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Sidestepping a sideshow Xtreme dominate Hitmen as Gov runs mouth
Updated: Sunday March 04, 2001 12:14 AM
EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. (AP) -- It seems like a lot of the people involved in the XFL -- except the guys running it -- would like to forget the nonsense and just concentrate on football. Los Angles coach Al Luginbill said the league was a work in progress Saturday night following the Xtreme's 22-7 victory over the New York-New Jersey Hitmen. Tommy Maddox threw two touchdown passes and Juan Cortez kicked three field goals for Los Angeles. "And each week the product is getting better," Luginbill said. Meanwhile, the heavily promoted "Blood Feud" between Hitmen coach Rusty Tillman and Minnesota Gov. Jesse Ventura, who provides color commentary on XFL broadcasts, never really materialized despite Ventura's best efforts. Before the game in front of the Giants Stadium crowd of 27,479, XFL sideline reporter Fred Roggin asked Tillman if he was afraid of Ventura. Tillman laughed at the question, and Ventura responded: "He's speechless. He didn't talk last week, and he won't talk this week." Later, Ventura criticized Tillman when the Hitmen were forced to take a timeout because the wrong personnel was on the field. "It's the responsibility of the head coach to keep things running smoothly," Ventura said. "Why does he pass the buck?" Then at halftime, Roggin asked Tillman how he felt about Ventura's criticism of his play calling. "Good for him," Tillman said. "I really don't care." After the game Tillman admitted he was sorry ever responding to Ventura's earlier barbs. "I made a mistake in the beginning by responding," said Tillman when asked about Ventura. "But I'm not going to respond to it anymore. The focus in this league should be on the kids and on the football and forget about all the cartoon characters." The Hitmen (1-4) dropped to 0-3 at home and missed on a scoring opportunity when they took the opening kickoff and drove to the Los Angeles 16 before quarterback Wally Richardson was hit by Jeff Russell and fumbled. Leomont Evans recovered at the Xtreme 11 and returned the ball to the 35. Maddox, who was 23-of-37 for 287 yards, led an 11-play, 65-yard drive capped by Maddox's 5-yard TD pass to Josh Wilcox. Maddox ran in for the point after. "We knew we had to get off to a quick start," said Maddox the XFL leader in TD passes and passing yards. "We scored that first touchdown and just went on from there. Anytime you can throw for almost 300 yards and run for almost 100 [78 actually] you know your offensive line is doing a great job. They just controlled the line of scrimmage." The Hitmen responded from the first LA touchdown with a 10-play, 71-yard drive that was capped by Richardson's 8-yard pass to Zola Davis. Marcus Hinton caught Richardson's pass for the extra point. Cortez kicked field goals of 34 and 27 yards before halftime to give the Xtreme a 13-7 lead. Jermaine Copeland's 5-yard reception at 9:17 of the third quarter made it 19-7. In addition to catching six passes for 81 yards and a TD, Copeland also had the best quote of the night. After having a catch ruled out of bounds late in the first half that was clearly inbounds on replay Copeland said, "They need instant replay in the XFL because these guys [the refs] can't see." A 27-yard field goal by Cortez early in the fourth quarter capped the scoring.
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