Monday, March 12, 2001

XFL commentary — Week Six

Ratings went up!

XFL obviously on the way to greatness after ratings rise one-tenth of a point

By Andy Hanacek, Associate editor and XFL analyst

• TNN, already the top broadcast in my opinion, continues to improve. In Week Six, TNN hooked up mics to injured San Francisco Demons QB Mike Pawlawski and New York/New Jersey Hitmen Vice President/G.M. Drew Pearson during the game. Those two acted as quasi-color commentators at alternating times during the game. Talking to Hitmen public relations director Jon Schwartz, I found out that there has been pretty positive feedback on the move by TNN, and I’d have to agree. Instead of a jumbled audio mess of several players’ microphones, why not find a player or coach who will act normally and be wide open to adding analysis to an already solid announcing team in Craig Minervini and Bob Golic? I hope to see UPN and NBC pick this practice up. But the key is, again, to not force the issue. Find a player or coach who is gung-ho about it and run with that. If the person isn’t gung-ho, he’ll just give interview-speak, which is boring. Pawlawski and Pearson added much to an already solid broadcast.

• I have this bad feeling about Rashaan Salaam’s injury. Anytime a player can’t move his arm in several directions it can’t be a good thing. It was reported as a shoulder-blade injury. But I wouldn’t be surprised if it was worse than that.

• Can anyone stop the Orlando Rage? I’d like to know. Oh, and they haven’t clinched a playoff spot just yet, despite some reports that they have. New York/New Jersey or Birmingham could both mathematically catch them, though theoretically it doesn’t seem likely.

• Despite the fact that the Rage are running away with the East division crown, no other team in the division seems to want to make the playoffs. Can you blame them? The Rage have beaten their opponents by an average of 10 points per game, by far the highest point differential in the league.

• I thoroughly enjoyed the halftime cheerleader locker-room skit. I can safely say I did. Here’s the WWF stuff in action, and you know what? I liked it, simply because it did not interfere with the game at all. And the off-the-wall imagination they used really enticed me. I mean, Rodney Dangerfield?! Who expected that? I laughed and I liked it a lot, considering the boring slop it could have been. If you expected naked cheerleaders, then you have to stop thinking HBO is a widely distributed, basic cable network.

• For those who were able to watch the Memphis-Chicago game, did you notice that Dick Butkus kept calling Jim Druckenmiller "Drunkenmiller." I would assume it was accidental, but given Butkus’ thinly veiled cheering for the Enforcers, I don’t know. NBC might think of replacing Butkus for that reason. It is a national broadcast, and I think Butkus is better-served to be a figurehead for the league, not an announcer.

• I guess those Las Vegas bookmakers knew a little bit about these teams. Look who’s rising in the standings: the preseason favorites to win the Big Game at the End, the Los Angeles Xtreme. While NBC called Week Six’s matchup between Orlando and the Las Vegas Outlaws the matchup of the year, I really think this week’s matchup between the Rage and the Xtreme will be the regular-season matchup of the year.

• Question: What happened to all the fans in Birmingham? Isn’t it warm down there? Therefore, there’s no excuse for an attendance of just more than 11,000 at this week’s game. And if you say it was 50 degrees and too cold, remember, I’m from Chicago. Oh, and Memphis, you better get your attendance up too, or you’re next. At least you’re a bit further north, so it may have been 30 degrees.

• My favorite post-touchdown celebration occurred this week: After LeShon Johnson scored his second touchdown of the night, the former Northern Illinois Huskie crawled to the goalpost and pretended to mark his territory, like any good Siberian huskie would. Tasteless? I think not — he kept his pants on, didn’t he? I give it an A+ for its imagination … it sure as hell beats out just dancing or copying some of the really cool celebrations from "Any Given Sunday." (Note: My personal favorite in that movie being "Dropping the Bomb," especially since everyone falls down, including the offensive linemen 20 yards down the field, running to congratulate the player.)

You can e-mail Andy Hanacek at: ahanacek@primediasi.com

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