The headlines read, “XFL suspends operations,” on Friday, but, according to sources from several media outlets, this isn’t temporary; the XFL is not returning in 2021 and has an uncertain future beyond that.
“According to a prominent former XFL staffer who was on the call, [XFL COO Jeffrey] Pollack stopped short of saying the league was going out of business,” reported ESPN’s Kevin Siefert and Field Yates “But the strong implication was clear. ‘It's done,’ the staffer said. ‘It's not coming back.’ “
In suspending the league, four weeks after the coronavirus forced the shutdown and almost exactly 19 years after the original XFL folded, nearly everyone was laid off.