WLAF Gets Off to an Interesting First Weekend

“NFL Lite” was introduced to television consumers last weekend under the brand name World League of American Football. To a football addict, the WLAF was oddly satisfying. Less filling, tastes, not great, but OK.

The power of attractive packaging is amazing. NFL Properties has created the “look” of first-class professional football with some sharp uniforms, especially the flame-spewing helmets worn by the Birmingham Fire. The players inside the Fire’s uniforms had some problems blocking and completing passes, but it was well-dressed ineptitude. And the matching sweater outfits worn by the coaching staffs looked just like those worn by real NFL coaches.

Television also succeeded in dressing up the WLAF nicely with first-rate production crews. When Brent Musburger opened ABC’s Sunday afternoon telecast by saying, “You are looking live at Barcelona, Spain,” it was as if he never had been away. The USA network telecasts on Saturday and Monday nights were jazzed up with all sorts of technical gimmickry, such as microphones on coaches and players and audio feeds of communications between coaches in the press box and on the sidelines. When the microphones captured a Montreal assistant cursing rather colorfully Saturday, announcer Tim Brant kept repeating, “This is live TV, live TV.”

The wildest of all gizmos, however, was the helmet camera worn by Orlando quarterback Kerwin Bell. The picture from inside his helmet was dizzying and disorienting but also fascinating enough to keep a viewer switching back to the game during commercial breaks in the Academy Awards telecast. Once, Bell was hit as he threw, and the view of the charging rusher followed by an extreme closeup of the turf conveyed a real sense of the game.

We all know the WLAF is minor-league football with predictable flaws. But the game is the same, and since the low-salaried players are working on the incentive plan, you know they’re trying hard. World League officials don’t care for the characterizations of “minor” or “developmental,” but they could put a positive spin on the reality of the situation by emphasizing how many players have NFL experience or have a shot at making NFL rosters.

It’s not hard to imagine the World League becoming the equivalent of Triple-A baseball in terms of skill while being showcased in a major-league way. If the sport were baseball, writers would romanticize the experience.

Should colleges ever get serious about admitting only those athletes who are serious about getting an education -- which isn’t likely soon, since so many college athletic programs operate like pro franchises -- the WLAF would be a logical place for an athlete intent on playing pro football to receive the vocational training he needs, just like in baseball.

The World League already has a head start on success because of the backing of the NFL and an excellent television package, but it must attract crowds of at least 20,000 to gain credibility and ensure financial stability. The largest opening-night crowd was in Birmingham, which drew more than 53,000 spectators, including between 35,000 and 40,000 paid admissions, according to a Fire executive. Attendance (not necessarily all paid) averaged 19,808 for the other four games in Frankfurt, Barcelona, Sacramento and Orlando. Rain in Barcelona (19,223) and Sacramento (15,126) kept those crowds below the 20,000 mark.

The most interesting numbers from the first weekend of games, however, were the overnight TV ratings. USA’s Saturday night game, which went against NCAA basketball, drew a minimal 2.1 rating among cable viewers, and its Monday night telecast, which butted heads with the Academy Awards, registered only a 1.6. But ABC’s Sunday afternoon rating of 3.7, which is expected to go down when final national figures are in, compared surprisingly well to the 3.9 for an NBC telecast of a game between the NBA champion Detroit Pistons and the David Robinson-led San Antonio Spurs. If the WLAF can keep that up, it has to be taken seriously by advertisers.

The caliber of play ranged from the ineptitude of the Fire to the antics of the New York-New Jersey Knights (back-to-back fake punts and 11 sacks) to thrilling back-and-forth action in Orlando’s 35-34 victory over San Antonio. The dearth of quality quarterbacks and offensive linemen is a major problem in a league devoted to the forward pass.