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Created as a joint venture between NBC and World Wrestling Entertainment 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, but that the league was operated as a single unit.
The concept of the league was first announced on February 3, 2000. The XFL was originally conceived to build on the success of the National Football League 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 very scantily-clad cheerleaders. Instead of a pre-game 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, ironically, led to the first XFL injury.
The XFL also did something that prior leagues (the WFL and USFL) didn't accomplish; it got not only NBC to televise its games, but also two other outlets: UPN and TNN.
It should be noted that the "X" in XFL did not stand for "extreme," as in "Extreme Football League." When the league was first organized, promoters wanted to make sure that everyone knew that the "X" did not actually stand for anything.
The XFL's opening game took place on February 3, 2001 between the Las Vegas OutlawsThe Las Vegas Outlaws were a team in the short-lived XFL. Among the team's players were the XFL's most well-known, Rod Smart (later with the National Football League's Philadelphia Eagles, now a free agent), who went by the nickname of "He Hate Me. The Ou and the New York/New Jersey HitmenThe New York/New Jersey Hitmen were a short-lived American football team based in the Giants Stadium of the Meadowlands Sports Complex in East Rutherford, New Jersey. This team was part of the failed XFL begun by Vince McMahon of the World Wrestling Feder. The game, a 19-0 victory for the Outlaws, was watched on NBC by an estimated 54 million viewers.
Although the XFL began with reasonable television ratings and fair publicity, the television audience declined sharply after the first week of the season and the media attacked the league for what was perceived as a poor quality of play. This perception was paired with a perception that the XFL was formed from the dregs that were left over after the NFL, Arena Football and CFLThe Canadian Football League (French: Ligue Canadienne de Football is a professional league located entirely in Canada that plays Canadian football. The league's top trophy, the Grey Cup, was donated by Governor-General Earl Grey in 1909 to the team winni had their drafts.
It was also observed that the XFL seemed to be attempting to attract two distinct types of audience to games - wrestling fans and pro football fans. Ultimately it failed to appeal to members of either group: wrestling fans wanted drama, hype, and more scantily-clad cheerleaders, while football fans simply wanted a better caliber of play on the field.
Also, 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 absolutely no evidence to support this. The sport was panned by critics as boring football with a tawdry broadcast style.
Both WWE head Vince McMahonVincent Kennedy McMahon (born August 24, 1945) is a professional wrestling promoter. He was born in Pinehurst, North Carolina and attended Fishburne Military School in Waynesboro, Virginia, where he became the first cadet in the school's history to be cou and NBC also seemed to have put far too much stock in a football cliche which is frequently mouthed by fans, particularly older ones, about a desire to return to the era of "old-time smashmouth football". While this is often voiced, in fact football is far more popular as a spectator sport now than it ever was in the earlier era supposedly longed for, and the move away from "smashmouth" to a more wide-open offense featuring more passing is largely responsible for this. The league was forced to change rules during the season to afford receivers more protection.
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 starting quarterback for the Steelers, and led them to the playoffs. Another of the better-known players was Las Vegas running back Rod Smart whose name on the back of his jersey read "He Hate Me". (The league allowed, and even encouraged, players to wear nicknames rather than their actual last names on the backs of their jerseys. Apparently all of the teams but Birmingham had at least some players who engaged in this.) Smart later went on to play for the Carolina Panthers, and thus became the first XFL player to play in a Super Bowl, participating in the game's 38th edition. However, nobody has yet figured out to whom or what exactly "He Hate Me" was referring.
One of the announcers for the XFL was Minnesota Governor Jesse Ventura, himself a former professional wrestler, whose involvement was controversial in that some felt that his being an announcer took time away from his job of running his state.
On April 21, 2001, the season concluded as the Los Angeles Xtreme defeated the Orlando Rage in the XFL Championship Game (the "Million Dollar Game"), 38-6.