Memphis Maniax
Template:Short description Template:Use mdy dates Template:Infobox American football team
The Memphis Maniax were an American football team based in Memphis, Tennessee. The team was part of the XFL begun by Vince McMahon of World Wrestling Entertainment and by NBC, a major television network in the United States. Home games were played at Liberty Bowl Memorial Stadium.
History
The team's name and logo were designed to lead the team's fans into calling the team "The Ax", a shortened form of the word "maniacs".
The Maniax Director of Player Personnel was Steve Ortmayer, who had become respected in the pro football world for helping to build the Super Bowl XVIII-champion Los Angeles Raiders. Steve Ehrhart, who had managed both the Memphis Showboats and Memphis Mad Dogs, returned as general manager for the Maniax. The head coach was Kippy Brown.
At slightly over 20,000 fans per game, the Maniax were in the lower half of league average attendance; this figure was higher than the Mad Dogs had drawn, and comparable to that of the NFL's Tennessee Oilers during their lone season in Memphis, but lower than the Showboats.
They were in the Western Division with the Los Angeles Xtreme, San Francisco Demons, and Las Vegas Outlaws. They finished tied for second place at 5-5 with the Demons, but did not make the playoffs as the Demons had the better division record during the season. The Maniax were one of two teams to beat the eventual league champion Xtreme, and the only team to beat them twice, going 2-0 vs. their divisional rivals in the regular season; not coincidentally, they, along with the Xtreme and Demons, were the only three XFL teams to maintain the same starting quarterback through the entire season.
NBC officials wanted to move the XFL games to afternoons after the first season (2001) due to dismal ratings, and when, somewhat to McMahon's surprise and disappointment the United Paramount Network (UPN) wanted to follow suit, the league was then folded and the team disbanded.
Ehrhart would later claim that he was originally approached by the XFL to sell the intellectual property rights of the United States Football League to them, but that he owned the rights to the league, received royalties from them, and refused to sell.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> (Ehrhart's claims are somewhat dubious as he never held any ownership stake in the league, the original XFL had an Attitude Era aesthetic which did not match the brands the USFL had, and the United States Patent and Trademark Office has never recognized any claims from any vestige of the USFL, which dissolved in 1990, regarding the league's intellectual properties and has allowed other organizations to register the trademarks.)
Season by season
Template:Start NFL SBS |- |2001 || 5 || 5 || 0 || 3rd Western || Did not survive |}
Schedule
Regular season
Personnel
Roster
Jersey nicknames
The XFL allowed its players to wear a nickname on the back of their jersey, as opposed to the legal last name most professional sports leagues have required since the 1960s.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
| Player | Nickname | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Jim Druckenmiller | Druck | Shortened version of his last name. |
| John Williams | Christian | Believes strongly in his faith and is an ordained minster. |
| Kevin Cobb | Kev Cobb | Play on name. |
| Shinzo Yamada | Samurai | Nickname, that was given by the Japan Sky Sports crew that came to Memphis in mid-February. |
| Shante Carver | Chaka | Nickname, physical appearance of Shaka. |
| Daryl Hobbs | The Mantis | Nickname, physical attributes reminded others of a praying mantis. |
| Antonio Anderson | Big Cat | Nickname. |
Standings
Template:2001 XFL West standings <ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Team leaders
| Legend | |
|---|---|
| Led the league | |
Passing
| style="text-align:center;Template:Gridiron primary style;"colspan="12"|Passing statisticsTemplate:Efn | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| NAME | GP | GS | Record | Cmp | Att | Pct | Yds | TD | Int | Rtg |
| Jim Druckenmiller | 8 | 7 | 4–3 | 109 | 199 | 54.8 | 1,499 | 13 | 7 | 86.2 |
| Marcus Crandell | 4 | 3 | 1–2 | 32 | 67 | 47.8 | 463 | 1 | 2 | 63.2 |
| Craig Whelihan | 1 | 0 | — | 5 | 12 | 41.7 | 46 | 0 | 1 | 18.1 |
| Beau Morgan | — | — | — | 1 | 2 | 50.0 | 10 | 0 | 0 | 64.6 |
| Totals | 10 | 10 | 5–5 | 147 | 280 | 52.5 | 2,018 | 14 | 10 | 77.6 |
Rushing
| style="text-align:center;Template:Gridiron primary style;"colspan="8"| Rushing statistics | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| NAME | Att | Yds | Avg | Lng | TD |
| Rashaan Salaam | 114 | 528 | 4.6 | 39t | 5 |
| Brent Moss | 33 | 135 | 4.1 | 18 | 0 |
| Jim Druckenmiller | 31 | 208 | 6.7 | 36 | 0 |
| Ketric Sanford | 26 | 93 | 3.6 | 30t | 2 |
| Rafael Cooper | 19 | 87 | 4.6 | 28 | 0 |
| Beau Morgan | 17 | 37 | 2.2 | 16 | 0 |
| Roosevelt Potts | 5 | 39 | 7.8 | 24 | 0 |
| Marcus Crandell | 5 | 11 | 2.2 | 10 | 0 |
| Charles Jordan | 2 | 19 | 9.5 | 12 | 0 |
| Kevin Prentiss | 1 | -9 | -9.0 | -9 | 0 |
| Totals | 253 | 1,148 | 4.5 | 39 | 7 |
Receiving
| style="text-align:center;Template:Gridiron primary style;"colspan="9| Receiving statistics | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| NAME | Rec | Yds | Avg | Lng | TD |
| Charles Jordan | 45 | 823 | 18.3 | 49 | 4 |
| Daryl Hobbs | 30 | 419 | 14.0 | 49t | 5 |
| Kevin Prentiss | 25 | 383 | 15.3 | 53 | 0 |
| Mark Thomas | 13 | 133 | 10.2 | 23 | 3 |
| Beau Morgan | 10 | 82 | 8.2 | 17 | 2 |
| Rashaan Salaam | 6 | 41 | 6.8 | 8 | 0 |
| Keith Crawford | 4 | 46 | 11.5 | 17 | 0 |
| Jim Kitts | 4 | 35 | 8.8 | 14 | 0 |
| Rafael Cooper | 3 | 16 | 5.3 | 12 | 0 |
| John Jennings | 2 | 12 | 6.0 | 9 | 0 |
| Roosevelt Potts | 2 | 5 | 2.5 | 5 | 0 |
| Jahine Arnold | 1 | 10 | 10.0 | 10 | 0 |
| Alvin Harper | 1 | 8 | 8.0 | 8 | 0 |
| Brent Moss | 1 | 5 | 5.0 | 10 | 0 |
| Totals | 147 | 2,018 | 13.7 | 53 | 14 |
Scoring
8-21 (38.1)% on extra point conversion attempts<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
| style="text-align:center;Template:Gridiron primary style;"colspan="9| Total Scoring | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| NAME | Rush | Rec | Return | XPM | FGM | PTS |
| Jeff Hall | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 11 | 33 |
| Rashaan Salaam | 5 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 32 |
| Daryl Hobbs | 0 | 5 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 32 |
| Charles Jordan | 0 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 24 |
| Mark Thomas | 0 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 18 |
| Ketric Sanford | 2 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 15 |
| Beau Morgan | 0 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 13 |
| Totals | 7 | 14 | 0 | 8 | 11 | 167 |