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Xtreme measures L.A. welcomes back pro football
Updated: Saturday February 10, 2001 2:56 AM
LOS ANGELES (AP) -- It's homecoming for Tommy Maddox, Errick Herrin -- and pro football. Maddox finally gets to trot out of the Los Angeles Coliseum tunnel to cheers from the home crowd. Herrin wants to show one special spectator from the NFL that they hit hard in the XFL, too. For the city, Saturday's contest between the Los Angeles Xtreme and the Chicago Enforcers will be the first pro football game of significance in the area in more than six years. Maddox, a former UCLA and NFL quarterback, believes the Xtreme can draw in Los Angeles. The area is the nation's second-largest market, but has been without an NFL team since the Raiders and Rams left following the 1994 season. "I know a lot of people are excited about having pro football back in L.A. I was with the Rams when they left [for St. Louis], and I know it was kind of hard on people here not to have a team to follow," Maddox said. "I believe there is quite a bit of interest in this team now." A crowd of some 38,000 is expected for the Xtreme's home opener in the 90,000-seat Coliseum, with many of the unsold seats to be covered by tarps. The league has set a "sellout" figure of 42,000 for the Xtreme. Maddox, who led UCLA to a 24-21 victory against rival USC at the Coliseum in 1991, later returned to the stadium as John Elway's backup when Denver played the Raiders. Herrin, a linebacker who is one of four former USC players on the Xtreme roster, also is excited about the XFL team's home debut. Keyshawn Johnson, his roommate at USC, is coming to seen him. It remains to be seen if the XFL can hold the interest it generated on its opening weekend, with crowds at the four games averaging 34,828, and the TV ratings good -- a total of 54 million TV viewers tuned in on the games Saturday and Sunday. Maddox, Denver's top pick in the 1992 draft, was unsuccessful in four NFL seasons with the Broncos, Rams and New York Giants. He played for the Arena Football League's New Jersey Red Dogs last year, and said the XFL brand of football isn't all that different from any other. "Once the game starts, it's like any other," he said. "The hitting is the same, the speed of it is the same." But it's obviously not the NFL. Herrin's No. 50 jersey, for instance, won't have "Herrin" stitched on the back. The XFL lets players put just about anything they want on the back of their jersey. "Mine says, 'E-Rupt,'" Herrin said, grinning.
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