Well, your waiting is over and the XFL has made its mark on the modern sports world. I don’t know about you, but for over a year I have been anticipating the day that the game would be unveiled, ever since the day Vince McMahon announced his creation of a real football league. The promise of bringing people into the huddle and locker room with the players and into the mind of the coaches was made last year by WWF guru McMahon in a press conference. He had a vision of bringing football to its primordial roots of violence and expression, the stuff that made football great to watch and root for. A few weeks later, NBC became fifty/fifty partners in his vision with the agreement that they would broadcast the priority games in the largest markets, re-entering them into the world of football, which CBS bought from them.

Last Saturday NBC in conjunction with Titan Entertainment debuted the XFL. It is a new brand of football for serious football fans. The biggest changes between the NFL and XFL (besides attitude) are some of the basic rules of the game. For instance, when a team is punting there are no fair catches; however, the receiver has a five-yard halo zone between himself and a tackler. Once a ball has gone twenty-five yards on a punt it is a free ball. Receivers can have one foot out of bounds when they receive a catch in the end zone or on the sideline. My favorite rule is the legalization of the bump and run by defender to receiver as long as the quarterback still has the ball – finally a game that can be played like ‘NFL Blitz.’ There is no extra point kick in the XFL; instead, to receive the seven the team must complete a conversion play. The XFL has replaced the traditional coin toss with a twenty-five yard dash and fight for the football, a practice that has already left a player for the Orlando Rage out for the season, which means he will not get paid.

Players are allowed and encouraged to express themselves during the game, and with every player wired for sound and a cameraman sporting a steady-cam and football protection gear, they constantly do. Fans can spot their favorite player not only by his last name, but also by the nickname or phrase that the player has imprinted on his jersey. The most popular one has been ‘He Hate Me,’ worn by a wide receiver for the Las Vegas Outlaws. According to the XFL this outpouring of emotion by the players is the heart and soul of the league. They play because they love the game, not because of money. And if you think they are just saying that for sound bytes, take a look at how people get paid. Everyone gets five thousand dollars per game, but the winning team gets twenty-five hundred for every win. So if you don’t play or if you get injured for the season you do not get any money.

But the question remains: how was it? Well, despite the harsh reviews by sports columnist in both local and national papers and sports networks, I rather liked it. The players aren’t experienced, and yet that naivete makes for high-energy plays. They tackle like high-school freshmen, going after any limb they can get their hands on. It is this intensity that I enjoy. The mad scramble for the first down, for control of the ball, grabbing the fumble, and going for the win, is what I like the most – they want to play and they want to win. But I have a feeling that as the league grows and as the players relearn how to play the game of football after having an extended hiatus the plays will become smooth and the players will be able to handle the pressure that comes with playing the game.

I have already picked my favorite team in the XFL, who I believe will go all the way, the Las Vegas Outlaws. Not only is their logo of a steer’s decomposed skull cool and terrifying, but Las Vegas has a history of winners. Bugsy Siegel for example. At one part he was a tough guy mobster, the muscle for Lucky Luciano and Meyer Lansky, but he turned a barren desert in the middle of nowhere into what is now the entertainment capitol of the world. The Outlaws are the Bugsy Siegel’s of the XFL; from their underdog victory will come forth many years of extreme football enjoyment.

I also am picking the Las Vegas Outlaws as my pick because of defensive back Kory Blackwell; he was a University of Massachusetts Minuteman. Blackwell, according to the stats on the Outlaw homepage, returned 11 kickoffs for a total 221 yards, was ranked sixth on Umass all-time pass defended list, and was a collegiate pass deflection leader. He is a former NY Giant, Oakland Raider, and Cleveland Brown. I have to root for the alum of UMass – I’m not really sure why but it just feels right.

As for the XFL cheerleaders, they are not that scandalous. Yes they have no combined rhythm but in the spirit of the rest of the league, it’s all about energy and attitude.

For those skeptics out there who think it’s a waste of time and has no redeeming quality, I present this argument. On the Sunday game between the San Francisco Demons and the LA Extreme there were fifteen seconds remaining with the Demons in field goal range down by two and no time-outs left. They had just botched a spike attempt so the clock was ticking and every offensive player was yelling toward the sideline, ‘Mayday.’ Confused and desperately wanting to win in front of their home crowd the kicking team ran out with ten seconds on the clock and ticking. The ball was hiked at eight seconds, placed at six seconds, kicked at five seconds and went through the goal posts when the regulation clock hit zero, ending the game with the Demons winning by one point. The energy and desire to win, led to in my opinion as the greatest play in football history. The XFL will not go away anytime soon, but I predict it will gain momentum as the teams get more experienced and more psyched to play. It may not be in competition with the NFL but it has proven that it can compete.
Nick Pizzolato is a Collegian Columnist. Information from LasVegasOutlaws.com was used in this column.