MetLife Stadium-The announced attendance for Sunday’s game was 17,634. MetLife Stadium holds 82,500, the Jets and Giants usually have around 70,000 fans at their games.
The league, which operates under different rules than the NFL, is the successor of the original XFL, which lasted just one season in 2001.
This new league looks a little different but has an old school football feeling.
The New York Guardians beat the Tampa Bay Vipers, 23-3, looked really impressive in its first game of the season.
NY Guardians quarterback Matt McGloin, who played at Penn State and spent time in the NFL, completed 15 of 29 passes for 182 yards with one score to receiver Coby Pearson. New York’s defense threw everything at the Viper offense, forcing them into four turnovers, including a pair of turnovers in the red zone.
In addition to McGloin, there are plenty of former NFLers across the XFL, including Guardians head coach Kevin Gilbride, the Giants offensive coordinator from 2007-13 and Tampa Bay Marc Trestman who was the head coach of the Chicago Bears in 2013.
Prices ranged from $32.99 for a crew sweatshirt to $89.99 for a replica jersey.
Paying fans crowded the lower bowl, with no tickets available for the mezzanine and upper decks at MetLife. Fans, in particular, hung behind the end zone, where the cheaper tickets were available.
We saw new rules, different colors and unfamiliar players. But the XFL experience is second to none and the product on the field was very entertaining.
“I’ll bet people are surprised at how good the play is and how good the quality of the coaching is,” Gilbride said. “If you look at the two games Saturday, that was pretty good football. I think anybody that loves the game of football saw with their own eyes and said ‘Hey, you know what, this is something I can watch and enjoy and get behind.”
