I'm old enough to remember a whole lot of other professional football leagues. The USFL, the World League, NFL Europe, and of course the hype-driven original XFL that tried to gain viewers by promising to put cameras in the cheerleaders locker room. And last year's blink-and-you-missed-it AAF. Now we have another XFL.
Somebody asked me about this new venture last week, and I shrugged and said let me know if it's still around two months from now. It's hard to be optimistic, with all the false starts and failed attempts over the years, and easy to be cynical.
But I tuned in to far more of the games this week than I anticipated, and I gotta say it was pretty entertaining. The production values are fine. Real football was being played. Even if virtually all of the players are there just hoping to catch the eye of an NFL team and get invited to training camp, so what? Can they play or not? In most cases the answer was yes.
You know it's a different kind of league when there's discussion of point spreads during the commentary, and when most promotion of the league mentions the opportunities for gambling. What was surprising to me was that the people most interested in the games -- moreso than they're actually interested in the regular NFL -- were the teenagers I know, my son and his friends.
"Did you know you can go for 3 after a touchdown?" "Have you seen this guy P.J. Walker? He's Lamar Jackson!" "The New York Guardians have an awesome defense!" These were among the discussions in my car in a 10-minute ride cross town to a youth basketball game. Kids watching highlight packages and streaming games on their phones. I wish I could say it happened all the time with regular NFL games. But it doesn't.
At the risk of putting too much pressure on one player, it was in fact P.J. Walker who rightly got most of the attention for his Week 1 performance. You can check out his highlights in the videos at this link. Walker showcased a lively arm while throwing 4 touchdowns, and he can also move, rushing for 26 yards and making lots of throws on the run.
Walker kind of looks like a guy who might have fallen through the NFL cracks. He put up good numbers as a four-year starter at Temple, passing for over 10,000 yards, with 74 touchdowns, and running for 200-plus in three of his seasons. He was undrafted, but bounced on and off the Colts practice squad in 2017-2018, back when they were set with Andrew Luck. He's small (5-11, 205), a factor in him not drawing much NFL interest.
Walker's head coach at Temple, though, was new Carolina Panthers head coach Matt Rhule. And Carolina just might be in the market for some depth chart help at quarterback.
There weren't a lot of other players that stood out in the games I watched, certainly not at quarterback. Josh Johnson, Matt McGloin, Cardale Jones, Landry Jones. Maybe one of the Jones gets an NFL training camp invite, but starting in the XFL or 3rd-string in the NFL might be their ceiling.
You'll recognize some of the running back names. Journeyman Christine Michael, who never put things together for long at his various NFL stops. Bottom of the roster NFL types Cameron Artis-Payne and Kenneth Farrow. Only two of the four games (the Houston-Los Angeles game featuring Walker and Seattle-DC) were higher scoring. Last night's 15-9 St. Louis-Dallas game was a relative yawner, with muffed punts and special teams gaffes the recurring highlights. It wasn't all good.
But for those of us who have completely tuned out the NBA and hockey, it was fun to watch football this past weekend. I'll watch some next weekend, too, and the kids I know will be watching.
One of the debates I saw centered on whether teams should be in NFL cities, or in other places that don't have NFL teams. Why have teams in Houston, Los Angeles or New York?
Here's the reason: because it's too expensive to go to an NFL game. You'll spend over $100 for a crummy seat, and get gutted for parking, concessions, merchandise. The New York Guardians are playing at MetLife, same as the Giants or Jets, and I can think about getting good seats for $40 apiece and not going broke watching a lousy game. These games aren't guaranteed to be great, but the NFL can't promise that either.
I know the XFL probably won't last. The AAF didn't. If it starts to have a little success, the NFL will pluck away its best players and of course steal the attention and interest of most fans once the draft, minicamps and training camps roll around. People will forget there was an XFL.
But minor league football, if that's what we want to call this, has appeal, both as an in-person viewing experience and something to capture the eyes and imagination of the young and the casual fans. I didn't think this two weeks ago. I'm willing to say I was wrong.