Football Discussion Forums

MikeMitchell wrote: ↑Sat Feb 01, 2020 10:31 am I am happy that the current XFL is nothing like the original XFL.

Nostalgia always makes one think fondly on the positives. The truth is that the original XFL was a bad sports league. Just a poorly conceived football product.

There are a few people around that actually followed or covered XFL 2001. This is the XFL show did. Greg Parks, yourself and maybe a couple others. I don’t think anyone of you have ever labeled that XFL as good.

I watched the original XFL and there were some things I liked but it’s hard not to look back at it as an overall failure. Call me crazy, I want to see McMahon at the opener strolling onto midfield before kickoff. Even if it’s not for the live TV audience.

As a wrestling fan. The swerve would be McMahon coming out with Oliver Luck to midfield and letting Oliver do the introduction to the league. A symbolic passing of the torch.

Regular Joe wrote: ↑Sat Feb 01, 2020 10:09 am

StoneSentry wrote: ↑Fri Jan 31, 2020 9:07 pm It might be appropriate for Vince McMahon to say a few words, but that's all people should see from him; otherwise he (and by extension, his main product) will be a distraction. Oliver Luck should do most of the talking, promotion, and media appearances. The old XFL is remembered by most people as a joke, so hopefully they distance themselves from it as much as possible. They're already risking enough by reusing the name.

I would also not use the word "extreme," "Xtreme," or any variation of it in the branding. That schtick got old in the 90s. Just say it stands for the x-factor, the energy, the magic that football used to have before it got bogged down in bad calls and endless reviews, and that their company is here to bring it back.

Vince has been doing great at letting his people,Luck, et all, do all the XFL work. Good call on his part.

People who remember the old XFL remember it wasn't the peoples favorite.

I laughed when I saw the ESPN Special. They were waxing nostalgic about the old XFL, how people loved it. I was like, huh?!! Everyone HATED the XFL. That's why there was no season 2!!

The only XFL fans were on this board!!

They talked about He Hate Me like he had the #1 selling Jersey that year!! They Hated the XFL.

I love some of the article online. You can tell the writers are clueless. Writing about the league coming back and referring to it in all sorts of glowing terms. But I'm glad they did, because some people do think it was great in hindsight/nostalgia and kinda fuled some of the other positivity I hear all over the place now.

This is the X-EFF-ELLL!!

See, I saw the same special... and that's not the impression I got from it at all.

They did portray a lot of the ideas in a positive light (and indeed, in hindsight some of the ideas were quite clever), but poorly executed. They blamed the failure largely on lack of time and making changes on a whim. There was no denying that the XFL as originally envisioned was a dud. I do think there was more to it, and the XFL has addressed a lot of problems with the original direction of the league this time around. This isn't the Attitude Era anymore, and that kind of presentation doesn't work as well with football, where the hits are real. Plus, one of the things they wanted to do was introduce storytelling—but you're up against the NFL, which has NFL Films, itself one of the best in-house story-telling firms in sport. They were trying to fix things they thought were broken but weren't.

That's something I don't really see this time around. This time, it's just honest-to-goodness football, with a few tweaks to up the excitement, coming at a time when Americans are coming off that Super Bowl high. Do I agree with all of the tweaks? No, and I am a little disappointed that they've toned down some of the more creative changes, but that comes with the territory when trying to get good players. The AAF—and I think they were far more flawed as an organization than this go-round of the XFL—proved there's a market for this. I think the XFL as currently structured has a strong chance of proving it viable and maybe even profitable.

I enjoyed the XFL. Mainly because I was a kid, I didn't have cable or a computer at the time, and it was football—and I loved football. I didn't really care that it was bad football at the time. Most of the other tacky stuff, like the cheerleaders, went over my head.

One little thing can make all the difference in how legit something else can look: women in WWF/WWE. At the same time as the XFL locker room WTF, Vince was in full Mr McMahon mode with the Trish segment on RAW (which my problem with it was there was no payoff and thus pointless) and it was easy prey for Bob Costas.

Fast forward to today and there is actual legit interest in women's matches, whether it's Becky Lynch or Charlotte Flair (although the smark community seems to be rather tired of them in general), Ronda Rousey's return, or what have you. Granted its not perfect, see the Lashley/Lana/Rusev mess--a.k.a we've had Lashley, former ECW and TNA champ, back for two years and still have no clue what to do with him, but eons better than 2001.

Where does it relate to the XFL? Kind of obvious. The point is the focus is where it needs to be this time around. And as lame as it was stretching out the Roman/Corbin feud for one more night on Smackdown, they did run the XFL ad twice (also about the closest,and only, thing to WWE/XFL cross-promotion there's been) so there's that.

I personally enjoyed the original XFL, but I was a late teen at the time, so it was probably more in my wheelhouse than "real" football fans.

The one thing I thought was really interesting about the ESPN XFL special was how they glossed over the fact that they played a major role in it's failure. Remember, back then the internet was a completely different thing. Traditional media was still the dominate factor, and had major influence over the information people were fed.

The NFL only had to convince a few outlets to rag on the XFL. Contractual obligations with the major league allowed pressure to shut down most of the positives regarding the new league. When you had ESPN personalities constantly dragging the XFL through the mud, that's what most people thought about the league. ABC and CBS follow suit.

In the modern age, those who are interested in the XFL can get online and talk with other interested parties (such as on this website). We can get news, podcasts, YouTube clips, etc piped directly into our ears and eyes whenever we want. People with the slightest interest don't have to depend on traditional media to learn more. They can do their own research and (probably) stumble upon fan sites, commercials, and people making a living talking about this league.

It's a much better time to launch the XFL than when the original was launched. In large part thanks to the power ESPN no longer holds over sports information.

jjnova wrote: ↑Sat Feb 01, 2020 12:38 pm I personally enjoyed the original XFL, but I was a late teen at the time, so it was probably more in my wheelhouse than "real" football fans.

The one thing I thought was really interesting about the ESPN XFL special was how they glossed over the fact that they played a major role in it's failure. Remember, back then the internet was a completely different thing. Traditional media was still the dominate factor, and had major influence over the information people were fed.

The NFL only had to convince a few outlets to rag on the XFL. Contractual obligations with the major league allowed pressure to shut down most of the positives regarding the new league. When you had ESPN personalities constantly dragging the XFL through the mud, that's what most people thought about the league. ABC and CBS follow suit.

In the modern age, those who are interested in the XFL can get online and talk with other interested parties (such as on this website). We can get news, podcasts, YouTube clips, etc piped directly into our ears and eyes whenever we want. People with the slightest interest don't have to depend on traditional media to learn more. They can do their own research and (probably) stumble upon fan sites, commercials, and people making a living talking about this league.

It's a much better time to launch the XFL than when the original was launched. In large part thanks to the power ESPN no longer holds over sports information.

Excellent post.

There’s not much to add to what you just stated. I wrote about this exact same thing nineteen years ago on this site. The media bias. It’s not like the original XFL didn’t earn it but it was easier to bury or ignore the league in 2001, for all the reasons you stated.

MikeMitchell wrote: ↑Sat Feb 01, 2020 12:44 pm Excellent post.

There’s not much to add to what you just stated. I wrote about this exact same thing nineteen years ago on this site. The media bias. It’s not like the original XFL didn’t earn it but it was easier to bury or ignore the league in 2001, for all the reasons you stated.

While talking about things that happened nineteen years ago, has the site always been mostly you and Mark? I assume the idea for the longest time was to keep the domain operational for historical purposes. Perhaps an "About Us" page would be a good place to tell the story of XFLBoard.com

MikeMitchell wrote: ↑Sat Feb 01, 2020 12:44 pm

jjnova wrote: ↑Sat Feb 01, 2020 12:38 pm I personally enjoyed the original XFL, but I was a late teen at the time, so it was probably more in my wheelhouse than "real" football fans.

The one thing I thought was really interesting about the ESPN XFL special was how they glossed over the fact that they played a major role in it's failure. Remember, back then the internet was a completely different thing. Traditional media was still the dominate factor, and had major influence over the information people were fed.

The NFL only had to convince a few outlets to rag on the XFL. Contractual obligations with the major league allowed pressure to shut down most of the positives regarding the new league. When you had ESPN personalities constantly dragging the XFL through the mud, that's what most people thought about the league. ABC and CBS follow suit.

In the modern age, those who are interested in the XFL can get online and talk with other interested parties (such as on this website). We can get news, podcasts, YouTube clips, etc piped directly into our ears and eyes whenever we want. People with the slightest interest don't have to depend on traditional media to learn more. They can do their own research and (probably) stumble upon fan sites, commercials, and people making a living talking about this league.

It's a much better time to launch the XFL than when the original was launched. In large part thanks to the power ESPN no longer holds over sports information.

Excellent post.

There’s not much to add to what you just stated. I wrote about this exact same thing nineteen years ago on this site. The media bias. It’s not like the original XFL didn’t earn it but it was easier to bury or ignore the league in 2001, for all the reasons you stated.

Vince and Ebersol didn't help by essentially coming off as "We're pissed at the NFL so we'll bring the WWF audience over and play off them!". As I once remarked, there were tons of problems with that approach: Other than a long shot bid to buy the Vikings in 1998, Vince wouldn't have had any reason to "get back" at the NFL, he had more recently been rejected by the CFL, and it wasn't hard to see why; it played off the whole stupid notion (it was a thing at the time) that wrestling was beating MNF in 1998-99, really only cause the NFL ended up with some bad Monday night matchups--especially after John Elway retired and Steve Young's concussion, this setting the stage for the eventual move to Sunday nights and flexing; you also got the feeling that it was being done for the wrong reasons--Turner originally made noises about it, all Vince really wanted was to get SNME back on NBC (which ultimately happened, albeit just a few episodes, from 2006-08); and the main thing, most of the WWF audience just wasn't interested, the XFL got booed on RAW and Smackdown whenever it was brought up.

This time, the focus is there.

jjnova wrote: ↑Sat Feb 01, 2020 12:56 pm

MikeMitchell wrote: ↑Sat Feb 01, 2020 12:44 pm Excellent post.

There’s not much to add to what you just stated. I wrote about this exact same thing nineteen years ago on this site. The media bias. It’s not like the original XFL didn’t earn it but it was easier to bury or ignore the league in 2001, for all the reasons you stated.

While talking about things that happened nineteen years ago, has the site always been mostly you and Mark? I assume the idea for the longest time was to keep the domain operational for historical purposes. Perhaps an "About Us" page would be a good place to tell the story of XFLBoard.com

I was there (XFLbaby), and ultimately is where what would become my XFL sim started back in 2001-02. When it morphed into Fan Force in the summer of 02, I even had Mark as my PBP guy for the fictional "Fan Force radio" that had radio rights.

jjnova wrote: ↑Sat Feb 01, 2020 12:56 pm

MikeMitchell wrote: ↑Sat Feb 01, 2020 12:44 pm Excellent post.

There’s not much to add to what you just stated. I wrote about this exact same thing nineteen years ago on this site. The media bias. It’s not like the original XFL didn’t earn it but it was easier to bury or ignore the league in 2001, for all the reasons you stated.

While talking about things that happened nineteen years ago, has the site always been mostly you and Mark? I assume the idea for the longest time was to keep the domain operational for historical purposes. Perhaps an "About Us" page would be a good place to tell the story of XFLBoard.com

The site had several writers covering the XFL in 2001. Somewhere buried in the archives are my game day and XFL articles. Mark Nelson actually read one back to me during my first interview on the site’s podcast a few months back.

This was a historical purposes type site until the announcement of the relaunch.

Basically this was a fan site back in the pre-social media days. When message boards and chat rooms were the only means of fan communication. I suppose that this could be in the “about us” section.

jjnova wrote: ↑Sat Feb 01, 2020 12:56 pm

MikeMitchell wrote: ↑Sat Feb 01, 2020 12:44 pm Excellent post.

There’s not much to add to what you just stated. I wrote about this exact same thing nineteen years ago on this site. The media bias. It’s not like the original XFL didn’t earn it but it was easier to bury or ignore the league in 2001, for all the reasons you stated.

While talking about things that happened nineteen years ago, has the site always been mostly you and Mark? I assume the idea for the longest time was to keep the domain operational for historical purposes. Perhaps an "About Us" page would be a good place to tell the story of XFLBoard.com

I was an Xtreme fan, so the football WAS good in 2001.

Bring back the old board, with all the old posts! I'd love to read what I was saying about the XFL then.

I used to visit this board a few times over the past 20 years. First thing I thought about when they brought the XFL back.