Now that the Tampa Bay Vipers have settled in, the buzz around town is growing.
I have to confess that the reality of the XFL coming back didn’t fully set in with me until I set foot on the reworked Plant City Stadium grass for the first time a few weeks ago. That might have been the case for the hundreds who showed up to the Tampa Bay Vipers’ VIPer Day two Saturdays ago, as well.
I say this because in my experience the Vipers have been one of the hottest topics, if not the hottest topic, that’s come up over the past two weeks when talking to folks out here. This is good! I typically field a lot of questions regarding certain local developments that no one has answers for, so it’s nice to be able to speculate about something fun that nobody’s seen in meaningful action yet. Since I wasn’t in Plant City for the Cincinnati Reds’ spring training heyday at the stadium, I can only imagine having the Vipers around is the biggest pro sports experience we’ve had since Major League Baseball had a presence here.
With that said, I want to touch on the two things I’ve been asked most often.
First, how might the Vipers fare against the rest of the league? I have no idea how the other XFL teams look in practice, but the Vipers definitely have some good things going for them. Let’s get the most obvious thing out of the way: Quinton Flowers earned his reputation as one of USF’s all-time greats for good reason and it sounds like getting the ball in his hands will be at or near the top of the offense’s checklist, as it should be.
Beyond Flowers, this offense could be a lot of fun to watch considering it’s been designed by multi-time CFL champion Marc Trestman and Jaime Elizondo, most recently the offensive coordinator for the 2018 Grey Cup runner-up Ottawa Redblacks (yes, that’s really their name). If you like offense and you’ve never taken the time to watch the CFL, you should change that in 2020 — you may see some things that the XFL will pick up on this season and that the NFL will pick up on in five seasons.
Second, how long will this version of the XFL be around? There’s no beating around the bush when it comes to its original, and only, season — it was a complete disaster for pretty much everyone but Rod “He Hate Me” Smart. You also can’t talk about a football league’s longevity without bringing up its other predecessors. The AAF started play in 2019 and ended about halfway through the season. The UFL lasted for nearly four seasons, but that league never struck me as being run like the legit NFL competitor it wanted to be and time only proved that to be true.
History is not on the XFL’s side, but the league does have advantages the others didn’t. The financial backing and ownership situation is solid. The fan-friendly attitude will keep engagement up among its base better than any alternative football league before it (as long as the league can prove it’s listening, of course). It certainly looks like XFL 2.0 learned from the mistakes of its predecessor, as this new version is going to look and play completely different from the rasslin’-like league of 20 years ago. I agree with something Aaron Murray said after the first Vipers practice about this league not feeling like it was rushed into existence. It’s way harder to get people to watch football that isn’t the NFL or college than folks would like to admit, but maybe the new XFL will be the exception to the rule. It will be interesting to see what the state of the league is in two to three years, but if it gets to that point without too many bumps in the road, it very well could stick around for the long haul.
And on that note, if the XFL does succeed, I hope the Vipers will consider staying in Plant City beyond their current lease. The impression I’ve gotten so far is they’re genuinely happy to be in Plant City and are excited to become a bigger part of the community. I know they want to get deeper into community service starting in January, which makes sense considering they basically just got started, so it’ll be exciting to see what they do to help the many local causes, charities and organizations that are just a short drive from the practice facility.
