Is L.A. Ready to Go to Xtremes?

The first Super Bowl was played at the Coliseum in 1967. The first XFL championship game, billed as the “Million Dollar Game,” will be played there tonight.

The similarities end there.

The NFL was an established league in 1967. Although that initial Super Bowl didn’t sell out, it drew 61,946.

XFL officials would be happy if tonight’s 5 o’clock game between the Los Angeles Xtreme and the San Francisco Demons draws 20,000.

The XFL is concluding a troubled first season in which NBC ratings plummeted while critics of Vince McMahon and his new league had a field day.

McMahon said this week the league will be back next year, but not with NBC televising its games.

Who will be televising XFL games next season remains to be seen. UPN wasn’t thrilled, either.

But such things as making television deals and plotting marketing strategies will be settled in the off-season. First, there is a score to settle on the field.

The Xtreme, the Western Division champion with a 7-3 regular-season record, and the Demons, the second-place team at 5-5, will meet for the third time.

The Demons won the first meeting in week one, 15-13, on a field goal as time expired. In final week of the 10-game season, the Xtreme won, 24-0, at the Coliseum.

In the first game, Tommy Maddox began his Xtreme career by losing a fumble on the first play from scrimmage, which led to a Demon touchdown. Kicker Jose Cortez missed two of three field-goal attempts, one from 25 yards. Later, on a fourth-down play, Maddox was caught on camera yelling about Cortez: “We have to go for it, he can’t make it.”

Running back Saladin McCullough didn’t play in that game. McCullough, the 464th pick of 480 players drafted by the XFL, was on the practice squad.

Maddox this week was named the XFL’s player of the year, Cortez made 17 of his next 20 field-goal attempts, and McCullough has emerged as possibly the league’s best running back.

Demon quarterback Mike Pawlawski completed 31 of 47 passes for 288 yards and two touchdowns in the first game. In the second game, he was sacked twice and threw two interceptions before leaving because of a shoulder injury. His replacement, Pat Barnes, completed only four of 11 passes for 65 yards.

The winning team will share a $1-million bonus, or about $26,000 a player.

“The guys are striving for something meaningful,” Xtreme Coach Al Luginbill said. “They know that they have to depend on each other. This league is unique. They pay people to be productive.”