Shark Bytes

Governors should govern those who elect them, not work as announcers for weird mutant sports exhibitions. Jesse "The Body" Ventura justified it by saying if a farmer were governor, he'd have to spend time away from office farming! No wonder that nit wit only ser ved one term.

The XFL Jumped The Shark for the simple reason that it nearly launched a sister league in pro basketball--the XBA. The XBA would have been the nation's first co-ed professional sports league, consisting of equal men and women on each team and would have been played like NHL Hockey in three periods of 15 minutes each, with two ten-minute intermissions.

Other rule changes for the XBA would have included the "Double Turnover Rule", in which an offensive team can be whistled for two infractions on the same play (i.e. traveling plus an offensive foul). This would have given the other team a bonus possession if a basket was made.

As in the XFL, a scrum would replace the jump ball, with the ball being rolled at center court and a member of each team stationed at the opposite free throw lines rushing for the ball.

All-You-Can-Shoot free throws would occur when the opposing team is given a technical foul as well as committing an intentional or flagrant foul. The player being fouled would simply shoot free throws until missing.

Any shot within 5 feet of the basket would have counted as one point; dunks and regular jump shots, 2 points; half-court shots would have been 4; shots taken from the opposite free-throw line would have netted 5 points; and a full-court "touchdown" shot would have been six points.

Teams for the XBA would have included the Birmingham Blitz, Boston Pilgrims, Chicago Stallions, Indiana Hoops (Columbus, Indiana), Las Vegas Blackjacks, Los Angeles Xpress, New York Cyclones, San Francisco Lucifers, South Plains Rustlers (Lubbock, Texas) and Tallahassee Tarantulas. Only the top four teams would have made the playoffs, with two teams from each division (East and West) involved in three-game series, followed by a five-game championship series.

The XBA would likely have suffered the same fate as the XFL, with only one season in the can before closing shop. (Incidentally, the XBA name would be used, only to become absorbed into the Carolina Basketball League).

Everyone forgets to point to one little moment that demonstrated how over-his-head Vince was on this one. In the press conference, Vince showed in his ignorance of football in one sentence: "Where's my wide open smash mouth football?" Um, Vince, smash mouth football died because it wasn't wide open enough. That's the whole point! You either like one or the other, one is devised to describe the opposite of the other! Vince just wanted to spout off as much as possible to make the league seem both exciting and lunch-pail and in reality, he just didn't yield enough to the people working under him that knew more about what they were doing. Disregarding the quality, the ratings were never going to be good regardless of who ran it because major cities just aren't waiting for another football league. How long did Vince study the USFL, I wonder?........

I think it could have worked if Vince kept wrestling away from it. The first on air show, he had his top wrestlers making statements about how great this football league will be. Also, the lame gimmicks that we see in wrestling, like cameras in cheerleaders locker rooms, lame team names and players acting like over ego wrestlers. I think I watched about half a game and turned it off soon as Jerry "The King" Lawler started doing his womanizing gimmick with the cheerleaders. And why did Vince use his wrestling announcers call a football game is beyond me.

i remember the camera once followed the team into the locker room at half-time, and you could see somebody in the background using one of the urinals. it was great.

if one phrase describes the short life of the xfl its "to much to soon" the league could have worked but it tryed to hard to be on top and it was hard on itself to after all the rules were nothing shy of nfl rules sure there were expections(halo rule bump and run)the league was not proffesionall at all after all the adds were funny to some(Including me) but most soulnd't have been there at all.some team names were embrassing the L.A xtreme,or new york,new jersay hitmen(hitmen seems to be more for hockey) or the Memphas Maniax and the spinniy eyes logo(it was so bad and even offeed some.however the thunderbolts was the right move it would be worse if they remanind the blast(berminhgam blast ring a bell) Vince can't be a foot ball master just like Compuware boy Peter karmonuos dosn't know were true ffans lie(they live around hartford ct and ware blue,and green) this league could have worked but it was not proffisinall in any regard if a smart football genius establishs his own verson of the league it may work,(NOT TO MENTION HOW MANY FOOTBALL PLAYERS DIE BE FOR THEY HIT AGE 40 NOT THAT F#@*ing many.AS I WRITE THIS IM LISTENING TO a song called i never came(how apropriate hm)i for one belived it could have worked but it didn't.

The XFL died because it was over hyped c-grade football that started right after the NFL playoffs and Superbowl. Essentially it was the same game, with just a couple of gimmick rules. Face it, it sucked, and that's why the ratings took a nosedive after week one. Arena league is MUCH more entertaining.

From Guest:XFL fared a lot better than the World Series of Darts on ESPN.

What I don't understand is why anyone is even commenting about this limited edition show, but even if I understand they were interested in it at one time (a relatively long time ago), why be so passionate against it? It's over; it's not going to resurrect; just dislike and say why. But you don't need to virtually shout out your dislike. Sheesh!!! It's only a show that's no longer on, and wasn't on long enough to develop a following.

I cannot believe the sheer number of you nitwits who thought the XFL was fun and exciting. Folks, Arena League 2 and the NIT were more interesting than this crap.

This was BENEATH even minor league football, if such a thing existed. The whole league WAS A BUNCH OF NFL CAST-OFFS AND SEMI-PRO JERKS NOT GOOD ENOUGH TO MAKE THE HOUSTON TEXANS PRACTICE SQUAD!!!

And why you dumbarses think having wrestling goons like Jim Ross anywhere near a football broadcast booth is beyond me.

You should all be permanently BANNED from ever entering an NFL venue by Roger Goodell.

Just awful

The 25 yard free ball rule on kicks was an excellent rule that should be adopted by the NFL. The ball chase instead of the coin toss was kind of stupid. Some form of jump ball might have been a little classier.

It was a fun league to watch and it was played during a slow point of the year for sports (during baseball regular season).

But I agree with other posters that it could not decide whether it wanted to be pure entertainment or professional sports.

i was a huge fan of the XFL. I thought it was a great interpretation of football.
Where their problems with it, yes. you can't make a great product in about 6 months like Vince tried to do. it takes a lot of time to get things right.

and if u watch those first 3 wks of games u see they had massive production problems. i think if they tried the XFL could have been a great league, instead it falls into the annuls of one-hit wonders

Come on people everyone thought that this league was a joke(in some regards it was..but orverall it wasn't)The XFL had great ideas but it keept trying to win fans over from the nfl.Every football fan know that dosn't happen in a year.For its short lived life i sopported the xfl and thought "this is good but not the nfl".Since then i started waching the arena legue and i enjoy it.that league has lasted 20 years.Why? its becuse it never wanted to compete with the nfl at all.Plus its ideas are diffent but still keep the nfl aspects for the most part. The Xfl was footballs verson of the World Hockley Associantion only much worse.For instance the WHA lasted 7 years.4 of its teams joined the NHL (3 have moved including my beloved Hartford Whalers)And you know what IT was the league that the great one begian his quest in.Any way the XFL didn't act professional at ALL.Think about it you don't do stupuid commericals with models in a locker room(its like the smwisuit issue of sports illistraed its great on paper but not in realaty) or ones with people plying cacth and then a WEE star yells you can't cellabrate in my yard its F*#king Crap and not making your product look GOOD or true.However NBC did give it a shot but failed complitly and ITS amazing they finally show football.But the XFl could have worked.Someday it will start up again.If its run by a good bussines man who know the dos and donts it could last for a while.I will say this vince dosn;t know football or any other sports but hey he knows how to entertan with dudes in speedos (i don't know are they gay or just make it seem that way)XFL Rules just like the Hartford Whalers

I miss the XFL and i enjoyed it (not as much as my cowboys though) come on diffent team names(The Birmangham Blast bening changed to thunderblots was perhaps the best name change in any sport..it didn't offend but sold),the annoucers and other enjoyable aspects not know to the NFL.However the XFL was nothing more than a bunch of "have been" CFL,NFL,and AFL wanabees.Sure the league might have worked but they needed better talent,look at Tommy Madix only MVP.However the XFL did experiment with things that were unknown,such as nicknames on jursays and the overtime sytem.Eventually these ideas will come back and be used in some madmens idea of "true Football(AS long as its not vince it may work..slowly though.) "Hey Vince "Football rules and so does wrastling.....ON THERE OWN!!!!Not together.I have an outlaws shirt and can't ware it with out being called he hate me(good name)
ALWAYS REMEMBER THIS IS THE X....F.....L!!!!!!!!!!!!! NEW YORK+NEW YORK Jersuy HITMEN RULE!!!!!

if vince wanted the league to really work he would have.Dispite being a bad league it did have some good aspects such as team names and logs(well all but 3)and the 2 point conversion worth only 1 point.The nickname jursys were awesome.The Xfl sould have tread softly and it would be going,heck it still would probatly have higher ratings than hockey