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April 2, 2000

STAMFORD, CT (February 3, 2000) - World Wrestling Federation Entertainment, Inc. (NMS: WWFE) announced today the formation of the XFL - a new professional football league that is scheduled to kickoff in February 2001. The XFL is expected to launch with eight teams in Los Angeles, Miami, New York, Orlando, San Francisco, and Washington D.C. Two additional teams will be announced at a later date. The inaugural season is expected to feature a ten-game regular schedule played at major stadiums in each city, and will conclude with a four-team playoff, and a Championship game at a neutral site. Through subtle rule changes designed to enhance the action and speed of the game, along with technical innovations that will bring fans inside huddles and on to the sidelines, the XFL is designed to accentuate the action that football fans crave. "The appetite for professional football continues long past the Super Bowl," said Vince McMahon, Chairman of World Wrestling Federation Entertainment, Inc. "The XFL is more than just an extension of the football season, it is a completely new product that not only fills a void for football fans, but will give the casual fan an all-access pass to a football experience unlike any other to date. The action will feature the best football players available and will be highly competitive, hard-hitting, and most importantly, fan friendly. Guaranteed." World Wrestling Federation Entertainment Inc. has built a highly qualified team to launch the XFL. Similar to his past role with the World Wrestling Federation, Basil DeVito, President of New Business Development at World Wrestling Federation Entertainment Inc. will oversee the day-to-day operations of the XFL. His new role will utilize his extensive television syndication, advertising, sponsorship, public relations, live event sales and pay-per-view experience. Michael Keller, a former senior executive with the start-up USFL Michigan Panthers, start-up World League of American Football, and assistant General Manager with the NFL's Seattle Seahawks, as well as a former linebacker for the Dallas Cowboys, will serve as the XFL's Vice President of Football Operations. While World Wrestling Federation Entertainment, Inc. expects to announce broadcast and cable television contracts at a later date, the XFL has already retained Michael Weisman, a highly respected, award-winning producer whose credits include seven Super Bowls as a broadcast production consultant. "The XFL will attract the entire football-viewing demographic, strengthened by our unique understanding of the young, adult male audience. That, combined with our extensive experience filling venues and executing live events will help lead to the success of the XFL," McMahon added.
 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Landry a constant in changing times By Greg Garber Special to ESPN.com

In 1966, President Lyndon Johnson authorized the bombing of targets in Hanoi, North Vietnam. Social unrest was ripening like a raisin in the sun. The Dallas Cowboys, under coach Tom Landry, won 10 games.  Twenty years later, in 1985, President Ronald Reagan first met with Mikhail Gorbachev of the Soviet Union in Geneva, Switzerland, signaling the beginning of the end of the Evil Empire. The following year, the United States would first officially observe Martin Luther King Day. The Dallas Cowboys, under coach Tom Landry, won 10 games.  Change, in today's world, is inevitable. But for 20 consecutive seasons, two decades that witnessed five American presidents, the peace and love of Woodstock and the compassionate understanding of Live Aid, the Dallas Cowboys had a winning record. It was the keen, unyielding spirit of Landry that willed it to be.  "This is my 19th season as a head coach," says Atlanta's Dan Reeves, who spent 15 years under Landry as a player and an assistant. "I cannot imagine how someone could stay with the same organization and achieve 20 straight winning seasons. It's incredible.  "When he was replaced (in 1989), everybody talked about the way the game had passed him by. Listen, he and Don Shula could jump in there right now and win."  Landry, sadly, will not have that tantalizing opportunity. The legendary coach died Saturday night of leukemia at age 75.  The record book tells us that in Landry's 29 seasons with the Cowboys he won 270 games, lost 178 and tied six for a winning percentage of .601. Only Don Shula (347-173-6, .665) and George Halas (324-151-31, .671) won more games in the NFL. Only Halas won more games with the same team.  As Landry's legacy is celebrated in the wake of his passing, the caricature artists will offer snapshots of the man with the angular face who paced the sideline in a hat and suit. Landry was the somber, focused face of America's Team, the cornerstone of one of the great, innovative organizations in professional sports history.  "Tom's looked upon as a stoic, conservative coach," says Tex Schramm, who hired Landry to coach the fledgling Cowboys in 1960, nearly 40 years ago. "But he wasn't that way."  Schramm, the longtime Cowboys general manager, laughed out loud in his sprawling Dallas home. He remembered the collision of Landry's old-school, authority-rules philosophy and the new-wave players of the 1970s.  "During the period he was coach, as a nation, we went through a lot of different phases," Schramm says. "He was adaptable to those changing times. If there was anybody who would go against his thinking, it was the hippie. But we got some hippies, and he just adapted rather than try to make them totally adapt to him.  "In the '70s, you saw the first thrust of drugs and all that other stuff. He adapted himself to that, but he didn't get credit for that. As far as football was concerned, he was so certain of his belief in how to win football games, he totally sold it to his players. And they bought it."  Reeves, the league's winningest active coach (176-136-1), was one of those players. After five seasons as a running back and two as a player-coach, Reeves became Landry's running backs coach in 1972. After a year off to experiment with real estate, Reeves returned for seven more seasons as an assistant before taking the head job in Denver.  "He was willing to listen. He was open to ideas," Reeves says. "As a player or a coach, you never felt like you were wasting your time coming to him with an idea.  "In 1975, we talked about bringing in the shotgun formation during the offseason. There were people that waited years and years before going to the shotgun. We were in it before anybody else and (people thought) we were crazy."  So crazy, the Cowboys reached the Super Bowl that year, only to lose to Pittsburgh 21-17. Landry's Cowboys reached five Super Bowls in all, winning two: Super Bowl VI, 24-3 over Miami, and Super Bowl XII, 27-10 over Denver.  Beyond the trappings of success, Landry was an innovator. Born in Mission, Texas, he joined the Air Corps as a freshman at the University of Texas. At 19 he won his wings and became a co-pilot of a B-17 in World War II. Stationed in England, Landry flew 30 missions for the Eighth Air Force and survived a crash in Belgium after a bombing run over Czechoslovakia.  After the war, he was a star two-way back at Texas, playing for teams that won the 1948 Sugar Bowl and the 1949 Orange Bowl. Landry played defensive back for seven seasons as a professional, the last six with the New York Giants. He intercepted 32 passes in his career, the result of his studious analysis of opposing offenses. He was one of those terminally inquisitive players who was destined to become a coach.  Imagine the spirited conversations between Landry and one of the Giants' other young assistants, Vince Lombardi, in the mid-1950s.  Lombardi, who had played on the offensive side of the ball in college, developed numerous offensive inventions, like option blocking and his Run to Daylight concept. Lombardi's linemen would take the opponent in whatever direction he was going and the back would read the block and cut accordingly. When Lombardi left to become head coach at Green Bay, Landry countered with the 4-3 Outside, a defensive alignment that freed middle linebacker Sam Huff to react to the runner's ad-libs.  When Lombardi countered with weak-side counters and traps, Landry adjusted by dropping the strongside defensive end and the weakside tackle off the line of scrimmage into a position that allowed them to read the play better. That evolved into Landry's famous Flex Defense.  When the rest of the league began to copy Landry's Flex, he was forced to come up with his motion-oriented, multiple offense schemes to exploit the very defense he created.  Landry's first season with the expansion Cowboys was a disaster. Dallas went 0-11-1. If Landry had followed that mark with 4-9-1, 5-8-1 and 4-10 in today's climate, he would almost certainly have been fired. But owner Clint Murchison saw beyond Landry's 13-38-3 record. With public sentiment running heavily against Landry, Murchison called a press conference and signed him to a new 10-year contract.  After going 7-7 in 1965, Landry's Cowboys broke through with that first winning season in 1966. The players he had accumulated over six seasons -- Don Meredith, Chuck Howley, Lee Roy Jordan, Bob Lilly, Don Perkins and Mel Renfro -- began to play like champions. For the next two decades, Landry's Cowboys never knew what a losing season felt like.  Tight end Mike Ditka played four seasons under Landry and spent another nine years in Dallas as an assistant. He was a senior at the University of Pittsburgh when Landry's winning streak began in 1966. The Green Bay Packers defeated the Cowboys in the NFL Championship Game that year and went on to beat Kansas City in Super Bowl I. When Landry's streak ended in 1985, Ditka's team, the Chicago Bears, punctuated one of the greatest seasons ever with a victory in Super Bowl XX.  Schramm says both he and Landry believed the Cowboys should have emerged from their five Super Bowl appearances with more than two victories. Still, Schramm feels posting 20 consecutive winning seasons was Landry's greatest achievement.  "He believed in what he was doing, the way he was coaching," Schramm says. "He believed he was right. And, of course, as the record showed, he was."  Greg Garber is a regular contributor to ESPN.com.

 
 

'The guy that never quit' Kansas City Chiefs linebacker Derrick Thomas passed away on February 8 from complications brought on by a car accident suffered weeks earlier. His doctor said Thomas, 33, had a cardio-respiratory arrest. Thomas' death was especially shocking as he had appeared to be on the road to recovery.  Gary Miller, host of ESPN's Up Close, interviewed former teammates Elvis Grbac and Cornelius Bennett to discuss the life and career of one of Kansas City's most loved citizens. The following is an edited transcript of the Feb. 8 broadcast.  Miller: When you got the news about Derrick Thomas' death this morning, what was the initial impact?  Grbac: I was very shocked, obviously, with the incident that happened a couple of weeks ago. The last couple of days I heard that his rehab was going extremely well, and this morning I got the news from my wife, and it's just very devastating to hear those things, and the Kansas City community is obviously very devastated. Derrick was one of those great, great players and I was very proud to be a part of his career and a part of what he did on the field and off the field. It was something that really shook me up when I heard the news.  Miller: Do you remember when you first met Derrick Thomas and how you got to know him?  Grbac: Well, it's interesting, when I did come to Kansas City, I always heard about the great things about Derrick Thomas and the plays he made. I kind of related it to Jerry Rice, in the same sense that he was one of those players that made a difference in the game. The first time I met him, obviously, I had a lot of respect for him and when I got to know him, the great player that he was and the great person that he was, my respect was that much greater for him. This was something very sad that happened, but we will continue to go on as the Chiefs will. Derrick was a person that was one of those guys that made a difference in the game, not just on the football field, but also in the community. He did some really great things for Kansas City. The one thing I think I remember the most is the thing that he did around Thanksgiving time. He would go out in the community and distribute baskets to the needy people at that time of year. Being with some great players in the past, I had never ever seen that done before. It was just something that Derrick, the person that he was, really went to show what kind of person that he was in the community of Kansas City.  Miller: He was the NFL Man of the Year. What do you think it was in him that made him want to go out in the community and get involved in the reading programs?  Grbac: I think if you look back to his roots, the people that he grew up around. His mother is an extremely, extremely strong woman, great family background, strong people; very caring, loving people. It showed in Derrick. Everything that he did on the field and off the field, he wanted to give back to the community because the community gave so much to him. It was something that he felt he should always be a part of and helping kids, helping whatever cause he could get his hands on. He was one of those people that made a difference in everybody's life. He will continue in the memories of everybody in the way he lived his life to the fullest. We will take that to heart and we should always remember to do that, live your life to the fullest because you never know when it's going to end. Derrick did it to the best of his ability and it showed on and off the field.  Miller: Your team president Carl Peterson saw Derrick in the hospital in a wheelchair. He was committed to walking some day and Carl said he was upbeat and positive, he was Derrick. When he saw him he said, "You're mobile!" And Derrick said, "Father, I am, I've got wheels!" Does that sound like the Derrick you know?  Grbac: Yeah, that's the Derrick I know. The guy that, when the chips are down, he's the guy that's going to step up and make the plays when he has to. That was a different situation for him going into rehab, and he knew that this was something different in his life, another challenge that he had to conquer, and he just felt that he knew he could do it. It was just unfortunate that something like this would happen, but that was the life of Derrick Thomas. The guy that never quit in every aspect of his life he continued to be a better person in everything that he did.  Miller: Derrick Thomas had six sacks against Jeff George in one game. What was it like to stand on the sideline and know you didn't have to go against him and how did you feel for the opposing quarterback?  Grbac: Thank goodness I never had to play against him, because I know the talent that he has in any given moment, in any given game, he can turn it up and be one of the greatest players to play the game, especially at the linebacker position. He is one of those guys that make a difference in the ball game, and each week I knew the opposing team had to go in and deal with the problem of how to block Derrick Thomas. In that game he was absolutely a tremendous player. I don't know what it is against Jeff George. You can't put a finger on it, but he just comes to play against that quarterback every time. Each week, I know the opposing quarterback had the fear in his backside that Derrick Thomas was coming to make plays against him.  Miller: We had Ray Perkins come in earlier, and he talked about that smile of Derrick's, and even after the tough loss to the Raiders this year, he had a smile on his face after the game. How different was Derrick before and after the game as opposed to on the field?  Grbac: Well, before and after the game he was a totally different person. He was a total professional when he got on the field, and he understood what it took to be a professional, but when you get off the field, I think that there is a different life that you have to lead, and Derrick was one of those guys that led his life the way he wanted to, and led it to the fullest of his abilities. The things that he did off the field made him happy, made people around him happy, and he enjoyed life to the fullest; there was nothing that he did in his life that he regretted, he was one of those guys that loved to be a part of the Kansas City Chiefs, be around the guys, do those kinds of things, and when the game was over he was just excited to be around the guys and do the things off the field. Because he understood that what you do off the field is just as important as what you do on the field, and Derrick was one of those guys that you just loved to have around in the locker room.  Cornelius Bennett:  Miller: Cornelius, you were there in Tuscaloosa when Derrick Thomas first came in. Do you remember the first time you met Derrick Thomas and how you guys became friends?  Bennett: Yeah, I was going into my Junior year, and Derrick was this scrawny, fast kid from Florida: a typical Florida athlete, a great athlete, and Derrick, you could just tell he set himself apart from the other younger guys on the football team. He just was hungry to get in there and be one of the best. We would call me, you know, when I played with the older guys, "Big Brother", so I was his big brother, just like other guys were my big brothers when I first got to the university. So it is a unique relationship when you play football at the University of Alabama and when we see each other, we're saying "Bama", what's up "Bama?" What's up "Bama Pi Zsi." You know, that was our pretend fraternity, because that is what we were a part of, as far as playing football there.  Miller: When you heard the news this morning and all that has happened over the past two weeks, how has this affected you emotionally?  Bennett: Today I was at the gym rehabilitating my injured knee and one of my best friends here in Atlanta, David Brandon, called me up and asked me if I had heard that Derrick had passed. I just stopped in my tracks and really and (pauses) ... you know how you pull up things on the Internet, which I had been doing, and you see that he is doing fine? One day he is doing fine and the next day he is gone, so it is tough, but I know Derrick and the good things that he did here on this Earth are going to be rewarded for him in his after-life.  Miller: If you had a chance to go visit him in the hospital before he passed, what do you think that would have been like?  Bennett: To be honest with you, Gary, I was very scared to go see him. I truly was. When I had planned to go see him, is when I knew he would be at his best, hopefully, because I see some of myself in Derrick. Coming from the same kind of background, two kids who come from a little bit of nothing, to gain a whole lot of something, and it could have easily been me. So it was tough to sit and try to speculate what Derrick was going to be like when I saw him, you know, if I got a chance to see him. It is tough and I didn't want to go see a fake picture, you know how you can go see a sick person in the hospital and they'll try to act all upbeat? That isn't what I wanted to go see when I saw Derrick. I just hadn't gotten a chance to go see him because I just had a new baby born last Friday, so it's tough. You bring one in and you lose one.

Game Summary :

1st Quarter :

Stl - Jeff Wilkens (14yd FG Kick) 3:00

2nd Quarter :

Stl - Jeff Wilkens (13yd FG Kick) 4:16

Stl - Jeff Wilkens (28yd FG Kick) :15

3rd Quarter :

Stl - Torry Holt (10yd TD Pass from Kurt Warner) 7:20

Stl - Jeff Wilkens (Extra Point FG) 7:20

Ten - Eddie Goerge (1yd TD Run) :12

4th Quarter :

Ten - Eddie George (1yd TD Run) 7:21

Ten - Al DelGreco (Extra Point Kick) 7:21

Ten - Al DelGreco (43yd FG Kick) 2:12

Stl - Issac Bruce (73yd TD Pass from Kurt Warner) 1:54

Stl - Jeff Wilkens (Extra Point Kick) 1:54

Here a diagram of the Playoffs, Confrence Championships, Super Bowl, and Pro Bowl.