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• Xfl Rules Vs Nfl
• Diff Between Xfl And Nfl
• Big Difference Between Xfl And Nfl

The 2020 Super Bowl just wrapped up, yet that doesn’t mean football season is over. On Saturday, February 8th, the XFL will return after 19 years. This season features eight teams from around the country competing for the championship, which takes place in April. Today, I’m going to look at why this new league is starting, and talk about some of the important rule differences between the XFL and the NFL.

This is the second time the XFL has attempted to break into the mainstream sports world. The first time around, things didn’t exactly go as planned.

Xfl Rules Vs Nfl

It’s always fun to see something new. It’s even more fun to place wagers on how everything will unfold. Those looking to bet on the XFL online can head to MyBookie today and find odds for every game of the season.

The XFL Returns After 19 Years

Back in 1999, the WWE and NBC came up with a groundbreaking idea. They would start a new American Football league that began immediately after the NFL’s Super Bowl concluded. The idea was to capture the interest of hardcore football fans who didn’t want to wait seven months to watch their favorite game again.

By 2001, these two companies launched the XFL. The first game took place on February 3rd of that year and understandably, the public was interested as to what would unfold. NBC aired the game and incorporated several wrestling-like elements suggested by the WWE.

As the season progressed, viewership numbers dropped.

By the time the championship game came around, it was clear this experiment was a failure.

Looking back, the rule differences between the XFL and NFL may be partly to blame for the league’s collapse. It was confusing for many fans to understand why these changes were made.

After 19 years, it seems that Vince McMahan still sees potential in the XFL. The 2020 XFL season kicks off this Saturday and once again, fans are eager to see what takes place. To help make things easier for fans, we’re going to explain some of the major rule differences you’re going to see this weekend.

Rule #1: Points After Touchdowns

In the NFL, a touchdown grants a team six points. Fortunately, this is the case with the XFL, as well. The league owners seem to recognize that this needs to stay the same. As a way to prevent overtime, however, the XFL has a major difference in the way teams earn points after scoring a touchdown.

In this league, the extra point kick will be replaced with a short scrimmage play. You can think of it as a required 2-point conversion, with some differences. Teams can choose to score from the 2-yard goal line for one point, a score from 5 yards ears two points, and a score from the 10-yard line earns 3 points.

This is one of the rule differences between the XFL and NFL that fans from 2001 will remember. The league decided to keep this rule in place, despite some of the backlash that it faced from fans 19 years ago.

Kickers may not find life in the XFL quite as exciting as it is over in the NFL. The linemen will certainly have their work cut out, though.

Rule # 2: Kickoff and Punt Formations

Punting is extremely common in the NFL. When a team is unable to move down the field and hits fourth down, it’s almost guaranteed they’re kicking the ball away. For reasons unknown, the XFL wants to discourage players from punting at all.

In this league, players cannot begin running down the field until the punt has been caught. Gunners are not allowed here. The coffin corner punt will be treated as a touchback and dropped on the 35-yard line. The goal is to push teams to look for fourth-down conversions as much as possible.

There are some major changes for kickoffs, too.

Interestingly, members of the kicking team will line up on the receiving team’s 35-yard line. Blockers will be placed on their own 30-yard line. You can expect more kickoff return touchdowns coming as a result of this formation.

These rule differences between the XFL and NFL are hugely important. They completely change how a team is structured.

Rule #3: Overtime Scoring

The XFL is hoping to avoid overtime as much as possible. If, however, the final bell rings and two teams are tied, the game will look much different than a traditional NFL overtime. Here, both teams will compete for 2-point conversions, somewhat similar to a penalty shootout you see in soccer.

The overtime will be decided in a five-round shootout. Both teams will take turns starting at the opponent’s 5-yard line, attempting to score. If the defensive team recovers the ball during a play, the round is over.

If the defensive team commits a foul, the offense will be moved up to the 1-yard line. Also like football, if a team is mathematically defeated, or unable to win at any certain point, the game will end. Overtime will last a maximum of 27 minutes.

This is the first time this shootout-style of overtime has ever been attempted in football. It’s unclear exactly how fans will respond to this new style.

Rule #4: Double-Forward Pass

Most of the rule differences between the XFL and NFL have to do with gameplay. The officiating and fouls remain largely the same. One of the most interesting new XFL rules has to do with passing. In this league, players are able to pass the ball forward several times, as long as it has not passed the line of scrimmage.

This may be extremely confusing to some fans. In the NFL, only one forward pass is allowed per down. A foul will immediately be given to any team that throws the ball downfield more than once, regardless of where it takes place.

An XFL company statement claims,

“The Double Pass is one of the most exciting plays in football and the XFL aims to add excitement while maintaining traditional football.”

For longtime NFL players now competing in the XFL, this may be a tough rule to get used to.

Diff Between Xfl And Nfl

This is another one that will significantly change how the game is played. A tight end or wide receiver with an ability to throw will be hugely valuable in this league.

There are some clear differences between the XFL and NFL. It’s almost impossible for Vince McMahon’s new league to truly compete with America’s most popular sports league. If it can capture even a small percentage of its fan base, however, it will be a major success.

Big Difference Between Xfl And Nfl

World Wrestling Entertainment events begin with a montage showing the company’s history, framed by three words: Then. Now. Forever.

Then: 19 years ago this week, on February 3, 2001, the first incarnation of the XFL, created by WWE chairman and CEO Vince McMahon as a direct alternative to the NFL, held Opening Night of its first and only season.
Now: This Saturday, February 8, 2020, the second incarnation of the XFL kicks off.
Forever: That’s pushing it, considering the dismal track record of spring professional football leagues in the United States.
But there are clear differences between the old XFL and new XFL, contrasting the statement McMahon wanted to make in 2001 with the different goals of the new incarnation.
Begin with the ball. From All-XFL.com: “When it came time to decide what the [2001] XFL ball would look like, league officials were not going to settle on the same old, boring brown pigskin that other leagues traditionally use. Rather, the XFL wanted their balls to have more attitude, just as its players will have.” That black football proved to be too slippery in wet conditions — so league president Basil DeVito sandpapered the ball’s surface to restore its grip. The 2020 XFL’s football is brown, with each football featuring the home coloring of the eight XFL teams and that coloring extended to X’s on either side of the ball. In the league’s official press release, the ball’s “X-Pebble grip technology” is touted as “help[ing] players control the ball with a feel that enables a tight spin on throws, and also allows ball carriers to enhance their ball security.” A clear change in priorities, and the hint of advance planning.

The number of teams remains the same from 2001 to 2020, as does the length of regular season: an eight-team league playing ten games leading up to the postseason. But the facilities are notably different. The 2001 XFL specifically sought natural grass stadiums: the Birmingham Thunderbolts at Legion Field, Chicago Enforcers at Soldier Field, New York/New Jersey Hitmen at Giants Stadium, Orlando Rage at the Citrus Bowl (now Camping World Stadium), Los Angeles Xtreme at the Coliseum, Las Vegas Outlaws at Sam Boyd Stadium, Memphis Maniax at Liberty Bowl Memorial Stadium, and San Francisco Demons at Pacific Bell Park (now Oracle Park, home of MLB’s Giants). Interestingly, Legion Field, Soldier Field, the Citrus Bowl, Giants Stadium, Sam Boyd Stadium, and Liberty Bowl Memorial Stadium have all gone through major periods with artificial surfaces — but not in 2001, when the XFL was looking for natural grass sites.
In 2020, league standards have changed along with the quality of modern-day synthetic surfaces: Three XFL teams, the DC Defenders, Los Angeles Wildcats, and Tampa Bay Vipers, will play on grass. The other five, the Dallas Renegades, Houston Roughnecks, New York Guardians, St. Louis BattleHawks, and Seattle Dragons, will host their games on turf.
Notice how those team names and brands are markedly different from 2001 to 2020. From a glorifying of branded violence 19 years ago, the XFL’s franchises have changed to stylish embraces of city identities. Houston’s logo features an oil derrick, harkening to the city’s former NFL franchise, the Oilers. (All 2020 XFL team logos are pictured above.)
The embrace of violence from the 2001 XFL was borne out by the league’s rule innovations. Games began with a ‘scramble’ in lieu of a coin toss, with two players sprinting from the 30-yard line after a football placed at midfield; on Opening Night, Orlando’s Hassan Shamsid-Deen separated his shoulder in the scramble, ending his season. The 2001 XFL encouraged bump-and-run coverage in the secondary — but it discovered what the NFL already knew, which was that this proved too difficult to overcome in the passing game. A month into the season, the XFL reversed course and banned the bump-and-run in a bid to add more scoring and excitement to its defensive-dominated games. Old school grind-it-out football wasn’t as exciting as it used to be.
The 2020 XFL’s rule innovations, meanwhile, prioritize pace of play for brisker games: a 25-second play clock (rather than the NFL’s 40-second play clock), shortening halftime to ten minutes and timeouts to one minute (with each team only receiving two timeouts per half), introducing a ball-spotting official whose only job is to get the ball ready for play as quickly as possible, and an up-tempo game clock that rolls as soon as the ball is spotted for play, even following incompletions, unless inside the final two minutes of each half. Inside those final two minutes, the game changes. If a play ends with the player down inbounds, the clock stops until five seconds have elapsed on the play clock, thus allowing more time for a comeback and denying kneel downs from draining the final two minutes. Another key change: While the 2001 XFL banned fair catches, allowing the chance for greater collisions on punt returns, the 2020 XFL permits (though discourages) fair catches while giving returners greater freedom for returns by not allowing the punting team to cover the punt until the ball is safely booted upward and onward. If there are injuries, as there assuredly will be, the 2020 XFL comes complete with its own practice squad, Team 9, with a corps of players practicing in Arlington, TX, waiting for their chance to be signed during the season.

Both the 2001 and 2020 XFL did identify a clear area to separate from the NFL and orthodox football: No extra-point kicks following touchdowns. In 2001, XFL teams were forced to run a play from the 2-yard line to pick up an extra point. The current XFL is going deeper, giving offenses the choice of going for one, two or three points, depending on if they choose to run a play from the 2-yard line, 5-yard line, or 10-yard line.
Perhaps the biggest difference between the two different XFLs is shown in the leagues’ broadcast presentations. The 2001 XFL saw Vince McMahon walk out to midfield, microphone in hand, to growl, “Ladies and gentlemen, this is the XFL,” as if still in his Monday Night RAW persona. The Rock, before he became box office star Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, gave a full-on wrestling promo leading up to a game. RAW commentators Jim Ross and Jerry “the King” Lawler served as one of the league’s broadcast teams; Jesse Ventura worked on another; RAW commentator Jonathan Coachman served as sideline reporter. The implications were clear: The XFL and the WWE, though at that point still the WWF, were inextricably tied. Narratives were forced and hotshotted, from a feud between Ventura and New York/New Jersey’s head coach, Rusty Tillman, to the sexualized way the league’s cheerleaders were presented, which led to a brief demotion for lead broadcaster Matt Vasgersian after he did not react on air as enthusiastically as his bosses wished to the cheerleaders dancing in the crowd.
Now, consider the 2020 XFL’s announced broadcast teams: Kevin Burkhardt, Steve Levy, Tom Hart, Curt Menefee on play-by-play, with Joel Klatt, Greg McElroy, Joey Galloway, Tom Luginbill, and Pat McAfee as analysts. Each brings football broadcast credibility to the airwaves.
There were more than a few memorable aspects from the 2001 XFL beyond its failures. Major League Baseball’s Players Weekends see the players wear their nicknames on the backs of their jerseys; the XFL did it first. The XFL’s players were mic’ed up, the coaches were interviewed during games, halftime speeches were recorded and aired, players individually introduced themselves to the camera, and the Sky Cam zoomed about the field above the players. These have all stuck around, to increasing use, in today’s football broadcasts. They, too, are the XFL’s legacy.
That was then. This Saturday is now for the new XFL.

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