Here’s Everything We Learned About The New ‘Family Friendly’ XFL From Vince McMahon’s Press Conference

Earlier today we learned that WWE founder/President Vince McMahon was bringing back the defunct XFL football league in 2020. This afternoon, McMahon spoke to the media for about an hour and made it clear that the new XFL is going to be a much tamer “family friendly” version of the previous iteration of the league.

The XFL will present a shorter, faster-paced, family friendly and easier to understand game,” McMahon said in a news conference. “Don’t get me wrong, it’s still football, but it’s professional football re-imagined.”

Despite the rumors of Johnny Manziel being courted as the face of the new XFL, McMahon made sure to say that he was looking for “quality human beings” who had no criminal history.

“We are evaluating a player based on many things, including the quality of human being they are,” “If you have any sort of criminal record or commit a crime you aren’t playing in this league

Vince apparently also wants to keep out politics and national anthem protests away from his new XFL.

“People don’t want social and political issues coming into play when they are trying to be entertained,” McMahon said. “We want someone who wants to take a knee to do their version of that on their personal time.”

There will be rules and regulations as far as the national anthem is concerned whatever our rules are, everyone will abide by. There’s plenty of opportunity and plenty of ways players can express themselves on social media. We’re here to play football, when we come on to the field it’s to play football, that’s everone’s jobs

McMahon went on to talk about his motivations for bringing back the XFL.

McMahon said he is the sole funding source for the league, which is slated to begin in January 2020. Its first season will have eight teams around the country playing a 10-week schedule.

“I wanted to do this since the day we stopped the other one,” McMahon told ESPN in an exclusive interview. “A chance to do it with no partners, strictly funded by me, which would allow me to look in the mirror and say, ‘You were the one who screwed this up,’ or ‘You made this thing a success.’”

In the end the quality of football played on the field is what’s going to matter most and the XFL is probably not going be able to attract the same quality of talent as the NFL which has been the main issue for all of these alternative football leagues. No one wants to watch mediocre football no matter how different the rules are from the NFL.

Jorge Alonso BroBible avatar
Brobible sports editor. Jorge is a Miami native and lifelong Heat fan. He has been covering the NBA, MLB and NFL professionally for almost 10 years, specializing in digital media.