Oliver Luck was on the Pro Football Talk (PFT) Podcast Monday to talk XFL. Mike Florio asked him wide-ranging questions from the AAF folding, new XFL rules to John Manziel.
Notes from the Interview;
- Oliver rated his surprise in the AAF folding a 7 out of 10. He was surprised and saddened. Surprised it folded before the season completed
- Charlie Ebersol approach Luck years ago about starting a league and he turned him down because of lack of capital to start a league
- Luck was involved with NFL Europe and knows a new sports leagues need 2 to 4 years to develop. It also requires money
- Luck didn’t know about merger talk rumor of AAF and XFL
- XFL not interesting in AAF team markets at this time
- Looking at what AAF did well and not well overall
- AAF did well with their game pace. Liked the audio element with their games
- Team practice facilities are being looked at, and it takes time to finalize
- Going to use the old St Louis Rams practice facility for XFL team. Others are being worked out.
- 40 million football fans are used to games in the Fall. If they can get some fans out of that number, a spring league will do well
- XFL games will be on Saturday and Sunday, towards the end of the season there might be Thursday night games
- TV deal will be announced soon
- League is open to taking players not NFL draft-eligible
- XFL would be open to Manziel as long as the coaches feel like he’s good enough
- XFL would stay a Spring football league even if the NFL goes on strike next year
- Vince has the staying power and won’t be a one year and done league
XFL Rules
- 30-second play clock
- Kick off will be different
- No fair catch 5-yard halo rule on punt returns
- Overtime will be more like soccer or NFL shoot out vs. NFL overtime quarter
- Game time under 3 hours
- Forward pass rule: A pass that doesn’t cross the line of scrimmage so you can do it multiple times
- 11 on 11, same field type, and number of downs
- XFL to use one, two, or three-point conversions
- Team scoring a touchdown in the XFL will emerge with 6, 7, 8, or 9 points.
- There will be around 12 changes to the rules that differ from NFL and NCAA football
Breakdown of XFL one, two, or three-point conversions
- All are not kicks but play from scrimmage
- One Point Play – from 2-yard line
- Two Point Play – from 5-yard line
- Three Point Play – from 10-yard line
Breakdown of XFL Overtime shoot out
- 44 guys on the field
- 5 opportunities each team for one point
- Each side will have five chances to convert a two-point conversion
- The defense can score a point in overtime from a turnover
- Overtime would last as little as four minutes
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