XFL

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia XFL XFL XFL Sport Founded No. of teams Country(ies) Ceased Last champion(s) Football 2000 8 United States 2001 Los Angeles Xtreme The XFL was a professional American football league that played for one season in 2001. The league was founded by Vince McMahon, better known as the owner of the World Wrestling Federation (now World Wrestling Entertainment). The XFL was intended to be a major professional sports league complement to the offseason of the NFL, but failed to find an audience and folded after its first season. Founding unit. Vince McMahon’s original plan was to purchase the CFL[1], while NBC was moving ahead at the time with Time Warner to create a football league of their own.[2] The concept of the league was first announced on February 3, 2000. The XFL was originally conceived to build on the success of the NFL and professional wrestling. It was hyped as "real" football without penalties for roughness and with fewer rules in general. The loud games featured players and coaches with microphones and cameras in the huddle and in the locker rooms. Stadiums featured trash-talking public address announcers and scantily-clad cheerleaders. Instead of a pregame coin toss, XFL officials put the ball on the ground and let a player from each team scramble for it to determine who received the kickoff option, which led to the first XFL injury. This type of "coin toss" has since been referred to as the "injury zone." The XFL had impressive television coverage for an upstart league, with three games televised each week on NBC, UPN, and TNN. Contrary to popular belief, the "X" in XFL did not stand for "extreme," as in "Extreme Football League." When the league was first organized in 1999, it was originally supposed to stand for "Xtreme Football League;" however, there was already a league in formation at the same time with that name, and so promoters wanted to make sure that everyone knew that the "X" did not actually stand for anything. The other Xtreme Football League, which was also organized in 1999, merged with Arena Football before ever fielding its first game. Draft The first and only main draft for the league took place over a 3 day time period from October 28, 2000 to October 30, 2000. A total of 475 players were selected initially, with 65 additional players selected in a supplemental draft on December 29, 2000. Created as a joint venture between NBC and the World Wrestling Federation under the company name "XFL, LLC", the XFL was created as a "single-entity league", meaning that the teams were not individually owned and operated franchises (as in the NFL), but that the league was operated as a single business 1 From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia XFL Birmingham Thunder- Chicago Enforcers bolts (2001) (2001) New York/New Jersey Orlando Rage Hitmen (2001) (2001) Las Vegas Outlaws (2001) Los Angeles Xtreme (2001) Memphis Maniax (2001) San Francisco Demons (2001) 2001 season The XFL’s opening game took place on February 3, 2001, one year after the concept of the league was announced, and immediately following the NFL’s Super Bowl. The first game was between the New York/New Jersey Hitmen and the Las Vegas Outlaws at Sam Boyd Stadium in Las Vegas. The game ended with a 19-0 victory for the Outlaws, and was watched on NBC by an estimated 14 million viewers. During the telecast, NBC switched over to the game between the Orlando Rage and the Chicago Enforcers, which was a closer contest than the blowout taking place in Las Vegas. The show had a 9.5 Nielsen rating. Although the XFL began with better-thanexpected TV ratings (the opening-week games actually delivered ratings double those of what NBC had promised advertisers and the Saturday broadcast had more viewers than the NFL Pro Bowl) and fair publicity, the audience declined sharply after the first week of the season, going from a 9.5 rating to a 4.6 in just one week, and the media attacked the league for what was perceived as a poor quality of play. This was paired with a perception that the XFL was formed from the dregs left over after the NFL, AFL and CFL had their drafts. A further problem was that the XFL itself was the brainchild of Vince McMahon, a man who was ridiculed by mainstream sports journalists due to the stigma attached to professional wrestling as being "fake"; many journalists even jokingly speculated whether any of the league’s games were rigged, although nothing of this sort was ever proven. 2001 standings Eastern Division Orlando Rage Chicago Enforcers New York/New Jersey Hitmen Birmingham Thunderbolts Western Division Los Angeles Xtreme San Francisco Demons Memphis Maniax Las Vegas Outlaws 8 5 4 2 7 5 5 4 Wo Wo Awards • Most Valuable Player: Tommy Maddox, QB, Los Angeles Xtreme • Million Dollar Game MVP: Jose Cortez, K, Los Angeles Xtreme • Coach of the Year: Al Luginbill, Los Angeles Xtreme Statistical leaders • Rushing Attempts: 153 James Bostic (Birmingham Thunderbolts) • Rushing Yards: 800 John Avery (Chicago Enforcers) • Rushing Touchdowns: 7 Derrick Clark (Orlando Rage) • Receiving Catches: 93 Christopher Lonson (Orlando Rage) • Receiving Yards: 828 Stepfret Williams (Birmingham Thunderbolts) • Receiving Touchdowns: 8 Darnell McDonald (Los Angeles Xtreme) • Passing Attempts: 342 Tommy Maddox (Los Angeles Xtreme) • Passing Completions: 196 Tommy Maddox (Los Angeles Xtreme) • Passing Yards: 2186 Tommy Maddox (Los Angeles Xtreme) Teams Eastern Division Western Division 2 From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia 2001 Passing Leaders (over 100 pass attempts) Name, Team Jeff Brohm, ORL Att Comp % 119 69 XFL Yards YDs/ TD TD % INT INT % Long Sacks/ Rating Att Yds Lost 8.34 9 8.72 5 7.49 7 7.6 3.7 4.3 3 3 5 7 4 9 6 6 10 2.5 2.2 3 3.5 2.9 2.6 2 4.2 8.2 51t 56 80t 49 46 63 35 33t 81t 11/78 8/69 7/44 15/89 10/59 14/91 16/141 17/107 7/42 99.9 91.9 86.6 86.2 83.2 83.1 82.6 71.1 64.7 58.0 993 60.4 1168 62.2 1228 54.8 1499 56.5 805 57.3 2186 62.6 1659 58.5 812 55.7 994 Kevin McDou- 134 81 gal, CHIC Casey Weldon, 164 102 Birm Jim Druckenmiller, Mem 199 109 7.53 13 6.5 5.83 9 6.5 Ryan Clement, 138 78 LV Tommy Maddox, LA Mike Pawlawski, SF 342 196 297 186 6.39 18 5.3 5.59 12 4 5.72 6 8.15 6 4.2 4.9 Wally Richard- 142 83 son, NY/NJ Brian Kuklick, 122 68 ORL • Passing Touchdowns: 18 Tommy Maddox (Los Angeles Xtreme) • Passing Interceptions: 10 Brian Kuklick (Orlando Rage) • Interceptions: 5 Corey Ivy (Chicago Enforcers) • Quarterback Sacks: 7 Antonio Edwards and Kelvin Kinney (both Las Vegas Outlaws) roof stadiums were allowed. (This happened to occur during Giants Stadium’s brief experiment with natural grass; the stadium’s turf did not hold up well in the winter and early spring weather and the stadium reverted to its traditional artificial turf in 2003.) Opening scramble Replacing the coin toss at the beginning of each game was an event in which one player from each team sought to recover a football 20 yards away in order to determine possession. Both players lined up side-by-side on one of the 30-yard lines, with the ball being placed at the 50-yard line. At the whistle, the two players would run toward the ball and attempt to gain possession; whichever player gained possession first was allowed to choose possession (as if he had won a coin toss in other leagues). The scramble infamously led to the first XFL injury: Orlando Rage free safety Hassan Shamsid-Deen separated his shoulder in the scramble during the XFL’s opening weekend. This injury would keep Shamsid-Deen out for the rest of the season. Statistics XFL rule changes Despite boasts by WWF promoters of a "rules-light" game and universally negative reviews from the mainstream sports media early on, the XFL played a brand of 11-man outdoor football that was recognizable, aside from the opening game sprint to determine possession and some other changes, some modified during the season. In fact, most of the rule changes were inherited from the 1970s World Football League. Grass stadiums All XFL teams had to play in outdoor stadiums with grass surfaces.[3] No domed stadiums, artificial turf stadiums, or retractable 3 From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia 2001 Passing Leaders (under 100 pass attempts) Name, Team Att Comp % Yards YDs/ TD TD % INT INT % Long Sacks/ Att Yds Lost 6 0 0 0 0 12 0/0 XFL Rating Craig Whelihan, CHIC/Mem Tim Lester, CHIC Charles Puleri, NY/NJ Marcus Crandell, Mem Pat Barnes, SF Corte McGuffey, NY/ NJ Jay Barker, Birm Mike Cawley, LV Paul Failla, CHIC Graham Leigh, Birm Scott Milanovich, LA 5 4 80.0 30 91.7 77 40 64 29 69 33 80 36 48 25 51.9 581 45.3 411 47.8 473 45.0 379 52.1 329 7.55 4 6.42 2 6.86 1 4.74 3 6.85 0 5.2 3.1 1.4 3.8 0 5 2 2 2 2 6.5 3.1 2.9 2.5 4.2 68t 77t 53 34 54 13/68 4/39 9/62 5/38 5/38 67.1 64.0 63.3 61.4 56.7 Mark Grieb, LV 78 37 65 37 38 17 5 1 47.4 408 56.9 425 44.7 180 20.0 5 45.4 499 22.2 45 5.23 3 6.54 1 4.74 1 1 0 3.8 1.5 2.6 0 1 0 4 5 2 0 6 1 5.1 7.7 5.3 0 6.2 11.1 41t 92t 26 5 36 39 5/44 10/64 10/83 2/12 8/62 0/0 54.9 49.8 45.9 39.6 39.0 8.3 97 44 9 2 5.14 1 5 0 No PAT (point after touchdown) kicks After touchdowns there were no extra point kicks, due to the XFL’s perception that an extra point kick was a "guaranteed point." To earn a point after a touchdown, teams ran a single offensive down from the two-yard line (functionally identical to the NFL/NCAA/CFL two-point conversion), but for just a single point. By the playoffs, two-point and threepoint conversions had been added to the rules. Teams could opt for the bonus points by playing the conversion farther back from the goal line. This rule, as originally implemented, was similar to the WFL’s "Action Point," and was identical to a 1968 experiment by the NFL and American Football League, used only in preseason interleague games that year. Overtime Ties were resolved in similar fashion to the NCAA and present-day CFL game, with at least one possession by each team, starting from the opponent’s 20 yard line. There were differences: there were no first downs – teams had to score within four downs, and the team that had possession first in overtime could not attempt a field goal until fourth down. If that team managed to score a touchdown in fewer than four downs, the second team would only have that same number of downs to match or beat the result. If the score was still tied after one overtime period, the team that played second on offense in the first OT would start on offense in the second OT. Bump and Run The XFL allowed full bump and run coverage early in the season. Defensive backs were 4 From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia 2001 Rushing Leaders Name, Team John Avery, Chi Rod Smart, LV James Bostic, Birm Rashaan Salaam, Mem Derrick Clark, Orl Saladin McCullough, LA Joe Aska, NY/NJ Micheal Black, Orl LeShon Johnson, Chi Rashaan Shehee, LA Kelvin Anderson, SF Jim Druckenmiller, Mem Juan Johnson, SF Wally Richardson, NY/NJ allowed to hit wide receivers any time before the quarterback released the ball, as long as the hit came from the front or the side (similar to the NCAA). In an effort to increase offensive production, bump and run was restricted to the first five yards from the line of scrimmage (similar to NFL) following the fourth week of the season. Att 150 146 153 114 94 88 82 83 72 61 53 31 33 26 Yds 800 555 536 528 395 384 329 320 287 242 231 208 172 148 Ave. 5.3 3.8 3.5 4.6 4.2 4.4 4.0 3.9 4.0 4.0 4.4 6.7 5.2 5.7 Long 73t 31 56 39t 19 22 42 20 41 28 39 36 19 24 TDs 5 3 2 5 7 5 3 0 6 0 1 0 0 0 XFL Forward Motion Unlike the NFL, but like the World Football League and Arena football before it, the XFL allowed one offensive player to move toward the line of scrimmage once he was outside the tackles. Halo rule / Live punts The heavily-hyped "no fair catch" rule (announcers tended to mention it on almost every punt/kickoff) was paired with a fiveyard zone excluding players of the kicking team around potential returners before the ball touched them or the ground, similar to rules in Canadian football, rugby football, and contemporary NCAA rules (where the term "halo" was applied, though the XFL called it instead the "danger zone"). But instead of making punt returns more exciting, it often had the opposite effect, since the XFL players’ inexperience with the rule caused a high number of game-delaying penalties. The fair catch had previously been abolished from Canadian rules, NCAA rules (but only for the 1950 season), and Rugby League. Another difference was that after touching ground 25 yards or more beyond the line of scrimmage, punts could be recovered and advanced by all players of the kicking team. This led to more quick kicks being taken on third-down-and-long situations in the one season of the small league than had been seen in the NFL over several preceding decades of longer seasons. XFL’s "innovation" was similar to a rule that had been in effect in American football in the 1910s and part of the 1920s. XFL penalized 10 yards from the succeeding spot punts going out of bounds, even if they first touched the ground (but not a player of the receiving team). For the initial weeks of the season, the XFL forbade all players on the kicking team from going downfield before a kick was made from scrimmage on that down, similarly to a rule the NFL considered in 1974. For the rest of the season the XFL modified it to allow one player closest to each sideline downfield ahead of the kick, the same modification the NFL adopted to their change just before their 1974 exhibition games started. The purpose of these provisions was to keep play going after the ball was punted, encouraging the kicking team to make the ball 5 From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia 2001 Receiving Yardage Leaders (over 175 yards) Name, Team Stepfret Williams, Birm Charles Jordan, Mem Jeremaine Copeland, LA Dialleo Burks, ORL Aaron Bailey, CHIC Quincy Jackson, Birm Darnell McDonald, LA Darryl Hobbs, Mem Jimmy Cunningham, SF Kirby Dar Dar, NY/NJ Kevin Swayne, ORL Brian Roberson, SF Kevin Prentiss, Mem Mario Bailey, ORL Zola Davis, NY/NJ James Hundon, SF Zechariah Lord, CHIC John Avery, CHIC Yo Murphy, LV Anthony Dicosmo, NY/NJ Latario Rachal, LA Rod Smart, LV Mike Furrey, LV Ed Smith, Birm playable and the receiving team to run it back. Rec 51 45 67 34 32 45 34 30 50 22 27 36 25 27 29 28 20 17 27 26 24 27 18 25 Yds 828 823 755 659 546 531 456 419 408 405 400 395 383 379 378 357 301 297 273 268 254 245 242 195 Ave. 16.2 18.3 11.3 19.4 17.1 11.8 13.4 14 8.2 18.4 14.8 11 15.3 14 13 12.8 15.1 17.5 10.1 10.3 10.6 9.1 13.4 7.8 Long 92t 49 34 81t 50 36t 39 49t 26 77t 51t 35 53 49t 26 34 46 68t 35 30 24 46 41t 16 TDs 2 4 5 7 3 6 8 5 3 2 2 2 0 3 4 0 0 2 3 0 0 0 1 1 XFL Roster and salaries The XFL limited each team to an unusually low 38 players (roughly analogous to the 42 for CFL rosters, as opposed to 53 on NFL teams and 80 or more on unlimited college rosters). This resulted, most commonly, in each team only carrying two quarterbacks and one kicker who doubled as the punter. The XFL paid standardized player salaries. Quarterbacks earned U.S. $5,000 per week, kickers earned $3,500, and all other uniformed players earned $4,500 per week, though a few players got around these restrictions (Los Angeles Xtreme players Noel Prefontaine, the league’s lone punting specialist, and Matt Malloy, a wide receiver) by having themselves listed as backup quarterbacks. Players on a winning team received a bonus of $2,500 for the week, $7,500 for winning a playoff game. The team that won the championship game split $1,000,000 (roughly $25,000 per player). Furthermore, players did not receive any fringe benefits, meaning players had to pay for their own health insurance. Broadcast overview Sky cam Although the XFL was not the first football league to feature the "sky cam,"[4] which enables TV viewers to see behind the offensive unit, it helped to popularize its unique capabilities. The sky cam is currently used in NFL broadcasts on all major networks. This 6 From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia perspective was originally available only in standard definition, but is now broadcast in high definition during most major NFL games each week. XFL Lawler walked away in protest. Dick Butkus filled in for the rest of the season. • : Craig Minervini, Bob Golic, and Kip Lewis. • : Chris Marlowe, Brian Bosworth, Chris Wragge and Michael Barkann. Broadcast schedule At the beginning of the season, NBC showed a feature game at 8 p.m. Eastern Time on Saturday nights, also taping a second game. The second game, in some weeks, would air in the visiting team’s home market and be put on the air nationally if the feature game was a blowout (as was the case in week one) or encountered technical difficulties (as was the case in week two). Two games were shown each Sunday: one at 4 p.m. Eastern on TNN (now Spike TV) and another at 7 p.m. Eastern on UPN (which has since merged with The WB to form The CW). In the third week of the season, the games were sped up through changes in the playing rules, and broadcasts were subjected to increased time constraints. The reason was the reaction of Lorne Michaels, creator and executive producer of Saturday Night Live, to the double-overtime win by the Los Angeles Xtreme against the Chicago Enforcers. The game ended at 11:45 p.m. Eastern, with the start of SNL pushed back to 12:20 a.m. Sunday morning. This angered Michaels, who expected high ratings with Jennifer Lopez as the night’s host. Lopez had just become the first actress-singer in history to record the top-selling album in the United States (J. Lo) and to star in the most popular movie (The Wedding Planner) at the same time. In a rare SNL move, the Lopez show actually started on time for its live audience and was broadcast via tape delay. Media response The XFL aimed to attract two distinct audiences to games: wrestling fans and football fans. The XFL also tried to attract fans from other areas of entertainment (e.g., movies). Many football fans distrusted the league because of its relationship to pro wrestling. They had a hard time accepting that a close, come-from-behind win or a controversial ending had not been scripted in advance, although there was no evidence to support this. The league was panned by critics as boring football with a tawdry broadcast style, although the broadcasts on TNN and to a lesser extent UPN and the Matt Vasgersianhelmed NBC coverage were comparatively professional and workmanlike. Longtime WWE play-by-play man Jim Ross, who has otherwise gotten praise for his calling of wrestling matches over the years, got the bulk of the criticism for his play-by-play calls of XFL games despite his 30+ years of experience in calling wrestling matches as well as calling play-by-play for the NFL’s Atlanta Falcons in the early 1990s. Scoring was so scarce that Bookmakers could not set the over-under total low enough. Wise gamblers who took the under, often in the mid 30s, would win consistently — they could even parlay the under for all four games in a weekend and win on a regular basis. Towards the end of the season, bookies needed to make the totals in the upper 20s, highly unusual in pro football gambling circles. The league was forced to change rules during the season to afford receivers more protection, but the mid-season rules changes did little to bolster league credibility. In 2000, before the XFL’s launch, the league aired a series of cheerleader commercials on NBC, featuring adult models such as Pennelope Jimenez, Karen McDougal, and Rachel Sterling. The most famous one featured them as some of the cheerleaders taking a shower in the locker room. Using clever camera angles and strategically placed objects, the commercial gave viewers the Broadcast teams • : Matt Vasgersian, Jesse Ventura, Fred Roggin and Mike Adamle were the opening week announcers. From week two to week five, Jim Ross replaced Vasgersian. Roggin left the broadcast team late in the season. • : Jim Ross, Jerry Lawler and Jonathan Coachman was the opening-week team. From week two to week five, Vasgersian replaced Ross. Lawler left the XFL (and WWF) after week five in the aftermath of the firing of his then-wife, Stacy Carter, who went by the ring name of "The Kat". 7 From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia XFL would continue, as it still had UPN and TNN as broadcast outlets. In fact, expansion teams were being explored for cities such as Washington, D.C. and Detroit, Michigan. However, in order to continue broadcasting XFL games, UPN demanded that WWF SmackDown broadcasts be cut from two hours to one and a half hours. McMahon found these terms unacceptable and he announced the XFL’s closure on May 10, 2001. One reason for the failure of the league to catch on, despite its financial solvency and massive visibility (perhaps infamy), was the lack of respect for the league in the sports media. XFL games were rarely treated as sports contests, but rather more like WWFlike sensationalized events. With few NFLquality players, save Tommy Maddox, the league’s MVP, and with little thoughtful analysis or even consideration by sports columnists, the XFL never gained the necessary recognition to be regarded as a viable league. The fact that the league was co-owned by NBC made ESPN (which was part of the same corporation as ABC) and Fox Sports Net (owned by Fox TV) disinclined to report on the XFL. Many local TV newscasts and newspapers (even in XFL cities) did not report league scores or show highlights. This led to many football fans treating the XFL as a joke, rather than competition to the NFL. Former ECW announcer Joey Styles mentioned on the McMahon DVD (which has a short section on the XFL) that if the league had not been as publicly associated with wrestling and the negative stigma that comes with it, the league might have been successful. In an ironic twist, Styles would be replaced by former XFL announcer Mike Adamle (who was working for NBC at the time of the XFL’s only season) on ECW when Styles moved into the role of Director of Digital Media Content on WWE.com. Adamle later was moved to the Raw brand as the General Manager after harsh criticism about his play-by-play style by wrestling fans, but was let go from his contract sometime in January 2009. On the same DVD, Vince McMahon defends the XFL, saying it didn’t cost a lot of money for him to try and still thinks it was a good idea, although WWE television nowadays occasionally pokes fun at the failures of the XFL. WWE announcer Jerry Lawler, who made amends with WWE months after the league A group shot from an XFL cheerleader commercial. titillating illusion that the cheerleaders were nude in the shower with little left to the imagination. The edgy XFL commercials backfired and caused a controversy. Deemed too risqué by the media, the commercials were quickly withdrawn before the debut of the league. End of season and failure On April 21, 2001, the season concluded as the Los Angeles Xtreme defeated the San Francisco Demons 38-6 in the XFL Championship Game (which was originally given the Zen-like moniker "The Big Game at the End of the Season", but was later dubbed the Million Dollar Game, after the amount of money awarded to the winning team). Though paid attendance at games remained respectable, if unimpressive (overall attendance were only 10% below what the league’s goal had been at the start of the season), the XFL ceased operations after just one season due to astonishingly low TV ratings. The NBC telecast of the Chicago/NY-NJ game on March 31 received a 1.5 rating, at that time the lowest ever for any major network primetime television broadcast in the United States. (On July 19, 2006, ABC’s premiere of reality game The One: Making a Music Star broke that record with only a 1.3 – that show would be cancelled before airing another episode.) Despite initially agreeing to broadcast XFL games for two years and owning half of the league, NBC announced it would not broadcast a second XFL season, thus admitting failure in its attempt at airing replacement pro football. WWF Chairman Vince McMahon initially announced that the XFL 8 From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia folded and remains employed with the company today, believes that the league could have been a success if given more time. He stated in his biography that Vince’s novel approach of adding entertainment to the sport would have made it a more appealing alternative to the NFL. However, because the league was immediately compared to the NFL as a direct competitor, he feels that the pressures placed by NBC ruined McMahon’s model entirely. He states "I knew after the very first week that it wasn’t going to fly. They said don’t mention the cheerleaders, don’t shoot the cheerleaders. I realized then they were going to try to take on the NFL and that was never going to work. The football wasn’t good enough."[5] The XFL ranked #3 on TV Guide’s list of the worst TV shows of all time in July 2002, as well as #2 on ESPN’s list of biggest flops in sports, behind Ryan Leaf. XFL no football aired during the 2002 season due to the Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, NBC struck a deal with the Arena Football League and aired games from that league from 2003 to 2006. In 2006, NBC returned to coverage of NFL games with NBC Sunday Night Football. The occasional use of the "sky-cam" and sideline interviews are the only features common to both the NFL and XFL coverage. XFL team names and logos also appear in movies and television where professional football needs to be dramatized, as licensing for NFL logos may be cost prohibitive. In an episode of The Simpsons, Homer is wearing an XFL cap and waving a flag with the XFL logo at the beginning, looking forward to the new season, only to have the news broken to him, by Marge, that the XFL has folded. Marge then tells him that the league MVP told her, and that he was now sweeping up nails at the hair salon. In reality, the league’s only MVP, Tommy Maddox, would resurrect his once-undistinguished NFL career with the Pittsburgh Steelers and win the NFL Comeback Player of the Year award in 2002 before giving way to Ben Roethlisberger two years later. In the Arnold Schwarzenegger film The 6th Day (2000), which takes place in the "near future", Arnold’s character Adam Gibson is shown moving through an arena where an XFL game is currently in play. Of course, as the league folded in 2001, it is possible that it found some measure of success in this alternate future as depicted in The 6th Day. In the Jet Li film The One , in one of the alternate earths the xfl still exist. The three-point conversion rule, which was introduced (and only used once) by the XFL, also will see new life. The proposed New United States Football League, set to begin play in 2010, plans on adopting a three-point conversion rule similar to that used in the XFL playoffs. In that league, while extra point kicks will still count for one point and a scrimmage play will count for two points, a 10-yard scrimmage play will count for three points. Legacy Despite its unimpressive showing among the TV audience, the XFL gave its small group of fans 12 weeks of football. It restored an outdoor professional franchise to Birmingham, Las Vegas and Memphis—each of whom had lacked an outdoor pro team since their CFL franchises were shuttered in 1995, but for a single season for the Tennessee Oilers in Memphis before moving to their permanent home in Nashville and becoming the Titans—and to Orlando, which had had no professional outdoor football since the WLAF (later NFL Europa) folded North American operations in 1992. The XFL brought a football franchise to Los Angeles—a market which has lacked an NFL team for years—and demonstrated that a baseball-specific stadium such as San Francisco’s Pac Bell Park made a suitable venue for football as well. However, none of these novelties translated into overall commercial success. The defunct league also popularized "ingame" interviews. The XFL would interview head coaches between plays. Today, NHL players are interviewed between commercial breaks and Major League Baseball has managers and coaches being interviewed. During FOX’s Saturday Game of the Week, players often wear microphones for a "sounds of the game" segment. NBC continued airing professional league football beyond the demise of the XFL. While Notable players Notable players included league MVP and Los Angeles quarterback Tommy Maddox, who signed with the Pittsburgh Steelers after the XFL folded (Maddox later became the 9 From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia starting quarterback for the Steelers in 2002 and led them to that year’s playoffs, as well as continuing to start for them into 2004). Los Angeles used the first pick in the XFL draft to select a former NFL quarterback, Scott Milanovich. Milanovich lost the starting quarterback job to Maddox, who was placed on the Xtreme as one of a handful of players put on each team due to geographic distance between the player’s college and the team’s hometown. Another of the better-known players was Las Vegas running back Rod Smart, who first gained popularity because the name on the back of his jersey read "He Hate Me." Smart, who was only picked 357th in the draft, later went on to play for the Philadelphia Eagles, Carolina Panthers, and the Oakland Raiders. His Panther teammate Jake Delhomme named his new-born horse "She Hate Me" as a reference to him.[6] Smart played in Super Bowl XXXVIII becoming one of seven XFL players to play in a Super Bowl. Receiver Yo Murphy did as a member of the St. Louis Rams in Super Bowl XXXVI)[7]. Tommy Maddox played for a Super Bowl team (with the Pittsburgh Steelers) in Super Bowl XL in Detroit, (although Maddox, by then a third-string quarterback, did not play in the game, which turned out to be his last appearance in uniform before retiring). Lastly, Las Vegas Outlaws DB Kelly Herndon played in Super Bowl XL with the Seattle Seahawks in 2005, where he is remembered for intercepting a pass and returning it a then-record 76 yards. XFL • Kelly Herndon (Super Bowl XL, Seattle Seahawks) • Corey Ivy (Super Bowl XXXVII, Tampa Bay Buccaneers) • Tommy Maddox (Super Bowl XL, Pittsburgh Steelers) • Yo Murphy (Super Bowl XXXVI, St. Louis Rams) • Bobby Singh (Super Bowl XXXIV, St. Louis Rams) • Rod Smart (Super Bowl XXXVIII, Carolina Panthers) Won a Super Bowl • Ron Carpenter (Super Bowl XXXIV, St. Louis Rams) • Corey Ivy (Super Bowl XXXVII, Tampa Bay Buccaneers) • Tommy Maddox (Super Bowl XL, Pittsburgh Steelers) • Bobby Singh (Super Bowl XXXIV, St. Louis Rams) Won both an XFL Championship and Super Bowl • Ron Carpenter (Super Bowl XXXIV, St. Louis Rams) • Tommy Maddox (Super Bowl XL, Pittsburgh Steelers) • Bobby Singh (Super Bowl XXXIV, St. Louis Rams) Played in the CFL • • • • • • • • Kelvin Anderson John Avery Duane Butler Jeremaine Copeland Marcus Crandell Reggie Durden Eric England Paul McCallum (Wore the jersey nickname "CFL Reject") • Yo Murphy • Noel Prefontaine • Bobby Singh Played in the NFL • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • John Avery Ron Carpenter José Cortéz Eric England Mike Furrey Steve Gleason Kelly Herndon Corey Ivy Kevin Kaesviharn Tommy Maddox Yo Murphy Rashaan Salaam Kevin Swayne Rod Smart Brad Trout Played in the AFL • • • • • Jerry Crafts Eric England Mark Grieb Tommy Maddox Craig Whelihan Played in the Super Bowl • Ron Carpenter (Super Bowl XXXIV, St. Louis Rams) Wrestled for WWE • Richard Young (Ricky Ortiz) 10 From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia XFL [3] List of stadiums courtesy of xflboard.com. [4] Larry Stewart (February 7, 2001). "XFL, NBC Working Out Kinks". Los Angeles Times. http://articles.latimes.com/2001/ feb/07/sports/sp-22325. Retrieved on 2009-03-10. [5] It’s good to be the king...Sometimes. Jerry Lawler. pg. 262. [6] JS Online: Fans love ’He Hate Me’ [7] http://www.yomurphy.com/facts.htm • Forrest, Brett. Long Bomb: How the XFL Became TV’s Biggest Fiasco. Crown Publishing, 2002. ISBN 0609609920. • All-XFL Memorial network, dedicated to XFL information • XFL at the Open Directory Project Ownership of broadcast rights XFL games are now part of the WWE Video Library, along with classic highlights of WWE (and predecessors Capitol Wrestling/WWWF/ WWF), World Championship Wrestling, Jim Crockett Promotions, the World Bodybuilding Federation, and other past and present subsidiaries of WWE. No XFL game has been rebroadcast in their entirety in any form, on any channel, since the league folded. See also • List of leagues of American football • McMahon DVD - Vince McMahon discusses his thoughts on the XFL on the DVD. References [1] Helmets, Helmets, Helmets [2] TIME WARNER AND NBC TO FORM NEW PRO LEAGUE. SportsBusiness.com. External links • • • • JumpTheShark.com - XFL entry Music of the XFL XFLBoard.com RememberTheXFL.com Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/XFL" Categories: 2001 establishments, 2001 disestablishments, 2001 in American football, American football media, Defunct American football leagues, Joint ventures, NBC network shows, NBC Sports, Spike TV network shows, UPN network shows, World Wrestling Entertainment, Television series by World Wrestling Entertainment, XFL, 2001 television series debuts, 2001 television series endings, Sports entertainment This page was last modified on 23 May 2009, at 15:10 (UTC). All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License. (See Copyrights for details.) 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