WWE founder and CEO Vince McMahon wants to try to launch his new XFL football league again.
He officially unveiled plans to launch the XFL in 2020 and revealed some of the changes the league would make.
- There will be no cheerleaders
- Players with arrest records won’t be hired
- The league colors are red, white, and blue.
Oh, and everyone in the XFL will be required to stand for the national anthem.
“We want to entertain — that’s what we do,” McMahon said, according to ESPN. “There are not going to be any politics involved with this thing. We’re not going to have any social issues involved. People want to be entertained. … It’s the entertainment value that sometimes is lost.”
A political move
McMahon insisted that “there are not going to be any politics involved,” in the XFL unlike the current NFL environment. Ever since former San Francisco quarterback Colin Kaepernick took a knee during the national anthem in protest of racial discrimination and a broken justice system, players across the country have followed his lead.
The #TakeAKnee protests have turned into a political talking point, with even President Donald Trump weighing in to suggest that any protesting players should be fired.
So, no, we don’t believe McMahon when he says a red, white, and blue league with a rule against kneeling isn’t political.
McMahon said that he would host “listening tours” to get even more ideas from fans on what they want to see in the XFL.
“It’s an opportunity to really re-imagine football — not reinvent it,” McMahon said. “I have an expression that I use a lot. It’s called, ‘First day on the job.’ If you started from square one, what would you do positively, what would you do negatively, in terms of re-imagining the game to make it more exciting, to make it more fan friendly.”