In America, the winner takes all.

Chapter 355 XFL
As the only team in the league that has defeated the Rams, the Titans are in very hot shape this season. They only lost to the Rams 22-24 in the first eight rounds. The current main quarterback of the team, Steve McNair will become the first black quarterback to win a season MVP in NFL history. But that was in 2003, and this year Steve McNair had just secured his position as the Titans' starting quarterback, and he was still on the rise.

As for how the Titans defeated the mighty Rams, Eason and the three coaches agreed that it was more of the Rams' problem.

Due to the schedule, the Titans, who had just defeated the Rams, visited the Angels, which gave the Angels a sense of revenge. Grace reported the ticket sales data for this game to Ethan. The personal seat sales rate exceeded 90%.

For comparison, the reborn Cleveland Browns, who also entered the NFL's "new team" this season, only had attendance rates of 70%, and some games were even less than 60%.

If you want to ask why the Angels have such a high attendance rate, the first and decisive factor is naturally the existence of Ethan. As the quarterback who is currently in the limelight, Ethan does not face the main quarterbacks of each team. He was not at any disadvantage, and he became the Super Bowl champion last year and won his first championship ring. With his tough, expressive style of play and outstanding appearance, he will naturally gain high popularity.

This is also reflected in the endorsement aspect. Ethan has already cooperated with multiple consumer goods manufacturers before the start of the season. From beer to cars, from shoes and clothing to watches, Ethan's image appears on TV sets more and more frequently. and in street advertisements. This brought Ethan another direct after-tax income of close to US$1500. Including the clothing brand Express Man, a few brands even hope to maintain long-term cooperation with Ethan.

In addition, the NFL schedule has also played a more beneficial role in the Angels' current attention.

Starting from the match against the Broncos, the Angels' games were fierce and tense, and much more entertaining than other teams in the same period, especially the focus battle against the Rams, which set a new record for the NFL regular season ratings this year.

And many of the Angels' competitors, those traditional strong teams, including the Cowboys, are also undergoing personnel rotation. At the end of the 90s, the stars of the NFL in the past decade began to leave or disappear one by one, such as Stephen Young. , Troy Aikman, and the dazzling stars of the next era, such as Peyton Manning and Tom Brady, have either not yet entered the league or have not performed well enough in the league, and Ethan is just fill the gap in this short transition period.

Another thing I have to mention is the Angels Cheerleaders. In Ethan’s opinion, there is indeed a small group of fans, mainly fans of Kelsey, Rachel, Belinda, and Kristen who will be attracted by the Angels Cheerleaders. Existence loves the Angels.

Before the game started, the Angel Cheerleaders once again became the subject of everyone's discussion.

During the introduction by the on-site host, four special "honorary team members" walked out to the music. They were wearing the white feather uniforms of the Angel Cheerleaders and dancing the dance of the Angel Cheerleaders.

Ethan had actually strictly blocked the news within the club before, which gave the audience an extra surprise.

Many people at the scene immediately thought of the news about Ethan's sudden appearance in London. It seems that the identity of the tightly wrapped female model in the news has been revealed.

After her performance, Gisele Bundchen was even mobbed by the media, who asked her if she was dating Ethan.

"Yes, that's right." Giselle admitted very generously. In the subsequent words, it was also revealed that Ethan had known him for a long time, and by the way, it was also revealed that Ethan had a modeling company.

The other models did not deny this. When asked about their relationship with Ethan and themselves, the somewhat stiff expressions of Alexandra and Adriana were also thought-provoking.

"Now the whole world knows it." Alexandra sighed in her heart. After she and Ethan were in the same room that day, she angrily went to Isabel, and after asking, she found out that she had been deceived by Ethan. Ethan only asked Isabel some common things. In other words, he confided all this to Ethan, and by the way, he also tricked Adriana into it.

As for Ethan, I don’t know if he is busy training, but he has not met the two of them privately in recent days.

As for the game itself, Ethan once again continued his performance in controlling the thunder and lightning. The Angels offensive team still used the previous "jet screen" tactics, and became more and more proficient in various changes. The Titans were not enough to effectively control it. defense. Moreover, Ethan did not make any low-level mistakes like Kuerner did in the last game. The Angels' victory was within the expectations of all parties.

After the game, headlines such as "Angels version of grass offense - Jets screen" appeared on the sports pages of many media outlets.

Sports commentators directly compared the Angels and Rams horizontally. Many people believed that this was the beginning of a new era, an era in which running backs became increasingly marginalized and more emphasis was placed on passing...

In addition to the game itself, several honorary players of the Angels, along with a lot of gossip, also made young fans who only pay attention to football itself begin to pay attention to the Angels cheerleaders.

Rich, young, outstanding in football skills, surrounded by beautiful women. Such a label has gradually made Ethan the most jealous and envied object of young men in the United States. As for those female fans, they are a little disappointed. After all, there will be no shortage of beauties around Ethan now, and he will probably be no weaker than he was in the future. Hugh Hefner's Playboy.

However, female spectators themselves are not the main audience for football games, and the extra attention the Angels cheerleaders receive is real.

Ethan also told the media after the game that he hoped to have more cooperation between the Angels Cheerleaders and traditional media, such as magazines. This was almost a shout-out to Sports Illustrated.

But instead of waiting for Sports Illustrated, Ethan was waiting for another uninvited guest.

"Christina Hefner has arrived at the office. She said she wanted to talk to you anyway today." Grace said to Ethan.

He didn't invite her over. Besides, hadn't the conversation been over before?

Ethan thought for a while and let her in.

"Ethan, congratulations, the Angels are about to enter the playoffs, and your miracles will continue!" Christina said with a smile on her face as soon as she entered the office.

"Thank you for caring about the Angels, but this shouldn't have anything to do with what you want to talk about, right?" Ethan looked up at her and said.

He had met Christina before, under Hugh Hefner's team, and her appearance had not changed much over the past few years.

"Of course it's related. I'm a die-hard fan of the Angels now, and many of my colleagues, especially those in Los Angeles, are starting to pay attention to the Angels. It won't be long before the Angels take over the entire football market in southern California." Christie Na continued to get closer.

In fact, the emergence of the Angels did have an impact on the other three teams in California. The greatest impact was on the San Diego Chargers. The Chargers' performance this year was not good, and they were assigned to the American League South Division. They lacked In previous years, duels with the Broncos, Raiders, and Chiefs made the San Diego Chargers, whose fan base was not large and whose presence was relatively low, even worse.

"Let's talk about something else. If you came today to let the Angels pay the money in advance, you can leave now." Ethan leaned back slightly and put his hands together on the desk.

"It doesn't matter if we don't give the money. After all, the Angels Cheerleaders are cooperating in depth with Playboy and giving partners certain discounts. This represents our sincerity." Christina continued to laugh.

His attitude was a 180-degree turn from before.

"Cooperation? There seems to be no cooperation between us." Ethan sneered.

Christina wanted to turn her back.

"How could it be? The Angels have great potential in the future. There are extensive opportunities for cooperation between the two parties. Regarding my previous attitude, I hereby solemnly apologize to you." Christina said with an apologetic look. In her eyes, the Angel Cheerleading Team was originally a completely failed project, but Ethan's operations actually revitalized the Angel Cheerleading Team. Now the Angel Cheerleading Team is on the verge of surpassing DCC, which makes her extremely regretful. With today's scene of shamelessly coming to ask for peace.

"Ethan, I can assure you that no media, including Sports Illustrated, can give us our conditions. We can give up the cover of the Angel Cheerleaders, and the Angel Cheerleaders can also participate in the Girl of the Year selection. Even We can give the top three rankings, and you can decide the specific candidates yourself." Christina began to talk about the details.

It can be said that Playboy is now only a "star-making" platform. Almost all its derivatives such as videos and photo albums are built around playmates. Christina's words are obviously a transfer of core interests. This condition is not It's not rich.

"Forget it, how do I know if you will regret it midway?" Ethan shook his head.

"To be honest, Playboy has always wanted to transform. We have decided to completely delete nudity elements in the magazine in the near future and become a fashion magazine similar to Vanity Fair. During this period, my father and I made many attempts, but none of them It failed." Christina explained patiently.

Ethan knew about this. A few years later, Palyboy announced a complete transformation and completely deleted nudity elements. It was not because of the squeeze of the Internet, which made it easier for viewers to access 18X content, but the results were very dismal. So far, palyboy has completely faded out of the mainstream.

“Now I feel like Angels Cheerleading is an opportunity.”

From Christina's point of view, this is an investment, or a big gamble. The Angels Cheerleaders are related to football no matter what. In the United States, there will be no lack of attention. In-depth cooperation with the Angels Cheerleaders will lead to a complete transformation. Very beneficial.

Ethan shook his head and rejected the proposal.

Although the conditions proposed by the other party are very good, there is no need for him to help playboy.

"You can definitely go to DCC." Ethan shrugged.

"You and I both know that compared to the Future Angels Cheerleaders, DCC cannot be compared. We... are willing to provide more generous benefits and can give you a certain share of Playboy. Lisa has also cooperated very smoothly with us in the past few years. We can leave all the brokerage business to Lisa," Christina said.

Ethan could feel the deep eagerness of the other party, and the equity transfer was the best condition the other party could offer.

"Rather than valuing the Angel Cheerleaders, I value you more." Christina continued.

Through her relationship with Lisa, she also knew about Ethan's layout in recent years. Movies, artist management, and sports are all pan-entertainment industries, and there would be no harm in getting Ethan's help.

It was my fault before, this time I might as well do it in one go and completely bind Ethan.

Ethan is also caught up in calculations... So far, whether it is with print media or TV media, it is only cooperation at the business level, and he has not really been involved in the media.

"20%." Ethan thought for a moment and read out a number. This is not a sky-high asking price. Playboy’s equity itself is very concentrated. Except for the listing part, almost all the rest is in the hands of Hugh Hefner. Now it is half dead, how much is it worth?

"This is too high." Christina felt that Ethan was opening his mouth.

Her original expectation was only to give Ethan 5%, with a maximum of no more than 8%.

From the perspective of the heirs, after Hugh Hefner's death, even she herself only received about 20%.

Seeing that she couldn't reach an agreement after a while, Ethan asked her to go back and discuss it with her father before giving him a second round of quotations. Ethan knew that it was the other person who was anxious, not himself.

Unexpectedly, that night, he received a call from Hugh Hefner while he was having dinner.

The other party offered a maximum of 15%, but Ethan accepted the offer and agreed to Hugh Hefner's request.

In addition, Hugh Hefner also made some other demands. From now on, Ethan's artists, not only the Angels cheerleaders, but also models and Hollywood stars, must be featured in the magazine. All in all, Depth is bound to Ethan. Ethan had no reason to refuse. Since Playboy wanted to transform, he should transform it more thoroughly. For him, if his artist joins Playboy, it means winning twice.

As for the daily management and decision-making of Playboy, Ethan has no idea of ​​​​interfering. In short, if you make money, you will get a cent, but if you invest, you will get nothing.

The cooperation between the two parties began immediately. Ethan arranged for the four models and the Angel cheerleaders to appear in Playboy magazine and be interviewed soon.

In addition, in a few days, Ethan will leave for Ohio with Gisele Bundchen, which is the headquarters of Victoria's Secret.

But before that, Ethan had to attend a special internal meeting of the NFL.

The NFL holds meetings from time to time, but most of them are related to daily operations. Ethan always sends Grace to attend on his behalf.

But this time it was different.

Ethan received calls from the Hunter family and the Rooney Mara family.

Both of them invited Ethan to make sure to attend this time, not just him, but other team owners as well if possible.

"We noticed that someone was creating a direct competitor to the NFL."

Can the NFL also have competitors? Ethan was very surprised by this.

As for who this competitor was, Ethan found out the next day.

Many sports media reported this big news.

Vince McMahon, president of WWF, will join forces with NBC, which was abandoned by the NFL, at the headquarters. Both parties will jointly fund and jointly establish a new professional football league. The new league will be named the XFL (Extreme Football League).

(End of this chapter)