Vince McMahon Lays the Smack Down on Oliver Luck
As it’s been more than two months since sports ground to a halt in North America, it’s been an interesting time to see how leagues respond and figure out their plans going forward. Some sports, like the PGA Tour and NASCAR, have set firm return dates to get back on track. Others, like the NBA, NHL, MLB and the WNBA, are working between the players and the owners in order to come up with a feasible structure to return to play at some point this summer. UFC has already made its return, having aired their first card since the pause last Saturday.
Then there is the XFL, which shut down for good after just five weeks in its inaugural season after the COVID-19 pandemic ran wild. After the league initially made statements that they were just canceling the rest of the season with the intention to return in 2021, only to reverse course last month. On April 10, the league laid off most of their personnel and on April 12, the league filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, bringing things to a disheartening conclusion.
Oliver Luck, the father of former Colts quarterback Andrew Luck, was hired as the commissioner of the league back in 2018. He received a letter of termination back on April 9, one day before the rest of the league was laid off and three days ahead of the bankruptcy filing. Shortly after the league filed for bankruptcy, Luck filed a wrongful termination suit in U.S. District Court, seeking undisclosed damages, plus attorney’s fees and a judgment that fulfills the terms of the contract, which he claims was breached.
On Wednesday, things blew back up as Vince McMahon, owner of the WWE and the former owner of the XFL, filed his response to the lawsuit filed by Luck. In his response, McMahon stated that Luck was fired “for cause” and listed three separate reasons why his firing was justified. His reasons about the firing of Luck included the fact that Luck utilized an XFL iPhone for personal use, in violation of league policy. In addition, McMahon claimed that Luck showed “gross neglect” of the job, alleging that he left Stamford, Connecticut to head home to Indiana, thereby abandoning his responsibilities to the league. McMahon went on to state that Luck failed to “devote substantially all of his business time to his XFL duties as required by the contract."
The final claim that McMahon made in his response centered around Luck’s decision to sign former Browns receiver Antonio Callaway to a contract. Callaway has talent but he has had plenty of off the field issues to deal with in his short career. Last year alone, he was suspended for violating the league’s substance abuse policy and was waived later on in the year after reporting late for meetings and practices. While at Florida, he was suspended from the team after being suspected of sexual assault: as a result, he missed his entire junior year before declaring for the NFL Draft. As it turned out, Callaway never played a down in the XFL as he was injured in training camp and placed on injured reserve. McMahon didn’t want to have any controversial players that had off-field issues in their history brought on board. Another bone of contention in the incident was centered around the fact that Luck allegedly refused to waive Callaway when he was ordered to by McMahon.
The smack has been laid down by both parties in the case and we’ll see how things unfold going forward. One of Luck’s attorneys stated that he may have a new filing for the court, perhaps as soon as Wednesday night. The league may be dead and for sale, but the bad blood between McMahon and Luck is still running wild.