Vince McMahon has made it official: The XFL is back.
The WWE Chairman & CEO made the announcement just moments ago, revealing that the alternative professional football league will be strictly funded by him.
McMahon's new XFL promises faster games, with the ideal running time under two hours. Additionally, McMahon says players will have to stand for the national anthem, no questions asked.
"I can say, 'Here are the rules, and as long as you are playing football in the stadium for us, you follow these rules.'"
According to ESPN's Darren Rovell, McMahon also said he's looking for players "without any form of criminality associated with them whatsoever," which means Johnny Manziel is probably out, but don't tell him that.
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Despite the fact that McMahon's football league will be called "XFL," he says things will look different this time around.
"Quite frankly I looked at a number of things, but nothing resonated like the XFL. There's only so many things that have 'FL' on the end of them and those are already taken. But we aren't going to have much of what the XFL had, including the cheerleaders, who aren't really part of the game anymore. The audience wants entertainment with football, and that's what we are going to give them."
The new XFL will begin in January of 2020 and have eight teams. The eight cities and team names will be announced over the next couple of months.
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