SBJ Football: XFL Leans On Local Ties

I almost can’t believe my eyes, but Joe Lunardi has my long-suffering Penn State men’s basketball team slotted as a 4-seed right now. Let’s see if it lasts.

A LOOK AT LOCAL COVERAGE FOR THE XFL

• Local media attention is crucial to any team’s hopes of building a fan base, so how is the XFL stacking up so far? I took a look at local coverage this week, with lots of help from the SBD staffers who scour the nation’s sports websites every day before dawn. Bottom line: news outlets in DC, Houston and St. Louis appear to be paying the most attention.

• In the week leading up to Week 1 and the immediate aftermath, the Washington Post and Washington Times combined for 18 headlines about the XFL and the Defenders. The Houston Chronicle had 17 headlines about the league and the Roughnecks, outnumbering the Rockets in both quantity of articles and variety of angles and subject matter. The St. Louis Post-Dispatch also was strong, with 13 headlines in the time period evaluated.

• Other findings: Tampa Bay Times, 10 headlines; Dallas Morning News and the Ft. Worth Star-Telegram combined for 12; Seattle Times and Tacoma News Tribune combined for 7; and the L.A. Times and L.A. Daily News combined for 9. (We kept N.Y. out of this analysis, because there’s such a blurry line between national and local coverage here.) In person, demand for media credentials was strong. The Guardians approved 110 credentials for their first home game; the Defenders, slightly over 100; the Renegades, 248. 

"IT'S A CURIOSITY" -- TAMPA SPORTS EDITOR ON XFL

• I spoke with Tampa Bay Times sports editor Mike Sherman to get a sense of where the XFL ranks on his to-do list. “I wouldn’t call it a beat, but we cover them,” Sherman said. Several reporters have attended Vipers practices, and the staff will cover home games, but won’t travel. “I don’t sense the reader is going to be on their phones, checking the left big toe of the left tackle to see if he’s ready to go for Seattle, but I do think it’s a curiosity.” 

• So far, the Times’ XFL coverage has been driven by personalities: Colorful coaching legend and current Vipers defensive coordinator Jerry Glanville, for instance, was the subject of a full article explaining why he wore two headsets on Sunday. There’s also a lot of eyes on former local collegiate and high school stars like Quinton Flowers and Aaron Murray, who may be in something of a QB controversy (Murray has been ruled out this weekend due to injury). Sherman: “We’re quilting together coverage.”

• It will get harder for the Vipers to stay top of mind at the Times. Before the XFL season is over, local bandwidth will shift to Spring Training, NFL Draft preparations, the Valspar Championship and maybe even WrestleMania. What would it take for the XFL to be a permanent priority? A breakout showing from Flowers, maybe, or massive attendance at their Feb. 22 home opener. Or, Sherman said, a truly big name: “If they announced today that Tim Tebow has signed to play quarterback, we’d probably catch a flight to Seattle."

THREE THINGS TO WATCH IN XFL WEEK 2

The Defenders last Saturday drew 17,163 fans to Audi Field for their debut

• Attendance in DC and Houston. Both are playing a second straight home game, so we’ll get a sense of how resilient fan interest is after everyone’s curiosity was satisfied last week. How much of a decline will we see from the opening-day crowds of 17,000-plus? A source said both stadiums are thinking between 13,000-14,000, but XFL President Jeffrey Pollack declined to make a projection.

• Opening day at CenturyLink Field: Pollack said they expect at least 25,000 fans on Saturday for the Seattle Dragons’ home opener, with at least one-third of them holding season tickets. (That may be conservative; a team official told local media they’re hoping to hit 30,000.) Seattle and St. Louis (home opener 2/23) look like they’ll generate a disproportionate percentage of the league’s gate. L.A. also opens for the first time, and insiders acknowledge that will be a tough market.

• Ratings: Sunday will be the first time XFL broadcasts will compete directly with major national events. Renegades-Wildcats on ABC goes head-to-head with the Daytona 500 on Fox, and because of the race, BattleHawks-Roughnecks at 6pm ET will be on FS1 -- the XFL’s first game there. The second half of the late game will go up against the NBA All-Star Game on TNT, and insiders do not expect viewership to clear 1 million. The competition for the XFL gets tougher in the next two months.

VARIED REACTIONS TO "MNF" FLEX REPORT

• It seems like every football website in the country had something to say about our SBJ report that the NFL is thinking about flex scheduling for “Monday Night Football." The battle lines fell down predictably: Those fans who primarily see football as a television product like it, while those who buy tickets reacted in anger, worried about the upheaval this would bring to their lives. "This would also be a big win for all fans, minus those who attend the games,” said SI’s Jimmy Traina. “There’s really no way to sugarcoat it.”

SPEED READS

• Shad Khan is changing tactics to defend the merits of the Jaguars playing two home games in London next season. Per the Florida Times-Union's John Reid, Jaguars President Mark Lamping typically "does most of the heavy lifting on the business side" when the team wants to communicate with the public. Khan has largely "preferred issuing statements" in the past, but with "significant resistance emerging from the team’s fan base about the loss of another home game at TIAA Bank Field, Khan has been hitting the interview circuit like a politician."
  
  
• The Athletic's Nicki Jhabvala takes a deep dive into the Bowlen family dynamics as control of the Broncos remains up in the air. Jhabvala has details on the emergence of an eighth daughter of Pat Bowlen that "blindsided" most of the late owner's youngest children. Now disputes over Bowlen's estate and team has "led to multiple lawsuits, the airing of once-private family details and a hostility between some family members and the trustees empowered to pick his successor." The Bowlens are one of the NFL's biggest stories in 2020.

• The Ringer’s Rodger Sherman labeled “Vegas Projections” as a “loser” of the XFL’s debut weekend, citing the fact that two teams with the best odds to win the championship (the Renegades and Vipers) both failed to score a touchdown. The Vipers’ 23-3 loss to the Guardians also tied for the largest margin of defeat in Week 1. Sherman: “There’s probably a big money-making opportunity here. I just have no clue what it is.” Longtime NFL front office exec Mike Lombardi on his “GM Shuffle” podcast said the betting lines are the key to the XFL’s sustainability: “It’s all about the betting app. That’s going to be the key to whether this league succeeds or not. If people feel like … the bets are worthwhile to make, this league will grow.”

• Interesting development in the Tom Brady sweepstakes: The Patriots' extension with de facto GM Nick Caserio, who was widely reported to have interest in reconnecting with Bill O'Brien in Houston. SI's Albert Breer: "Vital piece of the Patriots' puzzle. ... The Krafts very much value stability. This gives them some." But Providence-based WPRI-Fox sports director Yianni Kourakis reported Caserio may be the one to face the music should Brady continue his career away from Gillette Stadium. Kourakis: "It's possible if Brady leaves we hear from Caserio before [Bill] Belichick. Caserio often times does the pre-draft press conference in April." Meanwhile, the Boston Globe's digital sports page has a live countdown to the exact second Brady will hit the free agent market. 

• (Huge shoutout to the SBD staffers who helped with the data in today's top item: John Aceti, Olivia Green, Andrew Levin, Josh Liberatore and Bill Magrath.)

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