Part 1. Gameday: Beer, bros and The Beastie Boys.

ROSE: If you have a guiding principle of the WWE and Vince McMahon, it's the live event is where it happens. Give the fan his or her money's worth. When they leave that stadium, leave that arena, you want them to say, "I can't wait to get back. I had fun. I had a great time. It was well worth the money."

DEVITO: One of our core points of view is that it's our job to put smiles on people's faces, whether it's in a WWE WrestleMania event, a WWE event in Des Moines, or whether it's on television or whether it's just walking down the street, that's our goal in life. When we applied the core beliefs and values of the WWE to the XFL, the fact is, we were looking to entertain people, utilizing professional football as the vehicle.

TOM VEIT, vice president/general manager of Orlando Rage: The first game was unbelievable. The first game at the Citrus Bowl for the Rage, we sold more beer than any event in the history of the Citrus Bowl. You have to remember, we only sold 36,000 tickets. We didn't open the upper deck.

We set the beer record. We're pretty proud of that. A fan attends the "beer record" game in Orlando.

The record had been set at 60,000 from a Jimmy Buffett concert. I can't remember what the number is anymore. We ran out of beer. The beer distributor ran out of beer and had to start shuttling beer in. I think the building holds 64,000. We had 36,000. At 36,000, we set the beer record. We're pretty proud of that.

KUKLICK: I had a lot of friends and family who came to games. They pointed out to me after the game a few things they had seen in the stands that they had never seen before. It was kind of like a Mardi Gras event or something at times. It was crazy.

DEVITO: Opening night in Vegas. Remember, we never played a game. Nobody knew who the players were. These were brand new uniforms, uniform colors. The game was sold out. There were people tailgating. If you look at the video now, people are painted in the colors of the Las Vegas Outlaws. It was phenomenal. I mean, every part of that event that night — unfortunately, save the actual football play — was just absolutely spectacular.

STEVE EHRHART, first executive director of the USFL; vice president/general manager of the Memphis Maniax of the XFL: Here in the Memphis area, because it was kind of a cold, rainy night for the Maniax first game, everybody showed up in camouflage. It was like the greatest gathering of hunting equipment in the world. Thirty-eight thousand people showed up in their camouflage hunting gear. I looked around the stands that night and thought, "Holy cow, I didn't know everybody had camouflage gear."

VEIT: We had a problem with girls flashing. I was standing on the sidelines before a game. This girl is getting ready to flash. A very attractive young lady. I look at her, and we make eye contact, and I'm shaking my finger at her. Don't do it. Don't do it.

She's kind of teasing. I grab a security guy, and I jump the wall and walk up. She's with her boyfriend. I said, "If you do this, I'm going to toss you. And your boyfriend. You just can't do it."

At the same time, the whole side of the stadium is chanting, "Asshole," at me.

The funny part is, she doesn't do it. I walk away. On Monday I get a phone call from the CBS affiliate, saying, "Can we talk to you about the flashing problem?" It had been in the newspaper.

They said, "What's the team's view on flashing?" I said, "We're not on board. We don't believe in it. I won't say we're a family atmosphere, but we're not a strip bar, either."

They said, "Well, we know that's your policy because we actually had a camera on you." I didn't know it, but they had a camera on me when I went and told the girl she couldn't do it.

I said the problem is the Orlando police say it isn't illegal. I said, "You need to go talk to the police chief." Which did not endear me to the police chief or the mayor at the time. But it was the truth. The police were saying, "It's not illegal to flash, so we can't do anything about it."

So I was like, for everybody to know, if you want to lift up your shirt at Disneyworld, you're OK.

HOWARTH: One time, this was one of those great cheerleading moments, where they storm the field at halftime. There's a particular fog. It was cold, the fog came in. It was beautiful. They're standing there in these Matrix-long leather jackets and boots.

The music crapped out before they started. The technology failed. We left them hanging, standing there, in these coats, in the breeze, in the fog. The people caught on to what was happening, but the girls can't move. They're not allowed to. We left them hanging for the longest time.

When the music kicked in, it was the Beastie Boys, "(You Gotta) Fight For Your Right (To Party)." It was such a New York moment, it wasn't even funny. The crowd came unglued, and sang and cheered. It was like a great big Jersey saloon, and it was perfect.

The Hitmen cheerleaders perform during a game in New Jersey.

JOANN KLONOWSKI, chief marketing officer for the Los Angeles Xtreme: The atmosphere was exciting. People loved it. The enormous screen they put up, the dancers. We happened to have a hot tub, too. It was on the field, on the sideline. I don't know how it came about. It might have been one of the guys in our office who was kind of a part-time B-roll actor. He said, "You know, this might be a good idea." We pitched it with the league. Of course, they always liked to do things that were a little different.

The guy we had in there — who, by the way, must have been 300 pounds in a Speedo, so he was kind of scary-looking. Someone had brought in some girls to be in the hot tub with him. They turned out to be from one of the clubs around town. So there was a big to-do about that, where the girls came from. We didn't know where the girls came from.

Poor J.K. McKay (the team's GM). Everybody's saying, "Did you know those girls came from the Spearmint Rhino (a gentlemen's club)?" They didn't take their clothes off, but they made a whole big to-do about the girls in the hot tub.

BILLY HICKS, helped launch the World League of American Football; XFL vice president of administration: The second or third week, I was in Las Vegas. I grew up in Arizona, so I brought my mother and father and brother. Maybe even one or two other friends and acquaintances were there. They were down on the front row behind one of the benches. I had stopped to catch up with them for a minute.

A fan attends a Las Vegas Outlaws game.

The guy sitting right next to them was Pat Morita, Mr. Miyagi. The other two guys on the other side of Mr. Miyagi were absolutely three sheets to the wind. They were spending all of their time yelling at the opponents on the bench. That stadium at Vegas, you're very close to the action if you're down there on the 50. You're close enough that you could touch a player's shoulders pad if they came up. They were riding these guys hard.

Then all of a sudden, out of nowhere one of them just stops, looks right over at the guy next to him and is like, "Holy (expletive), it's Mr. Miyagi! Hey! Hey! Wax on!" Then he stands up on one leg, and does that move. Here's a guy who I didn't think could stand up at all, and suddenly he's doing a perfect Karate Kid impression.

The actor, I don't know why he's sitting there alone, he takes it all in stride. He took it perfectly. Somehow that league invited that kind of mix: My parents sitting next to Mr. Miyagi sitting next to two drunks that were the entertainment.

Part 2. The cheerleaders: "They made them seem so accessible."

HOWARTH: One of the funnest parts of this job for me, was I had to pitch a whole collection, a whole league, of costumes to Vince.

I was talking with Basil DeVito, who was our commissioner, and Billy (Hicks), and they dialed me up and said, "Don't spend any time on it. Vince always knows exactly what he wants, don't get your heart set on anything. He'll probably spend five minutes with you."

So in the name of sports and cheerleaders and sports chicks everywhere, we got partners and designers and New York City chicks and the best costume maker, and we designed the whole collection before I walked into Vince that day. The five minutes in the meeting hook? We were in there for an hour and 45 minutes, and he loved every single design that we pitched.

If the crowd didn't look down and go, they did not! I hadn't done my job.

KAYAIAN: Jay (Howarth) is a genius. She's an underappreciated genius, but she's an absolute (expletive) genius.

HOWARTH: If the crowd didn't look down and go, they did not! I hadn't done my job.

EHRHART: They tried to make it that the cheerleaders were so X-rated. The real truth was they valued that and tried to say somehow it was going to be extreme. They said, "We'll go straight into the locker room of the cheerleaders, get up close and personal." The real truth was you couldn't get much skimpier than the Dallas Cowboy cheerleaders.

KUKLICK: At the time there was a rule, and there still may be, where (NFL) cheerleaders can't date players. That was one of McMahon's big things: I don't care if our players date cheerleaders. They had their lives, and we had our lives. It wasn't a big deal at all.

HOWARTH: Vince was running around the media saying, "If the cheerleaders were shtupping the players, we were going to talk about it." Reality TV — that is what he was on to. I had to face that everywhere I went, which was funny.

HICKS: I've got a poster in my office of XFL cheerleaders because people like to talk about that. It's always a conversation starter. I'm looking at it, and costume-wise, there's nothing on there I'm looking at right now that you don't see on an NFL sideline today. Maybe the most provocative would have been what we did out in Vegas, because they were just a little more Wild West than some of the others. But again, there's probably more fabric there than the Dallas Cowboy cheerleaders are wearing today. But yes, we did promote it every chance we got.

We teased this thing quite loudly, where we took the camera and the whole pregame show was in the cheerleaders' locker room. I don't think the final product ever lived up to the tease that we had given it. But that's often (the case), just like professional wrestling as well, it's all about the promo.

HOWARTH: Vince McMahon was the Anti-Christ to the cheerleader image — that would have been my knee-jerk guess. The truth is, he was a champion for me and cheerleading. Complete and total champion for me. I could state my case, and explain it to him. He's an amazing entertainment producer, one of the best. And if I could explain my case in a way that he could understand, he would make sure I had what I needed. Whether it was broad stroke like budget or putting cheerleaders in the hot tub at Los Angeles at halftime — I had to have some of the most ridiculous conversations ever in my lifetime with Vince McMahon.

MATT HOGG, center for the Birmingham Bolts: They made them seem so accessible. But c'mon.

Part 3. The football: Oh, yeah, the XFL had players and games, too.

CHARLES PULERI, quarterback of the New York/New Jersey Hitmen: The level of play was excellent. I played in the Arena league. I played in Canada. Before that I played in NFL Europe. I was with the Cowboys. Obviously the first 30 guys on an NFL roster are the best in the world. But from 30 to 53, those are the guys that were circling the Arena league, the Canadian league and the XFL.

I would say it was really, really good football. Charles Puleri, QB of the Hitmen.

There were a lot of ex-NFL players in the league. I would say it was really, really good football. Now, with all the circus around it, that kind of put a dent in it, from my perspective. But the football was every bit as good any of those leagues.

KAESVIHARN: I'm not going to say it was terrible. But it wasn't top-notch NFL-type players, either. There were a select few that were good and a select few who went on to the NFL. But you can say the same thing about the NFL. There are some guys in the NFL who probably don't belong there, and guys that aren't there who should be there. But for the most part, you're going to get the best of the best in the NFL. When you're talking about the cream of the crop in the NFL and comparing that to the XFL, of course there's no comparison.

YO MURPHY, played in the Super Bowl, two Grey Cups and a World Bowl (the NFL Europe championship game); wide receiver for the Las Vegas Outlaws: When I got there, I was surprised about the money they were paying out. I think starting off, they made it so fun to play ... they could have sacrificed and not paid the players so much, and I think the league would have been around longer.

Guys would have fought to play in that league because it was fun. That makes up for a lot. As long as you pay your bills and take care of your family, the opportunity to play and compete in professional football makes up for a lot.

MIKE KELLER, former NFL player, currently president of the startup A-11 football league, which will feature all offensive players eligible to be receivers; XFL's vice president of football operations: The plain fact was that the product was very good. We had over 100 players go on to play in the National Football League. That's a large number. That's quality players.

But I will say this, also: When you're a start-up league, the coaches who are coaching have never coached together before. The players had never played together before. One of the mistakes, and I will take credit for it, is we had a four-and-a-half week training camp. And for a first-year league, it wasn't enough.

We needed more time for those players who hadn't played together before and the coaches who hadn't coached together before to pull together so that when they took the field in the first game of the season we were in midseason form. We weren't.

It took us two or three games before the play really got to the point where you'd say, "This is indistinguishable from the National Football League," which it was by the end. But by that time, we had had a lot of television sets clicking off. But even with that, the ratings we had at the end of the season were still very, very good.

Head Coach Al Luginbill of the Los Angeles Extreme talks to his team during training camp.

KAESVIHARN: I just remember busing from the casinos to practice. (Four teams had training camp in Las Vegas; the other four in Orlando). I think we stayed at the Palace Station. My memories of that are eating the buffet food night after night and hearing the ching-ching-ching in the back of your head the entire time. Eventually, yeah, it's like being by the railroad tracks and you don't hear it. But I'm telling you initially, that got to you night after night after night.

We went to play the Birmingham Bolts. We had to stay in Tupelo, Mississippi, or something like that. We're staying at this casino, again. We're thinking, we're on the road, we're finally going to get away from all the ding-ding-ding that we had to deal with at training camp.

DEVITO: We found out about Week 3 or 4 of the season, because of the black dye on the football, even if it wasn't raining, if it was just dew and humid in Orlando or Memphis at 10 o'clock at night, the ball became slippery.

Now we're giving them a football which is harder to catch and throw.

Now, let's face it, we were already starting out with the next level of football down after the NFL. So our skill players were not the best in the world, they were the best available. Now we're giving them a football which is harder to catch and throw.

So we're working with Spalding to try to work this out. There's not a big answer. Well, I'm a baseball guy. I grew up playing baseball. (DeVito played for Ohio University's baseball team.) What do they do with every baseball before the game? They rub it in the silt, right?

So about 2 o'clock in the morning, I had this idea. I ran down to my basement, and I took a football and I started using steel wool, I used different (things).

I found out if you took 60-grade sandpaper and sandpapered the whole ball, it barely changed the look of the black, and guess what? Just that scouring of the outside — I ran upstairs, I got in the shower, I got the football wet, and at 2 o'clock in the morning, with myself in the shower, I've got a football, and I'm yelling out loud — my then-wife thought I was actually crazy — I said, "This is what we do — all we have to do is sandpaper all the footballs before we put them in play, and that will solve the problem."

GERRY DINARDO, head coach of the Birmingham Bolts: They were allowed to put anything on the back of their jersey, name-wise. None of our guys did anything but their names. In fact, I got a letter from the league office saying, "Stop holding your kids back from putting nicknames on their jerseys." I said, "I'm not. I haven't said a word. I don't care." But I said, "I'll post the letter in the locker room," and I did.

KUKLICK: The whole name on the back of the jersey thing, we decided as a team we weren't going to do anything like that. We were just going to put our last name on the jerseys. McMahon didn't like that. He thought our coach (Galen Hall) had instructed us not to do that. So he sent a letter to every player on our team, and we had to sign it saying it was our decision not to put a funny name on our jersey, and not our coach's decision.

PULERI: As the season was going on, they were trying to get that wrestling theme. Jesse "The Body" Ventura was one of the announcers. I think he was still governor (of Minnesota) at the time. Prior to the games, he was making fun of the team, he was making fun of me because I'm from the Bronx, and he made comments the first week saying, "Do they even have football in the Bronx?"

As the season was going on, they were trying to get that wrestling theme. Rod "He Hate Me" Smart was one of the players who opted to put a nickname on his jersey.

When we got to Soldier Field, he came into the locker room with the Secret Service, and they're all protecting him. He's walking in kind of like apologizing, It's all BS, it's all media stuff, I didn't mean it, blah blah blah.

I was like, "Man, you killed me." The first week, there was so much backlash. My friends and family, people from New York City were like, "This guy's a clown." For him to say that he apologized, kind of made it feel a little bit better. But the damage had already been done. That's when people really started to tune out, with people making dumb comments like that, reaching for stuff, trying to create drama.

When I met him, I was really talking about his movie career. He was in that movie, "Predator." His biggest line was, "I ain't got time to bleed." So when he was in the locker room, we were all busting his chops about it.

SCOTT MILANOVICH, backup quarterback for the Los Angeles Xtreme and first player ever drafted in the XFL. Now the coach of the Toronto Argonauts: We were playing in the championship game. I think they called it the Million Dollar Game, so if you won, you got an extra $25,000. We were winning heavily, heavily enough that I actually went into the game in mop-up time (the Xtreme beat the San Francisco Demons, 38-6).

So at the end of the game — I'm actually embarrassed to tell this story now — I'm in the game, and I'm calling my own plays. I'm just trying to run out the clock and get the heck out of there. The game was over. There was no chance they were going to come back.

They kept blitzing us. All of our running backs were getting killed. And they were calling timeout. I finally got irritated enough that I drew up a play in the huddle: a halfback pass. It wasn't even in our game plan. I was upset that they kept blitzing us and calling timeout. Anyway, long story short, it went for a touchdown. People on the other side of the field weren't thrilled with me.

DEVITO: My fondest memory is going to make me cry. (It came) at the end of the Million Dollar Game — which internally we were calling The Big Game At The End — in the Los Angeles Coliseum, between the Los Angeles Xtreme and the San Francisco Demons.

When the game was over, in the middle of the L.A. Coliseum, the site of former Olympics in the '30s and Dodger baseball and Mickey Mantle playing on that field against the Dodgers, I stood off at midfield. One of my sons had accompanied me to the game. When it was all over, the celebration of the team was going on, he and I were on the 50-yard line, just the two of us. I was kneeling down. He was about 10 years old at the time. Just taking it in. Not in the whole big group, not with the players, just the two of us.

Luckily someone snapped a picture of it. I remember at the time telling him, "Grab this moment. This has been a unique thing, a unique moment in time. I'm glad you're here with me." It was a really cool moment for me, and I have a picture of it.