Oliver Luck isn’t satisfied with the XFL’s hot first weekend
By John Buhler
XFL commissioner Oliver Luck reflects on what was a successful opening weekend in the relaunch of the professional football league.
It has been a return nearly 20 years in the making. The XFL was back in full force last weekend, achieving tremendous praise for the quality of play and how much more polished the game looks than last time.
Speaking with FanSided‘s Mark Carman one week into the XFL season is none other than league commissioner Oliver Luck. While there might have been an expletive shouted on the sidelines by a player in the first game, Luck has to be thrilled with how well the league looked last weekend. XFL games drew better numbers than NBA games.
“I suppose it was inevitable that an f-bomb or two would happen, given the access we’ve given the ESPN, the ABC and the FOX sideline reporters,” said Luck to Carman on behalf of the PlayXFL app. “So they’re talking to guys literally as they walk off the field…So it’s going to happen, I suppose. But I have to admit, I cringed a little bit.”
Luck expanded on it to say it’s just part of the league being so authentic. Frankly, authenticity was a big reason the league had such a successful weekend last week. Carman pointed out how excited the fans were cheering on teams in their inaugural games, most notably how amped up the DC Defenders crowd was in their first game. Quarterback Cardale Jones starred on Saturday.
“Yeah, we don’t want to get too excited because we have a long season to go,” said Luck. “But if you think about it, we had four games on national television. Two on Saturday, two on Sunday. All four of those drew strong ratings…We think it’s a good start, but we’re working out tail off to make sure we provide great quality football this weekend, Weekend No. 3, etc. and on. No complacency.”
Overall, the two aspects of the XFL relaunch that captivated the television audience the most was the surprising strong quality of play and most notably, how different and creative the kickoffs are. It’s one of those things that looks odd at first, but after watching a few of them, you wonder why all football leagues across America haven’t adopted this yet. The XFL is off to a terrific start.
Oliver Luck spoke with FanSided on behalf of the PlayXFL app.