The XFL is being resurrected again in 2023, and football fans are getting excited to watch the spring league return.
Right now, fans have a lot of questions about the league. Who are the head coaches? What about the starting quarterbacks? And what are the major rule differences between the new spring league and the NFL?
That said, there is also one lingering question that has been on the minds of football fans since the league's inception in 2001.
What does the acronym XFL stand for?
Indeed, many have presumed that "Xtreme" is the answer to this question, but it actually isn't. Here's a breakdown of the league's three-letter title and why it has carried several meanings over the years.
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What does XFL stand for?
The name XFL doesn't actually stand for anything. As mentioned, the "F" and "L" in the acronym would presumably stand for "football league," but the "X" in the title has no word associated with it.
Why is that? Here is an explanation from Brett Forrest, as featured in his book, "Long Bomb: How the XFL Became TV's Biggest Fiasco":
Vince McMahon — bumpkin billionaire, overworker of eyebrows — was about to reinvent football. So he schemed, when he announced a new pro football league in February 2000. It was called the XFL. The letters, McMahon was quick to point out, didn't stand for anything. It wasn't the Xtreme Football League or the X-rated Football League, although those were dual implications of the ubiquitous twenty-fourth letter, which the American public had come to recognize as the default signpost for 'aggressive.' No, this was just XFL.
Even despite this, many have assumed over the years that the "X" stood for "Xtreme." And indeed, that was reportedly what the XFL's original owner Vince McMahon wanted it to be. After all, that branding corresponded well to the on-field product, which was said to be more violent and, well, extreme than NFL games.
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However, there already was an "Xtreme Football League" around when the XFL was founded. The Xtreme league was founded in 1999 and was set to play its first season in 2000, per Our Sports Central.
The Xtreme Football League announced its formation at a news conference in Birmingham on April 20, 1999. The XFL was to be an Eastern U.S. indoor football league that planned to begin play in April 2000 with 10 to 12 teams, all of which were to be committed by June 1. The XFL's playing season was to be April through August.
The Xtreme Football League never launched, as it eventually merged with the Arena Football League. Even still, the XFL kept its acronym ambiguous, opting not to refer to itself as the Xtreme Football League.
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Does XFL mean 'Xtra Fun League?'
Another popular theory is that the XFL stood for the "Xtra Fun League." It is true that McMahon himself once referred to the league as such.
“The NFL stands for the ‘No Fun League.'," he famously said at a 2001 XFL announcement. "The XFL is going to be the ‘Xtra Fun League.'"
However, while that may have been a pet name of sorts for the league, it wasn't officially the acronym's definition. And even as McMahon held onto the trademark and branding rights for the XFL for nearly 20 years before playing again, he never thought of making the X mean anything.
So, XFL remains a meaningless phrase. Thus, fans are allowed to come up with their own interpretations of three-letter league name.
