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Crunch time XFL promises to rock, but critics wonder
Updated: Friday February 02, 2001 1:18 PM
By Sonja Steptoe, CNNSI.com NEW YORK -- As you watch the players go through a practice, it certainly looks and sounds like football. But the organizers of this action are promising much more than just a game. "When they see our presentation, our brand of football, they're going to say, 'Geez, I sure wish the NFL was like this,'" boasts XFL founder Vince McMahon who also serves as chairman of the World Wrestling Federation. This is the XFL, as in not the NFL. It's the brainchild of McMahon, who made the slam, bam, beefy, bawdy WWF an American institution. "The NFL would have you believe we all get along and we're playing bloody tennis or something with hands across the net," scoffs McMahon. "No, come on. When you get in the three-point stance, you're across from a fellow lineman, you're trying to knock his head off." "They have to distinguish their product from the NFL and they're making a strong effort to do that," says Neal Pilson, a sports television consultant and former CBS Sports Executive.
McMahon envisions an old-fashioned affair with some newfangled twists. A faster game with a shorter halftime and a shorter play clock. And a harder hitting game with no fair catches, extra-point kicks or quarterback-friendly in-the-grasp rule. "Our brand of football is a far more honest and straightforward, in-your-face brand of football. The way the old NFL used to be," says McMahon "This is going to be sharp, crisp, clean, wide-open old-time smash-mouth football," says Keith Elias, a member of the New York/New Jersey Hitmen. Team general manager Drew Pearson adds, "This football is going to be so real, it hurts." Just as in traditional football, cheerleaders will be sideline fixtures. But as a risqué XFL commercial suggests, their contributions to the game will be as hardcore as the action on the field. McMahon promises cheerleader interviews during game breaks on topics ranging from sports to sex, on topics both racy and gentile. "We're creating some controversy for ourselves with these cheerleader spots," said McMahon. "I would like to say all of our cheerleaders are going to be that attractive, but obviously not all will be. They are cheerleaders first and foremost, but we are doing some provocative things, no doubt about it." McMahon's partner in the venture is NBC, which owns 50 percent of the league and will televise Saturday night games in prime time. Minnesota governor and former WWF star Jesse "The Body" Ventura will serve as the network's analyst. The combination offers marketing skill, star appeal and broadcasting prestige. To further spice up the XFL experience for stadium fans and TV viewers, the league plans to use jumbo TV screens, roving cameras and open mikes around the arenas. The question is: Will the new gimmicks make XFL games look more like a happy marriage of gridiron dirt or reality TV? Or an episode of the Jerry Springer Show with helmets, shoulder pads and pom poms? "It's a very, very, visceral, very, very, honest type of representation, which is quite frankly a reality show. That is the concept. It's a reality show inside, arguably the greatest sport on TV," says McMahon.
New York Post sports television columnist Phil Mushnick has covered and criticized McMahon and the WWF for the past 12 years and was sued by the wrestling impresario several years ago in a case that never went to trial. "I think it's going to look somewhat like NFL football from the time the ball is snapped until the ball carrier is tackled and the whistle blows," Mushnick said. "In between, I think it's going to look like a freak show, by design." Mushnick's distaste for McMahon's tactics typifies that of skeptics across the continent. "The XFL's gameplan is the same as the WWF's gameplan," claims Mushnick. "It's to sell sex and violence under the cloak of some kind of quasi sport or some sort of competition that really serves as just a prop." McMahon disagrees. "We're not trying to present violence. I think the rest of the networks take care of that real well. There are no guns, there are no knives nor are there any of those in the World Wrestling Federation. We're not promoting violence. We're entertaining you. You really can bring the family to this event." Mushnick agrees it's family entertainment, but, "It's Manson family or Addams family," he scoffs. "It's family entertainment all right." Other critics say that the XFL is more focused on sales and promotion than sport. "We have great respect for the game of football," McMahon said. "But at same time I recognize there is nothing in sport that is sacred. Therefore, if nothing in sport is sacred, then why can't you have some fun with it?" he ponders. "Why can't you present it in a more reality based way? Why can't you show true emotion the players have playing this game?" Ultimately, the XFL's survival may depend on its ability to attract fans to stadiums to watch non-superstars play football during the coldest months of the year. "We're well ahead of our projected targets in all phases -- season tickets, advertising and sponsorship. We're well ahead and we haven't even had our first game," says McMahon. "Thanks to all the media and controversy, people are going to watch." Mushnick claims viewers will be watching for the wrong reason. "Do I think the XFL will work?" asks Mushnick. "It very well could because it goes to our most visceral instincts. We've seen that garbage sells and this is the worst kind of garbage so it may sell the best." Pilson suggests several hurdles the XFL must first jump before if it hopes to succeed. "In the final analysis, when you look at the promotion and the challenges that NBC has in the time period, you look at historical lack of interest the public has in spring football, and look at the audience they're trying to attract to football, an audience that doesn't normally watch football. I think the jury is out," he says. The public will begin deliberations once the XFL trial kicks off in February.
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