Columnist Dean Juipe: XFL tests its product in seclusion

Dean Juipe

Monday, Jan. 22, 2001 | 9:49 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.

It was private and extremely exclusive, as in "Keep Out."

If you didn't know the super-secret password, you were blocked at the checkpoint and repelled.

No visitors, no press, no fans, no nothin.' It was as if the Cone of Silence had been placed over Sam Boyd Stadium, and anything that happened under it on the field or in the stands was deemed unfit for mass distribution or analysis.

Welcome to the XFL, which, Saturday at least, did a product test that it didn't want publicized.

Coaches have been known to protect game plans from media and opponents, but this was something else. This was the big shots of a new league giving a pep talk to half of its players and seeing just how talented or lacking talent those players may be.

It was also a league getting a chance to see if its rules are too bizarre or impractical before its official kickoff in two weeks.

While the National Football League has evolved to where its "exhibition" games are now classified as "preseason" affairs and to where it can charge the customer the full rate for contests that don't count in the standings, the XFL is a bit more timid (in this one respect). The exhibitions it held Saturday with four of the league's eight teams -- including a game between the Las Vegas Outlaws and Los Angeles Xtreme -- were off-limits to anyone who did not have a financial stake in the endeavor.

As such, what actually transpired during the afternoon and evening is speculative. But by the very act of limiting access and excluding all other interested parties, there's reason to believe the discussions between XFL boss Vince McMahon, his cohorts and their players were chillingly suggestive.

McMahon almost certainly gathered the players en masse and reiterated the XFL's basic mission of providing high-voltage and outrageous programming for the league's broadcast partner, NBC.

He probably addressed the XFL-supported notion of players dating cheerleaders and other soap-opera-ish incidentals, such as the acceptance of taunting and unrestrained celebration. He probably apologized for the league's $4,000-per-game contract limit and promised better things to come if and when the league survives the public's skepticism and, perhaps, disdain.

As the exhibition games played out, McMahon and his cronies were also able to see if the XFL rules pertaining to crushing quarterbacks and punt returners at will are simply too dangerous for the players and too dangerous for the league from a liability standpoint. Much has been made of the XFL favoring a more violent brand of football, but as soon as the first quarterback or kick returner is paralyzed from a hit that wouldn't be condoned -- let alone promoted -- at the collegiate or NFL level, the league will be susceptible to a lawsuit-driven insolvency.

The XFL acts as if it wants its fans to laugh and carry on as its players are carted from the field like so many cartoonish accident victims, yet it runs a significant risk if any of those players is permanently injured.

Maybe during the course of these dress rehearsals at Boyd Stadium, the XFL realized some things about itself.

Maybe, just maybe, it has given some thought to toning down its barbaric image before it's too late.