Best and (mostly) Worst of the XFL’s Version of Football

Okay, the XFL season starts this weekend. I’m not convinced, but I am curious. MSNBC has a lot of good information about the league (couldn’t have anything to do with NBC’s part ownership of the XLF, could it?) but they hide it all in stupid pop-up boxes.

One of the things I had trouble finding, for example, is exactly how the XFL rules will differ from NFL. The main differences turn out to be,

  • No “in the grasp” rule — the NFL protects quarterbacks by blowing whistles and ruling them down before somebody smashes them to the ground. In the XFL, quarterbacks are fair game, period. I was unable to find out whether there is an intentional grounding rule, but I’m assuming there is. I don’t have a lot of opinion about this rule except that while fans might like watching quarterbacks get slammed to the ground, I doubt they’re going to like watching their team have a different quarterback every other week. How will the XFL build any fan base or team loyalty with the revolving door situation that’s going to develop with lots of injured quarterbacks?
  • All punts over 25 yards result in a “free” ball — once a punt travels 25 yards, it can be recovered by either team. In the NFL, punts can only be recovered by the kicking team if it first touches a member of the receiving team. This would be pointless if it weren’t for the next rule.
  • There are no fair catches — in the NFL a player receiving a punt can call for a fair catch. Basically this is a promise by the player not to return the ball any further in exchange for the defense promising not to smack the living daylights out of him. In the XFL you can’t do that — if you’re going to field the punt, you’re going to risk getting smacked. This will certainly be the most controversial XFL rule and the one where something is most likely to cause serious injury. Take a special teams player weighing 220 pounds running at full speed and then smack into some moron rendered defenseless while he’s trying to field a punt, and the result is a potentially lethal collision. It’s this sort of rule that really crosses the line and makes critics question the legitimacy of the XFL as a sport as opposed to a simple excuse for WWF-style mayhem.
  • No kicking Point After Touchdowns — this, on the other hand, is a rule the NFL should adopt. The kicking game is the most annoying part of football. In the XFL you can’t kick the extra point, but instead have to run a play, probably from the 5 yard-line or so, and punch the ball into the end zone.

Leave a Reply