XFL ceases operations; the NFL competition committee has two proposals

The XFL had already ended its 2020 season. When that happened, the league said they would return in 2021. While there hasn’t been an official statement, it’s unlikely the league is back for another year. Friday morning, several XFL employees confirmed that they were laid off during a conference call. One of my good friends runs all of the XFL’s analytics and has been working his butt off the past year to ensure the league stays afloat and gets the best talent, so this news is unfortunate.

This was the XFL’s second stint under Vince McMahon, who felt like he learned from his previous mistakes in ‘01. The first weekend of the XFL had strong TV ratings, but the lust wore off quick, and with the coronavirus pandemic spreading in the middle of the season, the XFL didn’t have much of a choice. The league took one last shot at Antonio Brown:

Rule proposals

The NFL competition committee is not endorsing a renewal oof instant replay for pass interference. That’s the end of a one-year rule. A poorly implemented idea didn’t work out. Who could have seen that coming?

The competition committee is also vetting clock manipulation. You can thank Titans head coach Mike Vrabel for that. If you remember the AFC Wildcard round, the Titans intentionally committed multiple dead-ball penalties too eep the game clock moving beyond the total time the Titans would have burned had they ran a play. It wasn’t the first time this happened, but it happened to Bill Belichick, and now the rule is under review.

Overtime was another topic. The Eagles had four proposals surrounding the extra period. Philadelphia proposed overtime goes back to 15 minutes and for the league to implement rules to minimize the impact of the coin toss. Here is a look at the rest of the proposals: