Columnist Dean Juipe: Not all of us are excited by the XFL

Dean Juipe

Friday, Feb. 2, 2001 | 10:47 a.m.

Dean Juipe's column appears Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday. His boxing notebook appears Thursday. Reach him at juipe@lasvegassun.com or 259-4084.

"Keep an open mind about this," league officials continue to say to those of us in the media who seem to have a built-in dislike for the XFL.

So in these weeks and months leading up to a season that opens Saturday, I've tried to be fair if not completely impartial.

But after finding myself lecturing a man in a bar on what I told him would be an inconsequential league featuring largely inept players, it has become apparent that I am rigidly aligned with the pessimists.

I don't think the league will be worth a damn.

Maybe that's because I've never cared for egomaniac XFL founder Vince McMahon and, this being February, it seems as if football season should be over. Maybe it's also because I'm not a person who enjoys seeing women exploited, as the XFL is doing with its strip-club-refuge cheerleaders, and I'm not much for sitting out in the cold to see an inferior product.

But there are any number of gullible people out there, and that's where the XFL has aimed its promotional arrow.

"I wouldn't play in that league," said Tory Holt, a receiver with the St. Louis Rams who expressed his opinion on a segment of ESPN's Outside The Lines that aired last week. Luckily for Holt, he has the talent to play in the National Football League.

XFL players do not.

Don't be fooled by the gratuitous features that portray members of the Las Vegas Outlaws as budding stars who are only a step away from the NFL, as these are has-beens and never-weres who were working at Terrible's Lube until the XFL came along. If they had the ability to play in the NFL, that's where they would be.

In a wire service package that is at our disposal, one player from each of the eight XFL teams is designated as someone "you may know." Truth is, we in the office had only ever heard of three of the eight "best known" players in the league.

Why should anyone care about a money-making scheme that is designed to appeal to hormone-ravaged males that has as its primary goal filling NBC's Saturday night programming void?

Minor-league football has been tried before and if you recall the USFL you might also remember that it failed in spite of having any number of prominent players. The XFL, conversely, registers zip on the star-power meter.

A good crowd is expected for the Outlaws' debut Saturday at Sam Boyd Stadium, yet those paying their way in had best dress warmly and keep their expectations to a minimum. The most thrilling play may be the one before the opening kickoff when a player from each side races to midfield to snag an unattended football, the winner's team then earning the right to receive.

Short passes, bobbles, fumbles and swearing by the miked-up players may dominate once the game actually begins.

The XFL has money, although it is not spending much on its players, and through its TV connections it has some clout. But it does not appeal to everyone, and maybe it won't appeal to anyone who is not a 25-year-old male with nothing better to do on a frosty Saturday night.

If you're tempted to follow this league take a good look in the mirror. And make sure you've got the $200 it will take for that parka.