One of XFL’s Fringe Benefits Is Getting a Shot at NFL

Running back Saladin McCullough was working with young athletes as a trainer in Pasadena, convinced he’d never be given another chance to play in the NFL.

“I’d been written off,” he said.

Wide receiver Jeremaine Copeland, cut by the Tennessee Titans, was working for a janitorial service in his hometown of Harriman, Tenn., when he wasn’t playing with Barcelona in NFL Europe.

Quarterback Tommy Maddox, an NFL bust, sold an insurance business in Texas and had given the Arena Football League a try because he still enjoyed playing the game.

Kicker Jose Cortez was working as a roofer in Corvallis, Ore.

They all ended up playing for the Los Angeles Xtreme, and they are among dozens of XFL players who now have a shot at playing in the NFL.

“A whole bunch of XFL players are going to end up in NFL camps,” said one NFL general manager who spoke on the condition of anonymity. League officials have been told to generally avoid talking about the XFL in case there is litigation concerning potential restraint of trade.

“I’m not sure how many players will stick, but a lot of them are going to get a shot,” the general manager said.

J.K. McKay, general manager of the Xtreme, said he has heard from a number of NFL general managers, particularly in the last two weeks.

ESPN and ESPN2 will devote 17 hours to covering this weekend’s NFL draft. There will be no mention of the XFL factor, according to a producer, who quipped, “Is that league even going to be around?”

What the XFL has done for many of its players is allow them to again dream about the fame and riches offered by the NFL.

They can’t be drafted because they are eligible for the draft for only one year after leaving college, but they can sign as free agents.

After the XFL’s first season ends with Saturday’s “Million Dollar Game” at the Coliseum between the Xtreme and the San Francisco Demons, the players have two options. They can remain under contract to the XFL and retain health benefits during the off-season, or they can ask out of their contracts so they can talk with NFL teams.

Mike Keller, the XFL’s head of football operations, said that possibly 200 of the league’s 360 players will ask out of their contracts to pursue the NFL.

“Playing in the NFL is something you dream about as a kid,” said Copeland, the XFL’s leading receiver who caught 19 passes in an NFL Europe game last year and 17 in an XFL game this season.

Copeland, a starter on Tennessee’s national championship team in 1998, said the players learn through their agents if there is interest from the NFL. He’s convinced he’ll make an NFL roster, even be a star.

Cortez, a native of El Salvador who played at Oregon State and suited up for one game with the New York Giants in 1999, has a pretty good shot because kickers are a valuable commodity in the NFL.

Cortez missed three of his first five field-goal attempts, then made 17 of his next 20, seven of those from beyond 40 years.

Maddox, the XFL player of the year who led the league in touchdown passes with 18 and passing yards with 2,186, downplays his chances of making it back to the NFL, where he played all or part of seven unsuccessful seasons.

“I’ve played well enough to get a shot, but a lot of things come into play,” he said. “There is always the salary-cap issue.”

A player such as Maddox who has played at least three years in the NFL must be paid a minimum of about $500,000. That makes him less attractive than players such as Copeland, McCullough and Cortez.

“I’d like another shot at the NFL, but that’s not why I played in this league,” Maddox said. “I played in this league because I enjoy playing football. My concern now is San Francisco on Saturday.”

McCullough may have the best shot of anyone in the XFL of making it to the NFL. This season he has finally lived up to the potential he showed at Muir High in Pasadena.

He started the XFL season on the Xtreme’s practice squad and wasn’t activated until Week 4. He then fumbled twice in a heavy rainstorm against Memphis and was benched.

In Week 6, against Birmingham, he ran for 124 yards and two touchdowns in 25 carries, and suddenly the Xtreme had a running game to go with its passing attack. McCullough had 164 yards in 21 carries against Chicago Sunday, and secured the playoff victory with a 44-yard touchdown run. McCullough has scored six touchdowns in the last five games.

“Right now, he might be the best player in the XFL,” McKay said. “He has speed, size, moves you can’t teach and catches the ball as well as any running back his size I’ve ever seen.”