RLflutie7

Competing with the NFL that was his mistake. Not enough teams and in the wrong season. It's baseball season and the NFL draft time when the XFL played. You can't compete with the NFL in the spring. It's too hard. It's considered minor league and that's what it was. They branded the thing right. The uniforms were right. It was a tough man's version and I think the guys played hard. You could tell some guys lacked speed. But what the heck. They played hard. The on-field camera man was cool. I really liked that. The skyview camera was also cool and is used in the NFL. The XFL lost 35 million, what they figured to lose. But the WWF stock price crashed, and I think that sealed the league's fate more than anything. The start up cost were too much for WWF stock holders.

You're right people couldn't stand Vince. Like I said, the XFL got a bum rap and it was because of Vince. God forbid you have any humor in sports. I thought Jesse the body was pretty good too. When the NY/NJ hitman QB said he'd remain the starter in a sideline interview and the crowd was chanting "Smitty sucks" that was classic. I laughed.

U didn't watch the last half of the only XFL season. I did. To me, the biggest thing they did right was to bring in better announcers. They did the wrong things early. But they fixed some of those problems. I enjoyed the LA, SF and Vegas teams. And to a smaller degree the Chicago and NY teams.

They should have played six preseason games and made them half price or $5 for tickets. That would have helped. I do think they fixed things too little too late. If they would have given it a couple more years they could have done well as a minor league. Better than the indoor league. They probably could have made a profit although a players union would have wanted more. As far a being on NBC that was a no-go. I think Friday nights would have been a better choice, but not on National TV.

The XFL was done right except they didn't have the teams to get the ratings. Vince got a bum rap by the media. A media that didn't want to cover the league. Their stadium attendence was pretty good. The QB play was bad and McMahon knew it. They could have fixed that with time. The TV announcers were bad (WWF guys) and they fixed that. The rules were good. A lot of XFL coaches are in the NFL now. Some players did well in the XFL and the NFL i.e. Tommy Maddox.

This proves that most people in the UFL don't know what they're doing. And it proves the XFL and Vince McMahon had it right. He knew how to brand his product. Vince McMahon was a genius and the XFL was done the right way. They just didn't have enough teams to get TV ratings. (no team in Detroit, Boston, etc). Some say the XFL uniforms were crazy. Memphis and Orlando come to mind and that's true. But the Las Vegas Outlaws had a great uniform. Classic look. These UFL guys are nuts. All helmets will have a UFL logo. The real uniforms are coming out next year. They have names this year, but no logos and teams colors. I can't believe they were this stupid.

I never liked the new uniforms either. Pat got rid of the orange jersey, the only one in the NFL.

And it seems that Pat Bowlen has become one of those owners who needs the press. He used to be a great owner.

He's probabaly going to sell it to China.

Although the economy is turning around, I think JJ could lose his team if he doesn't find partners. He may need to sell a third of the team or almost half. I don't think he's going to find buyers at half the price for those suites. Sports and the NFL made a big mistake going after corporate money. I always new it would dry up.

Very good point also. The program contradicts everything and it's weird. For every point, there is a counterpoint that is just as compelling. I am always bitching about Corp. American getting all the cash. I don't like the fact that private corporations are being funded with tax payer dollars.

DC Tom making sense? What gives? The program is good. Very good post Tom. Although it does seem to bring about 1970's arguements that auto makers are forcing something to become "obsolete."

I think this will turn out to create a new type of sports league and I don't mean that in a good way. This will cause the ESPN's of the world creating their own leagues for their channels. They'll own the league and manage the league including the coaching and roster which I think would be a terrible thing. I think the idea of a league owning the teams (original AFL idea) or private owners owing the league will fall by the wayside. To me it would be a conflict of interest but that may be the path that is taken. I think the cities should own the teams in the league. All leagues major and minor. That way the cities could determine the rules and salaries. The cities could work with the TV industry for the TV contracts.

I have bought the greatest games series on DVD for many teams, Raiders, Cowboys, Steelers, Broncos, Bears and they have been very good. Some games, however, are poor quality. Superbowl 6 with Dallas and Miami Dolphins is a poorer quality game, for example. At the start of the game, they have a disclaimer stating that some plays (time) is missing from the game but that every effort has been made to get the most of the game. They seem to go with their local stations sometimes. Some of the Bears games were like that. I think the Dallas-Chicago game from 85 was a Forth Worth station, feed or tape. So what I'm saying is they probably have to find it. If the network doesn't have it. I'm thinking that what you want is available. They put Superbowl 3 on the NFL network and the quality was great. So I'm thinking 64 and 65 wouldn't be bad quality.

And it says Jeff George is in town.

I think Jeff George has a legit beef. Bottom line is he can still throw the ball. I could see Jeff playing until he's 45-47 years old. It's all about the arm strength. For those who think he played bad, you're nuts. He played well with the Raiders, Falcons and Vikings. He led both the Falcons and Vikings to the playoffs. He's right, there's very few quality QBs out there.

It's you anti-Flutie nuts who can't make an arguement. You can't illustrate a point without saying Flutie sucked or something to that effect. We don't have to bring other QBs into the discussion to illustrate a point, but I think it makes a more compelling arguement. A better arguement for you anti-Flutie's would be to look at the 88 rush attempts as something that's a little less desirable. It could be said that the offense lacked some with less passing attempts. That would be a better arguement than saying he sucked or always sucked or we can "wank ourselves" to a Flutie poster. A funny thing happened to me at a shopping mall. I looked at a Miami Dolphin shirt and a store clerk asked me what I thought about the fins. He said he was a big Dolphins fan. I said with Pat White, they might be able to do some damage. Damage in the running game, not passing. The kid quickly agreed with me and said White would never be a good QB in the NFL because his skill set is running, not passing.

Also on NFL Network. Suspened 5 games. May come back in week 6. He can play the last two preseason games. No other restrictions.

Some more facts: The Bills were ranked as follows in the NFL: 16th in points scored. Flutie led the Bills to the 11th ranked offense in the NFL by yards. The Bills were ranked 8th in first downs in the NFL (SO MUCH FOR BEING A DRIVE KILLER). Furthermore, 173 first downs were from passing. 117 came from running. The Bills were ranked 28th in turnovers with 21 takeaways. So Flutie never got a short field. The Bills were -6 in the giveaway/takeaway catagory. The Bills leading rusher was THIRD STRINGER Jonathon Linton with 695 yards. He had 5 TDs. Flutie had nearly 500 yards rushing. Moulds was out several games, the tightend was hurt several games and Thurman Thomas didn't play until the Arizona game.

Not true. Flutie extended drives. Flutie had a great habit of having very few 3 and outs. That helped the defense something special. Killing drives? Are you kidding me? The defense benefitted from Flutie. They didn't have a lot of sacks either. The offense had no consistent running game. Flutie provided much of the rushing yards.

Flutie would have done better if he went to a team that didn't have an official starter. With the Bears it was McMahon. With New England it was Tony Eason. With the Bills RJ was brought in for 25 million. He did supplant RJ. He would have done better in Green Bay, earlier in his career.

Standard point of view, but not very accurate. Flutie had less weapons in 99 than 98. The defense had a terrible third down percentage. The real unsung hero of 1999 was Jonathon Linton. He closed out games in 99.

I thought he was good, however, he was frustrating to watch. I understand why people thought he stunk. Bottom line though is he got his team to the NFL championship game. He has a unique skill set and another team will sign him. It'll be a team that has an injury at QB. And I'm guessing it could be Tampa or Jacksonville if there are no major injuries. I think Denver could use him but I don't want them to sign him because of his behavior problems.

Vick is not a good passer. But he was a good QB. I don't care for Vick as a QB because he runs too much. If he'd give himself a chance to throw, instead of rushing the ball 121 times, then maybe he'd develop as a QB.

When he played teams won games. In 88, the Pats started off real slow, Flutie came off the bench to put the team in playoff contention and then he got benched. The fans went nuts. Can you blame them?