Former XFL Employee Explains Why The League Getting Shut Down Should Be A Devastating Blow For Football Fans Everywhere

Getty Image / Scott Audette/XFL

News broke last Friday that the XFL had suspended operations, laid off all employees, and there were no longer plans to move forward with the league in 2021. This was all due to circumstances completely out of the league’s control.

The financial burden of launching a new league was already such a massive gamble before the entire world of professional sports was forced to suspend operations. Vince McMahon was reportedly set to lose $375 million in funding over the course of three years. Prior to the XFL ever playing its first game there were odds from Las Vegas sportsbooks on whether or not the league would make it to Season 2. In late 2018, Bovada had it +200 the league would fold after one season and -300 the XFL would make it to a second. year. That’s how big of a risk it was to launch the new league.

Andrew Samson was one of the people laid off when the XFL was forced to shut down. He was a long-time writer and producer for The Herd with Colin Cowherd before taking a leap of faith to join the XFL as Director of Content for the Tampa Bay Vipers. Over the weekend, he shared his eloquent thoughts on the league shutting down and why all of the people making low-hanging-fruit jokes about the inevitability of it all have failed to miss the point of what’s happened. Every football fan on the planet should’ve been rooting for the XFL to succeed.

I should mention that I know Andrew personally and none of this is lip service or clout chasing. This is a genuine and well-reasoned argument on why we as sports fans are worse off without the XFL in our lives. Here’s what he had to say:

Twitter / @andrewdsamson

@andrewdsamson

@andrewdsamson

I think it’s time to get the #HireAndrew hashtag trending after reading this. At the very least, you can throw him a retweet as a show of support if you’re a fan of the game.