HOT CORNER

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What: “Long Bomb: How the XFL Became TV’s Biggest Fiasco”

Author: Brett Forrest

Publisher: Crown

Price: $24.95

Why would anyone devote a 254-page book to the XFL? As the title implies, the league, which lasted only one season, was a bomb.

This book isn’t, though. The author, free-lance writer Brett Forrest, does a nice job of detailing what happened in 2001 to an idea that blew up in the faces of NBC Sports chairman Dick Ebersol and wrestling promoter Vince McMahon.

There is very little about football. Mostly, the book deals with the behind-the-scenes maneuvering and what went wrong.

Forrest provides more than we need to know about the Las Vegas Outlaws and their best-known player, Rod “He Hate Me” Smart. But that’s because the author moved from Brooklyn, N.Y., to Las Vegas to do his research, and he spent a lot of time with the Outlaws.

There could be more about some of the personalties around the league, particularly the coaching staffs. These were all men with football backgrounds who took this league and their jobs seriously.

But what is impressive is the attention to detail. For instance, it’s pointed out that McMahon sat across the table from Times Sports Editor Bill Dwyre and a Times reporter during a lunch meeting. And indeed he did. It’s also noted that McMahon took a tour of the Times newsroom, and he did.

In the epilogue, Forrest gets to the heart of what went wrong with the XFL: “It was a league of empty promises. The cheerleader [camera], the abolishment of the fair-catch rule, placing announcers in the stands, these are just a few examples of the XFL’s corrupt sales philosophy ... [Ebersol and McMahon] over-promised and oversold.”