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Starting from scratch Xtreme select Milanovich with first pick of XFL Draft
Updated: Sunday October 29, 2000 1:08 AM
CHICAGO (Ticker) -- Listen to Vince McMahon and he'd have you believe that the players he wants in his newly formed Xtreme Football League can eat glass and walk barefoot over hot coals. But there were no chest-beating, gargantuan linemen or bone-crushing linebackers taken in the first round of the league's first draft today. Instead the XFL was just repeating what the NFL has known for years: you can't be a winner without a proven quarterback. And, while showmanship is what the XFL's sponsor, the World Wrestling Federation is all about, winning is what drives football coaches. Seven of the first nine players selected today, including the first five, were quarterbacks. Most were from southern colleges who had previously washed out in NFL trials. Scott Milanovich, a 6-foot-3, 220-pound quarterback who played at Maryland, if a typical example. He had the distinction of being the first player taken by the XFL. Milanovich, the all-time leading passer for Maryland, spent four seasons as a backup for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in the NFL. Last year he played for the Berlin Thunder of NFL Europe. 'I'd like to keep playing until they tell me I can't," Milanovich said. "I'm excited but I don't know a ton about it."
Casey Weldon, the No. 2 choice by the Birmingham Thunderbolts, is another example. He was a standout at Florida State and even finished second in the balloting for the Heisman Trophy during his senior year. But in eight seasons in the NFL he only got to play in 31 games. The next three teams also went to the southern part of the country to select quarterbacks. The Memphis Maniax took Marcus Crandell of East Carolina, the Orlando Rage grabbed Jeff Brohm of Louisville and the Las Vegas Outlaws selected Chuck Clements of Houston. The San Francisco Demons finally broke the string by selecting running back Vaughn Dunbar of Indiana. However, the New York/New Jersey Hitmen returned to the quarterback position and selected Charles Puleri of New Mexico State. The Chicago Enforcers closed out the first round by choosing running back John Avery of Mississippi, but the Enforcers started the second round by taking a quarterback of their own, Paul Failla of Indiana (Pa.) State. It wasn't until the Hitmen made their second choice that a lineman was selected. They chose tackle Jermaine Smith of Georgia. Among the ex-NFL first-rounders drafted Saturday were Avery, No. 8 by Chicago; quarterback Jim Druckenmiller of Virginia Tech, No. 78 by the Memphis Maniax; and Dunbar and linebacker Craig Powell of Ohio State by the San Francisco Demons at Nos. 6 and 38, respectively. Before the draft began today each team was permitted to protect up to 11 players from three territorial schools assigned to them. Territorial schools were assigned to XFL clubs on a regional basis such as Florida and Miami to the Orlando Rage and Alabama and Auburn to the Birmingham Thunderbolts. Once teams are assembled they will bring training camp in preparation for a 10-week regular season schedule that begins Feb. 3. Four teams make the playoffs and the championship game is April 21 at a neutral site. NBC has committed to broadcast regional and national games on Saturday nights in prime time from February through April. UPN, the league's other broadcast partner, will air games on Sunday afternoons, beginning with the Los Angeles-San Francisco game Feb. 4. XFL officials have said the league will play the kind of "smash-mouth football that fans crave" and will use rules changes designed to enhance the action and speed of the game, along with TV innovations that will bring fans "inside the game." The league is hoping to build on the extreme popularity of the WWF. To encourage more wide-open offensive play and to keep game times under three hours, the XFL will adopt several rules changes, including eliminating fair catches on punts, requiring only one foot to be in bounds on pass receptions, instituting a 35-second play clock and limiting halftime to 10 minutes. "We're going for something that millions of kids played in the school yard, something that resonates with people who've enjoyed the game on all different levels," league president Basil DeVito said after helping conduct Saturday's first 10 rounds of the draft before about 100 fans at a hotel near O'Hare International Airport. "It's simple," DeVito said of his league's premise. "Nobody owns it. Nobody owns football." According to the league Web site, a quarterback's base salary for the 10-game schedule will be about $50,000, but players will be able to collect $2,500 bonuses for each victory. It's incentive pay and that's fine with at least one of the league's coaches. "We have no negotiations, you have no owners in there. You have no owners in there in who are going to disrupt the progress of the league because it's centrally controlled," said Chicago Enforcers head coach Ron Meyer, former head coach of the Patriots and Colts, who took the job when Chicago favorite Dick Butkus resigned to take a job in the league office. "I've been in a couple of start-up situations and I know the pitfalls," Meyer said. "It is a work in progress, certainly. But we're light years ahead of what I envisioned." DeVito said the league had sold 120,000 season tickets so far and hopes to average 25,000 fans a game. "It is going to be perfect? No. Nothing is," L.A. Extreme head coach Al Luginbill said. "But we're going to shock some people." "Interestingly, all the coaches tell me they got exactly the players they wanted," DeVito said. "And since they are still undefeated, I guess that's OK." The Associated Press contributed to this report.
© 2003 SportsTicker Enterprises, LP
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