The XFL is coming back, but it won’t be the success so many in the world now think it will. Jokes aside of the team names, the XFL is continuing from where it left off in 2001. The league may have gotten rid of some of the “Xtreme” frills that the league marketed itself as, but everything the league was about, and did from a business standpoint will return.

Gone may be the diving ‘kickoff’ and the sexual exploitation of the cheerleaders, but the biggest issues remain. First, the big issue is pay. The league still will pay players based off team performance. Sounds fair, right? Both team of men will risk the same amount of physical harm, but they won’t be paid the same. Now, contracts differ all the time but to know that you and someone else will be paid specifically based off of a final score, that’s not good. It’s supposed ‘incentivize’ players, but all it does is show them that they’re expendable and irrelevant to the greater goal. This is also going to kill the biggest draw for players to leave the NFL – money.

There are players in the NFL right now who don’t care about winning a SuperBowl. They want to make money. Guaranteed money. That’s how you get players. Let’s for the sake of argument look at a future Hall of Famer in Eli Manning. He might get cut from the New York Giants this year. What if the XFL were to try and get someone like Eli? They’d have no ability to incentive him. “Hey Eli, we’ll pay you 900,000 a game if you win but only 200,000 if you lose.”

Welp there goes that potential. No player worth their value is going to let a tyrant determine his salary on a week by week basis. Some will, desperate players. Who want to play. But the idea that the XFL could get a player on the downturn of his career with name value and fan support, like an Eli or an Adrian Peterson is laughable now. Even if the payouts are just “bonuses”. Bonus pay is guaranteed. Meet this goal, get paid. But what if you meet your goal but others don’t? That just breeds contempt and hatred. It fractures teams. It’s bad pool, as they say.

Want to know why the XFL failed the first time? Lack of talent and entertainment. How are you going to rectify that problem if you still adhere to the same “slave for the man” mentality that you did before? This league needs to be ran like a regular league; you sometimes overpay for talent. Especially name value. A sliding pay scale may work for some fans who think athletes are overpaid, but they’re not paying attention to pro sports to the point that their dollars matter.

If this were baseball, you’d have an argument for lesser wages.

However this is one of two sports that demand and deserve higher salaries (other being hockey). How are you going to justify to reporters smaller wages, based on things you may not be able to control? Imagine being a quarterback, you get hit 20 times in a game because your offensive line is garbage, but you put up 38 points. Yet your defense gives up 41. Now you did everything you could to win, yet you lost. You were the MVP, had the best game, and was perfect. Yet you get paid less than the guy on the other team because his situation is better.

You don’t pay based on team effort, you pay based on individual effort. Players of value will avoid this league like the plague. And that’s only one of the issues.

The other issue is Vince’s dictator-like desire to micro manage everything. To not allow people to buy into the franchise, not only are you restricting financial opportunities for the league, but you’re now setting a dangerous precedent that you’ll treat this as your own political purgatory. Imagine if the XFL signs a Colin Kapernick type player. He’s playing in, let’s say Las Vegas. He says something perfectly legal, but polarizing. His team can’t protect him from the league, as Vince McMahon’s XFL will ensure that every team has the same owner. Him. And if Vince doesn’t like what you say, or do, he’ll make sure you don’t work ever again.

Could you imagine Roger Goddell banning Richard Sherman from playing for the Seahawks based off of an opinion? Well Vince has done scummier things, and continues to do so. So why wouldn’t he?

Not only that, but by not making the teams franchises, you ensure that the XFL as a whole will have to foot the bill of each team. The NFL does not pay for the Jaguars players. Shahid Khan, the owner of the team pays for them. There’s a salary cap,yes, but he can ensure that everyone whom he feels deserves a raise gets one. He doesn’t have to rely on the league to recognize that. He can do it as he pleases.

But now you put every player, on every team, to be evaluated by the same guys. Does anyone believe for a second that Vince McMahon wouldn’t cut someone from a team for some nonsensical reason?

There is no protection for these players. There won’t be a union; why would there be? He’s black balled wrestlers from the WWE for even bringing up the idea of a union. And if there is one, you can better believe that it’ll be a sham.

That’s why you sell the franchises, and operate as a governing body, where every owner has a say in the league’s rules. But that brings up another issue with Vince McMahon’s XFL. The cities won’t get to have contracts to protect themselves from being taken advantage of. And if there’s no contracts, then these men will practice at high schools and train at 24 Hour Fitness’, and travel by coach, or bus over the course of days. The cities will never have assurances that protects them. So there will never be XFL facilities, or stadiums. They’ll use whatever they can rent on that given day. Sure, they might play at the MetLife Stadium in New York, but what if they get a team in Boise? You really think that the Bronco’s will let the XFL onto their field? Or in Utah? You think BYU would allow the XFL to play on their fields? That’s why you invest in stadiums and proper facilities.

Why would a city like Omaha put in $500,000,000 into an arena and practice facility for a league that won’t even let people buy into it? That won’t allow others to hold it responsible? That won’t sign contracts with cities and ownership groups that’ll protect the city and the team from an overzealous governing body?

So if the cities have no reason to invest a team and the facility, if the players are being marginalized and under paid, and you won’t allow others to invest funds into specific teams within the league; what exactly is being done differently?

If the league fails in the ratings then it’ll be gone by 2021. That’s because the league’s failures from it’s last run are not being rectified. They’re being amplified. Vince McMahon is well known for his racist antics, and his desire to squash those who “serve” under him. He hates freedom of speech, he doesn’t have a good reputation with minorities, and he’s known to make foolish decisions because….just because.

Yet you think this league will be different this time around?