The XFL's opening game took place on February 3, 2001, one year after the league was announced, less than one week following the NFL's Super Bowl XXXV. It was promoted as having fewer rules to encourage roughe… Players who commit a foul which is not serious enough to warrant a penalty flag will be sent off the field for one play. The team that won the championship game split $1,000,000 (roughly $25,000 per player). [35][36][37], It was believed that the willingness of Las Vegas bookmakers to take bets on XFL games established their legitimacy, dispelling concerns that the league was using predetermined storylines as in professional wrestling. It combined the traditional game of American football with the kayfabe and stunts of professional wrestling. [10], Los Angeles is one of two cities to have also hosted a team in the original XFL, the other being New York/New Jersey; the Los Angeles Xtreme was the champion of the earlier XFL in the league's only season. [51] The pilots lost control of the airship and were forced to evacuate. Notable players included league MVP and Los Angeles quarterback Tommy Maddox, who signed with the NFL's Pittsburgh Steelers after the XFL folded (Maddox later became the starting quarterback for the Steelers in 2002 and led them to that year's playoffs, as well as continuing to start for them into 2004). (A third broader megalopolis, Central Florida, has also hosted teams in both the 2001 and 2020 incarnations of the league.). Despite boasts of a "rules-light" game and universally negative reviews from the mainstream sports media early on, the XFL played the standard brand of 11-man American outdoor football that was recognizable, aside from the opening game sprint to determine possession and some other changes, some of which were modified during the season as it progressed. To this effect: For the initial weeks of the season, the XFL forbade all players on the kicking team from going downfield before a kick was made from scrimmage on that down, similarly to a rule the NFL considered in 1974. [49][50] The blimp was in Oakland as the league had flown it over the January 6 playoff game between the Oakland Raiders and Miami Dolphins and intended to do the same with the following week's AFC Championship, also in Oakland. The remaining four teams were placed in markets that had previously hosted teams in second-tier and/or rival major leagues: Birmingham, Memphis, Las Vegas, and Orlando. Sports teams based in Greater Los Angeles, Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference, Inglewood Basketball and Entertainment Center, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Los_Angeles_Wildcats_(XFL)&oldid=973350659, American football teams established in 2018, Short description is different from Wikidata, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License, Director of football operations – Charles Bailey, Offensive quality control – Kade Rannings, This page was last edited on 16 August 2020, at 19:01. The morning radio duo of Rick and Bubba, for instance, was the radio broadcast team for the Birmingham Thunderbolts. "[52] While the pilot was hospitalized, no other major injuries were reported.
The league's game balls were made by Spalding, and were unique in that instead of being the standard brown, the ball was black with red "X" going across the sides of the ball. (This is five seconds longer than the CFL rule, which is 20 seconds from the spotting of the ball. [30] On April 21, 2001, the season concluded as the Los Angeles Xtreme defeated the San Francisco Demons 38–6 in the XFL Championship Game (which was originally given the moniker "The Big Game at the End of the Season", but was later dubbed the Million Dollar Game, after the amount of money awarded to the winning team). The league ceased operations entirely in May 2001. Another of the better-known players was Las Vegas running back Rod Smart, who first gained popularity because the name on the back of his jersey read "He Hate Me. The season ran ten weeks, with no bye weeks.
[18] Even longtime NBC sportscaster Bob Costas joined in the mocking of the league. The XFL did not allow gunners; all players on a punting team had to remain on or behind the line of scrimmage until the ball is kicked.
This reversed after the two-minute warning (which the XFL uses), after which the clock stops after all plays from scrimmage until the ball was spotted and reverts to NFL timing rules otherwise, stopping after incomplete passes, advancing the ball out of bounds and spiking the football. [58] Tommy Maddox played for a Super Bowl team (with the Pittsburgh Steelers) in Super Bowl XL in Detroit, (although Maddox, by then a third-string quarterback, did not play in the game, which turned out to be his last appearance in uniform before retiring). On August 21, 2020, the transition of ownership was completed, with Johnson stating "The deal is officially closed and 'the keys' to the XFL have been handed over."
Defensive penalties result in the ball moving up to the 1-yard line, while any subsequent defensive penalty on any play, even in future rounds, result in a score awarded to the offensive team. Defensive backs were allowed to hit wide receivers any time before the quarterback released the ball, as long as the hit came from the front or the side. [23] The league's requirement for grass fields automatically ruled out the use of domed stadiums since no such stadium capable of accommodating a grass football field existed in the U.S. in 2001 (the only retractable roof stadiums complete at the time were used exclusively for Major League Baseball; the first retractable roof stadium for NFL use was not completed until Reliant Stadium opened for the expansion Houston Texans in 2002). In 2006, NBC returned to coverage of NFL games with NBC Sunday Night Football, eventually adding Thursday Night Football to its coverage in 2016.
One reason for the failure of the league to catch on, despite its financial solvency and massive visibility, was the lack of respect for the league in the sports media.
McMahon personally demoted Vasgersian to the regional telecast after openly criticizing a suggestive shot of the cheerleaders as "uncomfortable" on-air during the week 1 broadcast. (This rule is also a carryover from the original XFL, which added the rule only for the playoffs. However, touchdowns were still worth 6 points.
The XFL was conceived as an outdoor football league that would begin play immediately after the National Football League season ended to take advantage of lingering public desire to watch football after the NFL and college football seasons had concluded. In the event the defense secures a turnover and returns the ball for a touchdown, the defensive team scores the same number of points as the offense was aiming to score. [46][47] In 2010, TV Guide Network also listed the show at No.
The league's game balls were made by Spalding, and were unique in that instead of being the standard brown, the ball was black with red "X" going across the sides of the ball. (This is five seconds longer than the CFL rule, which is 20 seconds from the spotting of the ball. [30] On April 21, 2001, the season concluded as the Los Angeles Xtreme defeated the San Francisco Demons 38–6 in the XFL Championship Game (which was originally given the moniker "The Big Game at the End of the Season", but was later dubbed the Million Dollar Game, after the amount of money awarded to the winning team). The league ceased operations entirely in May 2001. Another of the better-known players was Las Vegas running back Rod Smart, who first gained popularity because the name on the back of his jersey read "He Hate Me. The season ran ten weeks, with no bye weeks.
[18] Even longtime NBC sportscaster Bob Costas joined in the mocking of the league. The XFL did not allow gunners; all players on a punting team had to remain on or behind the line of scrimmage until the ball is kicked.
This reversed after the two-minute warning (which the XFL uses), after which the clock stops after all plays from scrimmage until the ball was spotted and reverts to NFL timing rules otherwise, stopping after incomplete passes, advancing the ball out of bounds and spiking the football. [58] Tommy Maddox played for a Super Bowl team (with the Pittsburgh Steelers) in Super Bowl XL in Detroit, (although Maddox, by then a third-string quarterback, did not play in the game, which turned out to be his last appearance in uniform before retiring). On August 21, 2020, the transition of ownership was completed, with Johnson stating "The deal is officially closed and 'the keys' to the XFL have been handed over."
Defensive penalties result in the ball moving up to the 1-yard line, while any subsequent defensive penalty on any play, even in future rounds, result in a score awarded to the offensive team. Defensive backs were allowed to hit wide receivers any time before the quarterback released the ball, as long as the hit came from the front or the side. [23] The league's requirement for grass fields automatically ruled out the use of domed stadiums since no such stadium capable of accommodating a grass football field existed in the U.S. in 2001 (the only retractable roof stadiums complete at the time were used exclusively for Major League Baseball; the first retractable roof stadium for NFL use was not completed until Reliant Stadium opened for the expansion Houston Texans in 2002). In 2006, NBC returned to coverage of NFL games with NBC Sunday Night Football, eventually adding Thursday Night Football to its coverage in 2016.
One reason for the failure of the league to catch on, despite its financial solvency and massive visibility, was the lack of respect for the league in the sports media.
McMahon personally demoted Vasgersian to the regional telecast after openly criticizing a suggestive shot of the cheerleaders as "uncomfortable" on-air during the week 1 broadcast. (This rule is also a carryover from the original XFL, which added the rule only for the playoffs. However, touchdowns were still worth 6 points.
The XFL was conceived as an outdoor football league that would begin play immediately after the National Football League season ended to take advantage of lingering public desire to watch football after the NFL and college football seasons had concluded. In the event the defense secures a turnover and returns the ball for a touchdown, the defensive team scores the same number of points as the offense was aiming to score. [46][47] In 2010, TV Guide Network also listed the show at No.
The league's game balls were made by Spalding, and were unique in that instead of being the standard brown, the ball was black with red "X" going across the sides of the ball. (This is five seconds longer than the CFL rule, which is 20 seconds from the spotting of the ball. [30] On April 21, 2001, the season concluded as the Los Angeles Xtreme defeated the San Francisco Demons 38–6 in the XFL Championship Game (which was originally given the moniker "The Big Game at the End of the Season", but was later dubbed the Million Dollar Game, after the amount of money awarded to the winning team). The league ceased operations entirely in May 2001. Another of the better-known players was Las Vegas running back Rod Smart, who first gained popularity because the name on the back of his jersey read "He Hate Me. The season ran ten weeks, with no bye weeks.
[18] Even longtime NBC sportscaster Bob Costas joined in the mocking of the league. The XFL did not allow gunners; all players on a punting team had to remain on or behind the line of scrimmage until the ball is kicked.
This reversed after the two-minute warning (which the XFL uses), after which the clock stops after all plays from scrimmage until the ball was spotted and reverts to NFL timing rules otherwise, stopping after incomplete passes, advancing the ball out of bounds and spiking the football. [58] Tommy Maddox played for a Super Bowl team (with the Pittsburgh Steelers) in Super Bowl XL in Detroit, (although Maddox, by then a third-string quarterback, did not play in the game, which turned out to be his last appearance in uniform before retiring). On August 21, 2020, the transition of ownership was completed, with Johnson stating "The deal is officially closed and 'the keys' to the XFL have been handed over."
Defensive penalties result in the ball moving up to the 1-yard line, while any subsequent defensive penalty on any play, even in future rounds, result in a score awarded to the offensive team. Defensive backs were allowed to hit wide receivers any time before the quarterback released the ball, as long as the hit came from the front or the side. [23] The league's requirement for grass fields automatically ruled out the use of domed stadiums since no such stadium capable of accommodating a grass football field existed in the U.S. in 2001 (the only retractable roof stadiums complete at the time were used exclusively for Major League Baseball; the first retractable roof stadium for NFL use was not completed until Reliant Stadium opened for the expansion Houston Texans in 2002). In 2006, NBC returned to coverage of NFL games with NBC Sunday Night Football, eventually adding Thursday Night Football to its coverage in 2016.
One reason for the failure of the league to catch on, despite its financial solvency and massive visibility, was the lack of respect for the league in the sports media.
McMahon personally demoted Vasgersian to the regional telecast after openly criticizing a suggestive shot of the cheerleaders as "uncomfortable" on-air during the week 1 broadcast. (This rule is also a carryover from the original XFL, which added the rule only for the playoffs. However, touchdowns were still worth 6 points.
The XFL was conceived as an outdoor football league that would begin play immediately after the National Football League season ended to take advantage of lingering public desire to watch football after the NFL and college football seasons had concluded. In the event the defense secures a turnover and returns the ball for a touchdown, the defensive team scores the same number of points as the offense was aiming to score. [46][47] In 2010, TV Guide Network also listed the show at No.
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