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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: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday January 27 2018, @07:36PM (10 children)
'nuff said.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Azuma Hazuki on Saturday January 27 2018, @08:02PM (7 children)
And in your case, Mr. So-Triggered-I-Posted-5-Times-About-Muh-Sportz-In-One-Thread, it's entirely vicarious. You know how pathetic you are, and your only outlet is seeing these roided-out freaks in tight pants jumping and rolling and grabbing all over one another (...) so you can get a third-hand contact high of pretended dominance.
I never understood mens' need for this, and I especially never understood how it could be satisfied by this kind of voyeuristic spectating.
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday January 27 2018, @08:12PM
He's right.
(Score: 2) by rts008 on Saturday January 27 2018, @09:29PM
It may be explained by a tribal mentality as a (vicarious)victory over their foes?
And/or some guys just get off on seeing other guys fuck their wives/girlfriends?
I don't really get it myself, even though I'm a guy. :-)
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Virindi on Saturday January 27 2018, @09:30PM (3 children)
I have always struggled to understand the appeal of football. But for the people I know, I don't think it is about violence specifically (also one of the biggest football fans I know is female).
My best guess is that the root of the appeal is tribalism. People like to feel like they are a part of a group, and be able to have some kind of competition attached to that, so their tribe can 'win' against others. It makes them feel good when 'their team' wins. While this is competitive, it is not intrinsically violent. The same explanation also applies to other team sports, and things like the olympics. At another time in history, it was baseball (not violent). For some people, it is hockey (violent). It seems to all be a similar psychology.
So naturally, people who don't like being part of groups would be less likely to like team sports. And, those who enjoy aligning their success with a tribe would be more likely. This jives with the apparent correlation between sports fandom and patriotism.
While I'm not going to say nobody likes it for the violence, I do think that is a lesser factor.
(Score: 2) by fliptop on Sunday January 28 2018, @04:37PM (2 children)
If you're referring to the occasional fight, it has its place in hockey. It's a tool the players use to keep others from taking liberties that are intended to purposely injure. Speed, confinement, and playing on ice make it very easy to do that.
Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.
(Score: 2) by Phoenix666 on Monday January 29 2018, @01:44AM
I found it interesting how hockey played professionally in Europe is much more precise than in America. They don't permit the physical mixing it up that the NHL does. It's almost a different game entirely, like ice ballet with points.
Perhaps a major rule revision in the NFL to minimize blunt force trauma, say, to adopt rugby-style tackling, would produce the same transformation.
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 2) by Virindi on Tuesday January 30 2018, @12:24AM
Yes, and I do know people who "like hockey for the fights" :)
(Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 01 2018, @06:53PM
It's closet homo-eroticism, Azuma.
And given these folks don't even have the balls to accept their own drives and desires, is it any wonder that they're bitter and nasty?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday January 27 2018, @09:17PM (1 child)
Sounds like Mad Max's world is your utopia.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday January 28 2018, @02:00AM
However, libertarians also like to defeat their enemies, so I'm not sure what your point is.