10 years ago today, football changed forever...

...as we got our first glimpse of the suspended wire cam. That it debuted during the broadcast of the first XFL game is but a footnote.
Hard to believe it's been 10 years already since that league came and went, and that for all the mockery some good things did come out of it.

http://nymag.com/daily/sports/2011/02/the_xfl_began_play_ten_years_a.html

 

I was at the Orlando team's debut game. The football was bad, but nearly as bad as having to sit in the shithole that is the Citrus Bowl for three hours.

 

There was a terrific essay about this a few years ago in a book chronicling the history of bad ideas.

I wonder who has the championship trophy.

 

I know a guy who claims to have the first football used by the league. I've never seen it, but have been told it's treated with no reverence whatsoever and used frequently at tailgates and in the front yard.

Maybe I misunderstood and it's the first football from one team, not the whole league. Either way, the guy has the kind of connections that would make it reasonable.

 

I have a Chicago Enforcers and NY/NJ Hitman hat in my collection of hats from defunct football leagues. The New Orleans Voodoo hat (AFL) is still the best.

 

I truly miss the XFL. It was awesome!

 

How could a league with strippers in a hot tub in the end zone possibly go bad?

http://articles.latimes.com/2001/feb/11/sports/sp-24175

 

Sloppy seconds!

 

Who remembers the way the XFL decided posession? A player from each team would sprint out and try to get a ball from the 50 yard line. I'm fairly sure someone separated their shoulder in the first game.

And say what you will about the XFL but we all watched that first game.

 

And I'm fairly certain the XFL pioneered the "coach's challenge" flag ...