After last week, there’s nobody that can be upset by the lack of news coming of out the USFL. It was their biggest week to date by far. We learned about new partnerships, the location of the playoffs and championship game, all eight team uniforms were revealed and they capped everything off with more details on the inaugural draft.
There’s less than two months until kickoff and although we’ve learned a lot, there’s still so much that the fans want to know. One of the big items on the list is the ruleset.
We’ve heard some details on that front, but not a lot. USFL head of officiating Mike Pereira took to Twitter late Friday where he stated that “it’s time to follow @USFL.” What followed were some possible hints on what we may be able to look forward to.
It’s seems a bit early but it’s time to follow @USFL. We are going to do things on the site that have never been done before. We will highlight the rules and officials. We even might use your input to make replay decisions. Follow me on @USFL.
— Mike Pereira (@MikePereira) February 18, 2022
He goes on to say that the USFL is “going to do things on the site that have never been done before. We will highlight the rules and officials. We even might use your input to make replay decisions”.
Looking back at The Spring League, we saw a big emphasis on the officiating; giving fans an inside look at how the calls were made. In a few instances the discussion between the officials and review teams were aired explaining how to handle the situation.
It seems that we may see more of that, or something similar in the USFL. Additionally, it looks as if the USFL may experiment with fan input to sort replay decisions.
The ruleset may not be available at the moment, but it won’t be long until it’s made public. The league is holding their draft next week, and it’s expected that the season will be released shortly after the event takes place. From there, the rule book should be made available soon after.
Brian Woods recently stated in an interview that the USFL rules will be very similar to the NFL. Only in certain instances will we see variations to the norm. For fans of traditional football, it looks like you need not worry about too many gimmicks in the new USFL.
We’re down to the wire, but the league is building up momentum towards the April 16th kickoff. The last week may have been the biggest for them to date, but we think the build is only going to continue to swell from here.
What are you hoping to see out of the USFL broadcasts this spring? Let us know down in the comments below or join the conversation on Discord.
