This is a two-for-one deal since both are closely tied together. On February 3, 2000, Vince McMahon announced a partnership with NBC to create a “spring” football league that wasn’t in competition with the NFL. Over the next year, the prospect drew closer and closer to being a reality until exactly one year later, February 3, 2001, the XFL played its first game.
An inauspicious beginning
The XFL had potential, but was doomed for various reasons. The first being they openly challenged the NFL. Another one wase NBC’s desire to cash in on the lingering desire for football following the NFL’s Super Bowl. A major part in NBC’s thinking was that they had lost their NFL package to CBS three years earlier and possibly because hosting a football league would give them an edge the next time bidding for the NFL packages came around.
The league was promoted with strong ties to the WWE and was considered a joke by many leading up to it’s official start. Most of that came because of the league’s ties to Vince McMahon as a central figure instead of the franchise format the NFL uses. In the case of the NFL, the league itself makes no money as they are employees of the teams. They’re more of a third party arbitrator and bank that distributes funds than anything. The XFL was the opposite, with everything flowing to Vince McMahon (surprise, surprise, right?). Given the knowledge that professional wrestling was scripted, the prevalent thinking was that the XFL would be, too.
Since the XFL was created during the Attitude Era, it’s only natural that it’s remembered as the Xtreme Football League, but in truth, reports claim there was another league already using the word Xtreme, so the X was left to mean nothing.
To a point.
When comparing it to the NFL, Vince McMahon played off the NFL being the “No Fun League” and said it would be the “extra fun league. That was the main selling point, and some of their innovations were interesting.
The XFL was supposed to be real football with fewer rules to improve gameplay. Those innovations (good and bad) were players and coaches were miced so we could hear their exchanges and break down that wall. Scantily-clad cheerleaders, a no fair catch rule on kickoffs and punts (essentially raising the injury risk even higher), and the human coin toss where a member of each team would run 20 yards for the football to get the kickoff. The latter ended when injuries mounted, and it was an unneeded risk considering teams would often use their best athletes.
Another change was a bonus for teams that won, something the NFL only does during the playoffs. The totals were reported as $2500 for regular season games and $7500 for the playoffs. A $25,000 bonus went to the championship team. The money was said to be divided among the players, and the players didn’t receive any benefits and were responsible for their own health insurance. The players on injured reserve wouldn’t receive any pay, either.
The ending came quick
One season is all the XFL lasted, and the reasons are bad football combined with the professional wrestling-style promotion.
Football fans hated it because of the belief the games were scripted and the endings pre-determined, and wrestling fans didn’t like it because the wrestling promotions and antics were out of place in a football game.
The biggest reason was the teams were just bad. The players only had a month to prepare, and since the league only gave the players a month’s camp to prepare and get to know each other, the season felt more like an extended preseason than anything else.
To be honest, the only good things to come out of the league was some players got a second chance at NFL careers, the most prominent being quarterback Tommy Maddox and the skycam, which was taken from the Madden video games. Kinda fair considering the games and players were treated like Madden players (just numbers) and the rules fit a Madden style of gameplay than not. Or maybe Techmo bowl with Bo Jackson?
With the new XFL beginning next week (the week after the Super Bowl, just like in 2001), it has some people shaking their heads and others curious to what’s going to happen.
One thing is for sure, if McMahon views this installment as a challenger to the NFL again, we get to see the definition of insanity play out in an unscripted televised event.
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