In February 2001, Vince McMahon stood at the center of the Sam Boyd Stadium in Las Vegas, Nevada. He held a microphone and barked a simple question to a frenzied crowd: “This is the XFL… Are you ready?”
The Genesis: “Real” Football
The origins of the XFL lay in Vince McMahon’s desire to be seen as a legitimate media mogul, not just a wrestling promoter. In 1999, the WWF was a publicly traded juggernaut. McMahon wanted to diversify. Simultaneously, NBC had lost the broadcasting rights to the NFL. Dick Ebersol, the head of NBC Sports, was looking for football content to fill the void.
The partnership was announced in 2000. It was a 50-50 venture. The marketing campaign was aggressive and antagonistic toward the NFL. Commercials featured wrecking balls smashing into cars and implied that modern football players were pampered millionaires. The XFL promised “smashmouth” football.
To emphasize the toughness, the league eliminated the coin toss. Instead, two players would sprint 20 yards to recover a loose ball at midfield. This innovation, called “The Scramble,” provided the perfect metaphor for the league’s lack of foresight. On the very first play of the very first game, Orlando Rage safety Hassan Shamsid-Deen separated his shoulder during the scramble. Before a single down of football had been played, a season-ending injury had occurred due to a gimmick.
The Premiere: Curiosity and Chaos
The XFL debuted on Saturday, February 3, 2001. The ratings were astronomical. The broadcast drew a 9.5 Nielsen rating, reaching over 14 million viewers. It was double what NBC had promised advertisers. People tuned in out of sheer curiosity to see what Vince McMahon would do to football.
What they saw was a production disaster. The game between the Las Vegas Outlaws and the New York/NJ Hitmen was marred by technical glitches. The Skycam, a new technology at the time, frequently lost signal. The blimp covering the game had issues.
Furthermore, the wrestling influence was heavy-handed. The broadcast team included Jesse “The Body” Ventura, the Governor of Minnesota and former wrestler, alongside Matt Vasgersian. Ventura spent much of the broadcast burying the play-calling and arguing with the coaches.
The football itself was mediocre. Because the league had been rushed into existence, the teams had little time to practice. The quarterbacks were largely NFL washouts or third-stringers. The low-scoring, sloppy play stood in stark contrast to the high-octane hype videos.
However, the XFL did introduce innovations that would later be adopted by the NFL and college football. They put microphones on the players and coaches, allowing the audience to hear the play calls and the hits. They utilized the Skycam (cable cam) extensively, changing the way football was filmed. They interviewed players immediately after big plays on the sideline.
The Phenomenon of “He Hate Me”
Amidst the mediocrity, one star emerged. The XFL allowed players to put nicknames on the back of their jerseys instead of their surnames. Most players chose generic monikers like “Big Daddy” or “Deathblow.”
Rod Smart, a running back for the Las Vegas Outlaws, chose “He Hate Me.”
The name became an instant sensation. It was grammatically incorrect, defiant, and mysterious. When asked by sideline reporters what it meant, Smart delivered a quote that became the league’s unofficial slogan.
“He hate me. Because I’m gonna run past him, and I’m gonna score. And if he’s on my team, he hate me, because I’m taking his spot.”
Rod Smart became the face of the league. His jersey was the top-selling item of merchandise. He was the only player who truly captured the “attitude” McMahon was trying to sell. Ironically, Smart was also one of the few XFL players to have a successful post-XFL career, playing in the NFL for the Carolina Panthers and even reaching a Super Bowl.
The Slide: Ratings Freefall
The curiosity factor evaporated quickly. By Week 2, the ratings had dropped by 50%. The product was suffering from an identity crisis. Was it a sport? Was it wrestling?
Vince McMahon, panicking over the ratings, ordered the production team to lean harder into the “entertainment” aspect. He encouraged the cameramen to film the cheerleaders in the locker room. The broadcasts began to feature skits involving the cheerleaders that bordered on softcore pornography, which alienated the sports fans while failing to satisfy the wrestling fans who wanted action.
A critical blow occurred in Week 2 during a game involving the Los Angeles Xtreme. A power generator failure caused the broadcast to go black for several minutes. When the feed returned, viewers were confused and frustrated.
NBC, realizing they had a disaster on their hands, began to distance themselves. They stopped promoting the games heavily during their primetime lineup. The media, which had been skeptical from the start, began to openly mock the league. Bob Costas, a stalwart of NBC Sports, notably refused to be involved, viewing the XFL as beneath the dignity of the network.
In a famous interview on HBO’s On the Record, Costas confronted McMahon. The interview was tense, with McMahon getting visibly angry, poking a finger in Costas’s chest, and defending the league with a level of aggression that bordered on kayfabe villainy.
The Jennifer Lopez Incident and the SNL Delay
The low point of the XFL’s relationship with NBC occurred later in the season. On a Saturday night, a game between the Los Angeles Xtreme and the Chicago Enforcers went into double overtime.
Because the game ran long, it cut into the broadcast time of Saturday Night Live. That night, SNL had a high-profile host: Jennifer Lopez.
Lorne Michaels, the creator of SNL, was furious. He reportedly called Dick Ebersol and screamed that a “garbage football league” was delaying his institution. The game finally ended, but the damage was done. NBC executives decided that the XFL was not just a ratings failure; it was a liability that was damaging the network’s relationships with its real stars.
The Lowest Rating in History
By the end of the season, the XFL achieved a dubious record. A game broadcast on NBC received a 1.5 rating. It was, at the time, the lowest rating for a primetime program in the history of major network television.
The fans had rejected the product. The football was bad, the gimmicks were tired, and the “Attitude” felt forced.
Despite the collapse, Vince McMahon wanted to continue. He approached NBC with a plan for Season 2, promising to fix the football and tone down the raunchiness. NBC refused. They exercised an exit clause in the contract.
McMahon then approached UPN (the home of SmackDown) to carry the games. UPN demanded that SmackDown be cut from two hours to 90 minutes to accommodate the football costs. McMahon refused to sacrifice his wrestling flagship for the failing football league.
On May 10, 2001, just weeks after the championship game (The “Million Dollar Game,” won by the Los Angeles Xtreme), the XFL officially ceased operations.
The Financial Fallout
The financial toll was staggering. The WWF reported a loss of $35 million on the venture. NBC lost a similar amount.
For Vince McMahon, it was a rare and public failure. He had taken on the NFL and lost decisively. In the DVD documentary This Was the XFL, McMahon admitted to the hubris of the project.
“I think we had a good concept. But we didn’t have enough time. You can’t build a league in a year. The quality of play wasn’t there.”
The legacy of the XFL remains mixed. For nearly two decades, it was a punchline. However, its influence on the NFL was undeniable. The Skycam became a standard tool for NFL broadcasts. The concept of interviewing players on the field became common. The XFL’s focus on the “fan experience” and access forced the NFL to loosen up its presentation.
