, now it's January 25, and McMahon has indeed scheduled a press conference for this afternoon. CBS News is reporting that he will announce his new league then, and its first season will be 2020. As for using his own money, McMahon recently sold $100 Million of his WWE stock in a move to fund his new sports-entertainment endeavor. So, will he fare any better the second time around? Who knows. There are a lot of big differences between now and 2001. The NFL's current woes are just one of them. The biggest change is the media landscape, and I suspect that will work in his favor. A relaunched XFL wouldn't need to succeed in a major network's primetime lineup. There are, literally, hundreds of possible outlets. It could run on any one of a dozen cable nets that would be thrilled with what used to be considered middling-to-low ratings, or it could wind up on a streaming service where perceived value isn't necessarily tied to ratings. If an outlet like Netflix wanted to push its way into the sports programming world, it's not hard to imagine a scenario where they view the XFL as a sort of loss-leader. In the end, if it's even remotely entertaining, there will probably be an audience. It may not be a huge viewership but, these days, it may not have to be - at least, not initially. If the product is solid - and if McMahon has learned the lessons of his previous flop - it definitely has a shot.

---