The XFL was a new professional football league that was established in 2020. The purpose of the league was to compete with the NFL and take over their viewership when their season is over. The league was initially successful. From the start, they had more success than other independent leagues like the AAF which only lasted one season in 2019.

During the XFL’s first week they had an average of 3.1 million viewers. Their views dipped but that was to be expected. They had an average of 2.1 million viewers in week 2, 1.61 million viewers in week 3, and 1.38 million viewers in week 4.

The XFL was successful in ticket sales this year before the corona-virus halted all games. This unforeseen pandemic resulted in the untimely end of the XFL.

On March 20, the XFL announced that it would suspend all games for the remainder of the 2020 season due to the coronavirus. Nearly a month later on April 10th the XFL stated that they would be firing all employees and suspending operations. The XFL announced they were filing for bankruptcy on April 13th, citing the coronavirus pandemic as the cause.

Since the closing of the league some XFL players have made their reactions public. Quarterback PJ Walker from the St. Louis Battlehawks said, “It was fun while it lasted! Thank you to the city of STL and the @XFLBattleHawks for the wild ride. We proved we are a football town #kakaw”. Josh Johnson, LA Wildcats QB said, “This is crazy….”. It seems the former XFL players will be missing the league.
Although the league has ended, some ex-XFL players’ careers will continue. NFL teams have already picked up players from the XFL who they think have potential. The XFL commissioner stated that many NFL scouts were “watching these games closely”. We’re going to have to wait to see how the players will adjust to the NFL.

The XFL is over having only completed half of its inaugural season but it showed potential. Many sports fans were excited because it was something new to watch and they were eager to find out how successful it would become. This is the second time that the XFL has collapsed after only one season, maybe it just wasn’t meant to be.