XFL: Waste of Time?
By. Mario Scaglione
I have been a big World Wrestling Federation fan for a long time. I have supported the WWF for many years by going to see their Wrestling events. I have paid money to watch their pay - per - view events and also bought some of their merchandise. I am a hardcore fan. So when I heard that Vince McMahon, the owner of the WWF, was going to start a football league, I was pretty excited.
The first big move McMahon did was to get a contract with NBC. This was a huge step in the right direction for the league. NBC had been out of football for a couple years. They believed in McMahon's vision. The contract was good for five years, which meant stability for the league. McMahon recruited some big names to help boost interest in the XFL. He got Governor of Minnesota, Jesse Ventura. Jesse used to be a wrestler in the 1970's and 1980's in the WWF. After he retired he became an announcer for the WWF and did a great job. Remembering this McMahon offered Jesse a job as a color commentator for the XFL. McMahon also brought in NFL legend Dick Butkis. Butkis became the "director of competition". He was probably brought in to attract the hardcore NFL fans.
McMahon then stated that WWF announcers Jim Ross and Jerry Lawler were also going to be calling XFL games. This could have been a mistake. They are good at calling fake, scripted wrestling matches but a real sport ? Yet it still seemed promising until the television ads ran.
The first ad was a cheerleading ad. Pure sex. That is exactly what they were trying to sell ? This was not shocking because of the way Mr. McMahon operates. He uses sex to sell. Just watch an episode of WWF Raw. The WWF is Sports Entertainment and quite frankly it is entertaining. But if they want to sell this new football league, the XFL, to real sports fans they need to stop this cheerleading crap or just change the name to the SeXFL.
Sport is about competing every night and doing anything to win. It is not about these women in skimpy outfits, dancing all over the place. It is about elevating ones game to another level. Not cheerleading. Vince, do not fail me now.
So the time came. Saturday February.3,2001. We fans were ready for anything. The good thing about it was that I wasn't going into it thinking it was going to suck or that it was going to be the best thing since sliced bread. I was going into it with an open mind. The first game was The New York Hitmen vs. The Las Vegas Outlaws. What impressed me most was the attendance. Over 30,000 people actually showed up for a game. That was a great crowd. They were loud and rowdy. For a brief second it reminded me of an NFL game. But that quickly changed.
The opening play is usually is coin toss to see who gets the ball first in the game. But in the XFL they are "too cool" for that. They have a free ball. Which means the referee puts the football at center and one player from either team must go and retrieve this ball. The player that gets the ball then chooses whether to kick off or receive. How stupid is that ? What a waste of time. Do you ever remember where a game was decided over the coin toss or who got the ball first ? There is not a statistic that states that the team that wins the coin toss wins most of the games. Come on!
Well if anyone cares, the Outlaws actually got the ball and if this is not a shock, they wanted to receive the ball. Wow. So after that I am already leaning towards the "it sucks" side. Now an XFL announcer goes to the Hitmen sideline to ask the player who didn't get the ball how he felt. How the hell do you think he felt? Maybe he does not even care because if he knows football he probably knows that it does not matter who gets the ball first.
The game now starts with Las Vegas having possession of the football. All of a sudden the camera angle changes. The camera was behind the quarterback, and a wire suspended it. The camera angle is so bad. Where's the first down marker ? How can football fans watch a game like that. This was an insult to the great football fans of America. It looked liked a video game.
Us fans watched on but it was really hard to. They finally changed the angle of the camera and it was a little interesting. But this was still not football. These guys looked so bad. It was like watching high school football. The one quarterback for the New York team was interviewed after a play in the second quarter. He was talking like the game was already over. He had already given up. Good thing it was on the P.A. throughout the stadium. I am sure the other team loved to hear that. Oh yah, and his teammates on the sideline, including the offensive linemen who protect the quarterback, made it a very interesting situation I am sure. They probably really wanted to protect him after that.
The halftime show was at least a little interesting. NBC had a camera and a microphone in the locker room so you could hear what the players and coaches were saying. But then they had to ruin it once again. They had pre-taped interviews by the Las Vegas cheerleaders. The cheerleaders interviewed the players. They would ask a question and the players would say something like, "we might not score tonight in the game, but I hope I can score right now with you." Come on. This is crap. After that interview, disgusted, I changed the channel.
I found out the final score later that night. The score was 19 - 0 for Las Vegas. Sounded like a real nail bitter. I hope none of you went through the horror I went through. My eyes still hurt. Many players play football with a lot of heart across North America. This display by McMahon and NBC was nothing but a disgrace to them and the real football fans. The league did get good ratings but I think by about the 4th week the ratings will die out. I hope so. I rather watch paint dry on my wall. McMahon should stick to wrestling.
