With the NFL season ending on February 11th 2024, football fans are bummed to have to wait until the start of the new season on Sept. 5th. 

With the NFL having such a long break, fans need some sort of football to hold them until the highest league, the NFL comes back into season. This idea came into action way earlier in 1982 before only lasting 4 years. 

Then, In 2001 the NFL off-season league known as the XFL was founded by WWE executive Vince McMahon. 

The original XFL had sort of fallen off and was not very popular until revived in 2018 until then filing for bankruptcy in 2020. The league is now owned by Dewayne Johnson and Dany Garcia. Both married together, and Dwyane Johnson was a very popular WWE wrestler.

To add some more entertainment to the XFL, certain rules have differed from that of the NFL. Rules such as WR motioning before the ball has been snapped into play or certain extra point rulings.

Other ways the league has spiced up gameplay is new camera techniques to give viewers watching at home a more immersive and more insightful view of what is happening. They also use this league to test these new camera movements for the next NFL season.

In 2021, a minor football league similar to that of the XFL came into existence known as the USFL.

Now 3 years after the USFL was founded and 4 years after the XFL was truly revived, these 2 leagues decided to merge in 2024. This will allow for greater competition and one true minor football league just below the NFL.

The new name for this minor league is the UFL (United Football League). NFL scouts go to these minor leagues and scout potential future NFL players based on how skilled the players in the now UFL league are. 

Games for the UFL will start in March. 30th. 2024. To watch go to Fox, ABC, ESPN, ESPN 2 or FS1.