American football: XFL is so dangerous even the cameramen wear armour!

Byline: JASON KERRIGAN in New York 

WITH its collection of burnt-out rejects, injury-prone hulks and beer bellies, the grid iron players of America's Xtreme Football League are unlikely superstars.

Yet by throwing away the rule book, fixing cameras to their helmets and encouraging players to date cheerleaders the week-old XFL has become the biggest sporting sensation to hit America for decades.

The brainchild of Vince McMahon, the billionaire owner and ringmaster of the WWF wrestling events, XFL is the hardcore alternative to the NFL he thinks has become too soft and pompous.

"This is real smash-mouth football, open football, not for pantywaists," said McMahon. "My World Wrestling Federation is 100 per cent entertainment, but the XFL will be 100 per cent sport.

"People want football played for all the right reasons, not for any of the wrong reasons."

The right reasons, as McMahon sees it, are to reintroduce a level of brutality that has become his trademark in the extreme, if pantomime style, of the WWF.

XFL fans can see the skull crunching tackles from helmet cameras, they hear the explosive attacks of the coaches at half-time and, between raunchy sideline routines, they get to visit the cheerleaders' changing room.

To maximise the heavy dose of violence, McMahon has ditched rules designed to protect the quarter-back, making brutal collisions a weekly certainty. "We may run out of quarter-backs," McMahon laughed, "but quarter-backs should be able to play the game just like any other player. In the XFL they will not be treated specially, and when a player gets injured we're going to follow right into the medical room." The change of rules will make the game a very gory spectacle says US congressman J.C. Watts, a former college quarter-back. "I cringe when I see that," said Watts, a star of the 1980 and 81 illustrious Orange Bowl college championships. "I just don't know if I've got the guts to watch something that doesn't have roughing-the-quarterback rules."

Despite such fears a happy collection of retired college league stars, NFL refugees and ambitious semi-pros seem pleased to earn the reasonable salaries on offer and enjoy the TV exposure that soared to almost 20million viewers for the XFL's first games.

Playing for the venomously titled New York Hitmen, Chicago Enforcers, Birmingham Bolts, San Francisco Demons, Las Vegas Outlaws, LA Extremes and the Orlando Rage, the players will earn upwards of pounds 30,000 for their three-month season with a shared bonus of pounds 650,000 going to the most successful team.

XFL fans are being encouraged to shout and bawl as much as possible and scantily-clad cheerleaders are expected to play a larger role.

Hitmen cheerleader Karla said: "We're excited not about being just eye candy on the field. We're gonna be sexy, we're gonna be hot though I will not be doing lap dances."

Karla, who graduated with a BA in Journalism, knows McMahon's reputation but adds: "I have a limit as to what I will say and do."

The term Match of the Day is also given a whole new implication as XFL cheerleaders are actively encouraged to go out with the players.

But McMahon wants the fans to know more than just if a player is dating a cheerleader. That kind of relationship is prime fodder to be served up to fans along with the game.

McMahon said: "When the quarter-back fumbles - and we know who he's dating - I want our reporters right back in the cheerleader's face on the sidelines demanding to know if the two of them did the wild thing last night."

Visions of a similar interview at Premiership match in England, with Des Lynam sticking a microphone in the face of Victoria Beckham or Louise Redknapp, don't bear thinking about.

CAPTION(S):

BEAUTY AND THE BEAST: It's hardcore NFL with raunchy cheerleaders