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so little hype compared to old XFL............. old XFL was soooooo boring. a few plays in and it's much much more exciting. more of a cfl feeling.

cardell jones (ex-QB for ohio state) looks great.

mike riley is one of the OC's for seattle (opening game)............ trestman and june jones = HC

Apparently just under 17000 for the DC game in Audi Field which has a capacity of only 20000, smallest in the XFL. Seemed to make for a pretty good atmosphere though. Be interesting to see what sort of atmosphere there is in the stadiums with 65000+ capacity. As with the AAF and previous short lived attempts at spring football things will start out pretty good in terms of attendance and viewership in the first 2 weeks or until the initial novelty fades. The litmus test will be what those numbers look like 4 weeks from now when NCAA hoops and March Madness interest starts to pick up along with MLB Spring Training.

And for a live update I just found the LA/Houston game on the tube just in time to see Sergio Castillo attempt a 40 yard FG. He hooked it wide left. I wonder how kickers will be impacted by the XFL convert rules where kicking converts is not an option. Placekickers may become Maytag repairman. Tougher to stay sharp when you might only be called on once or twice a game....or less. In the case of DC their punter also handled KOs. Their kicker was 2/3. For Seattle it appears their kicker handles KOs and FGs but he didn't get called on to try a FG today.

Hambone, great comments

houston atmosphere seems great in giant stadium.... to me the issue is sustaining interest (as you mentioned). football is great. repetitive of me but first XFL was so boring. this is great.

trestman coaches tomorrow.. forgot the team already.

DC had a whole bunch of players where i thought "how is that player not in the NFL or CFL?"... cardalle jones, scooby wright (arizona all-american combo LB/safety. undersized but amazing player), recent SDSU tailback (pomphrey?).......

do players still want to play in CFL? or have alot figured out getting into college coaching is good. or something they can make US$80k per year and move up (i understand they can make more money in short-term in CFL, QB especially).... i'm wondering if a good model is to pay new US players in CFL at much higher rate i.e. cherry pick. limit your risk to 1 year... i had a trainer in california who was recent all-MWC safety (googlable) and he knew nothing about playing in canada. i think it's an area you could focus on. non-salary cap spending too in terms of scouting the USA and raising your team profile.

all the other teams, i just know a few players, usually QB or tailback... sorry, this is now out of order... should go with 2nd paragraph above

i should note that i thought the AEF (name?) was great football. and had excellent mindshare (i think it got more attention that this XFL launch, which surprises me)

Just caught another Castillo faux pas. After Houston scored a TD Castillo proceeded to kick the ensuing KO out of bounds. In the XFL if you kick the ball OB on a KO your opponent gets the ball on YOUR 45.

don't kick the ball out-of-bounds :(

went looking for this topic in other sports. silly me

I rather liked these first 2 games today.

Cheered for both winning teams.

Like the kickoff rules, except the out of bound penalty is too harsh.

Like the 2 minute time clock rules. Hope that with both games going over 3 hrs they don't end up changing that.

4 LFA games today as well for the global fans. Convincing 29 - 7 win yesterday by the Condors over the Pionero's.

I'll need Hambone to break down the league and identify the up and comers.

I tried crossing over last years draft list but got lost in the Spanish. Just the start of the year though so maybe a good way to improve on a second language.

Curious how it compares to the XFL.

All four of this weekend's XFL games drew between 17,000 and 18,000 fans. I don't know how this fits with the league's business plan. I guess more depends on the strength of their TV contract.

By the way, perhaps the mods could transfer this thread over to the "All Sports" forum. Just like the NFL thread. Maybe a new thread "XFL news" or somesuch could be started there.

so, didn't watch much of todays games, but not for lack of interest.

I have decided based on what play I saw of all 4 games that I will start off as a Houston fan.

I will also cheer for St L because they lost their other team.

I know I am jumping ahead, but I would like to see this league do well and jump to 12 teams in the next 3 years, or less.

I've watch some of three of the XFL games. It's not bad. Other than the Tampa Bay Vipers, it looks like each team has a decent QB. I like the rule changes, especially the kick offs and PATs. I won't tune in to every game, but I'll probably watch a few if I don't have something better to do.

Seattle had to open more seating sections for their game on Saturday. They're expecting up to 40,000.

Enjoyed my first taste of XFL action, if only the final quarter of today's Tampa Bay vs Seattle game, and found it rather entertaining. The game was fairly low scoring but had some excitement. I got a bang out of the fact that apparently in last week's game Seattle head coach Jim Zorn hadn't realized play calls as well as some typical sideline chatter and audible decision-making would be aired for a world of TV viewers to hear (and he was not the only head coach to be unaware of this detail). It's an interesting aspect to watching. Anyhow, I recognized a few players names, but mostly the coaching staffs; in this game Jim Zorn/Mike Riley (son of Bud of course)/Clayton Lopez out-coached Mark Trestman/Jaime Elizondo/Gerry Glanville. I might follow the fortunes of the Seattle team a bit. We shall see. Seemed like a good-sized crowd in attendance.

I do wonder if my personal experience with the XFL after 2 weeks is common or uncommon. I watched parts of 3 games in Week 1 and forgot Week 2 was on today.

Hambone wrote: ↑

Sat Feb 15, 2020 10:04 pm

I do wonder if my personal experience with the XFL after 2 weeks is common or uncommon. I watched parts of 3 games in Week 1 and forgot Week 2 was on today.

I forgot to watch week 1 and week 2.