The rise and fall of XFL — Vince McMahon's wild, sexualized, exaggerated answer to football that lived and died in one season

The XFL was born, lived, and died in a single season.

In 2001, Vince McMahon, the man behind the rise of WWF, decided he could do football better. With backing from NBC, and his former business partner Dick Ebersol, he created the XFL.

LA Magazine called it "the wacky, tacky, controversial, ultimately catastrophic failure of an NFL alternative." Jason Gay wrote for the Wall Street Journal that McMahon positioned it as "a gladiatorial wedgie upon an allegedly effete NFL."

Alongside rule changes making the game more violent, it encouraged players to have catchy nicknames like "He Hate Me." There was also an excessive focus on cheerleaders .

McMahon built it up so much, and left so little time for players to train, that by the time the games aired, they were a letdown. XFL's opening night had some of the best ratings for its Saturday night timeslot, but within weeks, ratings plunged .

The league lasted a single season, and lost $70 million. Now, almost 20 years later, the XFL is coming back .

Here's how it all went wrong the first time.

At the beginning of the new millennium, the NFL was a different beast. Rules restricted the game, and quarterbacks were treated like the "Shah of Iran," according to then-NBC Sports chairman Dick Ebersol.

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Don Frazier / AP

Source: HuffPost

So when WWF chairman Vince McMahon, Ebersols former business partner, broached the idea of a new football league, Ebersol was listening.

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Pat Carroll/NY Daily News Archive / Getty

Source: Wall Street Journal , HuffPost

McMahon was a "broad-shouldered promoter and showman," as the Wall Street Journal wrote, who had turned wrestling into "a global media powerhouse," and in turn become a "thundering on-camera character himself." But wrestling was no longer enough. He had to change football, too.

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Getty

Source: Wall Street Journal , HuffPost

Football wasnt ferocious enough for McMahon. He wanted to take on the NFL, or what he called the "No Fun League." In February 2000, he announced he was launching the XFL.

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Tim Boyle /Newsmakers / Getty

Sources: GQ , Wall Street Journal , The New York Times

At an early press conference, he said, "This will not be a league for pantywaists or sissies."

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JP / PM / Reuters

Sources: Wall Street Journal , Los Angeles Times

McMahon sold it as a sports version of "Survivor." Each game would be an episode built around personalities, and filled with suspense.

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Robert Voets /CBS

Source: The New York Times

The league formed in 2000, and was an equal partnership between the WWF and NBC. Unlike the NFL, all eight teams were owned by XFL, which meant McMahon and Ebersol had more leeway.

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Robert Rosamilio /NY Daily News Archive / Getty

Sources: Los Angeles Times , HuffPost

The rules were different. No more civilized coin toss. Instead, players sprinted to the middle of the field to fight for the football. The scrap for the ball ended one players season after he separated his shoulder. The league also abandoned the no fair catch rule.

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Stephen Dunn /Allsport / Getty

Sources: The Stranger , The Comeback , The New York Times

McMahon built expectations. Ebersol told HuffPost, "The anticipation became so enormous that it blew us away." He added, "We definitely overhyped it."

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Preston Mack/Newsmakers

Sources: GQ , HuffPost

One ad had players sprinting through minefields.

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Jonathon Daniel / Allsport / Getty

Source: GQ

Another was helmed by former linebacker Dick Butkus. Talking to the camera he said, "Player substitutions. Rotating zones. The game is becoming so sophisticated." The camera then zoomed into his face for a close up as he said, "How about this? Kill the guy with the ball."

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Bettmann / Getty

Source: The New York Times

Teams names promoted violence or criminality, like the Orlando Rage, New York/New Jersey Hitmen, and the San Francisco Demons.

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Andy Lyons/ Allsport / Getty

Sources: The New York Times , LA Mag

The league encouraged players to put nicknames on their jerseys. Here, Las Vegas Rod Smart wore "He Hate Me."

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Todd Warshaw /Allsport / Getty

Source: Wall Street Journal

Armored cameramen were prepped to sprint onto fields to get close-ups of the action. Some players wore mics, allowing the audience to hear their painful knocks and tumbles.

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Don Frazier / AP

Sources: The New York Times , The Comeback

The league wasnt just pushing violence. Baltimore Ravens owner Art Modell told The New York Times that the XFL was "selling sex." He wasnt exaggerating, by much.

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Ron Heflin / AP

Sources: GQ , The New York Times ,

Once the leagues website was up and running, but before any games had been played, it streamed videos of cheerleaders. Teams devoted up to three pages of their media kits to cheerleaders. Some listed the womens tattoos and piercings.

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Stephen Dunn /Allsport / Getty

Sources: GQ , The New York Times , Orlando Sentinel

In contrast to the NFL, cheerleaders were encouraged to date players. In one half-time stunt, there was a filmed dream sequence heading into the cheerleaders changing room. It was called the "worst halftime stunt in history."

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Arnaldo Magnani/Liaison / Getty

Sources: LA Magazine , HuffPost , BarDown , YouTube

Once games were underway, the league even set up hot tubs at either end of the field, filled with strippers.

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Stephen Dunn /Allsport / Getty

Sources: LA Magazine , HuffPost

It wasnt all lewd. The league also provided players, who hadnt cracked the NFL or whose career had slowed, an opportunity to play in front of millions. The LA Times wrote that the XFL allowed many to "again dream about the fame and riches offered by the NFL."

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Gina Ferazzi/Los Angeles Times / Getty

Source: Los Angeles Times

But training camps didnt begin until January 2. Teams had only 32 days to prepare for kickoff.

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Jeff Gross / Allsport / Getty

Source: Wall Street Journal

On January 9, almost exactly a month before the league launched, a blimp covered in XFL advertising came crashing down in Oakland, causing about $2.5 million in damage. Looking back, its hard not to see it as an omen.

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David Conner / US Coast Guard / AP

Source: ESPN

Two weeks before kickoff, the network decided to broadcast a game from Las Vegas rather than Orlando. Ebersol later lamented the swap, since the Orlando game was a "barnburner with tons of touchdowns scored and violence."

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Tony Ranze / AFP / Getty

Source: HuffPost

On February 3, 2001, the XFL had its opening game in Las Vegas. The Las Vegas Outlaws beat the New Jersey Hitmen 19-0.

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Todd Warshaw /Allsport / Getty

Sources: HuffPost , Wall Street Journal , YouTube

According to the Orlando Sentinel, before the end of the first quarter, a beer stand had to close down after selling out 18 kegs of beer as fans chanted, "Beer! Beer! Beer!"

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Al Bello / Allsport / Getty

Sources: New York Post , Orlando Sentinel

The fans liked it, at first. Opening night had 16 million viewers, and a Nielsen rating of 10.3 a blockbuster outing.

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Chris Livingston / Allsport / Getty

Sources: Los Angeles Times , Wall Street Journal , Wall Street Journal

But it was already obvious, at least to Ebersol, that it wasnt going to last. He told the Wall Street Journal, "By halftime I knew in the pit of my stomach that this was really just terrible football."

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Andy Lyons / Allsport / Getty

Source: Wall Street Journal

For all of McMahons bright lights and smokescreens, the actual quality of play, or lack thereof, couldnt be ignored.

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John Raoux/Orlando Sentinel/Tribune News Service / Getty

The content also antagonized some football purists. Chet Simmons, the first ESPN president, said he had a decades-long relationship with NBC, but after watching the opening night he was "ashamed to have any kind of association even a distant one with NBC."

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Bettmann / Getty

Source: New York Post

He said he was "frightened" after watching the first game. "I saw exactly what they were selling a little boy holding a sign that read, Im here to see the cheerleaders, close-ups of cheerleaders acting like strippers, the vulgar comments and sexual innuendo out of the mouths of the announcers," Simmons told the New York Post at the time.

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Paul Sakuma / AP

Source: New York Post

Unfortunately, it wasnt just children.

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Todd Warshaw /Allsport / Getty

Things deteriorated the following week in Los Angeles. WWF wrestler The Rock was one of the acts, and during a non-scripted speech, he told NFL management to take bags theyd used to move from the city, "turn them sideways, and stick them straight up your candy a--."

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Stephen Dunn / Allsport / Getty

Source: Wall Street Journal

Fans fought in the seats.

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Stephen Dunn /Allsport / Getty

But the biggest issue was a late broadcast. Someone forgot to fill a generator with gas, causing a power failure that broadcast 90 seconds of dead air on NBC. Then an injured player halted the game for 14 minutes. All of this delayed "Saturday Night Live" until 12.20 a.m.. Jennifer Lopez was the host that week, and Lorne Michaels was livid.

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Norman Ng/NBCU Photo Bank/NBCUniversal / Getty

Sources: The New York Times , Wall Street Journal , GQ , Wall Street Journal

Doubts at this point began to bubble through the network. NBC Entertainment president Jeff Zucker told The New York Times, "We are not absolutely not abandoning the XFL. We are absolutely committed to it for the full season." But viewership had halved after one week.

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Bill O'Leary/The Washington Post / Getty

Source: The New York Times

By February 28, ratings were in free fall. Still, NBC said it was committed to not just finishing the season, but a second season, as well. It was delaying the inevitable.

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Stephen Dunn /Allsport / Getty

Sources: Los Angeles Times

Ebersol summed it up to HuffPost: "The league had already shown the viewers really crappy football, and the viewers werent going to come back they werent going to be fooled for a second time."

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Todd Warsaw / Allsport / Getty

Source: HuffPost

Within eight weeks, the league broke the record for the lowest prime-time ratings for a major broadcast network. It got a 1.6 rating, and 2.2 million viewers. By March 17, it was all over.

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Tom Pidgeon / Allsport / Getty

Sources: Los Angeles Times , Wall Street Journal , Wall Street Journal

In the last 10 days, people began to abandon ship. Five players signed over to the NFL, including Jeremaine Copeland, who went to the Dallas Cowboys.

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Eric Gay / AP

Source: Los Angeles Times

The XFL lasted only 12 weeks. According to GQ, the most frequently cited reason for XFLs failure was that the quality of play "sucked."

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Chris Livingston / Allsport / Getty

Source: GQ

Looking back, McMahon didnt blame the media. Even when it got reviews like "bad football, bad lines and an overdose of political incorrectness," from the Chicago Tribune. He did regret failing to make it clear that it was football and not entertainment. He also regretted failing to give players enough time to practice.

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Tim Boyle / Newsmakers / Getty

Sources: Wall Street Journal , HuffPost , Wall Street Journal

But the organizers werent too despondent. Ebersol told the Los Angeles Times, "Strange as it may seem to hear, this was one of the most fun experiences of my life."

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AP

Source: Los Angeles Times

The XFL did have a lasting effect that changed the technology the NFL used. It used sky cams widely, recorded the sound of impact as players collided, and showed fans the mood in the locker room all features of NFL games today.

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Todd Warshaw /Allsport / Getty

And now, somehow, its coming back this time without the cheerleaders. McMahon also made it clear that politics or social issues arent welcome. When he first announced the return of the XFL in 2018, he said all players would have to stand for the national anthem, and no player who had been arrested would be allowed to play.

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Ethan Miller/Getty Images

Sources: LA Magazine , CBS Sports , The Ringer , Fortune

The first game is scheduled for February 8, the weekend after the Super Bowl. Training is well underway.

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Cliff Welch/Icon Sportswire / Getty

Sources: The Ringer , Business Insider , XFL