Category: Alternative Football

The rebooted XFL vows to “reimagine the game of football,” and that means the league will play by its own rules when it hits the field next month.

Today XFL Commissioner Oliver Luck and Head of Officiating Dean Blandino unveiled the official rules and gameplay innovations for the eight team circuit, alterations designed to offer a unique twist to a familiar game.

A 3-point conversion?

It’s possible.

Multiple forward passes behind the line of scrimmage?

Yep.

A “soccer style” overtime?

It’s a go.

If you’re a pro football league that isn’t the NFL you need to give fans something different, and the XFL promises to do that when it kicks off on February 8.

“We’re super excited about giving our fans a true fan-first league and one built for the 21^st century,” Luck said. “We’ve designed a fast, up tempo game. Our tagline ‘less stall, more ball’ describes very much what we’re aiming for.”

Offenses will be allowed to throw up to two forward passes behind the line of scrimmage, which is sure to create new deceptions in a team’s bag of trick plays.

There are more scoring options as well, thanks to tiered conversions. The extra point kick has become passé in spring football – the original XFL spurned it as did the short-lived Alliance of American Football last year.

That being the case, a team that scores a touchdown in XFL 2.0 has the option of running a play from the two, five, or 10-yard line, worth 1, 2, or 3 points, respectively. Should the defense run back a fumbled ball or take an interception to the house on the try, it’ll score the same amount of points the offense was aiming for.

Thus, a contest that features a nine point differential is still potentially a one score game.

“The innovation that had the most interest from fans was the extra point because of the strategy involved,” Luck said. “Anything that brings strategy into the game of football is welcome. Fans get to think along with the coach in wondering, ‘What would I do in this situation?’ and of course everyone likes to second-guess coaches.

“The high risk really caught the attention of our fans.”

Kickoffs will also look much different than they do in the NFL – or any other league, for that matter.

The placekicker kicks off from his 25-yard line and the ball must be in the air and in play between the opponent’s 20-yard line and the end zone. The coverage team, on the other hand, will line up on the receiving team’s 35-yard line with the return team stationed five yards away on the 30. Each team must have three players outside the hash marks on both sides of the ball and cannot move until the ball is caught by the returner.

Out of bounds kicks and kicks that fail to reach the 20-yard line will result in an illegal procedure penalty, taking the ball to the kicking team’s 45 yard line.

This rule keeps kickoffs in the game while all but eliminating the “big collision” aspect.

As for onside kicks, teams must alert officials beforehand and the kickoff will be traditional, with the kicking and receiving teams lined up 10 yards apart.

Punts have been tweaked, too; members of the kicking team can’t advance past the line of scrimmage until the ball has been booted away, although “gunners” can move laterally after the snap.

Tie games will be settled in “penalty shootout” style. A round will consist of one offensive play per team at the opponent’s 5-yard line, with a successful run or pass into the end zone worth two points. The team with more points after five rounds is the winner.

Although not as sexy, the rule that might have the biggest impact involves timing. Games will feature a 25-second play clock and a running clock will be used except in the final two minutes in each half. Only then will the clock stop on incomplete passes and out of bounds plays, meaning games should finish well under three hours.

“We’re focusing on the three Cs – clarity, consistency and credibility for all our stakeholders,” said Blandino, who will oversee officiating crews drawn from the Football Bowl Subdivision ranks. “We want to make sure our games are administered efficiently. What frustrates fans is when we have a lot of stops and starts.”

The inaugural XFL season opens on February 8 with two games.

The DC Defenders host the Seattle Dragons at 2 p.m. on ABC, while the Los Angeles Wildcats travel to Texas to take on the Houston Roughnecks at 5 p.m. on Fox.

Sunday, February 9, Fox will feature the Tampa Bay Vipers at New York Guardians at 2 p.m., and the Dallas Renegades welcome the St. Louis BattleHawks to town at 5 p.m. on ESPN, capping off week one action.

For a complete breakdown of XFL rules as well as the season schedule, go to xfl.com.

In the week leading up to the Super Bowl – any Super Bowl – I can walk into my local supermarket and find a wide variety of party items geared toward the big game.

Super Bowl cakes and Super Bowl cookies are already baked and decorated in team colors, meaning I can grab them and go.

I’ll let you in on a little secret, though – by the time most of you celebrate your Super Sunday, mine will have already come and gone. And any cakes to mark the occasion will have long since been eaten (and special ordered).

When it comes to tackle football, the Grey Cup has become my favorite single event, and this weekend it’ll be played for the 107th time when the Hamilton Tiger-Cats – the team I root for – meet the Winnipeg Blue Bombers at Calgary’s McMahon Stadium.

I’m quite sure there won’t be any premade goodies to snatch up at the nearest grocer. In fact, I’m guessing many of the people who work there have no idea the Grey Cup is even going on.

But that’s OK. For me, the championship of the Canadian Football League has almost always been a party for one.

It’s especially festive this season because the Ticats haven’t won the league crown since 1999 and are favored to break their 20-year drought.

I won’t bore you with my CFL back story – I’ve shared it more times than I can count and if you care, you already know it. I will say, though, that with each passing year I grow to like it much more than the NFL. I find it – for lack of a better word – cozy.

There are only nine CFL franchises and except for the ill-fated “American experiment” (which peaked at 13 teams in 1995), that’s as large as it’s ever gotten.

By NFL and Power 5 college standards, attendance is modest – and that’s a generous description.

The single game high in 2019 was 40,113 for a clash between Calgary and Edmonton at Edmonton’s Commonwealth Stadium on September 7, and the average per game attendance was 22,917.

Bottom line, if you want a ticket to a CFL regular season game, you won’t have much trouble getting one.

But the fans who do show up show off, and I see them as my kindred spirits even though our relationship is through social media more than social interaction.

I love how they love their teams, and the players on those teams seem to truly appreciate them. The CFL gives off a working class vibe and part of that reason is because guys don’t pull down NFL money.

People relate to that.

I like that Canadian kids can grow up to star in a league that’s very much part of their culture, and American kids can make their pro dreams come true even if those dreams blossom in another country.

There’s plenty of brawn on either side of the line in any given game, but there is also a place for small, fast guys.

As someone who is small (and used to be fast), this makes me very happy.

And while some might scoff at rules that feature three downs to make 10 yards, conceded points and end zones that are 20 yards deep, I fully embrace them.

For me, the Canadian Football League isn’t a novelty – it’s grown into my favorite version of the gridiron game.

So while most of the football fans around me will be watching the end of the Dallas Cowboys-New England Patriots game at 6:30 p.m. on Sunday and gearing up for the upcoming showdown between the Green Bay Packers and San Francisco 49ers, I’ll be tuned into ESPN2 for the Grey Cup.

Shoot, I might even order a cake.

I’ll be the only one at the party, but hopefully I can party like it’s 1999.

Ever see the episode of The Andy Griffith Show called Stranger In Town?

The plot centered around a character named Ed Sawyer, who arrived in Mayberry on a bus from “up north,” walked into Floyd’s barbershop, and acted as though he was friends with everyone there.

He also knew details about the town and the townsfolk, which creeped everyone out since they had no idea who he was.

Turns out Ed pored over copies of the Mayberry Gazette newspaper, which he borrowed from an Army buddy who hailed from the North Carolina town. Reading about the friendly little city caused Ed to fall in love with it and he saw Mayberry as “his” hometown – even if he’d never before been there.

As was always the case in The Andy Griffith Show there was a happy ending, with the citizens ultimately embracing Ed (even though he was never seen or heard from again in the series).

Regardless, I tell that story to tell this one: I’m basically Ed Sawyer when it comes to the Hamilton Tiger-Cats of the Canadian Football League.

Raised in Birmingham, Alabama, and currently living in Greenville, South Carolina, I’ve never been to Tim Hortons Field, never had a coffee and doughnut from Tim Hortons restaurant, never done the Oskee Wee Wee cheer with fellow fans, never visited the Canadian Football Hall of Fame.

Shoot, I’ve never been to Hamilton – or Canada, even though I very much want to visit.

But when the Tiger-Cats suit up from June through November, I might as well be a native because I cheer for the team like I was born at St. Joseph’s Hospital and educated at McMaster University (Go Marauders!).

If you’ve ever read me before you know that I started rooting for the Tiger-Cats back in the 1970s when CFL “games of the week” were rebroadcast on a local station.

My highly scientific reason for picking Hamilton as “my” team was because I liked their logo and black and gold color scheme.

Now in the interest of complete transparency I must confess that I cheated on the Ticats in 1995 when the Birmingham Barracudas were born.

I felt I had a moral obligation to pledge allegiance to a CFL team in the city I grew up in, although Hamilton remained my preferred international club.

And after the Tiger-Cats (almost) hired disgraced coach Art Briles as an assistant in the summer of 2017, they briefly lost me as a fan. To their credit officials almost immediately reversed their decision, admitting they made a “serious mistake” and correcting it.

Hey – family gets mad at family, then you get over it.

I got over it.

So aside from Birmingham’s cup of coffee during the “American experiment” and the Briles blunder, I’ve pulled for the Tiger-Cats in five different decades. And while there were many years where the only way I could keep track of them was to find scores from games buried in my newspaper, now I can watch every game they play thanks to ESPN.

And I do.

I’m not saying that during last Saturday’s 21-18 win over Toronto I was the only person in Greenville wearing a game-used Greg Randall jersey from 2006, but … well, actually I am saying that.

I also have an assortment of caps and T-shirts, and even find myself spreading the Ticats gospel from time to time.

A couple of weeks ago I was at a convenience store when the clerk asked if my Hamilton tee was in support of a high school team that he was unfamiliar with. I had to explain that it represented a Canadian professional squad born of the 1950 merger between the Hamilton Football Club Tigers and Hamilton Wildcats.

All I wanted was a Twix bar, but being able to drop some Tabbies knowledge on the dude was an added bonus.

Of course it’s quite easy to be a fan this year, especially since the team ran away with the East Division with a 15-3 record.

Having an affinity for wideouts (split end and kicker were the positions I played during my elementary school career), I’ve been a big fan of Luke Tasker since he joined the team in 2013.

And Brandon Banks – who has had a breakout year in 2019 – has quickly become my favorite player.

I was bummed when quarterback Jeremiah Masoli suffered a season-ending injury in July, but proud of how backup Dane Evans jumped in and earned his own medals as field general.

And what a debut for Orlondo Steinauer, who tied the CFL record for most wins by a rookie head coach.

Winning their division gives the Ticats a first round playoff bye this weekend, so I’ll be watching the Eastern semi-final between Edmonton and Montreal on Sunday to see who Hamilton gets on November 17.

Hopefully the Tiger-Cats will defeat either the Eskimos or the Alouettes and advance to the Grey Cup on November 24 (where the opponent will be either Saskatchewan, Calgary or Winnipeg). If that happens, my house will become the official CFL Embassy in Greenville as the game – for me – will be just as big as a Super Bowl.

So Tiger-Cats, know that I’m with you all the way and hope you go all the way.

Even though Mayberry wasn’t Ed Sawyer’s home town and Hamilton isn’t mine, it’s where my team plays.

And when you look at it that way, it seems a lot like home.