Unusual quirks jump-start XFL

Here we go. Vince McMahon's answer to the NFL burst into the national spotlight Saturday when the Las Vegas Outlaws were hosts to the New York/New Jersey Hitmen and the Chicago Enforcers went on the road to face the Orlando Rage.\nAs fans in Las Vegas awaited the opening kickoff, McMahon assured them the XFL would be different from any football league they'd ever seen. He wasn't kidding. Instead of a coin toss to determine possession, a player from each team sprinted 20 yards to recover a football, and that was just the beginning. With many inventive features, including gorgeous cheerleaders, the XFL is sure to be interesting.\nFirst Quarter\nThe two factors of a successful new sports league are originality and a television contract, and the XFL has both. When NBC signed on for the Saturday games, the league gained instant credibility. Everywhere you looked, you saw a contrast of traditional football and WWF attitude. The Outlaw-Hitmen game was announced by sports game show host Matt Vasgersian and the Minnesota Gov. Jesse "The Body" Ventura, a former WWF star.\nThe game started quickly when the Outlaws, carried by the momentum from the scramble for possession, took the opening kickoff to their own 40-yard line on a reverse.\nBut the pace slowed down, and much to McMahon's dismay, the season's first points came on a field goal.\nWith eight seconds to go in the first quarter and the Outlaws driving, Ryan Clement's pass was tipped and caught by tight end Ricky Brady. At this point I realized McMahon's influence spread to every facet of the game, including the announcers, as Vasgersian described the play as "sloppy seconds."\nMy next two lessons of the XFL came back to back. Instead of kicking extra points, the scoring team gets one play to get in the end zone from the 2-yard line. There are no two-point conversions. On the conversion play, Brady dropped a wide-open pass, and the Outlaws walked away with a 9-0 lead. While Brady normally could have waited until halftime to talk about his drop, the XFL has interviews on the field and the sideline, and because players are miked up to the stadium public address system, Brady was immediately held accountable for his miss.\nSecond Quarter\nWhat might be the most intriguing rule played out with 12:27 to go in the half, when Vegas' Mike Furrey had to field a punt without a fair catch. But a flag was thrown against the Hitmen for not allowing Furrey a 5-yard "halo." \nThe idea of no fair catches has excited fans, but what got the players excited was the prospect of putting nicknames on the back of the jerseys. Among some of my favorites were Ben "Baby Boy" Hanks and Rod "He Hate Me" Smart. After a field goal, touchdown and successful conversion, Vegas took a 19-0 lead into the locker room.]\nHalftime\nIn McMahon's efforts to give the fans an "all-access" pass to the game, cameras followed the teams into their locker rooms. This idea of having cameras and microphones everywhere has its ups and downs. While it was nice to have a camera in the huddle and to hear player comments, including play calling, the cameras became a nuisance when coaches felt they were being too intrusive on the sidelines. Hitmen coach Rusty Tillman even got into a shouting match with one cameraman during the third quarter.\nThird Quarter\nEven professional leagues must work out kinks, and so it was with the XFL. The "X Cam," which was suspended above the field to give the plays a video game feel, became increasingly annoying on long pass routes, because the camera was not equipped to quickly zoom to the ball, leaving the viewer clueless for a second until the play switched to a sideline view. The view was switched to a more standard camera during the third period. The best play of the quarter came on Kirby Dar Dar's punt return, during which the Hitmen blockers tattooed three Outlaws into tomorrow with bone shattering hits.\nFourth Quarter\nVegas was still leading 19-0 when NBC wisely switched to the game between the Enforcers and the Rage, which had Orlando up by five points and Chicago with the ball. Even with a good game, announcer and wrestler Jerry Lawler said he was "here for the cheerleaders," showing in this league, football isn't everything.\nAt least it's not everything to anyone not on the field, because when you stripped away the cheerleaders, fireworks, announcers and McMahon, the field was filled with men who love the game. These were all guys who were legends in high school, stars in college and were out there living their dreams to play professional football.\nPostgame\nAfter my first day of XFL football, I know one thing: The league caters to two basic loves, and they're not football and wrestling. The two loves are sex and violence, and no league has more than McMahon's concoction. But the presentation can take the game only so far, and when you get right down to it, it's the 22 guys on the field who are going to make or break this league.