page_title: XFL (2001)
section_title: Broadcast teams
hierarchical_section_title: XFL (2001) / Broadcast overview / Broadcast teams
caption_attribution_description: English: Jim Ross and Jerry Lawler at No Mercy (2007). Allstate Arena, Rosemont, Illinois, October 7, 2007.
context_page_description: The original XFL was a professional American football league that played its only season in 2001. The XFL was operated as a joint venture between the World Wrestling Federation and NBC. The XFL was conceived as an outdoor football league that would begin play immediately after the National Football League season ended to take advantage of lingering public desire to watch football after the NFL and college football seasons had concluded. It was promoted as having fewer rules to encourage rougher play than other major leagues. The league had eight teams in two divisions, including major markets and some not directly served by the NFL, such as Birmingham, Las Vegas, Memphis, and Orlando. The XFL operated as a single entity with all teams owned by the league, in contrast to most major professional leagues, which use a franchise model with individual owners.
  Co-owner NBC served as the main carrier of XFL games, along with UPN and TNN.
context_section_description: NBC (national telecasts):
  Week 1, 6–10: Matt Vasgersian, Jesse Ventura, Fred Roggin and Mike Adamle. Chris Wragge replaced Roggin for at least Week 6.
  Week 2–5: Jim Ross, Ventura, Roggin and Adamle
  NBC (regional telecasts):
  Week 1: Ross, Jerry Lawler, Jonathan Coachman. For week 1, Ross and Lawler were billed as their WWE personas, "J.R." and "The King."
  Week 2–5: Vasgersian, Lawler, and Coachman. McMahon personally demoted Vasgersian to the regional telecast after openly criticizing a suggestive shot of the cheerleaders as "uncomfortable" on-air during the week 1 broadcast.
  Week 6–10: Ross, Dick Butkus or Dan Hampton, and Coachman. Lawler left the XFL (and WWE) in protest after week five in the aftermath of the firing of his then-wife, Stacy Carter, as well as his own dissatisfaction with being pressured into commentary on XFL games; Lawler openly admitted on-air that he had virtually no interest or background in football, an unusual trait for a color analyst. After Lawler's departure, NBC brought Vasgersian back up to the main broadcast team. Hampton and Butkus rotated as the regional color analyst for the rest of the season.
  TNN: Craig Minervini, Bob Golic, Lee Reherman and Kip Lewis.
  UPN: Chris Marlowe, Brian Bosworth, Chris Wragge and Michael Barkann.
caption: Jerry Lawler and Jim Ross came over from WWE to fill similar roles on XFL broadcasts.
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