The XFL is scheduled to resume play in February 2023 under new owners Dany Garcia, Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson and RedBird Capital Partners. News of the agreement comes as a revived USFL works toward its launch April. The deal is nonexclusive and does not prevent either league from working with others moving forward.
The NFL-XFL agreement will give the NFL a "petri dish" to experiment with proposed rules, test new equipment and develop prospective officials and coaches, XFL president Russ Brandon told ESPN.
A Buffalo Bills executive for two decades, Brandon said NFL officials routinely discussed the need for such an outlet after NFL Europe shuttered in 2007.
"People would ask, 'What are the opportunities to look at the game through a different lens from a player development standpoint?'" Brandon told ESPN. "'How can you be an incubator or an accelerant in many different verticals, from officiating to rules innovations to playing surfaces, to player development?' You can go on and on.
"Any opportunity that the NFL has to advance the game of football, I think they've always been open to, and we've had some really good dialogue, led by our ownership group."
Rule #1: Don't let Donald Trump buy a team.