Former XFL commissioner sues Vince McMahon over firing

Former XFL Commissioner Oliver Luck has filed a federal lawsuit claiming he was wrongfully fired by league owner Vince McMahon just before the professional football league shut its doors.

The lawsuit, filed last week in Connecticut, alleges the commissioner received a termination letter from Alpha Entertainment on April 9, four days before the football league filed for bankruptcy protection.

Luck, the father of former Indianapolis Colts quarterback Andrew Luck and a long-time football executive, alleges McMahon breached their contract. Luck is seeking monetary damages, the amount of which has been redacted from public copies of the lawsuit, along with terms of Luck’s contract.

“During Mr. Luck’s time as Commissioner and CEO of the XFL, neither Alpha nor McMahon provided him with written notice of any purported belief that he was not executing his responsibilities with competence or diligence,” Andrew M. Zeitlin, Luck’s attorney, wrote in a motion filed Tuesday.

Messages were left Wednesday seeking comment from McMahon, the professional wrestling magnet and chief executive of Connecticut-based WWE, which backed the new league

His attorney Jerry McDevitt said in a statement on Tuesday that the reason’s for Luck’s termination were detailed in a letter to him, and McMahon would fight the lawsuit.

The XFL had eight franchises and played five games out of a planned 10-game schedule before cancelling the remainder of its season in March due to the COVID-19 pandemic. It drew decent TV ratings early on and had deals with ESPN and Fox.

The league suspended operations and laid off all of its employees on April 10.