XFL, McKay Become Tag Team Partners

J.K. McKay, who spent the last two years trying to convince the NFL to return to the Southland, was introduced Wednesday as president and general manager of the fledgling Xtreme Football League’s Los Angeles franchise that will play at the Coliseum.

His appointment gives an air of legitimacy to the league, which promises a brand of smash-mouth football and is the brainchild of pro wrestling magnate Vince McMahon.

“I wouldn’t be doing it if I didn’t think we could pull it off,” McKay said at the House of Blues news conference. “It’s a tough challenge, but I believe the timing is so perfect. No league, no start-up league, has come with a marketing machine like the [World Wrestling Federation] behind it and, just as importantly, with NBC, we’re going to be on [TV] 12 times nationally, prime time.”

The XFL, which is co-owned by WWF Entertainment and NBC, has eight teams that will begin their 10-game schedules on Feb. 3, 2001. The league has already announced franchises in Orlando, Chicago, Memphis, San Jose and Las Vegas and is expected to award teams to New York and Birmingham, Ala.

McKay, 47, who played split end on two national championship teams at USC, did, however, have immediate reservations about being associated with McMahon’s menagerie. That changed when he traveled to the operation’s headquarters in Stamford, Conn., and came away calling the outfit “wholesome.”

“With my reputation, my family’s reputation, I didn’t want to get in anything that wasn’t first class and didn’t have a real opportunity to succeed,” said McKay, whose father, John McKay, coached USC and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

Still, McMahon was in character as he spoke on the area’s lack of an NFL team. “The arrogance and the lack of common sense of the suits that run the NFL not to have a franchise here in Los Angeles, the second-largest market in the country, is not to be believed,” he said. “It is downright insulting to the local populace.”

McMahon said the soap opera-type story lines of his highly rated wrestling shows will not cross over into the XFL and that the league, while it will be high on entertainment, will be focused on athleticism.

Said McKay: “We’re going to get the best players that are not playing in the NFL. As time progresses, we think we’ll get some people that elect to play in our league rather than in the NFL. We’re not there yet, but that’s where we intend to go.”

Within a month, McKay hopes to hire a coach as well as announce a team name and logo.

The XFL is considering tinkering with a few rules: no fair catches; one foot inbounds for a legal catch; kickoffs from the 25-yard line; and little to no in-the-grasp calls.

Rosters will include 38 active players and seven taxi squad members and while players will earn a base compensation salary of about $45,000, there will be a $100,000 bonus pool a game for each winning team. The title-winning team will split a $1-million prize.