Nearly 18 years ago, an upstart football league was birthed in Stamford, Connecticut from the mind of certified madman Vince McMahon. Known for making professional wrestling a nationwide attraction, McMahon conceived the idea of the XFL with the goal of giving the general public football as he deemed fit. This meant hard-hitting action, sexually enticing situations and big budgeted football.

The outcome was  McMahon turning into this millennium’s P.T. Barnum, running a circus of unsafe and underdeveloped football, a misogynistic representation of women and an overly theatrical product that had no place in the sports world. So it was no surprise that the league was only able to sustain for one season, even after grandiose anticipation.

Although you can rack up the XFL’s tenure as a failure, it gained enough positive reviews and with hindsight always being 20/20, they did enough to warrant a second chance. With the NFL in its current state of backlash and downward trend in ratings, this seems to be the most poignant time for an alternative league.

Now rising from the ashes like the forgotten and often mocked phoenix, the XFL is ready for a rebirth that may be a success if they make the necessary changes with the experience of failure to guide them. If they want this time to be a success, here’s what they are going to have to bring to the table:

A serious product: The next go around for the XFL needs to be one with less theatrics and more sports. With football being America’s number one sport, the hunger for football will be there and with the XFL season in the springtime, a more sport-centric product will work.

Big name players: If the XFL as a league deserved a second chance in this world, why not former NFL superstars? Imagine a league where there’s a possibility of having teams lead by Tim Tebow and Johnny Manziel facing each other in a primetime clash. Why not give players like Colin Kaepernick, Robert Griffin III and aging NFL stars like Adrian Peterson and Michael Vick opportunities at greatness once more?

No fast food football: With the season set to start in 2020, there is more than enough time to have teams ready to give the audience a product they can enjoy and appreciate. The flaw with the first season of the XFL was teams were not at the level of preparation needed for primetime network television.

Take players health serious: Concussion protocol in the NFL has become a joke and it does not help that the NFL is still not willing to accept studies that show there is a link between CTE and the game of football. The XFL must take CTE-concussion safety seriously and incorporate concussion preventative equipment that the NFL is not requiring their players to wear.

Locate in cities NFL has abandoned: In recent years, the NFL has taken franchises from St. Louis and San Diego in order to have teams in the Los Angeles market. And with the Raiders leaving Oakland soon, the opportunity to give those cities orphaned by the NFL something to cheer for. They need to locate in cities the NFL is not willing to also including Orlando and San Antonio instead of competing for cities with NFL franchises.

Given the current state of the NFL, McMahon and the XFL do not need to compete directly with the football monopoly that is the NFL. He just needs them to take notice.