Word: nfl
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...fell apart quickly. Inside the organization, arrogance, then chaos, was the rule, while a roster of castoffs, clodhoppers and kids tried to imitate major leaguers. Season-ticket holders dropped from a high of 34,000 to less than 14,000. The NFL's Broncos, who had won two Super Bowls under quarterback Elway--a former New York Yankees farmhand--would take center stage in Denver. Scalpers hawked $5 tickets for seats behind the dugouts at Coors Field...
...President. But it couldn't have been easy being Billy Ripken either, an unexceptional major league infielder craning his neck for notice while the press swarmed around Hall of Famer and elder brother Cal. It can't be easy being Eli Manning, struggling to prove himself as an NFL quarterback while big brother Peyton polishes a Super Bowl trophy and his superman stats. And you may have never heard of Tisa Farrow, an actress of no particular note beyond her work in the 1979 horror film Zombie, but odds are you've heard of her sister...
...USFL did. By owning all the teams and offering all the players the same $45,000 one-year contract with a one-year option (quarterbacks get $50,000; kickers, $35,000), he can control his costs; the entire XFL payroll is less than half that of a single NFL team. And the league needs only to deliver a mediocre 4.5 Nielsen rating to make its 10-week 8 p.m. Saturday time slot on nbc a success, as long as it attracts the overvalued young male demographic. Networks are increasingly willing to play cable station with their off-peak hours...
...even if NBC is just doing this because it is still bitter about losing the NFL to Fox, it is still a cheap drunk. "If we had signed the deal to stay with the AFC, we would have lost $150 million to $160 million a year," says NBC Sports chairman Dick Ebersol, who made McMahon an offer just hours after the WWF announced the league's launch. "So worst-case scenario to us would be a third of what we would have lost...
Even if the XFL fails, it will undoubtedly do a favor for pro sports. Given that the Super Bowl halftime show got better ratings than the game itself, the NFL will be thrilled to have a new league do some experimenting for it. "If they're smart, they'll steal a lot of it," says Linda McMahon, Vince's wife and business partner. "We're putting a brand-new product out. If a guy gets his tooth knocked out, you're going to see it." Those two must have had some first date...