The XFL Used Super Bowl Sunday As A Chance To Troll The NFL About Its Ridiculous Catch Rule


Via XFL2020

The Super Bowl did not disappoint this year, as the Philadelphia Eagles took down the New England Patriots, 41-33, in an absolute stunner of a football game. The only bad things were that two of the NFL’s worst tendencies popped up: The desire to inundate fans with commercials, and the whole “no one knows what a catch is” thing.

The former wasn’t a big surprise, because watching ads is part of the Super Bowl experience. The latter also was nowhere near as controversial as it could have been, although there were a few instances where the interpretation of a catch by the NFL’s horrible rules were brought into question.

The NFL doesn’t have a competitor to take advantage of its worst tendencies … yet. The XFL is coming back in 2020, and while there’s no word on whether it will try to take down the monolith that is the NFL, it certainly made it seem like it’s gunning for the No. 1 spot during the Super Bowl.

How? The league released a trio of videos on Twitter that looked to punch at the NFL’s worst tendencies. Two of them had to do with the league’s rulebook, including its confusing catch rule.


It also made fun of the league’s desire to sell ad space in basically any stoppage in play in a video that included a cameo by the grim reaper.

It’s hard to imagine the XFL will ever replace the NFL, but give it credit: These ads certainly make it look like an intriguing alternative unless the NFL changes up some of the things football fans hate the most.

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