Maybe the XFL isn't as much a venture into a brave, new world of TV sports as it is a throwback. And not necessarily a throwback to the days when professional "wrestling" (and I use that term loosely) aired in prime time on network television.
The upcoming ABC movie "When Billie Beat Bobby" (Monday, 8 p.m., Ch. 4) is almost a primer as to what's gone wrong with TV sports in general in the past 30 years. Style over substance. A non-sporting event billed as the ultimate sporting event. Advertiser interference and corruption. A bottom-line mentality. And Howard Cosell.
The movie, of course, recounts the 1973 match between tennis has-been Bobby Riggs (Ron Silver) and the then-reigning tennis queen Billie Jean King (Holly Hunter). And, seen from the year 2001, it seems almost ludicrous.
Would anyone today expect an out-of-shape, 55-year-old man to beat a 29-year-old woman at the top of her game?
The point of the movie is supposed to be that women are athletes and can compete. And the blow King struck for equality resonates today. Although the movie carries the whole thing quite a bit farther than perhaps it deserves.
But what's almost scary is that television's treatment of what was in 1973 sort of a circus sideshow sporting event has become mainstream TV sports in 2001. Cosell (Fred Willardson) is certainly no bigger a buffoon than Terry Bradshaw on Fox, Dick Vitale on ESPN or any number of others.
And the over-the-top hype doesn't seem quite so over-the-top in an age when everything is hyped within an inch of its life. Or to death.
The XFL is certainly far more offensive than the Billie-vs.-Bobby tennis match. But the form seems eerily the same and frighteningly familiar to anyone who is interested in watching sports on TV instead of TV's interpretation of sports.
We can blame the XFL for carrying the phenomenon to its current nadir. But we certainly can't blame the sideshow of professional football for starting the phenomenon.
NOT GOING FAR: I'm not going to doubt that Troy Aikman's tears at his retirement announcement earlier this week were genuine — that he was genuinely broken up at the prospect of leaving the game behind.
But it's not like he'll be leaving the game far behind. He's expected to sign on as a football analyst for Fox any day now.
Maybe he'll be great. Maybe he won't. What I hate, however, is the thought that just because someone is a great athlete he's automatically qualified as a broadcaster. That's just not so.
Jim Nantz, Bob Costas and Al Michaels are all great sportscasters; not one of them was a great professional athlete.
You wonder how many genuinely great broadcasters can't get their foot in the door of the broadcast booth because ex-jocks have already been ushered inside.
E-mail: pierce@desnews.com