The XFL is Kaput... Again

The XFL has had two runs and both of them will not end with a 2nd season. The first time around, the league played one full season back in 2001 but was not able to have another. Vince McMahon (WWF at the time) and Dick Ebersol (NBC) partnered up to create the league. The XFL was played during the attitude and it drew plenty of criticism for the style of play that the league was implementing. The league had fewer rules and much harder hits, plus modest cheerleaders. The one thing that it didn’t have was a lot of high-level talent. It was more about entertaining the fans than anything else. It did have strong ratings the first few weeks, but then they went way down and the league closed up shop. Both partners lost 35 million dollars in the deal.

Fast forward 19 years and Vince tried to reboot the XFL. It did not go any better than the first try. In fact, it was a bit worse as the league was forced to cancel the rest of their season halfway through the 10 game slate. On Friday afternoon, the league announced that it was suspending all operations for the rest of the season and that there are no plans for the league to resume play next year. League Commissioner, Oliver Luck, originally stated that the league had every intention of playing next year but on Friday the league decided to close up shop and it looks like for good.

The first two weeks of the season did have some nice ratings, but they quickly dropped over the next three weeks and then play was suspended. The league was hoping to pay the players through the end of the season but they were not able to. Will Vince eventually try and make a third run at the XFL in the future. That remains to be seen but if I was a betting man, and I am, I would say that it is an emphatic NO!!!

The XFL is Kaput, Fini, Over, Done!!!