Commentary...
The BMS XFL Rant, 5/24/03
The NFL seems to be in such a quandry for quarterbacks that they are looking to X-XFL guys to compete for positions in training camp. Pat Barnes, Jim Druckenmiller and Brian Kuklick are all on NFL training camp rosters in 2003. Here's my view on their chances of making the cut...
Brian Kuklick: The Wake Forest product pinch-hit well for Jeff Brohm to finish the 2001 regular season for the Orlando Rage. He is listed as playing for New England in the alphabetical player listing and quarterback listing on nfl.com, but not on the actual New England roster. It's safe to say and pardon the pun, but he is the fifth wheel in this deal. Damon Huard and Kliff Kingsbury will vie for the third spot in New England...
Pat Barnes: Could've been the starter for the San Francisco Demons or any of the XFL teams in 2001. In the playing time he did get with the Demons in '01, he looked rusty. Shared time with present day Carolina Panther and former Saint Jake Delhomme in 1999 with the Frankfurt Galaxy of NFL Europe in a nearly dead even statistical race. Kurt Warner also happened to be on that roster that same year...Has shown that he is good enough to be a number three guy, could be that guy this year. But just like the Demons, he'll run into stiff competition with the Browns. Nate Hybl has had a decent college career, Josh Booty was supposed to have a great college career...and didn't, after being USA Today's first team selection out of Evangel High School in Shreveport, LA. Unfortunately for Barnes, Booty will get the third spot. His high school heroics are STILL on the memories of NFL coaches, and will get the third spot based on potential! Hybl will probably do NFL Europe. Barnes should land on another NFL squad as a number three guy.
Jim "Druck" Druckenmiller: This could be the year he's back on an NFL squad. And could do well at Indianapolis. A big dude at 6'4", 235, has same size competition in John Carroll's Tom Arth. He may very well hit his stride this year. At least under Tony Dungy, he'll cut down on his mistakes and be more consistent. When hot, has shown good "comebackability" while playing for the Maniax in 2001. Brock Huard is the projected number two guy, but don't be surprised if Druck gets the two spot, if not by the beginning of the season, by mid-season. Could be better luck for Druck!
Where's Marcus Dupree? The guy who could have been a big time NFL RB is Director of Player Personnel/Operations Director of the Bossier City Battle Wings of AF2. You hear too many horror stories of what happens to players after they're playing football anymore. It's nice to hear a good story...Saladin McCullough recently signed with the Calgary Stampeders of the CFL. He registered good numbers given a chance with the LA Xtreme, but he has serious competition in Kelvin "KA" Anderson who not only played for the SF Demons, but has seven straight 1,000 yard seasons. With a scrambling QB in X-Maniax Marcus Crandell, imagine the three in the backfield at the same time! I can see CFL defenses being perplexed already...To those who like honest wrestling commentary, this will not be good news as tomzenk.com is now offline. I smell legal stuff here, because his "Z-Shop" is still online. I will miss his columns...Next BMS XFL Rant: Taking the payoff, does it make better sense now? Until next time, Blind Memphis Slim
The BMS XFL Rant, 5/16/03
I'm definitely as L.A. rock radio legend Jim Ladd would say, "banging the tribal drum." I'm creating a prospective web site for a talk radio station in an unnamed market. A great deal of what I've done up to this point has involved radio and writing and restaurant work a distant third. But with my foray into web design, webmastering has slightly surpassed my culinary interests.
Of course, this is not a shockwave and flash laden site. It's not supposed to be. Information based sites don't need bells and whistles, they need fresh and compelling information.
Since there is no corporate limitations involving this site, every column is a straight shoot. I'm not necessarily knocking corporate structure here. It's helped made many young millionaires via IPOs. I'm also saying it doesn't mean don't do any research into what endeavor you choose to dive into. I do say if you believe in something strongly enough, it's doesn't matter how many albums you sell or how many hits your web site gets. If you don't believe in your own vision, despite the circumstances then what do you have?
Short takes: Sad to see that "The Warrior Zone" column is no longer on inthecrease.com. If you think I'm a straight shooter, The Warrior makes me look like I need a clinic. The Warrior was a competitor in a radio market in Texas. The Warrior is a stinkin' genius. I know the best is yet to come for him....The Arena Football League adds New Orleans next year. For God's sakes I HATE them being called the "Voodoo". New Orleans has had enough voodoo curses translated through end results in pro sports....The xfl4ever AKA "xfllives" sim league has crowned a champion in the NY/NJ Hitmen. Check out the whole season results...Another installment soon involving The Virtual Commish. It really isn't exactly "sim". It's more detailed from a hierarchy and management during the off-season standpoint and then translating into the regular season...Until next time, BMS
The BMS XFL Rant, 3/5/03
The Google search engine really impresses me...It's so dead on in finding at least what I'm looking for. Before this starts looking like Larry King's fragmented column in USA Today, to my pleasant surprise this site was the first site on page 3 of a Google search for "xfl". On my own server's search site, I don't think I'm listed in the first ten pages. Needless to say, the high ranking in Google I certainly thought was something that would be tough to attain, so I am STOKED! Consider the fact that I intended to leave this site for dead, makes me fortunate that this site has received a second life.
But you look at this page for substance, so enough of me patting myself on the back.
Maybe this site going unupdated for a year and a half was the right amount of time. Most of us who wanted a league to shake things up were discouraged by its folding. Unfortunately, a revolutionary league really didn't change the face of organized football as we know it. The NFL as we see it on television doesn't look any different. No helmet cams or QB to offensive coordinator communications have been incorporated into any telecasts. The defenses by the rules are still handcuffed in what they can do. Does the NFL product stink according to the 2002 season? Actually no, it's was the best season in some time. The real impact of the 2001 XFL season could occur years from now. In a random conversation in the future, someone could remark on hard these defenses hit somebody, and the XFL will be thrust into "cult status". The logos will be recognized as ahead of their time and "sink the XFL" conspiracy by the major sports media will be reexposed. It could happen...
I actually did have a short-lived distaste in my mouth for especially ESPN's reporting of the XFL, so much that I actually did not watch Sportscenter for about six months. I am not a lab rat that will believe everything someone reports. You must read between the lines more and more in this world.
Even the two shows I really like on ESPN, Pardon The Interruption and Around The Horn, might not have been kind to the XFL if they were on the air at that time. However, this needs to be the last column written giving ESPN, the other major sports outlets en masse and the NFL a backhand. I could write three or more columns like it, but we all know what happens when you go to the well too many times. The beauty is that there is much more to write about from a positive standpoint, and you'll see that in the next column. In a new addition to XFLROCKS!, the VirtualCommish, BMS is the league commish for the 2002 season.
The XFL is back!?
OK gang, here goes with a “what might have been” after the XFL considered itself dead on 7/01.
In writing this, this is not to be an official plea or an effort for the league to come back. This is for our entertainment and none of the statements in this fantasy writeup nor any portion of it is actually true.
Dateline: Stamford CT 6/29/01. XFL Owner Vince McMahon calls a press conference to announce that he has sold the defunct league in full to an ownership led by Donald Trump for $27.5 million. The terms of the deal include Trump paying 50 percent of NBC and WWFE’s debt service. Also, half of the $27.5M sales price will go to NBC. McMahon states that he enjoyed putting together a football league that got “real football fans excited about football again”. Despite that fact, he felt the league would get more accomplished with someone such as Trump with a better “perceived” reputation in the media, though he made it crystal clear that it wasn’t fair the way the league was deep sixed by most media. McMahon will continue to receive a menial percentage of league profits on a sliding scale for a five year period. There is talk that in the 2003 season that McMahon could have a working position in the league again.
Trump is excited about owning his own league. “Despite the early ratings swell and later fall on television, this league created a great deal of excitement at the gate that could easily increase in 2002. This is still a work in progress. The excellence we are shooting for will not occur overnight. But we have big reason to be excited about 2002 now that the league is a go again.”
Basil Devito will return as league president for a second year. “The first year was a learning experience for us all. We realized areas that needed to be addressed, that frankly weren’t. We do feel our branding is generally where it needs to be, but there will be some tweaking. In a league that is to be proactive, we need to stick to our guns, especially when it came to rule changes late in the season. I’ve been assured by Trump that such things won’t occur.”
XFLROCKS! website owner Blind Memphis Slim was named league commissioner by Devito. “My role is on the creative end of this league. The business is handled by Devito and his office. I’ve been given a free hand on this end, but that doesn’t mean Devito and I won’t have an impasse on occasion. And Trump, as much as he likes owning a league he likes to be hands off most of the time. We will have another press conference within the week at our new office in Atlantic City NJ with some big announcements on where the league is headed.” Slim will be a consultant for XFLROCKS! magazine to start up in two months. “It will be a monthly publication year round, but bi-weekly during the season. The thought of going weekly was discussed, but we would rather excel as a bi-weekly, then flop as a weekly in the first year. We are looking at going weekly possibly in year two.”
Devito returned to the podium to announce that there would be no expansion at this time. “Don’t count on all teams being in the same cities, however. There will be eight teams in 2002, so there will be no contraction.”
(More on this coming soon, on the Virtual Commish page on the XFLROCKS! site.)
Any vent or rants: e-mail me at xflrocks@lycos.com
The BMS XFL Rant, 7/6/01
We can't wish for the old way forever.
That was a prevailing reason for the XFL ever getting started. You will have a tough time finding anyone over the age of 34 who liked this league. So if it's established or if it's tradition, is it automatically right? Of course not. Sometimes, we are so afraid to question a tradition that has an inkling of being wrong. If you feel in your gut that a tradition that you are surrounded by is wrong, your gut may be the one that is right!
A cold bottle of Coke can't be five cents again. There are people out there who wish for that "innocence". Some things were dreadfully wrong during that time as well. How about "ignorance"? Racism seemed right to white society at that time, but NOW it seems wrong. Does it mean it was less of a sin then? Of course not. Biblically, all people are equal and sin doesn't change with society and the times. If a good person sins and a bad person commits the same sin, guess what, the magnitude of the sin is EXACTLY the same in God's eyes. If it's any other way, we have an unfair God. When we are forgiven for our sins, and this is also in the Bible, the sins are eradicated, they are forgotten! So anyone that is holding past sins over your head, that don't reflect the person that you are now, are judging you! (See Matthew 7:1)
Does a convicted murderer "deserve" to go to the electric chair? Stoning people to death was not considered sin...in the OLD TESTAMENT. If we're living in A.D., which we are, we are living in the NEW TESTAMENT. John 8:7 "He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her." If that convicted murderer has found God and been forgiven of his sins (NOWHERE in the Bible does it say that murder is unforgivable), what right have we to say he hasn't?
So is criticism of Vince McMahon by a "good person" or "self-righteous person" a sin? If you go by God's word it is. The media does it often. This is why perception is dangerous, without trying to question things. If we don't question things, we fall for everything that's handed to us in an aesthetically pleasing package. Don't believe the hype. I haven't watched the national news or news magazine shows in several years, because if you question their methods, you will definitely find bias and convienent omission of facts for the sake of ratings and their own agendas. I find life much more peaceful without these type of distractions. I'm not an advocate of censorship, it has to be YOUR decision to turn it off if you don't agree with it.
This also can't be an indictment of the media as human beings. They also have that free ticket to heavenly glory. You know the credo, "hate the sin, love the sinner."
So this has what to do with the XFL and Vince McMahon? Even McMahon, if he has sins to be forgiven can still do so. In Acts 5, it shows the result of committing the only unforgivable sin, the blaspheming of the Holy Ghost. Ananias and Sapphira drop dead! So if we are still alive, we still have a shot at heavenly glory! In Psalm 136, "his mercy endures forever" is mentioned 26 times!
If 95 percent of the people give wrong information about a subject, does that information become right? Of course not. It sure seemed that way involving every sports radio host and every sports television network dogging the XFL. Most people believed the hype. It's not like they were wrong about the OVERALL quality of the football. The offenses were a step down from the defenses (who were AWESOME at times!) . Did you ever hear any of these people praise the defensive play? No! How about all of the players signed by the NFL, CFL and Arena Football? No!
Do you still not believe me that there is an unfair playing field in most of the media?
I leave it to you to check the facts. Read between the lines. Form YOUR OWN opinion.
Another BMS XFL Rant, 7/6/01
Admittedly, I like the WWF's site design. It's safe to say I was inspired by it when I moved this site from Freeservers to Tripod. The type is now easier to read, per earlier suggestion (thanks Ms. Judy). It's not how many MB you have, it's what you do with them. This whole site is still LESS than 1MB with 49MB left!It was once written in the Jim Ladd book "Radio Waves" that "progressive music must progress." With this being a retrospective site, there still has to be progression. According to Radio and Records magazine, the music you listen to between the age of 16 to 20 is the music that stays with you for life. That makes plenty of sense, because I bought most of the music I ever had during that time. Does it STOP at the age of 20? For a few, yes, but it doesn't have to. The pace one may get into it does slow down considerably. Priorities change, one can't stay in the same "object" pursuit forever. It doesn't mean that life stops at 20. You may have used to like to ride a roller coaster, maybe now the water slide is your thing. Don't put "STOP SIGNS" in your way that don't have to be there. This site will be the innovator in retro sites. Just when you think I won't tack on something new to this site is when I "blindside" you with a new wrinkle. New ideas come in bunches or not at all to me. I won't force it, because if I do, it will be an idea that won't last long.
"Predictabilty is the wicked stepchild of ingenuity." (Paraphrased from the movie "Fear of A Black Hat")
The BMS XFL Rant, 6/14/01
A quick rant...
Maybe if Vince McMahon didn't own it, would this league be around for 2002?
I like Vince's creativity in the WWF. I wasn't cool with a change of rules during the season (the three point conversion for the playoffs). If the media was being their inflammatory selves just because of Vince, I'm a little surprised they couldn't find bigger fish to fry.
Maybe the XFL could work in Canada. There isn't as much competition there and generally the people and the media there would at least be willing to give it the benefit of the doubt.
I'm compiling 2001 COMPLETE regular season XFL stats. I have everything accurate, except for a couple of games to where I only have recap articles. If you have a rant that you're willing to submit, game memories, etc. e-mail me.
The BMS XFL Rant
Did it have to happen after just one year?The visionaries have thrown in the towel.
If I had $35M to lose and lost it, I guess I would throw in the towel as well. I've pissed away $3500 dollars in my life, and I still feel lousy about it.
In their respective sendoffs, NBC "higher-up" Dick Ebersol and WWFE CEO Vince McMahon, Jr. had nothing but complimentary things to say about each other. Both NBC and WWFE should feel comfortable that their monetary losses will be shared between the large corporations.
The great philosophers, Albert Einstein and Jesus Christ were all scoffed at for having something to offer that was so great, that they were treated with skepticism and scoffing by people too stuck in their tradition to try something new. The XFL tried to innovate, but encountered skepticism and negativity from media that had a vested interest in the NFL. How would this media have covered the NFL when it first hit the scene? Possibly with a lot of skepticism and negativity. It is pathetic to hear sports talk radio hosts regurgitate over the airwaves any edict ESPN lays on their audio-visual mantle, rather than actually watch the games an form an opinion for themselves.
With a low salary cap, this league still encountered losses of $35M. The XFL will not sue the NFL for impeding their progress. Maybe this league should sue ESPN, Fox and Sporting News Radio. The damage has already been done, and the WWF never gets press unless it's negative press. To me, if you can't cover something positively and negatively, then don't bother covering it at all! If there is a law suit, it won't work unless both NBC and WWFE team up in the litigation.
It is safe to say that this may NOT be my last rant. I intend to maintain this site as a tribute site. To the webmaster of the USFL site: If you don't want to run your site anymore, I am interested in being the webmaster. email me at xflrocks@lycos.com.
(BTW, he is still running his site.)
The BMS XFL Rant
Let me start off by saying that as of Saturday morning at 1 a.m. on April 28, 2001 that I wasn't seriously considering a change in my web server. It became a serious thought after I was fiddling that fateful morning with the first Tripod site I opened (and not much time had been spent on it) that I could upload any image I wanted regardless of the format and that I could create from the ground up and not have to worry about another site's factory template that couldn't be changed impeding my vision of what I wanted the site to be. There you have it. OK, so it's a SLIGHTLY longer URL, but easier to remember than the last one and the site has the potential to be MUCH better! So as of about 4 a.m. that same morning, I made the decision to switch to Tripod. I did learn a lot about site building from that previous server, which helped me to get here.Now to my state of the XFL address. If there was anythiing overlooked by the "hatchet media" about the XFL season, it's the defense, baby! With "Shaka Zulu" dropping quarterbacks like flies, and James Burgess volume tackling just a couple of examples, it was fun watching...defenses. A lot of it had to do with the free form style of play the XFL allows and the NFL nit-picks away in order to try to run up the score. Notice how many games went down to wire this year. That is in my opinion based on the freedom of the defense to make big plays and keep it close. What are the "hatchet media" saying now about Hogans, Humphrey, Tuipala and Big Merk signing on the dotted line in the NFL?
You could argue that the quality of the offense of this league was below the defense and you would be right. I thoroughly believe that the gap is smaller than popular perception. Look at the quarterbacks Jeff Brohm and Ryan Clement that got bumped around and came back. I do think that offensive line players narrowly missing an NFL cut are hard to come by, thus explaining no 1000 yard rusher and quarterbacks getting hammered. That still only takes away moderately from how top-notch the defensive play was this year.
same BMS Rant, subset A
Vince McMahon isn't trying to put the NFL out of business. You could swear by the "dare I say it", DEFENSIVE STANCE that these guys are taking that it was his mission to do so. He just said the NFL is the "No Fun League". He also said that this league's mission was developmental in nature, to put players in the NFL! Hopefully with the "peacock network" extinct from the XFL plan, that this league actually makes more money than it did last year! Vince McMahon's brand of entertainment has kept cable TV on the map for the last decade. With no dictate from "Peacock, Inc.", McMahon can have the full vision of what he wants the league to be on TNN, if he so desires. He can pull out all the stops, if necessary. Look at the crowds in Orlando and San Francisco. The Demons games are virtual sellouts! You don't hear that from the "hatchet media".The soon to be famous BMS XFL Rant!
(The first one that started thexfl.8m.com)"I dare you to knock this battery off my shoulder!"
Famous words during late 70s/early 80s pop culture uttered by Robert Conrad, star of NBC's "Baa Baa Black Sheep". The famous quote was actually during a commercial for Eveready batteries.
I liken Vince McMahon to Conrad. The fact that he bucked a tradition by starting his own football league whose game premise is a lot more exciting than the NFL. Then holders of membership in the good-ole-boys club, ABC/ESPN have looked at the league as merely a threat to their own interests, as preferred to something to cover without bias.
ESPN, ABC and even 1wrestling.com have reported on the doom and gloom of the XFL ratings situation on NBC. NBC had a coup de gras in week 1 with a double-digit rating, but since they've averaged a two. TNN and UPN go between 0.5 and 1.0.
ESPN is a top ten cable network with an overall 1.4 rating. It doesn't make sense for ESPN to throw stones at the XFL with their own ratings below what the XFL does in prime time.
Don't get me wrong, NBC's numbers are bad considering the playing field of prime time network television. I would prefer a move of the telecast to Sunday afternoon at 1 p.m. ET, where their ratings could actaully increase. If the rating is in the 2.5-3.2 range, that is a good rating for that time slot, even though not even half of CBS' 7.8 for "The Masters" over the weekend (Last year, it was a 5.9). Let's face it, the XFL's target demo may be home on Monday night, but not Saturday.
The league needs hype, why not an XFL pre-game show. The best thing about the NFL is usually FOX NFL Sunday. The XFL could do a show that could top it. Have a live studio audience. If everyone who watches the show sees the hype for teams and players in an environment in addition to the WWF and XFL games themselves, it would add credibility and word-of-mouth for the league.
I don't see major problems with the announcing. What some of these guys don't have in announcing skills they make up for in being straight shooters on the game. "JR" Jim Ross has actually done football before (Atlanta Falcons radio) and he is the best play-by-play guy the league has, yet has been relegated to the Saturday night "B" game, because of his association with the WWF. That is sad that Vince caved into pressure. It's the typical "amount of fans vs. advertiser demands" tug of war. I worked with it in small market radio and it sucks. But being studio host would be the perfect vehicle for JR to show his credibility in balancing his knowledge of football and sports entertainment.
As far as the other announcers are concerned, I like the pairing of Chris Marlowe and Brian Bosworth. They make the UPN broadcast entertaining.
Give Mike Adamle the promotion to main "A" play-by-play guy with Ventura. He's good on the sidelines and brings a lot of enthusiasm, but in the role he's in now, he takes away Jesse Ventura and that is not good. Let Ventura shoot more, when he speaks his mind, he the exact definition of what an XFL color guy is supposed to be, whether we agree with him or not!
What would your suggestions be on who should be in an "XFL Today" show with "JR"?