XFL Commissioner Oliver Luck on How Hands-On Vince McMahon Will Be With The League

The rebirth of The XFL is quickly approaching as we are just about one year away from the relaunching of the football league as it is set to begin play on the weekend after next year’s Super Bowl. Everyone is aware of the misfortunes of The Original XFL, but it appears that WWE Chairman & CEO Vince McMahon, as well as the rest of The XFL Officials, have a better infrastructure in place this time around.

A big reason for that belief is the inclusion of XFL Commissioner OOliver Luck. Luck has had decades of executive experience in the sports industry including serving as an Athletic Director Of West Virginia & President Of NFL Europe.

Oliver Luck recently appeared on Boomer & Gio on WFAN to discuss the impending rebirth of the league. During the interview, Luck also discussed what drew him to join the front office and whether he believes Vince McMahon will be heavily involved in the product. Below are the highlights from the interview:

On Why The XFL Was Appealing To Him: I love football and respect football and when Vince McMahon decided he wanted to relaunch the XFL, I thought it was a great opportunity to start from scratch. This was too good of an opportunity to pass up. Vince has great vision and he’s an entrepreneur. But, he’s the first one to tell you he doesn’t really know football…. He wanted experienced folks to build the game and have credibility in the football space which is obviously important.

On If He Believes Vince McMahon Will Be A Hands-On Owner: It’s vertically integrated – that’s what the experts say. So, it’s Vince owns and operates all of the franchises. I’m in the process of identifying head coaches and developing team identities, logos, colors, and names. We’re starting to hire team presidents and get local operations up and running.

On Team Composition & Salaries: Each roster will have roughly 25 people on the football side and 25 people on the business side. The salary for coaches will be around $500,000 and the salary for the top players around $250,000.

On What They Can Learn From The Previous Failure Of The XFL: It was 18 years ago. Life has changed and our sensitivities have changed. Nobody was talking about head trauma back in 2001 and now they are.

During the interview, Luck also confirmed that The “Kickoff scramble” will not be returning to The XFL this time around. Additionally, while he dodged the question of whether the XFL will test for marijuana, he did acknowledge that there will be testing for performance enhancing drugs (PEDS).

You can listen to the full interview below: