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Friday, June 15, 2001

It's so easy to laugh at the late, not-so-great XFL. Vince McMahon. Buxom cheerleaders. Jesse Ventura. Helmeted cameramen in the backfield. He Hate Me.

Who doesn't think that's funny?

But look at what the XFL has done for Tommy Maddox.

It's given him a chance to be the most popular person in Pittsburgh.

OK, maybe not bigger than Mario, but try naming another athlete as popular as the Steelers' backup quarterback.

Maddox said yesterday the team is getting more than just a curiosity, a novelty item, a player who will be immortalized in the sports trivia games as the first and only XFL Most Valuable Player.

"I have a lot of confidence in my ability."

Kordell Stewart is not sweating. For better or worse, he's the Steelers' guy. Tee Martin is not sweating. The team loves his progress. Kent Graham should be sweating. He and his big contract suddenly seem a lot more expendable.

Former Pitt quarterback John Turman wasn't going to beat out Graham. Maddox might. He's not predicting he will pull a Kurt Warner and go from star of an obscure league to NFL and Super Bowl MVP. But he sees no reason he can't help the Steelers and resurrect a career that included stops with the Denver Broncos, Los Angeles Rams and New York Giants and was all but dead before the XFL came along.

"I don't feel like I'm chasing anything. I just want to play football," Maddox said.

"I've said many times, I'll play in whatever league for as long as they'll have me. I've been around pro football for almost 10 years, but I'm only 29. I'm still so young and still love the game so much. That's why I went to the Arena League and the XFL. I was able to start 26 games in the past 24 months. I don't care what the level of competition is, that's valuable experience."

Thank you, He Hate Me.

"The XFL was a great league for the players," said Maddox, who fails to laugh at any of the XFL jokes. "They gave a lot of players an opportunity to play and did everything first class.

"Maybe in the beginning, the focus was too much on the cheerleaders and the names on the back of the uniforms and the microphones in the backfield. But they learned from their mistakes. As the season went on, they focused more on the football, which was a lot better than people give it credit for."

By then it was too late. First, NBC pulled out of the XFL because of dreadful ratings. Then, McMahon, of World Wrestling Federation fame, saw the lunacy in throwing good money after bad. He pulled the plug after the championship game in April.

Still, Maddox was able to make a name for himself again. "You say no one watched the games, but more people have stopped me in the street to talk about the XFL than ever did when I was in the NFL." He led the Los Angeles Xtreme to the championship and won the MVP award. He attracted interest from several NFL teams, including the Steelers, who quickly realized he was a big upgrade from Turman.

"I didn't even ask for a signing bonus, not that they would have given me one," said Maddox, who signed a two-year deal for the NFL veteran minimum of $460,000 per season. "I've been around long enough to know that, because of our wonderful salary-cap system, your cap number can be so high that you can't make the team no matter how well you play. I wanted to be in a position that if I deserve to make it, I'll make it."

Maddox figured his big contract hurt him early in his career. He was the Broncos' No. 1 draft choice in 1992 after leaving UCLA after his sophomore season. He was supposed to be the next John Elway, but it didn't work out that way. He started four games as a rookie -- "I was the youngest quarterback ever to start in the NFL -- 21 years, 1 month" -- then didn't start another game until he joined the New Jersey Red Dogs of the Arena Football League last year.

"It seemed like after that first year all I got to play was a quarter here or a half there," Maddox said. "Terry Bradshaw and I are friends. He lives about a mile from me here in Dallas, and we belong to the same club. I asked him once what would have happened to him if they had judged him on his first four games. He said he never would have played again."

It's funny Maddox mentioned Bradshaw's name out of the blue. He's the quarterback all Steelers quarterbacks are measured against. The two haven't talked since Maddox signed with the Steelers Tuesday, but they'll share a good laugh the next time they play golf.

"We're both quarterbacks who were born on the same day, Sept. 2, in the same town, Shreveport, La.," Maddox said. "He's told me before I should complete the cycle by playing for the Steelers."

The XFL has given Maddox the chance.

Somewhere, He Hate Me is thinking he's next.

Ron Cook can be reached at rcook@post-gazette.com