Memphis Maniax

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>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=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

style="Template:Gridiron primary style;"|Week	style="Template:Gridiron primary style;"|Date	style="Template:Gridiron primary style;"|Opponent	style="Template:Gridiron primary style;"|Result	style="Template:Gridiron primary style;"|Record	style="Template:Gridiron primary style;"|Venue
1	February 4	at Birmingham Thunderbolts	W 22–20	1–0	Legion Field
2	February 11	Las Vegas Outlaws	L 3–25	1–1	Liberty Bowl Memorial Stadium
3	Template:Dow tooltip	San Francisco Demons	L 6–13	1–2	Liberty Bowl Memorial Stadium
4	February 25	at Los Angeles Xtreme	W 18–12	2–2	Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum
5	March 4	Orlando Rage	L 19–21	2–3	Liberty Bowl Memorial Stadium
6	Template:Dow tooltip	Chicago Enforcers	W 29–23	3–3	Liberty Bowl Memorial Stadium
7	Template:Dow tooltip	at New York/New Jersey Hitmen	L 15–16	3–4	Giants Stadium
8	Template:Dow tooltip	at San Francisco Demons	L 12–21	3–5	Pacific Bell Park
9	April 1	Los Angeles Xtreme	W 27–12	4–5	Liberty Bowl Memorial Stadium
10	Template:Dow tooltip	at Las Vegas Outlaws	W 16–3	5–5	Sam Boyd Stadium

Standings

Template:2001 XFL West standings <ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=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>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=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