Real football is over for now and G-Day on April 18th is a long time away. Mecole Hardman Jr finished That Other Football League's season in style, the Hoop Dawgs are not yet making the progress we had hoped and it's a couple of weeks until Spring Training starts. No wonder that most of the posts around here at the moment are about alumni golfers and the wonderful Gym Dawgs. It's beginning to look a lot like the annual sporting dead period.

However, filling the gap this year is the first season of the second incarnation of the XFL. The rules are different to those of other forms of football, but the differences are arguably at least somewhat thoughtful and tasteful, unlike the first attempt. The intention is to get through a game within three hours with the same quantity of football as you might expect from any other game, which doesn't sound like an unreasonable goal.

As much as rooting for any team from that state down south-east may be distasteful, the most obvious team for which to have a rooting interest is the Tampa Bay Vipers, for (as well as being the closest team to home) they have named Aaron Murray as their starting quarterback and Corey Moore (2011 - 2014) as their second choice nickel cornerback. I've had a look through the other rosters and can't find any other obvious Georgia connections, but Trenton Thompson is named as being on the league's "Team 9" - a selection of ready-made replacements who might be shuttled off into any of the existing first eight teams at any point, and indeed who will get a chance on a roster around midway through the season, if not sooner.

Something to keep football fans going through February, March and April, at least. It remains to be seen how high the standard is; hopefully the teams have had enough time together to gel somewhat, compared to most short-lived alt-pro leagues. Perhaps worth a try... at least once?