The XFL is promising a more exciting brand of football when it launches in February, and one change to the standard rules of football may be allowing multiple forward passes on a play.
XFL Commissioner Oliver Luck said on the #PFTPM podcast in April that the league was considering allowing multiple forward passes on one play, and at the league’s player tryout in Tampa over the weekend, Luck confirmed that’s in the works, although the XFL’s rule book has not been finalized. Luck, a former NFL quarterback himself, said the idea is that the quarterback might throw a pass to a wide receiver along the sideline, who could then throw his own pass downfield.
“If I’m in the shotgun as a quarterback, I’m five yards back, I can’t throw a lateral to a receiver because he’d have to be seven yards back,” Luck told the Tampa Bay Times. “You might as well hold a sign, ‘We’re going to throw a trick play right now.’ So we said, all right, if a team’s in the shotgun, that shouldn’t prevent the double forward pass.”
Luck said he thinks some teams might use a backup quarterback as a wide receiver to run those double-pass plays.
“You can put your backup quarterback in there,” Luck said. “You can sneak him in the game. Let him rip one down the field.”
It’s a rules change that could make for some fun plays, and some fun football -- which the XFL is promising to deliver.
