ESPN Films presents the 30 by 30 documentary "This Was The XFL," a story about the ambitious XFL football league and its eventual demise. Charlie Ebersol directed the documentary featuring the unbreakable friendship between his father Dick Ebersol and Vince McMahon who started out XFL to rival NFL, the biggest football league in America.

"This Was The XFL" tells the story of the brief and unfortunate end of the professional football league, which was supposedly meant to rival NFL but ended up becoming an offseason complement. The documentary features the key personalities behind XFL, how the league started, and what new things it offers to football fans according to Deadline.

NBC Sports chief Dick Ebersol and NBC Universal and WWE magnate Vince McMahon started XFL in a daring move to rival NFL by featuring a few un-NFL traditions. XFL allowed slight changes to the rules, highlighted injuries with cameras on close-up and gave cheerleaders more air time.

The league was the first of its kind to use what is now called the X Cam," allowing cameras on the field and giving viewers a closer look at the play. Perhaps this is XFL's legacy, changing the way football is broadcast for the "X Cam" is now standard features in NFL.

Seen from the eyes of Dick Ebersol's son, Charlie, the documentary offers viewers an insight on how two friends collaborated together, took risks and faced failure with dignity as reported in ESPN. The young Eberson had a first-hand view of the history and background of XFL, watching his father and McMahon explore new ideas and concepts to make XFL more enticing to the fans.

The young Eberson also witnessed the spectacular failure of XFL, which imploded after just one season, and the enduring friendship that his father had with MacMahon that not even a failed multi-million dollar investment could break. ESPN Films' "This Was The XFL" will premiere on February 2017, six years after its launch in Feb. 3, 2001. It will have its world premiere tomorrow at the DCC NYC Film Festival in Manhattan.

Topics NFL, Espn