In what is probably the biggest flop in the history of professional sports, the Extreme Football League (XFL) has folded shop after just one season. Founded by the World Wrestling Federation (WWF) and co-owned by NBC, the XFL promised to offer a combination of hard-hitting football and spectacle in an effort to capture the coveted young male audience. A number of rules were changed, such a dispensing with the fair-catch, to make the game move faster and potentially more dangerous. Also, in the early games at least, the broadcasts included gratuitous shots of scantily-clad cheerleaders. While the season opener was a great success, viewership steadily declined thereafter, until NBC's XFL games were producing the lowest ratings in prime-time history. This was due to a number of factors, including constant production tinkering, amateurish camera work, and blustering announcers. Most of all, however, it was the generally poor quality of play that doomed the league. In the end, the XFL tried to embody both professional sport and garish spectacle, but failed at both.