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The XFL American football league, which played a single season in 2001, could return in 2020:
Television ratings for the N.F.L. have fallen 17 percent over the past two seasons. The league is embroiled in a continuing crisis over concussions, and youth participation rates are falling.
All of this suggests a difficult future for the sport, yet the N.F.L.'s most notorious competitor, Vince McMahon's X.F.L., has a comeback in the works. McMahon, the chairman and chief executive of World Wrestling Entertainment, announced on Thursday that he would take a second crack at professional football, with play scheduled to start in early 2020.
McMahon first tried to reimagine pro football 17 years ago. The old X.F.L. was a joint venture between the World Wrestling Federation (W.W.E.'s former name) and NBC, which had lost rights to broadcast N.F.L. games. Violence was amped up: An opening scramble replaced the coin toss and fair catches were banned. So was the sex appeal, with cheerleaders who were even more scantily clad than the ones in the N.F.L., and advertising that included innuendo about them.
[...] Other than the name, this version will have little in common with the old X.F.L., he said. There will be no cheerleaders, McMahon said. Players with criminal records will not be welcome. Political statements, such as kneeling during the national anthem, will be prohibited.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Ethanol-fueled on Saturday January 27 2018, @07:10PM (6 children)
No, it's keeping the political bullshit the fuck out of football. People don't want to see serious political bullshit, and especially not from Blacks protesting within an organization that is the epitome of the American dream and has created more Black millionaires than any other organization.
Now, if it were like Europe, where people unfurl anti-semitic banners [pri.org] and yell racial slurs and engage in football hooliganism, then that would be okay.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday January 27 2018, @07:43PM (1 child)
The NFL is an act, just like wrestling, and the local theater.
If the actors grandstand on a political issue, it would be mildly enjoyable if I happened to agree, but I don't go to the theater to hear some actor make a slur about Trump.
The owners have their own money riding, and can't afford the actors offending the customers. They do have to virtue signal at times, breast cancer and all that nonsense, to keep the press and government at bay.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday January 28 2018, @01:29AM
wow your reply is even more retarded than the one you are replying to!
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Sunday January 28 2018, @01:24AM (2 children)
Because, you know, football is exempted from free speech. There's an amendment to the constitution somewhere, no?
(grin)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 2) by Pino P on Sunday January 28 2018, @04:35AM (1 child)
The U.S. Constitution guarantees that government will not interfere with valuable,[1] original[2] speech over platforms owned by private entities.[3] It does not guarantee a platform for any given speech. If XFL doesn't want XFL broadcasts to serve as a platform for players' political speech, it can restrict overt political speech from XFL broadcasts.
[1] As opposed to sexually explicit works without serious artistic value or whose production involved a minor, recklessly untrue works intended to harm a person's reputation, direct incitements to violence, and the like.
[2] As opposed to copyright infringement, disclosure of classified information or trade secrets, and the like.
[3] Over-the-air broadcasting is not privately owned. Because the FCC technically owns radio frequencies and leases them out to private broadcasters, it can place restrictions on what can be broadcast, such as decency, the ad volume limit, the E/I quota, and a ban on infomercial-like children's programming.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday January 28 2018, @04:58AM
You don't know what you miss [youtu.be]
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday January 28 2018, @08:55AM
Then skip the damned anthem.