After a stunning debut with sterling 9.5 rating, the XFL averaged only a meager 2.9 for the rest of the season, dooming its chances for a second season on NBC.  The league could still have survived if it had been able to snag a second chance on UPN.  Since UPN also airs the highly popular WWF Smackdown, it was thought that Vince McMahon's new football league would benefit from his WWF clout with the network.  Ouch! UPN blindsided the XFL with a decapitating blow that caused the stubborn McMahon--who had demonstrated considerable perseverance in steering the WWF to the top of the wrestling heap--to throw in the towel.

 

Ironically the seeds of the XFL's doom were sown on that first highly rated broadcast. The massive hype by NBC delivered what was probably the largest audience possible for the new league.  Almost all the potential audience saw the XFL that first Saturday night and very few returned.  In trying to project a tough guy image the XLF introduced a number of rules changes designed to make the game 'tougher' and more appealing to the bloodsport fans of the WWF.  Though the league backed away from its earlier 'open season on quarterbacks' talk, they did institute a 'no fair catch' rule on punts, and they also allowed downfield contact by cornerbacks to avoid those pass interference penalties that often anger fans.  The predictable result of giving D-backs that much freedom was a dull, low-scoring game between teams that had obviously not practiced together enough.  The XFL did change the rules for cornerbacks, and scoring definitely picked up by the end of the season, but the fatal first impression of the league's debut kept many fans from tuning in again.

 

But it wasn't just the lackluster football that killed the XFL.  The new league exposed the yawning chasm between 'sports' and 'sports entertainment.'  McMahon was never able to import the narrative elements that might have at least gotten his WWF fan base to watch the XFL.  NBC's desire for 'real' football and the merciless barrage leveled against the new league by sports writers and broadcasters kept the XFL 'pure,' but so dowdy that all the jerky handheld camera shots, the weird angles, and ubiquitous microphones only had the effect of the makeup that 'Mimi' wears on the Drew Carey Show.  McMahon should have had some of his WWF scriptwriters at the very least invent nicknames for the XFL players since the ones they came up with themselves ('He Hate Me') were ineffably dumb.  The all too frequently miked players' banter was banal, the looker room scenes stupifyingly dull, and the campaign to characterize the NFL as some kind of sissy league was completely moronic since fans are well aware of the numerous injuries that NFL players suffer playing a violent game at very high speed.

 

The biggest loser in the entire XFL fiasco other than NBC and Vince McMahon was Minnesota Governor Jesse Ventura, who moonlighted as a 'color' commentator, and exposed himself as a bumbling oaf with a perpetual penchant for belaboring the obvious.  While the latter is an apparent necessity for politicians, when it comes to a real profession like sportscasting -- well let's just say it is quite apparent that it's a lot easier to be governor than it is to be Bob Uecker, much less Bob Costas.

 

Twenty or more XFL players will get a shot at the NFL next year, and some of them will probably make a team, although fame is still a long shot.  Oddly enough retailers with XFL merchandise in stock might come out of this all right too, if they hold on to the stuff long enough.  The XFL's sudden flameout and the teams' outlaw monickers (New Jersey Hitmen, Chicago Enforcers, San Francisco Demons, etc.) might give these items camp value in a few years.  Apparel items with team logos have sold well in cities with XFL franchises.  The brave with lots of storage space and patience might even look for closeouts.  The problem with the USFL was that it just hung around too long; not so the XFL, it disappeared faster than 'New Coke.'