A Look Back At: The XFL, And What Could Have Been

The XFL, ran by billionaire WWF Chairman Vince McMahon, was a joint venture between NBC and Mr. McMahon himself. McMahon’s original plan was to purchase the Canadian Football League (CFL); the CFL had originally approached him about buying the Toronto Argonauts. Meanwhile, NBC and Time Warner were moving towards creating a football league of their own. McMahon and NBC announced the league in February 2000, and played their first (and only) season in 2001. XFL was meant to be an alternative to the “No Fun League” – a hard-hitting, “real” football league, with fewer penalties and rules. If the XFL had been given a fair shake, a lot of good could have come out good could have come out of it. That’s not to say that nothing good could have come out of, although some could argue that. But XFL actually changed a lot about modern sports.

The league had more than a few concepts gratuitously borrow from them post-mortem, and the most notable among them is the use of the “sky cam.” XFL did not invent the sky cam, but they did popularize it during their season. The sky cam is currently available for NFL broadcasts on all major networks. XFL also was the first league to give unprecedented access to their fans, long before the NFL gave us the training-camp based TV show Hard Knocks. Coaches, players, and cheerleaders alike were all miked up for television audiences to hear. XFL popularized the “in-game interview,” which is now a common staple in hockey and baseball broadcasts. Cameramen were in the huddles, sidelines, and the locker room, and XFL’s TV coverage was taking the audience practically everywhere. They received a range of TV coverage that most other upstart leagues could never reach – XFL was broadcast on NBC, TNN, and UPN. Their replacement of the traditional coin toss with an opening scramble was fun sight to be hold, albeit a risky and dangerous one. In the opening scramble, two players would scramble toward each other from 20 yards away to gain possession of the football, which was placed on the 50-yard line. Just like with a coin toss, the winner was allowed to choose possession. Infamously, Orlando Rage safety Hassan Shamsid-Deen separated his shoulder participation in the opening scramble on the league’s opening season, and missed the season as a result.
In addition to all the spins and innovations XFL tried to create, the league successfully served as a breeding ground for NFL talent. Most notably, Tommy Maddox’s NFL career was rejuvenated followed his 2001 XFL MVP Season; he led the Pittsburgh Steelers to the Super Bowl in 2002, and started for them into the 2004 season. Maddox was also awarded the 2002 NFL Comeback Player of the Year Award. Other players who moved on to the NFL included Yo Murphy, Kelly Hendon, and Rod Smart. Smart first gained popularity because the name of the back of his jersey read “He Hate Me.” Gee, that reminds me of Chad Johnson. Oops, I meant Ochocinco. Most importantly, XFL instilled the importance of playing to win, albeit through money. Each position had specific salaries. But there was more money in a victory - players got paid to win, but didn’t get the extra bonus money in a loss. Even the name of the XFL’s Championship Game expressed this incentive – The Million Dollar game was contested between Los Angeles Xtreme and the San Francisco Demons.

But for all of the good things that the league may have done, there were also many negatives. Vince McMahon relied too strongly on the guns he already had and, in doing so, made the league too tightly affiliated with the WWF. In addition to Raw Is War commentators Jim Ross, Jerry Lawler, and Jonathan Coachman appearing on play-by-play, although they were only part of the cast of announcers, which included the now-voice of MLB The Show, Matt Vasgergian, NFL Legend Dick Butkus, then-Minnesota Governor Jesse Ventura, and former NFL running back and then-future WWE personality Mike Adamle. (AUTHOR’S NOTE: It is worth noting that of all the announcers XFL brought in during the season, Jim Ross had more experience calling football games than most of the announcers who were brought in; he was formerly the PBP announcer for the Atlanta Falcons.) WWF wrestlers appeared in vignettes promoting the league, The Rock showed up at midfield before the league’s opener, and The Undertaker appeared on the Jumbotron during a cut-in from commercials. It was even noted in the biographical McMahon DVD that had the XFL not been pinned with the stigma that pro wrestling has, it may have been more successful.

It was things like these that may cast doubt on the legitimately of the contests. But, the games were indeed legitimate, just not of a high caliber. But the fault doesn’t lie solely on Vince McMahon; NBC was also apart of this venture. XFL fell into the same pattern that the USFL did when it first started. USFL, before the XFL, was the last league to directly challenge the NFL, or at least attempt to. The WFL doesn’t count, since they were owned by the NFL. The biggest difference between the USFL an XFL was the high caliber of players that USFL brought in. USFL teams also had had decently deep pockets in terms of money, whereas the XFL was setup more akin to Major League Soccer. In MLS, it is a single-entity where the players sign contracts with the league, not a single team. Both USFL and XFL had really high ratings when they started, but interested decreased fairly rapidly in both cases. In the case of the USFL, however, ABC (who broadcasted USFL games) did not hold any stake in the league, as NBC did with XFL. Despite this, NBC managed to drop the ball (see the pun?) on the XFL almost as many times as they could. NBC has been known to flub their coverage on the Olympics and other big sports events, and the XFL was no different. Despite having ownership in the league, NBC treated the XFL like programming, and nothing more. After a double-overtime game between, NBC had to move back the start time of that night’s Saturday Night Live, which was hosted by Jennifer Lopez that night. SNL creator Lorne Michaels was furious, prompting the network to speed up the game by making small changes in the rules. Broadcasts were now subject to increased time restraints, at game coverage would get cut off at 11:00 PM, regardless of whether the game had finished or not. Events like this signaled a decline in interest in the league, and it became clear that the league wasn’t going to stick around. Even so, the league had been more successful than other independent efforts at creating an independent football league.

Despite the overall failure of the XFL, there was plenty to love about the league. There’s no way to really explain why it existed, or why it all happened, but in the end, it didn’t really matter anyway. It was a short, but crazy ride that showed that it is possible to get an upstart football league on national television. Well, kind of – you need to be a millionaire first.