XFL Takes First Shot Against AAF as Alternative Football Leagues Gear Up
The race is on, as the XFL and Alliance for American Football battle to see who can emerge as the top choice for pro football fans who are disgruntled with the NFL.
And since Vince McMahon is involved, he seems to have revived his “Evil CEO” character from the WWE’s Attitude Era that birthed the original XFL just to make the news more fun on Labor Day weekend.
NBC Sports reported Saturday that McMahon’s lieutenant, XFL Commissioner Oliver Luck, sent an email Friday to NFL agents on the eve of the final cut-down day of the preseason, where NFL rosters go from 90 players to 53 and where, by extension, 1,184 men who had to this point held onto hope of playing in that league find themselves instead unemployed.
Luck began by saying he wants to make agents “aware of a number of issues related to spring football that may inhibit your client’s freedom in choosing to join our league when we launch in 2020.”
The XFL launches one year after the AAF, which will start playing as soon as the dust settles on Super Bowl XLIII in February 2019.
“We’re reaching the crunch stage, if you will, with our city selection.”
~ Commissioner @OliverLuckXFL on the @thecharlieboots show, discussing the eight inaugural #XFL cities, which will be announced this fall pic.twitter.com/BtweoHXmEw— United Football League (@TheUFL) August 28, 2018
In a move so brazen that it’s a wonder it wasn’t prefaced by “unlike some people we know,” Luck then took a potshot at the AAF’s contract structure.
“Competitive leagues appear to be offering multi-year contracts that may have restrictions and or non-compete clauses that could severely limit your clients’ ability to play for other leagues, including the XFL,” he wrote.
Meanwhile, the XFL, leveraging its parent company’s name recognition and marketing muscle compared with a football league you might not have heard of, waved a dollar-sign-shaped carrot in front of agents’ noses.
Describing its Group Licensing Agreement, or GLA, the league warned agents that “other spring leagues may feature restrictive licensing agreements that limit your clients’ likeness rights and distribution; impose restrictions that may inhibit your clients’ licensing rights; and restrict their ability to participate in other licensing agreements, including the XFL GLA.”
The clear implication here as well is that the XFL fully expects the AAF to lock players into at minimum two-year contracts, very likely including wording that would allow the players a shot at the NFL but not rival spring leagues.
https://twitter.com/TheAAF/status/977984898744008704
In other words, the AAF is the NIT to the NFL’s March Madness, and with that second-tier status comes the fear that the XFL’s talent base will be like the teams left over for the likes of the College Basketball Invitational and other Not Invited to the Not Invited Tournament refugees.
The XFL knows it’s up against the wall, caught with its pants down by the AAF launching first, and it’s doing everything it can to help ensure that the already-limited market for spring football doesn’t reject the league like a mismatched organ transplant.
Will the XFL succeed? Maybe.
But if you’re a player who is spending this fall without a paycheck, and the AAF says it’ll give you a two-year deal, are you going to say no to that?
The XFL is hoping it can get players off the Island of Misfit Toys, but the AAF’s cargo ship is already pulling into the dock.
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