COLUMN: In adopting XFL kickoff, NFL leaves UFL behind the times

Video: The XFL featured some exciting kickoff returns.

When appearing on a recent episode of The Markcast, UFL Executive Vice President of Football Operations Darryl Johnston defended the league’s decision to opt for a more traditional kickoff play in part by saying it’s more akin to the format the NFL uses. The thinking at the league level is that this would land more players in the NFL because scouts and coaches can see what these players offer on coverage teams in a more apples-to-apples way than with the XFL kickoff.

About that.

The NFL Competition Committee today announced the adoption of the XFL-style kickoff for the 2024 season. It’s a one-year commitment, to be reviewed and voted upon by owners again in a year’s time.

First, let’s get this out of the way: Congratulations go to Sam Schwartzstein, the brainchild of the XFL kickoff, first introduced in 2020. The aim was to increase returns and decrease injuries, both of which were accomplished. In 2023, the XFL kept the play mostly intact under new ownership.

As a spring football league, the UFL should be at the forefront of testing new rules, on the cutting edge of on-field play. Instead, they’ve gone backward while the NFL has leapfrogged them.

Despite what Johnston has said in various media interviews, it always felt like the UFL, in trying to meld the on-field rules of the XFL and USFL, was trying to cut the baby in half. It seemed like there was a deliberate attempt to keep an equal number of rules from each league (there are, after all, big egos on both sides); when you do that, sometimes the best decisions aren’t made. This is one of those times.

Even Johnston’s defense that the traditional kickoff would allow NFL teams to more easily scout and sign UFL players for kickoff coverage roles doesn’t hold water. The XFL, under its kickoff rules, put many more players in the NFL last summer than did the USFL, the league that utilized the traditional kickoff play.

UFL ownership often says it doesn’t want to be a feeder system or a developmental league for the NFL; it wants to stand on its own. If that’s the case, decisions like this shouldn’t be made with the specific intent of trying to develop players for the NFL. That’s a great side-effect, sure, and you can absolutely tout that to fans and potential viewers of the product.

But this league should strive to be different from, and stand out from, the NFL in as many ways as practical. Offer something distinct to attract new fans instead of trying to be a little brother to the NFL. Take advantage of the ways in which the NFL is not best serving its fans. The kickoff play was certainly one of them. Ironically, the UFL kickoff is now indeed different from what the NFL is doing.

The partnership that the XFL had with the NFL was, in part, to try out rules that the NFL may be considering. And that’s fine. When the NFL does adopt them, as they’ve done here, spring football will get the credit and will seem like they’re ahead of the curve. That’s what you want.

Where I can’t fault the UFL is for thinking the NFL would really adopt the XFL kickoff rule. Even when the discussion became serious, I had my doubts that it would happen. The NFL has long been resistant to changes of this magnitude, and there was no way for UFL brass to know months ago, when the UFL rules were hashed out, that this would actually be approved by NFL owners (and there was apparently some last-minute wrangling required to seal the deal).

Now that it has changed, though, and if the momentum next year is for it to stay in 2025, it’ll be interesting to see if the UFL’s tune changes on the kickoff, and they use it for their own 2025 season.

The kickoff play isn’t going to make or break viewership for the UFL; what it does is expose a flaw in the league’s development process. The one thing XFL 2001 and 2020 did was to home in on the areas in which the NFL was deficient, where the game of football could be improved both on and off the field, and they made those changes. They knew the answer wasn’t to be NFL Lite, which is a lesson the UFL may be learning the hard way.