First XFL Weekend Goes According to the Script
The debut of the XFL was crude, amateurish, tawdry, violent, outlandish, bawdy, ridiculous, titillating, amusing, silly and hilarious.
In other words, it was exactly what XFL co-owners Vince McMahon and NBC were hoping for.
JOE LYOU
Gardena
*
I never have been a fan of the WWF or any other pro wrestling league, but I watched the opening game of the XFL with an open mind, and you know what? I really liked it. It was the most uncorrupted pro sport I have seen.
Yeah, it’s true that the XFL exploits sex, but violence? Come on, this is football. And another thing, Mike Penner, I think that most of us who watched really enjoyed all the new camera angles and sounds we got to hear, as well as the new rules that encourage a harder, faster and rougher game. Even though the interviewing of players on the field was a bit much, I commend the XFL. This is real, hard-nosed football.
FREDERICK NAUJOKS
Santa Barbara
*
After watching Vince McMahon’s overhyped satire of pro football for most of the first half, I switched to the Discovery Channel and a program on ancient Egypt. It was far more interesting than the game, but then almost anything would have been.
The last thing football needed was to be further dumbed down. The XFL takes the worst aspects of the NFL and headlines them. Trash talk, macho posturing, juvenile nicknames, wild displays of self-congratulation and rewards for rough play that would be penalized in the NFL, to name a few.
Add to this that they’re hanging microphones on everyone but the beer vendors, dressing the cheerleaders like hookers and making it clear that any relations with players are OK.
Let’s hope that the lowest-common-denominator effect doesn’t creep into other sports. I can see the new XBL Baseball League, with titanium bats, Titleist baseballs, beanballs, spitballs, spiking and balking allowed. And don’t forget the chorus line of topless batgirls and ballgirls who sing and dance to the national anthem and “Take Me Out to the Ball Game” every game.
KEN PINKHAM
San Juan Capistrano
*
Is there any doubt that NBC’s telecast of the first XFL game between the Las Vegas Outlaws and the New York Hitmen was the worst of any sports contest ever by a major network?
Where does one begin in describing it all? Miking players who had nothing to say, myopic camera angles, teams that were so inept that they probably could be beaten by a Paul Hackett-coached USC squad, and announcers who not only failed to give down and distance ahead of just about any play, but Jesse Ventura’s commentary was so inane as to make “Monday Night Football’s” out-of-place Dennis Miller seem like John Madden by comparison.
Then, to cap off this farce, NBC switches to another game early in the fourth quarter of its flagship game and stays with it to the end. Where was “Heidi” when we actually needed it?
GARY GARLAND
Yorba Linda
*
As long as Vince McMahon and the XFL want to degrade football to its lowest form, here are a few suggestions:
1. Penalize any team for not performing a dance in the end zone after a touchdown.
2. With fair catches not allowed, let opposing defenders tackle receivers whether they catch the ball or not.
3. Five-yard penalty for roughing the referee.
4. An injured player cannot leave the field of play.
5. Cheerleaders are mandatory, clothing is optional.
J. SCOTT SCHEFFER
Victorville
*
I hope having an XFL farceball team in Los Angles will not keep city leaders from trying to get an NFL football team.
DAVID S. EICHER
Glendale