XFL appears to be more about TV ratings than football
By TED FOX
Sports Writer
The XFL, man.
I don't know who I was talking to when I muttered that in the direction of my computer 10 seconds ago, but it does sum up the feelings of a sports fan trying to figure out what to make of this new football league.
There have been two weeks of XFL action now, complete with everybody's favorite WWF play-by-play voice, Jim Ross, yelling about some "hellacious" hits, and I'm wondering:
Are you setting your VCR to tape the Chicago Enforcers game yet? Are you making plans to road trip down to Orlando and catch the 2-0 Rage in action?
Maybe you are, maybe you aren't, but I have formed a couple of my own opinions so far.
First, what's good about the new league: it gives players, coaches, trainers and anyone else associated with football teams who haven't made it in the NFL a chance to keep playing. For them, the XFL is a way to stay in professional football and maybe even improve their chances of one day making it to, or for some, back to, the NFL.
And right about here, my list of what I like starts to run pretty thin.
I'm not going to lie and say that watching scantily clad cheerleaders doesn't have a certain amount of appeal.
However, that's one of this league's biggest problems. Every time the camera leaves the perspective of the lacrosse helmet-wearing field photographer and ventures to the somewhat uninhibited cheering section, football ceases to be the focus of the broadcast.
Sex appeal takes over.
Even some of the on-field rules leave me asking: "Why?"
Take the "Dash for the Ball," which has taken the place of the coin toss to determine possession. Matt Duda, a writer on XFL.com, says it: " ... condenses all the attributes that make football the greatest of America's sports into four testosterone-filled seconds."
Basically, both players start side-by-side, 20 yards away from the ball, the referee tells them when to go, and the guy who comes up with the ball wins.
Sound a little dangerous? Yeah, but don't worry, there's only been one separated shoulder so far. Before the game even starts.
Besides, isn't that a small price to pay to get back to the glory days of smash mouth football? Back when Vince Lombardi would pick his fastest player to go tearing after the ball placed at Lambeau's 50 Ñ don't you remember those days?
Neither do I.
In all fairness to the new league, I realize I could be completely off the XFL black and red ball. I took a leisurely Sunday walk around my dorm and asked someone a lot more in touch with football than me, Notre Dame junior long snapper John Crowther, what he thought of Saturday night's newest ratings contender.
"I like to watch football, so I kind of like it," Crowther said. "But they try to be too flashy, almost too much like wrestling. I guess that's probably their point. The only thing that I really like that's different than the NFL is when they do the opening coin toss."
Damaging testimony from an expert witness. I'm still not a big fan of the dash, though, maybe because I'd be grabbing more turf with my helmet than ball with my hands.
Furthermore, I'm still not quite sure why the governor of Minnesota is trying to give me analysis. I'm not sure why real football involves putting nicknames like "E-Rupt" on the back of your jersey or having the announcers try to convince us just how legitimate the league is.
What we have, maybe for the first time in sports history, is a league that was created for TV. This isn't a struggling football league, or even a prosperous one looking to gain exposure by getting TV coverage. And we'd be living somewhere outside of Candy Land if we didn't notice the increasing commercialization of all sports, including the NFL (C'mon — the "MTV Presents the E-Trade Super Bowl Halftime Show"?)
But the XFL itself, not just its advertising campaign, is a marketing ploy, an attitude, complete with sex appeal, violence, fireworks, rotating camera angles and smoke.
Football is merely the means to deliver that WWF image. If bowling could have worked, we'd probably be watching the XBL right now, as guys rolled some hellacious strikes in the true tradition of smash mouth sports.
Maybe there is some hope. Mike Celizic, a contributor to MSNBC.com, noted how the XFL seemed to violate some of its charge in week two, devoting more of its time to the game and less to the cheerleaders. Maybe these games could actually be about football eventually and not NBC ratings on Saturday nights.
Like Crowther told me: "If someone said you could go and play [in the XFL], I'd probably go play, because it's basically like football. When you get in the game, it pretty much looks the same."
But if it becomes about football, will people still watch? When you're created for TV, you better hope so.
The views expressed in this column are those of the author and not necessarily those of The Observer.
All Sports Stories for Monday, February 12, 2001
