Xtreme exorcises Demons for XFL title
By Daily Bruin Staff
April 22, 2001 9:00 p.m.
 CHRIS BACKLEY/Daily Bruin L.A. Xtreme’s Saladin
McCullough tries to escape the defense of the San
Francisco Demons. The Xtreme pocketed $1 million for their win
Saturday.
By Will Whitehorn
Daily Bruin Contributor
Looks like the Lakers’ 2000 Championship run was
contagious.
The Los Angeles Xtreme concluded the first year of XFL football
with a 38-6 embarrassment of the San Francisco Demons in
Saturday’s Million Dollar Game in front of a crowd of 24,153.
It was the second professional title in as many years for Los
Angeles. L.A.’s last championship before the Lakers’
2000 title run was the Dodgers’ World Series crown in
1988.
The Xtreme’s playoff games at the Coliseum were the first
postseason professional football games played in L.A. since the
Raiders defeated the Denver Broncos in a 1993 wild-card contest,
and it is the first football championship for L.A. since the
Raiders’ Super Bowl XVII championship in 1984.
The win capped a week of rewards for former UCLA quarterback
Tommy Maddox, who was named XFL Player of the Year Wednesday after
posting league highs this season in yards (2,184) and touchdown
passes (18).
“To be able to come back and play in L.A., in front of
these fans again, has been a dream come true for me,” Maddox
said. “I was never able to get into the Rose Bowl. To be able
to play in the championship game in L.A., in a historic stadium
like the Coliseum ““ I wouldn’t have had it any other
way.”
San Francisco’s James Hundon won the pre-game Scramble,
which determines ball possession for the teams, but promptly muffed
the ensuing kickoff and placed the Demons in poor field position,
where the L.A. defense quickly forced a punt.
Maddox was conspicuously off target in his first possession for
the Xtreme. Despite hitting Jermaine Copeland with a 14-yard lob on
fourth-and-five, he proceeded to throw three straight incompletes,
forcing L.A. to settle for a 37-yard Jose Cortez field goal and a
3-0 lead.
Maddox found his touch late in the first quarter, connecting
with tight-end Frank Leatherwood for 32 yards. Three plays later,
Maddox threw tight end Josh Wilcox a 1-yard pass to increase the
L.A. lead to 9-0.
Midway through the second quarter, returner Reggie Durden
widened the lead to 15-0 when he picked up a muffed punt, found a
seam and scampered 71 yards for a touchdown. Cortez added two field
goals to end the first half, the latter a 50-yard boot that gave
the Xtreme a 21-0 halftime lead.
Maddox was picked off to begin the second half, but the Xtreme
defense pinned the Demons deep inside their own territory, forcing
San Francisco into a quick punt. Maddox later atoned for his
interception with a 19-yard scoring toss to receiver Copeland, and
the rout was on.
San Francisco quarterback Mike Palawski was hounded by the
Xtreme defensive line all night, and finished a miserable 8 of 20
passes with two picks before being benched in the fourth quarter.
L.A. hammered the Demons for the second time in three weeks,
outscoring them 62-6 in the process.
“It wasn’t the way we’d like for it to
end,” said Demons Head Coach Jim Skipper. “It seemed
like we couldn’t get anything going. Whatever could go wrong,
went wrong. It was one of those nights.”
Maddox left the game to a standing ovation in the fourth
quarter, having completed 16 of 28 passes for 210 yards and two
touchdowns. Running back Saladin McCullough had his second
consecutive 100-yard outing, picking up 109 on 19 carries for the
Xtreme, who put together one of their most complete games of the
year.
“I don’t know if we went out and wrote a script if
we could have played better,” said Xtreme Head Coach Al
Luginbill. “It was a dominating effort by our people in every
phase of the game.”
