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Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
A joint venture of NBC Sports and World Wrestling Federation impresario and "bumpkin billionaire" Vince McMahon, the XFL-with its candid locker room cameras, WWF-style bad attitude and faster, looser, meaner brand of football-was supposed to revolutionize the way America watched sports. Instead, the league crashed and burned over the course of a single, calamitous season. Journalist Forrest's behind-the-scenes book chronicles that downfall in sharp, often witty prose, paying special attention to larger-than-life personalities: from blustery egotists like McMahon and ex-wrestler/Minnesota governor/XFL commentator Jesse Ventura, to the cockily self-deluded jocks, most of them NFL rejects, who saw the XFL as their last, best hope for making it. Interspersing their stories with accounts of bungled telecasts and on-field chaos, Forrest too often lets slip his obvious disdain, taking passing potshots at the "TV creeps" and "advertising hoodlums" of the NFL establishment and tossing off such incidental insults as "beyond alopecia, Jesse Ventura shared precious little with Howard Cosell." But if the author displays a little too much of his own XFL-type attitude, it does not cloud his generally clear-eyed account of Mr. McMahon's failed enterprise, in all its monumental folly.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Library Journal
Ironically, TV's professional football league-cum-reality show was created in response to the insanity of media outlets paying billions of dollars to lose money by broadcasting major organized sports. NBC bowed out of the negotiations for the NFL football package and hooked up with World Wrestling Federation impresario Vince McMahon to devise a low-rent alternative. The resulting bizarre merger of wrestling theatrics and professional football disintegrated into an economic and cultural car crash that was unsettling to watch. Journalist Forrest re-creates the short but provocative run of the XFL through the actions and comments of many of the major actors in the drama, especially McMahon, NBC executive Dick Ebersole, and announcer Gov. Jesse "The Body" Ventura. Such players as Rod Smart are depicted trying to maintain the dream of playing professional football while being ensnared in the circus atmosphere of a tasteless spectacle that no one was watching. The XFL set new records for low TV ratings. This fascinating pop culture tale is recommended for all libraries.
John Maxymuk, Rutgers Univ. Lib., Camden, NJ
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.
See all Editorial Reviews
A joint venture of NBC Sports and World Wrestling Federation impresario and "bumpkin billionaire" Vince McMahon, the XFL-with its candid locker room cameras, WWF-style bad attitude and faster, looser, meaner brand of football-was supposed to revolutionize the way America watched sports. Instead, the league crashed and burned over the course of a single, calamitous season. Journalist Forrest's behind-the-scenes book chronicles that downfall in sharp, often witty prose, paying special attention to larger-than-life personalities: from blustery egotists like McMahon and ex-wrestler/Minnesota governor/XFL commentator Jesse Ventura, to the cockily self-deluded jocks, most of them NFL rejects, who saw the XFL as their last, best hope for making it. Interspersing their stories with accounts of bungled telecasts and on-field chaos, Forrest too often lets slip his obvious disdain, taking passing potshots at the "TV creeps" and "advertising hoodlums" of the NFL establishment and tossing off such incidental insults as "beyond alopecia, Jesse Ventura shared precious little with Howard Cosell." But if the author displays a little too much of his own XFL-type attitude, it does not cloud his generally clear-eyed account of Mr. McMahon's failed enterprise, in all its monumental folly.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Library Journal
Ironically, TV's professional football league-cum-reality show was created in response to the insanity of media outlets paying billions of dollars to lose money by broadcasting major organized sports. NBC bowed out of the negotiations for the NFL football package and hooked up with World Wrestling Federation impresario Vince McMahon to devise a low-rent alternative. The resulting bizarre merger of wrestling theatrics and professional football disintegrated into an economic and cultural car crash that was unsettling to watch. Journalist Forrest re-creates the short but provocative run of the XFL through the actions and comments of many of the major actors in the drama, especially McMahon, NBC executive Dick Ebersole, and announcer Gov. Jesse "The Body" Ventura. Such players as Rod Smart are depicted trying to maintain the dream of playing professional football while being ensnared in the circus atmosphere of a tasteless spectacle that no one was watching. The XFL set new records for low TV ratings. This fascinating pop culture tale is recommended for all libraries.
John Maxymuk, Rutgers Univ. Lib., Camden, NJ
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.
See all Editorial Reviews
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