Xfl

This Was The Xfl,' A Love Story About Dick Ebersol And Vince Mcmahon

... and memorable, too, was the opening scramble. Instead of a coin toss, Mc Mahon’s sissy-less league had players race each other to grab the black-and-red XFL ball at the 50-yard-line. One guy, Vegas’s Jamel Williams, was the best in the league at the scramble, racking up six straight “wins” before someone finally beat him. Another guy, Orlando’s Hassan Shamsid-Deen, scrambled one time. It was his only play of his XFL career, because he separated his shoulder diving for the ball. Charlie calls that “the first major unlucky moment of the XFL.”. Another unlucky moment was the aforementioned blimp crash. It certainly didn’t help that some players and coaches had zero personality and/or refused to play along when on-field “reporters” and personalities like Jesse “The Body” Ventura used some pro wrestling tactics to try and win viewers back. But nothing could top the ultimate moment of flat out terrible luck that was the dagger in the XFL’s heart. Not even Charlie knew the real story behind the primetime debacle that left Lorne Michaels reportedly enraged with NBC and Dick, the man he created Saturday Night Live with, until he got the major players to ...

2001 Topps Xfl Football Cards Checklist And Details

... standpoint, there’s nothing that screams extreme in 2001 Topps XFL Football. The checklist is a little more varied in what it covers compared to most other football products, but it’s possible that’s simply because the league only had eight teams. The product has inserts, too. Both autographs and memorabilia cards are included. The 2001 Topps XFL base set has 100 cards. Extreme, right? The design actually is. It has flaming backgrounds on some cards, shattered glass on others, and a close-up of a league football on others. Added to that are scribbled lines, jagged fonts and two player photos. Stare at them long enough and a headaches are a solid possibility. It’s the XFL. Would you expect something simple like 1988 Topps Baseball. While most of the base set is player cards, there are a couple of subsets. Four Locked in Battle cards showcase team ...

This Was The Xfl’ A Fun Look Back At The Mess

... by his son Charlie. But he said when he and Mc Mahon first saw it, they were “blown away, mostly at the humor out of what had truly been a mess. That’s how we’ve all looked back at this over the years. We still marvel. Football XFL Hall of Fame. “I hadn’t seen the promos in years, and in that rough cut when that wrecking ball went through the guy, I went, ‘Oh, my God, did we really do this?’. A lot of people say, ‘Why would you and Vince have said yes to this?’ Because, I mean, everything deserves a good autopsy, and this is as good as it gets.”. advertisement | advertise on newsday. The XFL’s promotional push was so effective that it drew a massive TV audience for that first game between the Outlaws and New York/New Jersey Hitmen. But Ebersol knew the league was doomed that first night, mostly because, as he said, “the ...

Tougher Version Of The Nfl? That Was The Xfl's Goal

... athletes; its lax approach to bump-and-run coverage depressed scoring. The score on opening night was 19–0; NBC cut to another XFL game midway through. Reasonable people tuned out from the XFL immediately thereafter, as the novelty wore off. Americans were curious, and then they weren’t. Perhaps they were horrified. They didn’t show up the next week—when, showcasing the incompetence of all involved, the telecast went dark because of an empty gas tank in an NBC generator, then ran so long Saturday Night Live started after midnight. More supporters defected as the season went on. Mc Mahon would demote Vasgersian, a moderating influence, for failing to comment enough on the cheerleaders’ bodies, and replace him with old wrestling hand Jim “J. R.” Ross. Ventura was sent from the booth to the sideline to pick fights with players and coaches. The Los Angeles team put a hot tub behind one end zone and called a local strip club to fill it. Late in the season, the games were ...

This Was The Xfl' Director On The League's Legacy, Donald Trump Rallies

... nuts?” When I made the film, they saw what the relationship was like between my dad and Vince, they understood what I was getting at. It’s this incredible story of these two guys who are unlikely friends who really got it. Hopefully, it was brought to life with the film. RELATED: Hear more of the latest TV news from this week. What do you remember from the first game. Insanity. Total insanity. From a scale perspective, when they announced the league a year earlier to the day, they had nothing. They had no teams, no coaches, no stadiums, no GMs — nothing. Here we are a year later, there are 40,000 or 50,000 fans in Vegas who showed up hours before with their faces painted for a team they had never seen, freaking out. It defied all understanding. That was so representative of what the experience was. I went to a handful of games, and this was always the case. Five out of the eight stadiums were sold out through the whole season. The live side of this business was very robust; it worked. There’s this dichotomy of people saying it was failing and the network saying ...

From Nfl To Xfl And Back

... over 3,800 yards and 64 touchdowns. When the XFL was looking for players in 2001, the eight teams were allowed to choose players based on proximity. Even though the Los Angeles Xtreme drafted Maryland QB Scott Milanovich with the first overall pick, the Xtreme added Maddox based on his UCLA experience. Maddox won the starting job in camp, and became the most prolific passer in XFL history. XFL Stats (one season): 196/342, 2186 yards, 18 TD. The Xtreme finished the regular season 7-3, and won their two playoff games to be crowned the first and only XFL Champion. He was the only quarterback to start all 10 regular season games, and led the XFL in passing yards and touchdowns. Due to abysmal ratings, the NBC canceled the XFL after one season. Maddox was without a team, but was coming off the best 10-game stretch of his ...

New Espn Film Examines Xfl’s Short Life, Legacy

... COACHING CAROUSEL. Remember Chris Beard, who resigned from UNLV with a coaching record of 0-0. Maybe you do. Maybe you don’t. He was only coach for 19 days last spring. Anyway, he’s 14-6 at Texas Tech through Friday. How other coaches with ties to Las Vegas are doing. • Lon Kruger (UNLV coach), Oklahoma, 8-11*. • Jay Wright (UNLV assistant/Rollie Massimino), Villanova, 19-2, ranked No. 1. • Reggie Theus (UNLV player/Jerry Tarkanian), Cal State Northridge, 8-12. • Todd Simon (UNLV assistant/Dave Rice), Southern Utah, 4-17. • Jack Murphy (Durango High student manager), Northern Arizona, 5-16. • Steve Henson (UNLV assistant/Lon Kruger), UT San Antonio, 9-11. • Lew Hill (UNLV assistant/Lon Kruger), UT Rio Grande Valley, 10-13. • Rollie Massimino (UNLV coach), Keiser University, 17-6*. • Kathy Olivier (UNLV player/Dan Ayala), UNLV women, 14-6. • Regina Miller (UNLV coach), Illinois-Chicago women, 3-17. * NCAA Final Four, 2016. * NAIA. TAKING A KNEE. • The College of Southern Nevada ...

What The Hell Is 'he Hate Me' Doing Now

... confused as to what the nickname meant when Smart had his first carry of the game. Smart rushed for 46 yards on 13 carries that evening, and caught two passes for 48 yards. His performance on the field was pedestrian, but given the size of the viewing audience, and Smart’s charisma during his in-game interviews, he instantly became the most recognizable name in the XFL. The Outlaws won the game 19-0, but that was secondary to watching a star be born in the league’s first game. “They didn’t even call him by his real name anymore,” Snell says. “He had something going on.” Smart was alerted by his agent as to the notoriety the nickname was getting. His jersey became the best-selling jersey in the league without a close second, and Smart, whose nickname growing up was Rocket Rod after one of his favorite college football players, Rocket Ismail, was asked by the league to participate in their promos. “It was something different,” Smart says. “I got to show people my personality and creativeness. Being able to put whatever you want on the back of your jersey—what’s better than that? It was a new wrinkle. There were a lot of nicknames out there, but mine stood out. But ...

How Basil Devito, An Ohio Alum, Became President Of The Ill-fated Xfl

... the phrase "He Hate Me" on the back of his jersey, which became one of the most popular nicknames in sports history. The league used scantily clad cheerleaders in commercials and, at one point, told fans they were going to put a cameraman in their locker room. De Vito was in charge of day-to-day operations of the fledgling league, designed to develop it into a legitimate competitor to the already-popular NFL. “It was a significant departure from what I was doing,” he said. The league, which was evenly co-owned between the WWF and broadcast partner NBC, held its inaugural season in 2001, with the first game taking place between the New York/New Jersey Hitmen and the Las Vegas Outlaws. Each team was owned and operated by the XFL, which meant De Vito had a large responsibility. developing business strategy. The league started with impressive TV ratings, but by the end of the season, ratings fell. They hit a dreadful low during the end of March 2001, when their weekend programming received a 1.6 rating, the lowest-rated program on a major network in primetime history. In May ...

Wrestlemania, Xfl Fond Orlando Memories For Broadcaster Jim Ross

... it was a great honor to be there on such a historic occasion,” Ross said in a wide-ranging phone interview this week. As for the XFL, Ross was NBC’s play-by-play voice when the Orlando Rage took on the Chicago Enforcers in the debut of the football league in 2001. Many see Vince Mc Mahon’s venture as a laughingstock today, but Ross has a different opinion. “I never saw the XFL as a negative,” Ross said. “It’s still on my resume. It wasn’t good quality football, crazy things went on, but it was showbiz. I just looked at it as something different.”. Ross will bring those stories and more when he visits Orlando’s Plaza Live on his spoken-word tour April 1 and 2, part of Wrestle Mania 33 weekend. Tickets start at $25 and are available at __link__. Q&A: More from Jim Ross ». “Good Ol’ J. R.” has been doing the spoken-word shows, called “Ringside with Jim Ross,” sporadically since shortly before his 2013 departure from WWE. He said the shows usually begin with a short monologue on the ...

The Unlikely Legacy Of Vince Mcmahon's Xfl

... a running back with the Las Vegas Outlaws who gave himself a now instant-classic nickname: He Hate Me. The broadcasting team included Jim Ross and Jesse Ventura, two names familiar to wrestling fans. Traditional football rules were tweaked to amp up the action. The most famous change was the opening scramble, where instead of a coin toss, two players would run toward midfield to recover a football for possession. (In the first week, a player separated his shoulder during the scramble and missed the rest of the seaso—er, the entirety of the XFL's lifespan.). The first nationally televised game on NBC in Week 1 was a 19-0 victory by the Las Vegas Outlaws over the New York/ New Jersey Hitmen. The game drew a 9.5 Nielsen rating, which was the best television program debut on a Saturday night in over a decade. But Ebersol, the experienced ...

Xfl Hall Of Fame

... the championship trophy at an exhibition on the XFL football league at Cooper Union in Manhattan on Jan. 14, 2017. (Credit: Anthony Lanzilote). Jerseys at an exhibition on the XFL football league at Cooper Union in Manhattan on Jan. 14, 2017. (Credit: Anthony Lanzilote). Cheerleader uniforms at an exhibition on the XFL football league at Cooper Union in Manhattan on Jan. 14, 2017. (Credit: Anthony Lanzilote). A Las Vegas Outlaws helmet on display at an exhibition on the XFL football league at Cooper Union in Manhattan on Jan. 14, 2017. (Credit: Anthony Lanzilote). Lucas Cucuccio, 38, of New Jesey takes a picture of the XFL championship trophy (while dressed in his Chicago Enforcers jersey) at an exhibition on the ill fated football league at Cooper Union in Manhattan on Jan. 14, 2017. (Credit: Anthony Lanzilote). A Birmingham Thunderbolts helmet on display at an exhibition on the XFL football league at Cooper Union in Manhattan on Jan. ...