The NFL season ended with a bang on Super Bowl Sunday. Usually, the next couple of months leave football fans with a void only football can fill, but not this year. The newest expansion league the XFL is officially upon us. The creator of the XFL is Vince McMahon, the owner of WWE. Believe it or not, this isn’t McMahon’s first attempt at a football league. In 2001, the millionaire took his first shot at professional football with the inaugural season of the XFL. The XFL was known for outrageous rules, encouraging player-cheerleader relations, in-game interviews, and nicknames on the nameplates of the players. The XFL only had one season and was dropped after 2001 by its television sponsor NBC. But the XFL did impact the NFL. The most well-known impact of the XFL is the SkyCam. That’s right, the XFL is responsible for one of the greatest camera angles in the NFL.

The XFL is back in 2020, this time with a deal with ESPN. The league is not as “rowdy” as it was in 2001 but definitely has a unique touch on the game.

The first innovation by the XFL is the kickoff. The NFL has been looking for safer ways of conducting the kickoff. There were even reports of the NFL getting rid of it altogether. The XFL put their own spin on the issue. In the XFL, the kicker place kicks the ball from their own 30-yard line. The kicking team is lined up at the opponent’s 35-yard line, while the receiving team lines up at their own 30-yard line. The return man is behind the rest of his team, and no one is allowed to move until the return man catches the ball. There is also no fair catch. I think that this is a cool innovation, but I enjoy the NFL’s kickoff system better because it allows special teams to be a bigger factor in the game. Special Teams is often the forgotten third phase of the game, but an important one none the least. I don’t think that the XFL’s kickoff rule utilizes the special teams unit effectively, and I don’t see this rule being used in the NFL.

Another wrinkle the XFL put into the game is the PAT. The PAT is what occurs after a touchdown. In the NFL, there are two options, either kick the ball through the goalposts from 15 yards away for one point or get into the endzone from the 2-yard for two points. The XFL has three such options, none of which involve kicking. A team can either try a one-point play from the two-yard line, a two-point play from the five-yard line, or a three-point play from the 10-yard line. I think this is a very well thought out innovation. It creates more of a dramatic feeling to a point in the game that fans usually tune out. I would like to see some special teams used in this situation, but that is my only issue with the innovative rule. I think this rule can have a future in the NFL, although I do believe it will have to be altered.

The last innovation I will be talking about is the XFL’s new double pass rule. In the NFL, once a pass is thrown forward, the ball can not be thrown forward again. In the XFL, the ball can be thrown forward again, if the original forward throw did not pass the line of scrimmage. This rule provides a new wrinkle to the game, where the defensive must be on high alert as long as the ball is anywhere behind the line of scrimmage. This will lead to some crafty play calling to take advantage of the new rule. The double pass rule also allows a quarterback to catch a ball that was batted by the defense and throw it again, which is illegal in the NFL. The only problem I have with this rule is the specificity of it. The XFL will have to define what makes a player behind the line of scrimmage. Is it the whole body, or just a shoe? For that reason, I don’t see this rule being implemented in the NFL because of the logistics of it. In a league where no one can agree what pass interference is, this rule will create more chaos.

I think the XFL is doing what every expansion league must do, innovate. With lesser players, the league needs another way to stay relevant. These rule changes keep fans engaged, and put the NFL on notice. History has shown that the XFL’s innovation will push the NFL to innovate as well. This happened with the AAF, the original XFL, the USFL, and the AFL. I don’t think the XFL will have as big of an impact as the AFL did(the AFL merged with the NFL in the 1960s to create the NFL we know today), but I don’t think it will be as short-lived as the AAF or the original XFL. What we know for sure is that the XFL will be different, and maybe different is what football needs right now.