No gimmicks: XFL rules focused on making football faster, more exciting and safer
Vince McMahon’s Xtreme Football League kicked off for the first time in 2001 with all the gimmicky fun of his World Wrestling Federation.
And it failed after a single season.
The rebooted XFL, which kicks off with new teams in new markets on Feb. 8, will feature an evolution to traditional rules the to bring more excitement and minimal downtime to football without sacrificing player safety, according to a release from St. Louis’ franchise, the BattleHawks.
The league Tuesday announced several rules that will differentiate the XFL from other brands of football.
XFL Director of Officiatiing Dean Blandino addressed a small group of St. Louis media via teleconference Tuesday and said that, while many of the rules resemble those in the NFL, the new league’s rules were made with the “love of football” in mind.
“There is a lot of science and study behind these rules and for the most part our rules are based from the NFL rule book so there are going to be rules that fans are used to seeing, but with some changes,’’ Blandino said. “The kickoff is going to be different, the 3-point extra point and overtime is going to look different.
“But for the most part, these are NFL-based rules that people are used to seeing. But we are excited about the changes that we’ve made and feel like we can make the game even more exciting.’’
The process included input from current and former coaches, players, officials, media and physicians, he said, as well as a nationwide survey of more than 6,000 football fans. Suggestions and proposals were tested in game simulations.
The gimmicks and theatrics that marked the XFL’s first incarnation were avoided, league Commissioner Oliver Luck has said.
“From research we had done, fans think there’s too much downtime and dead time,” Luck told the Associated Press. “I suppose games have gotten longer,” Luck says. “We wanted to take a step forward by going back to games under three hours based on all our fan research. More action and more plays speed it up.”
Here are highlights of the new rules:
Kickoffs
Coverage teams will line up just five yards apart to make the kickoff safer for players. Touchback penalties will be enforced to give players incentive to return kicks and preserve the potential for the big plays.
Blandino said that all kickoffs will be from the 25-yard line, making the possibility of a kickoff return more likely.
“Right now we’ve got it at the 25. What’s nice about this is that we can make changes. We don’t want to make a ton of changes in the middle of the season, but we can make changes if it doesn’t work,’’ Blandino said. “We did this to encourage returns, but by the same token we don’t want to put the kicking team at such disadvantage by starting at the 40-45 yard line.
On side kicks are legal, but with one major difference — “teams must notify the officials first.’’
“There are no surprise on-sides kicks. You have to let the officials know,’’ Blandino said.
Points After Touchdown
The will be no point-after kicks. Rather, a tiered point system allows teams to go for one point from the 2-yard line, two points from the 5-yard line and three points from the 10-yard line. A possible “nine-point touchdown” means an 18-point deficit is still a two-possession game.
“This is going to be different. Obviously with the 3-point play, a nine-point game is not a two-possession game any longer. It’s a one-possession game which we feel adds excitement to our game,” Blandino said. “This is going to be really interesting. Are teams going to go for the 3-point or 2-point conversions just when they need too and just stick with the 1-point con version most of the time?
“It also sets up some questions for the defenses on how they’re going to cover these plays. We’re all really excited about that.’’
“Shootout” Overtime
Each team’s best offensive and defensive players will determine the result of a game tied at the end of regulation time. Each team will receive five attempts to score from the 5-yard line in a hockey shootout format, with the clubs alternating attempts (receiving two points per success) until one team’s total is insurmountable.
Double forward pass
Multiple forward passes will be allowed behind the line of scrimmage to create more play options for offenses.
Running game clock, fewer timeouts
The clock will run continuously outside of the two-minute warning, and teams will only be allotted two timeouts per half.
25-second play clock
A 25-second play clock that begins after the ball is spotted for the next play will eliminate some of the downtime between plays. The NFL playclock is 30 seconds.
Blandino said that the XFL will have a faster paced game with the 25-second clock between plays and the running clock with the exception of the last two minutes of each half.
Because of these and other rules designed to speed up the game, the XFL hopes the average time of the game will be be somewhere in the 2 hour 45 minutes -2:50 range as opposed to the NFL which in some cases go well over the 3-hour mark.
“With the ball spotter, we’re looking at 32 or 33 seconds between plays. We want our games somewhere in the three-hour window,’’ Blandino said. “Fans want more plays and they want a faster pace, but we were looking at not going so fast that the teams can’t get lined up properly.’’
One foot in bounds
Only one foot needs to be in bounds to be counted as a reception. This allows players to stabilize their bodies and reduce the chance of injury, the league says.
Shorter halftime
Halftime will be a 10-minute period before the action resumes.
Dedicated ball-spotting official
Eliminates confusion, enables quicker ball spots and powers a faster game.
This story was originally published January 7, 2020 at 10:40 AM.
