The lamentable history of the now defunct XFL lasted a total of
one NFL off-season.

Vince McMahon, wrestling guru and purveyor of high-class
entertainment the world over, decided Americans should not, nay,
could not, do without football for those intolerably vapid four
months between the Super Bowl and preseason play. NBC, not at all
jealous that they had recently lost their rights to the NFL
broadcasts, jumped on board, brought Jesse Ventura with them for
color commentary and a new league was born.

McMahon and the Peacock Network decided to call their love
child, as previously mentioned, the XFL. X standing for… wait
what did X stand for?.

Looking back, there are a few things one can clearly remember
about that lone night spent in total disregard of intellectual
health, watching XFL Football. For starters, we quickly learned
what the X may have actually stood for – black. Both of the teams
had black in their uniforms, the end zones were painted black, the
football was even black. The cheerleaders were supposed to be
hotter and sassier. They looked like normal cheerleaders to the
naked eye, except that they wore black. Edgy stuff.

The second item of note was a running back for the Las Vegas
Outlaws. Can you recall his name? Better question: How could you
forget? The young standout’s jersey simply read: "HE HATE
ME." It must be understood, not only did this hip, new league
allow players to put anything they wanted on the back of their
jerseys; grammar did not matter either. Regardless, HATE ME
obviously had some talent, and a name like that clearly made him
the most enduring part of the evening. After that night, the XFL
was quickly forgotten.

Well, a strange thing happened two weekends ago at the outset of
the new NFL season. A special- teams player named Rod Smart took
the field for the Carolina Panthers. Smart and HE HATE ME are, not
incidentally, the same person. However, following the usual NFL
protocol, Smart uses his Christian name on the Panthers uniform
instead of the popular alias.

The absence of the old nickname hasn’t derailed his ability to
attract attention. For starters, the afro with a year’s worth of
growth immediately catches the spectator’s eye. Not only that, his
Panthers are 2-0 with Smart contributing in some key special teams
plays. In the first week he blocked a punt along with returning a
kickoff for 42 yards.

Besides Smart, the XFL’s lone MVP, Tommy Maddox also has made
his way into the big show with the Pittsburgh Steelers. Proving
last year’s success was no fluke, Maddox has continued to put up
impressive numbers through the first two weeks of the new
season.

In all honesty, the XFL may have been onto something in
attempting to start another prominent American football league.
Now, more than ever before, football can be recognized as the
quintessential sport of the U.S. Perhaps a visible developmental
league could offer the NFL and its fans a chance to watch some
emergent players in a competitive environment, something that the
inconsequential preseason games cannot offer. The XFL endeavor just
proved to be a tactless misfire.

The problem was, not even McMahon took it seriously. His game
was trying too hard to solicit an audacious, glossy package with no
regard to what was actually inside. It asked men who were trying to
sell themselves as legitimate football players to behave as
entertainers. The result was an end product that may have suited a
mindless 2 a.m. ESPN broadcast, but not prime-time material, not
anything that was going to fill the seats of Soldier Field.

Still, the XFL wasn’t completely horrid. It’s a fun, reminiscent
joke to remember Rod Smart as "HE HATE ME" or Tommy
Maddox as the league MVP. Now competitive teams have actual hopes
riding on players who were the butt of SportsCenter punch lines
only a few short years ago. McMahon may have been off the mark a
bit with his creation, but I can smell what he was cookin’.