This week, Vince McMahon’s XFL appointed Oliver Luck as its new commissioner and CEO.
“The XFL will be a labor of love as I get to combine my experiences as a player and executive,” Luck told ESPN.com in an email. “I’m thrilled to have this unique opportunity to reimagine the game that has been a constant in my life for 40 years.”
Luck, the father of Colts quarterback Andrew Luck, will relocate to Connecticut as he gears up for the league’s launch in 2020. That also means leaving behind his previous job with the NCAA, in which he oversaw eligibility requirements and academic affairs.
“I always felt there was an opportunity for another pro league as long as it had the key ingredients, and I found all those ingredients present in the new XFL,” Luck said. “There was the leadership and vision from Vince [McMahon] who is a tremendous entrepreneur with a solid track record and there is a potential to have good quality football if it is well capitalized, which of course it is.”
Here’s more from around the world of football:
- Colin Kaepernick’s lawyers are expected to subpoena President Donald Trump and Vice President Mike Pence as a part of the quarterback’s collusion case against the NFL, sources tell Charles Robinson of Yahoo Sports. The goal, sources say, will be to delve into the administration’s involvement with the NFL during Kaepernick’s free agency and the league’s handling of player protests. It remains to be seen whether Trump would comply with such a request, or whether he could be forced to participate. Already, Trump’s lawyers are fighting subpoenas in the Russian collusion probe.
- On this date in 2010, the 49ers traded Issac Bruce to the Rams. The move allowed the wide receiver to retire with his original franchise.
- This week marked an anniversary for another standout wide receiver. Terrell Owens inked a lucrative extension with the Cowboys roughly ten years ago today.
If this league is going to be about playing football I’m probably gonna watch. If This league is going to be a haven for political nonsense, no point wasting time on a league that will last one season.
The NFL is already a haven for political nonsense.
Agreed but if this new league is going to run their program the same then there is no reason to invest my time in it because the NFL is bigger better and will always be one of the top television products in the world.
Unless there was a joke there, I’m positive he means the XFL
Colin Kaepernick should be playing today. Horrible and unfair what has happened to him. When the facts come out, his courage will be recognized.
Completely agree, what’s happened to him is not only a disgrace, but also a reflection of how dumb and/or racist this country has become!
P.S. I love that Joefriday is talking about “when the facts come out” classic!
Kaepernick is exactly where he should be. Why would any owner want this awful liability destroying their business when its easily avoidable. The fans have spoken and they don’t like it.
Didn’t Colin Kaepernick opt out of the deal because other teams were going to line up and pay him more money?
Yep. He sure did. Genius move by him
No, he did because they were going to cut him anyway.
But they didn’t. The team never informed him that they were going to cut him. Media speculation regarding his roster bonus forced everyone to come to the conclusion that he was going to be released.
I checked, and you’re mistaken. John Lynch discussed this very issue in detail and, while making it clear that the issues were Kaepernick’s contract and his scheme fit, explicitly states “‘We gave him the option, ‘You can opt out, we can release you, whatever.’ And he chose to opt out, but that was just a formality.” See:
link to profootballtalk.nbcsports.com
I am from the extremely liberal bay area myself and what I get from sports people is that they just liked Alex Smith a lot better than they like Colin Kaepernick Please correct me if I am mistaken again but didn’t Colin Kaepernick say that he wanted to try to make more money elsewhere?
Will Brinson at CBS sports wrote a year ago that ESPN’s Dan Graziano was reporting that Kaepernick was looking to compete for a starting job and a salary of nine to tne million dollars per year, that of “a high-end backup quarterback or a low-end starter.” For a current example, think of Josh McCown and the ten million dollars he’s due to get from the Jets this coming season.
Now, Graziano and Brinson both thought that unrealistic, as do I, but that’s also LESS than the 12 to 14 million dollars that Kaepernick made in 2014, 2015 and 2016. I don’t know if Kaepernick ever thought he was going to get MORE than he was getting from the 49ers when they parted ways (and you could google that just as easily as me, just saying), but if he ever did, he has apparently NOT been working under that illusion for at least the last year.
What does Alex Smith have to do with this discussion, by the way? I thought 49er fans were pretty happy to see the back of him when he left. Have they liked anyone since Jeff Garcia? Steve Young? Joe Montana? Actually, to be fair, that might be like asking Baltimore Colts fans if they liked any QB since Johnny U. I think even Bert Jones couldn’t warm those hearts.
I’m a Kansas City Chiefs fan and pretty much all my friends are either 49ers or raider fans so I get a lot of input from 49er fans that really liked Alex Smith and they didn’t think he ever got a fair shot because every year he had a different offensive coordinator. I don’t think there’s anybody that’s going to say that: Kaepernick has a better player than Alex Smith
@Ironman Excellent point.
@joefriday and @TrollHunter Are you talking about the same Colin Kaepernick who couldn’t beat out Blaine Gabbert on a Chip Kelly team?
Except, then Gabbert screwed the pooch and Kaepernick came in and threw 16 TD’s to 4 Int’s in 2016 and posted the third 90+ season passer rating of his career.
Do you think that someone will hire him while he is suing them?
If it’s a team that didn’t collude against him, it’s possible. Unlikely, but possible.
He’s a joke.
You mean his ignorance ? He sabotaged his own career with his look-at-me antics on the job!
Once again, all the NFL needs to do is show a judge the game tape from every one of kaepernicks games in order, as it’s pretty obvious to those of us who actually watched the 49ers why he isn’t in the league anymore. Take your race card somewhere else snowflakes.
16 TD’s to 4 Int’s in his last season, and the third 90+ passer rating season of his career.
And the biggest snowflakes in this whole mess have been the super patriots who have threatened to drop their team or drop the NFL altogether if their team signed Kaepernick, because they’re “Oh, so offended” by his kneeling during the national anthem. Poor, hurt and angry “Proud to be an American” snowflakes that they are. There, there. There, there.
If you don’t like it here, there are one-way flights out of the Country everyday ! Buy one!
He getting what he asked for he’s a joke.
To be blacklisted? I don’t think he asked for that.
I hate this topic because all Colin Kaepernick has done is divide us Politically. All I can say is I work for my local county fire department. I guess collusion can be defined in many ways but if I was to get fired or let go for any type of wrongdoing I guarantee that the other departments in my area will know about it and that would hinder me from finding another job. Isn’t that kind of the same thing in Colins case ? Because I mean anybody who follow sports knows everything about this
And I’d like to add to that. If Colin Kaepernick had not started the anthem protest I truly believe that he would still be a starting quarterback in the NFL. So if you take everybody’s political opinions out of this you can logically say that he did this to himself
Bruce should have never been a ram
These replies are getting way to phallic for me, so thank you, Ironman_4life for the reply re: Alex Smith and his 49ers fans.
Wait! You’re a Chiefs fan and half of your friends are Raiders fans? To quote Julia Duffy from the 1980’s “Newhart” TV show: “Eeewww.” The Chiefs were the second team of my youth, thanks to Scholastic Books and their little book about the first six Super Bowls. Len Dawson is still my model for the perfect quarterback, and it’s criminal that Johnny Robinson isn’t in the Hall of Fame.
Peace.
I have a nice poster in my bathroom of Len Dawson sitting on sidelines during a game smoking a cigarette and drinking a fresca !!!
Phallic? I think you need to look up the meaning of this word, cuz you don’t know what you’re talking about !
Oh man.
Phallic: something resembling a penis .