March 17, 2021 By: Mark Knudson

Could a CFL-XFL merger present a challenge to the NFL?

While the football world is abuzz about NFL free agency and the upcoming draft, there’s something else going on that could have major ramifications for the game in the not-to-distant future.

A year ago at this time, Vince McMahon’s reincarnation of the XFL was at least as big a story as NFL free agency. Then the pandemic hit, and like everyone and everything else, the XFL went dark. Unlike other sports, that machination of the XFL would not survive. McMahon filed bankruptcy in April 2020 and the XFL folded.

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But then it didn’t. Somewhat surprisingly, the league was purchased out of bankruptcy by a group called “RedBird Capital” in partnership with, among others, former college football player turned movie star Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson. The XFL would live.

The new league wasn’t planning an immediate comeback. They were always going to sit out 2021. But in the time since the new management was formed until now, they’ve been plotting. Among their ideas was a potential business partnership/merger/consolidation with the historic Canadian Football League.

Remember, the CFL – founded in 1958 – has a deep and storied history. It’s been in business longer than a lot of NFL franchises, including the New England Patriots, the Denver Broncos, The Kansas City Chiefs and New York Jets. The CFL plays by different rules (a bigger field, only three downs instead of four) and has a smaller but still very passionate fan base. The CFL remains a big deal in the Great White North.

While the XFL ended it’s season after just five weeks, the CFL didn’t play a single down in 2020. So both leagues were hurt badly by the pandemic. Both are looking to regroup.

In a press release, the CFL said this:

“The Canadian Football League and XFL owners Dany Garcia, Dwayne Johnson and RedBird Capital have agreed to work together to identify opportunities for the leagues to collaborate, innovate and grow the game of football.”

Nothing is eminent or locked in stone. But they are talking.

The CFL has an attendance/revenue problem. The three biggest markets in the country – Vancouver, Montreal and Toronto – have the poorest attendance figures, due in large part to antiquated stadiums. Other franchises have invested into modern, state of the art playing facilities, but those three have not. And some CFL owners are worried that even after the pandemic, the popularity of the game north of the border won’t be enough to sustain things long term.

Enter the XFL. The Innovator.

It’s the XFL that’s tried things like an overhead “sky” camera and very different set ups for kick-offs. They’ve shown a willingness to be the laboratory for rule changes, too. The CFL…not so much.

So this partnership would not be a merger of two groups who have the exact same view of how the game should be played. But if enough folks on both sides are willing to compromise on things like scheduling for example – the XFL wants to start games in February, which isn’t going to get off the ground in frigid Canada, or the size of the field/number of downs (the XFL wants to play the game American-style) – then maybe they could form an 18-team league that could…dare we say…challenge the almighty NFL in some fashion?

It’s no slam dunk.

For any league – the nine-team XFL or an 18-team XFL/CFL hybrid – to challenge the NFL, they’d actually need to do something radical – offer something very different, the way the American Basketball Association did in the 1970’s (the three point shot for example) before four of its teams were absorbed by the NBA prior to the 1977 season. The best way to do that would be to allow the drafting and signing of players out straight of high school. Give elite teenagers the opportunity to turn pro immediately rather than going to college. While there’s undoubtedly only a select few who could do it, and most of them would want to use a stint in the XFL/CFL as a stepping stone to the NFL, it would still give the new league a leg up on bringing in exciting new top level prospects, and not just guys who couldn’t make NFL rosters.

That’s what the ABA did. (See Haywood, Spencer.)

Let’s be honest. There’s already a powerful trend toward professionalizing the game at every level above the 12^th grade. “College” football already has free agency (the new ‘anyone, anytime’ transfer rule) and will soon include paychecks for players. The “college” game already pays professional salaries with multi-million dollar buy-outs to head coaches and has billion dollar TV deals. It’s become de facto pro football.

So allowing some kids to skip the charade about attending classes – like every other sport including basketball is now doing – in order to get on the field seems like the next logical step. It also sounds like a step that only the XFL – and perhaps the CFL – would be willing to take.