Editing XFL (2001) (section)

===On the field===
The XFL's opening game took place on February 3, 2001, one year after the league was announced, less than one week following the NFL's [[Super Bowl XXXV]]. The first game was between the [[New York/New Jersey Hitmen]] and the [[Las Vegas Outlaws (XFL)|Las Vegas Outlaws]] at [[Sam Boyd Stadium]] in [[Whitney, Nevada]].

The league's regular season structure was set up so that each team played teams in its own division twice in the season, home and away (the same as the [[National Football League]]) and played against teams in the other division once. The season ran ten weeks, with no [[bye (sports)|bye weeks]].

The league's western division was far more competitive than the east, with the four teams' records ranging from 7–3 (for eventual champion Los Angeles) to 4–6 (Las Vegas, who finished last after losing its last three games to end up one game out of a playoff spot). In the East, New York and [[Chicago]] both were hampered by slow starts and ineffective starters before making personnel changes that improved their play, while Orlando, under quarterback [[Jeff Brohm]], who owned the league's highest QB rating at 99.9 during the 2001 XFL season, soared to first place, winning its first six games before Brohm suffered a career-ending injury and the team regressed (the team went 2–2 in his absence). Birmingham started the season 2–1 before a rash of injuries (and tougher competition, as its two wins were against New York and Chicago) led to the team losing the last seven games. Injuries were a major problem across the league: only three of the league's eight Opening Day starting quarterbacks—Los Angeles's [[Tommy Maddox]], San Francisco's [[Mike Pawlawski]] and Memphis's [[Jim Druckenmiller]]—were still starters by the end of the season. Birmingham and Las Vegas were both on their third-string quarterbacks by the end of the ten-week season.

The XFL postseason format was essentially identical to the one adopted by the AFL for its [[1969 American Football League season|final season]] in 1969. The top two teams in each division qualified for the playoffs. To avoid teams having to play each other three times in a season prior to the championship game, the league set up the semifinal round of the playoffs so that the games would feature teams from opposite divisions: the east division champion (Orlando) hosted the west division runner-up (San Francisco), and likewise for the west champion and east runner-up (Los Angeles and Chicago, respectively). Los Angeles and San Francisco each won their playoff games to advance to the [[Million Dollar Game|XFL championship]].