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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: 3, Insightful) by terrab0t on Sunday January 28 2018, @01:39AM (7 children)
Professional football is doomed to obscurity either way. It’s right there in the summary.
Kids stop playing football. They stop going to college to play football. The talent pool dries up. People lose interest in the top leagues because the players aren’t as good as they used to be. Eventually when it comes time to build new stadiums city councils will refuse to fund them and the teams will either play on low‐cost open fields or be shut down.
The only way to prevent concussions is to turn it into something like flag football and people won’t watch that.
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Sunday January 28 2018, @01:44AM (6 children)
A whole world outside US are crazy about soccer. No concussions.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday January 28 2018, @01:55AM (4 children)
http://www.businessinsider.com/soccer-heading-brain-damage-dementia-study-2017-3 [businessinsider.com]
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Sunday January 28 2018, @02:05AM (3 children)
From the linked
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 2) by captain normal on Sunday January 28 2018, @03:14AM (2 children)
I'd like to see the same study on Aussie Rules Football and Rugby players. I played football in High School in Texas in the late 50's when we had the first plastic helmets with just a single bar to protect the face and chin. Before that football players wore leather helmets with no face protection. The shoulder and leg pads were not even close to the high-tech armor today's players use. I don't recall near the incidence of traumatic head injuries (except maybe Ronnie Reagan...and did Donnie Trump play football in Prep-school?).
When life isn't going right, go left.
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Sunday January 28 2018, @03:29AM
Possible explanation: under-reporting/recording from unawareness to the issue.
After all, it's only recently that we could collect, store and effortless analyze data over long periods of time**
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** this is the only thing I feel grateful to Microsoft - cheap personal standard computers pushed IT ahead at a fast pace - Linux would not have happened on Apple or IBM machines.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday January 28 2018, @04:04AM
You expand 4-lane highway to 8-lane highway, it simply increases the traffic. You replace leather helmet with the "high-tech" plastic/form one, you simply bang heads harder.
(Score: 2) by Joe Desertrat on Friday February 02 2018, @09:35PM
Crazy being the operative word, heh heh.