The XFL will be different from the NFL in multiple ways. In one specific way, the XFL could be very different.
Via SI.com, XFL Commissioner Oliver Luck would “prefer not to test for marijuana.”
This would make marijuana use a non-issue for the XFL, except where a player isn’t able to play football because he’s incarcerated for marijuana use — something that rarely happens in 2019.
Luck told SI.com that he hasn’t considered whether that would make players like receiver Josh Gordon eligible for the XFL, but why wouldn’t it? If the XFL won’t be policing the private lives of players when it comes to non-PEDs that the players may use when on their own time, why would they artificially bar a player who has been banned by the NFL for behavior that the XFL doesn’t prohibit?
Of course, Gordon remains under contract with the Patriots, which would make it harder to sign him, since the Standard Player Contract prohibits players from playing in other leagues. However, unattached players who are banned by the NFL potentially could choose to play in the XFL, if the XFL won’t be worrying about whether they smoke weed.