Category: Alternative Football

With the new United States Football League cranking up in 10 days and even Major League Football – which I thought had been declared legally dead – showing a pulse in recent weeks, the third incarnation of the XFL has remained mostly low key in 2022.

That changed today when XFL 3.0, set to play again in 2023, unveiled its rebrand. There was no red meat for fans in the way of city names or coach announcements, but there is a new logo and a sizzle real that teases what’s to come when the league joins the spring football wars next February.

“We are proud to unveil the new identity of the XFL – a strong, dynamic and modern look that embodies our vision of pushing football forward and unleashing the dreams that football makes possible,” Dany Garcia, co-owner and chairwoman of the XFL, said in a release. “This is a significant milestone for us, and one that encapsulates the teamwork that has gone into building this league from the ground up with our experienced leadership team, led by Russ Brandon. As we continue to march towards our 2023 kickoff, we will invite our fans, partners and athletes to co-create with us.  We are putting in the work today to define football’s future; Together, we are building tomorrow’s league.”

The logo was leaked Tuesday night and quickly generated buzz – see Twitter for the “I love it!” and “I hate it!” testimonials – but as long as people are talking about it, that’s a good thing for Garcia and co-owners Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson and Redbird Capital Partners.

“For us, this is more than just a new pro football logo; this is a new era of the XFL,” Johnson said. “You can already begin to feel the energy and mana building behind our brand, and it has been amazing to feel the incredible support from fans, players, coaches and media, that we continue to be blessed with. We have a passion and vision to push the boundaries of sport and entertainment, to grow the game of football – and most importantly – unlock the dreams of all the talented and hungry football players out there. “I’m pumped to reveal our new XFL logo to the world as we continue to strategically build our XFL organization and shape our one-of-a-kind XFL culture. 

“Here’s the bottom line of what our new XFL logo stands for: The X represents the intersection of dreams and opportunity. So, to our hungry XFL players, coaches and fans – you bring the dreams, and we’ll bring the opportunity.”

Based on that, you can kinda/sorta see what they were going for with the separated “X” in the logo. (To me the X looks like a “greater than” symbol about to collide with a “less than” symbol, but I doubt it’s part of a Rorschach Test so I should stop overthinking it).

Regardless of your opinion of the rebrand, what’s important is what happens between now and the scheduled launch in 10 months.

And while it was hardly earthshaking, the news coming out of the new XFL brings back personal memories of the other two.

The first version in 2001 originally appealed to me because the Birmingham Bolts were one of the eight teams that made up Vince McMahon’s league. But the play was sloppy, the TV presentation was sleazy, and Birmingham was far and away the worst team in the league. On my end, there was not a lot to like.

When it folded after a one-and-done campaign I felt bad for the people who lost their jobs, but as a fan I didn’t care because I had already lost interest in it.

But the 2020 version was much, much better, even though Birmingham wasn’t on board.

The rule innovations were terrific, the games I watched were entertaining, and it seemed to be doing everything a spring league needs to do to make a go of it. But then COVID-19 hit, the season was canceled at the halfway point, and McMahon pulled the plug.

It failed again, but for very different reasons than the original.

While the new owners certainly want to put their stamp on the XFL – and it’s their league now, so they should certainly do that – I hope they’ll incorporate the many positive aspects of the 2020 adaptation.

“Since acquiring the League in 2020 with Dany and Dwayne, we have envisioned the XFL as a platform of opportunity that converges the worlds of sports and entertainment,” Gerry Cardinale, founder of RedBird Capital, said. “We are building the XFL so that we can bring new possibilities to the future of football – this will give our players new opportunities for turning pro, our partners new platforms to expand and enhance their brands, and our fans opportunities to engage with the sport of football and our players in new and innovative ways.”

One of the reasons I’m drawn to alternative football leagues is because, usually, Birmingham has been linked to them. The Magic City’s gridiron history is tied to the World Football League, original United States Football League, World League of American Football, the Canadian Football League during its “American experiment,” the first XFL and Alliance of American Football. (It did miss out on the United Football League and the second XFL).

Beyond the home team angle, however, is the fact that any new league offers a fresh start for everyone involved. The players and coaches get a new avenue of opportunity, and football fans get more football.

And after living through these various circuits I’ve discovered that’s the one aspect of alt-football (and any upstart sports venture, for that matter) that intrigues me most – the initial build itself.

Before the February draft, the eight coaches of the 2022 United States Football League had little more than a general idea of the kind of players they wanted. After the supplemental draft in March, they had 45 flesh and blood athletes – 38 who’ll be on the active roster once the season begins a week from Saturday.

And the opening weekend is exciting for me because I’ll finally get to see the “something” that coaches made from “nothing.”

“This isn’t rebuild, this is build,” Birmingham Stallions head coach Skip Holtz said following a light workout in Hoover last week. “When we get into next year we’ll still have a good nucleus of this team back, and you’ll then have ‘rookies’ … you’ll have new guys. But in this case, everybody was a rookie, everybody was a freshman coming into this year. Now they’ve got a lot more background and been around a lot more football (than college freshmen), and have a lot more knowledge with their age and how much football they’ve played, but they’re all freshmen in this defense and rookies in this offense.”

The Stallions and New Jersey Generals will launch the USFL on April 16 with a 6:30 p.m. CDT kickoff at Protective Stadium, a game that will be simulcast by Fox – which owns the league – as well as NBC and Peacock. On Sunday at the same venue, the Houston Gamblers meet the Michigan Panthers at 11 a.m.; the Philadelphia Stars play the New Orleans Breakers at 3 p.m.; and the Tampa Bay Bandits and Pittsburgh Maulers close out Week One action with a 7 p.m. contest.

While Holtz has put together the Stallions roster and Mike Riley is architect of the Generals lineup, the other league coaches charged with construction are Kevin Sumlin (Houston), Jeff Fisher (Michigan), Bart Andrus (Philadelphia), Larry Fedora (New Orleans), Todd Haley (Tampa Bay) and Kirby Wilson (Pittsburgh).

Once Sunday night is done, everyone will have at least some idea of how successful the build has been across the league.

“That part of it has been pretty fun, and all us coaches are in the same boat,” Holtz said. “It’s a little longer and a little painstaking because some are at different levels than others, and some guys learn in different ways than others, so you’ve just got to make sure you get to know these young men and give them the opportunity to get out here and learn what we’re starting to do so we can go out and put our best foot forward on April 16.”

Obviously getting a head start was important to all the staffs, and Holtz says he and quarterback Alex McGough stayed in frequent contact after McGough was selected as Stallions signal caller.

“I had an opportunity to meet with Alex quite a bit after we drafted him and told him what we were going to call everything, and every time we’d FaceTime or Zoom and he’d be going, ‘Coach, look, I’ve got them right here,’ looking at flash cards,” Holtz said. “He’s learning calls, he’s learning plays, and he’s done a nice job picking it up, and I think J’Mar (backup quarterback J’Mar Smith, who played for Holtz at Louisiana Tech) has done a nice job helping him because he knows the offense as well as he does.”

McGough says Holtz has made the transition easier for all the Stallions players due in large part to his enthusiasm.

“He’s very energetic and very uptempo, always has energy and he’s running around trying to get everybody more energy,” McGough said. “I was with Pete Carroll in Seattle, so he’ll probably match Coach Holtz’s energy. But he’s a great coach, knows his stuff and is a player’s coach. That’s what you want.”

Birmingham cornerback Brian Allen agrees.

“Coach Holtz is full of energy, great guy … he starts us off at eight in the morning full of life,” he said. “We might come in sleepy but by the time we hit the field we’re ready to go. That energy he gives us translates to the field and makes us want to come out here and have great days every single day.”

And while Holtz and all the coaches are trying to build a championship team in the USFL’s inaugural season, Allen says it’s up the players to build their resumes.

“Everybody has real intensity to the point where Coach Holtz has had to tell us sometimes, ‘Guys, slow down,’ because everybody’s so excited and energetic,” Allen said. “You can see it in their eyes – the guys are hungry. This USFL season is gonna be great for everybody. Most of us are striving for one goal, which is to get back in the NFL.

“A lot of guys have old teammates on other teams so there’s a lot of trash talk in the hotel, but at the same time a lot of us are making friends and trying to build a bond, not just with our team but other teams as well.”

Some football fans – especially those of us who have an affinity for alternative leagues – go into full geek mode when we learn about rule changes. That was the case last week when the United States Football League announced its innovations for the inaugural 2022 season, which begins next month in Birmingham.

But what about the players? They’re the ones who’ll have to play by the rules.

On Monday I talked with Birmingham Stallions quarterback Alex McGough and safety Brian Allen to get their thoughts on the rules package. When I asked them which tweaks they found the most interesting, the first they mentioned was the double forward pass. A rule used for the second iteration of the XFL in 2020, this makes a trick play a normal option in the offensive game plan.

“The biggest rule change for me is now they get to do two forward passes, so as a defensive back, as soon as I see the ball thrown I’m coming in to make a tackle,” Allen said. “But with any rule change it makes you hone in on your keys and learn to play different techniques. For me, I’m just trying to take the coaching and just do what I can to make the plays I can.”

McGough, who admits he’s spent most of his time away from the practice field studying in his hotel room, is already plotting how to use the double pass.

He isn’t telling, though.

“The double forward pass seems like it could be interesting,” he said. “I don’t know how we could use it – I’m not gonna give anything away – but it could be interesting.”

Yet what got McGough most excited was the 3-point conversion option and the onside kick – and how they could work in concert.

Following a touchdown, the team that scores has three options: it can get one point for a successful PAT kick snapped from the 15-yard line (and placed down at the 22); two points for a successful scrimmage play from the two-yard line; and three points for a successful scrimmage play from the 10-yard line.

And if that team wants to ball back immediately, they have two ways to make that happen. The first is via a “traditional” onside kick attempt from the 25-yard line. The second is running a fourth-and-12 play from its own 33-yard line.

When I first looked at the conversion and onside kick rules I thought, “Hmmm … this can really help a team that’s behind get back in the game.”

McGough, however, sees something else.

“The 3-point conversion is interesting and I also like the onside kick where you can go for a fourth and 12, because you’re never out of it.” he explained. “But think of this … you could start the game out, score a touchdown, go for three, go up 9-0, and go for fourth-and-12 again, and score again, go for three, make it again, and get up 18-0 before the other team even gets the ball.

“You’re never really out of it no matter how many points you’re down, but you can also use it to get a big lead.”

All the rule changes for 2022 are designed to either add an element of excitement to the game or streamline it, and both benefit the fans.

Ultimately, that’s what it’s all about. Done right, rules like these can put eyes on the television and fannies in the seats.

“Birmingham is the hometown team so it has a different weight to it, I feel,” McGough said. “All these fans will be coming to watch Birmingham, I assume. We’re gonna try to put on a show for them.”

Read about USFL rule changes here: USFL does good job on rules