In the midst of the pandemic, Vince McMahon’s football league has been forced to suspend operations and sack all of its employees. During a Friday conference call, XFL employees were informed that their jobs had been terminated.
Though the XFL, which suspended play like all other U.S. leagues due to COVID-19, originally planned to return in 2021, that may no longer be the case. During the Friday call, XFL CEO Jeffrey Pollack did not say the league was going out of business, but the implication things were finished was clear.
“It’s done,” a staffer on the call told ESPN. “It’s not coming back.”
The league has not commented publicly one way or another, and XFL commissioner Oliver Luck is nowhere to be found.
One of the XFL’s eight inaugural head coaches, Jim Zorn, told The Seattle Times he’s hopeful the league will be back.
“I hope it continues on and I think everybody does,” Zorn said. “Right now there is no real way to have an emotion about it. For me it’s just a matter of continuing to go plan as though we are going to continue … I’m just going to plan on continuing to hope that there is another season ahead of us whenever that might be. And I think I need to plan for that, although shutting down just means that there are a lot of people who can’t wait.”
If the XFL remains shuttered in 2021, that will mean Vince McMahon’s second attempt at a football league only lasted five games after well over a year of hype and headlines. Last year’s spring league, The Alliance of American Football, ran out of money and closed after eight weeks of play.
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