One season was all the World Wrestling Federation and NBC could afford to give the new football league.
Maybe even that was too long.
After drawing good-sized crowds and impressive ratings for its inaugural weekend -- the curiosity factor, no doubt -- the XFL began a season-long plummet.
The XFL seemed more style than substance and subsequently folded.(AP Photo)
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But it was doomed from the start.
The XFL's first major mistake was in its timing.
Play began one week after the Super Bowl, when league organizers believed fans' appetites for pro football were so whetted that they would suffer withdrawal without a game to watch.
Instead, the XFL discovered, beginning with Week 2, that those appetites were sated.
Could the league have done better by starting up in early spring, as the USFL and WFL did?
Only with a stronger product.
Nearly every XFL player had previously failed in the NFL.
Generally, the linemen weren't strong enough, the running backs weren't fast enough, the tacklers weren't sharp enough.
Rather than being impressed when an XFLer's pedigree was mentioned, viewers wondered why the players couldn't cut it in the NFL.
Then, if they watched carefully enough, they saw exactly why.
Quarterbacks like Tommy Maddox, Jim Druckenmiller and Jeff Brohm barely were backups in the NFL.
That they became starters in the XFL emphasized the journeyman feel of the new league.
XFL organizers also insisted on playing in places such as Giants Stadium and Soldier Field, which never have empty seats for their NFL tenants.
For the XFL, more seats were unfilled than filled.
February and March night games in New York and Chicago are fine -- for indoor sports.
But what might work for Arena Football didn't for the XFL, no matter how scantily the cheerleaders were dressed.
Ah, the cheerleaders.
They drew more attention from the fans in the stands -- and nearly as much from the broadcast booth -- as the guys doing the punting, passing and kicking.
Was this sports or voyeurism?
NBC never really could make up its mind.
And when it complained loudly that its national telecast in Week 2 ran so late that Saturday Night Live with Jennifer Lopez was delayed, how could anyone not question NBC's commitment?
That game between Los Angeles and Chicago, incidentally, might have been the best the league provided in its three months of life.
The WWF couldn't find an attractive balance between its unique brand of entertainment and pure football.
By not emphasizing the outlandish, it tried to appeal to the devout football fan.
By having even a touch of the preposterous, it alienated the football fan.
Several times during the 10-week season, the league changed its rules.
That, too, offended purists, even if some of the alterations -- different values for extra points, based on length -- were intriguing.
By season's end, the minuscule ratings made it clear NBC would dump the XFL.
Media outside of league cities already were ignoring the games.
The coverage teams in Birmingham, Memphis, Orlando and Las Vegas did receive wasn't nearly enough to carry the league into a second year.
Nor was the level of play.
Or the WWF's proven creativity.
For no matter how hard everyone tried, one fact could not be ignored: This was not the NFL.
Not even close.
By Barry Wilner
