Its the week of the Super Bowl , the crown jewel of the NFL, and better yet, of professional sports.

In 2001, however, there was a different kind of pro football league a violent, tawdry circus known as the Extreme Football League, or XFL. Created by two titans of the television industry, pro wrestling magnate Vince McMahon and NBCs Dick Ebersol, the eight-team league was everything that the NFL still tries not to be: brash, abrasive and crazy.

Before it was disbanded after a lone season, the XFL set a record high and multiple record lows in viewership. Players were mostly an odd collection of has-beens and never-weres, earning no more than $5,000 per week.

As ESPN gets set to release the new 30 for 30 documentary, This Was The XFL , on Feb. 2, The Huffington Post caught up with Ebersol and his son, director Charlie Ebersol, to discuss the film and why the league still resonates with sports fans despite its failure 15 years ago.

This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.

Walk me through the process of creating the XFL.

Dick Ebersol: Vince and I had been business partners starting in 1985 for five years, and then I had taken the sports job at NBC, so I couldnt be in a private sports enterprise simultaneously, but we had maintained a really good personal friendship.

So here he was, announcing a football league, and it seems interesting enough to me. He called me on the phone and I said, I heard enough to tell you that I have some interest, because I know that we could have good fun with all this, but I need to understand better what your plan is. So dont talk to anybody about TV.

Or he definitely hadnt talked to anybody about TV anyway. And within believe it or not I think six weeks, we had a deal to be 50-50 joint ventures.