Xfl Championship 2020
The XFL is back! Odds Shark breaks down the championship betting odds for the 2020 season in the second go-around for the league. XFL 2020: Game Lines & Championship Odds February 19, 2020 admin News Comments Off on XFL 2020: Game Lines & Championship Odds The XFL is now entering week 3 of the regular season, and teams and fans around the world are excited and optimistic, given the initial response to the new American football league. So while the AAF never made it to its championship game, the XFL should have no issue doing so, and is already looking forward to its first trophy ceremony in 2020.
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| Date | April 21, 2001 | |||||||||||||||||
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| Stadium | Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, Los Angeles, California | |||||||||||||||||
| MVP | José Cortez, placekicker | |||||||||||||||||
| Favorite | Xtreme | |||||||||||||||||
| Referee | David Witvoet | |||||||||||||||||
| Attendance | 24,153 | |||||||||||||||||
| TV in the United States | ||||||||||||||||||
| Network | NBC | |||||||||||||||||
| Announcers | Matt Vasgersian, Jesse Ventura and Mike Adamle | |||||||||||||||||
The Million Dollar Game, also known as the (2001 or 1st) XFL Championship, was the lone championship of the original 2001 incarnation of the XFL.[1] The game was played on Saturday, April 21, 2001 at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. Western Division champion Los Angeles Xtreme defeated the western runner-up San Francisco Demons 38–6.
The game's original name was the 'Big Game at the End of the Season;' it was changed during Week 3 of the regular season due to wordiness and concerns over potential to be genericized.[2] The 'Million Dollar Game' name derived from the pot of one million dollars that would be split among the players of the winning team (with each team having 38 players, each player would receive approximately $26,316 for winning).
Background[edit]
The Orlando Rage had finished the 10-game regular season with the XFL's best record, 8-2. Los Angeles was 7–3 while both San Francisco and the Chicago Enforcers each finished 5–5 (thus Orlando and L.A. were the only two teams out of eight to finish with winning records in the regular season; the Memphis Maniax were also 5-5 but San Francisco won the playoff berth on a tie-breaker). The last game of the regular season ended up serving as the western division championship; had the Demons won that game, they would have won the division on a tiebreaker with both teams at 6–4. Instead, Los Angeles won.
The 2001 XFL used a crossover playoff format: each division champion would host the second-place team in the other division (the XFL, as with the National Football League, features each team playing its division rivals twice in the regular season, and thus this format avoided making teams play three times in a season, at least for the first round). The Xtreme defeated Chicago 33-16 in the first round, while the Demons upset Orlando 26–25 in their semifinal.
Game synopsis[edit]
The Xtreme, led by regular-season Most Valuable Player Tommy Maddox, won the Million Dollar Game 38–6. The Xtreme dominated the game and held the Demons scoreless until their third-string quarterback Oteman Sampson (pressed into service after Mike Pawlawski was pulled due to ineffectiveness and backup Pat Barnes suffered an injury) scored a scrambling touchdown in garbage time to avoid the shutout.[3]
The game's MVP was Xtreme kicker Jose Cortez.
Aftermath[edit]
The XFL folded shortly after the Game was played. Sparse attendance at the Coliseum was noticeable, as most of the television camera angles would only show close-ups of sections with fans and sideline interviews used distorted camera perspectives shot from near the ground to avoid the camera catching empty seats.[3] A second XFL season would not be played until 2020.
After each had been released by National Football League teams earlier in their professional careers, both Maddox and Cortez eventually found themselves back in the NFL. Maddox signed with the Pittsburgh Steelers in 2001. He replaced Kordell Stewart in the 2002 season and led the Steelers into the playoffs. That performance earned NFL Comeback Player of the Year honors. Maddox lost his starting job to Ben Roethlisberger in 2004, and was released in 2006, however still became the first former XFL player to be a part of a Super Bowl champion after the Steelers won Super Bowl XL over the Seattle Seahawks.
Cortez went on to become an NFL journeyman for the next five seasons playing two seasons each with the San Francisco 49ers (for whom he scored over 100 points in the 2001 and 2002 NFL seasons) and Minnesota Vikings; his final season in 2005 saw him play for five professional teams as a fill-in for injured kickers, four in the NFL and one in the Arena Football League.
Box score[edit]
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | Total | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Demons | 0 | 0 | 0 | 6 | 6 |
| Xtreme | 3 | 18 | 10 | 7 | 38 |
Xfl Championship Odds 2020
at Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum in Los Angeles, California
- Date: April 21
- Game time: 8:00 p.m. EDT/5:00 p.m. PDT
- Game weather: 62 °F (17 °C), sunny
- Game attendance: 24,153
- Referee: David Witvoet
- TV announcers (XFL on NBC): Matt Vasgersian, Jesse Ventura, and Mike Adamle
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Xfl Championship Game 2020
References[edit]
- ^'XFL Million Dollar Game Recap'. www.all-xfl.com.
- ^'7 Reminders of How Ridiculous the XFL Was'. Complex. Retrieved February 3, 2020.
- ^ abBulkema, Will. The only XFL championship was also the worst by SB Nation, February 7, 2019
The first week of the XFL is in the books, and now we know where the first season of the reborn XFL will conclude.
In a news release on Thursday, XFL officials announced that the league's championship game will be held in Houston, Texas at the TDECU Stadium on Sunday, April 26th at 3:00 p.m. Eastern.
TDECU Stadium is home to the Houston Roughnecks franchise and is where the league initially held workouts. The stadium's capacity is right around 40,000.
'We're tremendously excited to have been selected as the site for the XFL's championship game,' said Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo. 'This league has animated football fans from across our region, and we look forward to continuing to showcase Harris County as one of the greatest sports towns in America. We want to thank the league for choosing Houston and we look forward to welcoming football fans from across the nation to what is sure to be a memorable championship game.'
'Houston is a great all-around sports town with top-notch facilities, an amazing community of football fans and a solid infrastructure,' said XFL Commissioner and CEO Oliver Luck. 'We are grateful to the city and the Sports Authority for opening its doors once again to the XFL and we look forward to welcoming fans from across Texas, as well as the entire country, to join us in celebrating this special moment in XFL history.'
0commentsDuring the XFL's inaugural season back in 2001, the league held its championship game at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. The league advertised that title game as the 'Million Dollar Game,' and it was won by the Los Angeles Xtreme. Of course, 2020's version of the XFL bears very little resemblance to the failed 2001 incarnation.
Xfl Championship Game 2020 Houston
The league's 10 week season will conclude on April 12th. At that point, the top two teams from each division will face off in a division championship game for the chance to move on to the league championship game in Houston. The Eastern Division Championship game will be held on Saturday, April 18th and the Western Division Championship game will be held on Sunday, April 19th.