Luck Talks AAF Folding, XFL L.A. and Houston Coaches

Oliver Luck was on the DA Show on CBS Sports Radio Tuesday just before the New York head coach press conference. Damon Amendolara focused a lot on the demise of the AAF, including the Tom Dundon and Vince McMahon conspiracy theory. They also dived into XFL topics like player salary’s, rules and when the Los Angles Head Coach/GM announcement will be.

Notes from the Interview;

• He was surprised by the end of AAF; games were fun to watch
• Tiered player salary structure with QB’s on top
• Top tier $250,00 to $30,000 per year – most likely QB’s
• Why the XFL won’t be like the AAF; time (two years to get league ready) to and money(See Vince McMahon’s money)
  • “Vince McMahon is the force behind the XFL, and Vince has made a very serious capital commitment,” XFL CEO Oliver Luck. “You need money in any start-up – particularly in sports, particularly in football, which is so logistically complex and, at the end of the day, relatively expensive to launch. Vince is committed for certainly more than one year, and he’s got budgets that have been put together for multiple years of XFL football. That money has given us the time to plan. I think those are two things that are indispensable to any sort of a start-up, and I at the end of the day the AAF kind of lurched a little bit too quickly into the business side of things. You need both the football and the business side to work.”
• AAF launched too early, needed broadcast partners, sponsors, staff, didn’t give themselves enough time to get ready
• AAF app(gambling) not as invaluable as some have said in reports.
• Highly doubt the XFL won’t make it through one season like the AAF
• He has gone through a football startup before with NFL Europe
• Forty million football fans have a void after the NFL season, more of those fans are in the more significant markets rather than the AAF markets. That is why they chose their eight cities
• AAF had a clause in their player contracts preventing them from playing in any other spring football league. A legal clause the XFL felt it would not be upheld in court
• AAF assistant coaches have reached out to him after it folded
• NFL teams go to camps with 90 players and cut it down to 53. Hundreds of players are available; the football talent pool is out there
• AAF had only one league sponsor
• Conspiracy theorists wonder if McMahon made a deal with Dundon to end the AAF. In effect eliminating the competition for the XFL.
  • “I highly doubt that,” Luck said. “I can’t speak for Vince of course, but I’d be surprised if there was any sort of backdoor relationship that the two have. Dundon is a successful businessperson. I really can’t confirm or deny there was any contact between those two gentlemen.”
    The XFL new version will be no gimmicks and up-tempo 75 top 80 plays per team
• XFL games will be under 3 hours
• 30-second play clock and a running game clock
• About a dozen innovations to help their game
• two major broadcast partners, two games on over the air TV, the other two games will be on cable
• Saturday and Sunday games, maybe some Thursday games at the end of the season
• Gameday experience will be crucial is very important to the XFL
• XFL will debut Saturday, February 8th, 2020
• L.A. Head Coach/GM announcement before the end of April
• Houston coach will be the last coach announced after Los Angeles