NFL, Pshaw! XFL Promises More Violence, Sex

N E W   Y O R K, Feb. 2, 2001 -- It is rare these days that fans could attend a professional sporting event where the players on the field may earn less than the ticket holders.

When baseball, football, basketball and even golf stars command seven-digit salaries and extremely generous promotional contracts, it's hard to imagine their being hungry for victory when they could buy a world championship ring with their pin money.

But hunger is definitely at play in the new XFL football league — in fact, it's a major selling point. With a base pay of $35,000 to $50,000 for the season, XFL players receive a fraction of what their NFL or CFL brethren may get. (And since all teams are owned by the league, there would be no bidding wars among franchises for individual players' contracts.) But the money rolls in if they win — the victorious team splits a hefty bonus — hence the fire in the eyes of a leading team that stands to lose thousands of bucks should the other team score off them.

This new sports institution tries to stand out in a crowded entertainment field by having its teams compete not just for bragging rights but for Junior's college fund or a mortgage payment — and who knows, maybe even one of the curvaceous cheerleaders, exhibited in commercials bouncing around the showers in less than a towel.

And since the XFL encourages more forceful contact (rules of play have been, shall we say, eased — "Kill the quarterback!" will be de rigueur), viewers should not want for physical demonstrations of one team's antipathy for its opponent.

Why do you think they call it a contact sport?

NFL fans may feel that this looser, rougher, gaudier form of football is less a testament to strategy or finesse than to Darwinism. But for a start-up league whose role models are Stone Cold Steve Austin and The Rock, finesse is not the point.

And Did We Mention the Sexy Cheerleaders?

The XFL (whose initials in fact don't stand for anything) was created last spring by Vince McMahon, the 55-year-old chairman of the World Wrestling Federation. As might be expected, the WWF mogul laughs in the face of other notable football failures. Most speculators who have tried to evolve a new operation to compete against the NFL have gone the way of the dodo: Remember the World Football League? (Historians of the financially strapped WFL joke that players who won the coin toss were happy to keep the coin.) How about the USFL? Or the PSFL, which folded during training camp without even making it onto the field?

Estimated at $100 million, the start-up costs of a new league comprised of eight teams (five of which are in cities lacking an NFL team of their own) are daunting. But with the phenomenal television success of the WWF, a football game aping wrestling's tendency toward over-the-top personalities, violence, sexism and gaudy glitz is probably a safe bet.

WWF is a Stamford, Conn.-based entertainment and media company whose live shows, weekly broadcasts and pay-per-view events pulled in $379 million in revenue last year. Its live events drew 2.3 million fans, its pay-per-view specials registered 6.8 million buys, and its various television broadcasts earn about 22 million viewers each week.

But will viewers who watch testosterone-blessed wrestlers scream into the camera and scantily clad women with blue hair take each other to the mat tune in for football now that the NFL has wrapped its season and gone home? NBC is betting heavily that they will.

Shortly after McMahon's announcement of the league's formation, NBC (which had lost broadcast rights to NFL games a few years ago to Fox Television) signed on as a partner, giving the Peacock net live Saturday night fodder. In fact, the 18- to 35-year-old male demographic that has drifted from watching Monday Night Football to wrestling is the target — and what better way to grab them than no-holds-barred contact sports and black leather-clad cheerleaders that make Dallas' famed girls look like a choir?

As a 50 percent owner of the XFL, NBC does not have to pay for broadcast rights, and stands to earn a share of profits (which McMahon predicts in two years).

"In many ways, this is the ultimate TV reality show at a time when reality shows are very popular," NBC Sports Chairman Dick Ebersol said. "Our reality show is within a real football game with real athletes."

In addition to NBC's Saturday broadcasts, UPN and TNN will air games on Sundays.

Straddling Demographics

Unlike the WWF, XFL games will not be scripted. But there will be plenty of opportunity for players and coaches to act out. In fact, the inner thespian — "hot dogging" that is fined in the NFL — will be encouraged, so expect lots of endzone antics and sideline histrionics.

And did we mention the sexy cheerleaders?

The NFL draws more than $1 billion in media revenue to the networks, and the XFL would clearly love a piece of the ad action. But in addition to being a new kid on the block, the XFL is a harder sell. Despite media buys by Anheuser-Busch, Gatorade and Coca-Cola — traditional sports sponsors who would typically reach 113 million viewers a week during NFL games — the XFL is straddling two target audiences, which might give some advertisers pause.

Dan Rank, director of broadcast media for Optimum Media Direction in New York, thinks the XFL is courting neither a traditional wrestling nor football demographic: "There's some blurring of the two — a little bit older than the WWF, a little bit younger than the NFL."

"Advertisers I think covet any opportunity to reach a young audience," said Kevin Sullivan, a spokesman for NBC Sports. "The network likes the idea of luring that young male demographic to the network, and in what's been a really difficult sports economy, the XFL has sold 70 percent of the [ad] inventory."

Saturday is typically the lowest-rated night for the network, and NBC has been running movies in that slot, with ratings that could probably be matched by original sports programming. But if the XFL isn't "football enough," or "wrestling enough," might it disappoint either demographic? Or will the games and sideline hullabaloo raise the ire of the Parents Television Council, which has targeted boycotts of WWF advertisers? Reports indicate many media buyers are taking a wait-and-see approach.

To Some, the NFL Still Beckons

Just as the play will be more in-your-face, so will the coverage. There will be cameras on the field, players will be miked, players and coaches will be interviewed during the game and at halftime.

But the big question yet to be answered is the quality of play. Many of the players are former NFL team members, having been waived, cut or lost due to injuries, or they're veterans of CFL, NFL Europe, or college play who never made it in U.S. professional football. Critics sniff that this means performance will suffer.

Still, signing up with a new operation doesn't mean the athletes have turned their sights away from the granddaddy of football leagues. And the new league likes to taunt its older rival, suggesting that NFL scouts have been turning up at XFL scrimmages to take notes for potential recruits.

To some XFL players, the National Football League still beckons. "I hope this is a springboard to get back into it," Leo Araguz of the Hitmen told The Associated Press. He played on the Oakland Raiders from 1996–99. The 31-year-old kicker says, "I feel like I'm stronger than ever."

And if the play gets boring, never mind — there will be fireworks, light shows, and color commentary by Jesse Ventura, current Minnesota governor and former WWF wrestler. And did we mention the sexy cheerleaders?