Oliver Luck, the former Oilers quarterback and Dynamo executive who has most recently worked at the NCAA, was named Tuesday as the commissioner of the relaunched XFL that World Wrestling Entertainment will launch in 2020.
Luck, the father of Colts quarterback Andrew Luck, was announced as CEO and commissioner of the new eight-team league by WWE chairman Vince McMahon, the league’s founder.
“Football has always been a constant in my life and I’m excited about the unique opportunity to present America’s favorite sport to fans in a new way,” Luck said in a statement from the league. “The XFL will create first-class organizations that local cities across the country will be proud of.”
McMahon he and Luck “share the same vision and passion for reimagining the game of football. His experience as both an athlete and executive will ensure the long-term success of the XFL.”
See here for the background. Among many other things, Luck has served as president of NFL Europe, so he has real experience with this sort of thing. I still have my doubts that they’ll be able to get an eight-team league off the ground and on solid financial footing by 2020, but so far at least this is not an obvious farce. And while I said before that I probably wouldn’t watch a new XFL (as I hadn’t watched the original XFL), I’ve changed my mind. There is a scenario under which I will become an XFL fan, and that’s if they treat their cheerleaders better then the NFL does (not a high bar to clear, as we know). Have the teams hire their cheerleaders as employees, pay them a fair salary, institute real anti-harassmemt policies, don’t put ridiculous rules on them and only them about fraternizing with players, and I’m in. What do you say, Oliver? The Press and Texas Monthly have more.
I’d add to that some strictly enforced rules about minimizing head trauma. I like my football as much as any Texan, but the brain injury stuff is really disturbing. Going to be helping out with a basic research project on brain injury, funding willing, so I’ll never look at the game the same way again.
Since the NFL is dead to me, I’d consider giving the XFL a chance. If, as Kuff suggests, they pay and treat their cheerleaders better, maybe the XFL will drain off recruits for the NFL cheerleading teams and cause the NFL to pay more, with better treatment to boot.
@Fly:
I’m interested in the potential research project you mentioned. Can you provide any more detail?
Football is irredeemable. More pro leagues are just more outlets for paying people (even less) to give themselves brain damage, thereby encouraging the continued pipeline of people who will endure that brain damage for a shot at the pros, though the vast majority of those people won’t ever get paid.
Exploitation, plain and simple. And for pennies on the dollar. Bleck.