OT: XFL 2020

[WT_TKW]

I hate the production. The football is good enough to be enjoyable to watch, but airing the play calls, having 2-3 different sound streams over the top of each other, and bad commentators made it a little hard to watch.

In game interview questions with coaches, mic'd up QB, OC/and DC play calls at the same time, etc... All of that should get flushed, imo.

I agree with you, especially about some of the commentators. The guys who did the Houston game Sunday were idiots, and kept yelling "first down!" when it wasn't. I do enjoy the play reviews though, and I don't mind the occaisional coaches call.

[IronOre]

Are there any D2 guys playing in the XFL now?

Ja'Quon Gardner plays for Seattle. He went to Humboldt State.

[Predatory Primates]

Are there any D2 guys playing in the XFL now?

[Predatory Primates]

Also, the NY QB calling out the OC to the press at halftime screams "staged, fake, invented drama, WWE crap" to me

[Predatory Primates]

I hate the production. The football is good enough to be enjoyable to watch, but airing the play calls, having 2-3 different sound streams over the top of each other, and bad commentators made it a little hard to watch.

In game interview questions with coaches, mic'd up QB, OC/and DC play calls at the same time, etc... All of that should get flushed, imo.

[IronOre]

Seattle's announced attendance is a hair shy of 30,000. Their lower bowl is almost completely full, it looks great on tv (minus the empty Hawk's Nest). The game is fairly entertaining too. The crowd noise is very noticable on TV. This is a great moment for the league.

LA is "my team," but I'm going to keep an eye on the Dragons, especially their home games. This is pretty wild. I'm not surprised given the nature of Seattle fans, but it is still very impressive.

Also, the conversion rule is starting to grow on me. Some of the special teams rules feel a little gimmicky and will take a while to get used too, but I'm enjoying Week 2 more than Week 1.

I watched a bit of both games on Saturday. Damn, that's some sloppy football. But some bad football is better? than no football.

[SW_Mustang]

Looks like attendance numbers were roughly the same as week 1, minus Seattle as the outlier. Speculation I'm reading on Twitter has St. Louis selling out their home opener next week, close to 30k fans.

This is going better than I thought it would, I assumed each team would average 10k-15k per game.

[Wildcat Khan]

Seattle's announced attendance is a hair shy of 30,000. Their lower bowl is almost completely full, it looks great on tv (minus the empty Hawk's Nest). The game is fairly entertaining too. The crowd noise is very noticable on TV. This is a great moment for the league.

LA is "my team," but I'm going to keep an eye on the Dragons, especially their home games. This is pretty wild. I'm not surprised given the nature of Seattle fans, but it is still very impressive.

Also, the conversion rule is starting to grow on me. Some of the special teams rules feel a little gimmicky and will take a while to get used too, but I'm enjoying Week 2 more than Week 1.

I watched a bit of the game too and it was nice hearing announcers I knew. Interestingly Seattle's first TD was thrown to a former Seahawk in this game that had come up big in the preseason and Seattle fans were sad to see not make the cut. Good to have him back in Seattle.

[SW_Mustang]

Seattle's announced attendance is a hair shy of 30,000. Their lower bowl is almost completely full, it looks great on tv (minus the empty Hawk's Nest). The game is fairly entertaining too. The crowd noise is very noticable on TV. This is a great moment for the league.

LA is "my team," but I'm going to keep an eye on the Dragons, especially their home games. This is pretty wild. I'm not surprised given the nature of Seattle fans, but it is still very impressive.

Also, the conversion rule is starting to grow on me. Some of the special teams rules feel a little gimmicky and will take a while to get used too, but I'm enjoying Week 2 more than Week 1.

[Son of Zardoz]

I enjoyed that I watched (the last game was a bit of a sleeper though) and love the new kickoff and PAT rules. Kickoffs needed something to make them relevant again since they've turned into an almost guaranteed touchback in the NFL. Think this is a great way to make it safer and keep the excitement of an actual return. I think I'm all in for Houston since they have Mobley, a fellow Catawba alum. He had a nice 40-ish yard TD catch. Hope he gets on the field earlier in the next game.

[Eagle74]

I have to say that I really enjoyed the games, as I've heard that others did too. A nice off-season alternative from to the NFL, plus they are not afraid to give a lot of D2 payers a shot at playing. Also, no self agendas, no over inflated egos, no politics, and no disrespecting the National Anthem, just hard hitting good football, where players are really playing the whole game to the best of their ability. No doubt they will pick up a lot of former NFL fans who used to follow their games each week.

For the love of the game!!!

[Rational Observer]

I don't think the XFL has that rule; the AAF had 4th and 12 from your own 28. The XFL does have onside kicks, but a team has to say that's what they want to do and they line up in a standard formation. Eliminates the element of surprise, but most onside kicks aren't surprises.

I think you are correct based upon what I read last night on the actual XFL page. I had read the other on another page describing the rules differences. Perhaps it was a proposed rule as the same page discussed rules that were proposed but not adopted.

[Wildcat Khan]

I watched some of both games on Saturday.

I like the PAT rule. I'm not wild about not being able to pin a team deep by punting the ball to the "coffin corner". If a punt goes out of bounds inside of the 35, the ball comes out to the 35. I realize it is to encourage more fourth-down attempts, but that's a little extreme.

That's what John Clayton said on his show about onside kicks too. He was talking today about the XFL and gave their opening weekend an A for having known announce teams and solid production value. Of course they were also talking about the Seattle Dragons and it was good to hear on Seattle sports talk radio.

[SW_Mustang]

*snip*.

It's very well documented how much Vince hates showing half-empty venues on TV. The crowd for his wrestling shows is typically doctored heavily with camera tricks, special lighting, etc to make it look like a full crowd. It depends on the city/venue, but most of those arenas are usually 25%-50% full, yet it's hard to tell on TV. It's quite impressive given how his two major weekly programs are shot live. Not to say that sports don't do this themselves, just not to the same extent.

I'm not sure how much control he has over the league or their stadium deals, but it was a little surprising to me to see a McMahon production where they didn't care to block out the empty parts of the venue. Availability makes a lot of sense though, since they have to fit into wherever they can.

[SW_Mustang]

It also has to do with available stadiums I think. For example the Seattle Dragon's are using Century Link with their only other options being Husky Stadium which seats 70k or a High School stadium. What may be interesting though is expansion into cities like St. Louis that don't have NFL teams. I can think of 2 options right away here in the west with Salt Lake City and Portland already having stadiums to use from MLS teams.

That makes the most sense. Availability would be the biggest factor.