Sports: WWF Pro Football League On NBC
HOT 104.com News Desk

The world of pro football took a strange turn Wednesday when the Peacock teamed up with The Rock.

NBC announced Wednesday that it has become a 50 percent owner of the XFL, the new pro football league being formed by the World Wrestling Federation (WWF), and will televise 12 games on Saturday nights.

The schedule begins Feb. 3, 2001, and ends April 21 with the championship game of the eight-team league. Negotiations are under way for a cable partner.

Since passing on the NFL two years ago, NBC has searched for ways to get back into the pro football, including an exploration with Turner Broadcasting.

"The financial model by (WWF chairman) Vince McMahon was much more prudent than anything we could come up with," NBC Sports chairman Dick Ebersol said. "The ideal of starting six days after the Super Bowl was something we never thought of. But our greatest interest is in the WWF's ability to attract the most elusive audience, adult young males."

The first pairing of the Peacock and The Rock occurred two weeks ago when the WWF star hosted NBC's ''Saturday Night Live,'' and the show achieved its highest rating among young males in 6 1/2 years.

Although McMahon said the only involvement of the WWF stars will be as fans, NBC is convinced the WWF brand will be a breakthough on TV's toughest night.

"There are not a whole lot of producers banging on the door to be on Saturday night," NBC West Coast president Scott Sassa said. "All the networks are getting ratings between 3.7 and 3.9, and we believe the XFL will get way bigger numbers than that."

The league will have teams in Los Angeles, New York, Miami, Orlando, San Francisco and Washington, with plans to announce two more within the next 30 days. All of the top 30 markets are being considered, McMahon said.

The league hopes to achieve a wide-open style of play similar to the American Football League in the 1960s. There will be no fair catches, a 35-second clock, one foot in-bounds on catches and 10-minute halftimes.